Michael wrote: > On Thursday, 11 July 2024 07:23:58 BST Dale wrote: >> Michael wrote: >>> As far as I know SDDM is using the file(s) in /usr/share/sddm/scripts/ to >>> start a login GUI. I haven't looked into how far can these be tweaked for >>> a dual monitor setup and if they even have a 'primary' monitor concept. >> I've never really looked into it either. I mentioned it because it >> seems something has changed. On my old rig, it seems to have kept some >> setting somewhere but on new installs, it uses a new setting which we >> may both like better. Luckily one of my TVs is in the same room so I >> can see the screen. If however, you have a second monitor that you >> can't see, it may be worth looking into and setting it to the new way. >> It could be that someone reading this long thread would also like to >> know to do the same. ;-) > Hmm ... on a system here running with two monitors, the SDDM passwd field is > only showing being typed in on the right hand side (the secondary) monitor. > The primary monitor passwd field remains empty, unless I click on it before I > start typing. There is no custom SDDM config and no xorg.conf in this > system. > :-/ >
I've been watching this some more each time I boot. When I hit the power button and the BIOS screen comes up, only the main monitor, the first or original monitor, or monitor connected to the number #1 port on bracket, powers up and shows anything. The second monitor remains off. The second monitor remains off until SDDM comes up for a password which then powers on the second monitor. When the second monitor powers up, it appears to be a clone of monitor 1. If I type in the password, the dots appear on BOTH monitors. I haven't tested this in a while but before I added DM to the default runlevel, if I switched to a console, Ctrl Alt F1 for example, to try a different setting or something *after* SDDM came up even once, then both monitors showed the same thing, they would appear as clones. If I typed in a command, it would show on both monitors. Once the second monitor powered up, it stayed on the whole time. It seems SDDM cuts it on but after that, it stays on even if a clone of monitor 1 in a console. My main rig behaves differently. I think during the install, there is a different config for how monitors are handled and when they are powered on. On my old rig, it behaves as you describe. On the new rig, like described above. Honestly, I like the new way except I wish the second monitor would come on with the main monitor as clones when the BIOS screen comes up. I can live with it tho. It does come on when it is able to really show something. I suspect, if you did a fresh install, you would see the same behavior I see with the new rig. The way my old rig and your rig works is likely left over from the old default way it was set up. I don't know if that is set up with SDDM, Xorg or what. I think emerge has a --noconf or something option that updates config files even if they wouldn't otherwise. That to might overwrite the old way with the new way. If one only knew what package set that to work that way tho. The new rig seems to have a new default way to handle the monitors. >> I found the man page and another web page with a ton of info on >> options. Link below in case others want to bookmark it. Some of them I >> have no idea what they do. Even their description for some settings >> makes no sense since the terms used are things I never heard of. I >> doubt I need those anyway, thank goodness. Anyway. I been playing with >> this thing a bit. I made a simple change in xorg.conf just to see if it >> worked or not without changing anything else. I added this to the >> options for the second monitor: >> >> >> Option "Above" "DP-3" >> >> >> I'll see how that works. May try another GUI to, Fluxbox or something. >> For some reason tho, the port numbers are still odd, consistent but >> odd. Primary monitor is plugged into the lowest port, the one with #1 >> stamped on the bracket. It sees it as DP-3 tho. Even more odd, the >> second monitor is DP-1, which is marked as port #2 on the bracket. I >> can't make heads or tails of that mess. o_O > Yes, this numbering incongruity between physical and logical ports is quite > strange. o_O > I'm done trying to figure out that weirdness. ROFL Maybe it takes after me. ROFLMBO >> I did change how I plan to lay out the monitors tho. From the primary >> monitor as a starting point, second monitor that I use for handling >> large volume of files and such will be above the primary monitor. My TV >> will be to the right of the Primary monitor. The reason for that is >> mostly the physical layout. The monitor stand came in and I'll be >> putting the primary monitor on the bottom and second monitor on top of >> it. The TV can just go anywhere config wise