NAME¶

get-edid, parse-edid - read-edid tools to retrieve and interpret monitor specifications using the VESA VBE DDC protocol

SYNOPSIS¶

get-edid | parse-edid get-edid > filename parse-edid < filename

DESCRIPTION¶

The read-edid utility comprises two tools: get-edid and parse-edid. get-edid uses Linux's vm86(2) system call to enter virtual 8086 mode and perform Data Display Channel (DDC) transfers using the VESA BIOS Extensions (VBE) to retrieve information from monitors, including identification strings, supported sync ranges, available video modes, and video mode parameters. Such information is often useful for configuring X Window System servers such as XFree86. The data obtained by get-edid is in a binary format, so the parse-edid command is available to interpret it and generate a human-readable block of text information that can also be included in an XFree86 XF86Config file. It is customary to invoke get-edid and parse-edid together in a pipeline. get-edid and parse-edid accept no options, recognize no environment variables, read no input files, and create no output files.

AUTHOR¶

get-edid and parse-edid were written by John Fremlin, Dan Hugo, and Martin Kavalec, using the LRMI (Linux Real-Mode Interface) library by Josh Vanderhoof. This manual page was written by Branden Robinson, originally for Debian GNU/Linux.

SEE ALSO¶

vm86(2) John Fremlin's read-edid website at http://john.fremlin.de/programs/linux/read-edid/