[SOLVED] XRandR does not see HDMI monitor on Dell laptop

justanothercatgirl · 2023-10-14 18:12:09

I Have a Dell G3 3779 laptop shipped with GTX1050Ti, with i3-wm, and I want to connect HDMI monitor to it. As far as i know (correct me if i'm wrong), even on windows there is no way to run main display on GTX, as well as there is no way to run HDMI monitor on integrated graphics card, however windows combines them just fine.
With this configuration, it only outputs to my main monitor, and `xrandr -q` outputs the following:

Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 32767 x 32767
eDP1 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 380mm x 210mm
   1920x1080     60.13*+  59.93    48.07  
   <other resolution info>
DP1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
VIRTUAL1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

The important thing to note is that my mouse CAN go to the other display, and I can see it showing as a black cross, but i can't do anything with it (so something does render there, and I don't know why)
If i change one line of xorg.conf for Device with Identifier "Card0" as following:
`driver "modesetting"` -> `driver "nvidia"`
then it starts outputting only to my HDMI monitor, and first monitor shows tty as it was before running `startx`. the output of `xrandr -q` in that case:

Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1360 x 768, maximum 32767 x 32767
HDMI-0 connected primary 1360x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 160mm x 90mm
   1360x768      60.02*+
   1920x1080     59.94    50.00    29.97    25.00    23.98    60.05    60.00    50.04  
   1280x720      60.00    59.94    50.00  
   1024x768      75.03    70.07    60.00  
   800x600       75.00    72.19    60.32  
   720x576       50.00  
   720x480       59.94  
   640x480       75.00    72.81    59.94

It does not output information about any other displays at all, it only sees one display (the bad resolution is not the problem since this is an old TV). Also, the mouse, unlike with previous config, can not go to the second monitor.

So my question is: How to configure Xorg in such a way that xrandr outputs on both my monitors? I've tried using PRIME (did not work at all), loading ndivia with mkinitcpio modules, enabling nvidia-drm with kernel parameters (It actually changed one thing. before that, xrandr -q outputted names like "HDMI1" or "DP2", now there are dashes before numbers: "HDMI-1" or "DP-2"), deleting xorg config files, stealing config files from arch linux wiki, but nothing ever worked.
If anyone knows how to fix this or has any idea of what and why is happening, I would really appreciate the help. Also, I am relatively new in arch linux, so If I missed something on the wiki, please point that out.

Last edited by justanothercatgirl (2023-10-14 22:21:22)

seth · 2023-10-14 19:50:34

If i change one line of xorg.conf for Device with Identifier "Card0" as following:

What brings us to a screetching halt and the question: why is there an xorg.conf? What does it look like?
Also please post your Xorg log, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xorg#General

I've tried using PRIME (did not work at all)

Tried how and did not work how?
Try that again and post the xorg log of the result as well.

justanothercatgirl · 2023-10-14 21:54:56

why is there xorg.conf? well, i do need to configure monitors position somehow, do I? also, it was generated by `Xorg --configure`, it was after generating configuration that i changed anything there. The link to the config file is in original post; the other config file differs in exactly one string and i specified in which (to be exact: string 88 on pastebin), so i did not feel the need to post it separately. I will do so, if you need, however. This is my xorg log. By "Tried using prime" I mean I followed This wiki guide. Fist i tried the section for closed-source drivers, then tried following this section, since It said "If the second GPU has outputs that are not accessible by the primary GPU, you can use Reverse PRIME to make use of them.", and as far as I understand, that might be my situation.
So I copied config file from here, changed driver names, set Screen 0 to intel and nvidia screen to Inactive, ran `xrandr --setprovideroutputsource NVIDIA-G0 Intel` and for some reason this started working just fine. Before that I was copying file from section 3.1, where for nvidia device the Bus ID was not specified and i thought that it should be that way. In file provided in section 4.1, however, all Devices had Bus ID's, and I guess that is what fixed the issue.
So the solution was to basically add 1 line of configuration to file from wiki. Guess I will mark question solved for now.

justanothercatgirl · 2023-10-14 22:19:44

Added the following to .config/i3/config:

exec xrandr --setprovideroutputsource NVIDIA-G0 Intel
excec ~/.screenlayout/doublemonitor.layout.sh

where doublemonitor.layout.sh's contents are:

#!/bin/sh
xrandr --output eDP1 --primary --mode 1920x1080 --pos 1360x0 --rotate normal --output DP1 --off --output DP2 --off --output HDMI1 --off --output HDMI2 --off --output VIRTUAL1 --off --output HDMI-1-0 --mode 1360x768 --pos 0x0 --rotate normal

seth · 2023-10-15 06:28:56

You most likely do not want xf86-video-intel
You're not supposed to be required to set the output provider source manually
It's not required to set every output you don't have to "off" and you probably also want to

xrandr --output eDP1 --primary  --right-of HDMI-1-0

(but nb. that the output names will change when you remove xf86-video-intel.

I don't care /that/ much, but your setup seems quite a mess - do you really intend to run the system on the nvidia chip?
If you want to sort this out in a more structured approach, please record the status quo by posting your xorg log.

justanothercatgirl · 2023-10-16 07:25:28

I generated the xrandr command automatically with arandr just to save myself some time. I guess I should have revisited it's output, my bad.
I intend to run system at least somehow. I don't have anything on my system that may require complex video processing. As I understand, the way I run my system now is that my iGPU is sending output to dGPU and it sends it to the actual monitor. The setup is really messy because I've tried so much things to fix it and I don't know what steps were unnecessary anymore. And i am scared to break things.
(Note: if i do it in reverse and run both screens on dGPU, the resolution of my HDMI monitor is so bad that it breaks status bar and wallpaper)
As for xorg log, i'll post it as soon as I have a chance to do so.

V1del · 2023-10-16 14:26:46

You should probably test behaviour as is without any custom configuration attempt on your part. Most of the config files mentioned somewhere are for specific usecases, potentially outdated or generally not necessary anymore.

Arch Linux

#1 2023-10-14 18:12:09

[SOLVED] XRandR does not see HDMI monitor on Dell laptop

#2 2023-10-14 19:50:34

Re: [SOLVED] XRandR does not see HDMI monitor on Dell laptop

#3 2023-10-14 21:54:56

Re: [SOLVED] XRandR does not see HDMI monitor on Dell laptop

#4 2023-10-14 22:19:44

Re: [SOLVED] XRandR does not see HDMI monitor on Dell laptop

#5 2023-10-15 06:28:56

Re: [SOLVED] XRandR does not see HDMI monitor on Dell laptop

#6 2023-10-16 07:25:28

Re: [SOLVED] XRandR does not see HDMI monitor on Dell laptop

#7 2023-10-16 14:26:46

Re: [SOLVED] XRandR does not see HDMI monitor on Dell laptop

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