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authorJonathan Neuschäfer <j.neuschaefer@gmx.net>2020-02-14 18:41:33 +0100
committerJonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>2020-02-19 04:10:31 -0700
commit320bfd91a985f2b945bad611c43add8a3a359845 (patch)
tree8689309bfb44e79b6ada23c9041afd6cfb8abd39 /Documentation/admin-guide/edid.rst
parentdocs: driver-api: edid: Fix list formatting (diff)
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docs: admin-guide: Move edid.rst from driver-api
This document describes actions that an admin can do, rather than interfaces available to driver developers, so admin-guide seems to be a more appropriate place for it. Signed-off-by: Jonathan Neuschäfer <j.neuschaefer@gmx.net> Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
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+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+====
+EDID
+====
+
+In the good old days when graphics parameters were configured explicitly
+in a file called xorg.conf, even broken hardware could be managed.
+
+Today, with the advent of Kernel Mode Setting, a graphics board is
+either correctly working because all components follow the standards -
+or the computer is unusable, because the screen remains dark after
+booting or it displays the wrong area. Cases when this happens are:
+
+- The graphics board does not recognize the monitor.
+- The graphics board is unable to detect any EDID data.
+- The graphics board incorrectly forwards EDID data to the driver.
+- The monitor sends no or bogus EDID data.
+- A KVM sends its own EDID data instead of querying the connected monitor.
+
+Adding the kernel parameter "nomodeset" helps in most cases, but causes
+restrictions later on.
+
+As a remedy for such situations, the kernel configuration item
+CONFIG_DRM_LOAD_EDID_FIRMWARE was introduced. It allows to provide an
+individually prepared or corrected EDID data set in the /lib/firmware
+directory from where it is loaded via the firmware interface. The code
+(see drivers/gpu/drm/drm_edid_load.c) contains built-in data sets for
+commonly used screen resolutions (800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1600x1200,
+1680x1050, 1920x1080) as binary blobs, but the kernel source tree does
+not contain code to create these data. In order to elucidate the origin
+of the built-in binary EDID blobs and to facilitate the creation of
+individual data for a specific misbehaving monitor, commented sources
+and a Makefile environment are given here.
+
+To create binary EDID and C source code files from the existing data
+material, simply type "make".
+
+If you want to create your own EDID file, copy the file 1024x768.S,
+replace the settings with your own data and add a new target to the
+Makefile. Please note that the EDID data structure expects the timing
+values in a different way as compared to the standard X11 format.
+
+X11:
+ HTimings:
+ hdisp hsyncstart hsyncend htotal
+ VTimings:
+ vdisp vsyncstart vsyncend vtotal
+
+EDID::
+
+ #define XPIX hdisp
+ #define XBLANK htotal-hdisp
+ #define XOFFSET hsyncstart-hdisp
+ #define XPULSE hsyncend-hsyncstart
+
+ #define YPIX vdisp
+ #define YBLANK vtotal-vdisp
+ #define YOFFSET vsyncstart-vdisp
+ #define YPULSE vsyncend-vsyncstart