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Thread: Two monitors with separate desktops

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Beans
    20

    Two monitors with separate desktops

    Hi,
    I've been trying to solve this for quite some time now and came up with nothing. Maybe you guys can help me out.

    I've got a laptop with ATI graphics (ATI Catalyst 10.10 driver on Ubuntu 10.10) and I use a second monitor. Since I'm used to working on multiple workspaces, I wanted the second monitor to be just another workspace. So what I want is:
    1. workspaces need to be independent, so when I'm switching workspaces on my main monitor, the second monitor stays the same
    2. ability to move windows from one monitor to the other

    Sounds simple enough, doesn't it?

    The workaround I've been using is having one big desktop and setting "always on visible workspace" to every window on the second monitor, but it's not a perfect solution.
    What I would like is the "separate x-screens" setup, but with the ability to move/send a window to the second display. That's the part I haven't been able to solve. And yes - I'm talking about windows that are already open.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've spent countless hours roaming through forums and blog posts, and I haven't found any mention of this issue, so maybe I'm just missing something obvious.

    Thanks in advance!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Springfield, IL
    Beans
    796

    Re: Two monitors with separate desktops

    You might possibly do this in Kubuntu, KDE has separate pictures and actions for separate desktops and you could open a different desktop on each monitor I suppose. I never tried it even though I have about the same setup with a laptop and external monitor.
    HP s5710f, 2x AMD Athlon II 250 @ 3.2Ghz 3GB RAM 640GB HD
    Saline OS 1.6 2.6.32 AMD64 Xfce
    SolusOS Beta-1 3.0.0 solus kernel i686 Gnome 2.3
    Xubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin 3.2.0-15-generic

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Beans
    20

    Re: Two monitors with separate desktops

    Thanks for the info! KDE will be my last resort, for now I'm still hoping there's a way of doing this in Gnome. Basically I just need to find a way to move an open window to another display, that would solve everything...

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Beans
    4

    Re: Two monitors with separate desktops

    you could use xinerama, which would allow you to drag windows accross screens, but it disables compiz and doesnt play nice with 100% of applications from what i have experienced

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Beans
    45
    Distro
    Ubuntu

    Re: Two monitors with separate desktops

    I have a few years of Linux experience. KDE has this, whats sad is Gnome doesn't. I needed to do this for a Presentation for Open Office, and I switched to KDE using Koffice on that machine, completely everything you could want and more. I am beginning to find my love for KDE growing again with 4.5.2. It still doesn't have near the same power as 3.5.11, but it is getting there and is a far cry better than Unity and Gnome. When 11.04 comes out I will be a full time KDE user as I cannot stand having Gnome even more locked down than it already is.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Beans
    20

    Re: Two monitors with separate desktops

    @BattleCube:
    I've tried Xinerama, but I really don't get what the advantage. It seemed to treat the two monitors as one big screen, so I still couldn't work on multiple workspaces on one monitor and have the other stay the same. Maybe I did something wrong, but it also seemed to slow down my laptop.

    @usagiakumu:
    I'm pretty used to gnome, never used KDE and I'm literally scared of setting up everything to my liking, but it looks like I'll be forced to. The multiple screen handling is just too important for me.

    Honestly, I was sure that within minutes someone will point out how stupid and ignorant I am for not knowing this or that, because it seemed to me like such an obvious thing, that there has to be something between treating two monitors as either one big screen or two completely separate environments.

    I've got my hands full at the moment, so if anybody has other solutions, please let me know. Otherwise I'll start fiddling with KDE in about a week.

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