X11conf does not remember multi monitor setup

Software & Operating Systems Linux
1

I have a 24" Samsung SyncMaster P2450 (1920x1080) and a secondary monitor 17" Dell (1024x768). The secondary should be positioned at the right and aligned to the bottom. But the configuration is not remembered after a restart: the secondary shows the same as the SyncMaster (cropped at 1024x768). I always have to reposition the screens on the nvidia x server settings in the display configuration. saving the changes to xorg.conf (made by the configuration window) does not help.

What changes have to be made to remember the display positions?

Here’s the (current) config saved by the settings dialog:

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings:  version 367.35  (buildd@lgw01-18)  Tue Aug  9 10:11:49 UTC 2016


Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    Option         "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load           "dbe"
    Load           "extmod"
    Load           "type1"
    Load           "freetype"
    Load           "glx"
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: builtin, VertRefresh source: builtin
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "CRT-0"
    HorizSync       28.0 - 55.0
    VertRefresh     43.0 - 72.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce GTX 960"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "Stereo" "0"
    Option         "nvidiaXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-4"
    Option         "metamodes" "DVI-I-0: nvidia-auto-select +1920+312, DVI-D-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    Option         "SLI" "Off"
    Option         "MultiGPU" "Off"
    Option         "BaseMosaic" "off"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection
2

Which Distro are you using?

It is possible that your distro actually breaks out the config files and the NV driver is overwriting the generic xconf file that gets generated automatically at startup based on those individual files.

I am on debian and I think my setup looks like /etc/xorg/xorg.conf.d/ . I am at work right now.

3

Xubuntu (Zesty)

How do I find out if this is happening and what can I try? I’m not very familiar with X11 and drivers under linux.

4

Use “locate” or “find” to look for xorg.conf to see where it lives. Should find folders and directories. If you see an xorg.conf.d folder then you need to make a file inside of the xorg.conf.d directory that contains the config file that you posted.

Sorry on a cell phone.

6

Just to be sure:
I have a Dell 17" 1024x768 on DVI-I-0 and a Samsung SynMaster P2450 1920x1080 on DVI-D-0. The smaller Dell is set to the right of SyncMaster. The configs I posted would be correct for this, right?

I used locate and found /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/ with some config files inside. I saved the configuration there with the name xorg.conf. All other filenames in this directory start with a number or with a ‘g’. I also saved the config at the suggested place /etc/X11/xorg.conf. I restarted the computer and logged in. No effect. My secondary monitor ist still positioned at +0+0 and not +1920+312

Meanwhile, I upgraded to Artful. The distro upgrade hasn’t helped. But I havn’t expected that either (since, why should it? it’s a config problem).

Did I something wrong or has somebody another idea?
Would a switch to Wayland be an option (if possible on Xubuntu 17.10 with nvidia drivers)? If yes, how do I switch?

7

The numbered files are there for grouping and I believe state the order that they are looked in. Your NV xonfiguration files should be something like “20-nvidia.conf” or something like that.

I think autoconfiguration is still sniping you. Look at the configuration section and monotor setup.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xorg#Configuration