Nvidia driver trying to destroy TFT display?

[jwiz]

System: Fedora Core 3 with nvidia-driver-1.0-8174 or nvidia-driver-1.0-8178
TFT: Samsung SyncMaster 510T (1024*768/60Hz) connected to DVI port
Graphic card: LeadTek A 6600 GT TDH

I have recently switched from ATI 9600 Pro to the a .m. GeForce 6600GT due to ATI's bad performance under Linux, but what have I got - crap all sorts!
This Nvidia driver/card combo is obviously trying to kill my display with all kind of weird & wrong resolutions upon X server restart, for instance upon shutting down a KDE session and falling back to the graphical log-in screen.

About 1 out of 3 times I end up with wrong resolutions such as 509*456, 1412*906 or with totally unsyncable ones, or with a black screen.

This also happens when switching to the virtual console and back.

The problem is not display related as it happens also with an attached Sony TFT, but it is definitely DVI related, as it does not seem to appear at the VGA port.

And it is definitely related to the crappy nvidia-drivers, because de-installing them and using Xorg's native nv-drivers cures the problem as well.

So this is the wonderful world of NVIDIA? Forget it!

[pe1chl]

What does your X logfile say about detected EDID etc?
I have a 6600GT card with 8178 driver and I don't see this problem...

[netllama]

jwiz,
Please generate and post an nvidia-bug-report.log after this problem occurs.

Thanks,
Lonni

[jwiz]

Originally Posted by pe1chl

What does your X logfile say about detected EDID etc?
I have a 6600GT card with 8178 driver and I don't see this problem...

Option "UseEdidFreqs" is set to "false", because HorizSync is cropped at 49.0 kHz, and VertRefresh at 60 hz in xorg.conf.

This was done to run the display at its optimum refresh rate of 60 Hz every time the X server is started, as otherwise it would always run at its maximum refresh of 75 Hz, which is a waste.
The navtive Xorg driver does not have a prob with that.
Does Nvidia?

P.S: These are the validated modes for the display from xorg.0.log:

(**) NVIDIA(0): Default mode "1024x768": 65.0 MHz, 48.4 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(**) NVIDIA(0): Default mode "800x600": 40.0 MHz, 37.9 kHz, 60.3 Hz
(**) NVIDIA(0): Default mode "640x480": 25.2 MHz, 31.5 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(**) NVIDIA(0): Mode "1024x768": 65.0 MHz, 48.4 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(**) NVIDIA(0): Default mode "800x600": 36.0 MHz, 35.2 kHz, 56.2 Hz
(**) NVIDIA(0): Default mode "848x480": 31.5 MHz, 29.8 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(**) NVIDIA(0): Default mode "640x384": 40.1 MHz, 47.7 kHz, 60.1 Hz (D)
(**) NVIDIA(0): Default mode "640x360": 37.2 MHz, 44.8 kHz, 60.0 Hz (D)
(**) NVIDIA(0): Default mode "512x384": 32.5 MHz, 48.4 kHz, 60.0 Hz (D)
(**) NVIDIA(0): Default mode "400x300": 20.0 MHz, 37.9 kHz, 60.3 Hz (D)
(**) NVIDIA(0): Default mode "400x300": 18.0 MHz, 35.2 kHz, 56.3 Hz (D)
(**) NVIDIA(0): Default mode "424x240": 15.7 MHz, 29.8 kHz, 60.1 Hz (D)
(**) NVIDIA(0): Default mode "320x240": 12.6 MHz, 31.5 kHz, 60.1 Hz (D)
(II) NVIDIA(0): Virtual screen size determined to be 1024 x 768

[pe1chl]

Originally Posted by jwiz

it would always run at its maximum refresh of 75 Hz, which is a waste.

A waste of what? Memory bandwidth? I don't think you have to worry about that with a card like the 6600GT... this is an issue with chipset-embedded video controllers that share the videomemory with system RAM. Maybe you have read about that.

I would not worry about running a display at 75Hz, certainly not when it is only 1024x768 in size...

[hayaka]

Originally Posted by jwiz

Option "UseEdidFreqs" is set to "false", because HorizSync is cropped at 49.0 kHz, and VertRefresh at 60 hz in xorg.conf.

This was done to run the display at its optimum refresh rate of 60 Hz every time the X server is started, as otherwise it would always run at its maximum refresh of 75 Hz, which is a waste.

There are smarter ways of making 60Hz the first refresh rate Xorg uses.

Personally, I set up a modeline that I call 1024x768x60 in the montor section, and then I list that mode first in the screen section. (This is the way I set the LCD to 60Hz, when I use a LCD and CRT @ 85Hz in Twinview)

There's a simpler way to choose the display resolution/refresh rate AFTER you're logged on is to use your desktop Display/Resolution manager. It's basically a front end to xrandr.

