Xorg - Incapable of Consistent desktop

Graphics / Linux Linux
1

I would be really grateful if experienced Xorg users could offer guidance or even just share their nvidia xorg multiple monitor experience.

Since March/April of building new PC with Linux mint 22.1 I’ve been incapable of having a consistent desktop with Multiple monitors.

Setup is :

Proart X870E, 9950x3d , 96GB RAM

5070 Ti with 3 displays : HDMI - TV TCL QM7K, 2x ViewSonic VG2765 monitors.

575.64.03 driver (I just updated today to 580.65.06)

Issue is two fold.

My new issue surfaced with 575.x.x driver + new TV.

Upon leaving Linux mint at lockscreen or desktop for extended period of time (bed) Every morning 1 or even 2 of the 3 displays will have no signal. (And its random which ones. Happened to all of them. Nvidia-settings, Mint’s display manager, or xrandr will say monitors don’t exist / disconnected. Unpluging / Replugging into same ports will do nothing. Its behaves like no signal is coming out through output port. Yet if I swap a a monitor to the one free displayport it will work. Swap it back, nothing. Full system reboot and all 3 monitors working again. I will see tonight if 580 driver changes anything.

System never goes into sleep mode.

Power management has Monitors never sleep.

ViewSonic monitors own config also set to never sleep.

I cannot figure out why I cannot leave this system and come back to my monitors / desktop like I left it. I thought it was Mint’s lockscreen but leaving system at logged in desktop I’ve found it is not.

The other issue may not be a Nvidia driver issue but rather on Mint.

I have both xorg.conf + cinnamon-monitors.xml defined with identical settings. (IE absolution positioning locations, resolutions, refresh rates)

Turning off just 1 displayport monitor nothing happens. Turn it back on and entire desktop layout is broken. Windows on monitors that were on scatter their windows and typically a monitor is sitting on ontop of another monitor. Xorg / Mint refuses to restore desktop config defined in either xorg.conf or cinnamon-monitors.xml. This remains happening with 580 driver.

Everything else with this Mint system 5070 ti is great. As long as monitors are left on. I can use system all day zero issues. Proton Gaming , CUDA AI tools, VMworkstation. All good. I just cannot get consistency to be able to leave system and come back to it the way I left it. It’s driving me insane.

Please. If you have any suggestions or can just share your Linux multi-monitor experience I would be grateful.

2

Still ongoing issue.

For a moment with 580.65.06 I thought I had a solution if I always turned on monitors left to right according to my xscreen0 layout. And off right to left.

But the last 5 days straight I come to my already power on system and turn on all displays either display port monitor just stops working and then another monitor or TV is disabled in cinnamon. I can enable random disabled TV/monitor but never get back monitor that just completely disappears. Forcing all open work to be closed and full system reboot.

My other engagements with Linux community have been as eventful as this post.

Like trying to get engagement of how to disable cinnamon monitor hot plug detection as the potential culprit for this problem. Old methods to disable are outdated and no idea how to disable with its new Muffin integration

https://github.com/linuxmint/cinnamon/issues/5619

More and more it seems that my next step is to explore Wayland distro like Fedora or CachyOS and see if 3 monitors can remain working after power off/on monitors. If so then go through a long process of switching. Alternatively my other option is to sacrifice CUDA, get rid 5070 ti for 9070 XT.

3

GFD

HDMI-0 connected primary 3840x2160+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 1209mm x 680mm
3840x2160 60.00*+ 144.00 119.88 59.94 50.00 29.97 25.00 23.98
4096x2160 59.94 50.00 24.00
2560x1440 120.00
1920x1080 240.00 144.00 119.88 59.94 50.00 29.97 23.98
1600x1280 60.00
1600x1200 60.00
1600x900 60.00
1280x1024 60.02
1280x960 60.00
1280x720 60.00 59.94
1024x768 60.00
800x600 60.32
640x480 59.94

DP-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-4 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-5 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

I’ve tried so much.

Disable VRR on TV HDMI.

Set TV to 60hz to match monitors prior to lockscreen power off monitors

Disable DPMS (Monitors + PC never sleep via Mint’s Power management anyway)

Disable / enable monitors DDC/CI

Disable monitors input auto detection

Various order of power off/on.

Cinnamon restarts

X server restarts

Nothing works to get monitors back after power off/on except reboot.

If I move either monitor to free DP-4 it will detect.

5070 Ti / 580 driver just simply stops outputting a signal on DP-0 or DP-2 or BOTH.

I don’t feel it’s Linux Mint at this point. Cinnamon / Muffin has own issues with scrambling multi monitor during monitor hotplug events but this completely disappearing monitor issue is totally on NVIDIA.

I knew better when building this PC but wanted to remain with Nvidia for CUDA tools. Just not worth it though. Full regret.

4

Spent more hours on this.

