[SOLVED] Envision LCD Monitor detecting as CRT

[Maelor]

Hi. After days of combing the forums and trying various solutions to fix problems similar to mine, I have still come up empty handed for a workaround.

Problem: I am using an Envision H193Wk LCD monitor and nVidia drivers are detecting it as a CRT, leaving me with horrible 640x480 resolution max.

The monitor is hooked up with a DVI adapter. The monitor itself worked fine last week in Windows XP Pro before I switched over to Linux, but my hardware was different. I was using an AGP video card without DVI, so it was hooked right into an SVGA port without an adapter.

Long story short, that video card died and I could no longer purchase a comparable AGP card, so I changed all my hardware up and went PCI-e.

I'm hoping that somebody in the vast Ubuntu community can help me get this sorted out.

Note that I can output higher resolutions without the nVidia drivers if I use the generic nv driver, but this is not a permanent solution, as I can't use any of the 3D acceleration features I want (and actually need) to use. I do alot of 3D and video work, and not having full features from this video card just won't cut it.

Also note that I suspect the problem is with the monitor and not the nVidia drivers. The drivers installed fine. I don't know for sure though. Enlighten me if you think its a driver thing.

I'll try to give you as much info as I can...go easy on me. I'm a total n00b to Linux, so bear that in mind if you are planning to have me use the terminal or other Linux-savvy workarounds.

Hardware
OS: Ubuntu Studio version 8.04
Kernel: 2.6.24-19-rt
Motherboard: Asus P5E-VM HDMI
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 @ 2.66 GHz
Ram: PC6400 Crucial Ballistix, CL 4-4-4-12, 800 MHz
HDD: 2 x Western Digital 200GB
Video Card: XFX GeForce 8800GT Alpha Dog Edition
Monitor: Envision H193Wk (using DVI adapter)

Xorg.conf

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 1.0 (buildmeister@builder57) Thu Jul 17 18:39:19 PDT 2008

# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen" 0 0
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Envision H193Wk"
ModeLine "1440x900_60.00" 106.47 1440 1520 1672 1904 900 901 904 932 -hsync +vsync
Option "PreferredMode" "1440x900_60.00"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "nVidia GeForce 8800GT"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "nVidia GeForce 8800GT"
Monitor "Envision H193Wk"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 1
Modes "1440x900_60.00" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 4
Modes "1440x900_60.00" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 8
Modes "1440x900_60.00" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 15
Modes "1440x900_60.00" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 16
Modes "1440x900_60.00" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1440x900_60.00" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection




Thanks in advance for any help with this.

[Maelor]

This was indeed a driver problem. One of many actually. With this 8800 GT video card, the drivers in the repos wouldn't work. Neither would the latest binary downloaded from nVidia.

This is what worked: Uninstalled everything nVidia, then installed driver 171.06.01 from nVidia's archives.

Specifically:

ctrl-alt-f1 then stop the gdm, then ran this:

sudo apt-get remove nvidia-glx-new && cd $home && wget http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/171.06.01/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-176.06.01-pkg1.run && sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-176.06.01-pkg1.run && sudo reboot

Note that at this point, the glx-new stuff was all that was on my machine. You might want 'apt-get remove nvidia*' instead.

After the reboot, my monitor had good resolution, but it had a little warning box bouncing around saying it wasn't detected properly. THat was fixed by lowering the refresh rate a little.

Hopefully this will help somebody else too. Much thanks to the people who contributed to this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=699693

Oh...after removing the old nvidia stuff, I also started with a newly generated xorg file, which may not have been necessary... sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg