[Jayes]

I run Kodi on a laptop with Debian Trixie. I have KDE installed, but SDDM automatically logs into Kodi. I have a regular TV connected to the laptop via HDMI. I have Kodi configured to use the HDMI output and it works well.

The laptop is right next to the TV so I prefer it with a dark screen. When I check "blank other displays" in Kodi the laptop screen switches off - no problem.

Ater a restart of the system, however, Kodi shows up on the TV in the wrong position. About 1/3 of the left of the Kodi is shown on 1/3 on the right of the TV. Kodi has, in other words, shifted to the right with 2/3 of it now off the screen.

Turning "blank other displays" off fixes it.

I don't think this is a bug. In fact, I don't think Kodi is to blame at all. It probably has something to do with my Debian/KDE installation. I have searched everywhere but cannot find a solution.

Your help would be much appreciated.

Johan Spee

[PatK]

If this was a windows machine I would send you here. I don't know how you could inject an edid override in a linux machine and I'm not even sure it would be the magic bullet, but it's my 2 cents.

[DaVu]

It is possible to add a custom EDID (if that's what is needed). An example can be found here: https://github.com/LibreELEC/LibreELEC.t...ts/getedid

I wrote that script ages ago and it should at least a fast overview of what needs to be done to inject a custom EDID either for Inte/AMD or NVidia.

[Jayes]

It should not be all that difficult.
I also had this problem on Debian 12. I tweaked everything I could think of in KDE and Kodi ... and one day I started the laptop up and it worked. But I had no idea why.
I now installed Debian 13 and again I tweaked everything I could think of in KDE and Kodi ... to no avail.

It's frustrating. I can be done.
But how?

[DaVu]

Getting the EDID isn't that difficult. Just have a look at the script I wrote.

Most likely you are able to copy and paste most of it and use it on your machine. It might fail due to the check_file function which might only work on LibreELEC. But getting the EDID, store it in a seperated file and either add it to the Kernel command line (for intel) or add it to xorg.conf (for nvidia) isn't that hard. 

The script was written for LibreELEC due to sound problems or when the HDMI handshake couldn't be done, because the AVR wasn't switched on before the LibreELEC device. So we created a EDID from a fully running system and use that instead of waiting for the handshake on every boot. 

Anyway...this could help you probably. 

In case you don't understand the script (which is totally fine), we're happy to assist. Just tell me if that's needed

[Jayes]

Problem solved: Closing the laptop lid not only hides the screen from view, it also turns it off (the screen, not the laptop).

[PatK]

Thread marked solved.

[Jayes]

I spoke too soon... closing the lid does not turn the laptop off but it does prevent starting it up. Bios has no fix for this.
Back at square one...

[Jayes]

The script did not run, but it think I have trimmed it down to the essentials:

#!/bin/sh
for i in /sys/class/drm/*; do
  card="$(echo "$i" | cut -d / -f 5)"
  echo "CARD: $card"
  edit="$(echo "$i" | cut -d / -f 5 | sed 's/card[0-9]-//g')"
  echo "EDIT: $edit"
done
 
This tells me I have HDMI-A-1 (HDMI out) and eDP-1 (laptop screen)

I worked with this when testing LibreElec. I appended "video=HDMI-A-1 video=eDP-1:d" to the append line in syslinux.cfg
This enabled the HDMI and disabled the laptop screen.

I have no idea where to put this in a Debian system though (GRUB's kernel params?)

But there is a problem with this. It disables the laptop screen permanently. I wont be able to switch screens from Kodi and the laptop screen will not be activated when the HDMI cable is not plugged in.

[basilgello]

I have recently encountered the related bug: turning "Blank other displays" on blanks the HDMI monitor as well. This did not happen on a newer LG 4K panels but started on very old Samsung panel in the new place. Debug log with X category enabled would be interesting to look at.

[Jayes]

With two active screens Kodi suffered badly from horizontal tearing. I tried every trick to fix that - to no avail.
In the end I solved all my problems by not logging into Kodi, but into KDE and start Kodo as an application there. Latop screen now switches off (KDE handles that). Tearing is gone.

Case not really solved, but still closed.

Thanks for your advice.