Dual Monitors – Task Bar / Pannel Placement

[Member outlaw]

I have installed anitX on a very old notebook with a small screen.
I connected a second larger monitor and used arandr to create this configuration.

xrandr –output LVDS1 –primary –mode 1024×600 –pos 1600×0 –rotate normal –output VGA1 –mode 1600×900 –pos 0x0 –rotate normal –output VIRTUAL1 –off

Even though the notebook screen has been defined as the primary monitor
conky and the icewm panel were positioned on the larger left hand monitor.

I was able to reposition conky on the notebook screen by modifying .conkyrc:

ximerama_head = 1

(BTW: Can not auto start conky, must start manually for it to appear on the left hand monitor.)

Searching online I have found one possible solution to reposition the panel to the
left hand notebook screen:

https://sourceforge.net/p/icewm/mailman/icewm-user/thread/48AA5B95.80408%40netspace.net.au/

My question: Is generating a org.conf the only way to solve this problem?
If the answer is Yes, does anyone have a simple xorg.conf I could use?
If the answer is No, …. please tell me how.

Thank you in advance for any help in solving this problem.

Outlaw
It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues. — Abraham Lincoln

[Member PPC]

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There’s some complex situations here:

outlaw wrote:

conky and the icewm panel were positioned on the larger left hand monitor.

Does this mean that you don’t get the Icewm panel on the internal screen? That’s not the default way using 2 screens works on my netbook- I always get the icewm panel on both screens.

On Conky having to be started manually:
– If I were you, I would try disabling Conky manually, from ~/desktop-session/startup and just start it from IceWM’s startup file. That should solve your Conky problem, I hope (since it would be about the same as starting it manually)

EDIT: I took a look at the link you posted- I think it only recommends editing IceWM’s preferences file, NOT messing with xorg…
You can edit IceWM preferences file from Control Centre > …IceWM… > “preferences” tab
Search for this lines (around line 544):

#  Primary screen for xinerama where taskbar is shown
# XineramaPrimaryScreen=0 # [0-63]

and, according to the post you linked to, uncomment the “XineramaPrimaryScreen” line and select the value “1”

P.

• This reply was modified 1 week, 4 days ago by PPC.

[Member abc-nix]

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outlaw wrote:

Even though the notebook screen has been defined as the primary monitor
conky and the icewm panel were positioned on the larger left hand monitor.

Use arandr to setup the system as you said you did with the command, save it to $HOME/.screenlayout/default.sh
and restart the session (or reboot or whatever). From then on, the icewm bar will be set on the primary monitor and hopefully conky will also follow the configuration you initially set without you having to toggle off-on.

This is all handled by one of the startup scripts, autoscale-antix, which should load the xrandr configuration saved in $HOME/.screenlayout/default.sh

[Member PPC]

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abc-nix wrote:

Use arandr to setup the system as you said you did with the command, save it to $HOME/.screenlayout/default.sh

Hum… I assumed the OP did that, when I read:

outlaw wrote:

I connected a second larger monitor and used arandr to create this configuration

Of course, my assumption was probably wrong…

Important point: antiX is an extremely well planed OS. Most minute things are taken care of automatically, so it’s safe to assume that users do not have to edit complex system configuration files (like Xorg’s) manually to perform a trivial task like using a several screens… The OP did the correct thing, asking for help here, before doing something that can harm the way the OS works…
Side note: I proposed a while ago, a change to the way antiX uses arandr – a warning should be displayed, informing users how to save the current screen settings, so they are always used by default…

P.

• This reply was modified 1 week, 4 days ago by PPC.

[Member abc-nix]

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Sorry, PPC. You are right. I just skimmed the OP and didn’t read in detail.

The only thing missing was saving the monitor configuration to default.sh for the script to pick it up at boot-time.

[Member Wallon]

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Dear outlaw,

I work every day with antiX on PCs with several screens.
I do two things every time;

1) As abc-nix explains, you have to use the ARandR application to define the ” primary ” screen! Then you click on the icon with the big “V” and save the current configuration in /home/user/.screenlayout/default.sh. You need to overwrite the file.

2) For Conky, it’s a separate setting. I have published in the tips and tricks the procedure for moving Conky from the right screen to the left screen. See this thread;
Conky in the right place

I never change anything else in antiX.
The window manager that works best with a multiscreen configuration is JWM.

Best regards,
Wallon

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