Extend display across 2 monitors & login screen

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GusGf
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Extend display across 2 monitors & login screen

Post by GusGf »

I've got a full HD display (setup as portrait mode, on my LHS as I look at the monitor) and a 4k monitor (landscape, RHS). I've selected the 4k to be primary. But there are a couple of things annoying me.
1. The desktop background is not displaying at full res on the 4k even though it's rated at 4k. To correct this I went into settings and selected a different 4k background and then switched back again and this is now working, I'm hoping this will hold after I do a reboot.
2. The Mint login screen is appearing on the full-HD screen and in landscape mode so I have to turn my head to see it properly.
3. The UEFI BIOS flash screen and Grub menu are also appearing on the full-HD and yes you guessed it, in landscape mode.

I've set my 4k as primary in preferences so at the very least you would expect the login screen to appear on the primary but no.
Also any pointer how I get the UEFI BIOS flash screen and Grub menu to appear on the 4k monitor would be appreciated.

UPDATE: Can confirm the desktop background on the 4k monitor continues to display a lower resolution background after reboot.
Last edited by LockBot on Tue Sep 19, 2023 10:00 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Extend display across 2 monitors & login screen

Post by SMG »

GusGf wrote: Sun Mar 19, 2023 5:22 pmI've set my 4k as primary in preferences so at the very least you would expect the login screen to appear on the primary but no.
What preferences did you set? You should be able to open the Login Window App, click the Settings tab, and make sure the Monitor setting does not say "Auto". Set it to the screen on which you want the login.

If you can not set your monitor to display properly, you will need to make custom settings in LightDM if you need the login screen rotated.

If you set your preferences in the Display app, those settings only apply to your user which means they do not take affect until after the user logs in. The login screen has no way of knowing which user will log in so it can not use the settings of a user.
GusGf wrote: Sun Mar 19, 2023 5:22 pmAlso any pointer how I get the UEFI BIOS flash screen and Grub menu to appear on the 4k monitor would be appreciated.
You have told us nothing about your computer. Please open the System Reports app and click the System Information tab on the left. Your computer's information should come up in the right pane. Then click the Copy button in the lower right and paste the results into a reply window here so we can see how Linux Mint views your hardware.

Where the BIOS flash and Grub menu shows is usually a setting in the BIOS/UEFI of the computer, if there is a choice available.
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Re: Extend display across 2 monitors & login screen

Post by GusGf »

Thank you for your very helpful answer. I've set the login window to display on the 4K and hopefully when I next have to reboot this will work. I will also have a poke around in the UEFI BIOS to see if I can find a monitor selection option.
If you set your preferences in the Display app, those settings only apply to your user which means they do not take affect until after the user logs in. The login screen has no way of knowing which user will log in so it can not use the settings of a user.
If this is in regard to the resolution of the background being wrong then yes it's happening after I log in but only after a reboot. It does not seem to happen after coming out of hibernation. It's only started happening after I connected my 1920x1280 as a second display.

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Re: Extend display across 2 monitors & login screen

Post by SMG »

GusGf wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 2:09 pm Thank you for your very helpful answer. I've set the login window to display on the 4K and hopefully when I next have to reboot this will work. I will also have a poke around in the UEFI BIOS to see if I can find a monitor selection option.
If this is the correct link AB350 Pro4: BIOS it appears your system is missing updates. That might be something to consider.

Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: ASRock model: AB350 Pro4 serial: <superuser required>
UEFI: American Megatrends v: P5.80 date: 06/14/2019
GusGf wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 2:09 pmIf this is in regard to the resolution of the background being wrong then yes it's happening after I log in but only after a reboot. It does not seem to happen after coming out of hibernation. It's only started happening after I connected my 1920x1280 as a second display.
I do not understand what hibernation has to do with the issue. That is not a fresh login to the system; you are only resuming from a suspended state.

When you say it happens only after a reboot, do you mean just rebooting the operating system (warm boot) or do you mean completely shutting down the computer and doing a cold boot?

