Archlinug gdm xorg config¶

xrandr¶

As i am running xorg (not wayland) i first figured out my modelines with xrandr.

The monitor has a resolution of 2560x1440

cvt 2560 1440 60
# 2560x1440 59.96 Hz (CVT 3.69M9) hsync: 89.52 kHz; pclk: 312.25 MHz
Modeline "2560x1440_60.00"  312.25  2560 2752 3024 3488  1440 1443 1448 1493 -hsync +vsync

Using this mode failed. Guess my graphics card (gtx 560ti) couldn’t handle the 300 Mhz output. But as the monitor is an lcd we can reduce the blank timings

cvt -r 2560 1440 60
# 2560x1440 59.95 Hz (CVT 3.69M9-R) hsync: 88.79 kHz; pclk: 241.50 MHz
Modeline "2560x1440R"  241.50  2560 2608 2640 2720  1440 1443 1448 1481 +hsync -vsync

So add the modeline to the running X-Server, add it to the output, and switch the output to this mode

xrandr --newmode "2560x1440R"  241.50  2560 2608 2640 2720  1440 1443 1448 1481 +hsync -vsync
xrandr --addmode HDMI-1 "2560x1440R"
xrandr --output HDMI-1 --mode "2560x1440R"

perfect. That was the easy part.

gdm¶

i want the login screen to show in the new custom resolution. So i needed to figure out, how to run custom xrandr within the displaymanager.

Nothing could be simpler. Drop a script in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d. Wrong. Gdm won’t use xinitrc.

Ok, add it to gdm itself. Documentation says i could do this via /etc/gdm. Wrong again. The official gdm documentation is out of date. see https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=751602#c2 These init scripts are no longer in use.

Well then, i need to add it the old way using xorg.conf. Drop a file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-montitor.conf

Section "Monitor"
  Identifier             "Monitor0"
  # the modeline cvt calculated
  Modeline  "2560x1440"         241.50  2560 2608 2640 2720  1440 1443 1448 1481 +hsync -vsync
  # and also switch the monitor to this resolution
  Option "PreferredMode" "2560x1440"
EndSection

Section "Device"
  Identifier             "Device0"
  Driver                 "nouveau"
  # graphics card as multiple outputs. Assign monitor to the right one
  Option "Monitor-HDMI-1" "Monitor0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
  Identifier             "Screen0"
  Device                 "Device0"
  Monitor                "Monitor0"
  DefaultDepth           24
  SubSection             "Display"
      Depth              24
      Modes              "2560x1440"
  EndSubSection
EndSection