Bug 354386

Summary:	System tray panel changes to secondary monitor that is on top/above on dual-monitor config
Product:	[Plasma] plasmashell	Reporter:	Samuel Cordeiro <sigmadraconis>
Component:	Panel	Assignee:	Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs>
Status:	RESOLVED DUPLICATE
Severity:	normal	CC:	cedric.devillers, ecklm94, eherenz, long, macieksitarz, mail, mcv, mklapetek, schmidicom, sebastian, stijn+bugs
Priority:	NOR	Keywords:	usability
Version:	5.4.2
Target Milestone:	1.0
Platform:	Arch Linux
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Samuel Cordeiro 2015-10-26 08:52:55 UTC

The system tray panel switches automatically to the monitor that's configured as secondary (external) monitor on my laptop. I use a mDP-DP adapter, the monitor is a Dell P2416D, the laptop a Lenovo X1 Carbon

This happens only when the secondary monitor (DP1) is above on Randr configs, if the monitor is setup to be on the right side, the panel stays in the laptop main screen (eDP1).
Killing plasmashell and restarting it fixes the problem, the panel returns to the primary screen in the laptop

This happens since KDE 5.2, I'm now running:
* KDE 5.4.2
* QT 5.5.1
* Intel HD 5500 - driver version: 2.99.917+478+gdf72bc5-2
* MESA 11.0.3-1
* XOrg server 1.17.2-4

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Insert mDP cable
2. Switch to a dual monitor setup in System settings->Display and Monitor, laptop monitor enabled as primary and the Dell as a secondary. The laptop monitor is under (south of) the external monitor.
3. After the switch, the main system tray panel switches over to the secondary/external monitor, leaving the primary/laptop monitor.


Actual Results:  
System tray panel wrongly switches over to the secondary external monitor.

Expected Results:  
System tray panel should have stayed connected to the primary laptop screen.

Restarting plasmashell fixes this and the panel returns to the main laptop screen.

Comment 1 Samuel Cordeiro 2015-10-28 09:51:58 UTC

Oddly, if I connect the cable without the monitor being turned on, the system tray panel disappears immediately and when I turn the monitor on, that same main panel dops down again to the primary laptop screen solving the issue like a workaround. Maybe this has something to do with the mDP to DP connection?

Funny behaviour, I'll say...

Comment 2 Samuel Cordeiro 2015-10-29 09:56:15 UTC

After a few tries, I notice that the above workaround sometimes work and sometimes doesn't.

Comment 3 Christian Herenz 2015-12-30 01:56:13 UTC

I am also  affected by this bug. I use a Lenovo Thinkpad 400 with a normal VGA cable. As soon as I set the external monitor to be above the Laptop Monitor the trouble starts. Oddly enough, I cannot even move the panel anymore to the laptop screen. If I move it out of the second screen in the direction of the laptop screen the panel just vanishes.

This bug is still present in Plasma 5.5.2.

Comment 4 Stijn Tintel 2015-12-30 05:02:16 UTC

(In reply to cherenz from comment #3)
> I am also  affected by this bug. I use a Lenovo Thinkpad 400 with a normal
> VGA cable. As soon as I set the external monitor to be above the Laptop
> Monitor the trouble starts. Oddly enough, I cannot even move the panel
> anymore to the laptop screen. If I move it out of the second screen in the
> direction of the laptop screen the panel just vanishes.
See https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=356727 for the vanishing panel

Comment 5 Stijn Tintel 2015-12-30 05:04:11 UTC

*** Bug 356725 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 6 Máté Eckl 2016-01-06 14:16:39 UTC

It affects me too. I use the HDMI port on my Toshiba Satellite C855D with AMD dual graphics (dedicated and integrated also on board) card in it using the open source driver.
I reinforce the notice on cherenz@aip.de adding that if I log in with the secondary monitor formerly connected, the panel does not vanish on replace. Only when I connect the monitor or change the settings after login.

Comment 7 Christian Herenz 2016-01-06 23:39:30 UTC

(In reply to Máté Eckl from comment #6)
> I reinforce the notice on cherenz@aip.de adding that if I log in with the
> secondary monitor formerly connected, the panel does not vanish on replace.
> Only when I connect the monitor or change the settings after login.

I can confirm that the panel stays on the laptop (primary) monitor when logging in with the external screen connected. Only when connecting the secondary monitor to a running session, the panel moves to the second screen on top.

Comment 8 Stefan Schmid 2016-01-14 14:48:56 UTC

I can confirm this problem, one of my computer has two monitors.
The Controlpanel jumps (~1.5 seconds) at the start of the plasmashell from one monitor to another and usually remains (95%) on the right/top monitor.
Very annoying... :(

My Setup:
Gentoo Linux; Kernel 4.4.0 (vanilla); Qt 5.5.1; KDE Framework 5.18; KDE Plasma 5.5.2

Comment 9 Christian Herenz 2016-01-18 07:21:46 UTC

A potential important info, that I forgot - I use the panel in auto-hide mode.

Another erratic behaviour that I observe is, that sometimes - when I logged out with the second screen connected, the panel won't reappear on the laptop screen on the next login when I detached the monitor in between sessions.

If this happens, I cannot just connect the second monitor and move the panel - because of this bug: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=356727 - The only solution then is to log out, connect to a monitor, log in again and then drag the panel to laptop screen, log out - disconnect the 2nd monitor and then finally I can log in to a working session.

If the bug is not fixed, any help from  for a possible workaround in this case is highly desired, since I use my laptop for presentations - and at conferences I cannot just connect to a second monitor after my presentation is over.

Comment 10 Martin Klapetek 2016-01-27 02:22:17 UTC


*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 356225 ***