Arch Linux

curietheae

Member

Registered: 2026-04-03

Posts: 3

Second monitor used to work and now doesn't - Sway

I recently installed sway and it worked perfectly for a few days, until something happened with the monitor output. My backgrounds were gone, the second monitor stopped working, and when i ran 'swaymsg -t get_outputs' all it said was:
> Output Unknown-1 'Unknown Unknown Unknown' (focused)
> .
> .
> .
> Available modes: 1440x900 @ 60.000 Hz

when a few days ago it had 2 monitors -- HDMI-A-1 and DMI-D-1 -- and had way more resolutions and framerates.

I've updated my system, I've tried the modules that the wiki and other posts have mentioned, I've updated my drivers. None of it did anything.

I have a dual boot and it works perfectly fine on Windows 10 and did work fine on Arch until a few days ago.

My graphics card is an Nvidia GT 710 (GK208B) --i did tell sway that it was an unsupported card btw-- and when i run the 'lspci -k -d ::03xx' command it says that the kernel modules are "nouveau, nvidia_drm, nvidia" despite me not having nouveau in my mkinitcpio.conf modules.

To get sway working (and to start ricing) i did follow a tutorial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFz5gLq … UGZGlpbmtp) and that did worked fine.

Any advice is welcome

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 74,253

Re: Second monitor used to work and now doesn't - Sway

> Output Unknown-1 'Unknown Unknown Unknown' (focused)

You're running on the simpledrm device

it says that the kernel modules are

Please don't paraphrase, https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=57855
I assume no kernel module is in use, though?

dkms status
pacman -Qs 'linux|nvidia'

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curietheae

Member

Registered: 2026-04-03

Posts: 3

Re: Second monitor used to work and now doesn't - Sway

I assume no kernel module is in use, though?

dkms status
pacman -Qs 'linux|nvidia'

