Arch Linux

netmonger

Member

Registered: 2012-09-20

Posts: 12

EDID and KMS issues

A few months ago X stopped working for me.  Launch from ‘startx’ would show X output in CLI and just sit there, wouldn’t switch to the WM.  At that point I gave up due to time constraints.

I took this up again by starting from scratch and am noticing that when booting off of the install ISO only 2/3’s of the screen is being used.  I completed a basic install all the way through X, tried to launch X and getting to the same spot as a few months ago, the WM does not load on the screen.   Looking at the processes though it looks like X is running.

I tried an older installation CD, 2012.10.06-dual, and the video issues are not present.  The CLI is utilizing the whole monitor.

I was finally able to correct the issue by adding

drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=edid/1680x1050.bin

to my syslinux.cfg file.  This seems to have done the trick.  However, now that I upgraded from kernel 3.10 to 3.11 another issue came up that appears to be related.  The boot process seems to stall on

:: running early hook [udev]

for about 60 seconds or so then boots just fine.  If I pull out the edid statement above from the syslinux.cfg file, that 60 second pause goes away but of course the system is unable to recognize my monitor size.

I'm running an NVidia 8800 card, nouveau drivers, kernel 3.11 now, with a 22" monitor.  I don't see any indicators in the journal of an issue.

Here is an output of dmesg from where I believe the stall is happening:

[    0.565305] nouveau  [     DRM] 1 available performance level(s)
[    0.565311] nouveau  [     DRM] 0: core 513MHz shader 1188MHz memory 792MHz voltage 1300mV fanspeed 100%
[    0.565316] nouveau  [     DRM] c: core 198MHz shader 1188MHz memory 396MHz
[    0.579836] nouveau  [     DRM] MM: using M2MF for buffer copies
[    1.350031] tsc: Refined TSC clocksource calibration: 2133.333 MHz
[    2.350140] Switched to clocksource tsc
[   60.636819] [drm] Got built-in EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid/1680x1050.bin" for connector "DVI-I-1"
[  120.796767] [drm] Got built-in EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid/1680x1050.bin" for connector "DVI-I-2"
[  120.799003] nouveau  [     DRM] allocated 1680x1050 fb: 0x60000, bo ffff8801956afc00
[  120.799092] fbcon: nouveaufb (fb0) is primary device
[  120.888935] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 210x65
[  120.893363] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: fb0: nouveaufb frame buffer device
[  120.893366] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: registered panic notifier
[  120.893371] [drm] Initialized nouveau 1.1.1 20120801 for 0000:01:00.0 on minor 0

I believe this to be an issue between the kernel, nouveau, KMS, and EDID.  My hardware never changed since the beginning a few months ago when I ran into these problems.  I just can’t pinpoint what the problem is and am not finding any good references online yet.

Has anyone had similar issues?  Why all of a sudden I need to use an EDID file instead of nouveau or the kernel recognizing my monitor size?  And has anyone ran into this boot stall issue?

guitarxperience

Member

Registered: 2011-10-26

Posts: 29

Re: EDID and KMS issues

yes i cant boot without nomodeset.