It appears Cinnamon / Muffin + 5070 ti just completely disagrees with this TV during its Cinnamon hot plug display ports re-detection events after powering on. I don’t know if its the TV itself or the mix of display port + HDMI.

For now - I’m seeing some consistency by configuring ~/.config/Cinnamon-Monitors.xml via Mint’s display manager with my TV in a disabled state.

Then I have nvidia-settings script which enables TV

nvidia-settings --assign CurrentMetaMode="DP-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+720, DP-2: nvidia-auto-select +2560+720, HDMI-0: 3840x2160_144 +5120+0"

Then prior to to locking system and turning off all 2 monitors + TV, I do the cinnamon restart ctrl-alt-esc which references ~/.config/cinnamon-monitors.xml and disables TV.

I turn on both monitors at lightdm lockscreen and they both appear to consistently get signal when TV is disabled. Although there can be a delay where they are black with signal for a good 15 seconds. I then unlock and then run script again to enable TV.

It’s a run around and it changes how I would prefer to have my primary desktop on TV rather than on middle monitor. But this maybe a workaround for now so I can avoid morning daily reboots.

Can Nvidia please chime in of why 5070 ti + Cinnamon are being so difficult with TCL QM7K TV? HDMI 2.1. Why is this HDMI TV impacting upon the 5070 display port outputs?

P.S.

The other factor I haven’t mentioned is the 9950x3d integrated GPU. Because modern motherboards are skimping on SPDIF I’m using AMD onboard HDMI to receiver just for Audio. By having /etc/xorg.conf present it disables it from X11 system which is exactly what I want. If /etc/xorg.conf is not present then it shows up as a 4th 1080P monitor. However during all my struggles I’ve done ton of tests with AMD integrated GPU disabled via BIOS. Having it disabled makes no difference with this issue of monitors/TV signal disappearing after powering them on with a running system.

Edit:

Another oddity of this issue.

I run this script to disable monitors + enable GSYNC proton gaming with TCL QM7K.

nvidia-settings --assign CurrentMetaMode="DP-0: NULL, DP-2: NULL, HDMI-0: 3840x2160_144 +0+0 {AllowGSYNCCompatible=On}"

I leave monitors on / no signal state while gaming. I then run this script when done gaming

nvidia-settings --assign CurrentMetaMode="DP-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+720, DP-2: nvidia-auto-select +2560+720, HDMI-0: 3840x2160_144 +5120+0"

The monitors will return every time. Zero issue at all.

Yet if monitors are turned off/on with TV in enabled state that’s when they randomly disappear.

Edit2:

GFD - Left exactly like I tested yesterday. TV disabled prior to lockscreen. Return today and TV has re-enabled itself and display port 2 just stops working. Forcing reboot. I cannot get any help from Linux communities or nvidia. As much as I don’t want to - Either stay mint with AMD 9070 XT or test other Distros nvidia + wayland. ■■■■

5

More testing

As mentioned last post - TCL QM7K TV’s HDMI output being disabled + normal powered off (which to a modern Android TV means standby) would still cause TV to become re-enabled while at lockscreen overnight and then causes random display port monitors to disappear. Either monitors disappear during night or right when I power monitors on. Whenever it happens - display port outputs stop.

So…

What I’m having to do prior to locking system / powering off monitors is either:

  1. Unplug HDMI cable to TV / 5070 ti prior to lockscreen

OR

  1. Leave HDMI connected but power off TV’s dedicated power strip off UPS. (Full power off - not Android TV standby)

This will consistently have my monitors working when I power them back on in morning.
I then login to Mint with just monitors and then add TV back once logged in. Either can turn on TV power strip + turn on TV OR turn on TV + plugin HDMI

The power strip method is slower as Android TV is doing to full boot rather than standby resume.

Ridiculous workaround. I don’t understand why a HDMI 2.1 Android TV is causing such havoc for a Nvidia 5070 ti display port outputs.

Sure would appreciate nvidia chiming in here

Other details:

What is least impactful is that I have Cinnamon-monitors.xml defined with normal desktop layout of all three monitors. TV being primary.

When I fully kill power to TV or Unplug HDMI - Mint will intuitively move xscreen0 primary monitor to be my middle monitor.

After I unlock in morning Xscreen0 still is still set to temp middle monitor. Then after getting TCL QM7K HDMI signal active again cinnamon detects it and automatically moves primary display to TV. And all cinnamon monitor panels remain configured as they should for triple display layout.

6

Tons of info provided.

Going on 6 weeks and not even a response of acknowledgement or we’ll investigate. Nada

And Gaslighting by Nvidia ticket support - Win only support but we oh so care about you “loyal” customers.

Only 4.4 trillion - totally understandable with your limited budget that you can’t provide the most basic support of video card.

Waaay overpriced $1K+ 5070 ti that can’t properly work on 2 monitors and 1 TV.

Hey Nvidia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYWzMvlj2RQ

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