Dale wrote: > Micheal and I had a email or two off list. This is what I think the > problem was. Nvidia and KDE was clashing with each other. I ended up > connecting both the new monitor and old LG that gave me so much > trouble. I think Nvidia wanted to set the first port as primary but KDE > wanted to set the 2nd port because I had that monitor connected before > and it remembered it or something. I set Nvidia GUI settings to what I > wanted but it was still making everything HUGE. I found the settings > for KDE and actually reversed it. One reason I wanted to reverse it, > the plasma panel on the bottom was also on the wrong monitor. It was on > port 2, the old LG monitor, and I wanted it on port 1, the new Samsung > monitor. That's how I want it when I switch rigs as well. Anyway, when > I set it in KDE backwards, the mouse and such got a little weird. I had > to figure out how to get from one screen to another. You may want to do > that before changing settings. Once I set it up backwards, I hit > apply. I think it had a confirm box for this which is why you need to > know how to get the mouse pointer from one display to the other. After > I did that, I checked Nvidia and it still had the same settings for > where displays were. I then went back to the KDE settings and set them > correctly. I set Samsung as primary, new monitor, and LG as Right of > Samsung. I hit apply. The screens blinked, plasma moved to the Samsung > monitor and that HUGE problem went away. Things are larger but just > because it is a larger monitor. Basically, it is as it should be. > Oddly, the old LG monitor works pretty well now too. ROFL > > If I had the new monitor and used it from the beginning, it might have > just worked. I think KDE remembered it and insisted on making it > primary instead of what I was telling Nvidia. Setting it backwards and > then setting it the correct way forced KDE to rethink the settings. > This may be a rare problem to run into but if someone reading this ever > recycles a system and connects things differently, this may help. > Forcing KDE to do something backwards and then setting it to the correct > way just may force KDE to forget previous info and work like you want it > too. > > I'm still trying to decide if I want to keep using the splitter or not. > I could bypass the splitter and connect directly to a video card port. > I'm just not sure why I should rework my cabling tho. > > Thanks to all for the help, Micheal and Mark for sure. I hope this info > will help someone else tho. When one of us beats something into > submission, we can all learn from it. It's why I read almost every post > on this list. It just might come in handy one day, if I remember what I > read. LOL > > Dale > > :-) :-) >
Another update. I rebooted several times to make sure whether things would be consistent. Most of the time, it came up as it should. Some times, not so much. When I had just the new Samsung monitor connected, it was consistent. When I added the old LG, it would not always come up like it should. The biggest thing, the plasma panel would be on the wrong monitor. I tried using xrandr to set this but it kept changing what monitors was connected where which would throw off what monitor got what priority. Finally, I removed the old LG. It has caused enough grief already. I unhooked the TV cable for my bedroom TV and connected it to the new rig. I then booted. I installed a package called arandr. It's a sister to xrandr but GUI based. Makes it very easy to see what is what. On the first boot, the Samsung showed as connected to port 1. The TV showed as port 3 I think. It seems each port can do two displays so it kinda skips. The first port is actually 0. Anyway, I used arandr to set it up like I wanted. I saved the file with the command in my home directory. I then moved the command to a file in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/ as a file. They are usually started with a number in the file name. Don't forget to add the bash bit on the first line if needed and make it executable as well. Once I did that, the displays worked like they should. So far at least. The lesson to be learned is this. When you have a monitor that is having issues and keeps showing as connected to different ports and such, you can't use that display to get a reliable configuration that will survive a reboot, maybe even a power off and back on. Another thing, using either xrandr or arandr is a nifty feature if set up correctly. Those two make it so a display, or set of displays more importantly, work like you want. The arnadr command since it is a GUI, makes it a lot easier to create the xrandr command with the right options. If you use that route tho, make sure all monitors are connected and on before starting. You may can do it without it with xrandr but arandr needs the monitor to be on and working. The other thing, putting the setting in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/ seems to work pretty well. So far at least. To be honest tho, I wish Nvidia would generate a conf file that contains both monitors and I could set it up properly there. Then when I boot up, it reads that file and knows what monitor is what long before DM and/or sddm even starts. It could also keep a monitor powered on even while on a console with nothing GUI running. I kinda wish we could do it like we did back in the old days. I also had another thought. When changing the xorg.conf file, I wonder if it only reads that file when loading the nvidia drivers but not when DM is started/restarted. I noticed on my system, when I booted but have not started DM, the Nvidia drivers were already loaded. I'm not sure when the xorg.conf file is loaded but if it is loaded when the drivers load, then that could explain why some changes didn't make any changes to the display. The changes were not seen unless I rebooted which I didn't always do. Maybe someone here knows what order this happens in. It could explain a lot tho. I'm hoping all this will help someone. It sure has been a hair puller for me. LOL Dale :-) :-)
