Screen turns off when GDM starts - RTX4090 - Apple Studio Display (5K)

kobhian · 2023-04-04 20:10:21

Hey folks!

I was running this setup just fine with a XDR display from apple (6K), which uses the same technology of the Apple Studio Display (5K), however, I need that screen for my macOS work, so I thought i'd get a similar, cheaper one for my Linux machine.

However, when running gnome, as soon as GDM starts, the screen goes off completely.

What I did so far to better understand/narrow down the cause:

- If I run KDE instead, it works just fine.
- If I remove Nvidia proprietary drivers, GDM posts and gnome runs at 1024x768.

I tried other gnome distro's live CDs (ubuntu, fedora, manjaro)

- They all display at 1024x768, none works past GDM as soon as I install nvidia drivers.

__

This Nvidia graphics card with Nvidia proprietary drivers works just fine under Arch/Gnome if I use the superior XDR display.
xrandr returns: can't open display

__

Any pointers where to start looking?

Thanks in advance!

Last edited by kobhian (2023-04-04 23:45:33)

kobhian · 2023-04-05 00:52:16

fresh install journalctl - https://pastebin.com/CBQeDj4F

meantime, tried another display manager, Hyprland, it works fine as well, just like KDE.

Last edited by kobhian (2023-04-05 00:59:08)

BluishHumility · 2023-04-05 01:59:24

If you are able to get to the Gnome desktop and configure the displays as you wish, you can just copy over your monitors.xml to /var/lib/gdm/.config/ and GDM will use those settings.

From the wiki here:

If you have your monitors setup as you like (resolution, refresh rate, orientation, scaling, primary and so on) in ~/.config/monitors.xml and want GDM to honor those settings:
# cp ~/.config/monitors.xml /var/lib/gdm/.config/

kobhian · 2023-04-05 02:08:05

BluishHumility wrote:

If you are able to get to the Gnome desktop and configure the displays as you wish, you can just copy over your monitors.xml to /var/lib/gdm/.config/ and GDM will use those settings.
From the wiki here:
If you have your monitors setup as you like (resolution, refresh rate, orientation, scaling, primary and so on) in ~/.config/monitors.xml and want GDM to honor those settings:
# cp ~/.config/monitors.xml /var/lib/gdm/.config/

Sadly I can't.

With gnome, I can go as far as grub output, then when gdm is supposed to start, it blacks out.
With KDE plasma, it all works just fine,

Can I translate KDE monitor settings to gnome/gdm?

Thanks

BluishHumility · 2023-04-05 02:46:35

Hmm, I don't know the answer to that but I can't see the harm in trying. You can always delete it out of the /var/lib/gdm/.config/ directory afterward if it doesn't help.

seth · 2023-04-05 09:07:00

GDM is a display manager, gnome and KDE/plasma are desktop environments.
Hyprland is a display server.

I guess you're not starting plasma from GDM, but replace GDM w/ SDDM?
Or do you autologin into the desktop environment session?
Do you run SDDM/Plasma on X11 or wayland?

GDM posts and gnome runs at 1024x768.

Smells like you simply ended up running on the vesa driver.

Apr 05 00:22:23 linus /usr/lib/gdm-x-session[828]: (II) NVIDIA(0): Setting mode "NULL"
Apr 05 00:22:23 linus /usr/lib/gdm-x-session[828]: (II) NVIDIA(0): Setting mode "DP-4: 2560x2880 @2560x2880 +0+0 {ViewPortIn=2560x2880, ViewPortOut=2560x2880+0+0}"
Apr 05 00:25:42 linus /usr/lib/gdm-x-session[844]: (II) NVIDIA(0): Virtual screen size determined to be 5120 x 2880
Apr 05 00:25:42 linus /usr/lib/gdm-x-session[844]: (II) NVIDIA(0): Setting mode "DFP-5:nvidia-auto-select"
Apr 05 00:25:42 linus /usr/lib/gdm-x-session[844]: (II) NVIDIA(0): Setting mode "NULL"
Apr 05 00:25:42 linus /usr/lib/gdm-x-session[844]: (II) NVIDIA(0): Setting mode "DP-4: 2560x2880 @2560x2880 +0+0 {ViewPortIn=2560x2880, ViewPortOut=2560x2880+0+0}"

edid-decode < /sys/class/drm/card0-DP-4/edid # https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/edid-decode-git

Apr 05 00:24:38 linus sudo[1273]:  emanuel : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/rm 10-monitor.conf
Apr 05 00:24:47 linus dbus-daemon[748]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.home1' unit='dbus-org.freedesktop.home1.service' requested by ':1.48' (uid=0 pid=1276 comm="sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf")
Apr 05 00:24:47 linus sudo[1276]:  emanuel : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Do you currently have a /var/lib/gdm/.config/monitors.xml file?

kobhian · 2023-04-05 12:57:21

Hey Seth, thanks for taking the time!

