Display on external monitor reverts to mirror display on restart and logout

[Stéphane Guillou]

My problem is that the system doesn't remember my display configuration when I reboot my netbook (using Unity).

I have an external monitor plugged to my laptop, and I use this monitor as my principal and only display (laptop screen not used). But when I restart my computer, even though the screen stays on and plugged in, the display goes back to "same image on both monitors". I have to use the shortcut "Fn + F4" to go back to my preferred configuration every time I boot up my computer.
This doesn't change when the desktop appears. The problem is the same with automatic login or without it.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Plug in external monitor with VGA, HDMI port
2. Choose the external monitor as your main and only monitor or as an extended display.
3. Reboot or log off.
4. The display configuration is back to "same image on both monitors"

Expected behaviour:
The system should remember the user's favourite display configuration for a better work-flow. A lot of people use their laptop as a desktop with a bigger monitor plugged into it.

Thank you Fabio Marconi for identifying the package.

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. It seems that your bug report is not filed about a specific source package though, rather it is just filed against Ubuntu in general. It is important that bug reports be filed about source packages so that people interested in the package can find the bugs about it. You can find some hints about determining what package your bug might be about at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. You might also ask for help in the #ubuntu-bugs irc channel on Freenode.

To change the source package that this bug is filed about visit https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/979699/+editstatus and add the package name in the text box next to the word Package.

[This is an automated message. I apologize if it reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Nekhelesh Ramananthan (nik90)]

Thank you for taking your time to report this bug to make Ubuntu better. I can confirm this issue on my system as well. Hence marking confirmed.

[Nekhelesh Ramananthan (nik90)]

Stephane, for me this problem exists on both log out and restart. However this is only during the login screen and boot process. Once I am logged into the Unity desktop, it is automatically restored to the previous configuration I set it to. Can you confirm if this is the case for you as well?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

What desktop environment do you use? gnome-settings-daemon should reapply your config on login, the login screen is a different case a bug for lightdm (which has already been reported)

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

if you are speaking about the login screen it's bug #959592

[Stéphane Guillou (stephane-guillou)]

Dear all

I use Unity.
My problem appears when I reboot (my account is set on "log in automatically"), but also when I log out (it goes back to mirrored on the login screen).

Here are two screenshots: #1 is my preferred configuration, #2 is the configuration after restart or after loging out and back in.

[Stéphane Guillou (stephane-guillou)]

I'm changing "incomplete" to "new" because I answered Sebastien's questions in #4.

[Stéphane Guillou (stephane-guillou)]

Actually, to "confirmed" as it is experienced by Nekhelesh too (#2).

Why is it considered "invalid" in Unity by the way?

[Stéphane Guillou (stephane-guillou)]

Sorry, back to "new" as Nekhelesh is actually experiencing bug #959592.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Kent Baxley (kentb)]

Setting back to confirmed as we have what appears to be a duplicate report in:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/dell-sputnik/+bug/1112851