I just spent hours getting my dual monitors to work properly… ALMOST. I read through many forum threads to find some answers and I DID SOLVE a lot on my own. But I feel like I’m still missing a couple of puzzle pieces. I’m hoping any answers here will help others and could possibly improve the wiki.
Here’s what I have so far:
- I have two gaming monitors plugged into an RTX 3070, both running at 2560x1440 and 120Hz.
- I want the LH monitor as my primary monitor, with the RH monitor as an extension of the desktop.
- On boot the BIOS and GRUB screens appear on the LH monitor (what I want)
- The login prompt appears on the RH monitor (NOT what I want)
- After login, my taskbar is on the LH monitor and MOST programs launch and work properly on the LH monitor.
It took a bit of work just to get this far. Originally, I had problems with only the RH monitor acting as the primary for my boot screens, login, and desktop. Sometimes it worked if I switched the Display Port connectors at the RTX 3070 but that had weird side effects. Also, I had one monitor go to a black screen, then come back a few seconds later. I mentioned this in another thread and I THOUGHT I fixed it by reducing the refresh rate to 120Hz but that only helped somewhat by reducing how often it happened. It was still happening and seemed unrelated to GPU use.
First, here’s what I did to get everything MOSTLY working with no more black screens:
My system info:
System:
Host: pc2019 Kernel: 6.1.41-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Xfce
v: 4.18.1 Distro: Manjaro Linux
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: ROG MAXIMUS XI HERO (WI-FI) v: Rev 1.xx
serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 0602
date: 10/19/2018
CPU:
Info: 8-core Intel Core i9-9900KF [MT MCP] speed (MHz): avg: 2200
min/max: 800/5000
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA GA104 [GeForce RTX 3070 Lite Hash Rate] driver: nvidia
v: 535.86.05
Device-2: Logitech C920 PRO HD Webcam driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
type: USB
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.8 with: Xwayland v: 23.1.2 driver: X:
loaded: nvidia gpu: nvidia resolution: 1: 2560x1440~60Hz 2: 2560x1440
API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 535.86.05 renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX
3070/PCIe/SSE2
Network:
Device-1: Intel Cannon Lake PCH CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi
Device-2: Intel Ethernet I219-V driver: e1000e
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 10.92 TiB used: 3.82 TiB (35.0%)
Info:
Processes: 337 Uptime: 37m Memory: total: 64 GiB note: est.
available: 62.71 GiB used: 2.53 GiB (4.0%) Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.28
I followed the instructions here:
Next, I found some additional NVIDIA config options here:
https://http.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/325.15/README/xconfigoptions.html
My current /etc/X11/mhwd.d/nvidia.conf looks like this:
# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings: version 535.86.05
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
Option "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection
Section "Files"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Asustek Computer Inc ROG XG279Q"
HorizSync 223.0 - 223.0
VertRefresh 48.0 - 144.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "Stereo" "0"
Option "nvidiaXineramaInfoOrder" "DP-4, DP-2"
Option "metamodes" "DP-2: nvidia-auto-select +2560+0, DP-4: 2560x1440_120 +0+0"
Option "SLI" "Off"
Option "MultiGPU" "Off"
Option "BaseMosaic" "off"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection
My xrandr looks like this:
Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 5120 x 1440, maximum 32767 x 32767
HDMI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-2 connected 2560x1440+2560+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 597mm x 336mm
2560x1440 59.95*+ 143.97 120.00 99.95
1920x1080 119.88 100.00 60.00 59.94 50.00
1440x900 59.89
1440x576 50.00
1440x480 59.94
1280x1024 75.02 60.02
1280x720 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
640x480 75.00 72.81 59.94
DP-3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-4 connected primary 2560x1440+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 597mm x 336mm
2560x1440 59.95 + 143.97 120.00* 99.95
1920x1080 119.88 100.00 60.00 59.94 50.00
1440x900 59.89
1440x576 50.00
1440x480 59.94
1280x1024 75.02 60.02
1280x720 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
640x480 75.00 72.81 59.94
DP-5 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Questions:
- Why does my login still appear on the RH monitor? What am I missing?
- My LH (primary) monitor is plugged into the first Display Port and my RH (secondary) monitor is plugged into the second Display Port. There are only 3 Display Ports on the RTX 3070. Why does xrandr show my primary monitor as DP-4 and my secondary as DP-2?
- Are there other settings or another config file I’m not aware of?
Thanks!