External monitors--limited working permutations

Thank you for the bug report, could you provide the output of "xrandr" and the journalctl log after getting the issue?

Upon restarting, I was able to get the monitor above the laptop screen, but only after a few attempts; the behavior doesn't seem to be deterministic--sometimes one permutation will work, sometimes it won't.

Here is the output of xrandr:
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1600 x 1800, maximum 8192 x 8192
eDP-1 connected primary 1600x900+0+900 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 294mm x 165mm
   3200x1800 59.98 + 59.96 59.94 47.99
   2880x1620 59.96 59.97
   2560x1600 59.99 59.97
   2560x1440 59.99 59.99 59.96 59.95
   2048x1536 60.00
   1920x1440 60.00
   1856x1392 60.01
   1792x1344 60.01
   2048x1152 59.99 59.98 59.90 59.91
   1920x1200 59.88 59.95
   1920x1080 60.01 59.97 59.96 59.93
   1600x1200 60.00
   1680x1050 59.95 59.88
   1600x1024 60.17
   1400x1050 59.98
   1600x900 59.99 59.94 59.95* 59.82
   1280x1024 60.02
   1440x900 59.89
   1400x900 59.96 59.88
   1280x960 60.00
   1440x810 60.00 59.97
   1368x768 59.88 59.85
   1360x768 59.80 59.96
   1280x800 59.99 59.97 59.81 59.91
   1152x864 60.00
   1280x720 60.00 59.99 59.86 59.74
   1024x768 60.04 60.00
   960x720 60.00
   928x696 60.05
   896x672 60.01
   1024x576 59.95 59.96 59.90 59.82
   960x600 59.93 60.00
   960x540 59.96 59.99 59.63 59.82
   800x600 60.00 60.32 56.25
   840x525 60.01 59.88
   864x486 59.92 59.57
   800x512 60.17
   700x525 59.98
   800x450 59.95 59.82
   640x512 60.02
   720x450 59.89
   700x450 59.96 59.88
   640x480 60.00 59.94
   720x405 59.51 58.99
   684x384 59.88 59.85
   680x384 59.80 59.96
   640x400 59.88 59.98
   576x432 60.06
   640x360 59.86 59.83 59.84 59.32
   512x384 60.00
   512x288 60.00 59.92
   480x270 59.63 59.82
   400x300 60.32 56.34
   432x243 59.92 59.57
   320x240 60.05
   360x202 59.51 59.13
   320x180 59.84 59.32
DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-1-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-1-2 connected 1600x900+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 527mm x 296mm
   3840x2160 60.00 + 29.98
   2560x1440 59.95
   2048x1280 59.99
   1920x1200 59.88
   1920x1080 60.00 60.00 50.00 59.94 24.00 23.98
   1600x1200 60.00
   1600x900 60.00*
   1280x1024 75.02 60.02
   1152x864 75.00
   1280x720 60.00 50.00 59.94
   1024x768 75.03 60.00
   800x600 75.00 60.32
   720x576 50.00
   720x480 60.00 59.94
  ...

the log has those warnings

gsd-xsettings[1590]: Failed to get current display configuration state: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner: Name "org.gnome.Mutter.DisplayConfig" does not exist