Running the first one I get

nvidia/595.58.03, 6.19.10-arch1-1, x86_64: installed

Running the second I get

local/alsa-lib 1.2.15.3-2
    An alternative implementation of Linux sound support
local/aquamarine 0.10.0-4
    a very light linux rendering backend library
local/archlinux-keyring 20260323-1
    Arch Linux PGP keyring
local/avahi 1:0.9rc3-1
    Service Discovery for Linux using mDNS/DNS-SD (compatible with Bonjour)
local/base 3-3
    Minimal package set to define a basic Arch Linux installation
local/base-devel 1-2
    Basic tools to build Arch Linux packages
local/brltty 6.9-3
    Braille display driver for Linux/Unix
local/dbus-broker 37-3
    Linux D-Bus Message Broker
local/dbus-broker-units 37-3
    Linux D-Bus Message Broker - Service units
local/egl-gbm 1.1.3-1
    The GBM EGL external platform library
local/egl-wayland 4:1.1.21-1
    EGLStream-based Wayland external platform
local/egl-wayland2 1.0.1-1
    EGLStream-based Wayland external platform (2)
local/egl-x11 1.0.5-1
    NVIDIA XLib and XCB EGL Platform Library
local/ell 0.83-1
    Embedded Linux library
local/filesystem 2025.10.12-1
    Base Arch Linux files
local/flatpak 1:1.16.3-1
    Linux application sandboxing and distribution framework (formerly xdg-app)
local/fuse2 2.9.9-5
    Interface for userspace programs to export a filesystem to the Linux kernel
local/fuse3 3.18.2-1
    Interface for userspace programs to export a filesystem to the Linux kernel
local/ibus 1.5.33-3
    Intelligent input bus for Linux/Unix
local/inotify-tools 4.25.9.0-1
    inotify-tools is a C library and a set of command-line programs for Linux providing a simple interface to inotify.
local/iptables 1:1.8.11-2
    Linux kernel packet control tool (using legacy interface)
local/keyutils 1.6.3-3
    Linux Key Management Utilities
local/kmod 34.2-1
    Linux kernel module management tools and library
local/lib32-alsa-lib 1.2.15.3-1
    An alternative implementation of Linux sound support (32 bit)
local/lib32-keyutils 1.6.3-2
    Linux Key Management Utilities (32-bit)
local/lib32-libva 2.22.0-1
    Video Acceleration (VA) API for Linux (32-bit)
local/lib32-libxshmfence 1.3.3-1
    a library that exposes a event API on top of Linux futexes (32-bit)
local/lib32-nvidia-utils 595.58.03-1
    NVIDIA drivers utilities (32-bit)
local/lib32-util-linux 2.41.3-1
    Miscellaneous system utilities for Linux (32-bit)
local/libaio 0.3.113-3
    The Linux-native asynchronous I/O facility (aio) library
local/libcap-ng 0.9.2-1
    A library for Linux that makes using posix capabilities easy
local/libiec61883 1.2.0-9
    A higher level API for streaming DV, MPEG-2 and audio over Linux IEEE 1394
local/libnvme 1.16.1-3
    C Library for NVM Express on Linux
local/libraw1394 2.1.2-4
    Provides an API to the Linux IEEE1394 (FireWire) driver
local/libssc 0.4.2-1
    Library for exposing Qualcomm Sensor Core sensors to Linux
local/liburing 2.14-1
    Linux-native io_uring I/O access library
local/libva 2.23.0-1
    Video Acceleration (VA) API for Linux
local/libvdpau 1.5-4
    Nvidia VDPAU library
local/libxshmfence 1.3.3-1
    a library that exposes a event API on top of Linux futexes
local/linux 6.19.10.arch1-1
    The Linux kernel and modules
local/linux-api-headers 6.19-1
    Kernel headers sanitized for use in userspace
local/linux-firmware 20260309-1
    Firmware files for Linux - Default set
local/linux-firmware-amdgpu 20260309-1
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for AMD Radeon GPUs
local/linux-firmware-atheros 20260309-1
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for Qualcomm Atheros WiFi and Bluetooth adapters
local/linux-firmware-broadcom 20260309-1
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for Broadcom and Cypress network adapters
local/linux-firmware-cirrus 20260309-1
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for Cirrus Logic audio devices
local/linux-firmware-intel 20260309-1
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for Intel devices
local/linux-firmware-mediatek 20260309-1
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for MediaTek and Ralink devices
local/linux-firmware-nvidia 20260309-1
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for NVIDIA GPUs and SoCs
local/linux-firmware-other 20260309-1
    Firmware files for Linux - Unsorted firmware for various devices
local/linux-firmware-radeon 20260309-1
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for ATI Radeon GPUs
local/linux-firmware-realtek 20260309-1
    Firmware files for Linux - Firmware for Realtek devices
local/linux-firmware-whence 20260309-1
    Firmware files for Linux - WHENCE file (vendor licenses)
local/linux-headers 6.19.10.arch1-1
    Headers and scripts for building modules for the Linux kernel
local/mdadm 4.6-1
    A tool for managing/monitoring Linux md device arrays, also known as Software RAID
local/nvidia-open-dkms 595.58.03-1
    NVIDIA open kernel modules - module sources
local/nvidia-utils 595.58.03-1
    NVIDIA drivers utilities
local/pacman-mirrorlist 20260213-1
    Arch Linux mirror list for use by pacman
local/pps-tools 1.0.3-2
    LinuxPPS user-space tools
local/python-brltty 6.9-3
    Braille display driver for Linux/Unix - Python bindings
local/python-distro 1.9.0-4
    Linux OS platform information API
local/python-pkg_resources 81.0.0-1
    Temporary stub of pkg_resources for Arch Linux
local/util-linux 2.41.3-2
    Miscellaneous system utilities for Linux
local/util-linux-libs 2.41.3-2
    util-linux runtime libraries
local/v4l-utils 1.32.0-2
    Userspace tools and conversion library for Video 4 Linux
local/vulkan-nouveau 1:26.0.3-1
    Open-source Vulkan driver for Nvidia GPUs
local/xf86-video-nouveau 1.0.18-1 (xorg-drivers)
    Open Source 3D acceleration driver for nVidia cards

I'm not sure if any of that is helpful though, I don't yet understand most of it (I will in time)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,694

Re: Second monitor used to work and now doesn't - Sway

You'll want to read https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NVIDIA, Kepler support got dropped to a legacy branch years ago.

What modules you have in mkinitcpio.conf doesn't matter that much, that only means it would get loaded earlier than if it's not there.

Last edited by Scimmia (2026-04-05 14:39:55)

curietheae

Member

Registered: 2026-04-03

Posts: 3

Re: Second monitor used to work and now doesn't - Sway

You'll want to read https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NVIDIA

I tried everything on it but it didn't help or work. Though maybe i've done something wrong.

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 74,253

Re: Second monitor used to work and now doesn't - Sway

dkms status
pacman -Qs 'linux|nvidia'

and please post your complete system journal for the boot:

sudo journalctl -b | nc termbin.com 9999

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Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,694

Re: Second monitor used to work and now doesn't - Sway

"Everything" meaning what, exactly?