How to turn off screen rotation in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS?

Question

In Ubuntu 17.04 there was 'Rotation' menu in Display tab. But now in new version of Ubuntu, there's still a Display tab but no more rotation menu. Now I can't turn that off again since I upgraded to 18.04 LTS.

score 118 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 28 '19 at 14:53

118

The best solution I have found so far is to use the icon that is available in the top right corner of the screen, when you click on the down arrow. The icon is the one in red in the screenshot below:

It might also look like this:

edited Aug 28 '19 at 14:53

Giszmo

165

answered May 15 '18 at 13:10

Sylvain

1,296

9

wow.. i had no clue what it was for until my display started rotating in bed – sureshvv Aug 14 '18 at 17:21
9

What an annoying pesky little feature that I'm not sure what anyone would actually use. Can anyone enlighten me? Why would you want automatic screen orientation on a PC? – Cepheus May 01 '19 at 08:28
2

I was sick of this rotation .. thanks for writing this. – Vikash May 09 '19 at 16:51
1

Unfortunately, if you're screen rotates before you sign in, it glitches out. – Amin Shah Gilani Jun 03 '19 at 22:02
@Giszmo What is 19.3? Did you mean Ubuntu 19.04? – Melebius Aug 29 '19 at 08:12
Commenting the revision comment? Yeah, probably. – Giszmo Aug 30 '19 at 08:14
About, why you would use it, I bought my computer for this feature, I fold the keyboard behind the screen and turn it to portrait mode to read the newspaper every morning. – HackerBaloo Oct 05 '19 at 06:21
I figured it out but before login it seems that it forgets it on login screen. and it never shows enabled / disabled different in button. How can I know if this is enabled or disabled. – Hafiz Dec 29 '19 at 00:59
1

I am using 18.04 on my PC. I don't have the icon though. Can someone explain me why? Is it maybe because my PC doesn't have rotating sensors? – Overflow Feb 11 '20 at 11:01
Thanks a mill. Works like a charm – Brennan Sebastian Mar 18 '20 at 07:01

score 44 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 26 '18 at 12:05

44

If you want to remove this feature then fire below commands :

Try this command to stop and disable

$ sudo systemctl stop iio-sensor-proxy.service
$ sudo systemctl disable iio-sensor-proxy.service

Try this command to remove

$ sudo apt-get remove iio-sensor-proxy

answered Jul 26 '18 at 12:05

shivang patel

790

Do the above and use settings / displays (or gnome tweak etc) to reset the rotation manually. – Tech1337 Oct 23 '19 at 10:11
1

I am just removing those serveries. But in newer version on linux, this problem is gone.
Every Linux kernel from 4.3 up to version 4.12 had a bug that made made iio-sensor-proxy fail...

Visit : https://github.com/hadess/iio-sensor-proxy
– shivang patel Oct 23 '19 at 11:35
I am on Pop!OS 19.10 and iio-sensor-proxy still has issues with HDAP sensors, thinking it is an orientation accelerometer. If this is the case, remove iio-sensor-proxy and install something like:
hdapsd - HDAPS daemon for various laptops with motion sensors or tp-smapi-dkms - ThinkPad hardware/firmware access modules source - dkms version
– Tech1337 Oct 23 '19 at 13:39
1

@Tech1337 I strongly suggest you.. Ask this same question in their forum. Btw, which kerner is currently running on 19.10 ? If this pop!OS based on ubuntu then, these issue shouldn't come... – shivang patel Oct 24 '19 at 05:35
1

I love this answer. some laptops have the sensor inside of them, not to rotate the screen but used for things like drop detection and what not. like my HP EliteBook 840. thank you for posting this, as it was the only thing that permanently fixed the issue – DPS Nov 06 '19 at 22:52
1

I can confirm this answer worked on Ubuntu 22.04. – pylover Jun 26 '22 at 22:52

score 17 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 21 '18 at 15:36

17

You may use the keyboard combination Super+O to toggle the rotation lock ON/OFF as described in @Sylvain's answer.

Note that Super is usually the key with Windows logo.

answered Aug 21 '18 at 15:36

pomsky

68,507

score 16 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 11 '18 at 02:54

16

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.orientation active false

The above just worked for me. Seems the simplest solution

answered Jul 11 '18 at 02:54

98cwitr

161

1

It seems to me that this simply changes the default toggle state of the icon the other answers mention (default state after boot). Which is exactly what I needed! – lucidbrot Jul 19 '20 at 12:45

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered May 15 '18 at 13:35

4

What do you mean "turn off screen rotation" ? Do you mean go back to normal orientation ?

Anyway, in the new gnome-control-center of gnome 3.28, in Devices > Screen Display tab, you can click on Orientation and a menu appears to let you choose between

- Landscape
- Portrait right
- Portrait left
- Landscape (flipped)

I guess this is what you want ?

answered May 15 '18 at 13:35

solsTiCe

9,231

1

This thread continues to be useful! Fixing my wife's HP-dv6 laptop's upside-down screen, I found that the Devices > Screen > Orientation option menu only appears when iio-sensor-proxy.service is stopped, disabled, and (preferably) removed per shivangpatel -- and then the spurious 'orientation' icon in the upper-right corner of the Gnome desktop screen disappears !! And the gsettings commands per vaishaldhir were also helpful to make sure those settings were correct.Thanks, all, for the information! – user31301 Mar 15 '20 at 11:26

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 28 '19 at 11:13

3

for me none of these work. As soon as I put the computer to sleep and wake it up again, it puts itself in the wrong orientation (due to the fact that the computer is sitting on a tilted support that raises it up). The only thing that I manage to do quickly is

xrandr -o normal

to fall back to normal orientation. This is painful

answered Jun 28 '19 at 11:13

Johann cohen-tanugi

71

sorry, removing iio-sensor-proxy does remove the problem of course.... But none of the proposed config fixes seem to hold after sleep/wake cycle. – Johann cohen-tanugi Jun 28 '19 at 11:17

score 1 · Answer 7 · edited Oct 14 '21 at 04:23

1

Use the code given below and it will work.

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.peripherals.touchscreen orientation-lock true
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.orientation active false

edited Oct 14 '21 at 04:23

karel

114,770

answered Dec 10 '18 at 07:19

Vaishal Dhir

11

orientation-lock is the same as the <Super>+o control. – Planky Apr 05 '19 at 18:48
This is the most transportable answer, any other option to enable/disable affects this gnome setting. To monitor this, see the output of gsettings monitor org.gnome.settings-daemon.peripherals.touchscreen orientation-lock. – brandeded Oct 14 '19 at 23:21

How to turn off screen rotation in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS?

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