UPLUS-Vision 30" Monitor *Resolution Issues
 

I can't get my monitor to display 2560x1600. It won't go higher than 1280x800.

I've been able to get it to do 2560x1600 in both Windows XP and Vista, but haven't had much luck with Linux.

I've tried a few things. Here's a link to my posting on the ubuntu forums. I got a couple of good replies there, but none that solved my problem(s).

Thanks for the help :)

I note from your ubuntuforums post that to get your monitor to work with windows, you had to I also note that your xorg.log says things like:
So it rather looks as though the monitor is reporting that it cannot run high resolutions when in fact, it can.

So, firstly, I'd get rid of the modelines (as o_fortuna recommended in the ubuntuforums), they are not helpful when all you need to supply is your HorizSync and VertRefresh, X should work out all it needs from them.
Secondly, we need to find a way to make X ignore what the monitor is saying it is capable of, because it would appear to be lying!
Please post your xorg.conf in its entirety when you have removed the modelines and set your HorizSync and VertRefresh correctly.

Edit:
I have done a bit of googling...

"EDID" is the thing that reports your monitor's capabilities to X.
The nvidia driver has an option not to use EDID (because your monitor seems to be lying about its capabilities)

See here:
http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree8...ppendix-d.html

and search for Option "UseEDID" "boolean"

Hi tredegar

Thanks for the great reply. I'm still pretty new to this, so bear with me. I've got a lot of hope now.

Ok, I've been taking a look through the page you linked to, and trying some things out. When I tried nvidia-xconfig --virtual=2560x1600 It gave me the same resolution, but it only displayed about 1/4th of the screen at a time. So, I could scroll all over.

So, I tried nvidia-config --query-gpu-info and here's what I got:
Looking at that, it's pretty obvious to me that my monitor can go 2560x1600 @ 60Hz, but the 'preferred' Width and Height seem to be what's giving me problems.

Please pardon my newbness, but I'm not sure how I can set my HorizSync and VertRefresh or if I'm even supposed to.

I'm pretty sure now that I'm just missing something obvious, but I really don't know what that is.

Also, I tried with --no-use-edid and that gave me 'half-screen, tripple-split.'

So... is this a matter of changing the preferred Height and Width in the EDID? Or...?

The NVIDIA link above says We don't want it to use EDID too much (because something is picking up the "Preferred" bits and locking you into that, refusing higher resolutions).

So, I suggest you:
- Make a backup of any xorg.conf that works, (you can call it xorg.conf.bad.but_works, then you can always copy it back if you end up with a conf file that dumps you at a terminal only)

Now, in your xorg.conf:
- Set your HorizSync and VertRefresh like this:
HorizSync 30-80
VertRefresh 59-61
because these are the values your monitor is reporting.

These lines are already in my xorg.conf file, like this, in my case:

If you do not have this section, add it, but yours may not be a "Generic Monitor", it may be something else. It doesn't really matter what you (or linux) calls it, so long as you are consistent with your references to it in your xorg.conf file.

- Get rid of all the modelines - they are not needed, because we have defined the sync rates, and as you'll see later, X will get your monitor's geometry from EDID, so X can work out the "modelines" itself. Mmmmmm Nice!

- In the Section Screen bit there's a DefaultDepth, this should be set at 24 for full colour.

- Then there are SubSection "Display" parts, relating to 1, 2, 4, .... 32 bits
We are only interested in the Depth 24 part because that is what we have set as our DefaultDepth above.
Give it a line like this:
Modes "2560x1600" "1280x800" "1280x768" "1200x800" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
Because the DefaultDepth's default resolution is the first in this list, this should be 2560x1600.

Now we want the NVIDIA driver to ignore the stuff it gets from EDID (because we have supplied the information it needs, and we don't want it listening to any Preferred stuff, that is messing things up). [It is interesting that win has a similar bug - I expect not enough people are playing with these nice monitors yet].

So find the bit that says Section "Device", there'll be stuff about your nvidia card identifier, driver (which should be nvidia) etc. Add this bit (you should copy & paste):

Save your new xorg.conf and then restart X (<CTRL><ALT><BACKSPACE> - but I expect you have discovered that by now ;) )and see what happens.

If you have difficulties, PLEASE post your xorg.conf as I asked you previously (with the above modifications, and no modelines -they are generally a waste of space, but are only very sometimes useful) as it is giving me a headache trying to imagine what it looks like. :mad:
The errors from your xorg.log would also be useful.
And while you are at it, please update your LQ profile so it reflects the Distro you are using. Your location is also quite useful to know (Well there are timezones to consider).

