This works well, but the Nvidia driver doesn't hold multiple monitor settings over across reboot. It resets them all to "clone" mode, where all monitors show the same thing, losing the benefit of spanning a large desktop across multiple monitors.
This is a classic bug in the Nvidia driver. I remember this happening over a decade ago, I don't remember what I did back then to solve it, but things were very different, so no longer applicable.
In System Settings / Display app, I have dragged each monitor position to be unique, so they aren't overlapping. They are touching at one edge, so I can smoothly move the cursor across. All looks good here.
However, in NVIDIA X Server Settings app, Nvidia only sees one monitor, the external monitor, the Asus PB258Q at 2560x1440. The laptop screen is not detected at all. Hitting "Detect Displays" gives a somewhat confusing error message about not being able to apply changes due to the running X server, giving me the choice to reload settings or cancel. I tried both, it didn't make a difference.
After a reboot, things get strange. The spanned monitor settings are lost, so it goes back to the default of being all in "clone" mode. The laptop screen and the external screen show the same thing, except because the external screen is bigger, everything appears in only the upper left corner of it. The taskbar, which should be along an edge of the screen, is right in the middle! It looks rather silly, but still works. Interestingly, I can position windows both above and below the taskbar, it's not forced to be black or anything like that. The monitor is still being driven at its proper resolution, but the software is confused.
In the System Settings / Display app, there's also a weird bug. Each of the 2 monitors shows both identification rectangles in the corner! So, a total of 4 identification rectangles appear, looking at my entire system. It's strange. Both of the monitors are also positioned exactly on top of each other. I can sort it out manually by rearranging the monitor positions again, and hitting Apply a few times, but this is cumbersome to do every reboot.
Any suggestions? Thanks!
Josh
Here's the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file written by NVIDIA X Server Settings app (although xorg.conf files are deprecated these days, somebody forgot to tell Nvidia):
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Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "layout"
Screen 0 "nvidia"
Inactive "intel"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "intel"
Driver "modesetting"
BusID "PCI:0@0:2:0"
Option "AccelMethod" "None"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "intel"
Device "intel"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "nvidia"
Driver "nvidia"
BusID "PCI:1@0:0:0"
Option "ConstrainCursor" "off"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "nvidia"
Device "nvidia"
Option "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration" "on"
Option "IgnoreDisplayDevices" "CRT"
EndSection
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Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 4480 x 1440, maximum 32767 x 32767
HDMI-0 connected primary 2560x1440+1920+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 553mm x 311mm
2560x1440 59.95*+
1920x1080 60.00 59.94 50.00 29.97 25.00 23.97 60.00 50.04
1680x1050 59.95
1440x900 59.89
1440x576 50.00
1440x480 59.94
1280x1024 75.02 60.02
1280x960 60.00
1280x800 59.81
1280x720 60.00 59.94 50.00
1152x864 75.00
1024x768 75.03 70.07 60.00
800x600 75.00 72.19 60.32 56.25
720x576 50.00
720x480 59.94
640x480 75.00 59.94 59.93
eDP-1-1 connected 1920x1080+0+360 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 344mm x 194mm
1920x1080 60.03*+ 59.93
1680x1050 59.95 59.88
1600x1024 60.17
1400x1050 59.98
1280x1024 60.02
1440x900 59.89
1280x960 60.00
1360x768 59.80 59.96
1152x864 60.00
1024x768 60.04 60.00
960x720 60.00
928x696 60.05
896x672 60.01
960x600 60.00
960x540 59.99
800x600 60.00 60.32 56.25
840x525 60.01 59.88
800x512 60.17
700x525 59.98
640x512 60.02
720x450 59.89
640x480 60.00 59.94
680x384 59.80 59.96
576x432 60.06
512x384 60.00
400x300 60.32 56.34
320x240 60.05
1680x1050 (0x46) 146.250MHz -HSync +VSync
h: width 1680 start 1784 end 1960 total 2240 skew 0 clock 65.29KHz
v: height 1050 start 1053 end 1059 total 1089 clock 59.95Hz
1280x1024 (0x4a) 108.000MHz +HSync +VSync
h: width 1280 start 1328 end 1440 total 1688 skew 0 clock 63.98KHz
v: height 1024 start 1025 end 1028 total 1066 clock 60.02Hz
1440x900 (0x4b) 106.500MHz -HSync +VSync
h: width 1440 start 1520 end 1672 total 1904 skew 0 clock 55.93KHz
v: height 900 start 903 end 909 total 934 clock 59.89Hz
1280x960 (0x4c) 108.000MHz +HSync +VSync
h: width 1280 start 1376 end 1488 total 1800 skew 0 clock 60.00KHz
v: height 960 start 961 end 964 total 1000 clock 60.00Hz
1024x768 (0x51) 65.000MHz -HSync -VSync
h: width 1024 start 1048 end 1184 total 1344 skew 0 clock 48.36KHz
v: height 768 start 771 end 777 total 806 clock 60.00Hz
800x600 (0x58) 40.000MHz +HSync +VSync
h: width 800 start 840 end 968 total 1056 skew 0 clock 37.88KHz
v: height 600 start 601 end 605 total 628 clock 60.32Hz
800x600 (0x59) 36.000MHz +HSync +VSync
h: width 800 start 824 end 896 total 1024 skew 0 clock 35.16KHz
v: height 600 start 601 end 603 total 625 clock 56.25Hz
640x480 (0x61) 25.175MHz -HSync -VSync
h: width 640 start 656 end 752 total 800 skew 0 clock 31.47KHz
v: height 480 start 490 end 492 total 525 clock 59.94Hz
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System: Host: <redacted> Kernel: 4.13.0-41-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
Desktop: Cinnamon 3.6.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3) Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine: System: Acer product: Nitro AN515-51 v: V1.13
Mobo: KBL model: Freed_KLS v: V1.13 Bios: Insyde v: V1.13 date: 12/26/2017
CPU: Quad core Intel Core i7-7700HQ (-HT-MCP-) cache: 6144 KB
flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 22464
clock speeds: max: 3800 MHz 1: 900 MHz 2: 908 MHz 3: 917 MHz 4: 905 MHz 5: 905 MHz 6: 909 MHz
7: 1526 MHz 8: 904 MHz
Graphics: Card-1: Intel Device 591b bus-ID: 00:02.0
Card-2: NVIDIA Device 1c8d bus-ID: 01:00.0
Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 driver: nvidia Resolution: 2560x1440@59.95hz, 1920x1080@60.03hz
GLX Renderer: GeForce GTX 1050/PCIe/SSE2 GLX Version: 4.5.0 NVIDIA 384.111 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card-1 NVIDIA Device 0fb9 driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1 Sound: ALSA v: k4.13.0-41-generic
Card-2 Intel Device a171 driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1f.3
Card-3 C-Media Audio Adapter driver: USB Audio usb-ID: 001-009
Network: Card-1: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter driver: ath10k_pci bus-ID: 02:00.0
IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Card-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: 3000 bus-ID: 03:00.1
IF: enp3s0f1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: NA (-) ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 model: N/A size: 256.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 63G used: 11G (18%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p5
ID-2: /home size: 108G used: 1.5G (2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p6
RAID: No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 52.5C mobo: 29.8C gpu: 0.0:47C
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 246 Uptime: 21 min Memory: 1302.8/15923.7MB Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35