[SOLVED] unable to display to VGA monitor in Debian 9

extraspecialbitter · 2018-03-08 13:38:09

My default setup is Debian 8.2 Hydrogen, but I thought I'd test-drive the BL Debian 9 Alpha4 ISO on a spare partition. It works fine with my Dell laptop's default display, but when trying to view on a VGA monitor attached to the laptop's docking station, I get the login screen and am able to log in to the initial desktop, but then am unable to view any applications launched from the menu. A "ps" shows that the applications are actually running, but I'm unable to see them. About the only thing I'm able to do - besides bringing up a console - is logout or reboot.

Incidentally, I see the same behavior with Debian 8.9 Hydrogen, as well as a "vanilla" Debian 9 ISO I recently tried out.

Last edited by extraspecialbitter (2018-03-10 21:06:59)

extraspecialbitter · 2018-03-08 18:32:49

I should add that this same behavior also occurs with the Live ISO (which I ran today with Alpha version 6): it works without issues on the laptop monitor, but does not display beyond the Bunsen Labs backsplash and tint2 status bar when attached to docking station and using a VGA monitor.

Last edited by extraspecialbitter (2018-03-08 20:47:37)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2018-03-08 21:46:24

Can we please see the full output of `xrandr` (with the VGA monitor connected).

extraspecialbitter · 2018-03-08 23:00:24

@HoaS - thanks for weighing in. I'm not sure my output would be all that useful, given that I can't display a terminal (although the processes do show up), but here's what I get when I run the command from a console:

pablo@elposito=> xrandr
Can't open display

extraspecialbitter · 2018-03-08 23:02:12

By contrast, here is what I see on my Hydrogen 8.2 system (and what I would expect to see on Helium):

pablo@eltriunfo=> xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 8192 x 8192
eDP1 connected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
   1280x800      60.07 +  40.05  
   1024x768      60.00  
   800x600       60.32    56.25  
   640x480       59.94  
VGA1 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 477mm x 268mm
   1920x1080     60.00*+
   1680x1050     59.95  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1152x864      75.00  
   1024x768      75.08    60.00  
   800x600       75.00    60.32  
   640x480       75.00    60.00  
   720x400       70.08  
HDMI1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

extraspecialbitter · 2018-03-08 23:06:06

Perhaps I need some drivers with Debian 9 that came by default with Debian 8? Just speculating. Here's the output of "lsmod | grep video" from my Hydrogen 8.2 system:

pablo@eltriunfo=> lsmod | grep video
uvcvideo               79048  0 
videobuf2_vmalloc      12816  1 uvcvideo
videobuf2_memops       12519  1 videobuf2_vmalloc
videobuf2_core         47787  1 uvcvideo
v4l2_common            12995  1 videobuf2_core
videodev              126451  3 uvcvideo,v4l2_common,videobuf2_core
media                  18305  2 uvcvideo,videodev
video                  22169  1 i915
thermal_sys            27642  3 video,intel_powerclamp,processor
i2c_core               46012  7 drm,i915,i2c_i801,drm_kms_helper,i2c_algo_bit,v4l2_common,videodev
usbcore               195468  7 snd_usb_audio,uvcvideo,usb_storage,snd_usbmidi_lib,ehci_hcd,ehci_pci,usbhid

Last edited by extraspecialbitter (2018-03-08 23:09:57)

extraspecialbitter · 2018-03-08 23:26:18

For comparison, here's what I see on my Helium 9 system:

pablo@elposito=> lsmod | grep video
uvcvideo               90112  0
videobuf2_vmalloc      16384  1 uvcvideo
videobuf2_memops       16384  1 videobuf2_vmalloc
videobuf2_v4l2         24576  1 uvcvideo
videobuf2_core         40960  2 uvcvideo,videobuf2_v4l2
videodev              176128  3 uvcvideo,videobuf2_core,videobuf2_v4l2
media                  40960  2 uvcvideo,videodev
video                  40960  3 dell_wmi,dell_laptop,i915
usbcore               253952  8 uvcvideo,usbhid,snd_usb_audio,usb_storage,ehci_hcd,snd_usbmidi_lib,uas,ehci_pci

