Removing Fake Unknown Display on Fedora 38

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1

Recently installed Fedora 38 on my machine and two displays show up in the settings despite only having one monitor plugged in.

This fake display is sometimes at 800x600 60 hz or 2560x1440 (my monitor’s current resolution) 60 hz and generally is to the right of my main display. It can’t be turned on from settings and the displays can’t be made to mirror each other.

I checked if any integrated graphics were on (they weren’t) and checked the output of inxi -Gxx (based on a post I read prior) and got this:

Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GA104 [GeForce RTX 3070 Lite Hash Rate] vendor: Gigabyte
    driver: nvidia v: 535.54.03 arch: Ampere pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16
    ports: active: none off: HDMI-A-3 empty: DP-1, DP-2, DP-3, HDMI-A-1,
    HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:2488
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.20.14 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.9
    compositor: gnome-shell v: 44.2 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting,nouveau,nvidia unloaded: fbdev,vesa alternate: nv
    gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 5120x1440 s-dpi: 96
  Monitor-1: HDMI-A-3 mapped: HDMI-2 note: disabled pos: primary
    model: LG (GoldStar) ULTRAGEAR res: 2560x1440 dpi: 93 diag: 800mm (31.5")
  Monitor-2: Unknown-1 mapped: None-1-1 note: disabled size-res: N/A
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 535.54.03 renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX
    3070/PCIe/SSE2 direct-render: Yes

The offender is “Monitor-2”. Please help me solve the issue, I’m very new to Linux and not experienced but I’ll try to provide more details to the best of my ability.

2

Good first post! There have been glitches with the NIVIDA-related entries in the kernel command-line. Please post the output of cat /proc/cmdline.

3

This seems to possibly show the cause. The same card cannot have 2 competing drivers active.

The request above is a good first step.
Also please post the output of dnf list installed '*nvidia*'

4

Hello, I ran cat /proc/cmdline and got this output:

BOOT_IMAGE=(hd0,gpt2)/vmlinuz-6.3.12-200.fc38.x86_64 root=UUID=6205bbf5-8813-431b-a8ce-3a390bdcb11e ro rootflags=subvol=root rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau modprobe.blacklist=nouveau rhgb quiet rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau modprobe.blacklist=nouveau

Thank you for your help.

5

Hello, two competing drivers are definitely an issue. Hopefully the output of dnf list installed '*nvidia*' can shed more light on this:

Installed Packages
akmod-nvidia.x86_64                                                                                                            3:535.54.03-1.fc38                                                                                       @rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
kmod-nvidia-6.3.11-200.fc38.x86_64.x86_64                                                                                      3:535.54.03-1.fc38                                                                                       @@commandline                   
kmod-nvidia-6.3.12-200.fc38.x86_64.x86_64                                                                                      3:535.54.03-1.fc38                                                                                       @@commandline                   
nvidia-gpu-firmware.noarch                                                                                                     20230625-151.fc38                                                                                        @updates                        
nvidia-settings.x86_64                                                                                                         3:535.54.03-1.fc38                                                                                       @rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia.x86_64                                                                                                     3:535.54.03-2.fc38                                                                                       @rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda-libs.x86_64                                                                                           3:535.54.03-2.fc38                                                                                       @rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-kmodsrc.x86_64                                                                                             3:535.54.03-2.fc38                                                                                       @rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs.x86_64                                                                                                3:535.54.03-2.fc38                                                                                       @rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-power.x86_64                                                                                               3:535.54.03-2.fc38                                                                                       @rpmfusion-nonfree-nvidia-driver

Thank you for helping.

6

Lets try lsmod | grep -i -E 'nvidia|nouveau'

7

There are a couple technologies that might be responsible: NIVIDIA has “in-game Overlay”. 10 years ago Ubuntu was experimenting with “Head Up Display” and Gnome HUD Extension supported up 3.24. From 2021: How To Install Fildem Global Menu And HUD For GNOME Shell On Debian / Ubuntu, Fedora Or Arch Linux / Manjaro.

Check the NVIDIA settings to see if “In-game Overlay” is enabled.

8

I couldn’t find any option called “In-game Overlay” in Nvidia X Server Settings (I believe this is the same as Nvidia Control Panel on Windows), though I searched for that option on Google and apparently it is called “Enable Graphics API Visual Indicator” on Linux and I found it was disabled.

9

Here is the output of lsmod | grep -i -E 'nvidia|nouveau':

nvidia_drm             94208  10
nvidia_modeset       1560576  13 nvidia_drm
nvidia_uvm           3493888  2
nvidia              62517248  617 nvidia_uvm,nvidia_modeset
video                  73728  1 nvidia_modeset
10

That shows only the nvidia drivers, but the inxi output showed that nouveau was loaded. Strange.

11

@ironpainting What do you get from sudo journalctl -b -g 'nouveau'?