Yes. But, Vista defaulted to 2560x1600.

Ok... I've given that a try.

Here's my xorg.conf(Monitor / Device):

Here's the Resolutions:
Still no option for "2560x1600." I'll update my profile now. Thanks for all your help so far :)

You are missing an important option (see my post above), and I think quotes are needed:And the next bit isn't right either. You haven't defined 2560x1600 for your default depth, and you are still telling it to use EDID:tisk: :So, to reduce further confusion, please make appropriate edits, try again, and if it still fails, post ALL of your xorg.conf and the X.log errors.

Thanks for the patience... and the color-coded guide :)

Here's the first half of my Xorg.0.log:

Here's the next half of my Xorg.0.log:

Ok... Those weren't exactly half and half... Here's the last part:

And here's my xorg.conf:
I commented out Option "ModeValidation" "NoEdidModes" because, I couldn't see anything but a black screen after reboot with it in.

Thanks for providing that information.
The log shows that X is still thinking that your monitor cannot do 2560x1600, and this is because you commented out the line
Option "ModeValidation" "NoEdidModes". It would be interesting to see what the X error log said when you got the black screen. No need to post it in full next time, just the error parts. [The fontpath errors do not seem to be imporant - it eventually sorts itself out!]

There's a typo in your display modes line:
Otherwise your xorg.conf looks OK to me, except that I notice that you have this:.. and I have a suspicion that this may be complicating things. What do you need this extension for? We basically have a screen-resolution problem, let's just get that sorted out and then play with extra extensions.

Some things to try:
Re-enable "ModeValidation" "NoEdidModes". I think this is an essential step for you.
What does the log say when you get the black screen? (You should be able to get at it from a terminal on <CTL><ALT><F2>, even if you have a black screen on your X terminal (<CTL><ALT><F7>))
Comment out the Section "Extensions" part and try again.
Any difference in the log?
Maybe try NVIDIAs latest driver: NVIDIA-Linux-x86-100.14.11-pkg1.run this solved a load of problems (mainly with Googleearth rendering) for me.

Lastly, there's no need to reboot between all these changes. It gets tedious. You'll save yourself quite a lot of time if you have 2 terminal logins on <CTL><ALT><F2> and <CTL><ALT><F3>
Leave yourself logged in as root ( sudo -i ) on F3, and yourself on F2. As root, stop X with either /etc/init.d/kdm stop or /etc/init.d/gdm stop, depending on KDE / gnome. Make your edits in the root terminal, then switch back to yourself, and try a startx, or in the root terminal /etc/init.d/kdm start. Either of these will switch you to the F7 X terminal if X starts OK.

Thanks for persevering - I am sure this problem will be fixable eventually. .. ... :)

That's how my terminal shows that there's more text in the line. My monitor may be large, but with the resolution at 1280x800, I don't have nearly as much space to work with as I should.

I don't know what this is for. I have commented it out.

Ok, tried that. Here's the Xorg.0.log:
Thank you so much for all your help so far :) That's it for tonight, I'll have more time to try playing around with the "Extensions" section, and getting the latest NVIDIA driver tomorrow.

I see it is still saying "No valid modes for..." what are perfectly valid modes!:mad:
I understand, I'm tired too - work, not linux!
Let us know how you get on with the newer driver. The only other thing I can offer at this stage would be to try disabling EDID completely with Option "UseEDID" "FALSE" [see my post above for where this option goes], and commenting out all other references to EDID, and then explicitly defining your sync rates (already done) and DPI. DPI goes like this, here:"78 x 78" may not be suitable for you, but it might be a start, and can be adjusted later when you, eventually, get this wretched thing to work:)

Well... I've tried playing around with my xorg.conf file... I noticed that when I commented out the Option part of "Extentions" nothing happened, but when I commented out section "Extentions" I got a black screen.

I've installed the Nvidia driver - there's no more 'Section "Extentions"' so, I guess that part has worked itself out, at least.

Anyway, I've tried with the useEDID "False" - and got black screen. Same with "ModeValidation" "NoEdidModes"

I've tried a couple of things. I really don't know what else to do.

I also noticed that there's an option to upgrade to 7.04 in the upgrade manager. I don't know if that would help.

Any ideas?

