I’m using EndeavourOS with KDE.
The display is correctly oriented when logged in but it doesn’t rotate correctly when I’m logged out.
EDIT: corrected the post. This happens when logged out, locking the screen has it displayed correctly.
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If you’re using Wayland, you can go to Settings -> Colors & Themes -> Login Screen (SDDM) and click “Apply Plasma Settings…”
If you’re using X11, it looks like you’ll have to resort to hacky scripts, unfortunately.
Source: https://discuss.kde.org/t/how-to-change-monitor-layout-and-orientation-in-sddm/3377
Unfortunately, I’m having to use X11 because of work (context). Thanks for the help!
I suppose xrandr can help you here: See the Arch wiki about xrandr
This is why X11 is better. I’d rather have settings like this in a text file that I can copy over to my next machine than have to navigate a UI that will change on a different DE or the next upgrade.
Backwards compatibility, portability, and text-based interfaces are a virtue.
X config files aren’t “hacky scripts”, they are fundamentally more powerful, customizable, usable, and future-proof. Xrandr is a powerful and capable interface with applications across the system.
When Wayland adopts these kinds of powerful interfaces with decades of refinement I’ll switch to it. I don’t want to keep track of whether my DE uses wlroots or gnome or plasma and their independent/redundant/feature-lacking randr alternatives. Randrs should be more fundamental to the display operation than the DE. Wayland is fundamentally hacky and broken.
Edit: thank you all for the discussion. I’d like to clarify a point. I don’t just want a text file with configuration settings that implement features that I need to beg/bother the devs for. They are likely to have better things to do and it might not be a priority for them. I want access to powerful tools via the configuration files that I can make do pretty much anything if I read the documentation. Xrandr is such a tool. I don’t want setting for a feature that has to be baked into the DE which I have to beg to have implemented and which will be implemented differently across different DEs. I want flexible, dynamic, modular tools.
Okay grandma, let’s get you to bed
Give me real tools or get off my
lawnrewilded patch of native plants and bugs!
Yeah that difference in configuration definitely makes it so much better, it completely outweighs the fact that Wayland does proper multi-monitor VRR, fractional scaling, HDR and much more.
Not OP comment but I had no idea Wayland supported all of that. Thanks for sharing! I really need to leave my Linux bubble more often.
And now you know why it’s so funny to read people on the internet exclaiming that X11 is so much better despite its lack of development…
I’ve never needed any of those things.
I do need to change monitor configurations.
I once had an old TV that I used as a monitor that had 1027p worth of pixels instead of 1080p. Auto detection tools said it was 1080p. With xrandr I was able to modify the output to 1027p so I didn’t lose the edges of the display to the TV’s broken forced overscan design. Could you do that with Wayland?
Literally yes. And you don’t even need to know the exact pixel resolution of the TV.
Edit: Here are the problems with you “Wayland isn’t good enough” people.
First, you don’t use Wayland, so you don’t even know if it’s fixed whatever weird issue you encountered with it before or if it supports a niche use case, for example.
Second, Wayland won’t get good enough for you until you start using it and reporting bugs. You think X11 was a bed of roses when it first started? Or do you think they bumped the version number 11 times for fun?
First, you don’t use Wayland, so you don’t even know if it’s fixed whatever weird issue you encountered with it before or if it supports a niche use case, for example.
Bingo. So many complaints I’ve seen about Wayland have been from Nvidia users who tried it three years ago when the driver support was beyond fucked. I get Linux development moves slow sometimes but holy shit…
Good to know that this has been implemented in your favorite DE! Considering how Wayland often implements things, it’s probably implemented on the DE-level, leading to a fractured configuration ecosystem. Being implemented in Wayland is different from being implemented in some of the DEs that use Wayland.
edit: if I’m wrong about that, and it is implemented in Wayland itself, please continue to correct me!
You can’t be this stupid, Wayland also uses a config file, you just have a GUI button to copy the configs from inside your session to the login screen. Or do you think the button recompiles the login screen with a different configuration?
