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Edit: I'm glad so many of you have had no issues with multiple monitors. My set up is a little unusual (3rd display is an infrequently used large tv hooked through the receiver) and is definitely solveable but will take some effort (and honestly, I'd rather spend my spare time outside or with friends, so who knows when I'll fix it.)
infrequently used large tv hooked through the receiver
This makes it seem like Linux has a problem with multiple monitors when you just aren't supposed to connect your 80s AV hardware between TV and computer. You should absolutely expect that to either require an active convertor to your obsolete shit AND OR cutting out the intermediary. If you are going to use weird shit its on you to actually understand how it works.
Out of all the people on earth you might literally be singular person anywhere with this setup. Meanwhile everyone else is just plugging in shit and watching it work.
The trick is to buy linux-approved hardware.
For example, there are specific machines which are approved by ubuntu as officialy working with ubuntu.
Thinkpads are generaly good to use.
Consumer Thinkbooks (Shitbooks) like the 16 G7 IML are NOT at all compatible.
You gotta work your hardware around linux a bit.
The trick is to buy linux-approved hardware.
So have money.
I have two extra monitors, one of them is technically a small low res LCD TV, another is in an elderly monitor that I can only turn on and off by plugging and unplugging it because its power button work's 1 out of 1000 times its pressed. They work, why spend money to replace them, they are just used to monitor temps, music players, and Discord.
Also this flies in the face of sustainability. I'd figure sustainability is also a major motivating factor of Linux, given its association with other progressive tech movements like right to repair. If I have some random jank old hardware, it'd be nice to not have to just throw it away for the sake of switching to Linux. In fact, Linux does save some hardware of course and gives them new life sometimes. I've revived some old laptops before with it.
I say this as a Linux advocate, I use Windows due to current necessity. I also use Linux (Not just on a Steam Deck, but yes on a Steam Deck). I'd stop using Windows entirely but I'd need to be richer or accept significant downgrades. I'm not the former and I wont do the latter.
If shit is actively broken and you want to keep using it you should actually fuckin fix it. That is sustainable...what you are doing is just lazy and cheap.
They're for my personal use and they serve the purpose I use them for fine with a 2 second inconvenience for one of them. Worth saving the money or so to replace them for the time being, especially if I need uniform monitors to maximally work with Linux without issue. Also it reduces e-waste.
I don't give a fuck about what you think of my character, so the only thing calling me lazy and cheap achieves is just makes me think you're angry for no good reason.
I get what you are saying but sometimes new is needed. For example at work they wanted me to have new not used... For some reason. (They paid anyway)
Thinkbooks are actually decent (quality-wise), but the ideapads - fuck them, I'm never making that mistake again, I hate typing on practically rocks and having no upgrade path.
Well yea, but that doesn't change that nothing works on linux on thinkbooks... That was my point
Pfft, L take, just learn linux from scratch and install linux on a pdf file, partition the machine, make it boot directly the pdf file, and have a working lfs, very customisable as well.
(In case it's not clear, this is a joke, by which I mean, the part where I recommend this, the process I describe is for some reason an actually doable thing (technically can do it on a piece of salami if you're rednecked enough))
Sent this to my normi friends, Iβll keep you up to dateβ¦
Update: they only pointed out that my usage of the expression βamirite?β Is out of date.
I haven't had trouble getting displays working since 2007.
Look at this guy, running a headless workstation
You guys should really tell us normies how to start. For example, the easiest thing is to check approved hardware for a specific distro. Ubuntu has a list. Nobody told me this in my over 4.5 years working with ubuntu during uni, at work and sometimes at home.
(I don't get much time to research...)
It's because one of my three is a sporadically used tv that's hooked up through my receiver system. Windows had trouble with it too and in more irritating ways. I just have to sit down and do some work to create a way to easily toggle between 1, 2 and 3 screen layouts/settings etc.
Windows had trouble with it too and in more irritating ways.
Honestly, I'm embarrassed how long it took me as a human being to realize that things don't have to be perfect to be better. I would be way harder on any change than I was with the status quo.
Anyway, yes, especially after having more and more issues with Windows 11 in particular, for me and my use case, Linux is genuinely easier to use day-to-day. Is it perfect? No. Is it better? Yes, no contest.
Like a month ago, someone wanted to connect my laptop to a projector in university class to show presentation. Little did I know that after connecting HDMI cable I will have a black screen on my laptop, lol.
If I knew my laptop is going to be used in such way I would prepare, but still...
Fake!
All those words and none were "Arch".
It was implied? π€π€ͺ
This was me in 2003.
... And ever since.
You are trying to get your displays to work since 2003? Damn...
I saw your other comment, still funny
I mean, they joke but inertia is Microsoft's mightest weapon.
