Get model of monitors plugged to the computer

[BorrajaX]

Hello everyone!

I am currently developing an small program in Python and at a certain point, I need to do some “stuff” depending on the monitors that are connected to the computer. I have an intel vga card with two outputs. I want to do “something” if one of the screens connected to the output is a “Dell”, another “something” if one of the monitors is a “Nec” and another “something” if both monitors are connected.

So the question is: Is there any way to get the vendor/model of the monitors currently connected to the computer?

I did a little bit testing. I plugged both screens to my vga card (the Nec to the HDMI output and the Dell to the DVI output), and the gnome-display-properties tool properly detected the model, size, resolution... of both screens connected. I would like to know if I can use a command on bash (or a library in python) to get the same information.

The /var/log/Xorg.0.log also shows properly:

(II) intel(0): EDID vendor "NEC", prod id 26345
(II) intel(0): I2C device "HDMIDDC_C:E-EDID segment register" registered at address 0x60.
(II) intel(0): I2C device "HDMIDDC_C:ddc2" registered at address 0xA0.
(II) intel(0): EDID vendor "DEL", prod id 41027

I could always parse that file, but it is not the best solution...

I also tried the ddprobe command, but for some reason, it only detects one of the screens (the Dell, connected to a DVI cable)

I am currently using Ubuntu 9.04 and Python2.4 (just in case it's relevant)

Thank you very much in advance!

[JosePF]

Hi,
You could try installing read-edid and run get-edid or get-edid | parse-edid.

I hope this help you
Regards

[BorrajaX]

Thank you for your reply.

I tried that and it doesn't seem to recognize my second monitor (the NEC)...

aer@aer-desktop:~$ sudo get-edid | parse-edid
parse-edid: parse-edid version 1.4.1
get-edid: get-edid version 1.4.1

Performing real mode VBE call
Interrupt 0x10 ax=0x4f00 bx=0x0 cx=0x0
Function supported
Call successful

VBE version 300
VBE string at 0x11110 "Intel(r)Eaglelake Graphics Chip Accelerated VGA BIOS"

VBE/DDC service about to be called
Report DDC capabilities

Performing real mode VBE call
Interrupt 0x10 ax=0x4f15 bx=0x0 cx=0x0
Function supported
Call successful

Monitor and video card combination does not support DDC1 transfers
Monitor and video card combination supports DDC2 transfers
0 seconds per 128 byte EDID block transfer
Screen is not blanked during DDC transfer

Reading next EDID block

VBE/DDC service about to be called
Read EDID

Performing real mode VBE call
Interrupt 0x10 ax=0x4f15 bx=0x1 cx=0x0
Function supported
Call successful

parse-edid: EDID checksum passed.

# EDID version 1 revision 3
Section "Monitor"
# Block type: 2:0 3:ff
# Block type: 2:0 3:fc
Identifier "DELL S2209W"
VendorName "DEL"
ModelName "DELL S2209W"
# Block type: 2:0 3:ff
# Block type: 2:0 3:fc
# Block type: 2:0 3:fd
HorizSync 30-83
VertRefresh 50-76
# Max dot clock (video bandwidth) 170 MHz
# DPMS capabilities: Active off:yes Suspend:yes Standby:yes

Mode "1920x1080" # vfreq 60.000Hz, hfreq 67.500kHz
DotClock 148.500000
HTimings 1920 2008 2052 2200
VTimings 1080 1084 1089 1125
Flags "+HSync" "+VSync"
EndMode
# Block type: 2:0 3:ff
# Block type: 2:0 3:fc
# Block type: 2:0 3:fd
EndSection


I swear the NEC is "on" (I made sure it was being recognized by gnome-display-properties when I tried the read the edid)

[BorrajaX]

I am going to reply to myself...

The command xrandr seems to work fine and provides me the EDID of the screens

[JosePF]

hi,
i used xrandr but it is not show model and vendor,
what flags have to be used to show model and vendor?

[BorrajaX]

Well... I got it from the raw edid data...

I got the format from the Wikipedia (look for "EDID", Extended_display_identification_data)

If you execute:
xrandr -q --verbose

You will see among the output a block saying:

	EDID_DATA:
		00ffffffffffff0010ac43a055465032
		1413010380301b78eeee91a3544c9926
		0f5054a54b00714f8180d1c001010101
		010101010101023a801871382d40582c
		4500dd0c1100001e000000ff004e3736
		3448393547325046550a000000fc0044
		454c4c205332323039570a20000000fd
		00324c1e5311000a20202020202000ec

The header is:
00ffffffffffff00

The information about the manufacturer comes right after that and is in:
10ac
and the information about the model comes in the following 2 bytes (4 chars)
43a0

For the manufacturer:
10ac = 0001 0000 1010 1100
Reorganizing: 0[00100 00101 01100]
00100 = 4 (4th letter in the alphabet: D)
00101 = 5 (5th letter in the alphabet: E)
01100 = 12 (12th letter in the alphabet: L)
DEL (my Dell monitor)

For the model:
Reorganize 43a0 => a043
Make it decimal 41027
That's the model that the Xorg.log is showing

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep EDID
(II) intel(0): EDID vendor "DEL", prod id 41027

Hope it helps

[JosePF]

Thank you very much for information
it is very usefull for me.

Regards

[BorrajaX]

Glad I helped