Bugzilla – Bug 429514
Panels are moved to secondary screen in dual-xrandr mode
Last modified: 2010-11-27 10:44:49 UTC
If I connect an external screen to my notebook the panels are moved to the external screen and I wonder why. If I disconnect the panels are moved back where they belong.
Federico: is this a problem with the panel or could it be that the external screen becomes the primary screen (well, the first one)?
I suspected this, too... is there a way (log, tool, whatever) to know which screen X sees as the primary one?
The output of the xrandr command might help.
This is *without* the VGA connected. It seems to still list the last connected size (1024): Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 1280 x 1280 VGA disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 1024x768_60 60.0 LVDS connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 331mm x 207mm 1280x800 60.0*+ 60.0 58.9 1152x768 54.8 1024x768 60.0 800x600 60.3 56.2 640x480 59.9 TV disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Now the VGA is connected: Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 1280 x 1280 VGA connected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 1280x800 60.0 + 58.9 1280x960 59.9 1024x768 60.0 800x600 60.3 56.2 640x480 60.0 1024x768_60 60.0 LVDS connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 331mm x 207mm 1280x800 60.0*+ 60.0 58.9 1152x768 54.8 1024x768 60.0 800x600 60.3 56.2 640x480 59.9 TV disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
There is no "primary screen" in X :( GNOME assumes that the first screen in the list is the primary one. Michael, do you have an Intel video card? We've had trouble with those, as the driver always seems to put the VGA output first in the list.
Finally got the time to install a recent openSUSE (11.1 beta3) and this is still the case. Yes, I'm using a i965 Intel card btw...
Which DE do you use KDE or Gnome? I have Intel i965 card too. Indeed, it gives to the built in screen number 2. Maybe it would be more logical, if built-in always was number 1, but I think that panel positioning is actually DE's task. I found number of the monitors by using in KDE 3.5.10 Configure - KDE Panel dialog -> Arrangement -> 'Identify' button. You can adjust panels positions there also. (Choose Xinerama screen 2 to make panel appear on the built-in=LVDS monitor). System should remember your choice next time you connect second monitor (it remembers in my system: KDE 3.5.10 "release 21.11"). In case you use Gnome, I can't help much, but try reading this thread https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-panel/+question/8152 . It may have some useful methods to move panels in Gnome.
The problem is twofold: 1. Gnome-panel queries the list of monitors, and places itself in the first monitor by default. 2. The Intel driver likes to put the VGA output before LVDS (the laptop's built-in LCD). So, gnome-panel ends up moving itself to the VGA output when you plug in a monitor.
I added this comment to 381141, but I think it's related to here too. Also strange is, when I plugin an external monitor, (non-mirrored config) it (sometimes) gets the default panel. However, it does not get the default Desktop folder. The default desktop should stay with the default pannel. Ideally the display to hold the default pannel/Desktop should be selectable from the Configure Display Settings applet.
We do have the notion of primary monitor now (since quite some time), and the panels stay on the primary monitor. And with https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=635455 we'll make sure that the right monitor is the primary one. So closing as FIXED.