Nvidia GT445 on 64bit

[arpoodle]

This is an extension of the post I put in the Dell forum, but it's probbaly more relevant here, as it's not specifically a Dell issue any more.

I've got a Dell XPS 17 onto which I've installed Ubuntu 10.4, 64bit.

The standard install doesn't recognise the video card, and defaults to a 800x600 output.

Nvidia don't list a 64bit driver for the GT445 for Linux, however the GT435 driver seems to work.

That being said, I've now installed the laptop at my desk, and plugged the second display into the HDMI port on the laptop.
On the old laptop, an Inspiron, the Nvidia display manager app would detect the display and give a "twin view" option to spread the desktop across both displays.

The display manager app on the new install doesn't detect the second display, and xrandr suggests it's unaware that it's there at all.
I've even manually added the "twin-view" setting to the xorg.conf file, but obviously without it knowing there's a second display present, that's not going to do much.

Does anyone know if Nvidia have plans for a 64bit Linux driver for the GT445?
Does the GT435 support HDMI? and if so, then why does the native display work and the external HDMI doesn't?

Any hints to get this second display working?

xrandr and other relevant outputs below:

root@hiro:~# uname -a
Linux hiro 2.6.32-26-generic #48-Ubuntu SMP Wed Nov 24 10:14:11 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux
root@hiro:~# lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS
Release: 10.04
Codename: lucid
root@hiro:~# xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 175, current 1600 x 900, maximum 1600 x 900
default connected 1600x900+0+0 0mm x 0mm
1600x900 50.0*
1360x768 51.0 52.0
1152x864 53.0
1024x768 54.0 55.0 56.0 57.0 58.0
960x600 59.0
960x540 60.0
840x525 61.0 62.0 63.0 64.0
832x624 65.0
800x600 66.0 67.0 68.0 69.0 70.0 71.0 72.0 73.0
800x512 74.0
720x450 75.0
720x400 76.0
700x525 77.0 78.0 79.0 80.0
680x384 81.0 82.0
640x512 83.0 84.0 85.0
640x480 86.0 87.0 88.0 89.0 90.0 91.0
640x400 92.0
640x350 93.0
576x432 94.0 95.0 96.0 97.0 98.0 99.0 100.0
512x384 101.0 102.0 103.0 104.0 105.0
416x312 106.0
400x300 107.0 108.0 109.0 110.0 111.0
360x200 112.0
320x240 113.0 114.0 115.0 116.0
320x200 117.0
320x175 118.0

[inobe]

you need the 445m for notebooks

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx?lang=en-us

edit: stupid link.

in the drop down choose 400m, the next drop down below select 445m and finally linux 64bit.

i believe they are beta's.

[arpoodle]

you need the 445m for notebooks

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx?lang=en-us

edit: stupid link.

in the drop down choose 400m, the next drop down below select 445m and finally linux 64bit.

i believe they are beta's.

Yes, I've done that already:

" No results."

Which is how I ended up trying the 435 driver.

There was no link to any Beta drivers there

[arpoodle]

after a hard reboot, the second display is showing up in the settings tool.

I can also select it as twin-view as I want.

However, the display is just sitting in sleep/power-saving mode and isn't receiving a signal.

Also, in the xorg.conf, I can't see any reference to the second display.

Section "Monitor"
# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Seiko/Epson"
HorizSync 30.0 - 75.0
VertRefresh 60.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce GT 445M"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "1"
Option "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-1"
Option "metamodes" "DFP-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, DFP-1: nvidia-auto-select +1600+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

In /var/log/Xorg.0.log, the only entries I can see when changing the twinview settings and adding the second display are:

(II) Dec 07 09:41:14 NVIDIA(0): Setting mode
(II) Dec 07 09:41:14 NVIDIA(0): "DFP-0:nvidia-auto-select@1600x900+0+0,DFP-1:nvidia-auto-select@1920x1080+1600+0"

[arpoodle]

I manually added the second display to xorg.conf and now it works.

It would seem that the nvidia settings tool wasn't writing out all the settings properly

[psnel]

Just to summarize:
- You got the GT445 to work using the GT435 64-bit driver from NVIDIA
- You got the both the primary display and external hdmi display to work

Questions:
1) Did you ever get the better resolution (1600x900) on your primary display?
2) Which driver version? Have you tried the latest release? (21 Jan, 2011 - still no 445GT)
3) Ubuntu 10.10 64bit?
4) What cpu? (e.g i5 has integrated gfx that can cause 'hybrid-switching' problems, i7-quad has none)

Sorry for all the q's. I don't have one, so can't test myself. Considering buying one.

[arpoodle]

Just to summarize:
- You got the GT445 to work using the GT435 64-bit driver from NVIDIA
- You got the both the primary display and external hdmi display to work

Questions:
1) Did you ever get the better resolution (1600x900) on your primary display?
2) Which driver version? Have you tried the latest release? (21 Jan, 2011 - still no 445GT)
3) Ubuntu 10.10 64bit?
4) What cpu? (e.g i5 has integrated gfx that can cause 'hybrid-switching' problems, i7-quad has none)

Sorry for all the q's. I don't have one, so can't test myself. Considering buying one.

Using the i7 CPU.

I got the primary display operating at 1600*900, yes.

Now, it was all working fine until a couple of weeks ago. Full resolution, full colour. Then I'm not sure what it was, but after a regular ubuntu upgrade, the secondary screen dropped it's colour depth from 24 to 16. The Primary display is still operating at full colour depth. The resolutions were unaffected.

I installed the latest Nvidia driver, but I'm still suffering the same thing.

I can work with it, as most of my work is done on the command line, but it's annoying me that the secondary screen, which is the larger of the two and the one I use most, is now looking like something from the 80's

[psnel]

Good enough for me
(Thanks for the quick reply, btw)

I'm a developer myself, mostly using multiple desktops in main display for heavy multitasking (db, appserver, compilers, skype, multiple browsers, shells, docs, etc) - but I watch alot of movies etc. too - hoped the HDMI would plug nicely into my home-theatre, but no biggy.

Hoping the screen quality problems ('light bleed through') won't be too much of a pain (esp. with my preference for dark themes). What's your experience?

As things stand, i'm ordering one tomorrow morning.

[arpoodle]

Generally, I'm very happy with it. Really can't complain. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

[tessien]

Hi arpoodle, I'm considering this laptop as well and I'm mainly worried about suspend-to-RAM, especially with the graphics card not being officialy supported. Any chance you have tried suspend-to-RAM or hibernate?