How to change monitor layout and orientation in SDDM?

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1

I’ve never attempted this before, so I’m not sure how flexible SDDM is, and I’m a noob with xrandr.

I have a 4K+1440p monitor setup (in that order), with the 1440p being the primary (will replace with 1440p ultrawide).

  • I want to rotate the 4K monitor 90° CW only
  • I want 1440p to be the primary monitor
  • (Optional) I want to put a different wallpaper on my portrait display

How can I accomplish that? And if I were to swap one of the monitors or move the cables around, it won’t crash SDDM or cause issues?

2

Edit these 2 files, if not exist create them. Note that DP-2 and DP-4 are examples. Find out which port your monitor connecting to by running xrandr. If rotate right is not right then change to left.

/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsetup

xrandr --output DP-2 --mode 3840x2160 --rotate right --auto --noprimary --output DP-4 --mode 2560x1440 --rotate normal --auto --primary

When you change to 2k Ultrawide

xrandr --output DP-2 --mode 3840x2160 --rotate right --auto --noprimary --output DP-4 --mode 3440x1440 --rotate normal --auto --primary

/etc/sddm.conf

[XDisplay]
# Xsetup script path
# A script to execute when starting the display server
DisplayCommand=/usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsetup

For wallpaper open settings and search SDDM.

2 Likes
3

Thanks for that
And regarding the wallpaper, I edited my post

4

This is supported out of the box if you use Wayland. Then go to the SDDM page in System Settings and click the “Apply Plasma Settings” button.

5

Nice Nate! That’s actually something I mentioned would be nice in a Github bug. I didn’t know it had already been implemented.

6

Out of curiosity, what happens if I need to change back to my “regular” 1440p? Will it break? Or how will SDDM handle that situation (mainly for curiosity sake).

oh that’s good to hear. I just hope that Wayland will be ready for gaming soon

7

On Wayland, SDDM it remembers resolutions per-screen, so that shouldn’t be a problem.

But it’s a manual process, so every time you change a screen’s resolution, you’ll need to re-sync the SDDM settings if you want them to remain in sync.

8

Any plans on making it automatic in the future?

9

Once SDDM is brought into KDE, it might be possible to make it automatic, as long as you have only one user of course. If you have multiple users, it would either have to be manual again, or track only a single user’s configurations.