Re: [Pan-users] Multiple displays and preferences dialog

[Jim Henderson]

On Fri, 15 Aug 2014 21:08:26 +0000, Duncan wrote:

> Welcome to the modern multi-monitor world. =:^)

Well, I've been running multiple displays for a while, but using 
different machines driving each display, connected using synergy-foss. :)

> First the pan specific answer.  As I've long had this configured I
> forgot it was a problem and indeed didn't know it still was, but I guess
> so since it seems to be the issue you're dealing with now, and indeed, I
> just adjusted my configuration not to match and got the huge pan-prefs
> once again when I tested, so it does still seem to be a problem.
> 
> I'm not sure what desktop environment and window manager you run, but
> here it's kde and kwin, which are of course hugely configurable.  Of
> course kwin's window rules have all sorts of options to limit what's
> matched (a full tab full) to either all windows of a specific app or a
> specific window, and there's even more options (three tabs worth) on
> what behavior to either apply initially or force, for anything that
> matches.

GNOME3 here on openSUSE 13.1.  I should probably have mentioned that. :)

> Meanwhile, here's the more general xorg multi-monitor desktop
> observation.
> 
> In general, I've found things work /much/ better if you have access to
> the full area of the bounding rectangle of your desktop.

I can see that being the case, but that's not likely to happen here.  The 
displays are different sizes, and as I just put about $700 into the new 
WQHD monitor, I've got to cool it for a while before spending more 
money. :)

Not to mention the $1700 PC that it's connected to. :)

> It's not
> absolutely necessary, but some windows simply don't behave reasonably
> and try to ignore the window manager and appear partially or fully
> offscreen. While it's certainly possible to setup window rules for each
> one just as I did above, it's generally easier to simply ensure that I
> can reach all areas of the bounded desktop rectangle.

Overall, GNOME3/GDM seem to do a good job with it, though I did take some 
screenshots yesterday and noticed the area that it's capturing is as you 
describe.  Someone else had mentioned that to me as well, but I hadn't 
noticed it before.

> Anyway, if you'd like to compare xrandr panning notes or would like a
> copy of my xrandr script to hack on (some values are still hard-coded
> and would thus need hacked, which is why I don't use it at all these
> days as I don't really need it so it hasn't been worth the trouble
> worrying about, and I already scripted it once so I know how to do it
> and there's not the challenge of the first time, either), ask, and I can
> post the script and/or compare notes on the panning stuff as necessary.

That might be interesting to look at, even if just to have the right-hand 
monitor pan.

Jim
-- 
 Jim Henderson
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