Arch Linux

Wintershade

Member

From: Croatia

Registered: 2008-02-18

Posts: 175

Website

Nvidia and widescreen - resolution issues

Hi again! I've recently noticed that my 1440x900 laptop LCD doesn't offer me many other resolutions with nvidia driver.
Since I have the GF9600 inside, the proprietary driver is actually the only available option to me.

Anyway, when I go to display settings in GNOME or XFCE, or start the Nvidia control panel (either as a normal user or the root user), the only widescreen resolution offered to me is 1440x900. There are also many other resolutions, starting with 1024x768 to lower, but none of them is a widescreen one (the list goes to as low as 320x200).

Please bear with me - I've been able to get lower widescreen resolutions (such as 1280x800, 1152x768, or 960x600) on both Windows and Ubuntu Linux (which I believe has the same versions of Xorg server and Nvidia driver).

My xorg.conf looks like this:

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 1.0  (buildmeister@builder62)  Wed May 27 01:58:49 PDT 2009

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "evdev"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "evdev"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Unknown"
    HorizSync       28.0 - 33.0
    VertRefresh     43.0 - 72.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

This is a "clean" xorg.conf, generated by nvidia-xconfig tool (I've only switched the mouse and keyboard drivers with evdev, but that's irrelevant for this). I have been doing some tweaking myself, but none of it to any avail, so I've decided to ask here from the start.

Any help regarding making lower 16:9/16:10 resolutions available would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

---

Only the best is good enough.

brebs

Member

Registered: 2007-04-03

Posts: 3,742

Re: Nvidia and widescreen - resolution issues

Your HorizSync and VertRefresh lines may be too limiting - try commenting them out. Also take a look at the usual /var/log/Xorg.0.log

May be a bug in the nvidia driver, which has its own forum.

SanskritFritz

Member

From: Budapest, Hungary

Registered: 2009-01-08

Posts: 1,924

Website

Re: Nvidia and widescreen - resolution issues

Set HorizSync to 40-81 or delete the entry alltogether.

---

zʇıɹɟʇıɹʞsuɐs AUR || Cycling in Budapest with a helmet camera || Revised log levels proposal: "FYI" "WTF" and "OMG" (John Barnette)

Wintershade

Member

From: Croatia

Registered: 2008-02-18

Posts: 175

Website

Re: Nvidia and widescreen - resolution issues

Also take a look at the usual /var/log/Xorg.0.log

Will dig through it now, although my expertise doesn't guarantee that I'll make something out of it.

May be a bug in the nvidia driver, which has its own forum.

I'm trying to register there now; however the forum is very restrictive about e-mail addresses, so I'm contacting the administrator first.

Set HorizSync to 40-81 or delete the entry alltogether.

neither of those worked

Many thanks to both of you for your quick answers and ideas. However, I'm still stuck with the problem.
Any more ideas?

---

Only the best is good enough.

Wintershade

Member

From: Croatia

Registered: 2008-02-18

Posts: 175

Website

Re: Nvidia and widescreen - resolution issues

Hi again... I haven't updated the topic here for some time, and for a few reasons - among others, I've been on vacation and without the 'net, and I haven't made any progress.

Sorry for reviving an old topic, but I am getting a bit of desperate. I've put the Xorg.0.log files into the pastebin - one for Arch,  and another for Ubuntu.
However, I can't see any significant difference here, except in the xorg server versions. (I've tried downgrading the xorg-server in Arch to 1.6.0, but to no avail).

So the problem still remains - under Arch I've got 1440x900 as the only choice of widescreen resolution, while Ubuntu offers me a wide variety of resolutions.
What gives?

I'd be very grateful if anyone could shed some light on this.

---

Only the best is good enough.

1LordAnubis

Member

Registered: 2008-10-10

Posts: 253

Website

Re: Nvidia and widescreen - resolution issues

Can you do something like this, with your desired resolutions?

