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View Full Version : 3-screen setup inconsistencies I'd love to see patched up


gfixler
April 10th, 2008, 12:22 PM
I'm wondering how the Outputs work in CCSM->General->Display Settings.

I'm on a strange setup: 3 1280x1024 screens plugged into the Matrox TripleHead2Go, a splitter box that looks to the PC like 1 triple-width screen (3840x1024). Compiz works great, except that fullscreens, and maximizes are HUGE :) I've since entered this in Outputs (unchecking Detect Outputs):

1280x1024+0+0
1280x1024+1280+0
1280x1024+2560+0

That made fullscreens, and maximizes stay on their own screens, but there are many small, annoying issues that seem inconsistent as a result of this, making me think everything's working its own way:


F11 on Firefox on the left monitor works fine - fullscreens to the left screen only. On the right monitor, it pops to the left for an instant, then back to the right, where it fullscreens properly there - weird, but okay. If I fullscreen on the middle monitor, however, it scales to about 3840x1024 (size of all 3 screens), doesn't undecorate, and puts the top-left edge about titlebar width above wherever it was the first time (jogs left slightly, too), and then each additional fullscreen toggling moves it to the top left corner of the desktop (under the top panel, though), and onto the left screen abouot 20 pixels total. It's a mess. Toggling out of F11 always restores the window to where it was before fullscreening for all screens.
Maximize (dbl-click titlebar, or hit max button) works great for all maxable windows (including Firefox), and maxes to whichever monitor the mouse is in when activating it, regardless of with which method - nice, repeatable, and even rather expected. Excellent work, whoever :)
The Autumn Plugin's leaves are separated - each screen has its own unique set that won't cross monitor borders, unless rotating the cube. Huh? It reminds me of the wallpaper problem, listed next. Before setting Outputs, the leaves flow across monitors like one big sheet of falling leaves. In contrast, the Water Effect ripples across all 3, like one big sheet of water.
When I boot up, before Compiz comes fully online, I get 3 separate wallpapers, one per monitor. A bit later, Compiz finally puts its wallpaper over all 3. I used to get the only the first one across all 3 before setting the Outputs. Where are these coming from? Metacity? I can't find them anywhere.
The Ring, Shift, and Application Switchers are always centered on the currently focused monitor (only). Before setting the Outputs, they'd be centered across, and would flow across all 3, which looked a lot nicer, and more intentional. In contrast, Expo looks great - I get a wall of 3-wide screens across all 3 screens :)
Also, why by default are the Ring and Shift Switchers' Previous/Next Window hotkeys set to the same thing? How's that even possible? They're both Super+Tab, and Shift+Super+Tab. With both enabled, the Shift Switcher wins out when I use the hotkeys. If I disable it, the same hotkeys now work the Ring Switcher.


That's probably a good enough list for now. I hope I don't come across as a complainer. I absolutely love Compiz, and hate going to work where I must use XP even extra because I can't have it there. I'd just love to see what I view as inconsistencies like those mentioned above hammered out, so everything 'just works' very consistently everywhere.

Thanks!
-Gary

b0le
April 10th, 2008, 01:27 PM
he Ring, Shift, and Application Switchers are always centered on the currently focused monitor (only). Before setting the Outputs, they'd be centered across, and would flow across all 3, which looked a lot nicer, and more intentional. In contrast, Expo looks great - I get a wall of 3-wide screens across all 3 screens
I know that for shift there is a setting for this.

The Autumn Plugin's leaves are separated - each screen has its own unique set that won't cross monitor borders, unless rotating the cube. Huh? It reminds me of the wallpaper problem, listed next. Before setting Outputs, the leaves flow across monitors like one big sheet of falling leaves. In contrast, the Water Effect ripples across all 3, like one big sheet of water.That isn't a core problem - it is because autumn (which afaik isn't even a fusion plugin) doesn't handle the ouputs 'correctly' (I guess it depends on how you define correctly - an option would probably be best).

