Low resolution projector on macbook 5,5

**julio33** · October 9th, 2009

Hello, i have a macbook pro 5,5 and i use the nvidia driver and jaunty, however when i connect a projector it only shows 640x480 on it, i read on this guide:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookPro5-5/Jaunty

That i have only to add this line:

Option "NoEDID" "True"to /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Well i add that line in many different places and it not only don't works, but sometimes it show me only colored vertical lines in the screen so i have to enter as recovery mode and remove it to access my X windows

Also i try with:

nvidia-xconfig --no-use-edid

But it only makes my x windows to show the colored vertical lines

If you have any idea of this please help me, i'm trying many things but maybe you can give a clue.

Thanks,
Julio

**Niels den Otter** · October 9th, 2009

This can be a real pain (at least it is for me on a 5,1 macbook).

First you could check if it works when you restart your X session with the beamer connected. If the beamer sends EDID information it very likely works.

I have tried a lot of specific Nvidia driver settings, but none works optimal. If I use Ignore... settings in the end some beamers work, but some are completely out-of-sync.

What I have done to get it working with our office beamers is to read the EDID information from the beamer (startup connected and use the nvidia-settings app to read and save the edid.bin file) and then to fool the driver at startup that such a beamer is connected;

---------------------------------
Section "Device"
...
Option "NoLogo" "True"
Option "CustomEDID" "DFP-2:/etc/X11/edid.bin"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
...
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP-0, DFP-2"
Option "TwinView" "True"
Option "ModeValidation" "DFP-2: NoDFPNativeResolutionCheck, NoDisplayPortBandwidthCheck"
-----------------------------------

However now it doesn't read EDID information when something else is connected... It would be great to be able to load EDID information from the nvidia-settings tool when things fail and otherwise to use the information received.

I hope that you find a nice solution to this. Please let me know

-- Niels

**crocowhile** · October 10th, 2009

Originally Posted by julio33

Hello, i have a macbook pro 5,5 and i use the nvidia driver and jaunty, however when i connect a projector it only shows 640x480 on it

The NoEDID thing used to work. In the last weeks doesn't work any more and for this reason I ****** up a couple of job interviews (my job interviews require projections). It was the first time in my life I thought maybe I should not rely on linux for serious business.

**gotgenes** · May 8th, 2010

Has this been fixed in Lucid 10.04?

**buntuLo** · May 8th, 2010

i had very much pain too, MBP5.1 here, karmic koala.
i realised that every time the beamer is hanging from the ceiling, thus an extension vga-cable is used, the nvidia driver cannot not read edid infos. it appears that many extension cables have less pins that that the beamer's connector has. instead i never had any trouble using small portable beamers directly connected with their cable to the laptop.