Nvidia dual monitor not spanning after reboot

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Krellan

Nvidia dual monitor not spanning after reboot

Post by Krellan »

I'm running Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon, on an Acer Nitro 5 laptop, using proprietary Nvidia drivers. I am using a multiple monitor setup: the laptop's built-in screen, and an external monitor connected over HDMI. External monitor is Asus PB258Q, 2560x1440 resolution. Laptop is 1920x1080 resolution. GPU is Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050. Laptop also has an Intel GPU, which (hopefully) I'm not also using at the moment.

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this happening over a decade ago, I don't remember what I did back then to solve it, but things were very different, so no longer applicable.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):

Code: Select all

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

Here's output of "xrandr -q" command:

Code: Select all

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
Here's output of "inxi -Fxz" command:

Code: Select all

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 
Josh
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
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lsemmens
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Re: Nvidia dual monitor not spanning after reboot

Post by lsemmens »

I am using a similar setup and wrote myself installation instructions to make system re-loads easier (given that I have numerous machines that I use).

Select [Driver manager] from the menu
Enter your Password if requested
<Click> on the appropriate drivers (some will say “recommended”)
<Click> on [Apply Changes]
<Click> on [Restart] if required

IIRC there are nVidia drivers there that work
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Krellan

Re: Nvidia dual monitor not spanning after reboot

Post by Krellan »

Installation of the Nvidia driver isn't a problem. That all worked fine.

Do you remember which version of the Nvidia driver worked for you? I'm running Nvidia driver version 384.111-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 according to Driver Manager.

Josh
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