One last glitch, then perfection

Help
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1

As far as I can tell, I have an almost perfect system, with no detectable glitches or bugs in anything… except one. It is trivial, really, a minor nuisance. But, it is one I have sought an answer for a few times already, without success:

SDDM is not using the assigned primary on the login screen. It says it is, but it is not.

I have four displays (5 if you include the projector), three of them form a “working” triad, the other is a large display for group viewing and normally off, though plugged in to the PC.

display one (left) is a 17" XSGA, rotated to portrait,
display two (center) is a 27" FHD in normal mode,
display three (right) is a 17" XSGA, rotated to portrait.
and display four is either a 46" FHD LCD FPD or FHD LCD Projector.

The rotated height of the 17" displays are exactly the height of the 27", so it all fits together neatly. However, in order to keep the widgets on the right display from bouncing around due to the post-login rotation, and to put the focus on the main screen, I have had to add some xrandr settings to Xsetup in /usr/share/sddm/scripts/.

xrandr --output DVI-I-1 --mode 1280x1024 --pos 0x0 --rotate left --output HDMI-0 --primary --mode 1920x1080 --pos 1024x0 --rotate normal --output DVI-D-0 --mode 1280x1024 --pos 2944x0 --rotate left --output HDMI-1-0 --mode 1920x1080 --pos 3968x0 --rotate normal

This used to work in Neon (and it still works in Kubuntu 23.04 with Plasma 5.27.8 backport). Now though, when at the login screen, the focus is assigned to display four, which is usually off. I can still type in my password, though nothing shows up on the in-use displays, and I can click the main screen to focus it, but I would like it to do what it was told (I’m the human damn it! :wink: ) and make display 2 primary, not 4 (or assign the focus correctly).

This occurred two or three updates to SDDM ago, and has persisted. Something seems to have changed with SDDM and Neon, but not SDDM and Kubuntu.

It is also present in every kdesrc-build I do since then as well.

Any ideas? Because if I can get that solved, I will have perfection, and that would be a first in my entire computing existence. I wants it. I needs it. My Precious. :smiley:

2

In main.qml in your sddm theme directory, try changing focus: true to focus: primaryScreen

3

Hi, thanks for the suggestion. Assuming you meant the function StackView(), the change made no difference. It did prompt me to remember that I had changed the login screen theme, so I changed it back, tested, but it was still broken.

I then added a new theme, and that too was broken. I installed the newly released Kubuntu 23.10 and noticed significant changes to Xsetup in /usr/share/sddm/scripts verses the one in 23.04 or Neon that appear to be an attempt at automating screen orientation with multiple monitors. However, it does not seem to work correctly and the screens were all over the place.

The default configuration in Kubuntu 23.10 after install had screen three as focus and improperly (IE not) rotated. Adding my xrandr changes as noted above, the screens are now rotated and oriented properly, but the bug is now present in 23.10 too, and focus is also on screen 4, but the pointer is on screen two, where it should be.

I get the sense that attempts at automating multi-monitor setups is the culprit. I cannot help but wonder if it is seeing display outputs differently than I have them physically arranged/plugged in.

I noticed that if swapped my cable’s physical ports, the layout does not change. Screen numbering is the same. I would expect that what was showing on screen one to the left (IE widgets) would then show up on screen three to the right, but it stayed on screen on to the left.

So, it seems the system is fighting itself.

4

This is unfortunately a known bug: 433563 – Password field input not synced across screens

5

Ah. That is disappointing. Thanks Nate. I was genuinely hoping it was something I botched. :smiley: