Bug 189324 - Plasma 'activity' (ie. X screen related desktops) is messed up using NVidia Twinview)
Summary: Plasma 'activity' (ie. X screen related desktops) is messed up using NVidia T...
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: plasma4
Classification: Plasma
Component: multiscreen (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Platform: Debian testing Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Plasma Bugs List
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2009-04-10 23:17 UTC by Jerome Vizcaino
Modified: 2010-12-17 07:19 UTC (History)
6 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In:


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Description Jerome Vizcaino 2009-04-10 23:17:22 UTC
Version:            (using KDE 4.2.2)
OS:                Linux
Installed from:    Debian testing/unstable Packages

I'm using plasma with a twinview setup that can be summarized like this:
Screen on the left : 1920x1200 (DFP-0)
Screen on the right : 1280x1024 (CRT-0)
Right screen is aligned at the top.

When using the zoom out functionality, first, the system seems to eat a lot of CPU
and becomes laggy (NVidia's binary drivers fault ?).

More importantly, the right screen is displayed on the left of the left screen.
This tends to lead to some crazy behavior. For example, resizing a folderview applet you can get
the widget to appear crossing screens from the left (on the left screen) and appearing
on the right of the right screen.

Of course, when moving windows, this behavior cannot be achieved.

Maybe plasma trusts the screen id (0, 1, 2, etc..) to guess their position ?

Here is a copy of the relevant xorg.conf parts :

Section "Device"
   Identifier "GeForce TwinView"
   Driver      "nvidia"
   Option      "NvAgp"  "3"
   Option      "UseEdidFreqs" "off"
   Option      "UseEdidDpi"   "off"
   Option      "RenderAccel"  "on"

   Option      "UseEvents" "false"
   Option      "TripleBuffer" "1"
   Option      "DamageEvents" "1"
   Option      "BackingStore" "1"
   Option      "PixmapCacheSize" "70000"
   Option      "OnDemandVBlankInterrupts" "true"

   Option      "NoLogo" "on"

   Option      "TwinView"  "on"
   Option      "ConnectedMonitor"   "DFP-0,CRT-0"
   Option      "TwinViewOrientation"   "DFP-0 LeftOf CRT-0"
   Option      "HorizSync" "DFP-0: 30-81; CRT-0: 30-94"
   Option      "VertRefresh"  "DFP-0: 56-75; CRT-0: 75"
   Option      "MetaModes" "DFP-0:1920x1200,CRT-0:1280x1024; DFP-0:1600x1200,CRT-0:1280x1024; 1280x1024,1280x1024; 1152x864,1152x864; DFP-0:1024x768; DFP-0:800x600; DFP-0:720x400; DFP-0:640x480;"
   BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
#
# AIGLX part
#
   Option      "AllowGLXWithComposite" "true"
EndSection

###################
# Screen TwinView #
###################

Section "Screen"
   Identifier  "ScreenTwinView"
   Device      "GeForce TwinView"
   Monitor     "Dell 2407WFP"
   Option      "AddARGBGLXVisuals"   "true"
   DefaultDepth   24
   SubSection "Display"
      Depth    24
      Modes    "1920x1200" "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
      ViewPort 0 0
   EndSubSection
EndSection

###################
# LAYOUT TwinView #
###################
Section "ServerLayout"
   Identifier  "TwinView"
   Screen      0 "ScreenTwinView"
   InputDevice "Logitech Cordless Desktop Keyboard" "CoreKeyboard"
   InputDevice "Logitech MX700" "CorePointer"
EndSection

NVidia driver version is 180.29, on a GeForce 7300 LE.

Jerome
Comment 1 Gilboa Davara 2009-08-30 15:06:37 UTC
I'm not sure if it's twinview related or xinerama related, but plasma doesn't seem to be aware to the fact the I have a single screen composed of two displays.

