[SOLVED] HDMI external monitor not detected

[astrojuanlu]

I just bought a new laptop with Linux Mint 20.1 Cinnamon pre-installed and the HDMI external monitor is not detected. It does not show up in xrandr.

I tried with a Puppy Linux USB live distro and it gets detected, so I understand it has to be some sort of software or kernel issue.

Relevant debugging info:

Code: Select all

vant@arion:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Linuxmint
Description:	Linux Mint 20.1
Release:	20.1
Codename:	ulyssa
vant@arion:~$ uname -a
Linux arion 5.4.0-70-generic #78-Ubuntu SMP Fri Mar 19 13:29:52 UTC 2021 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
vant@arion:~$ sudo inxi -Fxxxrz
System:    Kernel: 5.4.0-70-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.8.6 wm: muffin 4.8.1 
           dm: LightDM 1.30.0 Distro: Linux Mint 20.1 Ulyssa base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: VANT product: EDGE2 v: N/A serial: N/A Chassis: type: 10 serial: N/A 
           Mobo: VANT model: EDGE2 serial: N/A UEFI: INSYDE v: 1.07.04TSP date: 08/18/2020 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 73.9 Wh condition: 73.9/73.9 Wh (100%) volts: 8.8/7.7 model: Notebook BAT type: Li-ion 
           serial: <filter> status: Full 
CPU:       Topology: Quad Core model: 11th Gen Intel Core i7-1165G7 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Tiger Lake rev: 1 
           L2 cache: 12.0 MiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 44851 
           Speed: 1349 MHz min/max: 400/4700 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1300 2: 1300 3: 1300 4: 1300 5: 1300 6: 1301 7: 1260 
           8: 1284 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK driver: N/A bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:9a49 
           Display: server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: fbdev unloaded: modesetting,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~77Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 11.0.0 256 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 20.2.6 compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3 chip ID: 8086:a0c8 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-70-generic 
Network:   Device-1: Intel driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: 3000 bus ID: 00:14.3 chip ID: 8086:a0f0 
           IF: wlp0s20f3 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 1.82 TiB used: 13.87 GiB (0.7%) 
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 980 PRO 1TB size: 931.51 GiB speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 
           serial: <filter> rev: 2B2QGXA7 scheme: GPT 
           ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 EVO M.2 1TB size: 931.51 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> 
           rev: 4B6Q scheme: GPT 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 915.40 GiB used: 12.95 GiB (1.4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 
           ID-2: /home size: 915.89 GiB used: 929.2 MiB (0.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 46.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:     No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
           1: deb https://ftp.cixug.es/mint/packages ulyssa main upstream import backport
           2: deb http://mirror.tedra.es/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
           3: deb http://mirror.tedra.es/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
           4: deb http://mirror.tedra.es/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
           5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
           6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/phoerious-keepassxc-focal.list 
           1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/phoerious/keepassxc/ubuntu focal main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/spotify.list 
           1: deb http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free
Info:      Processes: 248 Uptime: 14m Memory: 23.29 GiB used: 2.43 GiB (10.4%) Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: 
           gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Shell: bash (sudo) v: 5.0.17 running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.0.38 
vant@arion:~$ xrandr --prop
xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default
Screen 0: minimum 1920 x 1080, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 1920 x 1080
default connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 0mm x 0mm
	non-desktop: 0 
		supported: 0, 1
   1920x1080     77.00* 
vant@arion:~$ grep HDMI /var/log/Xorg.0.log  # Empty!
vant@arion:~$ ls /sys/class/drm
version
vant@arion:~$ cat /sys/class/drm/*
drm 1.1.0 20060810
vant@arion:~$ tree /etc/X11/
/etc/X11/
├── app-defaults
│   ├── Bitmap
│   ├── Bitmap-color
│   ├── Bitmap-nocase
│   ├── Clock-color
│   ├── Editres
│   ├── Editres-color
│   ├── Viewres
│   ├── Viewres-color
│   ├── XCalc
│   ├── XCalc-color
│   ├── XClipboard
│   ├── XClock
│   ├── XClock-color
│   ├── XConsole
│   ├── Xditview
│   ├── Xditview-chrtr
│   ├── Xedit
│   ├── Xedit-color
│   ├── Xfd
│   ├── XFontSel
│   ├── Xgc
│   ├── Xgc-color
│   ├── XLoad
│   ├── XLogo
│   ├── XLogo-color
│   ├── Xmag
│   ├── Xman
│   ├── Xmessage
│   ├── Xmessage-color
│   ├── XMore
│   ├── XSm
│   └── Xvidtune
├── default-display-manager
├── fonts
│   ├── misc
│   │   └── xfonts-base.alias
│   └── Type1
│       └── xfonts-scalable.scale
├── rgb.txt
├── xinit
│   ├── xinitrc
│   ├── xinitrc.d
│   │   └── 80xapp-gtk3-module.sh
│   ├── xinputrc
│   └── xserverrc
├── xkb
├── Xreset
├── Xreset.d
│   └── README
├── Xresources
│   └── x11-common
├── Xsession
├── Xsession.d
│   ├── 20dbus_xdg-runtime
│   ├── 20flatpak
│   ├── 20x11-common_process-args
│   ├── 30x11-common_xresources
│   ├── 35x11-common_xhost-local
│   ├── 40x11-common_xsessionrc
│   ├── 50x11-common_determine-startup
│   ├── 55cinnamon-session_gnomerc
│   ├── 55gnome-session_gnomerc
│   ├── 60x11-common_localhost
│   ├── 60x11-common_xdg_path
│   ├── 60xbrlapi
│   ├── 70gconfd_path-on-session
│   ├── 70im-config_launch
│   ├── 75dbus_dbus-launch
│   ├── 90atk-adaptor
│   ├── 90gpg-agent
│   ├── 90qt-a11y
│   ├── 90x11-common_ssh-agent
│   ├── 95dbus_update-activation-env
│   ├── 99mint
│   ├── 99qt5ct
│   └── 99x11-common_start
├── Xsession.options
├── xsm
│   └── system.xsm
├── XvMCConfig
└── Xwrapper.config

