Dual Screen - One Screen Only Shows Mouse

[Collisteru]

Hi! I'd like to set up a dual-screen system by plugging in an external monitor and extending my laptop screen. I've been fiddling with the XFCE settings: I can mirror screens, change their position, etc, but I can't extend one screen into another. The closest I've come so far is having my entire desktop on one screen while the other screen shows black. When I move my mouse into the other screen, it shows up as expected. However, when I drag a window into the other screen, it disappears: only my mouse is visible.

Which screen is black depends on my display settings: I've gotten this to happen with both screens. Previous users have mentioned using the recommended drivers. Interestingly, the driver manager didn't come with my mint installation (20.1 Ulyssa). When I installed and ran it, it simply states "Your computer does not need any additional drivers."

How can I fix this so that my desktop is visible on both screens?

inxi -Fxxxrz:

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 5.8.0-43-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A 
  Desktop: Xfce 4.14.2 tk: Gtk 3.24.13 wm: xfwm4 dm: LightDM 
  Distro: Linux Mint 20.1 Ulyssa base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:
  Type: Convertible System: Dell product: Inspiron 5406 2n1 v: N/A 
  serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 31 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: Dell model: 0VMRNH v: A00 serial: <filter> UEFI: Dell v: 1.1.8 
  date: 12/17/2020 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 41.7 Wh condition: 41.7/39.8 Wh (105%) volts: 12.9/11.2 
  model: BYD DELL CF5RH0A serial: <filter> status: Full 
  Device-1: hid-0018:04F3:2A81.0001-battery model: CUST0000:00 04F3:2A81 
  serial: N/A charge: N/A status: N/A 
CPU:
  Topology: Quad Core model: 11th Gen Intel Core i7-1165G7 bits: 64 
  type: MCP arch: Tiger Lake rev: 1 L2 cache: 12.0 MiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx 
  bogomips: 13516 
  Speed: 1660 MHz min/max: 400/1700 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1680 2: 1647 
  3: 1700 4: 1488 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
  chip ID: 8086:9a49 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
  compositor: compton resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz, 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel Xe Graphics (TGL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.2.6 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel vendor: Dell driver: sof-audio-pci bus ID: 00:1f.3 
  chip ID: 8086:a0c8 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.8.0-43-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Intel driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: 3000 bus ID: 00:14.3 
  chip ID: 8086:a0f0 
  IF: wlp0s20f3 state: up mac: <filter> 
  IF-ID-1: virbr0 state: up speed: 10 Mbps duplex: unknown mac: <filter> 
  IF-ID-2: virbr0-nic state: down mac: <filter> 
  IF-ID-3: vnet0 state: unknown speed: 10 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 953.87 GiB used: 102.46 GiB (10.7%) 
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: PM981a NVMe 1024GB 
  size: 953.87 GiB speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 329.73 GiB used: 102.37 GiB (31.0%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/nvme0n1p7 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 46.0 C mobo: N/A 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 2442 
Repos:
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/christian-boxdoerfer-fsearch-daily-focal.list 
  1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/christian-boxdoerfer/fsearch-daily/ubuntu focal main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list 
  1: deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/home:bgstack15:Chicago95.list 
  1: deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/bgstack15:/Chicago95/xUbuntu_20.04/ /
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
  1: deb http://mirrors.evowise.com/linuxmint/packages ulyssa main upstream import backport
  2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
  3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
  4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
  5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
  6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
Info:
  Processes: 251 Uptime: 1d 18h 47m Memory: 15.37 GiB used: 8.85 GiB (57.5%) 
  Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Shell: bash 
  v: 5.0.17 running in: xfce4-terminal inxi: 3.0.38 

xrandr:

