dual Monitor drama LM18.3 (sylvia cinnamon)....1,2,& 3(there is no 3 !!!)

[Condobloke]

Well....there is actually a 3.....but it is the 'ghost' of a laptop that I had connected at some stage during my world travels (not as exciting as it sounds)...

I will attempt to get this into some semblance of disorder, so I can confuse the beejesus out of Wiz...

When i open display....the pic below shows what is seen.

However....I only have two monitors connected....Samsung(green, right hand side, HDMI2,) and Acer (Yellow, middle,dp2 vga attached. laptop edp1 exists no more.
However (again)....if i open linux.org in firefox on the samsung screen (primary)....but then wish to right click in the panel to move it to the other (acer) screen, I am presented with a choice.....move to monitor 1 or monitor 2.
If i select mon.1....it moves to the Acer. If i select mon 2 the screen disappears, but the "indicator" (firefox icon & create thread\linux.org) moves to the panel on the bottom of the Acer. Weird ! I then right click on the aforementioned 'indicator'(what is the correct name ??!!) on the Acer monitor and I have a choice again...move to monitor 1 or monitor 3. Monitor 3 takes me back to the Samsung.....while Mon 1 takes it to no where land...kapoof...disappears !!
Yes....i realise that there is a serious contradiction going on there !!!....but what I have described is accurate.

Just to really throw a spanner in the works....I use qbittorrent. I have the preferences set in such a way that it closes to the notification area when I hit the x on its screen....it is then a simple matter to single click its icon to reopen it. Under the current conditions of weirdness......when I click the x on its screen....it disappears. There is no indicator on a panel anywhere. To get it back i hit the shortcut in the panel and it reopens.. back up again,.....still running !!!....So i assume it has also gone to god in the weirdness place.
I am semi, sort of, kinda, convinced that the weirdness place is actually the 'Laptop EDP1

How do I get rid of the laptop?

pic below shows the sys/class/drm...list of outputs. I have no clue which one to delete or alter....if in fact that would be a "fix"......., so I have left it alone

whaddayoureckon, Wiz ?

 

[Condobloke]

and....2 pics....the first is the choice upon a right click on the Samsung screen.......

and the second is from the Acer screen right click

 

[wizardfromoz]

so I can confuse the beejesus out of Wiz...

... not hard to do, just stick me in a barrel and tell me to pee in the corner.

Hi Brian, and Happy New Year to you too

Crikey, if it's not recalcitrant icons and whether they border a screen, it's playing the shell game with 3 monitors ... you'd better watch out or you'll become "high maintenance", like ... me?

I'm going to have a Google around using the keywords (to begin with) "linux eliminate phantom monitor" and see what transpires. You might do so too and see if you beat me to the solution. Others are welcome, of course, if they have better input

Can you give me the output from

xrandr -q

?

In a Spoiler would be good, click the plus sign + in your reply pane toolbar.

Cheers

Wizard
BTW good to hear from you, even if it is a problem.

 

[Condobloke]

Spoiler

brian@brian-desktop ~ $ xrandr -q
Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 5760 x 1080, maximum 32767 x 32767
eDP1 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 531mm x 299mm
1920x1080 60.00*+ 59.93
1680x1050 69.88 59.95 59.88
1600x1024 60.17
1400x1050 74.76 70.00 59.98
1600x900 60.00
1280x1024 75.02 60.02
1440x900 59.89
1280x960 60.00
1368x768 60.00
1360x768 59.80 59.96
1280x800 59.81
1152x864 75.00 75.00 70.00 60.00
1280x720 60.00 60.00
1024x768 75.03 70.07 60.00
1024x576 60.00
832x624 74.55
960x540 60.00
800x600 72.19 75.00 60.32 56.25
864x486 60.00
640x480 75.00 72.81 75.00 66.67 59.94
720x405 60.00
720x400 70.08
640x360 60.00
DP1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP2 connected primary 1920x1080+1920+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 531mm x 299mm
1920x1080 60.00*+
1680x1050 59.95
1280x1024 75.02 60.02
1440x900 59.89
1280x960 60.00
1280x800 59.81
1152x864 75.00
1280x720 60.00
1024x768 75.03 70.07 60.00
832x624 74.55
800x600 72.19 75.00 60.32 56.25
640x480 75.00 72.81 66.67 59.94
720x400 70.08
HDMI1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI2 connected 1920x1080+3840+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 531mm x 299mm
1920x1080 60.00*+ 50.00 59.94
1680x1050 59.88
1600x900 60.00
1280x1024 75.02 60.02
1440x900 59.90
1280x800 59.91
1152x864 75.00
1280x720 60.00 50.00 59.94
1024x768 75.03 70.07 60.00
832x624 74.55
800x600 72.19 75.00 60.32 56.25
720x576 50.00
720x480 60.00 59.94
640x480 75.00 72.81 66.67 60.00 59.94
720x400 70.08
HDMI3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
VIRTUAL1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

 

[Condobloke]

Just a thought....i am wondering if there is anything to be gained by simply unplugging both monitors, rebooting and then reattaching them again ?...as you can see I have no clue when it comes to all things graphical.....