When you tried with Option "UseEDID" "FALSE" - and got a black screen, what was the error in the Xlog?

The only reliable way of tracking down what is wrong is to:
1] Make a single change to xorg.conf
2] Restart X
3] Look at the error log
4] Repeat until it is working.

Did you install the NVIDIA-Linux-x86-100.14.11-pkg1.run driver?

I don't know if upgrading to 7.04 will help or not, but as a general rule, things seem to go more smoothly when you install a new version from scratch, rather than "upgrade". If you have spare disk space you could install 7.04 on a separate partition and try it, but I have learned more from wrestling with a problem until it is solved.

If you get to [3] above and are not sure what the error is referring to, please post details (and all of xorg.conf) and we'll try to help.

An update:
You posted your monitor's EDID output in post #3
This was very useful, because I went here http://xtiming.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/xtiming.pl to try and generate a Modeline for your monitor at 2560 x 1600, with HorizSync 30-80 and VertSync 60 and a max Dot Clock Frequency of 268.5MHz
It complained that to work like that, the dotclock would have to be over 400MHz, which will not work!

In your original thread on ubuntuforums you had also tried to use gtf to compute a modeline for you:
Again, your required dotclock is again, way too fast, so no wonder it didn't work.

The xtiming.sourceforge link suggested trying using interlacing, so I did, and it came up with this modeline:

Modeline "2560x1600@60i" 163.70 2560 2592 3208 3240 1600 1636 1644 1681 interlace
Maybe we have to add -HSync +Vsync to the end of that line (I'm not sure here :confused: try without / with!)
This dot clock should be easily achievable.

On the basis of the above, I am listing an xorg.conf that might just work for you. Please try it:I deleted all the references to wacom tablets & stuff, because I don't think you have one, and it makes the file (and error logs) shorter easier to read.

There's no reference to UseEDID any more, because that isn't the problem. The problem is that we need to use interlacing to get that resolution

If it doesn't work, maybe I have done something stupid so please post the X error log.

Fingers crossed :)

Here's the Xorg.0.log:
I'm guessing it has something to do with the "Unable to validate modes; falling back to the default mode" part. I don't know why it says" "No valid modes for "2560x1600" Can I set that to be my default mode?

Ok... I'm trying that now. I know that just remembering where a couple of files are located isn't that much, but I'm happy to be getting familiar with my xorg.conf file and Xorg.0.log file.


Yes, I did. At first, I kept getting an error. It took me quite a while to even realize to google the error and find an answer. Then I found that I needed to change the directory I was in... *there's an indication of my freshness to this.

Ok. Well, I'm willing to try whatever need be done. I just don't have a lot of ideas, nor understanding about what types of ideas I should be having.

Again... Thanks so much for your help... and patience so far. I keep thinking, "I just hope we can get this solved, before Tredegar's 1500th post."

See my post #16, which you may have missed.
Me too!

I tried it...

I still don't have an option for a higher resolution than 1280x800.

Interestingly enough (or not), I now have 2 refresh rate options: 50Hz and 54Hz.

Previously it was only 50Hz

Xorg.0.log:

Well, it is able to validate some modes now. And, the virtual screen size is no longer 640 x 480, but 1280 x 800

We are getting closer:)
Try changing the following two lines in your xorg.conf:
And see what happens.

At least this time, I'd been at it before you clued me in. I'm learning something:)

No difference though.

Same errors then?
I am too, that's partly why I' doing this.
Add the -HSync +Vsync option to the modeline? I am getting desperate for ideas now.

Same errors...

I found this tread and was sure it was the answer. I've got an nForce 4 main board, too...

But, that didn't help.

Here's my Xorg.0.log:
And here's my xorg.conf:
Still no resolution above 1280x800 and refresh rate choices of 50Hz and 51Hz.

Nice try, but in your xorg.conf, the dotclock in the ModeLine is way too fast (436.05), please use the ModeLine I posted. And why have you changed the DisplaySize to 650.00 406.00? This is strange. Are you using GUI tools? Please don't - they sometimes do weird things (as you are finding!). Please reinstall the xorg.conf from my post #16, and don't use GUI tools - they cannot sort out this type of puzzlement, we'll have to do it.

Once we have xorg.conf fixed up, it'll boot straight to 2560x1600 without GUI tools.

In this post http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...48#post2844448
I referred to how to shut down X and restart it using startx from a terminal.

