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abefar

Member

Registered: 2010-04-28

Posts: 14

Custom resolution via HDMI using NVIDIA drivers

Greetings!

I have a Dell U2713HM monitor with 2560x1440 resolution (CVT with reduced blanking), which runs fine at 60Hz using a dual-link DVI cable -> HDMI adapter, although it defaults to 1920x1080 due to incorrect EDID information (I guess?). On my previous laptop using an Intel card, I was able to generate a modeline using

cvt -r 2560 1440 60

and then add and enable it using xrandr. However, my new laptop is equipped with a pair of NVIDIA cards, and when using the proprietary drivers apparently you can't use xrandr; the only options seems to be xorg.conf and nvidia-settings (which doesn't support custom resolutions, unlike the Windows version).

I found a few xorg.conf examples for 2560x1440 with the NVIDIA driver, but they are all for desktop computers with a single primary monitor, and also just for 30 or 40 Hz. I would like to be able to use my laptop's monitor (1920x1080) as well (preferably by default), while still being able to switch to the external monitor at 2560x1440 @ 60Hz. On my previous machine I wrote a small script for adding the new resolution, enabling it and disabling the laptop's monitor using xrandr and had it as a keyboard shortcut, which was an excellent solution.

I have tried a bunch of different xorg.conf configurations, but I can't even get it to run at 2560x1440 as the primary monitor. And I have a feeling that being able to switch to a custom resolution without restarting X is going to be even more difficult to achieve, if the only way to configure a custom resolution is using xorg.conf.
A solution where the laptop would just default to the external monitor at 2560x1440 if connected, and if not fallback to the laptop monitor at 1920x1080, would be usable though. If the only option is dumping my login manager and having two different startx scripts instead, I can also live with that, although I would prefer a semi-hotplugging solution instead of having to restart X every time I want to attach the external monitor.

Can anyone tell me if what I'm trying to achieve is downright impossible? And if not, can you point me in the right direction?
I have been using Linux for 10+ years, but I have never been that good friends with xorg.conf, and especially not monitor options like HorizSync, VertRefresh and all the specialized NVIDIA stuff.

Thanks in advance

EDIT:
For almost a year, it worked if I had an HDMI cable connected while booting up and then switched to the DVI->HDMI adaptor afterwards, but now it stopped working again. All suggestions are welcome...

Last edited by abefar (2015-09-10 12:19:50)

GloW_on_dub

Member

Registered: 2013-03-13

Posts: 391

Website

Re: Custom resolution via HDMI using NVIDIA drivers

about xrandr solution:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xr … esolutions

what xrandr give you ?

Last edited by GloW_on_dub (2014-06-18 13:56:44)

abefar

Member

Registered: 2010-04-28

Posts: 14

Re: Custom resolution via HDMI using NVIDIA drivers

about xrandr solution:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xr … esolutions

what xrandr give you ?

The following error:

X Error of failed request:  BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)

I can switch to the existing resolutions (smaller than 1920x1080) just fine using xrandr, but I'm unable to add new modes to any of the NVIDIA card's outputs. It works just fine with the open-source Nouveau driver, and worked fine as well with the Intel driver, even though I also had an NVIDIA card as my secondary GPU (Optimus using Bumblebee).

GloW_on_dub

Member

Registered: 2013-03-13

Posts: 391

Website

Re: Custom resolution via HDMI using NVIDIA drivers

can you give the output of :

xrandr

what command did you use to get the error ?

abefar

Member

Registered: 2010-04-28

Posts: 14

Re: Custom resolution via HDMI using NVIDIA drivers

can you give the output of :

xrandr

what command did you use to get the error ?

$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 16384 x 16384
VGA-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-0 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 600mm x 340mm
   1920x1080     60.00*+
   1680x1050     59.95  
   1600x1200     60.00  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1280x800      59.81  
   1152x864      75.00  
   1024x768      75.03    60.00  
   800x600       75.00    60.32  
   640x480       75.00    59.94  
DP-0 connected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
   1920x1080     59.93 +

$ cvt -r 2560 1440 60
# 2560x1440 59.95 Hz (CVT 3.69M9-R) hsync: 88.79 kHz; pclk: 241.50 MHz
Modeline "2560x1440R"  241.50  2560 2608 2640 2720  1440 1443 1448 1481 +hsync -vsync

$ xrandr --newmode "2560x1440R"  241.50  2560 2608 2640 2720  1440 1443 1448 1481 +hsync -vsync

$ xrandr --addmode HDMI-0 "2560x1440R"
X Error of failed request:  BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
  Major opcode of failed request:  140 (RANDR)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  18 (RRAddOutputMode)
  Serial number of failed request:  33
  Current serial number in output stream:  34

ugjka

Member

From: Latvia

Registered: 2014-04-01

Posts: 1,952

Website

Re: Custom resolution via HDMI using NVIDIA drivers

I wonder what version of HDMI you laptop has. You need version 1.3 or higher to go beyond 1080p resolution. http://superuser.com/questions/119755/h … 0-possible.

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https://ugjka.net

Vipermaseg

Member

From: Spain

Registered: 2008-12-12

Posts: 62

Re: Custom resolution via HDMI using NVIDIA drivers

Weird, I do can put weird resolutions on "advanced settings" in nvidia-settings.

EDIT: I use DVI...

EDIT2: As a matter of fact, two days ago I plugged into my tv and I had to fine-tune it by hand because it was overscanning.

EDIT3: I read it again more patiently (sorries). Your video card might not be able to pull off that high resolution. Try modifying only the viewport option on nvidia-settings.

Last edited by Vipermaseg (2014-07-05 15:00:32)

abefar

Member

Registered: 2010-04-28

Posts: 14

Re: Custom resolution via HDMI using NVIDIA drivers

I wonder what version of HDMI you laptop has. You need version 1.3 or higher to go beyond 1080p resolution. http://superuser.com/questions/119755/h … 0-possible.

The laptop is a brand new Lenovo Y510p with two NVIDIA GT 755M cards. My ASUS PB278Q monitor with the same resolution (2560x1440) works fine out-of-the-box using a plain HDMI cable.
As far as I am aware, the EDID of the HDMI interface on the Dell monitor is artificially limited to 1920x1080, hence why I'm using a DVI->HDMI adapter, as DVI or DisplayPort are the only options to gain full resolution with this monitor according to Dell. But using a DVI->HDMI adapter, the correct available resolutions are not detected for some reason. In Windows I can create a custom resolution, which works perfectly.

Weird, I do can put weird resolutions on "advanced settings" in nvidia-settings.

How did you do that? I have tried entering the resolution in both the ViewPortIn, ViewPortOut and Panning fields - and also all three at the same time - without any luck.