GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 753615
GDM should use multi-display settings
Last modified: 2015-12-27 18:31:15 UTC
I have a dual monitor setup, and one screen has been set as the main screen in GNOME settings > display. On startup though, the login page appears on the other screen. Could gdm take the settings into account and place the login page on the main screen? GDM 3.16.2-1.fc22 on Fedora.
Additional note: the mouse appears on what was set up as the main screen (whereas the login was on the other screen). At first I thought that the mouse was blocked in the screen and could not navigate to the login screen. After a little more tests and finding feedbacks from other users, I realized that simply their "place" have been switched. The left screen is now right screen (and vice-versa). So this is really messy. :-/
There is a similar bug report on the Red Hat bugzilla: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1225835 As I say there, a graphical way of configuring multiple screen layout for GDM is really necessary. They have done something similar in Linux Mint and it's very useful: http://segfault.linuxmint.com/2015/08/configuring-the-mdm-login-screen-for-multiple-monitors/ Or maybe at least copy "~/.config/monitors.xml" to "/var/lib/gdm/.config" when you configure your display in GNOME settings > Display?
GDM is shared for all users, so it makes sense that this can be problematic if every user can just change GDM layout. This said, if several users were to share a given computer, even though 2 users could choose slightly different GNOME layouts, they would usually be similar enough for one user to decide the GDM layout for everyone (at least the right/left position should be right — if not the Y ordinate — unless you get users who like to switch the screen each time, but then there is probably nothing much one can do). So a possibility would be that if (and only if) a user is an admin on the machine, when one changes one's own display layout, one would be given the possibility to apply this layout to the login screen as well (done by copying the monitors.xml as proposed in comment 2, then I guess). This would make sense to me.
Since GDM is started as root and before the user log in, GDM can only have one display configuration. So I see 2 solutions: 1. In the GNOME settings > Display, add a button like "Apply to GDM". When you click it, it ask for the root password and copy monitors.xml. 2. Create a new entry in GNOME settings, like GDM or Login Manager. From here you can make the GDM config. Here too, when you validate the settings, it ask for the root password and copy monitors.xml.
Hello GDM developpers, Can we have this feature for Gnome 3.20 ? Thank you
Seems to be a duplicate of bug 697903
I think GDM developpers don't care about this or they don't even read this bug report...
(In reply to jeremy9856 from comment #7) > I think GDM developpers don't care about this or they don't even read this > bug report... There's really only one gdm developer; he has a new baby and he's got a lot of other bugs to deal with, so he might not get to this one anytime soon, if ever. Unfortunately, it's often the case that GNOME bugs don't get fixed for a long time, especially bugs that only affect less-common configurations like multi-monitor setups. Eventually someone will contribute a fix.... I'll dup this with bug #697903; Felix, you'll be able to do this yourself from now on. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 697903 ***