Force gdm login screen to the primary monitor

For newer versions of Ubuntu such as 13.10 or upgraded 13.04 using Gnome 3.8, this procedure is different because the X configuration file no longer controls the monitor layout. You must do the following:

  1. Set the monitor layout correctly as a logged-in user (see Permanantly set monitor as primary)

  2. Copy the configuration file over to the gdm settings

    cp ~/.config/monitors.xml ~gdm/.config/
    

For more details, see https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=161903

  1. Within the monitors.xml file there are tags labeled: <primary>something</primary>

For the monitor you want to be primary put a 'yes' in between the tags and a 'no' for all other screens. ex: <primary>yes</primary>