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Idea #17526: Allow to set primary display in Monitor Resolution Settings

Written by Lex the 21 Jan 09 at 12:21. Related project: Gnome. Status: New
Rationale
Ubuntu have currently (8.10) tool for setting resolution / resolution for two monitors (accessible via System > Preferences > Screen Resolution). This is easy and it is doing job, however there are is no way to set primary display (display with Gnome panels).

When you are setting two monitor, you never know where will be Gnome panel appear. (You can “set it” by moving monitor around, applying setting and hoping, that right one will be picked up.)


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Solution #1: Add "set as primary dispaly" checkbox for each monitor
Written by Lex the 21 Jan 09 at 12:21.
Simple solution could be to include “Set as primary display”check box for each monitor. (Of course there could be only one primary monitor in total.)

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Comments
queno wrote on the 1 Apr 09 at 13:10
I've been having trouble with this for a long while now: xrandr (with its GUI-incarnations) will always use the external VGA-screen as screen0 (Intel GMA950 on Sony Vaio TZ + xserver-intel driver).

Screen0 is the screen to get the panels, docks, notification-popups etc. The only thing overwriting this setting is Compiz' window-placement module, which takes the currently active screen or the screen which is currently showing the mouse-cursor to decide on which screen a new program-window shall be displayed.

I'd really appreciate a tool that could enforce a user-defined screen0-setting so dual-screen-setups become functional again. Right now, my 2nd screen just sits there, blank, off, mocking me! :)

sarahstrong wrote on the 5 Dec 09 at 22:05
It took me a while to dig up a solution that didn't depend on Nvidia drivers, so here's one for whoever's looking:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1309247

I agree, this should be in the Display dialogue

huayra wrote on the 23 Feb 10 at 09:26
This had to be used even on an Intel card after updating from 9.04 to 9.10

There should be an option to do this in the graphical interface, not just a set of xrandr commands to be run on the terminal...

Very irritating regression as displayconfig-gtk had this option earlier.

ig808 wrote on the 14 Dec 10 at 01:27
I made an account just to vote this up. Setting the resolution is the first thing a user does after installing an OS, so not being able to set the correct monitor as the primary is right in your face from the start.

You can actually hold down ALT and move the panels over to the right monitor, (thank you to the poster in this thread):

http://art.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1308720

But it does need its own setting. If Windows gets this right, so can Ubuntu!

brettalton wrote on the 23 Dec 10 at 18:10
Still a problem in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick...

kaapstorm wrote on the 6 Apr 11 at 07:25
Ditto Ubuntu 11.04 Natty

kaczus wrote on the 2 May 11 at 10:48
In 11.04 it's even more frustrating since the unity window bar is visible on both screens but only the bar on primary screen gets a menu button and the usual trick with alt-dragging panels to the other screen doesn't work.

ixo wrote on the 13 May 11 at 08:26
I have 11.04 with an external monitor on my laptop..laptop monitor is set as primary but when i download a file it appear on my external monitor, same with the dialog window..is there a way to set completely my laptop monitor as default?


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