Can't get HDMI working on Dell Inspiron 1525
 

Hello Linux Questions! Well, I'm on a Dell Inspiron 1525 running Arch Linux with an Intel 965 GM video chipset (from dmesg). I'm using the xf86-video-intel driver, and Xorg (using xfce4) works flawlessly, including compositing. Before getting into details about the HDMI, I'd like to ask why I don't gave an xorg.conf.d/10-moniter.conf, it's not there, just evdev, quirks, and synaptics (because I figured that moniter.conf could be modified to include HDMI). So, basically when I'm on my XFCE4 desktop, I plug in the HDMI cable and to the TV, and on windows, it would would work, but on Arch the TV just says: "No input", and my desktop just stays the same, so absolutely nothing happens. If I have it connected upon bootup, the HDMI displays (the BIOS and grub menu on the TV) until I select to boot Arch linux on Grub, then the tv screen goes blank. Any ideas? I've tried Googling this but I got no decent results, just a bunch of random posts of audio not working with Nvidia. Thanks for the support.

PS - I did dmesg and lspci (with grep HDMI) and no results, so maybe it doesn't even recognize it, but then what do I do? There's obviously Linux support for HDMI...

Hi Danotto94 and welcome to LQ,

there are special kernelmodules for laptops and (in the case of dell) additional configurations for the kernel. These modules are needed for example to activate the functional-buttons on a laptop. As you know there is a button which switches between HDMI (or in general extern Monitor) and the laptop-screen.

In order to find out which modules there are already loaded, please post the output of there are at least two modules which may apply to your laptop, "dell_laptop" and "dell_wmi", you may try to load them with modprobeif the modules are not there, maybe you'll have to rebuild the kernel.
Also check the kernelconfiguration if there are other modules available for your machine.

Markus

Re: HDMI
 

Hey thanks for replying, Markush. Both of the modules you mentioned were loaded when I did lsmod | sort, and I don't think there's a button on my laptop that switches between HDMI and laptop moniter, unless it's F8 - CRT/LCD. I keep trying Google, yet nothing relevant comes up...

lsmod|sort:

repeat, sorry

Maybe you boot an Ubuntu LiveCD and find out if your HDMI works with it. If it works, you may compare the configuration (modules and others). I have some experience with Arch and I know that it is not easy to compare the configuration of both Arch and Ubuntu, but maybe that points you in the right direction.

Markus

Thanks, is it possible for me delete one of my posts if I accidentally repeated it twice, or is it automatically deleted?

You can't delete a post, but edit it and delete the text.
Please substitute the deleted text with a hint.

Markus

You're German? I love Germany, I speak a little in fact, but let's not get off topic :) So I'll try Ubuntu and see what happens.

If you boot the liveCD of Ubuntu, don't forget to save the output of lsmod and some other configuration anywhere on the harddisk, so that you can access it afterwards when back in Arch.

Mh, yes I'm from Germany, and you?

Markus

Hey Markush, apparently my problem was the key :), F8. So all was good from the beginning, my mistake! BTW, I'm in Panama, central america, FYU.

I'm happy to read that you found a solution, please don't forget to mark this thread as SOLVED with "Thread Tools" above.

Markus

It was simply a matter of pressing F8 :) Thanks Markush

The only bug now is that to the left of the tv there are a series of small black lines flashing rapidly, which is probably a bug with the module, no? Should I report it? It doesn't bother me so much but I figured it could be mentioned

BTW sounds works and everything

I'd recommend to open another thread with this issue. But post it in the hardwareforum http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...x-hardware-18/ maybe they find a solution.

Markus