Hello, I’m using Fedora 41 with GNOME and have set up my external monitor (HP E243i, connected via HDMI) as the primary display in my monitor configuration. However, this setup causes issues in GDM (login screen), as it waits for the external screen to be detected and powered on before displaying the prompt. If the external monitor is disconnected or powered off, GDM doesn’t automatically fallback to my laptop’s built-in screen.
I’d like GDM to prioritize the external screen when available, but switch to the laptop screen as primary if the external monitor isn’t detected. Here’s my current monitors.xml configuration for reference:
<monitors version="2">
<configuration>
<layoutmode>logical</layoutmode>
<logicalmonitor>
<x>1920</x>
<y>120</y>
<scale>1</scale>
<monitor>
<monitorspec>
<connector>eDP-1</connector>
<vendor>CMN</vendor>
<product>0x15f5</product>
<serial>0x00000000</serial>
</monitorspec>
<mode>
<width>1920</width>
<height>1080</height>
<rate>60.001</rate>
</mode>
</monitor>
</logicalmonitor>
<logicalmonitor>
<x>0</x>
<y>0</y>
<scale>1</scale>
<primary>yes</primary>
<monitor>
<monitorspec>
<connector>HDMI-1</connector>
<vendor>HPN</vendor>
<product>HP E243i</product>
<serial>CNK911223Y</serial>
</monitorspec>
<mode>
<width>1920</width>
<height>1200</height>
<rate>59.950</rate>
</mode>
</monitor>
</logicalmonitor>
</configuration>
</monitors>
I’ve considered modifying monitors.xml and adjusting GDM settings, but I’m not sure of the best approach. Has anyone set up a similar fallback mechanism? Any advice on configuring GDM or managing primary display settings in GNOME for this scenario would be greatly appreciated!