Display Configuration Resets to Old Preset on Application Launch

bossi · 2025-01-13 01:56:14

Hi all,

First post here, thanks for the open doors! I'm wondering if anyone could help me with this funky issue I currently experience:

Setup: Two monitors, side by side, landscape, same resolution. Xfce configuration file (~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/displays.xml) is clean.

Observed behavior: When launching a particular application for the first time after login (Quod Libet) the display configuration resets to a setup I historically used but is *not* stored in the configuration anymore (one screen rotated & vertically offset). A notification in the top right shows up, specifying:

Could not apply the stored configuration for monitors
required virtual size does not fit available size: requested=(1, 1), minimum=(8, 8), maximum=(32767, 32767)

If I go into the display settings (Settings Manager > Displays, xfce4-display-settings I believe it is) and correct the layout, close and launch the application in question again, the undesired reset does not re-occur.

Expected behavior: Ideally, nothing should happen.

Questions: My question is twofold:

A) Where is this historic preset coming from that the display configuration is reverted to, particularly as it is not present in the configuration file any longer?

B) Why is the display arrangement reset to some old preset still lingering around somewhere? Since the reasoning in the notification makes some kind of (abstract) sense - 1 < 8 seems like a universal truth - I wonder what it might be about the application (Quod Libet in this case) that tries to request a (window size?) of 1x1. It seems to be the only application in my context causing this.

Any thoughts or pointers as to what I could try to fix this would be much appreciated!

Thank you.

ToZ · 2025-01-13 02:20:40

Hello and welcome.

Can you provide versions of Xfce and xfce4-settings that you are using, as well as the distro you are running.

Also, try running xfce4-settings in debug mode and posting back the output.

bossi · 2025-01-13 02:33:05

Sure thing, thank you kindly.

Xfce version: 4.20
GTK Version: 3.24.43
Distro: Arch Linux
Windowing System: X11

I'm not certain what xfce4-settings you are thinking of exactly. This is the output of xfconf-query -c displays -lv:

/ActiveProfile                                           d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52
/AutoEnableProfiles                                      3
/d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52                    test
/d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52/DP2                Dell Inc. 22"
/d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52/DP2/Active         true
/d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52/DP2/EDID           93402d8a61e162736db08918a7fa445cb3232729
/d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52/DP2/Position/X     1920
/d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52/DP2/Position/Y     0
/d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52/DP2/Primary        false
/d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52/DP2/Reflection     0
/d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52/DP2/RefreshRate    60.000000
/d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52/DP2/Resolution     1920x1080
/d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52/DP2/Rotation       0
/d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52/DP2/Scale          1.000000
/d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52/HDMI1              Lenovo Group Limited 27"
/d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52/HDMI1/Active       true
/d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52/HDMI1/EDID         cd1d5273ad45e7615b16a5708267768938790167
/d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52/HDMI1/Position/X   0
/d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52/HDMI1/Position/Y   0
/d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52/HDMI1/Primary      false
/d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52/HDMI1/Reflection   0
/d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52/HDMI1/RefreshRate  100.000000
/d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52/HDMI1/Resolution   1920x1080
/d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52/HDMI1/Rotation     0
/d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52/HDMI1/Scale        1.000000
/Default/DP2                                             Dell Inc. 22"
/Default/DP2/Active                                      true
/Default/DP2/EDID                                        93402d8a61e162736db08918a7fa445cb3232729
/Default/DP2/Position/X                                  1920
/Default/DP2/Position/Y                                  0
/Default/DP2/Primary                                     false
/Default/DP2/Reflection                                  0
/Default/DP2/RefreshRate                                 60.000000
/Default/DP2/Resolution                                  1920x1080
/Default/DP2/Rotation                                    0
/Default/DP2/Scale                                       1.000000
/Default/HDMI1                                           Lenovo Group Limited 27"
/Default/HDMI1/Active                                    true
/Default/HDMI1/EDID                                      cd1d5273ad45e7615b16a5708267768938790167
/Default/HDMI1/Position/X                                0
/Default/HDMI1/Position/Y                                0
/Default/HDMI1/Primary                                   false
/Default/HDMI1/Reflection                                0
/Default/HDMI1/RefreshRate                               100.000000
/Default/HDMI1/Resolution                                1920x1080
/Default/HDMI1/Rotation                                  0
/Default/HDMI1/Scale                                     1.000000
/Notify                                                  1