This link:
http://http.download.nvidia.com/XFre...ppendix-j.html
Refers to "Mode Validation Reporting" and using startx with verbose reporting
For modes that were considered invalid, the log will report why the mode was considered invalid.
So try starting X like this:
startx -- -logverbose 6
And we can see if it reports something useful (in the usual X log file)
It is worth a try.
I won't be ignoring you, but in my TZ, hunger calls ....

OK, I'm back to the one you posted.
I was trying to experiment with different things - hoping to find a solution. I'm still not sure what everything is, or does. It's back to the way you suggested now.


Here's the the Xorg.0.log:
So, for 2560x1600@60Hz we're still getting the message:
Mode is rejected: HorizSync (98.7 kHz) out of range

I don't know what else is useful from this or what we should be looking at.

do you think this might be easier with a different distribution of Linux?

I chose ubuntu, because of its apparently large community and ease of install. However, I am not particularly attached to it. I don't have to use 6.10 or i386. I'm currently downloading ubuntu 7.04 - amd64 .iso, Fedora Core 7 and Debian . These seem to be pretty easy for beginners, from what I've read.

I don't really mind doing a fresh install, as it may be quicker than trying to work things out with 6.10. However, I also suspect that this issue is not with the distribution, but with my newbness...

What do you think? Should we try a different version or distribution, or just keep trying to mess around with xorg.conf?

I'm still more interested than frustrated with this whole process, so either way, I'm good to go.

I am really, really happy (and surprised) that you've stuck with me for this long, tredegar. I really appreciate all your help so far.

I don't know if this has anything to do with anything, but GAIM keeps crashing when I try to upload my display picture. It didn't before.

Yes, but it also says: - Which is much better because it is not complaining about sync rates, just that the rejected mode is "too large" for DFP (="Digital Flat Panel"??), whatever that means.

There's a post here http://www.groupsrv.com/linux/about74887.html that mentions this, and his monitor (1680x1050) was working fine "before Xorg was upgraded to 6.7". Their solution was to add this line
Option "ModeValidation" "NoMaxPClkCheck,NoEdidMaxPClkCheck"
to the Monitor section. You could put it after the Option "DPMS" line of my original xorg.conf Please reinstall that file, then add the Modevalidation line to it, do not run any gui tools, then restart X, then check the log. You must be getting the hang of this by now;)

====

I do not think a different version of linux is going to help you - they all use Xorg, and that, +/- NVIDIA is where the problem seems to lie. Frankly, I am embarrassed that you have had all this trouble. X should "Just work", as it does for me.

====

I don't know what gaim is, or why it is crashing. We can cross that bridge when you have a nice display working.
Thanks for your patience - you are doing well for a "newbie", and I suspect you will soon be LQ's resident Xorg guru! ( I have noticed that "What's wrong with my xorg.conf?" posts tend to scare people off, because yes, it's complex, and there is tons of documentation and options to wade through)

Hope the above makes sense, I usually try not to post until I have had sufficient caffeine in the morning (getting there):)

You're probably right. OK.. I'll try to stick with this, at least until we figure this out. :)

Ok, I tried adding ModeValidation. Here's my Xorg.0.log:
So... still get this:
Mode is rejected: HorizSync (98.7 kHz) out of range
and this:
Mode is rejected: Mode (2560 x 1600) is too large for DFP

I noticed that you said to put Option "ModeValidation" "NoMaxPClkCheck,NoEdidMaxPClkCheck" in the Monitor section, but on the other forum, he had put it in the Screen section, so I tried both.

Grrrrr.Well noticed, well done, but still no better.
Maybe try your idea of Option "NoBandWidthTest" "1" with my xorg.conf, not the one you tried that had a bad dotclock rate, or have you already retested that?
I am going back to the nvidia driver docs to have another read of them.

:study: => Another thought.... You remember near the beginning of this thread, when we tried the Option "UseEDID" "FALSE" line in the Device section? It didn't work because we hadn't (then) realised that we need to specify a modeline for 2560x1600 and interlace it.

It is worth another try: Start afresh with "my" xorg.conf as posted, add only the Option "UseEDID" "FALSE", do not add any other options, check the logs, round we go again.:)

I think that was actually a fix for a problem that existed with an Integrated Graphics Chipset that was on one of the nForce boards. I read through it too quickly to realize it the first time.

Regardless, I tried it again and got nothing.

