# [solved] Apple Cinema Display 20'' and X modelines

## noup

Hi.

I have recently (today) bought an Apple Cinema Display 20'' and, when using it under X-windows, lead myself into the only problem i already knew i'd get into: using its optimum resolution.

So, the resolution in this case is 1680x1050 @ 60Hz. Searching around i didn't find any modeline for it, so i tried a modeline generator and got xorg to work with this resolution. But, what worries me is: i noticed everywhere saying that using an incorrect modeline could eventually damage your monitor... so, how do i know if i'm using an incorrect modeline? Is it supposed to display things badly when using an incorrect modeline?

Also, i don't know if the modeline is the best because i can't find the Horizontal and Vertical Sync Ranges (searched the manual, web page, etc) and also the dot pitch clock (this is for the graphics card, right) anywhere.

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## Mark Nye

Check out this link: http://micke.hallendal.net/archives/2004/09/apple_cinema_di_1.html

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## noup

 *Mark Nye wrote:*   

> Check out this link: http://micke.hallendal.net/archives/2004/09/apple_cinema_di_1.html

 

Thank you for posting that! I had stoped by that link before but lost it since then. Though, there is something that doesn't make much sense: it uses a modeline that makes it run at 72Hz refresh rate, but the refresh rate specified on the monitor's manual is 60Hz. Should this be used?

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## Mark Nye

 *Quote:*   

> Thank you for posting that! I had stoped by that link before but lost it since then. Though, there is something that doesn't make much sense: it uses a modeline that makes it run at 72Hz refresh rate, but the refresh rate specified on the monitor's manual is 60Hz. Should this be used?

 

I suppose that I'd go with the manual's specs, though my understanding was that it really doesn't make a lot of difference for LCD monitors. Check out this link: http://www.necmitsubishi.com/support/css/monitortechguide/index04.htm

Still, I'd be interested in seeing your final config. I'm sitting at exactly the same monitor right now, and some day soon I expect to be running Linux (currently OS X) on this system.

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## noup

 *Mark Nye wrote:*   

> 
> 
> I suppose that I'd go with the manual's specs, though my understanding was that it really doesn't make a lot of difference for LCD monitors. Check out this link: http://www.necmitsubishi.com/support/css/monitortechguide/index04.htm
> 
> 

 

Great guide, thank you for sharing. It's pretty simple and understandable.

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> Still, I'd be interested in seeing your final config. I'm sitting at exactly the same monitor right now, and some day soon I expect to be running Linux (currently OS X) on this system.

 

Here is my final config (if you mean xorg.conf), in what concerns the display:

```

Section "ServerLayout"

   Identifier     "X.org Configured"

   Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0

   InputDevice    "Microsoft Intellimouse Optical" "CorePointer"

   InputDevice    "Microsoft Digital Media Pro Keyboard" "CoreKeyboard"

EndSection

Section "Files"

   RgbPath      "/usr/lib/X11/rgb"

   ModulePath   "/usr/lib/modules"

   FontPath    "/usr/share/fonts/artwiz"

   FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/misc:unscaled"

   FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/Type1/"

   FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/TTF/"

   FontPath    "/usr/share/fonts/corefonts"

   FontPath    "/usr/share/fonts/freefonts"

   FontPath    "/usr/share/fonts/sharefonts"

   FontPath    "/usr/share/fonts/terminus"

   FontPath    "/usr/share/fonts/ttf-bitstream-vera"

   FontPath    "/usr/share/fonts/unifont"

   FontPath    "/usr/share/fonts/local"

   FontPath    "/usr/share/fonts/cyrillic"

   FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/CID/"

   FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"

   FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"

EndSection

Section "Module"

   Load  "glx"

   Load  "record"

   Load  "extmod"

   Load  "dbe"

   #Load  "dri"

   Load  "xtrap"

   Load  "freetype"

   Load  "type1"

EndSection

(...)

Section "Monitor"

   Identifier   "Apple Cinema Display 20"

   VendorName   "Apple Inc."

   ModelName    "Apple Cinema Display 20"

   #ModeLine "1680x1050" 177.05 1680 1752 2112 2256 1050 1052 1064 1090 #72Hz

   #HorizSync 28-90

    #VertRefresh 43-72

    #Option "DPMS"

   Modeline "1680x1050" 149.01  1680 1760 1944 2280  1050 1050 1052 1089 #60Hz

EndSection

Section "Device"

   Identifier  "nVidia GeForce 6600GT"

   Driver      "nvidia"

   VendorName  "nVidia Corporation"

   BoardName   "Sparkle GeForce 6600GT VIVO"

   BusID       "PCI:4:0:0"

   Option      "NoLogo" "true"

    Option      "CursorShadow" "true"

   Option      "NvAGP"      "0"

   Option      "DigitalVibrance"   "6"

   #Option      "FlatPanelProperties"   "Scaling=aspect-scaled"

   #ou native,centered, default, aspect-scaled

EndSection

Section "Screen"

   Identifier "Screen0"

   Device     "nVidia GeForce 6600GT"

   Monitor    "Apple Cinema Display 20"

   DefaultDepth 24

(...)

   SubSection "Display"

      Viewport   0 0

      Depth     24

      Modes   "1680x1050" "1280x800"

      #Modes       "1680x1050" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

   EndSubSection

EndSection

