Some prerequisites.

Distro: Debian 12 bookworm, xfce;

Board: Orange Pi 4 LTS;

Screen: Samsung SyncMaster 923NW, 1440x900_60, VGA.

Using hdmi to vga adapter with vga cable. Tried one piece hdmi to vga cable. Tried other all in one adapter that goes in to the screen and goes to hdmi cable.

 

The problem.

While running armbian distro screen resolution is set to be 1080p by default. Using xrandr I can not set it to suggested 900p. Every time I set any other resolution - screen turns black until I set it back to 1080p. It is not a hardware issue, because right now I am running headless Debian bullseye from orange pi and the resolution is set 900p by default, it works.

 

I have tried adding new modes, tried other resolutions and most of them have led me to the black screen.

 

Brothers, I am confused. Any help is welcome.

On 6/29/2025 at 8:56 PM, vplanida said:

Distro: Debian 12 bookworm, xfce;

I meant to say "armbian", my apologies

Debian 12 and 13 have trouble establishing the correct EDID for the monitor, which is why it doesn't recognize resolutions correctly.

I spent two weeks reading and testing everything until I found the solution.

You need to connect the monitor to a Windows PC, install and run the CRU program.

This program correctly reads the monitor's EDID. Simply export the data and save it as a BIN file.

Then, reconnect the monitor to your Orange Pi device. Copy the exported .bin file to this directory: /lib/firmware/edid/

Next, you need to load the parameters into the kernel:

Edit the armbianEnv.txt file and add:

extraargs=drm.edid_firmware=HDMI-A-1:edid/you_file.bin video=HDMI-A-1:1024x600@60

Set your chosen resolution.

Restart and verify: `cat /proc/cmdline`

Check that the string loading your custom EDID appears.