Public bug reported: Binary package hint: unity
Upgraded to natty for testing and filing bugs. Unity Desktop does not seem to handle dual / multiscreen settings like gnome did. With Gnome the Xinerama information is used and the second monitor is used as an extended monitor. panels are not spread over both screens. Not so with unity where the top panel spreads over both monitors. This is with nvidia-current - haven't tried with different driver. This is not desirable as having ubuntu menu and log off button around 5000px away from each other sucks IMHO ;-) System has a nvidia gtx 460 with two 30" screens attached. Nvidia driver is special here, it does use TwinView and emulales xinerama settings Anyway problem does not exist with maximizing windows. They do only maximize on the one monitor, not over both so I supposed the xineramainfo config is in fact read... Relevant Config Part is present: Option "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-0" see also on bottom Haven't found any design guide that would cover how unity is supposed to handle multi-screen systems, so this bug should also serve as a start for thoughts an this topic. There are basically a few scenarios that I can think of: - Laptop + Projector (clone or extended? I prefer extended to be able to have my notes on my main laptop screen. leaving the problem of seeing the slides as well to the presentation application. Wtih extended desktops showing applications (i.e. terminals is a a pain in the a** - i agree - maybe some compiz hack can mirror single applications to extended screens? till then vnc?) - Laptop + screen (usually extends the desktop - user should be able to choose where to have panels and menu through primary screen... should work with open source drivers out of the box - nvidia -> problem) - Desktop with 2 or more screens (Probably it would be best to have it like before in gnome and macosx which however means that the global menu is always an the main screen and may be far away. Otherwise one could think of having unity on all screens (top panel) to hold the menubar individually for each screen. But extended screens should not have the indicators and probably not the task switcher (or should it?). There is still potential for the ui designers and usability guys to figure this out IMHO :) Hopefully have addressed this right. Thanks in advance for looking into this. Here my relevant xorg snippet. /etc/X11/xorg.conf: Section "Monitor" Identifier "Monitor0" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "Samsung SyncMaster" HorizSync 49.3 - 98.5 VertRefresh 60.0 Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "Monitor1" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "Apple Cinema HD" HorizSync 49.3 - 98.5 VertRefresh 60.0 Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen0" Device "Device0" Monitor "Monitor0" Option "TwinView" "1" Option "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-0" Option "metamodes" "DFP-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, DFP-2: nvidia-auto-select +2560+0" DefaultDepth 24 SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen1" Device "Device1" Monitor "Monitor1" DefaultDepth 24 Option "TwinView" "0" Option "metamodes" "DFP-2: nvidia-auto-select +0+0" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection One more side note: Could someone push nvidia to support xrandr so we can use the normal display settings instead of having to configure manual xorg.conf with nvidia-settings (which bugs you most of the time by having to restart X) ? ... ** Affects: unity (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/706811 Title: unity dualscreen handling -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs