Multi monitor setup - Left display is always primary

jakobholmelund · 2015-05-07 12:32:40

Hey guys. I've just moved to Xubuntu 15.04 from windows. I'm not totally sure this is XFCE related, but from a little googlin, it seems that this is an old problem.

My setup is as follows

Graphix:

nvidia gtx970m

NVIDIA Driver Version: 346.59

Screens:

Notbook Screen
Samsung Monitor
Samsung Monitor

xrandr output

Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 3801 x 3120, maximum 16384 x 16384
VGA-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-0 connected primary 1920x1200+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 518mm x 324mm
1920x1200 60.0*+
1920x1080 50.0
1680x1050 60.0
1600x1200 60.0
1440x900 75.0 59.9
1280x1024 75.0 60.0
1280x960 60.0
1280x800 59.8
1280x720 60.0 50.0
1152x864 75.0
1024x768 75.0 70.1 60.0
800x600 75.0 72.2 60.3 56.2
720x576 50.0
720x480 59.9
640x480 75.0 72.8 59.9
DP-0 connected 1920x1080+1881+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 344mm x 193mm
1920x1080 60.2*+
DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-2 connected 1200x1920+0+1200 left (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 518mm x 324mm
1920x1200 60.0*+
1920x1080 50.0
1680x1050 60.0
1600x1200 60.0
1440x900 75.0 59.9
1280x1024 75.0 60.0
1280x960 60.0
1280x800 59.8
1280x720 60.0 50.0
1152x864 75.0
1024x768 75.0 70.1 60.0
800x600 75.0 72.2 60.3 56.2
720x576 50.0
720x480 59.9
640x480 75.0 72.8 59.9
DP-3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-4 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Unknown-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

My problem is that XFCE ignores the primary monitor option and always picks the screen at +0+0 as the primary screen. In earlier threads i've found it seems that people where waiting for a new XFCE release to fix this. And since a new version was just realeased it seems that this wasn't fixed after all. The general multimonitor manager (Display Manager) looks really nice and i can drag the screens around just like in windows or osx so everything but the primary screen feature seems to work perfectly. I've tried using xrandr to change the primary screen, but that doesn't work either. I would really appreciate if someone can help me out. Besides this problem, and some problems with my brightness buttons and audio buttons everything runs super smooth and nice.

Cheers

Jakob

ToZ · 2015-05-07 14:41:21

Maybe more for my understanding, but can you explain a little more about what you mean by "primary monitor"? What are you expecting will happen when you designate a monitor as primary? Maybe provide some examples?

I have a dual monitor setup (laptop screen + external monitor to the right).
- Applications start on the monitor from which I initiate the request. If I move the application launcher (or panel) to the external monitor, they start there.
- When I boot up, the screens are cloned. I can change this with Xorg configs or xrandr commands.
- I can drag applications between monitors.
- For specific placement, I can specify monitors for applications to start on using devilspie or -geometry parameters

jakobholmelund · 2015-05-11 09:23:51

He ToZ

Thank you for answering

My understanding of the "primary monitor" is the setting inside nvidia-settings/Display app called "primary monitor" . I would expect that the panels would automatically move to that screen when selected. But instead, the always go to the most left display in the configuration. It's kind of counter intuitive to have a feature, that doesn't really do anything.

The application start on active monitor is a nifty feature, and i can of course move the panels myself, but that isn't very user friendly.

As you mention all the other features works perfectly, and i'm very happy with Xfce overall.

ToZ · 2015-05-11 10:49:35

Have a read through this bug report which lead to the addition of the "Primary Monitor" setting in the display settings. Note the last comment that also states:

Note that it depends on the various clients (panels, daemons) to respect the RandR primary property. For instance xfce4-panel doesn't take it into account yet (which was one reason for this feature not being pushed in xfce4-settings).

This would explain why its not working the way it should yet. Changes need to be made to other components.

Xfce Forum

Sub domains

#1 2015-05-07 12:32:40

Multi monitor setup - Left display is always primary

#2 2015-05-07 14:41:21

Re: Multi monitor setup - Left display is always primary

#3 2015-05-11 09:23:51

Re: Multi monitor setup - Left display is always primary

#4 2015-05-11 10:49:35

Re: Multi monitor setup - Left display is always primary

Board footer