11 directories, 71 files

[astrojuanlu]

The fact that

Code: Select all

/sys/class/drm

is empty on the Mint kernel but contains a

Code: Select all

card0-HDMI-A-1

symlink is something to look into? Mint is 5.4.0-70 and Puppy is 5.4.53

[SMG]

I just bought a new laptop with Linux Mint 20.1 Cinnamon pre-installed

It does not appear it was installed correctly/completely. There is no graphics driver installed. That driver should install automatically from the kernel when the system boots.

Graphics:
Device-1: Intel vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK driver: N/A bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:9a49
Display: server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: fbdev unloaded: modesetting,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~77Hz
OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 11.0.0 256 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 20.2.6 compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes

Open Update Manager. Select View > Linux Kernels and click Continue. Make sure 5.8 is selected on the left panel and then click the top-most option on the right panel. An "Install" button will appear. Install the kernel and then reboot for it to become active. Then run inxi -Gxx to see if the i915 driver installs where N/A is currently, if the modesetting driver is loaded (it is currently showing as unloaded), and the renderer is Intel.

Your computer is new enough I suspect it would run better with the 5.8 kernel instead of the 5.4 anyhow, but I'm not sure why the i915 driver did not load. Really odd considering the modesetting driver did load, but then unloaded.

[astrojuanlu]

Thanks a lot! Before reading this answer I reinstalled latest Mint with the same result. But trying a newer kernel sounds like the right thing to do - I somehow thought that I would need to use another distro for that. Will give it a shot tonight.

[astrojuanlu]

Upgrading the kernel to 5.8 fixed the issue completely. Thanks again!

[SMG]

You're welcome. Glad it is working. Enjoy your Mint install.