I'm used to working with three monitors at the same time (laptop monitor + two external monitors). However, I don't seem to be able to get it working on my Ubuntu 14.04 with a GTX980M + Intel configuration which has three video outputs (One HDMI + two DisplayPort). It works perfectly on Windows so I guess it's more likely a Ubuntu configuration issue. The model is Clevo P650 (known as Sager 8658 in the US or 神舟 战神 Z8-KL7S2 in China). I have installed the NVIDIA proprietary driver version 355. Strangely, on the login screen, all three screens display Ubuntu background correctly, as shown here.
However, once I log in, only two screens can coexist at the same time: If I leave out a cable, whether at HDMI or DisplayPort, the laptop monitor displays normally with the one remaining external monitor. However, if I keep both cables plugged in, then the laptop monitor goes dark and only two external monitors are displayed.
I tried running sudo nvidia-settings
, however only two displays are shown there, as can be seen in the photo. I tried to create multiple X screens in the configuration, but strangely, the settings that I wrote each time via "Save to X Configuration File" seem to get lost whenever I login again, as xorg.conf
gets reset to its initial state. It seems that the settings written are invalid. I Googled a while, but the questions seem to be dealing with older versions of Ubuntu/NVIDIA drivers. I couldn't find where I might be able to configure TwinView
. I'm currently at a loss as of what to do next. Should I try to manually write a xorg.conf
? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
EDIT: The situation with nouveau
is even worse. Although lspci -vnnn | perl -lne 'print if /^\d+\:.+(\[\S+\:\S+\])/' | grep VGA
seems to show that both the NVIDIA and the Intel cards are working, no external monitor seems to be recognized at all.
The xorg.conf
written by nvidia-settings
by default (without attempting to create multiple X screens) seems to be this one. The strange thing is that it seems only one monitor (on HDMI) gets recognized although I connected two, not to mention the internal monitor on the laptop:
# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings: version 358.16 (buildd@lcy01-29) Sat Nov 21 02:54:29 UTC 2015
# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 355.11 (buildmeister@swio-display-x86-rhel47-07) Wed Aug 26 17:15:49 PDT 2015
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "layout"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
Inactive "intel"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
Option "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "keyboard"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Samsung S27D590"
HorizSync 30.0 - 81.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 75.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "intel"
Driver "intel"
Option "AccelMethod" "SNA"
BusID "PCI:0@0:2:0"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "nvidia"
Driver "nvidia"
BusID "PCI:1@0:0:0"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce GTX 980M"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "intel"
Device "intel"
Monitor "Monitor0"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "nvidia"
Device "nvidia"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration" "on"
Option "IgnoreDisplayDevices" "CRT"
Option "ConstrainCursor" "off"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "nvidia-auto-select"
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "Stereo" "0"
Option "metamodes" "HDMI-0: nvidia-auto-select +1920+0, DP-2: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
Option "SLI" "Off"
Option "MultiGPU" "Off"
Option "BaseMosaic" "off"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection
EDIT2: Now I realized I can't actually run the internal monitor together with just one external monitor either. When I try it, the monitors get mirrored and get very weird resolution. When I try to demirror them, I can't even click on the "keep current configuration" button to confirm the change. Actually, the display on three screens at startup was also probably just because of mirroring effect.
~/.config/monitors.xml
, and once it's configured correctly, all three displays can function simultaneously. Still need more testing to confirm this.monitors.xml
to paste.ubuntu.com and then leave a comment @Fabby?