Nouveau and Nvidia 1440p adventures

[axelmasok]

Hi all,
Rarely in my 21 years of linux do I reach out for help, but this is busting me, particularly as one gets older the patience threshold reduces!

ASUS ROG G53J (Geforce GTX460m) and G53SX (Geforce GTX560m). Only external port is HDMI. They probably both support HDMI 1.4 at least. The 560m must as it's 3D capable. 2560x1440 has to be reduced blanking I have read and have somewhat confirmed it - this resolution without reduced blanking doesn't work on HDMI no matter what I try.
Monitor is an AOC Q3279VWF8, native 2560x1440. This monitor works OOTB with various PCs around here with Intel over HDMI plus an older Geforce GT220 PCIe on DVI-D only (Dual Link). HDMI port on Gt220 not liking the monitor either.

Works:
- 16.04 Kubuntu LiveDVD, Nouveau using xrandr commands:
xrandr --newmode 2560x1440R 241.50 2560 2608 2640 2720 1440 1443 1448 1481 +hsync -vsync
xrandr --addmode HDMI-1 2560x1440R
xrandr --output HDMI-1 --primary --mode 2560x1440R

Doesn't work:
- 14.04 my current work machine with Nvidia proprietary v378.13 or Nouveau.
- The best I can achieve is 2160x1440 with the Nvidia driver with associated reduced blanking Modeline in xorg.conf. 2560x1440 ends up in monitor saying "not supported" or black and so on.
- With Nouveau I can use all the xrandr newmodes I like, BUT, they are all blurry and when checking what the monitor reports - it's always 1920x1080 60Hz! That's why it's blurry.

Any ideas on at least getting the Nouveau driver working with 2560x1440 on 14.04? The only logical way to glory with this hardware is upgrade to 16.04 with the xrandr newmodes but it's something I'm wanting to avoid, I have 14.04 working the way I like it and don't want to fook it up.

Thanks!

[GreyGeek]

SO, that ASUS has a primary GPU using the G53J and a secondary GPU using the G53SX?
And, they both use openGL 4.5? (The highest openGL in Kubuntu is 3.1, IIRC)

Have you tried the NVidia 370 or higher driver?

[oshunluvr]

I didn't search a lot, but I did find this: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...r/+bug/1357804

Seems you can't get there (2560x1440) from here (14.04).

Any reason why you can't use the nvidia driver? Another possibility is to load a newer kernel through backports. I don't know if that would help or not...

[GreyGeek]

Comment #18 was interesting!

I have an external LG ultrawide monitor (21:9 ratio) connected through HDMI on my laptop with integrated Intel graphics. I adapted a script from this thread to support for 2560x1080 (60Hz) resolution:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/72775...r-a-219-screen
It would be useful if the resolution was automatically supported. It works perfectly in Debian Jessie (Gnome).
--------------------------
#!/bin/bash
# Setup external monitor resolution at 2560x1080 (60Hz), if connected
RESOLUTION="2560 1080 60"
OUTPUT="HDMI-1"
CONNECTED=$(xrandr --current | grep -i $OUTPUT | cut -f2 -d' ')
if [ "$CONNECTED" = "connected" ]; then
MODELINE=$(cvt $RESOLUTION | cut -f2 -d$'\n')
MODEDATA=$(echo $MODELINE | cut -f 3- -d' ')
MODENAME=$(echo $MODELINE | cut -f2 -d' ')
echo "Adding mode - " $MODENAME $MODEDATA
xrandr --newmode $MODENAME $MODEDATA
xrandr --addmode $OUTPUT $MODENAME
xrandr --output $OUTPUT --mode $MODENAME
else
echo "Monitor is not detected"
fi

[axelmasok]

SO, that ASUS has a primary GPU using the G53J and a secondary GPU using the G53SX?
And, they both use openGL 4.5? (The highest openGL in Kubuntu is 3.1, IIRC)
Have you tried the NVidia 370 or higher driver?

Thanks for the response GG. The two laptops I have (ASUS G53J & ASUS G53SX) in question have only one graphics adapter each. One has a 460m, the other 560m. These graphics adapters support up to something like 2560x1600.
Using Nouveau - OpenGL version string: 3.0 Mesa 10.1.3
Have tried v378.13 and v370.28. Best I can get is 2160x1440.

[axelmasok]

I didn't search a lot, but I did find this: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...r/+bug/1357804
Seems you can't get there (2560x1440) from here (14.04).
Any reason why you can't use the nvidia driver? Another possibility is to load a newer kernel through backports. I don't know if that would help or not...

Thanks for your response oshunluvr. I didn't come across that bug report in my searches. From what I can see the participants have similar experiences with both Nvidia and Nouveau drivers. The script is a clever way to automate what I run in my first post.
My graphics card is Kepler based, it does actually support the resolution I want, I've seen it with my own eyes.
Indeed I could move to a newer kernel but then what about Xorg? I'm pretty sure they will need to be in sync or Nouveau will not work properly (I don't know this for sure but would imagine so).

Maybe 14.04 Nouveau can't do these higher resolutions. It may be as simple as that.

[oshunluvr]

Maybe 14.04 Nouveau can't do these higher resolutions. It may be as simple as that.

That's kinda what I found. I get the desire to keep things working rather than needlessly upgrade, but this may be one of those times where your choice is upgrade or not experience the best your hardware has to offer. Again, I'm not sure why you eschew the nvidia driver, but it works well and would solve your issue in my opinion.

IF you decided to upgrade, I recommend KDEneon rather than Kubuntu. My experience with both leads my to conclude that Neon is less prone to "issues" and has the latest toolkit and plasma versions available at a much quicker pace than Kubuntu. Thus, bugs and issues are resolved faster. Jonathan Riddell himself is running the KDEneon project and they use an LTS base so you won't likely be upgrading again this decade. Of course, you probably thought that when you installed 14.04...

[axelmasok]

I have run the Nvidia driver since 10.04 - 14.04 so I'm definitely a happy user of it. It simply doesn't work higher than 2160x1440. I'd like to run the native 2560x1440. It won't do it - all I get is darkness, lock up and darkness. The only success I have had to achieve 2560x1440 is with Nouveau (Neon 16.04 or Kubuntu 16.04).
Literally a moment ago I tried to validate "Maybe 14.04 Nouveau can't do these higher resolutions. It may be as simple as that." by running the 14.04 LiveDVD on a desktop with Nvidia GT220 and the DVI port. I get full resolution 2560x1440 @60Hz off the LiveDVD with Nouveau. So, I stand corrected - 14.04 Nouveau supports full 2560x1440, on DVI only though.

You are right though. I'm going to have to upgrade to Neon unfortunately, rather than flogging dead horses and spending an eternity "possibly" solving an issue for a user base of "not many, maybe just me". What might confirm this is installing the Nvidia driver on Neon 16.04 and finding it "also" can do the fully 2560x1440 - which would then lead to the high possibility of a Kernel+Xorg difference that made all the "difference"!

[GreyGeek]

You won't regret Neon. I've been using Linux since May of 1998 and Neon is the best "district" I've ever run


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