Turning off display resets refresh rate (XFCE, Nvidia)

ptersilie · 2019-01-03 15:04:28

I got a new 144hz monitor, but it seems like XFCE (could also be xorg) keeps resetting my configured refresh rate back to 60hz whenever the display is turned off or goes to sleep. Interestingly, if I set my refresh rate to 144hz and simply reboot my system, this problem doesn't occur (after a reboot I am still at 144hz). However, turning off the display and then back on, resets the XFCE/Nvidia refresh rate settings back to 60z.

Xorg.0.log (after toggling the monitor off and on) says the following, which seems to suggest that it chooses the correct mode:

[ 12772.747] (II) NVIDIA(0): Setting mode "DP-2: 2560x1440_144 @2560x1440 +0+0 {ViewPortIn=2560x1440, ViewPortOut=2560x1440+0+0}"
[ 12772.830] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): DFP-0: disconnected
[ 12772.830] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): DFP-0: Internal TMDS
[ 12772.830] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): DFP-0: 330.0 MHz maximum pixel clock
[ 12772.830] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): 
[ 12772.830] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): DFP-1: disconnected
[ 12772.830] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): DFP-1: Internal DisplayPort
[ 12772.830] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): DFP-1: 1440.0 MHz maximum pixel clock
[ 12772.830] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): 
[ 12772.838] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): DFP-2: disconnected
[ 12772.838] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): DFP-2: Internal TMDS
[ 12772.838] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): DFP-2: 165.0 MHz maximum pixel clock
[ 12772.838] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): 
[ 12772.838] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): DFP-3: disconnected
[ 12772.838] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): DFP-3: Internal TMDS
[ 12772.838] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): DFP-3: 165.0 MHz maximum pixel clock
[ 12772.838] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): 
[ 12772.838] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Dell S2716DG (DFP-4): connected
[ 12772.838] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Dell S2716DG (DFP-4): Internal DisplayPort
[ 12772.838] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Dell S2716DG (DFP-4): 1440.0 MHz maximum pixel clock
[ 12772.838] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Dell S2716DG (DFP-4): supports NVIDIA 3D Vision stereo.

Here's my xorg.conf file, which was generated by nvidia-settings:

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Dell S2716DG"
    HorizSync       34.0 - 222.0
    VertRefresh     30.0 - 144.0
    Option         "DPMS"
    Option         "DPI" "96 x 96"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce GTX 1070"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "UseEdidDpi" "False"
    Option         "Stereo" "0"
    Option         "nvidiaXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-4"
    Option         "metamodes" "2560x1440_144 +0+0"
    Option         "SLI" "Off"
    Option         "MultiGPU" "Off"
    Option         "BaseMosaic" "off"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Also here's my xrandr output, just in case:

Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 2560 x 1440, maximum 32767 x 32767
DVI-D-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-2 connected 2560x1440+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 598mm x 336mm
   2560x1440     59.95 + 144.00*  120.00    99.95    84.98    23.97  
   1024x768      60.00  
   800x600       60.32  
   640x480       59.94  
DP-3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-4 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-5 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

The only odd thing I can see is that xorg refers to the monitor as DFP-4, while xrandr (and XFCE) refer to them as DF-2, but that might not mean anything. I'm not sure what I can try next or how I can debug this issue further, especially since the settings seem to be used when booting the system, but not when resetting only the monitor. If anyone has some ideas I'd be very grateful.

ptersilie · 2019-01-10 13:20:11

Update: It seems to be XFCE that is causing this bug. If I use another window manager (e.g. Awesome), turning the screen off and on doesn't reset the refresh rate. I'm still unsure why XFCE would be doing this, and how I can circumvent it.

V1del · 2019-01-10 13:24:29

XFCE has a display daemon, you could disable it from being started if you are working with static configuration anyway, or properly set it up there if possible.

Last edited by V1del (2019-01-10 13:25:34)

ptersilie · 2019-01-10 14:37:10

That's what I've been using to set the refresh rate. I only added the xorg-settings because I thought that might fix my problem, though it doesn't make any difference whether I use the XFCE, xrandr or the nvidia-settings to set the monitor up. The problem remains the same. I'm not sure how I can disable just the display daemon as it seems to be part of xfce4-settings. The weird part is that my .config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/displays.xml file has multiple entries for that monitor. I assume these were set when I tried the other displayports on my card to see if that makes a difference. However, now that they are there I can't remove them, as XFCE puts all of them back in whenever I save the Display dialog, even though only DP-2 is used.

    <property name="DP-0" type="string" value="1. Dell 27&quot;">
      <property name="Active" type="bool" value="true"/>
      <property name="Resolution" type="string" value="2560x1440"/>
      <property name="RefreshRate" type="double" value="59.950550"/>
      <property name="Rotation" type="int" value="0"/>
      <property name="Reflection" type="string" value="0"/>
      <property name="Primary" type="bool" value="false"/>
      <property name="Position" type="empty">
        <property name="X" type="int" value="0"/>
        <property name="Y" type="int" value="0"/>
      </property>
    </property>
    <property name="DP-2" type="string" value="1. Dell 27&quot;">
      <property name="Active" type="bool" value="true"/>
      <property name="Resolution" type="string" value="2560x1440"/>
      <property name="RefreshRate" type="double" value="143.998311"/>
      <property name="Rotation" type="int" value="0"/>
      <property name="Reflection" type="string" value="0"/>
      <property name="Primary" type="bool" value="true"/>
      <property name="Position" type="empty">
        <property name="X" type="int" value="0"/>
        <property name="Y" type="int" value="0"/>
      </property>
    </property>
    <property name="DP-4" type="string" value="1. Dell 27&quot;">
      <property name="Active" type="bool" value="true"/>
      <property name="Resolution" type="string" value="2560x1440"/>
      <property name="RefreshRate" type="double" value="143.998311"/>
      <property name="Rotation" type="int" value="0"/>
      <property name="Reflection" type="string" value="0"/>
      <property name="Primary" type="bool" value="false"/>
      <property name="Position" type="empty">
        <property name="X" type="int" value="0"/>
        <property name="Y" type="int" value="0"/>
      </property>
    </property>

Arch Linux

#1 2019-01-03 15:04:28

Turning off display resets refresh rate (XFCE, Nvidia)

#2 2019-01-10 13:20:11

Re: Turning off display resets refresh rate (XFCE, Nvidia)

#3 2019-01-10 13:24:29

Re: Turning off display resets refresh rate (XFCE, Nvidia)

#4 2019-01-10 14:37:10

Re: Turning off display resets refresh rate (XFCE, Nvidia)

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