Note that VGA predates “plug and play”. This means that a few older “standard modes” are supported, and not the more modern wider aspect modes. All other modes would require the end user to have a “driver disk” from the manufacturer and to install that driver disk, or else to use a database of known specs from the various manufacturers.
Plug-n-play implies the video card actually queries the monitor and no longer requires outside user intervention for configuration. The wire is known as the “DDC” wire, and is not present in VGA. The actual data is passed via i2c protocol and is the “EDID” data.
The driver for the embedded system GPU is designed to work with EDID data after a query of the monitor. Jetsons do not have the extra software for specifying a monitor’s details via an extra install of a driver disk for the specific monitor.
Note also that VGA implies you need a RAMDAC (it takes more hardware to support VGA than it does purely digital video). Not only does this use power, it also has a severe impact on video quality as resolution and scan rates go up. You would end up paying more for VGA capable of higher resolutions and rates than you would for a purely digital signal (lower resolutions are obviously not a problem, but there are some very very good reasons why you don’t see QHD, UHD, and many other modern resolutions with a VGA connector).
Normally, if a system is not running a GUI, then you can switch among text-only consoles via key bindings of “ALT-F#” where “#” is usually “1” through “6” (using a directly attached keyboard). If a GUI is already running (or if a GUI is being attempted and failing), then you must also use “CTRL”…the key binding becomes “CTRL-ALT-F1” through “CTRL-ALT-F6”. It depends on the system which console is not GUI, but usually CTRL-ALT-F2 is a pure text console and has no dependency on GUI software (or just ALT-F2 if you are already in a text-only console).
If this is only a GUI issue (and the system is otherwise actually running), then either CTRL-ALT-F2 or ALT-F2 will probably show a text prompt.
I think most people reading this post including me need to know how to connect 2 hdmi monitors, since most monitors don’t have a dp port. And most adapters won’t work, as I directly experienced.
I tested the “Amazon’s choice” one and another cheap chinese unknown brand, both not working.
I read here in a post that some active cables do work. But actually I need, as many others I presume, a dp-male to hdmi-female short adapter, not really a cable.
I found this dp-hdmi active adapter from CableCreation:
Just wish to let you know that everything works fine here with the adapter. I tested it with an Asus 24” Full HD monitor and a Panasonic 1920x1200 video projector.