I originally reported this KDE4 bug as https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=312190. It’s also reported as bugs #311641, #309356, and #307589.

In my case I have 3 monitors on one video card. The card and all three monitors are detected correctly, but after I reboot the “Position” settings have all reverted to what they were when I first installed KDE.

I can change the position settings back to the correct settings, click “Save as Default”, log  out, log in, and the position settings have once again reverted to what they were when I first installed KDE.

After trying several things I still haven’t fixed the problem (I suspect a timing issue in the KDE startup) but I did figure out a work-around that anyone can use to “fix” their system so their monitors come up correctly. I posted the work-around on bugs.kde.org and I’m also posting it here.

Here’s how you do it:

Get your monitors set up the way you want them using Configure Desktop > Display and Monitor and click “Save as Default.” This updates the file ~/.kde4/share/config/krandrrc.

Open ~/.kde4/share/config/krandrrc, copy everything on the line after “StartupCommands=”. In my case the line looks like this:

xrandr --output DVI-I-1 --pos 1680x0 --mode 1680x1050 --refresh 60\nxrandr --output DP-0 
  --pos 3360x0 --mode 1680x1050 --refresh 60\nxrandr --output DVI-D-0 --pos 0x0 --mode 1680x1050
  --refresh 60\nxrandr --output DVI-I-1 --primary

Create a new script called ~/bin/workaround-for-kde-bug-312190.sh:

mkdir -p ~/bin
vim ~/bin/workaround-for-kde-bug-312190.sh

(If you don’t like vim, use whatever editor you like.)

Paste the line into the script file.

Change the “\n” characters into actual newlines so you end up with each “xrandr” command on a separate line. In my case I ended up with:

xrandr --output DVI-I-1 --pos 1680x0 --mode 1680x1050 --refresh 60
xrandr --output DP-0 --pos 3360x0 --mode 1680x1050 --refresh 60
xrandr --output DVI-D-0 --pos 0x0 --mode 1680x1050 --refresh 60
xrandr --output DVI-I-1 --primary

These are the settings for MY desktop. Yours will look different!

Make it executable:

chmod +x ~/bin/workaround-for-kde-bug-312190.sh

Run the script ~/bin/workaround-for-kde-bug-312190.sh. Your monitors should still be set up correctly. If they’re messed up, you probably didn’t cut and paste the line correctly. Repeat the above steps again.

Pick Autostart from the KDE menu. (Use the Search function if you can’t figure out where it’s buried.)

Click “Add Script” and paste the line “~/bin/workaround-for-kde-bug-312190.sh” into the “Shell script path” text box.

Click OK, click OK.

The next time you restart KDE it will still start up with the wrong configuration, then Autostart will execute ~/bin/workaround-for-kde-bug-312190.sh and fix the problem.