System Info
OS: Zorin OS 17.2 Core x64
GPU: NVidia RTX 4080 Superr
Display Driver: NVIDIA driver from nvidia-driver-550 (proprietary)
Dual-Boot: Windows 11 (installed first)
Secure Boot: Disabled in BIOS OSs are installed on separate SSDs; not partitions - completely separate drives
Background
I have a dual monitor system; my main monitor is in the "normal" landscape orientation, and my side monitor is in a right-rotated portrait orientation. I have configured my monitor correctly using the Zorin desktop configuration setting and when I am logged in everything looks good.
Issue
However, when I first boot up my PC, the monitors default back to the initial configuration when I first installed Zorin. (See below picture)
I rebooted the PC and still no luck, I even manually went to the destination folder and verified the monitors.xml file was correctly updated, which it was.
From previous experience, atleast with zorin:
It will load your stored settings as soon as you log in. Which i do not like btw either, so let me know if you figure out how to fix this.
Hmm ... How is Your Monitor Setup set up in the Settings? I don't have multiple Monitors but as far as I know, you can set it up in the Settings with Orientation and that Stuff.
If it's correct after logging in, then your monitors.xml should be good, but it's your USER monitors.xml that's set correctly. Try copying your user monitors.xml to the window manager's default:
You may want to make sure no monitors.xml already exists there and back it up if one does, but when I looked on my system, there was nothing to risk overwriting.
Whoops. My fault, sorry. >_< I hunted it down from a tip posted by Applecheeks in a different thread months back and didn't notice it was the same method.
Thanks both @Locklear93 and @Ponce-De-Leon , I'll keep looking for answers, but idk this is kinda annoying and might be enough to make me switch to Ubuntu. Which is a shame because Zorin has a very nice UX/UI and seems pretty stable and elegant.
Does Ubuntu not do this? Zorin is based on Ubuntu 22.04, so unless Ubuntu made a change in 24.04 (they may have), I'd expect very similar behavior there. If Ubuntu gets it right though, that might be something a more experienced user could use to isolate the problem.
I've used Ubuntu in the past, but now that I think about it, not with this monitor config. Maybe I'm an edge case, but I can't imagine I'm the only person who uses dual monitors with one of them rotated.
I've seen no small number of coders use two monitors in such a configuration at the company for which I work, but work uses Windows PCs. Still, uncommon config, but not vanishingly so. Here's hoping a solution presents itself quickly, or another user swings by who's more familiar with such issues.
So I'm wondering if your login screen is forcing to use Wayland. If this is true, you would want to uncomment this line in order to disable that to force it to use Xorg (I'm assuming you're using Xorg for your desktop, and if that's the case the two may not play well with each other). Please let me know if that's the case, or if you're one of the rare few using Wayland on the desktop lol.
Uncomment WaylandEnable=false to force Xorg at the login screen.
$ sudo cat /etc/gdm3/custom.conf
GDM configuration storage
#
# See /usr/share/gdm/gdm.schemas for a list of available options.
[daemon]
# Uncomment the line below to force the login screen to use Xorg
#WaylandEnable=false
# Enabling automatic login
# AutomaticLoginEnable = true
# AutomaticLogin = user1
# Enabling timed login
# TimedLoginEnable = true
# TimedLogin = user1
# TimedLoginDelay = 10
Then restart GDM.
sudo systemctl restart gdm
Once you've done that, you may need to run the above commands you've already run to update the config again, but I would start here and see if this is the issue.
If you're running Wayland, then I'm out of ideas to be honest. But given your specs, I highly doubt you are.
I'm going to take a look at this later when I'm home and see what the deal is. Shouldn't typically be this annoying to get working, but maybe i'm forgetting something.
EDIT: I believe after you ran your copy command and then the reconfigure, it may have reset the config file back to standard. Checking later though, like I said
Ok so there is a workaround going full Xorg, but it's a little annoying to set up GDM to go that route fully, instead here's an easier way I find:
So I want you to re-comment that WaylandEnable=False so that it goes back to using wayland (just GDM).
Once you've saved that, you'll logout, select wayland upon logging in (we don't need to be here long).
Change your displays to how you want your login screen to look (for example, your right monitor verticle, main monitor horizontal on the left, whatever floats your boat). Then you'lll run
As you did before. Once you've run that, do not restart gdm, there's no need. Logout and your login SHOULD be what you are desiring at this point.
If that's true, login to your Xorg session and change whatever your hearts content wishes in there, and it should not touch your gdm login settings at all (at least, from my testing).
Let me know if that all works for you. I'm not happy about this being the best solution, but like I said, I can manage to make gdm work through xorg alone, but it involves changing a few other things that really, if something were to update and break them, I wouldn't be satisfied in giving as a solution.
