[SOLVED] After update manager, cinnamon restart, external monitor scaling resets

[terry_dwyer]

After update manager finishes, cinnamon restart causes external monitor to reset xrandr positioning and scaling factor to default.
I run a script in the startup scripts to set my 43" Aorus (3840 x 2160) resolution) to 1.75 scaling using xrandr

My XPS 17 (3840 x 2400 ) laptop is set by the display utility to 200% and the position for both monitors is set by xrandr
The 43" monitor is above the laptop monitor and the laptop monitor is positioned immediately below.
Both monitors vertical centers are aligned

I haven't seen anyone else report this problem, but this happened to me after an upgrade today
I do not think this has been caused by something that happened as a result of today's updates, just that
mokturtles weather applet was updated and as a result cinnamon was restarted. This caused the xrandr
position and scaling reset.
I know this to be the case, because after re running the script to fix the positioning and scaling on my external
monitor and doing <Ctrl><Alt><Esc>. after cinnamon restarted again, the position and scaling was reset to defaults.

I would guess that the single ltrace update didn't cause the issue. There were a significant
number of updates the previous day and any of those, or even the update manager, could
have caused the problem.

This has never happened before, and I guess that anyone who sets scaling the way I do will be having the same problem..
I think there are probably a few people who do the same or similar things to setup monitor resolution, I've certainly
seen quite a few questions on this topic in the past which makes me think that could be the case
Here is the xrandr command that sets the display resolutions and placement:

For completeness I use the nvidia GPU in performance mode

Code: Select all

 /usr/bin/xrandr -d :0.0 \
         --output eDP-1-1 --primary --mode 3840x2400 --pos 1440x3780 --rotate normal \
         --output DP-1-4-3 --mode 3840x2160 --pos 0x0 --scale 1.75x1.75 --rotate normal \
         --output DP-1-4-3 --mode 3840x2160 --pos 0x0 --rotate normal

I had a look in /var/log to see if I could find in human readable form, a list of recent updates, but
was not able to identify any thing useful, so here is a manually typed list from update-manager's history.
It doesn't include a list of cinnamon applets.

Today:
ltrace

Yesterday:
org.kde.platform
org.hde.platform.locale
xserver.org.legacy
xserver.org.core
xwayland
python3-pil
xserver-common
xserver-zephyr
cinnamon-session
cinnamon-session-common
linux-firmware
libldap-2.5-0

My machine:

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 6.5.0-15-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A Desktop: Cinnamon 6.0.4 tk: GTK 3.24.33
    wm: muffin vt: 7 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 Distro: Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Dell product: XPS 17 9710 v: N/A serial: <superuser required> Chassis:
    type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Dell model: 0TXN0W v: A01 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Dell v: 1.19.0
    date: 03/08/2023
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 92.2 Wh (100.0%) condition: 92.2/95.1 Wh (97.0%) volts: 12.0 min: 11.4
    model: BYD DELL F8CPG1A type: Li-poly serial: <filter> status: Full
CPU:
  Info: 8-core model: 11th Gen Intel Core i7-11800H bits: 64 type: MT MCP smt: enabled
    arch: Tiger Lake rev: 1 cache: L1: 640 KiB L2: 10 MiB L3: 24 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1679 high: 3906 min/max: 800/4600 cores: 1: 1019 2: 3896 3: 3653 4: 800
    5: 800 6: 2619 7: 800 8: 800 9: 1277 10: 800 11: 3906 12: 2103 13: 1993 14: 800 15: 800 16: 800
    bogomips: 73728
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel TigerLake-H GT1 [UHD Graphics] vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel ports:
    active: DP-11,eDP-1 empty: DP-1, DP-10, DP-2, DP-3, DP-4, DP-9 bus-ID: 0000:00:02.0
    chip-ID: 8086:9a60 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: NVIDIA GA106M [GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile / Max-Q] vendor: Dell driver: nvidia
    v: 525.147.05 ports: active: none empty: DP-5, DP-6, DP-7, DP-8 bus-ID: 0000:01:00.0
    chip-ID: 10de:2520 class-ID: 0300
  Device-3: Microdia Integrated_Webcam_HD type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 3-11:5
    chip-ID: 0c45:6a11 class-ID: 0e02
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 driver: X: loaded: modesetting,nvidia
    unloaded: fbdev,nouveau,vesa gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 6720x6180 s-dpi: 75 s-size: 2263x2081mm (89.1x81.9") s-diag: 3074mm (121")
  Monitor-1: DP-1-4-3 pos: primary,top-left res: 6720x3780 hz: 60 dpi: 245
    size: 697x392mm (27.4x15.4") diag: 800mm (31.5")
  Monitor-2: eDP-1-1 mapped: eDP-1 pos: primary,bottom-r model: Sharp res: 3840x2400 hz: 60
    dpi: 266 size: 366x229mm (14.4x9.0") diag: 432mm (17") modes: 3840x2400
  OpenGL: renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 525.147.05
    direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Tiger Lake-H HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl
    bus-ID: 0000:00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:43c8 class-ID: 0401
  Device-2: NVIDIA vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 0000:01:00.1
    chip-ID: 10de:228e class-ID: 0403
  Device-3: JMTek LLC. USB PnP Audio Device type: USB driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid
    bus-ID: 3-5.1.2:7 chip-ID: 0c76:153f class-ID: 0300
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k6.5.0-15-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Tiger Lake PCH CNVi WiFi vendor: Rivet Networks driver: iwlwifi v: kernel
    bus-ID: 0000:00:14.3 chip-ID: 8086:43f0 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp0s20f3 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8153 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter type: USB driver: r8152 bus-ID: 2-4.3:4
    chip-ID: 0bda:8153 class-ID: 0000 serial: <filter>
  IF: enx00e04c68527d state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: virbr0 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel AX201 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 3-14:8 chip-ID: 8087:0026
    class-ID: e001
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 3.0 lmp-v: 5.2
    sub-v: 20ce hci-v: 5.2 rev: 20ce
RAID:
  Hardware-1: Intel Volume Management Device NVMe RAID Controller driver: vmd v: 0.6 port: N/A
    bus-ID: 0000:00:0e.0 chip-ID: 8086:9a0b rev: class-ID: 0104
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 9.1 TiB used: 1.15 TiB (12.6%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 990 PRO with Heatsink 2TB size: 1.82 TiB
    speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 3B2QJXD7 temp: 37.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sda type: USB vendor: HGST (Hitachi) model: HUS724040ALA640 size: 3.64 TiB
    type: HDD rpm: 7200 serial: <filter> scheme: GPT
  ID-3: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: Western Digital model: WD4003FFBX-68MU3N0 size: 3.64 TiB
    type: HDD rpm: 7200 serial: <filter> rev: sk B scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 1.79 TiB used: 692.04 GiB (37.8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-3: 2-4:2 info: Realtek Hub ports: 4 rev: 3.2 speed: 5 Gb/s chip-ID: 0bda:0411
    class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 2-4.2:3 info: ASMedia ASM1153 SATA 3Gb/s bridge type: Mass Storage driver: uas
    interfaces: 1 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s chip-ID: 174c:1153 class-ID: 0806 serial: <filter>
  Device-2: 2-4.3:4 info: Realtek RTL8153 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter type: Network driver: r8152
    interfaces: 1 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s power: 288mA chip-ID: 0bda:8153 class-ID: 0000
    serial: <filter>
  Device-3: 2-4.4:5 info: Seagate RSS LLC FA GoFlex Desk type: Mass Storage driver: usb-storage
    interfaces: 1 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s chip-ID: 0bc2:50a0 class-ID: 0806 serial: <filter>
  Hub-4: 3-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 16 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-5: 3-5:2 info: Realtek RTS5411 Hub ports: 5 rev: 2.1 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 0bda:5411
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-6: 3-5.1:4 info: Terminus Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 100mA
    chip-ID: 1a40:0101 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 3-5.1.2:7 info: JMTek LLC. USB PnP Audio Device type: Audio,HID
    driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid interfaces: 4 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA
    chip-ID: 0c76:153f class-ID: 0300
  Hub-7: 3-5.3:6 info: Terminus Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 100mA
    chip-ID: 1a40:0101 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-8: 3-5.3.4:10 info: Realtek RTS5411 Hub ports: 5 rev: 2.1 speed: 480 Mb/s
    chip-ID: 0bda:5411 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 3-5.3.4.5:11 info: Realtek HID Device type: HID driver: hid-generic,usbhid
    interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 100mA chip-ID: 0bda:1100 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: 3-5.5:9 info: Realtek HID Device type: HID driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 1
    rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 100mA chip-ID: 0bda:1100 class-ID: 0300
  Device-3: 3-10:3 info: Shenzhen Goodix USB2.0 MISC type: <vendor specific> driver: N/A
    interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA chip-ID: 27c6:63ac class-ID: ef00
    serial: <filter>
  Device-4: 3-11:5 info: Microdia Integrated_Webcam_HD type: Video driver: uvcvideo
    interfaces: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 500mA chip-ID: 0c45:6a11 class-ID: 0e02
  Device-5: 3-14:8 info: Intel AX201 Bluetooth type: Bluetooth driver: btusb interfaces: 2
    rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA chip-ID: 8087:0026 class-ID: e001
  Hub-9: 4-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 6 rev: 3.1 speed: 20 Gb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
    class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: N/A mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 63 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: 2768 apt: 2743 flatpak: 25
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb https: //mirrors.cicku.me/linuxmint/packages virginia main upstream import backport
    2: deb https: //ubuntu.mirror.digitalpacific.com.au/archive jammy main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb https: //ubuntu.mirror.digitalpacific.com.au/archive jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb https: //ubuntu.mirror.digitalpacific.com.au/archive jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/spotify.list
    1: deb http: //repository.spotify.com stable non-free
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/starws-box-deadbeef-player-jammy.list
    1: deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/starws-box-deadbeef-player-jammy.gpg] https: //ppa.launchpadcontent.net/starws-box/deadbeef-player/ubuntu jammy main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teejeetech-aptik.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/teejeetech-aptik-keyring.gpg] https: //packages.teejeetech.com/aptik/0/eFFQvgSsvT/ubuntu/jammy/amd64 stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teejeetech-baqpaq.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/teejeetech-baqpaq-keyring.gpg] https: //packages.teejeetech.com/baqpaq/tVOM6tusc5/ubuntu/jammy/amd64 stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teejeetech-homi.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/teejeetech-homi-keyring.gpg] https: //packages.teejeetech.com/homi/JsYjSfeGQmpk3rX/ubuntu/jammy/amd64 stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tomtomtom-yt-dlp-jammy.list
    1: deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/tomtomtom-yt-dlp-jammy.gpg] https: //ppa.launchpadcontent.net/tomtomtom/yt-dlp/ubuntu jammy main
Info:
  Processes: 441 Uptime: 29m wakeups: 1873 Memory: 31.07 GiB used: 3.6 GiB (11.6%) Init: systemd
  v: 249 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.4.0 alt: 11/12 Client: Unknown python client inxi: 3.3.13