Without starting fresh, but only adding Option "UseEDID" "False", here's my Xorg.0.log:
I'll try starting afresh... :)

And here's the Xorg.0.log:
As you might suspect, both times I had a black screen...

I find this interesting:
Virtual screen size determined to be 640 x 480
Considering that without Option "UseEDID" "FALSE", we get:
Virtual screen size determined to be 1280 x 800

Also, this:
Unable to get display device DFP-0's EDID; cannot compute DPI
And without Option "UseEDID" "False", we get:
DPI set to (40, 45); computed from "UseEdidDpi" X config

And this:
Built-in logo is bigger than the screen. I suppose is because of the Virtual screen size being determined to be 640 x 480.

So, how can we have the Virtual screen size determined to be 2560 x 1600?

Edit: I think the virtual screen size is 2600x1600, but the real screensize is 640 x 480. Can you scroll around your big virtual screen (ie have a 640 x 480 window onto the 2600x1600 screen?) /Edit

I wish I knew. "Virtual screens", seem to be a pain. The nvidia documentation refers to these in relation to "Twinview" (2 screens at once, don't even start on that!). What we want is for it to realise that the real screen size is 2560x1600, and that the "virtual screen" size is the same.

Otherwise the only potentially useful option that I can find might be:
Option "ModeValidation" "NoVirtualSizeCheck"
And that goes in "Section Device"
This is really annoying, because we have computed the interlaced modeline and listed it.
I suppose the name of the resolution we want "2560x1600@60i" is exactly the same in both the places it is mentioned (ModeLine and Modes)?
You might try putting that modeline (ModeLine "2560x1600@60i" 163.70 2560 2592 3208 3240 1600 1636 1644 1681 interlace) into the Subsection Display beneath the line that says
Modes "2560x1600@60i" "1280x800" "1280x768" "1200x800" "1024x768" "800x600" instead of (or as well as?) where it is now, (in the section Monitor)

Here's the result of that (Xorg.0.log):
Option "ModeValidation" "NoVirtualSizeCheck" didn't seem to do anything special
[EDIT]
*that is with Option "ModeValidation" "NoVirtualSizeCheck" or without, I get the same warning messages in the Xorg.0.log.
[/EDIT]

Oh. It didn't like it there then.:mad: We won't try that again.

I have (another) question for you. How is the monitor connected to your PC?
From the NVIDIA documentation:
Your monitor seems to be detected as DFP. Are you using a DVI port?( I don't know what these are).
Meanwhile, let's try this:
It goes like this: Option "ModeValidation" "NoDFPNativeResolutionCheck" in the "Device" section like this:
Try this in "my" xorg.conf, exactly as posted earlier. We are trying to change one thing at a time here.

Yes. My graphics card has two DVI ports and my monitor only has DVI (no option for VGA like on most of the LCD monitors).

OK. I'll give it a try :)

Here's the Xorg.0.log:
I forgot to answer this:
I'm not really sure what you mean. When I played around with the nvidia-settings GUI, I was able to get it to show something like a 640x480 window on a 2560x1600 screen. When I applied the changes, I had pretty much the same resolution as now, but I could (had to) scroll to view my entire desktop. My monitor was only displaying a quarter of the viewable area, but using all 30" to do so.

Maybe it is time to start trying multiple options.
Try these modifications to the usual xorg.conf:Notes:
I have added a modeline for 1280 x 800, this doesn't need interlace, so it might be interesting to see how this is handled.
The option Modevalidation is followed by quotes containing 4 comma-separated options.
Please startx with verbose error reporting startx -- -logverbose 6 and we'll see what it says.

Is there anything to be gained from plugging your monitor into the other output of your videocard?

Tried it and got the black screen. Here's the Xorg.0.log:

This is interesting:
(II) NVIDIA(0): Validating Mode "2560x1600@60i":
(II) NVIDIA(0): 2560 x 1600 @ 30 Hz
(II) NVIDIA(0): Mode Source: X Configuration file ModeLine
(II) NVIDIA(0): Pixel Clock : 163.70 MHz
(II) NVIDIA(0): HRes, HSyncStart : 2560, 2592
(II) NVIDIA(0): HSyncEnd, HTotal : 3208, 3240
(II) NVIDIA(0): VRes, VSyncStart : 1600, 1636
(II) NVIDIA(0): VSyncEnd, VTotal : 1644, 1681
(II) NVIDIA(0): H/V Polarity : +/+
(II) NVIDIA(0): Extra : Interlace
(II) NVIDIA(0): Mode is valid.