SubSection "Display"
 Depth     24
 Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection

Also, have you tried your xorg.conf from ubuntu?

---

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
-Benjamin Franklin
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
-George Bernard Shaw

Wintershade

Member

From: Croatia

Registered: 2008-02-18

Posts: 175

Website

Re: Nvidia and widescreen - resolution issues

I've tried the xorg.conf from Ubuntu, and there is no difference (there isn't actually much configuration in either of those, here is Ubuntu's xorg.conf, while nvidia-xconfig generated xorg.conf for Arch here.

I've tried what you advised me, and set the subsection like this:

SubSection "Display"
 Depth     24
 Modes "1440x900" "1360x768" "1152x864" "1024x768" "960x600" "960x540" "840x525" "800x600" "720x450" "640x480" "640x384"
EndSubSection

I should note once more that all these modes work under Ubuntu flawlessly. Tested each one of them, and they worked.

However, when I started X, the Xorg.0.log tossed me out something like this (this is a cut-out, I'll pastebin the whole thing if needed):

(--) NVIDIA(0): Connected display device(s) on GeForce 9600M GT at PCI:1:0:0:
(--) NVIDIA(0):     Seiko (DFP-0)
(--) NVIDIA(0): Seiko (DFP-0): 330.0 MHz maximum pixel clock
(--) NVIDIA(0): Seiko (DFP-0): Internal Dual Link LVDS
(II) NVIDIA(0): Mode Validation Overrides for Seiko (DFP-0):
(II) NVIDIA(0):     NoExtendedGpuCapabilitiesCheck
(II) NVIDIA(0): Assigned Display Device: DFP-0
(WW) NVIDIA(0): No valid modes for "1360x768"; removing.
(WW) NVIDIA(0): No valid modes for "1152x864"; removing.
(WW) NVIDIA(0): No valid modes for "960x600"; removing.
(WW) NVIDIA(0): No valid modes for "960x540"; removing.
(WW) NVIDIA(0): No valid modes for "840x525"; removing.
(WW) NVIDIA(0): No valid modes for "720x450"; removing.
(WW) NVIDIA(0): No valid modes for "640x384"; removing.
(II) NVIDIA(0): Validated modes:
(II) NVIDIA(0):     "1440x900"
(II) NVIDIA(0):     "1024x768"
(II) NVIDIA(0):     "800x600"
(II) NVIDIA(0):     "640x480"
(II) NVIDIA(0): Virtual screen size determined to be 1440 x 900
(--) NVIDIA(0): DPI set to (98, 99); computed from "UseEdidDpi" X config
(--) NVIDIA(0):     option

So it seems that there should be some configuration in some files which I am not aware of. Any leads?

---

Only the best is good enough.

Wintershade

Member

From: Croatia

Registered: 2008-02-18

Posts: 175

Website

Re: Nvidia and widescreen - resolution issues

Hi again! It seems that I've managed to - with your help - solved the problem.
I can now view my Arch Linux in any (sane) resolution I like. Here's the xorg.conf which I am using now, and this way both GNOME and nvidia-settings are allowing me to pick any resolution listed here.
(Also, here's the Xorg.0.log.)

However, one more thing still bugs me - how the hell did the Ubuntu guys solve it? I eventually had to enter all the modelines in the xorg.conf, and somehow it magically worked then. Ubuntu's xorg.conf doesn't have that. Weeeeird.
It could be the patchset in the xorg-server (I've seen it adds modelines in the code itself), however when I patch compile that xorg-server on Arch, it doesn't work. It could be that I have to patch and compile some of it's dependencies as well. Weeeird.
[SIZE="1"]I'd really like to get some of that stuff that Ubuntu's devs are smoking.[/SIZE]

Anyway, thank you everyone for your helpful advice! I was really desperate and didn't even know where to look at anymore. Glad it's solved, now I can completely return to my dear Arch.

---

Only the best is good enough.