Let's go 1 by 1.

guess you're not starting plasma from GDM, but replace GDM w/ SDDM?

Correct, for Gnome i'm going with GDM, for KDE, i'm going with SDDM.

I've tried SSDM for Gnome, I get to the point where we select user/password, and as soon as I input the PW, it goes black.

Do you run SDDM/Plasma on X11 or wayland?

SDDM/Plasma is running on X11.

Smells like you simply ended up running on the vesa driver.

Yeap, every distro I tried that got into Gnome's shell, it was running the vesa driver.

Do you currently have a /var/lib/gdm/.config/monitors.xml file?

It never generates one. I've tried creating a 10-monitor.conf to pass instructions on what to render to xorg, didn't work, ended up removing it to clean up the install and try other solutions.
Also tried to delete xorg.conf itself to generate a new one and see if there was any differences from my starting point.

again, thanks! Any other info I can provide?

Last edited by kobhian (2023-04-05 14:19:44)

kobhian · 2023-04-05 16:28:37

After keep trying everything I could find in the forum (what a fantastic resource!) I found this post with the following suggestion:

Create a /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-whatever.conf file with the following code:

Section "Device"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "ModeValidation" "AllowNonEdidModes,AllowNon60HzDFPModes,NoMaxPClkCheck,NoEdidMaxPClkCheck,AllowInterlacedModes,NoMaxSizeCheck,NoHorizSyncCheck,NoVertRefreshCheck"
EndSection

and.... it worked!

I got here by insisting on the log error:

nvidia(0) setting mode null

error that was consistent across all gnome-based distros output when dealing with official nvidia drivers.

Naturally, I still don't know what's causing this exactly, but I assume it has something to do with nvidia drivers (the usual suspect) not dealing well with my combination of GPU and screen, and gnome shell being a little bit more demanding on getting explicit instructions on how to render refresh rate/dpi of a given device.

Seth, want to keep trying to debug this or shall we consider this solved and I edit the title?

Last edited by kobhian (2023-04-05 16:35:32)

seth · 2023-04-05 17:01:08

If you want to know what and why was rejected replace the ModeValidation option w/

Option "ModeDebug" "True"

to debug the (now failing again) validation process and post the edid-decode output-

kobhian · 2023-04-05 17:12:38

Seth, it still works with just

Option "ModeDebug" "True"

Odd?

Edit: It actually works just fine with

Section "Device"
Driver "nvidia"
EndSection

Last edited by kobhian (2023-04-05 17:22:43)

seth · 2023-04-05 17:31:34

That would not be reflective of the previously posted journals or the xf86-video-vesa (or less likely the modesetting driver) get in the way.
What if you remove the config and the xf86-video-vesa package?

Arch Linux

#1 2023-04-04 20:10:21

Screen turns off when GDM starts - RTX4090 - Apple Studio Display (5K)

#2 2023-04-05 00:52:16

Re: Screen turns off when GDM starts - RTX4090 - Apple Studio Display (5K)

#3 2023-04-05 01:59:24

Re: Screen turns off when GDM starts - RTX4090 - Apple Studio Display (5K)

#4 2023-04-05 02:08:05

Re: Screen turns off when GDM starts - RTX4090 - Apple Studio Display (5K)

#5 2023-04-05 02:46:35

Re: Screen turns off when GDM starts - RTX4090 - Apple Studio Display (5K)

#6 2023-04-05 09:07:00

Re: Screen turns off when GDM starts - RTX4090 - Apple Studio Display (5K)

#7 2023-04-05 12:57:21

Re: Screen turns off when GDM starts - RTX4090 - Apple Studio Display (5K)

#8 2023-04-05 16:28:37

Re: Screen turns off when GDM starts - RTX4090 - Apple Studio Display (5K)

#9 2023-04-05 17:01:08

Re: Screen turns off when GDM starts - RTX4090 - Apple Studio Display (5K)

#10 2023-04-05 17:12:38

Re: Screen turns off when GDM starts - RTX4090 - Apple Studio Display (5K)

#11 2023-04-05 17:31:34

Re: Screen turns off when GDM starts - RTX4090 - Apple Studio Display (5K)

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