Anyway, I commented out "UseEDID" "False" to get back a visual. Here's the Xorg.0.log with the xorg.conf like that:
I don't know if it means anything, but this is still there:
And back to no valid modes for 2560x1600, so it appears that the answer might lie within the "useEDID" option...

I'll let you know in a minute.

The only thing I notice is that in my tty screens, I have a horizontally split screen. I don't know if that means anything, but it's definitely annoying. Hehehe

I liked that bit too:):) ! But then it threw it all away with A google search for "cannot compute backend DFP timings" returned nothing relevant.
Where is it getting 640x480 from? Not EDID (because it's disabled).

SO, it'll recognise "2560x1600@60i" if we ignore the EDID, and provide the other information ourselves, but I cannot find an option to tell X/nvidia that it's OK to use your DFP at that resolution. Something like Option "NativeBackEnd" "2560x1600" would be nice, but I can't find it. Do you think that would be worth a (mad and desparate) try? I bet it fails with "Invalid option".

My last(?) line of reasoning goes like this: X is misinterpreting the EDID information from your monitor, or your monitor is giving bad information (which windows is presumably just ignoring) and refusing to work. There's an option to read the EDID, not from the monitor itself, but from a local bin file, so maybe we could hack one. Wikipedia has quite a lot of information on the EDID data structure. Perhaps we can create an EDID file that X will work with - Ie one that says Is there any way you can get me a (Hex) listing of the EDID data from your monitor as it is now, a bit like the stuff in post #3, but not prettified / decoded. Maybe the xlog, at maximum verbosity? Or an option to whatever you used to get that prettified listing? That would be really useful to me. Edit: Update: this info is already in your post #26. thanks /Edit

I have done a lot of searches for your monitor. It doesn't seem popular, and nobody is using it with linux (I wonder why?). I wanted a PDF manual for it. No joy as the (few) links are in ?Korean. But take a look at it yourself: Does it have a "Setup" menu or something, where we can maybe set its default resolution to 2560x1600? And then try again using EDID?

You can safely ignore the fonts errors, & can sort them out (if you can be bothered, they're harmless) when we eventually get this thing going.

I didn't think using the other port conector would help, but ....

I'm off to Wikipedia. I may be some time.

Back from wikipedia, and all over the net. EDID is a headache, but your monitor is not the only one causing problems!

I copied the hex EDID data from your verbose x.log into khexedit and saved the file as EDID.dat
I found a windows-only (2K, XP) EDID editor called Phoenix. Then I found a windows computer, installed Phoenix and gave it the EDID.dat file.
It said "Invalid File" "OK" (Don't you just love windows?)
I re-checked the Hex strings, they are correct. I can't be bothered to check the checksum (Last byte of EDID, makes SUM of all 128 bytes MODULO 256 = 0), but maybe that is wrong. It'll be tedious to compute manually and I'm not starting writing C programs, sorry.

It turns out that there is another way to get the EDID data: Fire up nvidia-settings. In the left pane, click on your Display. Then in the right pane, click on Acquire EDID, and save it as edid.bin. Then please email it to me (Click on my name at the left of this post, Choose email tredegar). Or just check the file manually against the hex dump in post #26, and tell me if they are the same.

You will find this post (and the posts it links to) interesting:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s....15/+bug/33075

I can't upload an attachment through the forum 'send message to email' client, so here's a link:
http://www.mediafire.com/?etc72wgkngb

It sounds like a good idea. You've sure done a lot of research for this. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it all... I'm still trying to figure out VIM!

Anyway, as far as the monitor goes, AFAIK, it's only available in Korea and the company has no plans to export. It's a nice monitor though - I've had this one for about a year - the newer ones have quite nice specs, like 1000:1 contrast ratio and 8ms refresh rate. For a 30" monitor, with aluminum housing, the price (under US$1000) is great. But, it's only in Korea...

Some real progress at last.
Trying to edit raw EDID data was doing my head in, what with all those bits, nybbles, bytes, conditional fields and wretched checksums (I computed it manually - it was correct). So I wanted to use the Phoenix editor. Sadly, there's no EDID editor for linux (Yet, any offers, people?:))

It turns out, after a bit of hex-editing, that Phoenix EDID editor does not expect to open a raw, 128 byte EDID file. It expects it as an ASCII / HEX table in a DOS text file. It will not import a raw file :mad:

So I copied your monitor's raw EDID data from the X.log in post #26 and manually constructed the table for windows. Here is that table in windows-compatable format:Note that all lines (in the binary of this file) end in 0D 0A (CarriageReturn and LineFeed, DOS-type end of lines)
The last two characters in the file are 0D 0A.
The file is exactly 553 bytes long.