```

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## Mark Nye

 *Quote:*   

> Here is my final config (if you mean xorg.conf), in what concerns the display:

 

Thanks for posting!

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## noup

I just noticed how dirty the conf i posted was. Here is my current one:

```

Section "Monitor"

    Identifier  "Apple Cinema Display 20"

    VendorName  "Apple Inc."

    ModelName   "Apple Cinema Display 20"

    Modeline    "1680x1050" 149.01  1680 1760 1944 2280  1050 1050 1052 1089 #6$

    Option      "DPMS"

EndSection

Section "Device"

    Identifier  "nVidia GeForce 6600GT"

    Driver      "nvidia"

    VendorName  "nVidia Corporation"

    BoardName   "Sparkle GeForce 6600GT VIVO"

    BusID       "PCI:4:0:0"

    Option      "NoLogo" "true"

    Option      "CursorShadow" "true"

    Option      "NvAGP"     "0"

EndSection

Section "Screen"

    Identifier "Screen0"

    Device     "nVidia GeForce 6600GT"

    Monitor    "Apple Cinema Display 20"

    DefaultDepth 24

    SubSection "Display"

        Viewport   0 0

        Depth     24

        Modes   "1680x1050" "1280x800"

    EndSubSection

EndSection

```

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## cloudnine

I'm glad to see you were able to get X running with a Cinema Display.  

I have a 20" Cinema with a geforce 6200, running on an Intel P4 3.06gHz, 2.6.13-gentoo-r3.  

When I start X, all I get is a blank screen.  The machine is still alive - I can ssh in - but I can't kill X.  I have to restart the machine.   Here are a few pieces of my conf:

Section "Module"

        Load  "extmod"

        ## Load  "dri"

        Load  "dbe"

        Load  "record"

        Load  "xtrap"

        Load  "glx"

        Load  "type1"

        Load  "freetype"

EndSection

Section "Device"

        Identifier  "Card0"

        Driver      "nvidia"

        VendorName  "nVidia Corporation"

        BoardName   "Unknown Board"

        BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"

EndSection

Section "Screen"

        Identifier "Screen0"

        Device     "Card0"

        Monitor    "Monitor0"

    DefaultDepth 24

        SubSection "Display"

                Viewport   0 0

                Depth     24

        EndSubSection

EndSection

The X error log is eerily quiet, too. It ends abruptly after loading the appropriate modules with:

(II) Setting vga for screen 0.

(**) NVIDIA(0): Depth 24, (--) framebuffer bpp 32

(==) NVIDIA(0): RGB weight 888

(==) NVIDIA(0): Default visual is TrueColor

(==) NVIDIA(0): Using gamma correction (1.0, 1.0, 1.0)

(--) NVIDIA(0): Linear framebuffer at 0xC0000000

(--) NVIDIA(0): MMIO registers at 0xFD000000

I'm not so concerned about screen resolution - i just need X to launch for now.   :Smile: 

I've seen similar issues around the formus about this, but no solutions.  Could you post your kernel config, maybe?  Perhaps there is somthing I don't have configured, or something is conflicting.