The plot thickens...

tknomanzr · 2018-03-08 23:33:23

It looks like the intel i915 drivers are missing.

extraspecialbitter · 2018-03-08 23:36:27

tknomanzr wrote:

It looks like the intel i915 drivers are missing.

yes, the "i2c" module was the one glaring difference between the two configurations. Let me see what happens when I install the drivers identified by this command:

pablo@eltriunfo=> sudo apt-cache search i915
[sudo] password for pablo: 
xserver-xorg-video-intel - X.Org X server -- Intel i8xx, i9xx display driver
xserver-xorg-video-intel-dbg - X.Org X server -- Intel i8xx, i9xx display driver (debug symbols)

extraspecialbitter · 2018-03-08 23:48:28

Well, it wasn't the victory I was hoping for, but I think we're onto something:

pablo@elposito=> sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel 
[sudo] password for pablo: 
Hit:1 http://security.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates InRelease
Ign:2 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease                                                                
Hit:3 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch-backports InRelease                                                              
Hit:4 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable Release                                            
Hit:9 https://kelaino.bunsenlabs.org/~johnraff/debian helium InRelease                                
Hit:5 http://eu.pkg.bunsenlabs.org/debian stretch-backports InRelease
Ign:6 https://cdn-aws.deb.debian.org/debian stretch InRelease
Hit:7 https://cdn-aws.deb.debian.org/debian stretch-updates InRelease
Hit:10 https://cdn-aws.deb.debian.org/debian stretch Release
Reading package lists... Done
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
xserver-xorg-video-intel is already the newest version (2:2.99.917+git20161206-1).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2018-03-09 07:38:00

extraspecialbitter wrote:

here's what I get when I run the command from a console

OK, try again from the console with this command:

DISPLAY=:0 xrandr

EDIT: check your hardware and drivers as well: https://wiki.debian.org/HowToIdentifyADevice/PCI

EDIT2: for posting lengthy command output from the console, try https://packages.debian.org/stretch/pastebinit.

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2018-03-09 07:51:27)

extraspecialbitter · 2018-03-09 23:02:06

First, the output of xrandr:

pablo@elposito=> DISPLAY=:0 xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 3200 x 1080, maximum 8192 x 8192
eDP-1 connected primary 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 304mm x 190mm
   1280x800      60.07*+  40.05  
   1024x768      60.04    60.00  
   960x720       60.00  
   928x696       60.05  
   896x672       60.01  
   960x600       60.00  
   960x540       59.99  
   800x600       60.00    60.32    56.25  
   840x525       60.01    59.88  
   800x512       60.17  
   700x525       59.98  
   640x512       60.02  
   720x450       59.89  
   640x480       60.00    59.94  
   680x384       59.80    59.96  
   576x432       60.06  
   512x384       60.00  
   400x300       60.32    56.34  
   320x240       60.05  
VGA-1 connected 1920x1080+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 477mm x 268mm
   1920x1080     60.00*+
   1680x1050     59.95  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1152x864      75.00  
   1024x768      75.03    60.00  
   800x600       75.00    60.32  
   640x480       75.00    59.94  
   720x400       70.08  
HDMI-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

Then, I thought I'd try "lspci -nn":