If you create this file with a linux text editor (copy & paste the above), save it as M30W1.dat Make sure it is exactly 553 bytes long. If not, open it with a hex editor and make sure the end-of-lines are 0D 0A, not just 0A, and that the last two characters of the binary file are 0D 0A. If you can't cope with this, then email me (so I get your email address) and then I'll happily send it to you as a binary attachment.

If you create this file with a windows text editor like notepad (copy & Paste), you'll probably be OK, just make sure the file ends with a <Return> (so the last 2 bytes are 0D 0A), and that the resulting file is exactly 553 bytes long. Windows probably says it is 1Kb long (it did for me) because windows has a crappy filesystem. Look at the filesize from linux.

Now you have your 553-byte windows-format EDID file, you should fire up Phoenix ( Get it here http://www.tucows.com/preview/329441 ), I am told that it runs under linux if you use wine, but I used a winXP computer to run it (Yuk!).
Have it open the M30W1.dat file.

You will see your monitor's EDID file is very strange. You'll need to click the "Read-only/Edit" Icon in Phoenix before you can make any changes.

The EDID data needs playing with and correcting so that the 2560x1600 mode is set as interlaced. There may be other changes necessary as well. It's difficult for me because I do not have your monitor to play with.

Windows timings are different from linux's ModeLines : They are called H Blank and H Sync Offset and H Sync Width etc, you are going to have to do some research before you can convert the valid timings of our Modeline "2560x1600@60i" to their windows equivalents. It looks to me as though linux gives absolute timings, and win uses relative ones, so it may just be a matter of subtracting one modeline value from another to find the win relative value.
You could generate a ModeLine for 1280x800 at whatever refresh rate / clock rate Phoenix says your EDID has for its default 1280x800, and then compare the ModeLine numbers with the windows timings to work out how they relate. Here's a link to a modeline generator:
http://xtiming.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/xtiming.pl

Other things to look at:
1] Somewhere in all the Phoenix tabs is a box that says "Preferred timing mode", and it is checked. I wonder if this is the cause of your monitor saying its Preferred width/ height is 1280x800? You'll have to experiment.
2] Somewhere it says (Display size) and with your monitor's EDID data, this is mysteriously set to be half the horiz resolution +1 and half the vert resolution +1. This seems very wierd, and may need changing. Again, you'll have to experiment.

Once you think the EDID data looks OK, export it as a raw file (There's a drop-down-box to select this in the Rhoenix Export box), this file should be exactly 128 bytes long. Doing this reset some parts of the EDID, resetting your monitor's manufacture date to 1990, and updating the EDID version to 3, I think, but this doesn't matter, only the timings and resoltion and interlacing and whatnot do.

There may be another (possibly easier) way of getting a corrected EDID file :) :)
You'll need a win2k / XP PC which you can plug your monitor into. Boot to windows. Get your monitor working in 2560x1600 (don't ask me how, but you said "It works with windows"!). Then fire up Phoenix. Ask it to "Fetch EDID info from the Registry". You might find that it generates/ fetches a working EDID file for you. Save it as raw file. If this works, you won't have to mess with creating that M30W1.dat like I had to, and then trying to modify it so it is correct.

Now we are getting to the good bit. Once you have made yourself a corrected EDID file, we need to move it over to linux, and then we'll pretty much follow the instructions given in this link:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s....15/+bug/33075

Call the file newEDID.raw and save it as /etc/X11/newEDID.raw
Start with our favourite, basic xorg.conf (from post #16), and edit it thus:

In the Device Section (where it lists Driver "nvidia"), you need to add the following 3 lines
You may now not need the ModeLine "2560x1600@60i" that we calculated earlier, because the new EDID file should make it unnecessary, but if you remove it, make sure the Modes line reads "2560x1600", not "2560x1600@60i"

Restart X, look at the logs, here we go again:)

Thanks for your post #45 (We almost cross-posted) [This is one l-o-n-g thread!], but the link (and the link doesn't work - "Javascrpit Error" with both FFox & Konqueror, I have Sun java jre1.5.0_07, but no matter), but I no longer need it as you'll see from my post #50.
No doubt, but does it work with linux? :)

Eventually, I'm sure it will. Thanks to your help, of course :)

Post 50 is a little (a lot) above my head. I'm trying to figure it out, but there's a long way to go for me.

