DVI support?

[voets]

I'm trying to get Suse Linux 8.1 running on my Dell 8250.
That setup has a nVidia GeForce 4 Ti 4200 with a Dell 1702FP flatpanel monitor.

Installing went fine, my monitor was hooked up using the DVI cable. Then on reboot the X environment was starting up after a lot of messages in text mode and the screen goes blank.

Switching to the analog VGA cable enables me to work with linux using X. But I don't want to keep switching cables. DVI gives me much better results in Win XP and I guess the results will be better under Linux too.

Does anyone know how to setup Digital output for my setup?
The suse hardware database contains a setting for the 1701FP Digital, but that clearly doesn't work for my 1702FP.

Will it help to download and install the latest drivers from the nVidia website for Linux? Or do I only need to edit the XF86Config file to get the DVI connection working?

Any help & tips would be greatly appreciated!

[bwkaz]

The nVidia drivers have quite annoying issues with DVI and flat panels (and even CRTs, if they have a digital DVI connector on them). The workaround is to use analog, like you're doing.

nVidia is looking at the problem. No news yet on a fix, unfortunately.

[Dehumanizer]

well I bought a geforce card few days ago and I had no problems setting it up. I connected both DVI and analog cables from my LCD to the card and enabled twinview in the XF86Config so if I wish to switch from analog to digital or vice versa, I just do it on the monitor front panel.
I didn't have any issues with the DVI like bwkaz says, so far.
I copied some example stuff from readme file into my XF86Config and edited it a bit, so I have this in the Screen section:
Option "TwinView"
# be sure to replace the HorizSync and VertRefresh with correct values
# for your monitor!
Option "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "30-81"
Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "56-60"
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "Clone"
Option "MetaModes" "1280x1024,1280x1024; 1280x1024,1280x1024"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP,CRT"

Note the last option, first when I connected the LCD, I had only DVI connected and every time I started Xwindows my screen turned blank, I had no idea how to tell the card to use DVI port but when everything else failed, I checked the manual :-) So if you only need to use DVI output just leave out the twinview stuff and specify just Option "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP"
It worked for me... The card should detect the connected port automaticly but somehow it does not so you have (or at least I had) to specify it.