Is it me who does not know left from right or is it Linux?

makem · 11-10-2022, 05:48 PM

I have two monitors and for the life of me I cannot get xubuntu to know that my secondary monitor is on the left!

I have had to rearrange my computer desk and now need the secondary screen on the left. Previously it was on the right and xubuntu was happy!

I'm beginning to think xubuntu does not have a left hand!

Can anyone help me to do what Windows 10 does easily - show desktops where I want them and not where xubuntu puts them by default it seems?

My setup:

Code:

makem@makem2204:~$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=22.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=jammy
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS"
makem@makem2204:~$ echo $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP
XFCE
makem@makem2204:~$ sudo lshw -C display
[sudo] password for makem: 
  *-display                 
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: GA106 [GeForce RTX 3060 Lite Hash Rate]
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: a1
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
       resources: iomemory:400-3ff iomemory:400-3ff irq:195 memory:a0000000-a0ffffff memory:4000000000-400fffffff memory:4010000000-4011ffffff ioport:3000(size=128) memory:c0000-dffff
  *-graphics
       product: EFI VGA
       physical id: 2
       logical name: /dev/fb0
       capabilities: fb
       configuration: depth=32 resolution=1920,1080
makem@makem2204:~$ nvidia-settings


(nvidia-settings:4582): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 15:42:37.981: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
** Message: 15:42:38.099: PRIME: No offloading required. Abort
** Message: 15:42:38.099: PRIME: is it supported? no

I am using NVIDIA driver metapackage from nvidia-driver -510 (proprietary)

Settings as shown in 'Display':

Primary Display (1):
DP-0
Microstep 24"
Refresh Rate 143.9 Hz

Secondary Display (2):
HDMI-0
ASUS 24"
Refresh Rate 60.0 Hz

I don't know how to output NVIDIA settings but in Xvideo settings 'Sync to this display device' is set to 'Auto' with an option to choose (1) or (2) when Xvideo Sync To Vblank is enabled.

Display is set to have (1) on the right.

When I boot grub is displayed on (1). Choosing xubuntu desktop from the menu gives the desktop on (2) with (1) blank.

Choosing a web page or LibreOffice via a panel icon on (2) gives them both on (1)

Choosing 'Display' or Terminal on (2) shows them both on (2)

I simply cannot get my desktop on (1) and the secondary screen (2) settings to allow me to slide a web page from (1) leftwards to (2)!

Please show me the way?

TenTenths · 11-11-2022, 03:44 AM

Swap the cables over!

makem · 11-11-2022, 04:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TenTenths

Swap the cables over!

Thank you for you input.

(1) is DP and (2) is HDMI. (2) does not have DP input. Swapping is therefore not possible.

What would the effect be on quality if I replaced the DP with another HDMI? I could then do a swap. I guess my old eyes would not see any difference.

Maybe mixing DP and HDMI is the problem?

pan64 · 11-11-2022, 04:48 AM

I have no nvidia, but I think nvidia has a settings gui and you can specify the display you have (orientation, location, whatever...)

TenTenths · 11-11-2022, 05:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by makem

(1) is DP and (2) is HDMI. (2) does not have DP input. Swapping is therefore not possible.

That's a bit of a pain, and the reason for the suggestion is that I've done that in the past. I've also physically moved monitors when the underlying system was being "problematic"

Quote:

Originally Posted by makem

What would the effect be on quality if I replaced the DP with another HDMI? I could then do a swap. I guess my old eyes would not see any difference.

As DP and HDMI are digital signals there wouldn't be any appreciable difference at normal frame rates.

Quote:

Originally Posted by makem

Maybe mixing DP and HDMI is the problem?

The physical connection shouldn't make any difference.

makem · 11-11-2022, 12:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pan64

I have no nvidia, but I think nvidia has a settings gui and you can specify the display you have (orientation, location, whatever...)

Thank you for your input.

Yes NVIDIA does have a settings GUI.

Xscreen0 is set to (2) by default. I can change it to (1) and select 'apply'. However. this has no effect as it defaults to (2) after rebooting.

I am unable to save the settings to X configuration file /etc/X11/xorg.conf because I get the error unable to open for writing. The 'merge with existing file' is disabled.

I cannot save the file anywhere else to compare it with the default file and I am not confident to change the root access to the file and then change it back after amending. I have messed up the settings and have been dropped back to a terminal on boot in the past. I have had to reinstall the OS.

Edit: I have just noticed this error message in terminal:

ERROR: Unable to open X config file '/etc/X11/xorg.conf' for writing.

Package xorg-server was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `xorg-server.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'xorg-server' found

I checked /etc/X11 and found there is a directory xorg.conf.d. This directory was empty. I attempted to save the new xorg.conf to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d but I got the same error - cannot open for writing.

I am sure this is where the problem can be solved.

makem · 11-11-2022, 12:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TenTenths

That's a bit of a pain, and the reason for the suggestion is that I've done that in the past. I've also physically moved monitors when the underlying system was being "problematic"
As DP and HDMI are digital signals there wouldn't be any appreciable difference at normal frame rates.
The physical connection shouldn't make any difference.

I will check if (1) has HDMI and if so, give swapping a try.

pan64 · 11-11-2022, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by makem

I am unable to save the settings to X configuration file /etc/X11/xorg.conf because I get the error unable to open for writing. The 'merge with existing file' is disabled.

I cannot save the file anywhere else to compare it with the default file and I am not confident to change the root access to the file and then change it back after amending. I have messed up the settings and have been dropped back to a terminal on boot in the past. I have had to reinstall the OS.

