Linux – Writing Xorg custom modeline for 1366×768 with nvidia driver

debian-jessielinuxmodelinenvidia-graphics-cardxorg

I've recently bought a Dell e1914h monitor 18.5" and supports 1366×768@60Hz display. The problem with proprietary nvidia driver is 1366×768 resolution is not supported by default due to some nvidia specific thing(resolution not dividable by 8). So, I get 1368×768 resolution with nvidia driver. I booted with nouveau on the live cd and copied the modelines to /etc/X11/xorg.conf and is working. Yes – 1366×768@60Hz mode with Nvidia is working after copying custom modeline from lmde live cd which uses nouveau driver module. But, what I want is, how to calculate the modeline when values like horizontal/vertical front porche, back porche etc are not known although I've some details about the monitor available:
http://cdn2.bhphotovideo.com/lit_files/94125.pdf

What I wanted to achieve is a custom edid binary generated with 1366×768@60 supported for nvidia. What I have is the monitor specifications like horizontal, vertical sync range, Pixel Clock etc. I cannot find values like horizontal front porch etc to write the modeline manually. Can someone knowledgeable help? The problem with videogen, cvt, gtf etc are they all generated 1368×768 modeline instead of 1366×768. gtf output:

:~$ gtf 1366 768 60
# 1368x768 @ 60.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 47.70 kHz; pclk: 85.86 MHz 
Modeline "1368x768_60.00"  85.86  1368 1440 1584 1800  768 769 772 795  -HSync +Vsync

I've seen a post here, but does not explain all the horizontal and vertical values. I need to manually write a custom modeline which is confusing. Can someone shed some light on this?

These are the details of the monitor:

**Dell E1914H:**

Horizontal resolution: 47.7Khz
Vertical resolution: 59.8Hz
Pixel Clock: 85.5Mhz
Sync polarity: +/+ Scan range
Horizontal: 30 kHz to 83 kHz (automatic) 30 kHz to 83 kHz (automatic)
Vertical Maximum preset resolution: 56 Hz to 75 Hz (automatic)
Maximum preset resolution: 1366 x 768 at 60 Hz
Pixel pitch 0.30 (H) mm x 0.30 (V) mm
Brightness (typical) 200 cd/m2
Color gamut (typical) 83%
Color depth 16.7 million colors
Contrast ratio (typical) 600:1

Supported resolutions:

This is the custom modeline I have copied from LMDE livecd:

    Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Dell"
    ModelName      "Dell E1914H"
    HorizSync      30.0 - 83.0
    VertRefresh    56.0 - 75.0
    DisplaySize    409.8  230.4
Modeline "1366x768"   85.50  1366 1436 1579 1792  768 771 774 798 +Hsync +Vsync
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Nvidia specific things like disabling edid on /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf:

    Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Nvidia 7300GT"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "UseEdidDpi" "FALSE"
    Option "ModeDebug" "true"
    Option "ExactModeTimingsDVI" "true"
    Option         "ModeValidation" "NoWidthAlignmentCheck, NoDFPNativeResolutionCheck"
#    Option "ModeValidation"    "AllowInterlacecModes, NoTotalSizeCheck,AllowNon60HzDFPModes,NoEdidMaxPClkCheck,NoVertRefreshCheck,NoHorizSyncCheck,NoDFPNativeResolutionCheck,NoVesaModes,NoEdidModes,NoXServerModes,NoPredefinedModes,NoMaxSizeCheck,NoVirtualSizeCheck,NoMaxPclkCheck,NoVertRefreshCheck"
    Option "UseEDID" "False"
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
        Modes   "1366x768"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

From Xorg.0.log:

    [     8.847] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0):   Validating Mode "1366x768":
[     8.847] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0):     1366 x 768 @ 60 Hz
[     8.847] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0):     Mode Source: X Configuration file ModeLine
[     8.847] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0):       Pixel Clock      : 85.50 MHz
[     8.847] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0):       HRes, HSyncStart : 1366, 1436
[     8.847] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0):       HSyncEnd, HTotal : 1579, 1792
[     8.847] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0):       VRes, VSyncStart :  768,  771
[     8.847] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0):       VSyncEnd, VTotal :  774,  798
[     8.847] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0):       H/V Polarity     : +/+
[     8.847] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0):     Mode is valid.

Present modelines hsyncstart hsyncend etc are not probably correct. According to XFree86 Wiki, I am missing hsyncstart hsyncend and vsyncstart vsyncend.

