Bug 446654 - Feature Request: mirror a panel on all monitors
Summary: Feature Request: mirror a panel on all monitors
Status: CONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: plasmashell
Classification: Plasma
Component: Panel (show other bugs)
Version: 5.25.5
Platform: Neon Linux
: HI wishlist
Target Milestone: 1.0
Assignee: Aleix Pol
URL:
Keywords: usability
: 420854 447012 448678 454458 462771 463260 466558 484110 (view as bug list)
Depends on: 443036
Blocks:
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2021-12-07 23:18 UTC by George Troulis
Modified: 2024-03-24 13:05 UTC (History)
65 users (show)

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Description George Troulis 2021-12-07 23:18:19 UTC
SUMMARY
When using two (or more) monitors, it is convenient to have a panel on each monitor such that all panels are completely identical. Currently, it seems that the only way to accomplish this is to manually create each panel, and customize each one in the exact same way. This is a tedious process for users that enjoy heavily-customized panels.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Linux Kernel: 5.15.2-2-MANJARO (64-bit)
(available in About System)
KDE Plasma Version: 5.23.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.88.0
Qt Version: 5.15.2

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
This feature has been previously requested for KDE Plasma 4, closed due to obsolescence of Plasma 4, and never re-opened on Plasma 5:
https://kde-bugs-dist.kde.narkive.com/0Vn46o7h/plasma-bug-342826-new-add-possibility-to-duplicate-panel-to-other-screens

This exact feature has been indirectly requested on a few forums, none of which have received adequate responses:
- https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/iuq4ld/duplicate_panel_on_all_screens/
- https://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?324910-Panel-clone-for-each-monitor

CURRENT SOLUTION
1) Create a panel on one monitor, and customize manually with widgets/menus until desired
2) Repeat #1 for second monitor, ensuring new panel is identical to that on monitor #1
3) Repeat #1 for third monitor, ensuring new panel is identical to that on monitor #1
4) and so on ...

IDEAL SOLUTION
1) Create a single panel on one monitor, and customize manually with widgets/menus until desired
2) Create a new blank panel on second monitor. Right click on it, and select "Mirror Panel." Some selection menu would let the user choose which panel they would like this current panel to mirror. All customizations of the first panel would immediately transfer to the new panel, and changes to one panel will automatically be reflected in the other mirrored panel.
3) Repeat #2 for each monitor
Comment 1 racquun 2021-12-08 03:26:53 UTC
i agree this would be cool.
Comment 2 Nate Graham 2021-12-08 20:47:08 UTC
Yes, this is an idea we're pursuing soon!
Comment 3 Nate Graham 2021-12-15 17:40:39 UTC
*** Bug 447012 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 4 Nate Graham 2022-01-20 21:45:39 UTC
*** Bug 448678 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 5 Nate Graham 2022-04-25 17:19:23 UTC
*** Bug 420854 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 6 Nate Graham 2022-05-27 14:02:17 UTC
*** Bug 454458 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 7 jackyguo18 2022-06-13 21:24:45 UTC
Has there been any progress towards this or are they waiting on someone to make a PR?
Comment 8 lcarmona 2022-06-18 18:50:45 UTC
This option will be really nice. Other possibility would be backup/export the panel (but in this case, the notification area could crash).
Comment 9 squale 2022-06-21 14:46:48 UTC
This would be *really* nice to have.
Comment 10 Fabio C. Barrionuevo 2022-10-03 12:56:10 UTC
This would be very helpful. Better than that, just something that works totally out of the box on multiple monitors like the panel provided by tint2.

tint2 is not as powerful and customizable as plasma panels, but at least it works well with multiple screens.
Comment 11 Nico 2022-11-19 09:42:45 UTC
Indeed a very helpful feature! 2-3 monitors are currently very time-consuming to set up if everything needs to be created manually. It would also enable distributions to ship multi-monitor configured out of the box rather than leaving users on their own.
Comment 12 Jakub 2022-12-01 09:00:01 UTC
It would save a lot of time spent on redoing panels on external displays.
Comment 13 veggero 2022-12-08 16:19:54 UTC
*** Bug 462771 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 14 bbaovanc 2022-12-10 22:29:06 UTC
Is there anything blocking this? I can see requests from 7+ years ago in KDE 4 asking for this, how has this not been added yet?
Comment 15 Nate Graham 2023-01-05 20:56:49 UTC
*** Bug 463260 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 16 wazhai 2023-01-11 13:29:30 UTC
"IDEAL SOLUTION
Repeat #2 for each monitor"

This might be useful for more customized setups, but to cover 95% of use cases a setting similar to other DEs along the lines of "Show this panel on all monitors" seems far more ideal and user-friendly.
Comment 17 Nate Graham 2023-02-28 21:48:53 UTC
*** Bug 466558 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 18 ducouedicsophie 2023-03-10 11:19:02 UTC
Yes please that would be a nice feature!
Comment 19 Derek 2023-03-12 13:16:08 UTC
This would be extremely helpful, would like to see this.
Comment 20 skrachen 2023-03-16 03:17:43 UTC
Additional forum posts about this: 
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1265917/how-to-show-kde-panel-at-all-monitors
https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/m2i8fh/taskbar_on_both_monitors/
(related) https://www.kubuntuforums.net/forum/archives/eol-releases/-20-10/software-support-bd/72357-kde-plasma-default-panel-on-multiple-montiors

SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS so far:
- a "mirror an existing panel" option when creating a new panel
- a "duplicate this panel" option in Edit Mode
- a "show this panel on all monitors" option in Edit Mode
- "show primary screen's panels on this screen" in Display Settings
- "export to file"/"import from file" features for panels
Comment 21 Natetronn 2023-03-28 18:11:22 UTC
Would love to see this feature added as well; please.
Comment 22 Kevin 2023-05-20 13:07:42 UTC
+1 on this feature
Comment 23 Natetronn 2023-08-10 20:50:18 UTC
Please allow me to submit my vote for this feature as well.
Comment 24 `{third: "Beedell", first: "Roke"}`{.JSON5} 2023-08-15 18:47:49 UTC
(In reply to Natetronn from comment #23)
> Please allow me to submit my vote for this feature as well.

https://bugs.kde.org/describecomponents.cgi?product=plasmashell has disabled bug votes.
Comment 25 vlpetrov02 2023-09-21 13:47:47 UTC
I agree, this would be very helpful
Comment 26 Natetronn 2023-09-21 14:47:02 UTC
(In reply to third="Beedell", first="Roke", second="Julian Lockhart" from comment #24)
> (In reply to Natetronn from comment #23)
> > Please allow me to submit my vote for this feature as well.
> 
> https://bugs.kde.org/describecomponents.cgi?product=plasmashell has disabled
> bug votes.

Thanks. Yeah, I meant it metaphorically :-D
Comment 27 lucasrizzini 2023-10-24 12:05:28 UTC
I think this should be something that could be possible from the beginning. I have a DP and HDMI monitor and I can't just have the panel on the DP monitor, not on Xorg, at least.
Comment 28 tani.giovonni 2023-12-24 08:12:16 UTC
Not certain how related this is behind the scenes (if at all) but a more general way of copying widgets, panels, etc. between monitors would be good as well. Panels and widgets seem to be related to some degree, but I'm not sure quite how much they are or if a generalised method of copying/mirroring would be possible.
Comment 29 justinsojolly 2024-02-20 17:30:19 UTC
What is the status of this?? This is years old, how is it not possible to duplicate a panel for all monitors? This is getting pathetic and extremely frustrating. Please revisit this and push this out to the code base.
Comment 30 Alper Şal 2024-02-20 17:37:07 UTC
Yeah, I am waiting for this since `2023-01-10 14:42:16 UTC`. Yesterday I have formatted my PC and even though I do not customize my panels anywhere near avg. Arch user, it was really unsatisfying doing everything from the start. And I only have two monitors. It is really annoying how this is still not implemented.
Comment 31 fanzhuyifan 2024-02-20 17:38:29 UTC
(In reply to justinsojolly from comment #29)
> What is the status of this?? This is years old, how is it not possible to
> duplicate a panel for all monitors? This is getting pathetic and extremely
> frustrating. Please revisit this and push this out to the code base.

If you submit a MR for it I am sure it would get reviewed and considered :)

Alternately, there is also the sponsored work section where you could post a bounty for this: https://discuss.kde.org/c/development/sponsored-work/31

 Unfortunately KDE is driven by volunteers, and there are always more tasks than developers available. So if you really want to see some feature implemented, the best way is to submit a MR (it doesn't have to be perfect), or sponsor someone to do it.
Comment 32 Dmitrii Chermnykh 2024-02-21 16:20:11 UTC
This probably should depend on https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/issues/113 because duplicating some widgets may break some functionality
Comment 33 fanzhuyifan 2024-02-21 16:22:30 UTC
(In reply to Dmitrii Chermnykh from comment #32)
> This probably should depend on
> https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/issues/113 because
> duplicating some widgets may break some functionality

I currently have two screens with duplicate system trays containing the applets, and I don't seem to notice any issues.
Comment 34 Dmitrii Chermnykh 2024-02-21 16:25:10 UTC
(In reply to fanzhuyifan from comment #33)
> (In reply to Dmitrii Chermnykh from comment #32)
> > This probably should depend on
> > https://invent.kde.org/plasma/plasma-desktop/-/issues/113 because
> > duplicating some widgets may break some functionality
> 
> I currently have two screens with duplicate system trays containing the
> applets, and I don't seem to notice any issues.

I used to have problems with media keys because they were handled by 2 instances of media player applet 
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=391578 
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=409190
Comment 35 fanzhuyifan 2024-03-21 01:27:11 UTC
*** Bug 484110 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 36 Henning 2024-03-24 13:05:35 UTC
yes a big problem is that every external display needs to get the panel created new, which is especially bad when presenting, or using a TV etc.