Code: Select all

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 3840 x 1080, maximum 16384 x 16384
eDP-1 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 309mm x 174mm
   1920x1080     60.00*+  59.97    59.96    59.93    48.00  
   1680x1050     59.95    59.88  
   1600x1024     60.17  
   1400x1050     59.98  
   1600x900      59.99    59.94    59.95    59.82  
   1280x1024     60.02  
   1440x900      59.89  
   1400x900      59.96    59.88  
   1280x960      60.00  
   1440x810      60.00    59.97  
   1368x768      59.88    59.85  
   1360x768      59.80    59.96  
   1280x800      59.99    59.97    59.81    59.91  
   1152x864      60.00  
   1280x720      60.00    59.99    59.86    59.74  
   1024x768      60.04    60.00  
   960x720       60.00  
   928x696       60.05  
   896x672       60.01  
   1024x576      59.95    59.96    59.90    59.82  
   960x600       59.93    60.00  
   960x540       59.96    59.99    59.63    59.82  
   800x600       60.00    60.32    56.25  
   840x525       60.01    59.88  
   864x486       59.92    59.57  
   800x512       60.17  
   700x525       59.98  
   800x450       59.95    59.82  
   640x512       60.02  
   720x450       59.89  
   700x450       59.96    59.88  
   640x480       60.00    59.94  
   720x405       59.51    58.99  
   684x384       59.88    59.85  
   680x384       59.80    59.96  
   640x400       59.88    59.98  
   576x432       60.06  
   640x360       59.86    59.83    59.84    59.32  
   512x384       60.00  
   512x288       60.00    59.92  
   480x270       59.63    59.82  
   400x300       60.32    56.34  
   432x243       59.92    59.57  
   320x240       60.05  
   360x202       59.51    59.13  
   320x180       59.84    59.32  
HDMI-1 connected 1920x1080+1920+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 527mm x 296mm
   1920x1080     60.00*+  50.00    59.94  
   1920x1080i    60.00    50.00    59.94  
   1600x900      60.00  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1152x864      75.00  
   1280x720      60.00    50.00    59.94  
   1024x768      75.03    60.00  
   800x600       75.00    60.32  
   720x576       50.00  
   720x576i      50.00  
   720x480       60.00    59.94  
   720x480i      60.00    59.94  
   640x480       75.00    60.00    59.94  
   720x400       70.08  
DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

[nickcat325]

You could try some simple fixes. Go to Driver Manager and see if your computer needs additional drivers. Type sudo apt-get update in the terminal.

[SMG]

Previous users have mentioned using the recommended drivers. Interestingly, the driver manager didn't come with my mint installation (20.1 Ulyssa). When I installed and ran it, it simply states "Your computer does not need any additional drivers."

The video drivers for Intel are included in the kernel and load when you boot the system. Only third-party driver are available through Driver Manager and Intel is open-source, not third party.

Your graphics drivers are installed and appear to be correct. Both monitors are also showing in the output.
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0
chip ID: 8086:9a49
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa
compositor: compton resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz, 1920x1080~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel Xe Graphics (TGL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.2.6
direct render: Yes

I've been fiddling with the XFCE settings: I can mirror screens, change their position, etc, but I can't extend one screen into another.

Which sounds like both screens are working and this is not a driver issue.

The closest I've come so far is having my entire desktop on one screen while the other screen shows black. When I move my mouse into the other screen, it shows up as expected. However, when I drag a window into the other screen, it disappears: only my mouse is visible.

Which screen is black depends on my display settings: I've gotten this to happen with both screens.

Could you show some screenshots of your settings when you are seeing the black screen? (You can use an image-sharing site such as ibb.)

[Collisteru]

Here are the settings that appear for the default "mirror screens" mode. This works perfectly.

https://ibb.co/yqy5v4S


Here's the setting that gets me the closest to what I want. My laptop screen is to the right of the external monitor, and this setting replicates that (ignoring height issues for the moment). My laptop screen is completely black except for the mouse. I got here by clicking on "Mirror Displays" twice (the first time turns the dash into a checkmark, the second time turns the field blank), then reordering the two screens so that the Laptop screen is to the right of the monitor.

https://ibb.co/KwNMBxh

[SMG]

I do not have Xfce, but here is Xfce Display settings explained. It may be you want to set up a profile as explained in the lower half of the page.