External monitor woes

[NeilW]

I live and work between two physical locations. I'm back now at location2 where I have a Dell 24" photographic monitor to plug my laptop into ( Lenovo)., using HDMI.

I tried this setup back in October when the (new) laptop was freshly installed with Zorin, and was delighted that it handled plugging in the external monitor perfectly, using the Display Settings for mirror or join.

Now last night I plugged in, and the display settings no longer show these options, on the same hardware. I got into a real mess, because I could no longer access open apps in either monitor - they briefly appeared then shot off-screen to the right at high speed.

I remembered I had the 'Smart Auto Move' extension installed (which remembers window sizes and positions for your apps), and turned it off. I don't think it plays well with multiple monitors. This helped with some issues and allowed me to restore the settings window - for some time I couldn't access settings on either monitor even after a full reboot.

However, several issues remain:

1. Screenshot on laptop on its own, nothing plugged in
   

   

2. Screenshot with the Dell plugged in
   file:///home/neil/Pictures/Screenshots/Screenshot%20from%202024-12-24%2012-56-16.png

The Join/Mirror options have disappeared, the monitor is behaving as 'Join' even though I had previously pre-selected 'Mirror'.

3. New development - 90% of the time now on plugging the hdmi in or out, my system totally freezes - power button reset required.

4. Even with the Dell set as Primary and the laptop display switched off, the Zorin menu does not appear on the Dell. I have 'display panels on all monitors' switched on.

I'm about to set up my partner's laptop with Zorin, she uses this monitor daily and having persuaded her to switch to Zorin (actually she asked me to do the switch being totally fed up with Wind10 behaviour) I would like this to be as trouble-free as possible.

Any help most welcome.

Thank you!. And 'Buon Natale'!

[StarTreker]

Hello, you said you have a Lenovo computer, but you didn't say what the model is. If you have an Nvidia GPU in it, have a look at Nvidia X Server Settings.

Sometimes, I've run into an issue, where my current external display got disabled in the OS, and I had to turn it on, in order to use it.

In Displays, I have mine setup like this...

(1) To state the obvious, make sure that the HDMI cables are plugged in firmly.

(2) You might need to power cycle both your computer and monitor. Notebooks these days don't have removable batteries, so best you can do is shut them down completely.

With the monitor, turn it off, pull the plug, then press and hold the monitor power button for 15-seconds. Then replug in the power cable, and turn the monitor on first. Then press the power button on the notebook.

PS: Make sure to re-enable your notebook screen, because in my experience, when Linux boots up, it defaults to the notebook screen at login, and only after logging in, does display server kick in, to push to external screens.

PS2: Make sure that the refresh rate matches what your screen is. I've had cases where my refresh rate suddenly got set wrong, and when I selected the proper refresh rate, the screen suddenly came alive.

PS3: And lastly, if everything still fails to work, try a new HDMI cable. Believe it or not, sometimes these cables fail when you use one of those cheap Chinese made cables, that don't match spec, or made to last long.

---

[NeilW]

Hi StarTreker and thank you,

Lenovo Thinkbook 14 2-in-1 G4 IML (2024)
Intel Core Ultra 5 125U
Integrated Mesa Intel Graphics

So no NVidia.
I'm with you on cables - I always buy decent quality. Its fairly new and has had light usage. Its working fine in Windows. An alternative HDMI cable, also nearly new. shows no difference.

My screen is showing on the Dell external monitor, the issue is that display settings doesnt give me the option to choose which screen shows what. It seems hard-set to 'Join'.

I'll do the power cycle although the laptop has had several full power off-an-on cycles.

[NeilW]

and... no change

[NeilW]

The external monitor appears to be correctly identified, but I notice its refresh rate is 59.95Hz, there's no option to change that.

[NeilW]

So, having read a few forum posts on Ubuntu and Mint with a similar issue, I switched last night to boot with the previous kernel (6.8.0-49).

Problem solved, for now.

To summarise:
On 'up-to-date' Zorin using 6.8.0-50

• If I plug in or out the external monitor on HDMI with my notebook switched on and open, the system totally freezes.
• The Join - Mirror - Single options in Display Settings are not present. Its not that they are greyed out, they are not there.

On the previous kernel 6.8.0-49

• I can plug in/out with no issue
• The Join - Mirror - Single options are present and function as expected.

Presumably this is only affecting certain hardware, otherwise a lot more people would be noticing?

Any thoughts, or anything else I could test, on either kernel. Can this be raised with the Zorin developers as a potential bug?

Thanks for any input.

[Ponce-De-Leon]

@NeilW

@NeilW

I can see that on Your first Picture Fractional Scaling is active and not on your 2nd Picture. You could try it with turned of Fractional Scaling.

And another Thing: Is Your System running in Wayland or Xorg? To check that, go to Settings>About and look there for a Line called ''Windiw Manager'' or ''Display Manager'' and look if there stands Wayland or X11. If there should stand Wayland, You could try it with switching to Xorg/X11.

To do that, got to the Login Screen (not the Lock Screen) and click on Your Profile so that the Password Field appeares. It has to be appeared. When it is appeared, you should see in the bottom right Corner a Gear Icon. click on it and choose the Option ''Zorin Desktop on Xorg'' and then log in and test it.

[NeilW]

Hi Ponce-de-Leon,

Thank you for the suggestions, unfortunately I already tried both. I have been normally in Wayland and experienced no issues with anything until now.

With this issue, I switched to XOrg and tested - no change.

I also tested with and without fractional scaling in both Wayland and Xorg - no change. Worth checking though!

The first screenshot is just the notebook. The second image is notebook with external monitor plugged in via HDMI. The buttons disappear.

The only thing making a consistent difference is the kernel. When I go back to -49, the issue is resolved. I booted back to -50 and the issue reappears.

Thank you,