Bug 319410

Summary: Make panels (dual) monitor aware
Product: [Unmaintained] plasma4 Reporter: Vangelis <cyberang3l>
Component: panelAssignee: Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs>
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE    
Severity: wishlist CC: bugs.kde.org.facelift226, cfsalguero, hannu.alamaki, kde, kde, kubek-93, kungfoobar, maksim.muruev, martin.cg.magnusson, nate, sine.nomine, steve
Priority: NOR    
Version: 4.10.2   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Ubuntu   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Vangelis 2013-05-06 12:11:25 UTC
I have a laptop that I connect to an external monitor. I want the primary screen always to be on the Laptop (and for this reason the laptop is placed on the left of the external monitor due to this bug: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=318430) and have a panel with a task manager plasmoid only to appear whenever I connect the external monitor. When I disconnect it, I want this panel to disappear. Is this possible?

If I create a panel and put it in the external monitor it is working fine, but when I disconnect the external monitor the panel will move to the primary monitor. That's something I don't want. Moreover, the moved panel will be on top, covering my primary panel! 

Reproducible: Always



Expected Results:  
I don't know how would you want to implement such functionality, but maybe adding a tick box "Show panel only on this monitor if present" would do the trick.

So when one clicks this tick box, if that monitor is not present the panel should not be loaded. When the monitor is plugged in, the panel should be loaded. If one unplugs the monitor, the panel should be removed.
Comment 1 Synthetic451 2013-05-18 18:28:09 UTC
This has been one of my most desired features since KDE 4.8. I usually have a panel sitting on my external monitor that contains a task manager showing apps specifically on that screen. Whenever I disconnect it moves my panel onto other monitors which is something I don't want. I've brought it up numerous times in other bugs, for example https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=259183#c4

It seems like the main issue is how do we reconcile people who think their panels have gone missing on monitor disconnect with people who WANT their panels to disappear on monitor disconnect. The former probably had main panels on the external monitors whereas the latter had secondary panels that they did not need without that secondary monitor.

Personally, I WANT my panels to disappear, just like desktop widgets currently do.  A desktop widget does not get moved on monitor disconnect and also reappears when you reconnect the monitor. If we're going by the same logic, panels should disappear as well.

Either way I feel like this is something solvable with activities, except that panels are not affected by them and they're not screen specific. Ideally, I should be able to configure activities per screen and have my panels change according to which activity I am in. This way not only are activities more powerful, but this panel moving issue will be fixed.

Another simpler option would be to simply offer a checkbox on the screen configuration page specifying whether panels should be moved on monitor disconnect.

Anyways, I've voted for this bug. This is one of my pet peeves about KDE and I hope it gets fixed soon.
Comment 2 Martin Kyral 2013-07-22 14:33:48 UTC
*** This bug has been confirmed by popular vote. ***
Comment 3 Martin Kyral 2013-07-22 14:36:21 UTC
Added 20 votes. I do experience this issue and I find it very annoying. However, in my case, the secondary panel (on the external screen) disappears when screen is detached - but apperars on the internal screen once plasma is restarted (whichever way).
Comment 4 Martin M 2013-08-14 07:56:10 UTC
I have had this problem for a couple of months now, too. My installation of Kubuntu 13.04 used to do "the right thing"; that is, panels on my secondary monitor would disappear when I disconnected the monitor, and reappear when I connected it. Then I did something, and I got this problem. 

Now I know what I did and how to work around it. 

I was adding an "empty panel" to the secondary monitor, and configured it to my liking. This panel would get moved to the primary monitor, possibly overlaying the existing panel there. 
However, if I add a "standard panel" and configure that, it behaves as it should.

So somehow this is either a bug or at least unexpected (undocumented) behaviour of "standard" vs "empty" panels.

Could the rest of you also try to see if you have the same difference between "standard" and "empty" panels?
Comment 5 Vangelis 2013-08-20 07:55:36 UTC
I just tried the "standard panel" but it doesn't work either.
Comment 6 Carlos Salguero 2013-08-27 15:28:19 UTC
Added 20 votes.
Comment 7 S. Bryant 2014-03-04 21:03:52 UTC
Still seeing this behaviour on 4.12.2.

FWIW, this is the exact opposite of bug #183280 (Panel on second screen remains there even when no second screen is available).  The only way to accommodate both would be a configuration option.  The discussion in the aforementioned bug covered the various scenarios nearly 5 years ago!
Comment 8 hannu.alamaki 2014-04-18 07:30:17 UTC
This is the only thing that bugs me in KDE.
Comment 9 Martin Kyral 2014-04-18 07:56:56 UTC
(In reply to comment #7)
> Still seeing this behaviour on 4.12.2.
> 
> FWIW, this is the exact opposite of bug #183280 (Panel on second screen
> remains there even when no second screen is available).  The only way to
> accommodate both would be a configuration option.  The discussion in the
> aforementioned bug covered the various scenarios nearly 5 years ago!

Hmm, could it be possible to have panel config option 'show on this monitor only'? It could stick the panel to the monitor according to its EDID (kscreen does the detection) - or maybe a position according to the main screen?
Comment 10 Alberto Torres Ruiz 2014-07-20 13:22:49 UTC
IMHO panels should be shown only in their own screen, given by position + physical size. Unless the screen is primary and it *never* had a panel before: in which case the panel of the previous active screen should be copied into the new one, or a default one is added.
Comment 11 Jakub 2014-08-21 15:29:20 UTC
Also when a panel gets relocated some of the settings are dropped - I've got two panels, autohiding. After disconnecting external monitor panel from it gets relocated to remaining one, however autohide is turned off and panel doesn't change it's size so its too big (or too small, depends on primary screen setting). Opening panel settings is impossible aswell, settings bar just blinks next to the panel and disappears immediately.
Comment 12 Martin Kyral 2014-09-08 14:20:29 UTC
I had to wipe my plasma configuration for some reason a few days ago. After plasma started with fresh config (and I configured it again to suit my needs and preferences), I can't reproduce this issue anymore. If I restart plasma w/o the second screen, I got just the one panel that's supposed to be on the first screen and after plugging the second screen the second panel is there, where I expect it to be.
Comment 13 Maksim 2015-02-04 07:25:09 UTC
I have the same issue.. no solution for right now?
Comment 14 Pete 2015-02-17 16:18:24 UTC
I experienced the same issue yesterday. 

Kubuntu 14.04 KDE 4.13.3
Comment 15 Nate Graham 2018-01-23 22:16:43 UTC

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 323230 ***