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[Bug 742544] Re: Launcher is shown on the wrong screen in some multi-monitor setups

 

@Andrea: ok.

Although I understand this can be a sane default, just ignoring X primary monitor seems too much. There are several reasonable configurations where the primary should get the panel, no matter where it is. E.g configuration used when you need to
copy/read from a secondary monitor placed on the left (like my case), configurations where you put your laptop on the left of
your big monitor (because there is no space on your desk on the right for instance etc...).
I understand that if the panel is not on the left-most monitor it makes it difficult to just fling your mouse on the top-left corner
and display the application menu but still. A much better solution would be to make the top-left corner of the primary monitor
(with the panel) block the mouse pointer or put some kind of slight edge resistance...

The semantics of primary monitor is, "the monitor which is just in front of me, where I want stuff to be displayed". Ignoring that
won't cut it in many situations. Plus that makes the "black bar" in the Display property completely useless and confusing.

Anyway I've patched it locally (see rev. http://bazaar.launchpad.net
/~unity-team/unity/trunk/revision/1609 for those interested) to suit my
needs but I'm just curious to see how this design issue will be solved.

Best.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/742544

Title:
  Launcher is shown on the wrong screen in some multi-monitor setups

Status in Ayatana Design:
  Invalid
Status in Unity:
  Invalid
Status in “gnome-control-center” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  Why this bug is not logged under Unity:
  The root cause of this bug is the function gdk_screen_get_primary_monitor. Unfortunately it is designed in a way such that it returns the same value 0 if the primary monitor is the first monitor, or if there is no primary monitor set at all. And quite often monitor zero is in fact the one on the right.

  In Ubuntu 11.10 this is resolved by being able to drag the little
  panel bar in your display settings to the desired screen. This is a
  nice graphical way of telling the system what you primary monitor is.

  WORKAROUND FOR 11.04:

  There are two ways to configure the primary monitor in Ubuntu 11.04...

  Permanent workaround (requires logging back in again):
  Edit ~/.config/monitors.xml, find the monitor you want the launcher to display on and change:
      <primary>no</primary>
  to:
      <primary>yes</primary>
  Now log out and log in again.

  Temporary workaround (no logout required):
  Open a Terminal window and...
  1. Run "xrandr" to find the NAME of the output you would like to make primary.
  2. Run: xrandr --output NAME --primary && nohup unity --replace &

  ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION:

  Binary package hint: unity

  In my particular configuration I have an external monitor hooked up to
  my laptop on the left of the laptop display.  The unity bar is ending
  up on the laptop display though making it in the middle of the two
  monitors.

  This makes it quite difficult to activate the bar with a full screen
  application open on the laptop (hitting the upper left pixel of that
  monitor without going over).

  I think it would make more sense to make it configurable which monitor
  the bar ends up on, or at least look at the orientation of the
  monitors when determining where to put the bar.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
  Package: unity 3.6.8-0ubuntu3
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-7.38-generic 2.6.38
  Uname: Linux 2.6.38-7-generic i686
  Architecture: i386
  CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,decor,mousepoll,vpswitch,regex,animation,snap,expo,move,compiztoolbox,place,grid,imgpng,gnomecompat,wall,ezoom,workarounds,staticswitcher,resize,fade,unitymtgrabhandles,scale,session,unityshell]
  CompositorRunning: compiz
  DRM.card0.DVI.D.1:
   status: connected
   enabled: enabled
   dpms: On
   modes: 1280x1024 1280x1024 1280x960 1152x864 1024x768 1024x768 1024x768 832x624 800x600 800x600 800x600 800x600 640x480 640x480 640x480 640x480 720x400
   edid-base64: AP///////wBMLZQBOTFJQggPAQOAJh54Kt6Vo1RMmSYPUFS/74CBgIFAcU8BAQEBAQEBAQEBMCoAmFEAKkAwcBMAeC0RAAAeAAAA/QA4Sx5RDgAKICAgICAgAAAA/ABTeW5jTWFzdGVyCiAgAAAA/wBIQ0hZMjAwOTU4CiAgAKk=
  DRM.card0.LVDS.1:
   status: connected
   enabled: enabled
   dpms: On
   modes: 1440x900 1440x900
   edid-base64: AP///////wAGr0cTAAAAAAEQAQOAHhN4Cof1lFdPjCcnUFQAAAABAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBniWgQFGEDDBAIDMAL70QAAAZWh+gQFGEDDBAIDMAL70QAAAAAAAA/gBHUjU4NABCMTQxUFcxAAAA/gAoOERNbZa2/wIBCiAgADo=
  DRM.card0.VGA.1:
   status: disconnected
   enabled: disabled
   dpms: Off
   modes:
   edid-base64:
  Date: Fri Mar 25 10:22:03 2011
  DistUpgraded: Log time: 2011-02-28 23:54:17.443730
  DistributionChannelDescriptor:
   # This is a distribution channel descriptor
   # For more information see http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DistributionChannelDescriptor
   canonical-oem-dell-lucid-une-20100427-1
  DistributionChannelDescriptor_:
   # This is a distribution channel descriptor
   # For more information see http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DistributionChannelDescriptor
   canonical-oem-dell-lucid-une-20100427-1
  DistributionChannelDescriptor__:
   # This is a distribution channel descriptor
   # For more information see http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DistributionChannelDescriptor
   canonical-oem-dell-lucid-une-20100427-1
  DistroCodename: natty
  DistroVariant: ubuntu
  DkmsStatus:
   vboxhost, 4.0.4, 2.6.38-5-generic, i686: installed
   vboxhost, 4.0.4, 2.6.38-7-generic, i686: installed
   vboxhost, 4.0.4, 2.6.38-6-generic, i686: installed
  GraphicsCard:
   Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (primary) [8086:2a02] (rev 0c) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
     Subsystem: Dell Latitude D630 [1028:01f9]
     Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01f9]
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid" - Build i386 LIVE Binary 20100427-14:29
  InstallationMedia_: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid" - Build i386 LIVE Binary 20100427-14:29
  InstallationMedia__: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid" - Build i386 LIVE Binary 20100427-14:29
  MachineType: Dell Inc. Latitude D630
  PccardctlIdent:
   Socket 0:
     no product info available
  PccardctlStatus:
   Socket 0:
     no card
  ProcEnviron:
   LANGUAGE=en_US:en
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-7-generic root=UUID=fa8d2464-5942-4868-877b-6bed2f9b7c15 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
  ProcVersionSignature_: Ubuntu 2.6.38-7.38-generic 2.6.38
  ProcVersionSignature__: Ubuntu 2.6.38-7.38-generic 2.6.38
  Renderer: Unknown
  SourcePackage: unity
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-03-02 (23 days ago)
  dmi.bios.date: 01/11/2008
  dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
  dmi.bios.version: A06
  dmi.board.name: 0KU184
  dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
  dmi.chassis.type: 8
  dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
  dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA06:bd01/11/2008:svnDellInc.:pnLatitudeD630:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0KU184:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr:
  dmi.product.name: Latitude D630
  dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.
  version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.4git20110322-0ubuntu5
  version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.23-1ubuntu5
  version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 7.10.1-0ubuntu3
  version.xserver-xorg: xserver-xorg 1:7.6~3ubuntu11
  version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.0-0ubuntu4
  version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.14.0-4ubuntu4
  version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20110107+b795ca6e-0ubuntu6

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