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Bug 564713 - Need an option to select the primary display
Need an option to select the primary display
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 588041
Product: gnome-control-center
Classification: Core
Component: Display
2.28.x
Other All
: Normal minor
: ---
Assigned To: Soren Sandmann Pedersen
Control-Center Maintainers
Depends on:
Blocks: randr-tracker
 
 
Reported: 2008-12-16 09:25 UTC by smol.robert
Modified: 2009-12-11 20:57 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: 2.27/2.28



Description smol.robert 2008-12-16 09:25:20 UTC
Hi,
I have laptop with Intel graphics. When I connect extended display it is detected and I can change resolution just fine. However I would like the external display to extend my laptop's screen and it is always set to default display (external LCD).

According to http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Xorg_RandR_1.2

>the desired behavior of the video 
> drivers in typical laptop situations with an internal display and an 
> external screen attached (extending the desktop).
> 
> Currently for example the intel driver uses the external screen as the 
> primary output. It is listed first with xrandr. I'm not sure if this is 
> intentional or just coincidence.
    It's coincidence -- the laptop hardware has two crtcs, and the LVDS can
only be driven by the second.
    Note that RandR doesn't really want the order to be significant; it
would be better if the desktop environment knew about outputs and could
refer to a specific output as 'primary' or 'holds toolbar' or whatever.


Would it be possible to have an option for selecting the default display?


Other information:
Comment 1 MatthewRDutton.OSS@gmail.com 2009-01-30 04:28:15 UTC
I believe that this request would need an enhancement to GDM and might need to be reassigned to that product.
Comment 2 smol.robert 2009-01-30 10:46:07 UTC
Hi, 
it is just gnome-panel showing on wrong output, is it really related to GDM?
Comment 3 Federico Mena Quintero 2009-03-06 00:36:54 UTC
See bug #562944, about letting gnome-panel pick which monitor to use.

I'll leave this bug open as the Display Properties capplet really needs a way to let you pick the monitors on which the panel will be shown.
Comment 4 Ronny Standtke 2009-04-29 06:18:57 UTC
I have a notebook with a docking station and an external monitor. The notebook and the docking station are located on the left hand side of my physical desktop, the external monitor is on the right hand side. I want to configure the external monitor as primary display. Unfortunately, it looks like gnome-display-properties always uses the top or left screen as primary device.

This is really a usability bug because it forces me to rearrange my physical desktop. I would rather be able to configure my notebook to match the physical reality.
Comment 5 Jeremy Nickurak 2009-10-27 17:01:04 UTC
Just ran into this one on ubuntu karmic. This is a big deal for the usability of dual-screen monitors.

I have a tiny laptop screen, and a really large external monitor. I want the monitor to have the panels, and keep the tiny display for having notes about what I'm working on up for glancing at.
Comment 6 Federico Mena Quintero 2009-12-11 20:57:49 UTC

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 588041 ***