It appears both monitors are connected with DP ports. If that is correct, have you tried switching which port is used by which monitor? Sometimes just doing something like that (which seems to have no logic to it) will fix issues. There is a sequence to when each port on the GPU is started and maybe the fact one screen is much larger than the other is impacting this start up situation.

You should be able to set the orientation and resolution in the Display app, save it, and have that saved information be used to initialize the display after you log in. If it is consistently not doing that, see if setting options in the Nvidia X Server Settings app help. The Display app should take priority and should be working. It's possible this might be an issue with the Nvidia driver.
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Re: Extend display across 2 monitors & login screen

Post by GusGf »

Thanks SMG that's a good spot regarding the BIOS and will have to sort this out on the weekend. It may also lead to a solution as I'm experiencing the odd freeze-up of the system and hadn't checked but assumed my BIOS was up to date. I will update the other post I've made about this.

Just to clarify the resolution on either monitor is fine and I'm sorry for the confusion. What I'm having a problem with is the desktop background image. I've set it to 'Sele' 3840 x 2160 and it looks great. But after a cold boot/warm reboot it seems to go to a horrible VGA resolution type background image. Weirdly when I cold/warm boot the resolution of the desktop background image at the login screen on the 4k monitor is correct and now at least the login box is on that screen too but the HD monitor's orientation is wrong (no big deal and I'm not worried about this right now). But when I've logged in, the background image for the desktop on the 4k monitor goes to something like a VGA resolution! This only happens after a boot or reboot. After coming back from suspended mode or hibernation I don't have this problem.

Incidentally as per your suggestion when I opened up Nvidia Settings and made some minor changes and tried to save the X Config to /etc/X11/xorg.conf the Nvidia Settings was unable to open the X Config file! But as you say the Display app should take priority so again I'm not too worried about this.
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Re: Extend display across 2 monitors & login screen

Post by SMG »

GusGf wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 8:34 pmJust to clarify the resolution on either monitor is fine and I'm sorry for the confusion. What I'm having a problem with is the desktop background image. I've set it to 'Sele' 3840 x 2160 and it looks great. But after a cold boot/warm reboot it seems to go to a horrible VGA resolution type background image. Weirdly when I cold/warm boot the resolution of the desktop background image at the login screen on the 4k monitor is correct and now at least the login box is on that screen too but the HD monitor's orientation is wrong (no big deal and I'm not worried about this right now). But when I've logged in, the background image for the desktop on the 4k monitor goes to something like a VGA resolution!
I don't understand how just the background image could be a different resolution but the resolution of the monitor itself is fine unless there is a problem reading the background image file.

Sorry, but I do not know what 'Sele' 3840 x 2160 means.
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Re: Extend display across 2 monitors & login screen

Post by GusGf »

Hopefully you can see the difference between these 2 screenshots

Mint sets the desktop background to a low res image after a reboot and I've logged in. The weird thing is after a reboot, the login screen displays the 'Sele' 3840 x 2160 background but then when I've logged in, the background image is all low res! So I then have to bring up the desktop background app select another background and then back to the one I want and it's fine again.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/photos/share/a ... 6raBFfxhrU

Heres what it should look like, you can see from the screenshot I've set it to 'Sele' 3840 x 2160
https://www.amazon.co.uk/photos/share/5 ... LcA1AJH7jU
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Re: Extend display across 2 monitors & login screen

Post by SMG »

GusGf wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 12:52 pmMint sets the desktop background to a low res image after a reboot and I've logged in.
The photos are quite helpful. I always use photos for backgrounds so it has been a long time since I checked the Linux Mint option which is why Sele was not ringing any memory bells for me.
GusGf wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 12:52 pmThe weird thing is after a reboot, the login screen displays the 'Sele' 3840 x 2160 background but then when I've logged in, the background image is all low res! So I then have to bring up the desktop background app select another background and then back to the one I want and it's fine again.
What I suspect is happening is not a resolution change, but a Picture Aspect change. I seem to recall hearing a certain aspect was the default and any change in background always went to the default. (It's been a while since I read that so I would have to hunt for details.)