On the subject of recalcitrant icons....you will noite I have upgrade to LM18.3....and it is interesting to note that some weirdness still exists with icons over on the left hand edge......but only the 'computer' and 'home' icons......a couple of .pdf icons over there dont budge. We wont start that again.Enuff. My ocd concerned with having things neat and tidy will just have to get over it.

My googling has returned lots of xrandr stuff....which I dont like because I have not gone to the trouble of understanding it I guess...

The ""drm"" pic i posted above ....does it have any hope of being the savior/fix ?

meanwhile....it is raining cats and dogs here, and we are trying for the life of us to keep freshly poured concrete dry long enough for it to go off........so I may be to and fro from the pc

Edit to add:...I will also be cognizant of the fact that my time zone atm is UTC+08:00.....and wont be looking for a reply from you when its 'only' 8pm here

Spoiler

beautiful weather in irkutsk, this time of year

 

[wizardfromoz]

Irkutsk my arse, lol more likely Broome WA diving for pearls for your girl. Noted the time zone, traveller.

Brian, have you tried ARandR? Graphical frontend for XRandR stands for Another XRandR GUI. You can install it in your 18.3 Cinnamon from Synpatic Package Manager, or else at Terminal

sudo apt-get -y install arandr

See what it has to say about the Phantom Menace and uncheck an option or two. Possibly have to log out and log back in or reboot after changes, as you are altering your X environment.

I'll keep looking while your concrete is setting.

Cheers

Wiz

 

[Condobloke]

problem solved .

downloaded/installed arandr from software manager.....took some figuring out...many many attempts before I got the hang of it.

But like all things worthwhile....in the end it was simple.

when arandr is opened it displays the connected monitors. I right clicked on the 'laptop' monitor and it showed as being active. I clicked on it and the tick disappeared from the word active.

I then clicked on 'File'....then on 'Apply'.....then on 'Save As'....it shows a .sh file to be saved in screen layout. I gave it a name....laptop OFF....and saved it

Then (and this is the bit not to miss) I clicked on menu and opened display. It showed the 'laptop' screen shifted to the other side iof the other two monitors and its color had changed. I then clicked on APPLY.......the screens went blank for a few seconds....and I then clicked to keep that configuration.
Reboot.
Now....when I open qbittorrent and close it via the x.......the qbittorrent icon IS present in the notification tray (as it should be)

I have rebooted and shut down etc etc to test the whole shebang and all is good.

1st pic is the 'Display' screen showing the laptop monitor AFTER doing the steps in arandr. I thjen clicked the ''apply'' button in the bottom right hand corner of the display screen

2nd pic is of arandr AFTER doing the above steps which removed the laptop monitor from this screen......after arriving at this stage I then opened display and hit the apply button as described in the pic above

Thats it

Thank you linesman, thank you ballboys....

and thanks mate....couldn't have done this without you, WIZ


Brian

ps....irkutsk...seriously....the hollow blocks (besser blocks) here are the equivalent of 9 cents each aussie money....

Edit to add : there is always a glitch....I click on my email clients shortcut....or the ffox browser...down near the menu button....and it opens on the samsung screen...good....but its 'placeholder'(right name??)...opens at the bottom of the acer monitor !!!....how the hell do I...??
edit 2...uninstalled and reinstalled the 'windows list applet'....and that has the placeholders on the samsung monitor....but they are all at the "clock" end of the taskbar.....

 

[wizardfromoz]

I love it when a plan comes together. You've done well, "Laddie"

Now YOU can guess what I am about to say. The Mint 18.3 subseries is their first to ship with Timeshift pre-installed.

So when you have the setup close to perfect, or to your liking ... take a Timeshift screenshot and label it clearly in the Comments section

For the benefit of The Viewers, I have a Tutorial in progress on Timeshift at https://www.linux.org/threads/timeshift-similar-solutions-safeguard-recover-your-linux.15241/ ... and I'll be doing some more work on it over the next few days.

Cheers

Wizard

 

[Condobloke]

to get rid of the weirdness happening in the taskbar....I simply "wiped" everything in the taskbar. Right clicked on the taskbar...selected 'add applets to the panel....and clicked on the 'arrow' symbol down the bottom of the resulting window to 'reset all'
I was then left with a blank taskbar or panel on the samsung screen. I right clicked on the Acer panel/taskbar and selected "modify'...and then copy applet configuration....pasted this in the panel of the samsung screen.....that gave me the basics...menu, clock ect etc....all i had to do then was open the various apps/programs/whatever in the menu and right click them and select add to panel. Becasue the Acer is designated as the 'Primary'...all the shortcuts would go there. It is simple matter to transfer them to the other screen......or in my case I add the icon twice and then shift one of them to the other screen/panel/taskbar.
It may be of help to someone struggling with all this....to add a different symbol/pic to an icon (instead of the rather bland ones )....right click on the icon and select 'edit'...then left click on the pic beside all the wording....and you can select any symbol/pic you like to go there. Click on ok and it will take its place with the new pic/symbol.

We'll let Belle have the (hopefully) last word......note that she sticks the end of her tongue out as all the kids on facebook do nowadays.....

.....she may well be thinking...''thank **** thats over !!!