Hello, Michael. On Tue, Aug 27, 2024 at 19:36:49 +0100, Michael wrote: > On Tuesday, 27 August 2024 17:05:26 BST Alan Mackenzie wrote: > > On Mon, Aug 26, 2024 at 14:49:14 +0000, Alan Mackenzie wrote: > > > On Mon, Aug 26, 2024 at 12:54:20 +0100, Michael wrote: > > > > On Monday, 26 August 2024 11:40:43 BST Alan Mackenzie wrote: > > > > > On Sun, Aug 25, 2024 at 22:04:05 +0100, Michael wrote:
[ .... ] > > OK, I'm just back from the shop. The technician there plugged the > > machine into an HDMI monitor, and it just worked. Before leaving, I > > assured him that I _would_ get the machine working, even if that > > might involve buying a new monitor. ;-( > Well, that's a different monitor and the cable was an HDMI-to-HDMI cable (I > assume?). Yes. > Since you went to all this trouble it would be better if you dragged > your monitor along with you. Either way, I admire your doggedness to > get to the bottom of this. :-) No, I had enough trouble getting the PC back to the shop, without somehow having to pack up the monitor and all the cables and KVM Box between it and the machine. That would have turned a minor inconvenience into a major expedition. But I've _got_ to get to the bottom of this, otherwise I don't have a working new machine. ;-( > > When I got back home again and plugged in the new machine, it was > > slightly different. It was still pumping out 2112x1116, but the 2" gap > > has become a 1" gap on both the left hand and the right hand sides. > > There's still a (smaller) gap at the top. I haven't yet tried booting > > into Linux. > > At least we now have an indication of something "analog" perhaps not > > being in order. I'm thinking that perhaps my HDMI->DVI adapter is > > broken. I should have bought a new one while I was at the shop, just to > > test. I did have trouble with Windows laptops when I plugged them in > > via this adapter a couple of years ago. Maybe I'll go back to the shop > > to get that new HDMI->DVI adapter tomorrow. > It would be best if you could buy a cable with the requisite HDMI on one end > and a DVI-D on the other. DVI-DL is capable of higher than 1920x1080 > resolutions, although the optimal resolution of your panel is at 1920x1080. Such a cable would involve removing the KVM box from the setup, at which point I wouldn't have a fully working machine to read Gentoo documentation on, or carry on using email. I will stick with 1920x1080 for the foreseeable future - I can barely make out the pixels on my screen (a 24" diagonal screen) as it is, without pushing up to a higher resolution. I think the manufacture of monitors is a finished art. It's reached the stage at which our eyes can't see any finer resolution or any more colours, and the current sizes of monitors are already sufficiently big to put on any desk top. It's not like when we had to put up with 16-colour 640x480 VGA, eagerly lapping up any and every subsequent development. [ .... ] [ EDID block correctnes ] > Normally warnings and errors reported by the DDC check can be overcome by the > graphics and/or Xorg drivers. I have monitors here which complain about all > sorts of warnings and errors and fail the DDC compatibility check, but still > work fine *and* display a more accurate picture (chromatically) than other > monitors which pass the EDID/DDC check and post no warnings. Go figure ... > :-/ My current monitor has been performing just fine since 2011. I doubt the warnings and errors in its EDID block have anything to do with the malfunctioning. [ .... ] > > > > The recurring flickering of the display after you've loaded your desktop > > > > shows the linux OS is trying to re-adjust the display. Usually this > > > > happens when the connection/power to the monitor is disrupted, which > > > > again points to a connector issue, or it can also happen if you > > > > specified in your GUI the wrong resolution/frequency. > > > Yes. I think the connectors are OK, but maybe we'll see how the machine > > > performs differently at the shop tomorrow. > > I've decided I'm definitely going to get a new HDMI->DVI adapter. > I suggest you buy an HDMI-to-DVI-D bidirectional adaptor, or a cable with > such > connectors on each end. A DVI-DL will be able to display higher resolutions > than 1920x1080, if both ends had this connector, but the HDMI is a single > link > interface so only one of the dual link connectors on the DVI end will be > wired > in. Again, to avoid having completely to rejig my cabling set up, I'm going for the HDMI male to DVI female to replace the one I've got. It only costs a little less than 9 euros, considerably less than the taxi rides I needed to get the machine to the shop and back again. [ .... ] -- Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).