Open the Backgrounds app and click the Settings tab. Change the Picture Aspect option and see how it changes your background. Maybe there is a bug somewhere and that is what is causing this issue.
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Re: Extend display across 2 monitors & login screen

Post by richardm317 »

Following. What OP is trying to fix has been a festering pox upon the House of Linux since the invention of 4k displays and I'm not hopeful it'll be fixed anytime soon. Mint handles it poorly but no better or worse than any other X11 distro. Wayland is doing better but still can't seem to fully sort-out mixed resolution and display rotation. I went through five distros and finally gave up and bought new monitors so that all my panels are the same resolution, rotation, and roughly the same dpi.
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Re: Extend display across 2 monitors & login screen

Post by GusGf »

richardm317 wrote: Thu Mar 23, 2023 11:19 am Following. What OP is trying to fix has been a festering pox upon the House of Linux since the invention of 4k displays and I'm not hopeful it'll be fixed anytime soon. Mint handles it poorly but no better or worse than any other X11 distro. Wayland is doing better but still can't seem to fully sort-out mixed resolution and display rotation. I went through five distros and finally gave up and bought new monitors so that all my panels are the same resolution, rotation, and roughly the same dpi.
I suspect this is correct. Why well not only because of the issue I'm having with the 4k but I have a 1920x1200 23" sitting in portrait mode beside the 4k and I swear it's not displaying content at the resolution it's set at (but that's another issue). Well Richard, regarding multiple monitors at different resolutions it sounds like I'm stuffed.

As for the Backgrounds app the only workable alternative SMG was 'centred' but 'Zoomed' looked better as regards the desktop background.

Maybe switching off the other lower res monitor before booting up might help, I will experiement.
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Re: Extend display across 2 monitors & login screen

Post by richardm317 »

Maybe switching off the other lower res monitor before booting up might help
Oh heavens... Good luck and God Speed.

Monitors turning on/off and entering/leaving suspend is like shaking the Magic 8-ball -- you never know what the result will be. My desktop is connected to four monitors but I mostly use just two of them -- the other two are driven by my work [Windows] laptop. I had to disable monitor suspend on Windows because these two other monitors entering suspend -- even when I'm not using them with Mint -- will trigger a hotplug event on my desktop. randr or whatever controls the displays will re-position them, re-position my windows, and zap scaling back to 100%. All of this makes a huge mess out of things. It also manages to evade autorandr most of the time.

Windows is so very very far ahead of Linux when it comes to multi-monitor handling that it's not even funny. Linux is the 24 year-old angry teenager that can't hold down this one job.
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Re: Extend display across 2 monitors & login screen

Post by SMG »

richardm317 wrote: Fri Mar 24, 2023 8:41 amMonitors turning on/off and entering/leaving suspend is like shaking the Magic 8-ball -- you never know what the result will be. My desktop is connected to four monitors but I mostly use just two of them -- the other two are driven by my work [Windows] laptop.
You have monitors connected to two computers simultaneously? How do the monitors know which computer controls them?

And how is that situation at all relevant to the issue in this topic? I'm not understanding why you bring it up.
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Re: Extend display across 2 monitors & login screen

Post by GusGf »

SMG you said ...
If this is the correct link AB350 Pro4: BIOS it appears your system is missing updates. That might be something to consider.
Okay I knew there was a reason why I only went up to vP5.80 with my UEFI bios on my Asrock motherboard, I couldn't remember as I'd updated the BIOS 4 years ago. It turns out that's the ceiling for my AMD family of processor i.e. in my case, Ryzen 5 1600 is 1st Gen (64-bit) 'Zen' and is part of the Summit Ridge class.
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Re: Extend display across 2 monitors & login screen

Post by GusGf »

richardm317 wrote: Fri Mar 24, 2023 8:41 am
Maybe switching off the other lower res monitor before booting up might help
Oh heavens... Good luck and God Speed.

Monitors turning on/off and entering/leaving suspend is like shaking the Magic 8-ball -- you never know what the result will be. My desktop is connected to four monitors but I mostly use just two of them -- the other two are driven by my work [Windows] laptop. I had to disable monitor suspend on Windows because these two other monitors entering suspend -- even when I'm not using them with Mint -- will trigger a hotplug event on my desktop. randr or whatever controls the displays will re-position them, re-position my windows, and zap scaling back to 100%. All of this makes a huge mess out of things. It also manages to evade autorandr most of the time.

