[SOLVED] Vertical/Portrait Monitors, text orientation during boot, ...

munmap_me · 2025-03-18 01:34:55

Hi all, I hope your day or night is going well.

I would really appreciate some help with this issue I have been having with my vertical (portrait) monitor setup.

I'm looking for help rotating the text on my monitors 90° clockwise as early as possible into the boot process. My neck is starting to hurt from craning it every morning!

I've been struggling with this problem for a while now; maybe I just cant find the right search terms, but I haven't been able to find any way to rotate the text on my monitors in GRUB.

I would think it should be possible afterwards with a udev rule, but I don't know what I would even run with one. This early boot stuff gets confusing to me; I'm not sure what tool to use to modify text on the screen...

I am using Ly for my greeter. After I get past the login screen, my displays use the config I've set for them with my window manager.

I use Wayland, Hyprland, after I get past Ly.

If you've got any idea but need some more info, please let me know.

Last edited by munmap_me (2025-04-05 19:17:58)

seth · 2025-03-18 07:38:53

https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/fb/modedb.rst
"video=rotate=90" or "video=rotate=270", depending on which side of your neck hurts more.

Alternatively
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/torva … /fbcon.rst
"fbcon=rotate:1" or "fbcon=rotate:3"

PSA: ly systematically breaks logind integration and pot. the session bus. Consider simply logging into a locked session if this is a defacto single-user system.

munmap_me · 2025-03-18 15:36:42

Hey, thanks for the help!

Thanks for the heads-up on Ly, but first things first right?

I've tried various options to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT to change video mode stuff with no luck.

Either I'm not configuring it in the right place, or I have conflicting settings. I've tried debugging my grub config but I don't think I'm looking in the right places (journalctl) or i've just missed any warnings or errors.

If it helps, here is the line in question:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="udev.log_priority=3 video=nvidia_drm:1920x1080,rotate=270 nvidia_drm.modeset=1 nvidia_drm.fbdev=0 loglevel=5"

where

video=nvidia_drm:1920x1080

is newly added and has no effect.
also, I have tried using a display output instead of a driver (e.g. DP-1 instead of nvidia_drm) to no avail.

P.S. I'm going to look into the formatting syntax for this forum and maybe edit this post tonight when I have time, sorry

P.P.S. I don't know if I was unclear but just to clarify: I also am not getting the proper rotation on Ly.

Last edited by munmap_me (2025-03-20 04:59:04)

seth · 2025-03-18 15:57:07

Try just "video=rotate=270"
Also make sure the commandline is applied

cat /proc/cmdline

editing /etc/default/grub does nothing by itself, you'd have to grub-mkconfig as well

munmap_me · 2025-03-18 17:57:48

I did grub-mkconfig and confirmed the arguments were applied, I appreciate the tip though as a month ago I didn't know that grub-mkconfig has to be called to apply changes to GRUB config :')

I have had issues in the past with cmdline video arguments, I think maybe the fact that I have "nvidia_drm.modeset=1" in there overrides any changes to video mode.

That being said, I added "fbcon=rotate:3" which does fix the rotation issues (!!!) after I get past GRUB, which still has landscape orientation.

So the last issue is the video mode arguments not having any effect. I think I remember doing a good amount of searching regarding this issue only to find out that I can either have nvidia/noveau drivers loaded at boot, or make video mode arguments, but not both. I'll have to confirm this later as I should be working right now

Thank you so much for the framebuffer tip! You've given my spine a few extra years

Last edited by munmap_me (2025-03-18 17:59:02)

seth · 2025-03-18 20:17:07

I added "fbcon=rotate:3" which does fix the rotation issues (!!!) after I get past GRUB

This will never fix the pre-boot system (BIOS, Grub), nb. that that parameter "only" rotates the console, not the framebuffer itself (which may be entirely sufficient for your case, though)

maybe the fact that I have "nvidia_drm.modeset=1" in there overrides any changes to video mode

No. It maybe possible that the nvidia driver cannot do this (nvidia_drm.modeset=1 blocks the simpledrm device, so that won't get in the way) but in any event "video=nvidia_drm" is wrong and for "video=DP-1:…" you'd want to check /sys/class/drm/card*/edid for whether that's actually the proper output.

"video=rotate=270" should™ however rotate everything, in doubt you might want to check the nouveau behavior (though that's probably not a viable solution, it'll at least tell whether the problem rests w/ the nvidia driver)

munmap_me · 2025-03-20 05:08:34

that parameter "only" rotates the console, not the framebuffer itself (which may be entirely sufficient for your case, though)

Yeah I know haha, while it's definitely sufficient I still hope to configure GRUB too if possible!

but in any event "video=nvidia_drm" is wrong

I must have misunderstood the document you mentioned about modedb:

To specify a video mode at bootup, use the following boot options::

    video=<driver>:<xres>x<yres>[-<bpp>][@refresh]

"video=rotate=270" didn't work unfortunately, I'll look at the nouveau behavior next, I really appreciate all the help

seth · 2025-03-20 08:32:52

This approach will never apply to grub.
If you can't rotate the output in the preboot system (UEFI), there apparently was a patch suggested, https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/grub … 00164.html
But afaict it wasn't applied - you could try to patch and build grub yourself this way :\

munmap_me · 2025-04-01 14:29:51

Sorry for going AWOL -- things got really busy all of a sudden. Still haven't looked into the nouveau behavior but it's on my to-do for this week. I just added the GRUB patch you mentioned to my to-do as well, thank you!

This approach will never apply to grub

Just to be 100% clear, are you saying that "video=rotate=270" (or any arguments to video in cmdline) will not rotate GRUB?
Or are you saying that the "video=<driver>:<xres>x<yres>[-<bpp>][@refresh]" won't rotate GRUB?

Thank you again for the help!

seth · 2025-04-01 15:13:17

None of the "video" parameters will apply to grub, they affect the kernel they're passed to.
You'll have to rotate the display in the pre-boot system (UEFI) or using the bootloader (and for grub that likely means to apply the linked patch, no idea whether any other bootloader can do anything like this)

munmap_me · 2025-04-05 19:15:07

Thats alright I might end up trying to apply that patch in the future when I have an abundance of free time, thank you for helping so much! I'll mark the post as solved

Arch Linux

#1 2025-03-18 01:34:55

[SOLVED] Vertical/Portrait Monitors, text orientation during boot, ...

#2 2025-03-18 07:38:53

Re: [SOLVED] Vertical/Portrait Monitors, text orientation during boot, ...

#3 2025-03-18 15:36:42

Re: [SOLVED] Vertical/Portrait Monitors, text orientation during boot, ...

#4 2025-03-18 15:57:07

Re: [SOLVED] Vertical/Portrait Monitors, text orientation during boot, ...

#5 2025-03-18 17:57:48

Re: [SOLVED] Vertical/Portrait Monitors, text orientation during boot, ...

#6 2025-03-18 20:17:07

Re: [SOLVED] Vertical/Portrait Monitors, text orientation during boot, ...

#7 2025-03-20 05:08:34

Re: [SOLVED] Vertical/Portrait Monitors, text orientation during boot, ...

#8 2025-03-20 08:32:52

Re: [SOLVED] Vertical/Portrait Monitors, text orientation during boot, ...

#9 2025-04-01 14:29:51

Re: [SOLVED] Vertical/Portrait Monitors, text orientation during boot, ...

#10 2025-04-01 15:13:17

Re: [SOLVED] Vertical/Portrait Monitors, text orientation during boot, ...

#11 2025-04-05 19:15:07

Re: [SOLVED] Vertical/Portrait Monitors, text orientation during boot, ...

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