Edit: I have just noticed this error message in terminal:

ERROR: Unable to open X config file '/etc/X11/xorg.conf' for writing.

I guess you need to save it into /tmp or anywhere (where you can write/create files). And you can edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf as root afterward.

makem · 11-11-2022, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pan64

I guess you need to save it into /tmp or anywhere (where you can write/create files). And you can edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf as root afterward.

I get the same error even if I try to save to desktop!

makem · 11-11-2022, 07:24 PM

This is old but worth a try?

https://askubuntu.com/questions/2177...xorg-conf-file

It may be possible to make changes.

Apparently xorg.conf is not created or necessary nowadays.

zeebra · 11-12-2022, 05:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by makem

I have two monitors and for the life of me I cannot get xubuntu to know that my secondary monitor is on the left!

I have had to rearrange my computer desk and now need the secondary screen on the left. Previously it was on the right and xubuntu was happy!

I'm beginning to think xubuntu does not have a left hand!

Can anyone help me to do what Windows 10 does easily - show desktops where I want them and not where xubuntu puts them by default it seems?

Dunno about your desktop, but with KDE you can do this graphically, and arrange the two screens relative to each other (in any position you want) by just moving the graphical representation of one screen around the other. Or you can duplicate or do other things or set it up in whatever way you want, very easily.

makem · 11-12-2022, 12:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zeebra

Dunno about your desktop, but with KDE you can do this graphically, and arrange the two screens relative to each other (in any position you want) by just moving the graphical representation of one screen around the other. Or you can duplicate or do other things or set it up in whatever way you want, very easily.

With XFCE using 'Display' from the menu you can do the same. However for positioning it is ignored and always makes (2) primary on left (1).

The settings need to be changed via xorg.conf and they will stick. But, I cannot save the xorg.conf made by nvidia-settings to /etc/X11/ or /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d. The error was stated above in this thread.

wpeckham · 11-12-2022, 01:18 PM

And, just for the record, no computer (in my experience) really knows left from right. They know devices, configurations, characteristics, but not really relative directions in that fashion. The KDE/Plasma configuration does not, but at least askes you in a way that allows you to indicate what you want it to do. I have seen other successful applications that figure out how to let you set them and save that setting. The processor cannot figure it out without your input.

That said, I do not understand why the configuration cannot be saved ANYWHERE. That is something I would only expect from a live image distribution, not an installed instance. One might load a USB device, mount it, make sure the user has wrote permissions, and use that to stage the configuration. If you try that, please let us know what happens.

makem · 11-12-2022, 01:47 PM

Using this link I created what is supposed to be a new xorg.conf file in /etc/X11/

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2061399

This is the result:

Code:

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "X.org Configured"
	Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
	InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
	InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
	ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
	FontPath     "built-ins"
EndSection

Section "Module"
	Load  "glx"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Keyboard0"
	Driver      "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Mouse0"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option	    "Protocol" "auto"
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
	Option	    "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "Monitor0"
	VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
	ModelName    "Monitor Model"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        ### Available Driver options are:-
        ### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
        ### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz",
        ### <percent>: "<f>%"
        ### [arg]: arg optional
        #Option     "SWcursor"           	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "HWcursor"           	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "NoAccel"            	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "ShadowFB"           	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "VideoKey"           	# <i>
        #Option     "WrappedFB"          	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "GLXVBlank"          	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "ZaphodHeads"        	# <str>
        #Option     "PageFlip"           	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "SwapLimit"          	# <i>
        #Option     "AsyncUTSDFS"        	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "AccelMethod"        	# <str>
        #Option     "DRI"                	# <i>
	Identifier  "Card0"
	Driver      "nouveau"
	BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen0"
	Device     "Card0"
	Monitor    "Monitor0"
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     1
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     4
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     8
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     15
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     16
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
	EndSubSection
EndSection

I cannot do anything with that but I do notice it says: Driver "nouveau"

I have inmstalled a NVIDIA driver and Synaptic Additional drivers says:

The device is using the recommended driver.

Using NVIDIA driver metapackage from nvidia-driver-515 (proprietary, tested).

I am now wondering how to find which driver is actually being used!

makem · 11-12-2022, 01:55 PM

Well, in the following probes no mention of nouveau.

Code:

makem@makem-22:~$ sudo lshw -c video
[sudo] password for makem: 
  *-display                 
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: GA106 [GeForce RTX 3060 Lite Hash Rate]
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: a1
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
       resources: iomemory:400-3ff iomemory:400-3ff irq:195 memory:a0000000-a0ffffff memory:4000000000-400fffffff memory:4010000000-4011ffffff ioport:3000(size=128) memory:c0000-dffff
  *-graphics
       product: EFI VGA
       physical id: 2
       logical name: /dev/fb0
       capabilities: fb
       configuration: depth=32 resolution=1920,1080

makem@makem-22:~$ lspci -nn | grep -E 'VGA|Display'
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GA106 [GeForce RTX 3060 Lite Hash Rate] [10de:2504] (rev a1)
makem@makem-22:~$ sudo lshw -c video
  *-display                 
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: GA106 [GeForce RTX 3060 Lite Hash Rate]
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: a1
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
       resources: iomemory:400-3ff iomemory:400-3ff irq:195 memory:a0000000-a0ffffff memory:4000000000-400fffffff memory:4010000000-4011ffffff ioport:3000(size=128) memory:c0000-dffff
  *-graphics
       product: EFI VGA
       physical id: 2
       logical name: /dev/fb0
       capabilities: fb
       configuration: depth=32 resolution=1920,1080
makem@makem-22:~$