but it has been to the >> right for so long, when I need my mouse pointer over there, habit makes >> me push the mouse to the right. It's as good a place as any. >> >> At first, I had the second monitor to the right of primary but then it >> hit me, dragging the mouse pointer, and files, to the right to go up to >> the top monitor seems kinda odd. Plus, for a long time now, the TV has >> been there on the right. I rearranged things a bit. Given the physical >> layout, it makes more sense this way. While I'm thinking on this. I >> may turn off the second monitor at times. Should I add a option to >> xorg.conf to make sure it doesn't go weird on me? I wouldn't want it to >> move my TV location for example. I'd just want it to power off but not >> affect anything else. I'd close all the apps first tho. I'd also like >> it to have the right settings if it has been off a while and I turn it >> on to use it. I'm not sure how hotpluggable monitors are. > I have not observed any discrepancy when a monitor is switched off/on at the > time of booting or thereafter, but I've used the Plasma Display settings to > configure the monitors position and in any case here the desktop is on Plasma- > Wayland. Therefore your experience may differ. I had a video playing on my main rig. I been wanting to test this but was always to chicken. I wanted to hook up the TV in my bedroom to the new rig. I paused the video playing on the old rig. I then unhooked the bedroom TV from the splitter, keep in mind that there is still another TV connected but the config is set to recognize the bedroom TV which just disappeared. The main rig did see the TV disappear but other than a blink on the main monitor, nothing bad happened. It used the second monitor hooked to the splitter to keep things going. What do you know, it figured out there is still something hooked up there. Dang, some dev is smart. :-D I then plugged the TV into the new rig. KDE saw that right away and popped up a screen wanting to know what to do. I just closed it and went to KDE settings then Display and Monitor section. I arranged the monitors like I wanted, several times. It would pop up a window asking if I wanted to keep the settings. Problem is, finding where the mouse pointer went. After three or four tries, I finally was able to hit the Keep button before it reverted back and I had to set it up again. I did set it up as described earlier. It's early on yet but it worked. Next is setting up xorg.conf for this. Gotta add the TV as "Right of" and all that. I did run into a error when trying to copy a couple video test files from a USB stick to the desktop. The error was this: 'The file or folder message recipient disconnected from message bus without replying does not exist.' It was confusing to say the least. It reads like it went through a translator or something. I checked to make sure everything was mounted rw correctly, checked permissions and such. Everything was set correctly. Did a search and dug out a thread on the forums. It said the kernel had to have the Fuse driver enabled. I'm not sure why but OK, I enabled and rebuilt the kernel. When I booted the new kernel, I could copy files over. Weird but it works, cool. :-) Before connecting the TV and all, I tested the audio. Soundless. Earlier, I thought it was able to detect nothing plugged into the output jack. Well, it appears it just didn't have any devices. I enabled the driver the boot media uses and lspci -k showed it as loaded on the new install. It seemed to be missing some decode stuff after a bit of searching. It so happens, my old rig and the new rig has almost identical audio chips. I just pulled up menuconfig on both in a Konsole and enabled the same things on the new rig that I had on the old rig. Recompiled the kernel and rebooted. I have sound to the output jacks now. That also likely helped me to have audio on the TV as well. I got a new 18TB hard drive the other day. It took a solid day to run selftests on it. Then it took another day or so to move data from a 8TB drive in one of my PVs to the 18TB and then swap things physically. Right now, the 8TB is in a external enclosure and I've copied the /home of main rig to the new /home drive for the new rig. I plan to rename the KDE config directories, .share and .config, with .old on the end. That will give KDE a fresh start on the new rig. I haven't posted much but I been busy. I also checked the serial numbers of the monitors. One ends in 231 while other ends in 240. They are 9 digits apart. About as identical as one can get. ;-) Now to clean off my desk. I'm thinking about cleaning out a junk drawer first. That way some stuff on my desk can go in the junk drawer. Thing is, where to put stuff I want to remove from the junk drawer???? Making progress tho. Slowly. :/ Dale :-) :-)
