Hi Calamity,
It got it to work! :-)
Your EDID path led the way
(For the record again i am using latest Ubuntu kernel 4.10.1 patched with 15Khz and running groovymame0.183 on sony BVM CRT through VGA to RGB-Sync with BNC (using a H&V sync combiner circuit found with google-Fu ;-)
Here's what i did to fix my display issue:
1) copied Ansa89's edid_generic15.bin file to ubuntu's /lib/firmware (thanks Ansa89 ! :-)
2) added GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash video=VGA-1:e drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=VGA-1:edid_generic15.bin" to /etc/default/grub
3)sudo update-grub
4)reboot
Somehow there are still errors logged in the syslog around not being able to "direct use" the firmware, but it works nonetheless:
Here's the syslog:
Mar 8 16:53:37 ed-desktop kernel: [ 0.000000] Command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.10.1-patched15khz root=UUID=1c8d60a9-ce17-4484-bd71-09e1315e27b8 ro quiet splash video=VGA-1:e drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=VGA-1:edid_generic15.bin vt.handoff=7
Mar 8 16:53:37 ed-desktop kernel: [ 0.000000] Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.10.1-patched15khz root=UUID=1c8d60a9-ce17-4484-bd71-09e1315e27b8 ro quiet splash video=VGA-1:e drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=VGA-1:edid_generic15.bin vt.handoff=7
Mar 8 16:53:37 ed-desktop kernel: [ 4.385522] platform VGA-1: Direct firmware load for edid_generic15.bin failed with error -2
Mar 8 16:53:37 ed-desktop kernel: [ 4.385543] [drm:drm_load_edid_firmware [drm_kms_helper]] *ERROR* Requesting EDID firmware "edid_generic15.bin" failed (err=-2)
Mar 8 16:53:37 ed-desktop kernel: [ 5.497531] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 16:53:37 ed-desktop kernel: [ 12.413536] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 16:53:37 ed-desktop kernel: [ 13.768118] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 16:53:45 ed-desktop kernel: [ 22.630839] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 16:53:45 ed-desktop kernel: [ 22.633098] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 16:53:55 ed-desktop kernel: [ 32.070587] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 16:53:56 ed-desktop kernel: [ 33.129477] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 16:53:57 ed-desktop kernel: [ 34.460223] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 16:54:05 ed-desktop kernel: [ 42.194829] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 16:54:24 ed-desktop kernel: [ 61.513841] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 16:55:00 ed-desktop kernel: [ 97.956600] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 16:55:01 ed-desktop kernel: [ 98.114677] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 16:55:01 ed-desktop kernel: [ 98.117011] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 16:55:01 ed-desktop kernel: [ 98.209872] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 16:55:01 ed-desktop kernel: [ 98.212362] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 16:56:13 ed-desktop kernel: [ 170.838748] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 16:56:13 ed-desktop kernel: [ 170.900699] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 16:56:13 ed-desktop kernel: [ 170.955999] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 16:56:13 ed-desktop kernel: [ 171.033257] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 17:12:42 ed-desktop kernel: [ 1159.794617] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 17:12:42 ed-desktop kernel: [ 1159.970794] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 17:12:42 ed-desktop kernel: [ 1159.973082] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 17:12:42 ed-desktop kernel: [ 1159.993149] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 17:12:42 ed-desktop kernel: [ 1159.995474] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 17:13:58 ed-desktop kernel: [ 1235.472712] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 17:14:00 ed-desktop kernel: [ 1237.519950] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 17:15:20 ed-desktop kernel: [ 1318.153548] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 17:15:20 ed-desktop kernel: [ 1318.156044] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 17:15:20 ed-desktop kernel: [ 1318.158421] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
Mar 8 17:15:21 ed-desktop kernel: [ 1318.170778] [drm] Got external EDID base block and 0 extensions from "edid_generic15.bin" for connector "VGA-1"
ed@ed-desktop:$