SUMMARY With Plasma 5.17 a visual overhaul of the screen settings panel was done. One change was to make inactive screen only usable either by choosing the screen in the "Settings for" dropdown or sliding with the mouse left to right. Before that a gray screen was shown for every inactive screen allowing you to just click on it. Please bring back the old gray screen preview, allowing you to choose very fast inactive screens. STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Go to systemsettings -> Display and monitor OBSERVED RESULT See all (also inactive) screens. EXPECTED RESULT See only the current configuration. SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS Windows: macOS: Linux/KDE Plasma: Gentoo (available in About System) KDE Plasma Version: 5.17.1 KDE Frameworks Version: 5.63.0 Qt Version: 5.12.5 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Background of this request: Due to another bug I will report soon, speed matters for me. The bug, in short, deactivate due to a false behaviour both of my screen in ~3 seconds, when I plug my laptop on its dock. Therefore, I have exactly this ~3 seconds to activate my laptop screen within the systemsettings and apply the new configuration. I do this on a daily base since ~3/4 month, so I got a little bit of training. With the old configuration, the switching was absolutely no problem (with a little training). With the new configuration, I have to read what screen settings are active currently (sometimes my external monitor is shown, sometimes the inactive laptop screen is shown), then switch either to left or right (unclear which direction) and then activate the screen. I often need 2-3 tries for that. The main reason is, that I don't have a possibility to switch to the inactive monitor in a fast way (at first sight).
Please try to focus on what the issue itself is, rather than what you want the solution to be. Which specific part of the current UI is misleading?
The current UI consists of a panel (upper half), where the actual screen configuration is shown and the lower half, where detailed screen settings are listed. I want that the upper half panel also shows the deactivated (but recognized) screens in gray. Exactly as it was the behaviour before 5.17.
>Please try to focus on what the issue itself is, rather than what you want the solution to be. What is the issue caused by not showing the disabled screens in the arrangement area. Leaving as needsinfo.
Created attachment 123739 [details] monitor.png (In reply to David Edmundson from comment #3) > What is the issue caused by not showing the disabled screens in the > arrangement area. Users are unable to see that other monitors are present (recognized by the system) or are not able to select it in a fast way. I marked the visual indicators for other monitors in the screenshot. Previewing the inactive display is a much bigger indicator that other screens are present.
It's interesting that you had 3 screens. The case of going between 1 and 2 screens is more obvious because a whole combo box and page indicator appear, but 2 -> 3 wouldn't have that. Reopening for UX discussion on what we do next.
Perhaps we could show disabled screens in the visualization with low opacity and the text "Disabled" appended to its label. But I think the greater problem is that screens show up as disabled far too often in the new KCM. If you as the user haven't specifically disabled a screen, it shouldn't be disabled. When you plug in a screen, it should be enabled by default (if you didn't want it enabled, you wouldn't have plugged it in).
>If you as the user haven't specifically disabled a screen, it shouldn't be disabled. When you plug in a screen, it should be enabled by default (if you didn't want it enabled, you wouldn't have plugged it in). We should restore the state we were last in when we had that set of monitors plugged in. That's all within the KDED rather than the KCM and AFAIK that is completely unchanged.
(In reply to David Edmundson from comment #7) > >If you as the user haven't specifically disabled a screen, it shouldn't be disabled. When you plug in a screen, it should be enabled by default (if you didn't want it enabled, you wouldn't have plugged it in). > > We should restore the state we were last in when we had that set of monitors > plugged in. That's all within the KDED rather than the KCM and AFAIK that is > completely unchanged. Yes, this is the behaviour I experienced. Especially on my laptop, which I have connected to several beamers/TVs/screens, the last configuration for that specific device is restored. Afaik, also a quick setup is shown, when a new screen (never connected before) is plugged it. However, my concern is about a setup where a screen is not permanently active but activated only when needed (one of my screens for example is a TV that is off and deactivated most of the times).
*** Bug 416976 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***