Ironically SDDM itself still runs on X11 afaik, Wayland support is still experimental.
I think you have to manually enable it (may depend on your distro/DE) but SDDM works fine with Wayland as it stands now.
Uh, all that button does is write your configuration to the sddm config. Of course you can also do that manually.
It’s not just about it being a config file, it’s also about having access to a powerful tool like xrandr within that config file.
wlr-randr
In Wayland, the compositor is the window server ( the equivalent of Xserver ). What you are looking for has to be a feature of the compositor and it is.
As others have said below, wlroots based compositors offer wlr-randr. There is also gnome-randr. For KDE, there is Kscreen-doctor. For X ( the window server being used by SDDM here ), there is xramdr.
Now, some people may see it as a problem that we have multiple Wayland implementations. I am mostly not fighting that battle. I will say that I hope these are not the same people that winge about systemd though and push for alternate init systems. I hope nobody that thinks MUSL is cool Is clinging to X11.
I would prefer that there was a common configuration standard for this stuff on Wayland. It will probably come eventually. Maybe as part of the freedesktop.org stuff.
Generally, I believe the Linux ecosystem has been stronger in areas where there has been competition between implementations ( even compilers ). I hope that Wayland will be one of those areas. As the core problems get fixed, the pace of innovation will increase. I believe we are already seeing that. There are more examples every day of things Wayland can do that X11 cannot. Let’s hope for more of that.
Thanks for pointing out that in this case the DM is using X regardless of whatever graphical environment gets loaded when the user logs in. This really is a moot point/discussion. I’m still glad I raised it to get perspectives like yours.
You’re right that I should play around with wlroots a bit more. It’s been a while, personally. Mostly because it’s been a while since I’ve had time to just play around with my system. My life is at a point that it looks like I’ll have that free time soon, for better or for worse.
I’ll note that I do like alternative init systems for diversity and competition and because systemd was very hungry and rigid. An init system is also a bit more fundamental to system stability than a display server, so I think it’s reasonable to be critical of systemd and Wayland for contradictory reasons. Systemd has also come a very long way in the past decade plus. I have also seen it learn from the other ideas implemented in its competition, mirroring your argument. Diversity and unification are not at odds with each other, but are different parts of the same cycle of improvement.
You left a very gracious reply so let’s not fight.
I see a certain amount of irony in the overlap between the group of people ranting that Wayland has too many implementations and the group demanding more implementations of everything else. So that was my point.
Certainly we can agree though that there is nothing wrong with demanding more of both.
One my favourite new distros, Chimera, uses both Wayland and dinit (and Turnstile ).
I am interested to see where the diversity that Wayland provides goes actually. Have you seen this?
Thanks for the leads and the good conversation. I have found that being an idiot in public and then deescalating is one of the fastest ways to gather information.
There are more examples every day of things Wayland can do that X11 cannot
What are the examples Wayland can do and X11 cannot?
Not sure if you’re a troll, but if you’re serious, nothing I say is going to change your mind, so I won’t bother.
I am serious, and I’ll tell you exactly what will change my mind. I need real tools instead of “upgrades” that have less functionality and are less usable. If Wayland (or whatever comes next) can deliver on functionality, I’ll sing its praises. For now I’m on X.
I never configured anything on X with a DE, let it be KDE, Gnome or Cosmic, but configure everything with config files I can just copy on sway. It has nothing to do with X or Wayland, but the DE/WM you use.
That’s kind of my point. Something like randr is more fundamental than the DE, and its configuration shouldn’t be fractured by being DE-dependent. I personally don’t like DEs at all, and like the ability to control a more minimal system.
Oh, I didn’t know that button existed. Great! Even though I just tried it and it didn’t apply my rotation settings correctly.
I’m using Wayland, where do I find this settings gui?
This is the system settings application for the KDE desktop environment.
Ah, so being on Hyprland means I can’t really gain access to this, right?
Correct. Unfortunately, it’s something that each desktop environment or window manager has to implement themselves. But all the button is doing is moving some config files around, so you can probably do some digging to figure out what it’s copying to where.
Yeah, I’ve largely figured out how to change all these settings from configs for myself, just always on the lookout for a nice gui. I’m slowly working to make a Linux experience I can install for my relatives that makes the transition from crapware Windows relatively painless.
XDG_SESSION_THEME=KDE got my hyprland config to work on everything except the cursor (other than in Firefox/steam for some reason). Took me way too long to find the old reddit post that had this tip, so I hope it helps!
Put one hand on the top and one on bottom and rotate the screen by 90° or π/2 radians
If you have to read PDFs regularly having a vertical monitor is a lifesaver.
Rotate the left display 90 degrees clockwise. Now they’re both in landscape. Ta-da!
Sorry, I’ll see myself out.
This is SDDM, the default login manager used by KDE.
The Arch Wiki has an article about it, look under section 2.6.
Great answer!
On the arch wiki for SSDM I found this:
Changes to your display configuration made in a Plasma Wayland session (e.g. monitor layout, resolution, etc) will not persist to SDDM. To make them persist open Plasma’s System Settings and navigate to Startup and Shutdown> Login Screen (SDDM) and click “Apply Plasma Settings…”. You will need to have permission to perform this action.
You should give that a try
From Archwiki > xrandr:
Tip: Both GDM and SDDM have startup scripts that are executed when X is initiated. For GDM, these are in /etc/gdm/, while for SDDM this is done at /usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsetup. This method requires root access and mucking around in system configuration files, but will take effect earlier in the startup process than using xprofile.
You still use X11?
SDDM is still X11 based, no matter which desktop you run with it. I have tried enabling Wayland on it, but it’s been… Unstable to say the least.
That’s not the point here but can you share your wallpaper? 😄
I can’t remember where I found it, but here it is. I thought it might be from here (I’ve used these previously) but it is not.
usually monitors can be freely rotated. if yours can’t, the back usually has a square vesa mount on the back and you can just take out the four screws and reattach it the way you like.
Turn your head
You just need to look at the problem from a different angle
Is this when the screen is locked or when you’re logged out? Those are two different things and I suspect it’s the latter. That’s probably sddm and I suspect it can be fixed by using Wayland with it. Should be some option in
/etc/sddm.confor so.I corrected the post, thanks for calling it out! It’s fine when locked but the issue happens when logged out.
Your screen on the left appears to be rotated vertically, rotate it 90 degrees clockwise and it should be better.
You could use Windows 11 from Microsoft, it can do both landscape and portrait.
It’s true though, every thread about Windows is full of Linux users saying how you should just use Linux, and others saying they still can’t because it still doesn’t work properly after all this time. Then you get the Linux users saying “iT jUSt wORks”, then posting shit like this demonstrating that it clearly still doesn’t
If you think this is very witty and a gotcha, you’re wrong. This argument doesn’t work in reverse because whoever is using Linux already knows all about Windows, since, y’know, it has most of the Desktop market in its grip
This is like yelling about straight pride
You type well for someone holding their head at 90°
Jokes on you, I typed this on a mobile device
If you think this is very witty and a gotcha, you’re wrong. This argument doesn’t work in reverse because whoever is using iOS already knows all about Android, since, y’know, it has most of the mobile market in its grip
This is like yelling about straight pride
Bruh
I couldn’t resist
Right? I had to do the same
I vow to do the same on each appropriate thread my Liege
It’s only right
Sure.
I could also shoot off both my testicles with an M1911.
Is that what it takes to get two different desktop orientations using Linux?
Fix what? It looks perfect /s
Easily fixable, just use Windows bro
If you think this is very witty and a gotcha, you’re wrong. This argument doesn’t work in reverse because whoever is using Linux already knows all about Windows, since, y’know, it has most of the Desktop market in its grip
This is like yelling about straight pride
It’s satirical/sarcastic, I even added the bro and everything. You see Linux users doing the same on every fucking Windows post so I couldn’t resist.
Damn, guess I got wooshed