Modeline syntax: pclk hdisp hsyncstart hsyncend htotal vdisp vsyncstart vsyncend vtotal [flags]
 Flags (optional): +HSync, -HSync, +VSync, -VSync, Interlace, DoubleScan, CSync, +CSync, -CSync

I did calculate these values after looking here:

"1366x768" 85.5 1366 hsyncstart hsyncend 1792 768 vsyncstart 795 vtotal +Hsync +Vsync

Best Answer

The frequency and the 4 horizontal values scale with the horizontal resolution, while the 4 vertical values scale with the vertical resolution.

So you can just ask for double the resolution (1366*2 = 2736)

gtf 2736 768 60

And divide all the horizontal values, and the frequency, by two.

Related Solutions

Installing Nvidia developer driver over SSH; Ubuntu 11.10

There is currently a process using the nvidia module. If X is running, this is surely it. You can try to stop things somewhat nicely (all graphical applications will die) by e.g.

sudo service lightdm stop

or less nicely by

pkill Xorg

Now you can do

sudo modprobe -r nvidia
sudo modprobe nvidia

to reload the Nvidia module. Note the message that is written to the terminal: it should give you the new version of the Nvidia driver.

Now

sudo service lightdm start

should get the graphical subsystem going again.

If there are still processes using the nvidia module, you can try e.g.

lsof /dev/nvidia*

to see if there is a suspicious process there. In that case, kill it. If the problem persists, try manually looking through the output of ps a to find possible processes there. If it still won't work, you can check

lsmod | grep nvidia

to see if there is some module dependency that can give you any information, but usually this won't help you much.

If nothing of the above works, you can always reboot (or just wait until a natural reboot and run the old nvidia module version until then).

I regularly update the Nvidia module in Debian Sid, and it almost always suffices to just kill X, reload module and restart. The reason I give a more elaborate process searching scheme is that I had trouble with an Opera bug in this regard, where the process operapluginwrapper kept hogging the module even after Opera itself was dead.

Windows – NVIDIA Driver Crashing on Custom-Built Windows 7 PC

Overclocking for long periods can be very harmful in case of temperature highs, even short ones. You might have cooked up some part of the motherboard or some circuit inside that ultra-complex CPU (1.16 billion transistors).

The Core i7-2700k has the clock speed of 3.5 GHz, but thanks to the Intel Turbo Boost Technology it can achieve the max turbo frequency of 3.9 GHz, stopping turbo mode automatically when the temperature exceeds its limits. Over-clocking is uncalled for when Turbo Boost can do a much safer job.

In addition, the 2700's are actually handicapped Xeons. When Intel makes a CPU by etching billions of transistors onto a silicon wafer it is inevitable that some may fail. They get sorted out by testing, with the most perfect put in the Xeon bin for mission-critical purposes. The deciding criteria on whether a chip is classified as Xeon, i7, i5 or i3, is both the cache size and the highest electrical frequency it can tolerate.

Your 2700 is an i7, meaning that 100% of its cache (8MB) formed properly compared to 80% in an i5 (6MB). Its core and graphics clock can reliably cycle 100MHz and 250MHz higher then an i5 respectively, but less than a Xeon. This means that for your 2700, as the cache memory has fully passed the test, it is on electrical frequency tolerance that your I7 has failed to achieve the highest grade.

I hope you have been keeping an eye on the running temperature and have installed some software to alert you in case of a problem, such as SpeedFan, and have verified that all the S.M.A.R.T sensors were functional and have tested your hardware with IntelBurnTest.

To check out the hardware, I suggest replacing parts, starting with the CPU, then memory and so on. Test products that work by putting stress on the CPU and memory can be useful, but most will only detect hard failures.

[EDIT]

Some things to try in software :

In NVIDIA Control Panel --> Manage 3D Settings --> Global Settings, switch "Power Management Mode" to "Prefer Maximum Performance" rather than the default "Adaptive" setting.

Also about the OpenGL message "lost connection": You can find more information in this Microsoft page: Timeout Detection and Recovery of GPUs. In short, the workload sent to the Graphics Card was greater than what the graphics card can process in the normal timeout of two seconds.

Two possible solutions to try would be:

Reduce the graphics workload if possible, such as rendering to a lower resolution or with less detail.
Increase the timeout to allow more time to complete the really tough rendering parts. Microsoft provides the information on how to modify the registry to achieve this (although it accepts no responsibility for it).

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Installing Nvidia developer driver over SSH; Ubuntu 11.10

Windows – NVIDIA Driver Crashing on Custom-Built Windows 7 PC

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