I’m working with a laptop connected to a large screen TV (Sony). The laptop’s resolution is 1920 X 1200 (16:10). The TV is a 4K. I’m having the following problems:
The desktop image comes up perfectly on both screens when I boot, but it always sets the TV as the primary. That I can resolve; it just seems a bit silly.
When I join the two monitors, I can’t move the mouse between the screens. It always stays on the laptop screen, no matter which side I slide it to.
When I join the monitors, the display is correct on both displays. That is, the image fills both.
When I try to mirror the two displays, the resolution of the display on the TV is the same as that on the laptop rather than filling the screen. There is no apparent way to change this. Adjustments to the two monitors are only possible when joining them, and not when mirroring them.
I’m using Fedora 42, fully updated. The laptop has a Ryzen 7 Pro processor with Radeon 780M graphics.
I don’t recall ever having this problem in the past, but then the TV is also pretty new. I used the same TV with the most recent version of KDE Neon and had no problems (different laptop, with a 1920 X 1080 resolution).
The desktop image comes up perfectly on both screens when I boot, but it always sets the TV as the primary. That I can resolve; it just seems a bit silly.
When I join the two monitors, I can’t move the mouse between the screens. It always stays on the laptop screen, no matter which side I slide it to.
For these two, it sounds like the display profile for your TV either isn’t saving correctly or the laptop isn’t recognizing the TV as being the same display between boots which then causes it to initialize to defaults. Regarding the mouse issue, how are the displays arranged relative to each other? If they are on a diagonal, try moving the mouse into the corners of the display and see if they move over to the TV.
Annoyingly, I also run into this problem if I accidentally boot my machine with one of the displays unplugged and then plug it in while it’s running. It treats it like a new display.
When I try to mirror the two displays, the resolution of the display on the TV is the same as that on the laptop rather than filling the screen. There is no apparent way to change this. Adjustments to the two monitors are only possible when joining them, and not when mirroring them.
I’m not familiar with how KDE handles it, but GNOME uses a lowest common denominator approach to screen mirroring. This means that, when mirroring displays, only the subset of resolutions that both displays share will be available to pick. Hence if both displays are 16:10, the highest resolution of the laptop will be the limiting factor.
When you say that its not filling the screen on the TV, do you mean that it’s being letterboxed/pillarboxed? If so, you probably just need to switch to a different aspect ratio.
Sorry these aren’t better answers, but hopefully something here is helpful.
Unfortunately I have no authority to change the TV settings. This is easy enough to correct, so while it’s annoying, it’s not a game changer. Regarding the mouse, I have never seen any way to change the arrangement of the displays, but I’ll try moving the mouse to the corners next time.
In other words, this is a “feature” and not a bug or something that can be adjusted in settings. From my perspective that’s unfortunate, and it looks like Gnome–which I’ve been using happily for the last four years or so–is moving in a direction that is no longer functional for me. That’s okay. One of the great things about Linux is that there are choices.
And, finally, regarding “not filling the screen”, I just mean the image on the TV only occupies the 1920 X 1200 space in the middle of the screen when mirroring.
Regarding the mouse, I have never seen any way to change the arrangement of the displays, but I’ll try moving the mouse to the corners next time.
Just to highlight what I mean by how they are arranged, in GNOME Settings there is a “Displays” page that you can move your displays around in relation to one another:
This determines which edge/corner of the screen you can move the mouse from one display to another.
In other words, this is a “feature” and not a bug or something that can be adjusted in settings.
To the best of my knowledge, yes
As a fellow GNOME user, all I can say, in typical GNOME user fashion, is that maybe there’s an extension for that?
And, finally, regarding “not filling the screen”, I just mean the image on the TV only occupies the 1920 X 1200 space in the middle of the screen when mirroring.
I see, my gut would tell me that’s a TV setting you’d have to change to get it to upscale to the TV’s resolution.
Well, I did learn something here. I’ve seen the settings screen you included about positioning displays, but never realized it actually allowed you to position them. That is, I thought it was just to show the relative size of each and to identify each. Turns out, when I hook up the TV, the displays are shown as stacked, so I should have been trying to access the other screen by bringing the pointer to the bottom of the screen, then down into the other.
That doesn’t solve the main issue, but it was helpful for some other situations I have encountered. I will take your suggestion and poke around for an extension. The problem doesn’t seem to be the TV settings, though, as the laptop running KDE Neon displays everything perfectly on the same TV.
