Arch Linux

freebe

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2015-10-29

Posts: 41

Problems getting Arch to recognize monitor

So, I installed Arch on my Dell XPS 15 L502X from  2011. After solving numerous other annoyances, I'm really close to giving up now because it doesn't recognize my monitor that is connected via the HDMI-port. For today I'm finished with this.

xrandr tells me the status of the HDMI port is disconnected.

I tried different settings in my /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ directory with different monitor and screen settings, using nouveau, intel or nvidia drivers. I don't recall anymore wich I tried. There were many.

In the IRC I got the hint that the problem might be optimus, since the laptop has a 2nd generation intel HD graphics chip as well as a nvidia GForce GT 540M.

Output of lspci | grep VGA:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF108M [GeForce GT 540M] (rev a1)

I installed Bumblebee. When I want to test Bumblebee, as described in the wiki i get an error:

$ optirun glxgears -info
[ 6050.459713] [ERROR]Cannot access secondary GPU - error: [XORG] (EE) /dev/dri/card0: failed to set DRM interface version 1.4: Permission denied

[ 6050.459770] [ERROR]Aborting because fallback start is disabled.

I tried both workarounds as described in the wiki but that doesn't help. Still the same Error pops up.

I also tried the settings for Multiple Monitors using intel or nvidia (both) as described in the wiki https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Bu … e_monitors.

If anybody can help me I would be really thankful! This is getting extremely frustrating. I'm starting to think about installing some distro that just works.

crmullins

Member

Registered: 2014-04-08

Posts: 27

Re: Problems getting Arch to recognize monitor

Sorry, you've tried everything I would have thought of. One thing that's helped me in the past is using arandr, which is basically a nice interface over xrandr. I know it should work just the same but sometimes it helps to be able to point and click.

Here's hoping someone else has a real suggestion.

tom.ty89

Member

Registered: 2012-11-15

Posts: 897

Re: Problems getting Arch to recognize monitor

If it's an Optimus laptop then i915 (the intel gfx kernel module/driver) should be the one which manages the physical ports, if it doesn't detect it's likely a bug of it. Otherwise it would be the hardware (either defected or the port is routed in some really quirky way).

You may want to boot with the HDMI port connected, and attach a FULL copy of journalctl -b and xorg log here.

For the bumblebee issue, have you add the user to the bumblebee group: https://projects.archlinux.org/svntogit … /bumblebee

I don't think you should waste time to test with ANY xorg conf. Having random ones can actually cause you more issues than fix thing up for you, especially the problem you're having.

Last edited by tom.ty89 (2015-12-21 04:18:39)