12

Here is the output from sudo journalctl -b -g 'nouveau':

Jul 13 20:26:40 fedora kernel: Command line: BOOT_IMAGE=(hd2,gpt2)/vmlinuz-6.3.12-200.fc38.x86_64 root=UUID=6205bbf5-8813-431b-a8ce-3a390bdcb11e ro rootflags=subvol=root rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau modprobe.blacklist=nouveau rhgb qu>
Jul 13 20:26:40 fedora kernel: Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=(hd2,gpt2)/vmlinuz-6.3.12-200.fc38.x86_64 root=UUID=6205bbf5-8813-431b-a8ce-3a390bdcb11e ro rootflags=subvol=root rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau modprobe.blacklist=nouveau >
Jul 13 20:26:40 fedora dracut-cmdline[373]: Using kernel command line parameters:  rd.driver.pre=btrfs   BOOT_IMAGE=(hd2,gpt2)/vmlinuz-6.3.12-200.fc38.x86_64 root=UUID=6205bbf5-8813-431b-a8ce-3a390bdcb11e ro rootflags=subvol=root rd>
Jul 13 20:26:45 fedora systemd[1]: nvidia-fallback.service - Fallback to nouveau as nvidia did not load was skipped because of an unmet condition check (ConditionPathExists=!/sys/module/nvidia).
Jul 13 20:26:46 fedora systemd[1]: nvidia-fallback.service - Fallback to nouveau as nvidia did not load was skipped because of an unmet condition check (ConditionPathExists=!/sys/module/nvidia).
Jul 13 20:26:46 fedora systemd[1]: nvidia-fallback.service - Fallback to nouveau as nvidia did not load was skipped because of an unmet condition check (ConditionPathExists=!/sys/module/nvidia).
Jul 13 20:26:58 DESKTOP-J5GR7SH /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[2174]: Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=(hd2,gpt2)/vmlinuz-6.3.12-200.fc38.x86_64 root=UUID=6205bbf5-8813-431b-a8ce-3a390bdcb11e ro rootflags=subvol=root rd.driver.blacklist=>
Jul 13 20:26:58 DESKTOP-J5GR7SH /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[2174]: (==) Matched nouveau as autoconfigured driver 1
Jul 13 20:26:58 DESKTOP-J5GR7SH /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[2174]: (II) LoadModule: "nouveau"
Jul 13 20:26:58 DESKTOP-J5GR7SH /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[2174]: (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/nouveau_drv.so
Jul 13 20:26:58 DESKTOP-J5GR7SH /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[2174]: (II) Module nouveau: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
Jul 13 20:26:58 DESKTOP-J5GR7SH /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[2174]: (II) NOUVEAU driver
Jul 13 20:26:58 DESKTOP-J5GR7SH /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[2174]: (II) NOUVEAU driver for NVIDIA chipset families :
Jul 13 21:25:40 DESKTOP-J5GR7SH sudo[11433]:   raiyan : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/home/raiyan ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/journalctl -b -g nouveau
Jul 13 21:26:21 DESKTOP-J5GR7SH sudo[11516]:   raiyan : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/home/raiyan ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/journalctl -b -g nouveau
Jul 13 21:28:31 DESKTOP-J5GR7SH sudo[11615]:   raiyan : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/home/raiyan ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/journalctl -b -g nouveau
13

NVIDIA 5.35 Hardware-Software Support (PDF) updated June 27, 2023 lists only Fedora 37.

14 
Jul 13 20:26:40 fedora kernel: Command line: BOOT_IMAGE=(hd2,gpt2)/vmlinuz-6.3.12-200.fc38.x86_64 root=UUID=6205bbf5-8813-431b-a8ce-3a390bdcb11e ro rootflags=subvol=root rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau modprobe.blacklist=nouveau rhgb quiet

I realize that installing the nvidia drivers only adds those 2 options about nouveau to the kernel command line, but on my system I found that I needed additional options for the nvidia driver to function properly.

On my system I have these as related to the nvidia card. Maybe you could try adding in the additional options by editing the grub command line (the one seen that begins with linux with one presses the e key while the grub menu is displayed) and adding one or both the additional options I have for testing purposes.

rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau modprobe.blacklist=nouveau nvidia-drm.modeset=1 initcall_blacklist=simpledrm_platform_driver_init

It seems those options are not needed for most but may be needed for others with different hardware.

It might solve the issue and if it does then the option can be made permanent if one desires.

15

Could you please explain more about how to add the additional options, temporarily or permanently? I am unfamiliar with using grub so it would be a great help.

Edit/Update: I managed to add nvidia-drm.modeset=1 to the grub command line, and success! The settings app no longer shows any additional displays. I would still like to know how to make this change permanent however.

Edit/Update 2: I also tested using both commands and that got rid of all nouveau related entries from the output of sudo journalctl -b -g 'nouveau' besides the input itself, much better!

16

To make the changes permanent one needs to edit /etc/default/grub (using sudo) and add the options into the line that begins with GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX.
Once the changes are saved then run sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg.
After this a reboot should now include those options in the kernel command line.

17

Thank you for the help!

1 Like
18

I had a similar case, and this solution just helped me too.

Thanks.

19

Thank you Jeff for the detailed walkthrough - your fix worked for me as well.

My setup details: I am running Fedora 38 with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti graphics card, trying out KDE (Wayland) . I noticed that the extra display had shown up in System Settings after I installed the Nvidia proprietary drivers. This fix removed the extra display, and it also resolved some pretty bad graphics lag I was seeing (mouse, window movement, keyboard inputs, everything). Thanks again.

1 Like
20

That worked for me as well in F40 after installing akmod-nvidia via dnf, thanks.