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Bass850
Asked: 2020-04-24 02:39:40 +0800 CST

Display on second monitor misbehaves in portrait mode with Nvidia GTX GPU on Ubuntu 20.04

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After upgrading to Ubuntu 20.04 today I found that my monitor configuration is not working properly any more. I have a 4k primary display in landscape and a 1080p secondary display in portrait (right) mode next to it on the right. I have an ATO GTX 950 videocard to power them both.

After upgrading from 19.10 to 20.04 I fond that panel (that I use on top using 'dash to panel' extension was partially on second monitor. Also windows are weirldy displayed partially across both screens in some circumstances. After more investigation I found that when I go to the second screen and move mouse cursor to right there seems to be more desktop there and the whole desktop shifts. Itś almost like the desktop is too wide for the screens.

If I change second monitor to "normal" landscape orientation the panel shifts back fully to my primary monitor (instead of being partially on primary and partially on secondary) and all works normally (except that I cant use portait mode which I want to do and always could do before. When I "move" second monitor to left or above secondary primary monitor in display settings everything also looks and behaves normal (also in portrait) only the my mouse movements become illogical (I have to move cursor left off primary screen to get to monitor on the right.

Anybody have a clue what to do about this (except for possible bugfix in Ubuntu or display driver)?

multiple-monitors gnome-panel display display-rotation 20.04

5 Answers

  1. I was able to work around this by using sudo apt install arandr

    running arandr in terminal and then changing the monitor orientation there.

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  2. I can't enable portrait mode at all for any of my monitors in the display settings. (arandr kind of works, but limits me to 60 Hz.)

    However, turns out I can do it in the Nvidia Control Panel or with xrandr. Maybe, as a workaround, you could put something like this in a startup script:

    xrandr --output DP-0 --rotate left

    You would have to replace DP-0 with whatever output your secondary monitor is connected to, of course.

    Specs for reference:

    • OS: Ubuntu 20.04 Beta
    • GPU: RTX 2060 Super
    • Driver: Nvidia 440.64
    • Monitor 1: Acer XV273K
    • Monitor 2: Asus PG278Q
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  3. Simon Alling's answer worked for me but this is the way I persisted configuration across reboots and user sessions. I saved the xrandr command to a file '~/.config/autostart/setup_monitor_display.desktop', made it executable with chmod +x.

    # Wait until GUI is ready
X-GNOME-Autostart-Delay=1
xrandr --output DP-0 --rotate left

    Then I added the execution of the script to the startup application list.

    1. Open Startup Application Preferences
    2. Click Add
    3. Fill in the name and comment
    4. For command do something like sh -c '~/.config/autostart/setup_monitor_display.desktop'

    Based off the answer here: https://askubuntu.com/a/1230863/1152625

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  4. I post a solution in the other thread: https://askubuntu.com/a/1247763/206776, repost here:

    First, we create a ~/.config/monitors.xml file for the layout (we can experiment a layout with xrandr). My monitors.xml is attached below.

    Then, copy the monitors.xml to /var/lib/gdm3/.config/ and change file owner:

    sudo cp ~/.config/monitors.xml /var/lib/gdm3/.config/
sudo chown gdm:gdm /var/lib/gdm3/.config/monitors.xml

    The monitor layout will persist across restarts and screen locks.

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  5. I had a similar problem with 20.04 LTS and seems like i solved it... I have a horizontal 4k monitor in the middle with 2 vertical 1080p monitors on the sides, with a GTX 2080 Ti. The desktop area was somehow larger than each screen, so it would scroll when my mouse went to the edge. I went to NVIDIA X Server Settings where you can actually see the desktop area versus screen size. I then clicked on each screen and moved the Underscan bar back and forth which made the extra desktop area disappear. Now everything looks normal... let's hope it lasts a reboot.

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