I feel pretty good about this as I have only had Linux installed as my daily driver since late October 2025. This machine is the only exposure to Linux I get, as I work as a Windows sysadmin. I run openSUSE LEAP 16.0 with KDE and while I can’t say I’m comfortable or even within spitting-distance of being comfortable with it, I feel like today moved the needle a bit more towards that.

This started a few days ago with my three displays. I run an LG 34" curved display as my main monitor and two 27" CRUA curved displays on the sides of it. Previously, I had experienced no issues with this setup when using Bricklink Studio 2.0 via wine. However, on Thursday night I quit Studio and boom, my side monitors wouldn’t stay on or detect a signal, and my main display kept freaking out and blinking every 5-7 seconds. I could get one of the two side monitors to work, but not both with the main monitor.

Long story short (DP->HDMI adapter swaps, cable changes, port arrangements with the graphics card, etc.), I used DuckDuckGo searches (lots of the results came from the Arc forums, my consolences) and was pointed toward log files for kwin. I used the Logs app on my machine to check the important logs that would appear when I tried to have both monitors plugged in. That showed me that it was having trouble finding or removing some reference object. I looked in the Display Configuration settings and noticed the monitors would pop up, last for about 5-7 seconds, then get disconnected within the same time frame as the logs. I also noticed that when they would be visible, the ‘Enable’ checkbox would be unchecked.

So with my trusty vertical mouse in hand, I studied the placement of the buttons and checkbox and after a few fails, successfully selected the checkbox to enable one of the displays, apply the change, and select keep before it could fully disconnect the monitor. Boom! The monitor turned back on and stayed on. I had to adjust it’s position in the layout, but after that, it had no issue being on! I repeated this for the other monitor and now, I am happy to say, all three of my monitors are on and my system is running exactly as before!

I really appreciate the openness to information that I see in many of the Linux communities, and thank you to those of you who have contributed, or will contribute to that knowledge. Because of people keeping that information open and available, a complete and utter Linux-n00b like myself can take a shot at investigating and fixing my own system woes.

Best regards!

P.S. I have a theory about what happened with wine and why the issue wouldn’t happen with one of the side monitors plugged in, and only happen when both were. But I’ll save that for a comment if someone asks.

  • calamityjanitor@lemmy.world
    2·
    1 day ago

    I remember when I was a kid messing with Windows 95/98, I had this intuitive feeling of what was happening under the hood. Just like how you describe your theory. Honestly you’re probably on the right track. In theory on linux you can actually dive into the source code and try to figure out what’s actually happening, but that’s intimidating AF. Hard to say if the problem is between wine and the Direct Rendering Manager (DRM), X11, Wayland, KDE, or the GPU driver…

    I had a kind of similar problem with my display not outputting when it was connected. I had to use a DRM file in /sys and udev script to fix it, wrote a blog about it. If your monitors are still messed up after a reboot, it sounds like this won’t help you though.

    Also you made me lol to “wine strikes me more as an emulator”. It totes is. The “Wine Is Not an Emulator” name is a joke, the original name was “WINdows Emulator”, which they changed to avoid Microsoft’s lawyers.

    • Ænima@lemmy.zipOP
      2·
      1 day ago

      I remember when I was a kid messing with Windows 95/98, I had this intuitive feeling of what was happening under the hood.

      Especially with 95, since most was DOS, it felt very Hackers to find your way around the system. With 98 we still had some of that since things still required quite a bit of DOS to resolve. After that (consumer) Windows version, the GUI, GPOs, and pre-written batch files replaced all the manual work to investigate and resolve. I remember PNP was a god send for peripherals and drivers in XP, but we definitely lost a bit of that under the hood intrigue and capability along the way!

      Come to think of it, I wonder if Linux’s dual dichotomy, and tendency to lean toward more CLI investigation and triage, will save future generations from a final blow to tech literacy brought about from Apple and Microsoft making things just work. Currently, that’s being accelerated by genAI usage and it’s brain liquefying affects. Personally, I’ll be teaching my 6yo how to move around a computer and not just ‘use’ it! I think Linux has made me a better sysadmin at work, also. All around, this Linux thing feels like a good egg!

      I had to use a DRM file in /sys and udev script to fix it, wrote a blog about it.

      I’ll have to check it out! I had played with udev rules a bit with OctoPi webcams so I’m sure some of it will remind me (read: re-traumatize me) of the fun I had in that years ago!

      Also you made me lol to “wine strikes me more as an emulator”. It totes is. The “Wine Is Not an Emulator” name is a joke, the original name was “WINdows Emulator”, which they changed to avoid Microsoft’s lawyers.

      Arguably, when this was pointed out in another comment, I felt a twinge of embarrassed. However, your explanation lessens that sting. My understanding was not far off base from what WINE felt like it was!

      Thank you for your reply!