It's not a smart idea to dismiss the EDIDs if they are correctly reported from the monitor.

[jwiz]

Originally Posted by hayaka

There are smarter ways of making 60Hz the first refresh rate Xorg uses.

Personally, I set up a modeline that I call 1024x768x60 in the montor section, and then I list that mode first in the screen section. (This is the way I set the LCD to 60Hz, when I use a LCD and CRT @ 85Hz in Twinview)

I've tried that already, but I end up with weird resolution too.

Originally Posted by hayaka

There's a simpler way to choose the display resolution/refresh rate AFTER you're logged on is to use your desktop Display/Resolution manager. It's basically a front end to xrandr.

This is only true for Desktop Manager that support that feature. Simple ones like twm still run at 75HZ, the same goes for any startup splash or graphical log-in screen.

Originally Posted by hayaka

It's not a smart idea to dismiss the EDIDs if they are correctly reported from the monitor.

So, how come Xorg drivers can handle it?

[netllama]

jwiz,
I've asked you to post a bug report, which you have not yet done. Without the bug report, I can't comment on why this is working with a different driver, as I don't know why its not working with the nvidia driver.

Thanks,
Lonni

[hayaka]

Originally Posted by jwiz

This is only true for Desktop Manager that support that feature. Simple ones like twm still run at 75HZ, the same goes for any startup splash or graphical log-in screen.

Like I said before, they act as frontends to xrandr. (You know that command line tool that comes with X)

Let's query my display options

$ xrandr -q
 SZ:    Pixels          Physical       Refresh
*0   1280 x 1024   ( 342mm x 271mm )  *75   60
 1   1024 x 768    ( 342mm x 271mm )   75   70   60
 2    800 x 600    ( 342mm x 271mm )   75   72   60   56
 3    640 x 480    ( 342mm x 271mm )   75   73   60
 4   1280 x 960    ( 342mm x 271mm )   60
 5   1152 x 864    ( 342mm x 271mm )   75
 6    832 x 624    ( 342mm x 271mm )   75
 7    700 x 525    ( 342mm x 271mm )   60
 8    640 x 512    ( 342mm x 271mm )   75   60
 9    576 x 432    ( 342mm x 271mm )   75
 10   512 x 384    ( 342mm x 271mm )   75   70   60
 11   416 x 312    ( 342mm x 271mm )   75
 12   400 x 300    ( 342mm x 271mm )   75   72   60   56
 13   320 x 240    ( 342mm x 271mm )   75   73   60
Current rotation - left
Current reflection - none
Rotations possible - normal left inverted right
Reflections possible - none

Now to set to 60 cause my Flat Panel says it optimal

$ xrandr -r 60
 SZ:    Pixels          Physical       Refresh
*0   1280 x 1024   ( 342mm x 271mm )   75  *60
 1   1024 x 768    ( 342mm x 271mm )   75   70   60
 2    800 x 600    ( 342mm x 271mm )   75   72   60   56
 3    640 x 480    ( 342mm x 271mm )   75   73   60
 4   1280 x 960    ( 342mm x 271mm )   60
 5   1152 x 864    ( 342mm x 271mm )   75
 6    832 x 624    ( 342mm x 271mm )   75
 7    700 x 525    ( 342mm x 271mm )   60
 8    640 x 512    ( 342mm x 271mm )   75   60
 9    576 x 432    ( 342mm x 271mm )   75
 10   512 x 384    ( 342mm x 271mm )   75   70   60
 11   416 x 312    ( 342mm x 271mm )   75
 12   400 x 300    ( 342mm x 271mm )   75   72   60   56
 13   320 x 240    ( 342mm x 271mm )   75   73   60
Current rotation - left
Current reflection - none
Rotations possible - normal left inverted right
Reflections possible - none

Now it's set at 60Hz. I'm lazy so I put the command in one of the X start scripts so when XDM comes up, it's starts at the right rate. (And so it's rotated vertically)

[jwiz]

@netllama
Bug report coming up soon

@hayaka
I have not dug deep into xrandr option so far, but I'll give it a try and see how it goes, though I don't like this kind of post-mending much when all should have been settled in xorg.conf already.

[jwiz]

@netllama

Encl. pls. find the requested bug report.

[netllama]

I have a few questions/comments based on the bug report you've provided:
0) Does this reproduce if you remove vga=791 from grub.conf (and reboot)?
1) Is there a reason why you are setting "UseEdidFreqs" to "false"?
2) The only mode that I see X actually using in your bug report is 1024x768. Can you elaborate on where you are seeing "509*456, 1412*906 or with totally unsyncable ones", and provide a bug report, or X log that captures them?

Thanks,
Lonni