Windows is so very very far ahead of Linux when it comes to multi-monitor handling that it's not even funny. Linux is the 24 year-old angry teenager that can't hold down this one job.
Thanks Richard, yes that seems to be the case. What I've noticed in Windows is when I move a browser window from the 4k to the FHD it rescales so everything looks as if it would if I only had the FHD on my desktop. Whereas in Mint if I do the same the content looks too large and zoomed it on the FHD, basically it doesn't scale. I'm wondering if I can get Nvidia X Server to write to the 'X Configuration' file because I can't right now, I haven't figured out how to start it from the command line using sudo which might do the trick.

This is an example of a Chrome window in Windows 10 which I moved left from the 4k to the FHD and it 'scaled' and looks normal. If I did the same in Mint the window would not resize and the text would be twice as big.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/photos/share/y ... T3LtdOz1LL
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Re: Extend display across 2 monitors & login screen

Post by SMG »

GusGf wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2023 6:44 amThanks Richard, yes that seems to be the case. What I've noticed in Windows is when I move a browser window from the 4k to the FHD it rescales so everything looks as if it would if I only had the FHD on my desktop. Whereas in Mint if I do the same the content looks too large and zoomed it on the FHD, basically it doesn't scale. I'm wondering if I can get Nvidia X Server to write to the 'X Configuration' file because I can't right now, I haven't figured out how to start it from the command line using sudo which might do the trick.

This is an example of a Chrome window in Windows 10 which I moved left from the 4k to the FHD and it 'scaled' and looks normal. If I did the same in Mint the window would not resize and the text would be twice as big.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/photos/share/y ... T3LtdOz1LL
How does this relate to the issues in your first post?

It's better for those trying to help you as well as those later searching for answers to stay focused on the original topic and to create new topics for new questions/issues.
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Re: Extend display across 2 monitors & login screen

Post by richardm317 »

The Mint login screen is appearing on the full-HD screen and in landscape mode so I have to turn my head to see it properly.
I was using this in /etc/lightdm.conf in a different distro (that also used lightdm) -- hopefully it'd work with Mint:

Code: Select all

[Seat:*]
display-setup-script=/usr/share/scripts/10-custom-monitors.sh
greeter-show-manual-login=true
and then 10-custom-monitors.sh contained:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
xrandr --output DisplayPort-0 --off --output DisplayPort-1 --off --output DisplayPort-2 --primary --mode 3840x2160 --pos 0x0 --rotate left --output HDMI-A-0 --off --output DVI-D-0 --off
I have not tested what you're doing (one monitor rotated and the other landscape) but I suspect you can play with the above xrandr arguments in an interactive terminal window and get it working as they seem fairly self-explanatory.

Edit: Updated lightdm.conf code above to include the entire text file.
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Re: Extend display across 2 monitors & login screen

Post by richardm317 »

I've got a full HD display (setup as portrait mode, on my LHS as I look at the monitor) and a 4k monitor (landscape, RHS). I've selected the 4k to be primary.

Code: Select all

Monitor-1: DP-0 pos: primary,bottom-r res: 3840x2160 dpi: 140 diag: 800mm (31.5")
Monitor-2: DP-3 pos: primary,top-left res: 1200x1920 dpi: 98 diag: 584mm (23")
I happen to be working on something similar so took a few minutes to put together an xrandr line based on your description. I don't know if your landscape monitor is turned 90 degrees to the left or to the right. I also don't know the relative positions of the two monitors elevation-wise. But anyway, give this a try:

Code: Select all

xrandr --output DisplayPort-0 --primary --mode 3840x2160 --rotate normal --output DisplayPort-3 --mode 1920x1200 --rotate left --left-of DisplayPort-0
If the rotated monitor is displaying upside down try '--rotate right' instead of left. You can test this from a terminal prompt; no need to cross your fingers and reboot yet.

