Idea for workspace/multi monitor implemantation

[CyberAxe]

I've recently moved over to Ubuntu as my main OS but one thing that has always bugged me is that dual monitors on Linux never seem to be quite right and double that up with workspaces/virtual desktops and its even more troublesome.

I tried Kubuntu and although it was able to use monitors better (specific panels and such for each monitor and such) it still showed on one screen all the open apps reguardless of window and workspace were streched (which takes up extra room on ones panels)

My thinking on the subject has been why not have a set of workspaces that you can assign to each monitor for example 4 on the left 4 on the right, the workspaces will have the resolutions of their monitor obviously (instead of being 1 workspace stretched across 2 screens).

With an option of linking the workspaces or keeping them separate (Such as when you switch to workspace 2 of monitor A monitor B will switch to its own workspace 2).

This would also have the added benefit of the bar that shows current open windows only showing the windows on that desktop.

plus possible a "virtual gamma" that can be assigned to each set independantly so you can match monitors up colour wise (as i'd imagine if this ever existed it would probably work on top of twinview)

So advantages to this would be work spaces wouldnt take up stupidly large amounts of space on the panels, plus you could use Dekstop Cube per monitor instead of spanned across them.

Not having to rely on seperate X sessions and hence can easily move apps between each monitor.

See what apps belong to what monitor on the window list.

Windows maximise and dock with their own specific monitor instead of spanning across.

An extra nicety would be the ability to customise the panels of that per monitor so each set of workspaces had its own panel layout.

[AhJah]

I think this is a good idea indeed, actually it's what I'm looking for right now.
On the other hand I'm not sure that this isn't already feasible.

[v_krishna]

this is exactly what i am trying to set up now...

i would forgo a lot of niceties (cube working separately in each monitor, workspaces belonging only to a particular display, etc) if i could just get one workspace to each monitor instead of stretching the display out/forcing separate x sessions.

[CyberAxe]

My Ubuntu is actually working more the way I want it since reinstalling, not using Twinview or the Seperate X displays but the wallpaper/windows and such are sticking to their own screen plus I managed to configure cube to work with both too, still not perfect but far better than what I was able to get before, I am however dreading the results when I change my monitor setup to 3 displays in the not too distant future.

[gemmakaru]

My Ubuntu is actually working more the way I want it since reinstalling, not using Twinview or the Seperate X displays but the wallpaper/windows and such are sticking to their own screen plus I managed to configure cube to work with both too, still not perfect but far better than what I was able to get before, I am however dreading the results when I change my monitor setup to 3 displays in the not too distant future.

How did you do it? Would you mind posting some details as it sounds interesting.

[CyberAxe]

How did you do it? Would you mind posting some details as it sounds interesting.

To be honest I'm not 100% sure why it worked this time as I did pretty much the same as what I was doing before I had the semi rant in the initial post.

I have an NVIDIA based card at the moment which I setup thusly..

Hmm apparently I DID use TwinView contrariety to my previous post (I was at work so couldn't check at the time) both setup to 1024x768 24bit left screen as the main screen.

Here's my Xorg.conf



# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings: version 1.0 (buildd@yellow) Fri Apr 9 11:51:21 UTC 2010


Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
Option "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "COMPAQ S700"
HorizSync 30.0 - 70.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 160.0
Option "DPMS"
Gamma 1.8 1.8 1.8
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor1"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "LG 778Si"
HorizSync 30.0 - 70.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 160.0
Option "DPMS"
Gamma 0.97 0.97 0.97

EndSection


Section "Device"
Identifier "Device1"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 8600 GTS"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 8600 GTS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen1"
Device "Device1"
Monitor "Monitor1"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "metamodes" "CRT-1: 1024x768_85 +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "1"
Option "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "CRT-0"
Option "metamodes" "CRT-0: 1024x768_85 +0+0, CRT-1: 1024x768_85 +1024+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection


As this was about a month ago I setup I can't remember all the details of hat I did.

The setup is not bad all my panels are only on one monitor as I couldn't figure out how to add panels to the other monitor as there wasn't a panel to select add panel to and so forth.

For the cube to work on 2 monitors without being streched across both there is an option in CompizConfig Settings Manager that lets you choose a cube for each montior (I'd tell you where the setting was if I could remember but I recently had to disable compiz because the NVIDIA card causes my motherboard to crash when it gets hot presumably because of my ATI chipset)

[PurposeOfReason]

A lot of tiling WMs do that already, so it is possible.

[RiceMonster]

I was thinking I would like this feature in GNOME or KDE as well a while ago.

[whiskeylover]

I only use the top gnome panel, with docky2 at the bottom. When I try using multiple monitors on Ubuntu, the top panel only appears in the right monitor (primary), and docky2 only appears on the left monitor (external).

I wish gnome panel and docky play nice with multiple monitors.

[v_krishna]

i too only have a top panel in my primary monitor (and gnome-do's dock as a bottom "panel" in my primary monitor). i was able to add a top panel to my secondary monitor by adding 3 more panels to my primary, and then adding a fourth panel, which jumped to the secondary monitor. i then deleted the 3 extra panels on my primary monitor and was good-to-go. nice also is the "window list" panel add-on only shows the windows for that monitor (so each monitor has a top panel with "window list", and the list only shows the windows that are on that monitor)

[CyberAxe]

i too only have a top panel in my primary monitor (and gnome-do's dock as a bottom "panel" in my primary monitor). i was able to add a top panel to my secondary monitor by adding 3 more panels to my primary, and then adding a fourth panel, which jumped to the secondary monitor. i then deleted the 3 extra panels on my primary monitor and was good-to-go. nice also is the "window list" panel add-on only shows the windows for that monitor (so each monitor has a top panel with "window list", and the list only shows the windows that are on that monitor)

I just tried that and it worked, thanks for the info.