-m

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## noup

Hi,

are you using the latest nvidia drivers (nvidia-kernel-7676 and nvidia-glx-7676-r1)?

The next information Xorg would log would be the GPU detected, so i guess it didn't quite detect you graphics unit.

Also, do you have AGP enabled? And are you sure your corresponding PCI entry is 1.0.0? Check this with "# lspci |grep -i nvidia".

You can see the kernel options you need to enable in the gentoo nvidia guide. Mine are different, since i am using PCI-Express instead of AGP.

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## cloudnine

I've discovered that this has nothing to do with the cinema display - I hooked up my old Mitsubishi DP 91 CRT and I'm getting the same problem.  Interesting thing to note though - when I start X, and do 'ps ax' via ssh, it says that the X process is in state D, which is uninteruptible sleep. Apparently this usually means an I/O issue.

 *noup wrote:*   

> Hi, are you using the latest nvidia drivers (nvidia-kernel-7676 and nvidia-glx-7676-r1)?

 

No - i'm using glx-1.0.6629-r6 and kernel-1.0.6629-r4, which are the ones you get with a straight up 'emerge nvidia-glx' 

I'll give these newer drivers a shot.

 *noup wrote:*   

> 
> 
> The next information Xorg would log would be the GPU detected, so i guess it didn't quite detect you graphics unit.
> 
> Also, do you have AGP enabled? And are you sure your corresponding PCI entry is 1.0.0? Check this with "# lspci |grep -i nvidia".
> ...

 

Actually, I tried this with agpgart both enabled and disabled in the kernel, because I read that the Nvidia kernel module supplies agp drivers.  In both cases, the nvidia module loaded cleanly.   If there was a problem, I figure I would have gotten unresolved symbol errors when I ran 'modprobe nvidia'.  

I made sure that it was 1.0.0 - this is what 'lspci |grep -i nvidia' reports.

0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 6200 (rev a1)

 *noup wrote:*   

> 
> 
> You can see the kernel options you need to enable in the gentoo nvidia guide. Mine are different, since i am using PCI-Express instead of AGP.

 

I've been going through that guide - I'll look it over again though.  Thank you so much for your response.  I really appreciate it. I'll post again after I've tried a few more things.   Perhaps I should make a new thread on this issue?

-m

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## noup

 *cloudnine wrote:*   

> 
> 
> Actually, I tried this with agpgart both enabled and disabled in the kernel, because I read that the Nvidia kernel module supplies agp drivers.  In both cases, the nvidia module loaded cleanly.   If there was a problem, I figure I would have gotten unresolved symbol errors when I ran 'modprobe nvidia'. 
> 
> 

 

Well, if you got agpart enabled in the kernel and start the nvidia driver normally, it will always load the agp support from nvidia. To try the agp support of the kernel, you will need to specificaly disable it in the driver, with the NvAGP Option in your xorg.conf (See the nvidia README on this).

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> I've been going through that guide - I'll look it over again though.  Thank you so much for your response.  I really appreciate it. I'll post again after I've tried a few more things.   Perhaps I should make a new thread on this issue?
> 
> -m

 

Perhaps you should, or else, try finding a thread with a problem similar to yours. I'll wait for your response.  :Smile: 

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## cloudnine

The drivers nvidia-kernel-7676 and nvidia-glx-7676-r1 did the trick.  Perhaps the drivers in the stable gentoo branch don't like the Gforce 6200.  

For posterity:

- AGP support is enabled in my kernel.

- These newer drivers also depend on two other packages.  In order to install them, i had to add the following to my

/etc/portage/package.keywords file:

media-video/nvidia-glx ~x86

media-video/nvidia-kernel ~x86

app-admin/eselect ~x86

app-admin/eselect-opengl ~x86

Then, "emerge nvidia-glx"

Hopefully this thread will benefit someone else with this same issue.   Having X crash with an error message is one thing, but a black screen and hung X process is really scary!  :Very Happy:   Thanks for your help, noup.

-m

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## noup

 *cloudnine wrote:*   

> 
> 
> (...)
> 
> 

 

You're welcome.  :Smile: 

Generally, problems with xorg relate to 2 things: nvidia drivers or xorg config file. Good thing your case was one of those (if it wasn't it would be much more complicated).

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