This is ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/displays.xml:

<?xml version="1.1" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<channel name="displays" version="1.0">
  <property name="ActiveProfile" type="string" value="d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52"/>
  <property name="Notify" type="int" value="1"/>
  <property name="AutoEnableProfiles" type="int" value="3"/>
  <property name="Default" type="empty">
    <property name="DP2" type="string" value="Dell Inc. 22&quot;">
      <property name="Active" type="bool" value="true"/>
      <property name="EDID" type="string" value="93402d8a61e162736db08918a7fa445cb3232729"/>
      <property name="Resolution" type="string" value="1920x1080"/>
      <property name="RefreshRate" type="double" value="60"/>
      <property name="Rotation" type="int" value="0"/>
      <property name="Reflection" type="string" value="0"/>
      <property name="Primary" type="bool" value="false"/>
      <property name="Scale" type="double" value="1"/>
      <property name="Position" type="empty">
        <property name="X" type="int" value="1920"/>
        <property name="Y" type="int" value="0"/>
      </property>
    </property>
    <property name="HDMI1" type="string" value="Lenovo Group Limited 27&quot;">
      <property name="Active" type="bool" value="true"/>
      <property name="EDID" type="string" value="cd1d5273ad45e7615b16a5708267768938790167"/>
      <property name="Resolution" type="string" value="1920x1080"/>
      <property name="RefreshRate" type="double" value="100"/>
      <property name="Rotation" type="int" value="0"/>
      <property name="Reflection" type="string" value="0"/>
      <property name="Primary" type="bool" value="false"/>
      <property name="Scale" type="double" value="1"/>
      <property name="Position" type="empty">
        <property name="X" type="int" value="0"/>
        <property name="Y" type="int" value="0"/>
      </property>
    </property>
  </property>
  <property name="d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52" type="string" value="test">
    <property name="DP2" type="string" value="Dell Inc. 22&quot;">
      <property name="Active" type="bool" value="true"/>
      <property name="EDID" type="string" value="93402d8a61e162736db08918a7fa445cb3232729"/>
      <property name="Resolution" type="string" value="1920x1080"/>
      <property name="RefreshRate" type="double" value="60"/>
      <property name="Rotation" type="int" value="0"/>
      <property name="Reflection" type="string" value="0"/>
      <property name="Primary" type="bool" value="false"/>
      <property name="Scale" type="double" value="1"/>
      <property name="Position" type="empty">
        <property name="X" type="int" value="1920"/>
        <property name="Y" type="int" value="0"/>
      </property>
    </property>
    <property name="HDMI1" type="string" value="Lenovo Group Limited 27&quot;">
      <property name="Active" type="bool" value="true"/>
      <property name="EDID" type="string" value="cd1d5273ad45e7615b16a5708267768938790167"/>
      <property name="Resolution" type="string" value="1920x1080"/>
      <property name="RefreshRate" type="double" value="100"/>
      <property name="Rotation" type="int" value="0"/>
      <property name="Reflection" type="string" value="0"/>
      <property name="Primary" type="bool" value="false"/>
      <property name="Scale" type="double" value="1"/>
      <property name="Position" type="empty">
        <property name="X" type="int" value="0"/>
        <property name="Y" type="int" value="0"/>
      </property>
    </property>
  </property>
</channel>