# Also, why by default are the Ring and Shift Switchers' Previous/Next Window hotkeys set to the same thing? How's that even possible? They're both Super+Tab, and Shift+Super+Tab. With both enabled, the Shift Switcher wins out when I use the hotkeys. If I disable it, the same hotkeys now work the Ring Switcher.
There are only so many keys - and it makes sense to have the same key binding for two plugins which do essentially the same thing (and generally only one would be used), for consistency reasons. Or it could have just been missed by the devs.


EDIT: looks to the PC like 1 triple-width screen (3840x1024). Compiz works great, except that fullscreens, and maximizes are HUGE I've since entered this in Outputs (unchecking Detect Outputs): If it looks to the PC like a triple width screen you can't expect it to automatically detect it :)
The fullscreen one I have no idea about. As for the wallpaper, what in compiz is drawing the wallpaper? Cube plugin, wallpaper plugin, etc?

gfixler
April 10th, 2008, 06:50 PM
I know that for shift there is a setting for this.

Whoa, you're right. Cool. That's exactly the kind of thing I've been wanting across the board - multi output recognition, and some options. Thanks! Also, it works well for me, because I like the Shift Switcher more than the Ring Switcher anyway. It would be nice if the Ring Switcher included a multi output option, just for sake of consistency, though.

That isn't a core problem - it is because autumn (which afaik isn't even a fusion plugin) doesn't handle the ouputs 'correctly' (I guess it depends on how you define correctly - an option would probably be best).

Yeah, that one was just a bonus gripe I threw in. In practice, it's fine, but it would be nice to have it understand multi output modes. If I knew how any of this stuff worked, and had any free time, I'd just go in and see if I could fix it myself. Then I'd add tons of other features I've thought of :)

There are only so many keys - and it makes sense to have the same key binding for two plugins which do essentially the same thing

That makes sense. I guess they weren't really both enabled by default. I probably checked them both in my excitement to have as many whizbang features as possible.

EDIT: If it looks to the PC like a triple width screen you can't expect it to automatically detect it :)

Well, yeah. I just meant I unchecked it so it would use my Outputs settings. It's checked by default, and while checked, it won't listen to what I put in, so I had to uncheck it.

The fullscreen one I have no idea about.

Hopefully someone will. Firefox won't fullscreen on the center (main) monitor, where it's most useful. Also, while I'm wishing for ponies, I'd love to be able to do something like hold control to max, or fullscreen over all 3 'outputs' (monitors).

As for the wallpaper, what in compiz is drawing the wallpaper? Cube plugin, wallpaper plugin, etc?

Now I'm not even sure it is Compiz. I can set it by right-clicking on the desktop, and choosing "Change Desktop Background," which takes me into the Appearance Preferences. I had assumed Compiz, as it's my desktop manager. Checking for 'background' in the Configuration Editor, I see my wallpaper's path stored in /desktop/gnome/background.

That's the one that appears eventually. The only other 'jpg' that appears in all of the ConfEd is an old, now deleted filename for the terminal's background image. The paths, and filenames of the 3 desktop images that pop up on the screen just after logging in are not to be found in there.

Edit: Found 'em. They were in the CCSM->Desktop Cube->Appearance tab, in the Background Images. I remember now - I set these up last year some time to try to get the different cube faces with different images. Since I wasn't using separate Outputs, it was always showing me the first one across the whole screen when I'd log in. Switching to using Outputs this past week, it started using the first 3 in the list on the 3 monitors. I'm just going to clear those out now.

Thanks, b0le!

b0le
April 11th, 2008, 12:37 AM
The reason it does that is that nautilus, not compiz, is drawing the backgrounds. I would guess that nautilus isn't running when compiz starts so it starts of by drawing the backgrounds, then nautilus starts up and draws its background over-top

gfixler
April 11th, 2008, 06:20 AM
The reason it does that is that nautilus, not compiz, is drawing the backgrounds. I would guess that nautilus isn't running when compiz starts so it starts of by drawing the backgrounds, then nautilus starts up and draws its background over-top

That makes sense. I'll understand all of it some day :)

Thanks, again.