First, I've tried copying and pasting and saving as a .dat file. I keep getting 542Kb. I'm not sure that I need to press return (enter) at the end of the text. I tried, then I had a 543kb file, the 553 that you said I needed.

I have no idea what you mean by 0D 0A and don't even see them anywhere in the code. I'll send you an email.

Also, I had a look at the link to Bug #33075, as you said we'll pretty much follow the instructions there. Not sure if it's important, but when I tried the su nvidia-glx-config enable command, I got the message:
It sure is... I'm surprised (and very thankful) that you've stuck with me this long. Thanks :D

Sorry, my fault for racing ahead - you have been doing well for a "newbie"!
Kb!! No, this is just a tiny file. Maybe you mean 542B? This would be the case if you copied & pasted into a linux editor like kate or kwrite, or even vi. Let me explain:
The first line of the file is EDID BYTES: Then there is a new line started, and then more text.
If you look at that file with a hexadecimal editor, you can see the hex ASCII characters that represent E (45), then D (44) etc. The "End of the line", in linux is represented with the "non-printing" (= "nothing shows, but something happens") hex code 0A. But windows and DOS use two codes, one after the other to represent a "Newline". The DOS codes are 0D 0A. Here's a link to the ASCII codes: http://www.asciitable.com/
Your file is too short because it is using linux type newlines, and we need dos type newlines, so we are short of 10 occurrences of the hex character 0D, and one of 0A. If you give the command hd yourEDIDfilename you can see how the characters and newlines of a file are stored as hex, and all will be revealed. No matter, because I have emailed you the file in DOS format.

You now have two options:
1] Find yourself a win2k XP computer. Install the Phoenix EDID editor (just download it from the link (@#46) I gave you, put it on the windows desktop & open it). Have it open the EDID file I sent you for your monitor. Take a look at it, tweak it, save the tweaked version, and then take it back to linux. Try it out. If no better, :study: and then re-tweak it.

2] Find yourself a win2k or XP computer, which you can plug your big monitor into. Follow the last part of post #46, that starts with "There may be another (possibly easier) way...". This way uses windows to create a valid EDID for your monitor, and then extract it from the windows registry and save it by using Phoenix. You can then move the EDID.raw file to linux, and make 3 little changes to xorg.conf, and all should be well. You do not have to do nvidia-glx-config, in fact it is best not to as we already have your xorg.conf well set up, and your nvidia driver is working, we just need to tell it about your monitors EDID.

Either way, we are going to get the nvidia module to read the EDID data from a file, not your monitor, because your monitor's EDID file is wrong!

The relevant part of that external thread is L. Martin's last post on 2007-4-22, and I have included the necessary steps in my post #46, just in case that thread/board disappeared overnight.

No problem: I must like solving puzzles (and linux beats the cr@p out of sudoku and crosswords), and you are easier to help than some: you have common sense, don't whine, are prepared to do some work yourself and experiment, and very importantly, don't give up too easily. You have the makings of a happy linux user :)

I am by no means an expert and it seems you guys are trying a lot of things I know nothing about. But one thing I found interesting was the discussion on modes and virtual terminals. I have a Toshiba laptop with Intel 945 GM Express chipset (on-board graphics with hardware acceleration), but still, many of your errors were very similar to mine. Incorrect resolution detection seems to be an issue with laptops.

Just regarding the Modeline, you should write down the info given in any section of "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" that looks like this:The only thing that does not seem to be needed in your modeline are "Image Size", "h_border", and "v_border". What are used are "clock" and all the other things starting with "h_" or "v_".

Notice at the end of my modeline I have "-hsync -vsync". I got mine from the Intel drivers site. I don't know if you need these flags or if they should be on or off. How the above translates to a modeline:

The above is the "Modeline" keyword, the name of the mode in quotes, the clock (71.00), then all the "h_" numbers in order, then all the "v_" numbers in order -- except borders! (Apparently not needed, or maybe not needed if they are "0".)


As someone said, the font errors get sorted out when you start X, but if you want to get rid of the errors, write down the invalid paths, then comment them out of your "xorg.conf":

Edit: I also commented out any modes and modelines I do not want to use.