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/