get-edid

Retrieve raw EDID from a monitor via DDC

TLDR

Fetch raw EDID from the first found monitor (requires root)

$ sudo get-edid

Fetch EDID and parse it into an xorg.conf-style monitor section

$ sudo get-edid | parse-edid

Save raw EDID to a file

$ sudo get-edid > monitor.bin

Scan only a specific I2C bus

$ sudo get-edid --bus 5 > monitor.bin

Use only the modern I2C interface

$ sudo get-edid --i2conly | parse-edid

Use only the older VBE/real-mode interface

$ sudo get-edid --classiconly | parse-edid

Quiet mode (no progress messages on stderr)

$ sudo get-edid -q > monitor.bin

get-edid is part of the read-edid toolkit. It retrieves the raw Extended Display Identification Data (EDID) block from a connected monitor using the VESA Data Display Channel (DDC). It can talk to the display through Linux I2C (Enhanced DDC) or, on supported builds, through real-mode VBE DDC calls.The program writes the binary EDID to standard output. Companion tool parse-edid reads that binary stream and prints a human-readable summary plus an xorg.conf-compatible Monitor section (modelines usable with xrandr). The usual workflow is to pipe the two together: get-edid | parse-edid.On modern systems, reading **/sys/class/drm/\*/edid and decoding with edid-decode is often simpler and does not require root; get-edid** remains useful when sysfs EDID is missing or when configuring displays from a lower-level DDC path.

PARAMETERS

-b BUS, --bus BUS

Only scan I2C bus number BUS (when built with i2c support).

-c, --classiconly

Use only the older VBE interface (when both i2c and VBE are available).

-h, --help

Display a short help message and list build-supported options.

-i, --i2conly

Use only the I2C interface (when both i2c and VBE are available).

-m NUM, --monitor NUM

Request information for monitor number NUM (VBE interface only).

-q, --quiet

Suppress status messages on standard error.

INSTALL

sudo apt install read-edid

sudo pacman -S read-edid

nix profile install nixpkgs#read-edid

CAVEATS

Usually needs root (or CAPSYSRAWIO / access to the relevant /dev/i2c-* devices). Not all video cards and monitors implement DDC reliably; some combinations return partial or empty data. Multi-monitor setups may require --bus or --monitor to select the right display. Prefer edid-decode on **/sys/class/drm/\*/edid** when kernel DRM exposes EDID for the connector.

HISTORY

read-edid was originally written by John Fremlin. From version 1.4.2, Matthew Kern became maintainer and largely rewrote the tools for 3.0.0, adding I2C support and the current option set. Homepage: http://www.polypux.org/projects/read-edid/.

RESOURCES

Homepage