So in summary,

1. Edit lightdm.conf to add the display-setup-script entry as I mentioned in the previous reply.
2. Have that entry call a script that contains the above xrandr command.

and also...

3. edit /etc/lightdm/slick-greeter.conf and make sure to set enable-hidpi=on to scale up the login box. Optionally, add a line for only-on-monitor=DisplayPort-0 to force the login box to just your primary monitor.
GusGf
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Re: Extend display across 2 monitors & login screen

Post by GusGf »

SMG wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2023 8:55 am
GusGf wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2023 6:44 amThanks Richard, yes that seems to be the case. What I've noticed in Windows is when I move a browser window from the 4k to the FHD it rescales so everything looks as if it would if I only had the FHD on my desktop. Whereas in Mint if I do the same the content looks too large and zoomed it on the FHD, basically it doesn't scale. I'm wondering if I can get Nvidia X Server to write to the 'X Configuration' file because I can't right now, I haven't figured out how to start it from the command line using sudo which might do the trick.

This is an example of a Chrome window in Windows 10 which I moved left from the 4k to the FHD and it 'scaled' and looks normal. If I did the same in Mint the window would not resize and the text would be twice as big.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/photos/share/y ... T3LtdOz1LL
How does this relate to the issues in your first post?

It's better for those trying to help you as well as those later searching for answers to stay focused on the original topic and to create new topics for new questions/issues.
It's really weird but it seems to be working at least for now and yes I agree but I think the horse has bolted :)
Linux Mint Cinnamon
AMD Ryzen 5 1600 Six-Core Processor × 6
NVIDIA Corporation GP106 [GeForce GTX 1060 6GB]
Memory: 31.3 GiB
M.2 NVMe: 513.2 GB
GusGf
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Re: Extend display across 2 monitors & login screen

Post by GusGf »

richardm317 wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 5:24 am
I've got a full HD display (setup as portrait mode, on my LHS as I look at the monitor) and a 4k monitor (landscape, RHS). I've selected the 4k to be primary.

Code: Select all

Monitor-1: DP-0 pos: primary,bottom-r res: 3840x2160 dpi: 140 diag: 800mm (31.5")
Monitor-2: DP-3 pos: primary,top-left res: 1200x1920 dpi: 98 diag: 584mm (23")
I happen to be working on something similar so took a few minutes to put together an xrandr line based on your description. I don't know if your landscape monitor is turned 90 degrees to the left or to the right. I also don't know the relative positions of the two monitors elevation-wise. But anyway, give this a try:

Code: Select all

xrandr --output DisplayPort-0 --primary --mode 3840x2160 --rotate normal --output DisplayPort-3 --mode 1920x1200 --rotate left --left-of DisplayPort-0
If the rotated monitor is displaying upside down try '--rotate right' instead of left. You can test this from a terminal prompt; no need to cross your fingers and reboot yet.

So in summary,

1. Edit lightdm.conf to add the display-setup-script entry as I mentioned in the previous reply.
2. Have that entry call a script that contains the above xrandr command.

and also...

3. edit /etc/lightdm/slick-greeter.conf and make sure to set enable-hidpi=on to scale up the login box. Optionally, add a line for only-on-monitor=DisplayPort-0 to force the login box to just your primary monitor.
Thank you Richard. I do have some questions on how to do this but I will get back to you as I've only just seen your reply and work beckons in the morning, thanks again.
Linux Mint Cinnamon
AMD Ryzen 5 1600 Six-Core Processor × 6
NVIDIA Corporation GP106 [GeForce GTX 1060 6GB]
Memory: 31.3 GiB
M.2 NVMe: 513.2 GB
richardm317
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Joined: Mon Oct 22, 2018 12:37 am

Re: Extend display across 2 monitors & login screen

Post by richardm317 »

Your system report depicts your DisplayPorts as "DP-x" instead "DisplayPort-x. You might need this instead:

Code: Select all

xrandr --output DP-0 --primary --mode 3840x2160 --rotate normal --output DP-3 --mode 1920x1200 --rotate left --left-of DP-0
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