Using the default configuration, if I zoom out, I see -two- dual screen activities - instead of a single dual screen activity.
I try adding a new activity, and instead of two activities, I get four. (dual screen activities)
Far worse, if I select the wrong activity (E.g. Zoom using the right screen cashew and zoom-in into one of the left screen's activities), all you widgets get reordered in one corner of the screen.

Any chance of having a "single activity in all the displays" options?

- Gilboa
Comment 2 Nicolas L. 2010-06-07 01:11:28 UTC
Can you reproduce using KDE 4.4.4 or 4.5beta?
Comment 3 David Palacio 2010-06-23 05:07:38 UTC
(In reply to comment #1)
> I'm not sure if it's twinview related or xinerama related, but plasma doesn't
> seem to be aware to the fact the I have a single screen composed of two
> displays.
Plasma's logic just places them side by side ignoring screen geometry. I think it would be ideal to place containments equally as their screen geometries, and hide the other containments in the Corona(scene).

> Using the default configuration, if I zoom out, I see -two- dual screen
> activities - instead of a single dual screen activity.
> I try adding a new activity, and instead of two activities, I get four. (dual
> screen activities)
> Far worse, if I select the wrong activity (E.g. Zoom using the right screen
> cashew and zoom-in into one of the left screen's activities), all you widgets
> get reordered in one corner of the screen.
> 
> Any chance of having a "single activity in all the displays" options?
Current trunk ties all screens to a single activity.
Comment 4 Beat Wolf 2010-10-19 17:03:39 UTC
So what is the status of this bug?
Comment 5 adrian15 2010-11-11 11:56:03 UTC
Confirmed.
I am using Nvidia with its nvidia-settings tool to add a new screen and I find similar problems.

1) Maximizing a windows on right screen gets into the window getting maximized on the left screen.

2) Although I have desktop-to-activity-mapping activated in left screen I see one desktop background and in right screen I see another desktop background.

I think that you should see the same desktop background on both screens although I understand that other people might prefer to have different desktop backgrounds on these different screens.
Comment 6 Beat Wolf 2010-11-11 12:01:36 UTC
It is normal that you see two different background images, that is intended.

You can still set them to use the same manually.

I don't have the windows maximize issue
Comment 7 adrian15 2010-11-11 12:16:49 UTC
> It is normal that you see two different background images, that is intended.
> You can still set them to use the same manually.

I'll check for that. I do not want to be in Work Desktop/Activity and get a nude girl on the big screen presentation for shareholders because Plasma picks randomly the Porn Desktop/Activity as the big screen background.

> I don't have the windows maximize issue
When I use nvidia-settings I often check "Set this display as default xorg screen". Might it be the problem? I use it in the hope that my panels are kept in my laptop display and are not displayed at big screen.

Maybe you can reproduce the maximize issue by using "Set this display as default xorg screen" in nvidia-settings ?
Comment 8 Beat Wolf 2010-11-11 12:26:08 UTC
I use this option.

What version of the nvidia driver do you use? and kde?
i use kde 4.5.3 and nvidia 260.19.12
Comment 9 adrian15 2010-11-11 14:47:21 UTC
> I use this option.
>
> What version of the nvidia driver do you use? and kde?
> i use kde 4.5.3 and nvidia 260.19.12

I use KDE 4.4.5 from Debian Unstable.
And I use 195.36.31 which seems quite outdated for your driver version. 
Maybe the unstable binary driver for Nvidia is not as updated as I 
thought at.

I will have to test that 260.19.12 (probably the official Nvidia one) to 
see if improves my KDE4 problems.

Thank you.
Comment 10 Beat Wolf 2010-11-11 14:58:45 UTC
and kde4.5 has many multiscreen fixes that are not in 4.4.
Comment 11 Jeffery MacEachern 2010-12-17 07:19:09 UTC
The ZUI (Zooming UI) interface for Activity management/switching has been replaced by an entirely new interface in the upcoming version 4.6 of the Plasma Workspaces. As such, this bug is now being closed.