pablo@elposito=> lspci -nn
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Core Processor DRAM Controller [8086:0044] (rev 02)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0046] (rev 02)
00:16.0 Communication controller [0780]: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset HECI Controller [8086:3b64] (rev 06)
00:16.3 Serial controller [0700]: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset KT Controller [8086:3b67] (rev 06)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation 82577LM Gigabit Network Connection [8086:10ea] (rev 05)
00:1a.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller [8086:3b3c] (rev 05)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio [8086:3b56] (rev 05)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 1 [8086:3b42] (rev 05)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 2 [8086:3b44] (rev 05)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 3 [8086:3b46] (rev 05)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 4 [8086:3b48] (rev 05)
00:1d.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller [8086:3b34] (rev 05)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge [8086:2448] (rev a5)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation QM57 Chipset LPC Interface Controller [8086:3b07] (rev 05)
00:1f.2 RAID bus controller [0104]: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] [8086:282a] (rev 05)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset SMBus Controller [8086:3b30] (rev 05)
00:1f.6 Signal processing controller [1180]: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Thermal Subsystem [8086:3b32] (rev 05)
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Centrino Advanced-N 6200 [8086:422c] (rev 35)
03:00.0 CardBus bridge [0607]: Ricoh Co Ltd CardBus bridge [1180:e476] (rev 02)
03:00.1 SD Host controller [0805]: Ricoh Co Ltd MMC/SD Host Controller [1180:e822] (rev 03)
03:00.4 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 PCIe IEEE 1394 Controller [1180:e832] (rev 03)
3f:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture Generic Non-core Registers [8086:2c62] (rev 02)
3f:00.1 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture System Address Decoder [8086:2d01] (rev 02)
3f:02.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Link 0 [8086:2d10] (rev 02)
3f:02.1 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 1st Generation Core i3/5/7 Processor QPI Physical 0 [8086:2d11] (rev 02)
3f:02.2 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 1st Generation Core i3/5/7 Processor Reserved [8086:2d12] (rev 02)
3f:02.3 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 1st Generation Core i3/5/7 Processor Reserved [8086:2d13] (rev 02)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2018-03-10 11:35:08

extraspecialbitter wrote:

pablo@elposito=> DISPLAY=:0 xrandr
[...]
eDP-1 connected primary 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 304mm x 190mm
[...]
VGA-1 connected 1920x1080+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 477mm x 268mm

The VGA display has been added to the side of eDP-1, with both still active.

If we contrast with your working desktop in post #5 then you can see the eDP-1 is not used at all and VGA is the only display.

So I would surmise that your applications are opening on eDP-1 rather than VGA, this is why you can't see them

Disable eDP-1 with:

xrandr --output eDP-1 --off

Does that fix things?

extraspecialbitter · 2018-03-10 15:07:03

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

extraspecialbitter wrote:
pablo@elposito=> DISPLAY=:0 xrandr
[...]
eDP-1 connected primary 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 304mm x 190mm
[...]
VGA-1 connected 1920x1080+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 477mm x 268mm
The VGA display has been added to the side of eDP-1, with both still active.
If we contrast with your working desktop in post #5 then you can see the eDP-1 is not used at all and VGA is the only display.
So I would surmise that your applications are opening on eDP-1 rather than VGA, this is why you can't see them

This makes sense. I start up my Hydrogen 8.2 system the same way, except that it comes up in low resolution and I'm able to bring up arandr to disable eDP1 and bump up the resolution on VGA1. When I try to bring up arandr on my Helium, a "ps" shows that it's running, but I can't see it. :-\

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

Disable eDP-1 with:
xrandr --output eDP-1 --off
Does that fix things?

Sadly, no. I received the following error:

pablo@elposito=> DISPLAY=:0 xrandr --output eDP-1 --off
xrandr: Configure crtc 0 failed

I tried as sudo as well, just in case it was a permissions issue, but no joy.

pablo@elposito=> sudo DISPLAY=:0 xrandr --output eDP-1 --off
[sudo] password for pablo: 
No protocol specified
Can't open display :0

I'm off to Google the crtc error.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2018-03-10 15:50:23

Try

DISPLAY=:1 arandr

EDIT: this might work:

xrandr --output VGA-1 --mode 1920x1080 --output eDP-1 --off

EDIT2: don't try to force things with `sudo`, that's a bad habit.

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2018-03-10 16:03:12)

extraspecialbitter · 2018-03-10 19:18:51

HoaS - I should mention right away that I appreciate your efforts helping me troubleshoot this issue. I had posted the problem to the Debian forum a few days ago and so far have only heard crickets in response.

Running "arandr" from the <ctrl><alt><F1> console didn't seem to do anything, but "ps" showed a process running - one that I couldn't see.

