moving lxpanel to another display

[stephen]

Hi,

I'm a recent LXDE + xmonad convert, since Ubuntu Saucy/Gnome 3 finally dropped support for gnome-panel. Really liking it so far.

I have one question--I'm using multiple monitors, setup with nvidia twinview, and it basically works great.

Except that lxpanel is shown on the wrong display, and originally rendered off the edge of that display (I could only see half of it).

I've manually changed the width from 100% to the width of the 1st display, and now I can at least see the whole panel, which is much better.

But what I'd really like is to move lxpanel from the display it's on to my primary display.

Am I missing an obvious way to do that?

Within nvidia-settings, I've marked my primary display as "Make this the primary display for the X screen". I think that used to work for gnome-panel, as it displayed only on the primary display.

I saw some links to the lxlinux.com page, where he talks about arandr, and if I start arandr, it recognizes my displays and renders them in the right spot. They're labelled DP-4, DP-5, and DP-6

Right now lxpanel is on DP-4, but I'd like it to be on DP-5.

Any pointers would be appreciated. Sorry if I missed an obvious setting... Thanks!

[stephen]

Replying to my own post, it looks like lxpanel in git master has a config option for Display.

It technically doesn't work yet, but I assume it's just a work-in-progress.

git master has a fix where width=100% will not render off screen when their are multiple displays.

[seppalta]

Are you using your monitors as an extended display (one huge monitor), or in a duplicate mode? If it is an extended display, then "Panel Settings" will allow you to put it on whatever monitor you like by choosing from "left, center and right", and then adjusting the length percentage so that the panel covers just the area on that monitor. If you ae set in duplicate mode, then the panel should appear on every monitor.

[stephen]

Hi seppalta,

I'm using an extended display (TwinView).

When I change left/center/right, the panel doesn't move at all. (Technically, if I set it to left or right, then set margin to, say, 400, I can see it move, but it's always at the top of display 1, not moving around to other displays.)

I'm really pretty sure 0.6.1 behaved this way as well, although technically I'm on master now.

Per my earlier reply about master having a "Display" option, sorry, looking now it's called "Monitor". But that still sounds like what I want, when it's implemented (I assume it's WIP as it doesn't do anything right now).

[seppalta]

First, I have never had to adjust my graphics cards directly to get an extended desktop - just set it up and save it using arandr (see http://lxlinux.com/#14). Then, I right click the panel (lower or upper) and choose Panel Settings to place the panel at any length, anywhere I want starting at either the left side, right side or center of the extended desktop (at 100% the panel covered the full extent of both monitors regardless of the left-right-center setting). Put the saved arandr file (in ~/.screenlayout) in autostart and you should be set to go thereafter.

Oh, if your monitors are different sizes, you must align the edge (top or bottom) with the panel in a straight line. Otherwise the panel will only show on the bigger monitor. For a top panel, align the top edges.

[stephen]

Hi seppalta,

> First, I have never had to adjust my graphics cards directly to get an extended desktop

Fair enough; I use nvidia-settings merely out of habit from when I used Ubuntu proper. AFAIK it does the same thing as arandr, e.g. if I open up arandr, it correctly recognizes the position/orientation of the monitors.

> Oh, if your monitors are different sizes, you must align the edge (top or bottom) with the panel

This might have been my problem, as physically my monitors do not line up at the top/bottom edges, and I'd generally prefer to have the virtual layout match that.

That said, ever intrigued by this Monitor setting in the Panel config that won't save to anything but 1, I manually edited the config file, set monitor=1, and lxpanel is now magically exactly where I want it; the top of monitor 1. (Instead of the top of monitor 2 previously.)

Now the only slightly annoying thing is that I'm having to run "lxpanelctl restart" somewhat frequently, as anytime I open a new window on monitor 1, lxpanel seems to crash/disappear.

Perhaps not being able to set monitor in the panel UI is on purpose if it's not ready for production yet. E.g. I'm knowingly playing with unreleased/beta functionality.

I'm extremely close to this working exactly as I want though, which is great. I'm really liking lxpanel and the whole LXDE setup.

Thanks for the link to arandr...I'd run it before, but not looked into the autostart stuff...I'll take a look at that.