Literally just "My computer works now, why would I want to change it?"
Incidentally, getting someone on Linux (or Apple for that matter) to switch to Microsoft is also like pulling teeth.
Also, for many people, they don't actually understand the difference between the device and the OS. You buy a laptop and thats the whole thing, including the OS.
Please leave my teeth, I am perfectly happy with arch.
He uses arch btw
lol, getting all displays working is indeed my biggest worry for my last Windows PC, migrating next month. It has both an NVIDIA and a Radeon GPU, and that works great on Windows. But a quick test boot from USB did not go so well on Ubuntu, so the truth will only come out after a real install with drivers.
I use a rolling release distro (void) and I haven't had to touch my system configuration since I set it up 4 years ago.
I'm another data point where displays work under Linux better than Windows, making this particular example amusingly wrong.
This is a Dell precision laptop with a dual usb-c connected docking station. Intel cpu plus a discrete nvidia gpu.
Using Cinnamon in X11 on Linux Mint or LMDE, works great.
Using KDE Plasma in Wayland on Debian? Works great!
Using Windows 10? Bzzzt.
I think I've had Linux DEs occasionally forget my monitor order & rotation just like Windows would, but out of the box Windows wouldn't even use all my monitors.
I don't think a lived experience can be amusingly wrong but to each their own?
My issue comes because my set up is highly unusual, the third display is an infrequently used tv that's connected through a receiver. With a little bit of fighting I have a workable albeit inconvenient system. A fix is possible but as stated in the meme, it'll take some effort etc.
I assume they mean that the general sense of "Switching to Linux is easy! I'm still fiddling with basic things but any day now..." doesn't reflect their own experience, nor that of many others who had less trouble with displays under Linux.
In that context "I have an unusual setup" is an important note: It's not that Linux struggles with basic things, but that it struggles with some uncommon things that nobody ever built and shipped a proper solution for.
I literally knew a guy like that in Ireland. I swear I don't even know how I knew him, but I just remember him honing in on me to talk about fucking Linux in the pub every time he'd see me. I didn't even use Linux on my own machine! ;_;
But soon...
My internal dialogue during social events: dont talk about linux, dont talk about foss, dont talk about rodents.
The design history of the XFCE logo has entered the chat.
I will gladly subscribe to any newsletter about those three things.
On my Windows laptop, multi displays barely work with any logic at all.
Last time I used macOS it pretended that displays worked fine (but they didn't).
I've not used Linux much in hotplug monitor setups but I assume the situation can't be worse.
I don't know why I love that picture so much.
My displays work great on Debian
My 3 monitor setup has been really fantastic after switching to Cosmic desktop. Really really loving the mix of tiling and non-tiling features too.
Tangential to OP but just wanted to throw Cosmic out there for folks who haven't yet tried it.
Social gatherings? Like, with actual people together in one space, talking to each other? I'm not buying it.
My third display is a TV plugged straight into my Nvidia HDMI. It's mounted on the wall above my other two monitors on the desk. I watch Jellyfin on it. I don't watch broadcast, but that's on a different input anyway. I'm wondering what issues you're having. It just works on Mint.
Ahahaha!
Yeah, Mint as well. From my reading it's because I have an additional layer, my tv goes to the stereo receiver and from there links into the computer. Unfortunately, the receiver tells the computer when it's shut off but not when it's turned on or somesuch. So, right now I've "solved" the issue by disabling the auto shut off. But it means the computer always thinks three monitors are on and engaged. Which causes issues as my primary is the desktop monitor etc. Nothing outrageous but one of those tweaks I'd like to make. And unlike Windows, it's a tweak I know I can make.
My displays are even more stable than Windows now. Wayland allows me to throw around applications to different workspaces and monitors that would have literally crashed if I ALT-TABed on Windows.
What distro are you guys using to get errors like that? I've been a Debian guy as long as I can remember and was so happy when I gave up using Windows for games. Windows doesn't seem to scale worth a shit, I have two twenty-seven inch monitors and one twenty-four inch monitor flipped portrait (it feels wrong but is so great for documentation); when I move a window halfway between two different size monitors the window is all fucked up, on Debian it is the same physical size across the displays and doesn't look like someone is trying to zoom in on half of it.
All that being said, my son's computer is close (he runs Arch... btw), but not perfect... I don't know if that's an Arch thing or he just doesn't care about it as much as I do.
I kind of miss a thing about Windows and dual monitor system. When I turn one monitor off (it does automatically every 4h), windows would keep on working without re-assembling picture for 1 monitor. Bazzite does exactly that. Everything goes black for a few seconds and does the same shit once you turn monitor off. Annoying.
Any way for me to fix this?