How to get Login screen to appear on external monitor

I’m trying to get on to my librem 13v3 using an external monitor because my screen is cracked. I can enter the encryption code just fine but the password screen shows up as just a grey background with no login details on the external monitor. It does show up on the laptop but the part of the screen where you enter the password is cracked. Neither F7 nor F8 seem to work. I can move my mouse between the screens.

Is the issue that you need to select the specific username to log in as? Otherwise the password isn’t echoed so you don’t really need to see it.

Are you saying that you cannot successfully log in blind? Or you can but it’s not convenient and so you would like to move the log in screen to an external monitor?

Any chance that booting with the lid closed will persuade it to ignore the built-in monitor completely and therefore do everything on the external monitor?

I had that problem in Mint with and old laptop with a dead screen. What I did was after pressing the power button, I’d close the lid. The laptop seemed to figure it out and went to the other monitor. However it had a VGA port, I don’t know if newer laptops still have that.

Addendum: Of course you’ll have to add an external keyboard also. Usually can find one in a thrift store for a dollar (USD).