HDMI port not detected in Ubuntu 18.04

Question

I have recently bought an hp Zbook 15 G5 where I have installed an Ubuntu 18.04 partition. I want to connect it to a monitor, but if does not work. The HDMI port is not detected at all. This is the output of the xrandr command:

xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default
Screen 0: minimum 1920 x 1080, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 1920 x 1080
default connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 0mm x 0mm
   1920x1080     77.00* 

And this is the output of the lspci -v command:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Device 3ec4 (rev 07)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 842a
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Skylake PCIe Controller (x16) (rev 07) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 00004000-00004fff
Memory behind bridge: e8000000-e90fffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000a0000000-00000000b1ffffff
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:04.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Skylake Processor Thermal Subsystem (rev 07)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Thermal Subsystem
Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 16
Memory at 404a100000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: proc_thermal
Kernel modules: processor_thermal_device

00:12.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Device a379 (rev 10)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 842a
Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 16
Memory at 404a111000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: intel_pch_thermal
Kernel modules: intel_pch_thermal

00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Device a36d (rev 10) (prog-if 30 [XHCI])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 842a
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 124
Memory at ed220000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd

00:14.2 RAM memory: Intel Corporation Device a36f (rev 10)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 842a
Flags: fast devsel
Memory at ed236000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=8K]
Memory at 404a110000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=4K]
Capabilities: <access denied>

00:14.3 Network controller: Intel Corporation Device a370 (rev 10)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device 0030
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
Memory at ed230000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi
Kernel modules: iwlwifi

00:15.0 Serial bus controller [0c80]: Intel Corporation Device a368 (rev 10)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 842a
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
Memory at 404a10e000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: intel-lpss
Kernel modules: intel_lpss_pci

00:15.1 Serial bus controller [0c80]: Intel Corporation Device a369 (rev 10)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 842a
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
Memory at 404a10f000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: intel-lpss
Kernel modules: intel_lpss_pci

00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Device a360 (rev 10)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 842a
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 141
Memory at 404a10d000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: mei_me
Kernel modules: mei_me

00:16.3 Serial controller: Intel Corporation Device a363 (rev 10) (prog-if 02 [16550])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 842a
Flags: 66MHz, fast devsel, IRQ 19
I/O ports at 5048 [size=8]
Memory at ed23b000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: serial

00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Device a353 (rev 10) (prog-if 01 [AHCI 1.0])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 842a
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 126
Memory at ed234000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Memory at ed23a000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
I/O ports at 5040 [size=8]
I/O ports at 5050 [size=4]
I/O ports at 5020 [size=32]
Memory at ed239000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: ahci
Kernel modules: ahci

00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device a33a (rev f0) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 121
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=03, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 00003000-00003fff
Memory behind bridge: e4000000-e7ffffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000e9100000-00000000ed0fffff
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device a33c (rev f0) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 122
Bus: primary=00, secondary=04, subordinate=6e, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 00006000-00006fff
Memory behind bridge: b4000000-e20fffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 0000004000000000-0000004049ffffff
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device a330 (rev f0) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 123
Bus: primary=00, secondary=6f, subordinate=6f, sec-latency=0
Memory behind bridge: ed100000-ed1fffff
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Device a30e (rev 10)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 842a
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0

00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Device a348 (rev 10) (prog-if 80)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 842a
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 156
Memory at 404a108000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Memory at 404a000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1M]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel

00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Device a323 (rev 10)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 842a
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 16
Memory at 404a10c000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
I/O ports at efa0 [size=32]
Kernel driver in use: i801_smbus
Kernel modules: i2c_i801

00:1f.5 Serial bus controller [0c80]: Intel Corporation Device a324 (rev 10)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 842a
Flags: fast devsel
Memory at fe010000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]

00:1f.6 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection (7) I219-LM (rev 10)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Ethernet Connection (7) I219-LM
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 128
Memory at ed200000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: e1000e
Kernel modules: e1000e

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation Device 1cba (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 842c
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 255
Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at a0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
I/O ports at 4000 [size=128]
Expansion ROM at e9000000 [disabled] [size=512K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau

02:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS525A PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company RTS525A PCI Express Card Reader
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 125
Memory at e4000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: rtsx_pci
Kernel modules: rtsx_pci

6f:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Device a808 (prog-if 02 [NVM Express])
Subsystem: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd Device a801
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16, NUMA node 0
Memory at ed100000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: nvme
Kernel modules: nvme 

I've read many other answers about this, but in other cases the HDMI seems to be just disconnected. I also tried following this answer, but Ubuntu wouldn't reboot and I had to remove the files I had created from the recovery mode.

The HDMI port works from the original Windows 10 installation.
Any idea of what I can do?

Solution

Answer comes from comments:

HP recommends that the HP Zbook 15 G5 uses Nvidia's proprietary (closed source) driver for HDMI externally connected displays: HP Docs

footnote 10 - With Nvidia-based configurations, it is recommended to use the Nvidia closed source driver when using externally connected displays. It is not currently recommended to use externally connected monitors with AMD graphics options.

The OP's lspci -v output clearly shows that they are not using the proprietary driver, and therefore they need to download and install the driver from Nvidia's website (nvidia.ko I believe): Nvidia Drivers

Comments

[bgregs]

From HPs website (see footnote 10): h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00060684.pdf "footnote 10 - With NVIDIA-based configurations, it is recommended to use the NVIDIA closed source driver when using externally connected displays. It is not currently recommended to use externally connected displays with AMD graphics options at this time."

[inespm]

Hi @bgregs , can you explain what the footnote 10 means? I don't know what is the NVIDIA closed source driver, or the AMD graphics options. Thanks. @fra-san , I've put the output of the lspci -v command.

[bgregs]

You can see the driver in use by your GPU in your 'lspci' output above (Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau). Use the closed source (developed by Nvidia) instead: nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/140135/en-us. You may need to configure the kernel to use the closed source driver instead, but that information is readily available online :)

[fra-san]

To install the proprietary Nvidia driver I'd suggest to follow the thorough answer to this question on askubuntu. (Please, note that on SE sites only the first user that is mentioned in a comment is notified. You have to leave one comment per recipient to make sure all of them are notified).