[mythtv-users] Monitor issues

[Stephen Worthington]

On Wed, 22 Aug 2018 01:39:38 -0700, you wrote:

>This is not strictly a Myth issue but I need to solve this before working
>on getting VDPAU working.  I switched to a Geforce 8600GT in the hopes of
>getting VDPAU working which I failed at so far.  But what I am asking here
>is how to get a workable system.  I have two choices now.  1) Single
>monitor on the TV with all the system fonts and icons so small they are
>unreadable. I mean so small it is completely unreadable.  The MythTV fonts
>are fine, normal, but the Ubuntu fonts are tiny. Or I could 2) Leave the TV
>that way and add a second monitor, which I have.  But the computer will not
>recognize a second monitor.  I have looked at nvidia config and at the
>standard Display section. Neither show a second monitor.  I do this with
>the monitor plugged into the DVI slot that works and the TV plugged into
>the DVI slot that has no signal.

I can remember having that tiny fonts problem at some time, and
finding a quick fix for it via a Google search.  But that was quite a
few years ago - probably when I was using 14.04 or maybe even earlier.
And I can not remember anything about the fix.

For an 8600GT, I believe you should be installing the Nvidia 304
series driver.  Sometimes the recommended driver is 340 series, and
that will cause problems with a card that old.  So please check what
video drivers are installed.  What is the output of these commands:

lshw -C video
apt list --installed | grep nvidia

Also, be aware that Nvidia has stopped all support for the 304
drivers, so they do not work with 4.15 kernels without patching.  But
they should be fine in 16.04 if you do not install the HWE (Hardware
Enablement stack) which brings in the newer kernels.  I am using the
304 drivers on my mother's MythTV box running 16.04 and they work well
for her builtin motherboard GPU (Nvidia C77), which is a similar age
to the 8600GT.

To run with dual monitors, the easy way to test is to use the
nvidia-settings GUI tool.  Run it from a non-root command prompt on
the GUI screen.  It will allow you to select the monitor setup, if the
drivers have seen more than one monitor.