How do you find out a laptop screen panel manufacturer / model with Linux? (Samsung, LG, Chi Mei, etc)

Solution 1:

Use any utility that shows the EDID information. One place to look for this information is in /var/log/Xorg.0.log

Solution 2:

My info did not show up in XOrg.log. But I figured out that I could get the info from the DRM (Direct Rendering Manager) subcomponent of the linux kernel, which is exposed in sysfs. So I did the following:

root@dark:~# ls /sys/class/drm/
card0       card0-DP-2  card0-eDP-1     card0-HDMI-A-2  card0-VGA-1  version
card0-DP-1  card0-DP-3  card0-HDMI-A-1  card0-HDMI-A-3  controlD64

You can figure out which screens are active by doing some probing here:

root@dark:/sys/class/drm# cat card0-HDMI-A-2/enabled 
enabled
root@dark:/sys/class/drm# cat card0-HDMI-A-3/enabled 
disabled

I then parsed the EDID info from the screens I was interested in as follows:

root@dark:/sys/class/drm# cat card0-HDMI-A-1/edid | edid-decode
Extracted contents:
header:          00 ff ff ff ff ff ff 00
serial number:   09 d1 0a 78 45 54 00 00 16 12
version:         01 03
basic params:    80 34 20 78 2e
chroma info:     c5 c4 a3 57 4a 9c 23 12 4f 52
established:     a5 6b 80
standard:        71 00 81 00 95 00 81 80 b3 00 a9 40 d1 00 01 01
descriptor 1:    28 3c 80 a0 70 b0 23 40 30 20 36 00 07 44 21 00 00 1a
descriptor 2:    00 00 00 ff 00 56 35 38 30 30 34 35 35 5a 4c 30 0a 20
descriptor 3:    00 00 00 fd 00 32 55 1f 5e 11 00 0a 20 20 20 20 20 20
descriptor 4:    00 00 00 fc 00 42 65 6e 51 20 47 32 34 30 30 57 0a 20
extensions:      01
checksum:        e5

Manufacturer: BNQ Model 780a Serial Number 21573
Made week 22 of 2008
EDID version: 1.3
Digital display
Maximum image size: 52 cm x 32 cm
Gamma: 2.20
DPMS levels: Off
Supported color formats: RGB 4:4:4, YCrCb 4:2:2
Default (sRGB) color space is primary color space
First detailed timing is preferred timing
Established timings supported:
  720x400@70Hz
  640x480@60Hz
  640x480@75Hz
  800x600@60Hz
  800x600@75Hz
  832x624@75Hz
  1024x768@60Hz
  1024x768@75Hz
  1280x1024@75Hz
  1152x870@75Hz
Standard timings supported:
  1152x720@60Hz
  1280x800@60Hz
  1440x900@60Hz
  1280x1024@60Hz
  1680x1050@60Hz
  1600x1200@60Hz
  1920x1200@60Hz
Detailed mode: Clock 154.000 MHz, 519 mm x 324 mm
               1920 1968 2000 2080 hborder 0
               1200 1203 1209 1235 vborder 0
               +hsync -vsync
Serial number: V5800455ZL0
 Monitor ranges: 50-85HZ vertical, 31-94kHz horizontal, max dotclock 170MHz
Monitor name: BenQ G2400W
 Has 1 extension blocks
Checksum: 0xe5

CEA extension block
Extension version: 3
22 bytes of CEA data
  Video data block
    VIC 04 
    VIC 16 (native)
    VIC 03 
    VIC 01 
    VIC 05 (native)
  Vendor-specific data block, OUI 000c03 (HDMI)
    Source physical address 1.0.0.0
  Speaker allocation data block
  Audio data block
Underscans PC formats by default
Basic audio support
Supports YCbCr 4:4:4
Supports YCbCr 4:2:2
1 native detailed modes
Detailed mode: Clock 74.250 MHz, 708 mm x 398 mm
               1280 1390 1430 1650 hborder 0
                720  725  730  750 vborder 0
               +hsync +vsync
Detailed mode: Clock 74.250 MHz, 708 mm x 398 mm
               1920 2008 2052 2200 hborder 0
                540  542  547  562 vborder 0
               +hsync +vsync interlaced
Detailed mode: Clock 27.000 MHz, 708 mm x 398 mm
                720  736  798  858 hborder 0
                480  489  495  525 vborder 0
               -hsync -vsync
Detailed mode: Clock 148.500 MHz, 708 mm x 398 mm
               1920 2008 2052 2200 hborder 0
               1080 1084 1089 1125 vborder 0
               +hsync +vsync analog composite
Detailed mode: Clock 25.180 MHz, 530 mm x 398 mm
                640  648  744  800 hborder 8
                480  482  484  525 vborder 8
               -hsync -vsync
Checksum: 0x2c

Great success!