This is the output of xfsettingsd in debug mode, as per the link you give (XFSETTINGSD_DEBUG=1 xfsettingsd --replace --no-daemon), right after running the replacing command:

xfce4-settings(xsettings): _XSETTINGS_S0 registered on screen 0
xfce4-settings(xsettings): 30 settings changed (serial=0, len=1200)
xfce4-settings(xsettings): resource manager (xft) changed (len=144)
xfce4-settings(pointers): initialized xi 2.4
xfce4-settings(pointers): [Input Club Keyboard - WhiteFox:truefox PixelMap USB] buttonmap not changed
xfce4-settings(pointers): [Input Club Keyboard - WhiteFox:truefox PixelMap USB] change feedback (threshold=4, accelNum=2, accelDenom=1)
xfce4-settings(pointers): [Input Club Keyboard - WhiteFox:truefox PixelMap USB] Changed device property libinput Left Handed Enabled
xfce4-settings(pointers): [Input Club Keyboard - WhiteFox:truefox PixelMap USB] Changed device property libinput Natural Scrolling Enabled
xfce4-settings(pointers): [Input Club Keyboard - WhiteFox:truefox PixelMap USB] Changed device property libinput Accel Speed
xfce4-settings(keyboards): initialized xkb 1.0
xfce4-settings(keyboards): set auto repeat on
xfce4-settings(keyboards): set key repeat (delay=500, rate=50)
xfce4-settings(keyboards): set numlock off
xfce4-settings(accessibility): AccessXKeys disabled
xfce4-settings(accessibility): stickykeys disabled
xfce4-settings(accessibility): slowkeys disabled
xfce4-settings(accessibility): bouncekeys disabled
xfce4-settings(accessibility): mousekeys disabled
xfce4-settings(keyboard-shortcuts): 25 shortcuts loaded
xfce4-settings(displays): Detected CRTC 62.
xfce4-settings(displays): Detected CRTC 63.
xfce4-settings(displays): Detected CRTC 64.
xfce4-settings(displays): Detected CRTC 65.
xfce4-settings(displays): Detected CRTC 66.
xfce4-settings(displays): Detected output 68 DP2.
xfce4-settings(displays): Detected output 71 HDMI1.
xfce4-settings(displays): Applied the only matching display profile: d5d416ee-d042-4e67-b5c4-3512a51c5d52
xfce4-settings(displays): CRTC 63 assigned to DP2.
xfce4-settings(displays): CRTC 63, output list[0] -> 68.
xfce4-settings(displays): CRTC 62 assigned to HDMI1.
xfce4-settings(displays): CRTC 62, output list[0] -> 71.
xfce4-settings(displays): Total 2 active output(s).
xfce4-settings(displays): Normalized CRTC 62: size=1920x1080, pos=0x0.
xfce4-settings(displays): Normalized CRTC 63: size=1920x1080, pos=1920x0.
xfce4-settings(displays): min_h = 8, min_w = 8, max_h = 32767, max_w = 32767, prev_h = 1080, prev_w = 3840, prev_hmm = 286, prev_wmm = 1017, h = 1080, w = 3840, hmm = 286, wmm = 1017.
xfce4-settings(displays): Configuring CRTC 62.
xfce4-settings(displays): Configuring CRTC 63.
xfce4-settings(displays): Configuring CRTC 64.
xfce4-settings(displays): Configuring CRTC 65.
xfce4-settings(displays): Configuring CRTC 66.
xfce4-settings(fontconfig): monitoring 111 paths
xfce4-settings(workspaces): 9 desktop names set from xfconf

And this is anything it logs between Alt+F2 to launch Quod Libet, seeing the screens go black, their layout reset/changed to this archaic configuration and coming back on with the application fully launched:

xfce4-settings(keyboard-shortcuts): activated "<Alt>F2" (command="xfce4-appfinder --collapsed", snotify=1, stamp=6758807)
xfce4-settings(displays): RRScreenChangeNotify event received.
xfce4-settings(displays): Refreshing RandR cache.
xfce4-settings(displays): Detected CRTC 63.
xfce4-settings(displays): Detected CRTC 62.
xfce4-settings(displays): Detected CRTC 64.
xfce4-settings(displays): Detected CRTC 65.
xfce4-settings(displays): Detected CRTC 66.
xfce4-settings(displays): Detected output 68 DP2.
xfce4-settings(displays): Detected output 71 HDMI1.
xfce4-settings(displays): Noutput: before = 2, after = 2.

