I recently bought a KVM switch, consisting of a VGA switcher and switchable USB hub. This switch however, does not pass EDID info from the connected display to either of the two connected computers.
I am using it to switch between a dockable laptop running Arch (Antergos) and a Windows PC. The Windows PC handles the lack of EDID info. The laptop does not. This problem does not occur when the laptop is directly connected to the monitor.
The laptop will limit the maximum resolution on the switched monitor to 1024x768. The GNOME settings menu and xrandr also accept 800x600 as a working option. The native resolution of this screen is 1280x1024@75Hz. Attempting to switch to this resolution manually with xrandr, or by GNOME settings after adding it through xrandr, results in it to instantly switching back to 1024x768. This does not happen when running outside a gnome session (startx /usr/bin/xterm) and the system will happily switch to whatever resolution. Even when gnome-session is started manually from xterm after fixing the resolution, it will revert back to 1024x768 and remain that way until gnome-session ends.
System: Lenovo Thinkpad x230 Tablet (Wacom ISD is not the cause of the problem)
OS: Arch (Antergos) with default configuration for everything display related.
Monitor: AOC LM721A
KVM switch: FJ-2UK
Relevent Xorg.0.log lines:
[ 201.470] (II) intel(0): switch to mode [email protected] on VGA1 using pipe 1, position (0, 0), rotation normal, reflection none
[ 201.572] (II) intel(0): switch to mode [email protected] on VGA1 using pipe 1, position (0, 0), rotation normal, reflection none
monitors.xml
file in~/.config/
, rebooting, and setting the desired resolution withxrandr
.