I have spend several days trying different Linux distros and they all appear to be broken with regard to supporting multiple monitors that have different form factors. I tried Debian based distros and Manjaro. I like Manjaro but I can’t get it to work with my setup: a 4K Monitor, a HP 1080x1200 and a , 2510x1680.
So in display settings first thing I do is rearrange them in the way they are physically located and then it fails; It puts the 4K monitor at the left top corner in the display settings window and I can no longer change any of its settings. I revert and just try to change the primary monitor to the HP and then when I accept the monitor complains that the system is trying to set its resolution to greater than 1080x1200 and it turns off. I tried a number of different option including turning scaling on and off nothing makes it work.
I gather that this problem has been around for years now and no-one has been willing to get this to work?
What I am actually doing is trying to move from Windows to Linux but this is a deal breaker for me. Now I am not an experience Linux user and I see references to fiddling with some stuff in a terminal but surely this should not be necessary?
Can someone enlighten me if there is an easy solution for this before I give up on Linux?
What exactly is your problem? What DE you use, how do you change these settings? Share some basic info about your system
Over years I had different setups and never had any problem with monitor setup and never used terminal for it. On KDE it just works. On Hyprland also. I suppose same for any other DE/WM. So I would say Linux support multi monitor configurations very well (or even better than any other system if you want some fancy rotation setup)
2 posts were split to a new topic: Scaling issue on Plasma Wayland
I gather you might be new to Linux generally, with your only computing experience being seated in Windows (and/or Mac).
More information is likely needed in order for anyone to help, starting with system information (see below).
I’ll note for the record that there are plenty of Members using multiple monitors with no apparent difficulties. Issues arise for a variety of reasons; monitor incompatibilities are possible; kernel incompatibilities are possible; user misconfiguration is also possible.
Plenty of possibilities, but none that can be actioned until you provide at minimum some system information.
Using Wayland instead of X11 can potentially produce better results; it has finer grained monitor control. I say potentially because it will always depend on a number of factors; for example, if using Nvidia graphics, that tends to be more troublesome with Wayland. The Desktop environment used can be another potential contributing factor.
If you have come to Linux generally without a clear understanding of the differences from Windows, then you’re already at a disadvantage.
While there may be a solution to your issue; possibly even an “easy solution”; at this point we can only encourage you to persist a little longer than “several days” to first understand the cause.
I’m sure those wishing to help will appreciate as much information as possible, including (but not limited to) exactly what you have tried in your attempts to have monitors work as expected.
Regards.
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So I have and AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D system with 64GB Ram, It has an RTX3050 GPU and I am starting to wonder if the problem is with NVIDIA?
I tried Manjaro Cinnamon. Will it be different if I try KDE? The problem seems better when the NVIDIA drivers are selected. However, I gather that Wayland will not work well with NVIDIA. If I turn on the large 4K display with the default nouveau driver I get chunks of the desktop on the 4K display but the cursor is on the other display and you can’t click on anything. The NVidia driver does seem to fix this however the display setup is still dysfunctional and I can’t control the 4K monitor position when it is turned on and the text is way to small. And you are right I am not entirely familiar with Linux and was looking to get away from Windows but it looks like I will have to wait until Wayland is properly supported on NVIDEA GPUs? I tried a number of different Distros so far but they seem to have a similar problem with mixed sized monitors, only SOLUS seems to work a little better since it has a different display management app and is not based on an other platform like Debian or Arch, but it still only has global scaling and I don’t think this is a solution for me.
Why do you believe you need 2 Monitors.
Some Applications have not yet been moved to Wayland, and in some cases there are expected to be issues when using them with Wayland (although I have not experienced any issues, and I’m running a 1366x768 screen at 85%, so effectively 1600x900). Have you tried using an Xorg Session with those applications.
Linux DEs have excellent support for Multiple Virtual Desktops (or Workspaces), have you tried using those. I personally use a single Monitor on a laptop with 9 virtual Desktops. I have no need for multiple Monitors.
I think I have to give up, I don’t know enough about linux to fiddle with it. I installed EndevourOS with KDE which is also based on Arch and it defaults to Wayland and it appears to work perfectly with my three monitors. I use multiple monitors to record videos using OBS etc. However, EndevourOS does not have good tools to use for like installing packages etc. Not beginner friendly. Perhaps Manjaro will catch up to EndevourOS one of these years and I will try again. Looks like I am stuck in Windows for now. Too bad.
Oh, forgot to mention the problem: When I select KDE using Wayland on the login screen all I get is a blank screen with a cursor which I can move from screen to screen with the mouse but nothing is displayed on any of them just blank.
Well at least I gave Linux more than a few days, back in 2000, when it is alleged that Linux was really really hard.
Linux is not Windows, therefore what you know on Windows doesn’t necessarily translate.
But you expected that, didn’t you.
Oh well…
As the OP seems intent on telling us their system woes, but won’t provide any system information for diagnostics (despite being requested to by @Tomek & @soundofthunder ), I think this thread will just end up being a bit of a time waster.
I am unlisting it until the output of:
inxi -zv8
is provided by the topic starter.
I have a 4k and 2 x 1080 all running at 1920x1080 off an RTX4060Ti. I’ve never experienced your issue. I don’t use KDE on that computer atm, but I have in the past.
Don’t use nouveau, use the proprietary drivers instead.
Have you tried using nvidia-settings to arrange your monitors?
I think Wayland has fixed this, but with X11 it’s generally best to use the same resolution on all monitors, at least if the native resolutions differ greatly. Otherwise getting the scaling right for all of them is rather difficult and will always be a compromise.
Another issue with different resolutions, at least on X11, is that you can only move your mouse between monitors where they butt up against each other. ie if you have a 4k and a 1080, assuming the tops are at the same height then you’ll only be able to move from the 4k to the 1080 when your mouse is in the top half of the 4k. This is avoided by using the same resolution for all of them.
4k 1080
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XFCE is still using Xorg display server rather than Wayland
Try using Manjaro XFCE Live ISO and select non-free in GRUB boot menu to use nVidia drivers rather than nouveau (free) drivers