I hope this is of help, let me know if there's anything else I could provide.

Added later 15 min 43 s:
P.S.: Maybe worth noting: When exiting the debug process of xfsettingsd again with Ctrl + C (after display layout had been changed to this old configuration while running it), this display layout reverts back to where it should be.

Last edited by bossi (2025-01-13 02:41:22)

ToZ · 2025-01-13 02:52:50

It looks like it is similar to this bug. Are you able to test draft merges?

bossi · 2025-01-13 02:58:46

I'm guessing you're asking if I could test a build of that MR's branch you're linking, right? With some instructions on how to go about it I'd be happy to give it a shot.

P.S.: I see there are instructions in the repo's README. I'm trying to build xfce4-settings from the MR you quote but seem to need a Gitlab account since it's a fork in another user's account. Can you confirm that I'd need to create an account on Xfce's Gitlab instance or is there a way to get hold of that branch in any other way before I create an account unnecessarily? Many thanks, happy to take it for a spin.

Last edited by bossi (2025-01-13 03:52:21)

bossi · 2025-01-16 22:52:24

Hi ToZ,

just wondering if you had any further thoughts how to go about testing what you've had in mind here, or how to troubleshoot the issue that I'm facing. Any ideas where this old layout preset might be coming from that the monitors get reverted back to? That's the most puzzling part. If I could change that it'd be a practical, temporary fix at least: Even if it still does reset but use a current preset instead of this old one dug up from its grave it'd be a step forward.

Many thanks in advance.

ToZ · 2025-01-16 23:43:14

If you're not comfortable with building and testing from source, its probably better to wait until the new version is pushed out to your repositories. You can really mess up your system.

However, you are in Arch so you are in luck! Since the fix for the bug was pushed out 3 days ago to the master branch, you can install from the AUR xfce4-settings-git and it will get the latest code from the xfce4-settings master branch and build that, while maintaining the dependency chains and not cross-contaminating versions. You can then test it out to see if it fixes your issue.

bossi · 2025-01-17 04:56:46

Thanks, ToZ. I'd be happy to build and test and have root snapshots to roll back to but knowing that this patch will roll into production soon (and seeing xfce4-settings-git fail to build - diff conflict during patch) I might wait and see if it'll make a difference once it's released.

Currently installed package is 4.20.0 on my system, Will this patch roll out as 4.20.1? Just to know what to look out for.

ToZ · 2025-01-17 11:01:58

bossi wrote:

Currently installed package is 4.20.0 on my system, Will this patch roll out as 4.20.1? Just to know what to look out for.

Yes it will.

bossi · 2025-01-17 11:37:05

Many thanks.

For anyone who might come across this thread in the future: The issue is not yet resolved but might be by xfce4-settings 4.20.1 that's currently pending release. I will try to remember to come back to report on the degree to which it might have addressed the issue described.

ToZ · 2025-01-17 17:23:26

If that is the case, you may wish to create a bug report.

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#1 2025-01-13 01:56:14

Display Configuration Resets to Old Preset on Application Launch

#2 2025-01-13 02:20:40

Re: Display Configuration Resets to Old Preset on Application Launch

#3 2025-01-13 02:33:05

Re: Display Configuration Resets to Old Preset on Application Launch

#4 2025-01-13 02:52:50

Re: Display Configuration Resets to Old Preset on Application Launch

#5 2025-01-13 02:58:46

Re: Display Configuration Resets to Old Preset on Application Launch

#6 2025-01-16 22:52:24

Re: Display Configuration Resets to Old Preset on Application Launch

#7 2025-01-16 23:43:14

Re: Display Configuration Resets to Old Preset on Application Launch

#8 2025-01-17 04:56:46

Re: Display Configuration Resets to Old Preset on Application Launch

#9 2025-01-17 11:01:58

Re: Display Configuration Resets to Old Preset on Application Launch

#10 2025-01-17 11:37:05

Re: Display Configuration Resets to Old Preset on Application Launch

#11 2025-01-17 17:23:26

Re: Display Configuration Resets to Old Preset on Application Launch

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