If any other info is needed just let me know

[Edit] I checked my BIOS Version - it was 1.19.0 so I updated it to 1.24.0

[terry_dwyer]

Another thing I just realised is that in the past when cinnamon was restarted nothing really visible happened. Ther may have been a brief flicker of the desktop and there were no other effects. Since My problem became evident, restarting cinnamon appears to also restart the X server as well i.e. both monitors go dark for a second or 2 and then both come back to life with the positioning and scaling lost.

I just used update manager and performed another update that had 2 cinnamon spice updates. After the updates finished, the update manager restarted cinnamon with no ill effects, so It's probable my problem may have been a one off. I'll wait for a few more updates (with spice updates) and mark it as solved if nothing untoward happens again.

[SMG]

Since My problem became evident, restarting cinnamon appears to also restart the X server as well i.e. both monitors go dark for a second or 2 and then both come back to life with the positioning and scaling lost.

Just because your screens go blank does not mean X Server is restarting.

There is a known bug with regards to the monitor numbers changing. Please see this topic 21.3 Display manager layout numbering and the bug report mentioned therein. That may be a factor in what you are experiencing.

[terry_dwyer]

Thanks for your reply. Yes you are quite right. In the bug report the image of the display utility is showing the numbering problem exactly the same as when I run it on my machine with the icon for the non-primary display being offset by -1. Fortunately my script that sets the position and the scaling doesnt seem to be affected by this problem, so it's easy to put things back to normal.

Looking back on the list of upgrades, marked as "Yesterday" (actually Fri Feb 2) that were performed, they included:
xserver.org.legacy
xserver.org.core
xwayland
xserver-common
xserver-zephyr

Any of these may explain the display reset if update manager forced an X restart.

Any way, thanks again for the reply, and I'll mark this as solved