Panels disappear on external monitor

**ryu kun** · August 16th, 2010

Hi!

I have Asus eee PC 1000HE with Ubuntu 10.04. Almost always I use my eee PC with 19" LG external monitor.

When external monitor is connected, top and bottom panels disappear every time Ubuntu starts. To bring panels back I open my eee PC's lid, press Fn+F8 for 4 times, then panels appear again.

This also happens every time I log out or every time screen saver blanks the screen. So it is very annoying.

I had the same issue with netbook remix version, thus I've tried desktop edition but it did not help.

I'd really appreciate any help or idea to solve this issue.

Thanks a lot in advance.

**ryu kun** · August 17th, 2010

If somehow I could make "crt only" setting survive Ubuntu restarts or screen savers perhaps I could solve this annoying issue. But I don't know how to do it.

**coffee001** · August 17th, 2010

Originally Posted by ryu kun

Hi!

I have Asus eee PC 1000HE with Ubuntu 10.04. Almost always I use my eee PC with 19" LG external monitor.

When external monitor is connected, top and bottom panels disappear every time Ubuntu starts. To bring panels back I open my eee PC's lid, press Fn+F8 for 4 times, then panels appear again.

This also happens every time I log out or every time screen saver blanks the screen. So it is very annoying.

I had the same issue with netbook remix version, thus I've tried desktop edition but it did not help.

I'd really appreciate any help or idea to solve this issue.

Thanks a lot in advance.

I've been having the exact same issues ever since moving from Karmic to Lucid (also have an ASUS EEEPC 1000HE hooked up to an LG screen). Another bug that goes along with the one described is that visual effects cannot be switched on. The only solution I have found is to revert to kernel 2.6.31-20, where both these things work as expected (panels are visible, external screen remains primary after sleep, visual effects can be switched on). The 2.6.32 kernel generally doesn't seem to work.

**Vela2** · August 21st, 2010

Hi,
I don't have a solution, just the same problem. I have an Acer-TravelMate 8371 runnig Ubuntu 10.04 with Kernel 2.6.32-24-generic. Plugged in is a 19''TFT monitor (Hanns).
I'll try switching to the other kernel.

I hope they'll fix it soon.

**Vela2** · August 22nd, 2010

Hi again,
I found this http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1352688 in the Ubuntu-Netbook-Reemix Section. It's the same problem, not really a solution there.
Until now I couldn't boot with the older kernel.

And then I found this: https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnome-con...er/+bug/351427
So the problem is the resolution, the panels are there, but not visible.
Running "xrandr -s 0" brings the panels back. Seems that you have to run it at least at the beginning of each session. Since in my case at the beginning of the session the panels are there, but disappear after a while (so far I dont't know when) I might have to run it more often.

Hope that helps someone, without beeing a really nice solution.

**ryu kun** · August 26th, 2010

Thank you for your replies, they are helpful.

I don't know how to revert to an older kernel. I have made some research but I could not find it.

"xrandr -s 0" command really brings the panels back, but I wish we could solve this issue permanently as panels can disappear again from time to time and also applet icons on the panel are mixed up each time, which make this issue more annoying.

I think many people uses external monitor. So this bug of Gnome should have high priority.

Upon this problem I have tried some other Linux distributions recently which uses KDE desktop. They do not have any problem with external monitor at all.

I will try Xubuntu as soon as its download completes.

Any of you tried Ubuntu 10.10 beta? If yes, does it have this problem?

Originally Posted by Vela2

Hi again,
I found this http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1352688 in the Ubuntu-Netbook-Reemix Section. It's the same problem, not really a solution there.
Until now I couldn't boot with the older kernel.

And then I found this: https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnome-con...er/+bug/351427
So the problem is the resolution, the panels are there, but not visible.
Running "xrandr -s 0" brings the panels back. Seems that you have to run it at least at the beginning of each session. Since in my case at the beginning of the session the panels are there, but disappear after a while (so far I dont't know when) I might have to run it more often.

Hope that helps someone, without beeing a really nice solution.

**coffee001** · September 23rd, 2010

Just to reiterate: the problem goes along with the inability to switch on desktop effects. So while using the command as described above will bring back the panel, that still won't resolve the effects issue. My guess is it's somehow related to the eeepc's graphics card and compiz...

**ryu kun** · September 24th, 2010

Originally Posted by coffee001

Just to reiterate: the problem goes along with the inability to switch on desktop effects. So while using the command as described above will bring back the panel, that still won't resolve the effects issue. My guess is it's somehow related to the eeepc's graphics card and compiz...

I disagree because I had this problem while compiz was disabled and Intel graphic chipset is compatible with Linux in most cases. I would guess that problem's cause lies on somewhere else. My hopes are now for 10.10.