Nvidia - Keep external monitor settings between reboots

[undoIT]

I recently installed Kubuntu 9.04 + Nvidia driver 180.44 on my Dell Latitude E6400 (1440x900) with NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M. I have the G2410 1920x1080 external monitor. The monitor is connected via VGA. I am very pleased to have the monitor running at full resolution. However, the settings don't stay intact after rebooting.

If I have the monitor connected and turn on the the laptop, only the laptop screen is active. Then, I press Fn + F8 twice to switch to the external monitor which is always reset to 1440x900. After logging in I open Nvidia settings and switch the external monitor resolution to auto. There is a warning about Meta modes and I do auto fix. Then compositing is disabled, so I open system settings, turn off then turn back on desktop effect. Also, if I want to switch back to the laptop display, it stays stuck at 1920x1080 on the laptop.

Is there any way to set this up so it is automatically detected when the external monitor is plugged in and runs at the correct resolution? With my old M1330 and Intel X3100 graphics card, it would do this and was very convenient switching back and forth between the laptop display and external monitor.

[undoIT]

Re: Nvidia - Keep external monitor settings between reboots

Okay, so I found that the Nvidia settings isn't actually saving the xorg.conf file when try to save. The error is about not being able to remove the backup file or something, but it actually wasn't being saved. So, I tried manually adding the settings from the preview, with merge existing checked and unchecked. Each time when I reboot, Kubuntu fails to load and i'm dropped into TTY. Then I restore the xorg.conf file.

The xorg.conf file is pretty much deprecated now. Is there any other way to get the setting to stick between reboots so that at least the resolution of the external monitor is automatically loaded?

[dibl]

Re: Nvidia - Keep external monitor settings between reboots

You need to run nvidia-settings as root, one time, to set the xorg.conf settings.

Alt-F2 "kdesudo nvidia-settings" and then use the "Save to X Configuration" button when you have it set as you wish.

[undoIT]

Re: Nvidia - Keep external monitor settings between reboots

It works!!! Thank you dibl, you saved me a bunch of time and unnecessary clicks. I just tested rebooting the laptop with and without monitor connected and it automatically sets the correct resolution. I thought about doing this but figured manually pasting in the xorg.conf preview would have the same effect. Not sure why it didn't.

The only remaining issues are that desktop effects are note enabled on the external monitor, even though they are checked in System Settings. This is fine by me, better to keep them off while working.

The other issue is that the taskbar is not maximized on the external monitor after booting the laptop once without the monitor connected. Is there a way to configure the taskbar to automatically maximize to whatever the screen resolution is?

That Alt+F2 is going to come in handy

[undoIT]

Re: Nvidia - Keep external monitor settings between reboots

Correction. Desktop Effects are enabled. I didn't think they were because the taskbar is not transparent. So, it looks like the only issue is the taskbar (it would become transparent if I made any changes in the system settings and then saved).

[royleith]

Re: Nvidia - Keep external monitor settings between reboots

Even if you are not using the Nvidia drivers, a similar fix works. Make sure that root is enabled and has a password. Log out and select consol login from the menu. Log in as 'root'. 'startx' Then change the display settings to your required resolution, etc.

It does not seem to work after a reboot, but it does seem to work after a cold restart.

Regards
Roy Leith


Postscript: Ooops. It only worked on one machine. The other one still defaults to the installation default setting. Sorry.

[royleith]

Re: Nvidia - Keep external monitor settings between reboots

I have finally mastered the work around. You need to 'restore previous session' on boot (which appears to be the default setting). Then run the 'Screen resize and rotate' program that you should find in the Applications/System menu of the Application Launcher. This adds the resize and rotate icon in the system tray. Now, each time you boot, the screen resize and rotate sets the correct screen resolution without any program windows appearing. If it fails to do that, right-click on the icon and select your preferred resolution.

Regards
Roy Leith

[undoIT]

Re: [SOLVED] Nvidia - Keep external monitor settings between reboots

Running nvidia-settings with sudo is not working in Karmic.

sudo nvidia-settings

In Jaunty, I could run nvidia-settings as root, configure the external display and then click the Save to X Configuration File to have the settings applied after every reboot. Now, when I try to save the configuration file I get the following error:

Failed to parse existing X config file '/etc/X11/xorg.conf'!