The xrandr command you suggested returned the same "xrandr: Configure crtc 0 failed" I saw earlier.

So far my Google searches have indicated that the error is pretty generic, implying that there's something objectionable in the xrandr options. One suggestion was to peruse the output of "xrandr --verbose", which I've stashed away here. It seems to indicate that eDP-1 is CRT 0, so I tried the following:

DISPLAY=:0 xrandr --output eDP-1 --crt 0 --off

but received the same "xrandr: Configure crtc 0 failed" error. I'll keep digging and will share here if there are any breakthroughs.

extraspecialbitter · 2018-03-10 19:37:14

I did a little more digging and noticed the following two lines in Xorg.0.log:

[     7.692] (II) modeset(0): Output eDP-1 using initial mode 1280x800 +0+0
[     7.692] (II) modeset(0): Output VGA-1 using initial mode 1920x1080 +1280+0

This would seem to mean that the VGA-1 display is being moved to the right of the eDP-1 display, effectively making it invisible. How can I make it stop doing that?

extraspecialbitter · 2018-03-10 21:12:09

Giving credit where credit is due, I found this on the Ubuntu forum.

From the console, I typed the following:

DISPLAY=:0 xrandr --output VGA-1 --primary

No error message, so I exited the console and typed <ctrl><alt><F7> to bring me back to the display, at which point I was able to see the output of my commands as expected.

Thanks a million for keeping a great distro going!

Head_on_a_Stick · 2018-03-10 22:14:23

^ Nice work OP

Sorry I couldn't help more, I've never used an external monitor

extraspecialbitter · 2018-03-10 22:27:57

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

^ Nice work OP
Sorry I couldn't help more, I've never used an external monitor

I never had either, but after a back injury made hunching over a laptop very uncomfortable, I persuaded my workplace to get me a more ergonomic setup: raised monitor, keyboard tray, etc. Now I can't do without it.

#1 2018-03-08 13:38:09

[SOLVED] unable to display to VGA monitor in Debian 9

#2 2018-03-08 18:32:49

Re: [SOLVED] unable to display to VGA monitor in Debian 9

#3 2018-03-08 21:46:24

Re: [SOLVED] unable to display to VGA monitor in Debian 9

#4 2018-03-08 23:00:24

Re: [SOLVED] unable to display to VGA monitor in Debian 9

#5 2018-03-08 23:02:12

Re: [SOLVED] unable to display to VGA monitor in Debian 9

#6 2018-03-08 23:06:06

Re: [SOLVED] unable to display to VGA monitor in Debian 9

#7 2018-03-08 23:26:18

Re: [SOLVED] unable to display to VGA monitor in Debian 9

#8 2018-03-08 23:33:23

Re: [SOLVED] unable to display to VGA monitor in Debian 9

#9 2018-03-08 23:36:27

Re: [SOLVED] unable to display to VGA monitor in Debian 9

#10 2018-03-08 23:48:28

Re: [SOLVED] unable to display to VGA monitor in Debian 9

#11 2018-03-09 07:38:00

Re: [SOLVED] unable to display to VGA monitor in Debian 9

#12 2018-03-09 23:02:06

Re: [SOLVED] unable to display to VGA monitor in Debian 9

#13 2018-03-10 11:35:08

Re: [SOLVED] unable to display to VGA monitor in Debian 9

#14 2018-03-10 15:07:03

Re: [SOLVED] unable to display to VGA monitor in Debian 9

#15 2018-03-10 15:50:23

Re: [SOLVED] unable to display to VGA monitor in Debian 9

#16 2018-03-10 19:18:51

Re: [SOLVED] unable to display to VGA monitor in Debian 9

#17 2018-03-10 19:37:14

Re: [SOLVED] unable to display to VGA monitor in Debian 9

#18 2018-03-10 21:12:09

Re: [SOLVED] unable to display to VGA monitor in Debian 9

#19 2018-03-10 22:14:23

Re: [SOLVED] unable to display to VGA monitor in Debian 9

#20 2018-03-10 22:27:57

Re: [SOLVED] unable to display to VGA monitor in Debian 9

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