dual monitor problems - kde 4.x: lost panels, how to disable monitor etc

**freeman33** · 06-Nov-2010, 07:40

i'm using dual monitor setup on 11.3 and kde but it's quite difficult
1. i have a dual monitor setup on. then i turn off the laptop and take it home. i turn it on again with only internal monitor. Now how can I turn off the second monitor? kde still thinks it still there (you can move the mouse out of screen, new windows can appear on the "detached" monitor). But in the control panel it's grayed off so it can't be turned off. Any solution?
2. Also when switching between monitor setups, the panels get lost sometimes. Also auto hide feature stop working. When i remove the panel and recreate it, it works again. I'm using two different dual monitor setups and it obviously confuses kde. Can i create some presets or something?
thanks

**deano_ferrari** · 06-Nov-2010, 14:31

I'm guessing from this behaviour that you have a custom xorg.conf configuration present, otherwise I would expect a reboot without monitor to be configured automatically by the X-server. So, it may be beneficial to provide more information here.

1) Post the contents of /etc/X11/xorg.conf (if it exists), or if you've edited any of the config files in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ directory.

2) More info about your video card, and whether you're using proprietary or opensource drivers (if using nvidia or ati card). If using proprietary drivers, did you configure with the corresponding proprietary utiltiy tools for example?

Code:

/sbin/lspci -nnk

Just post the graphics-related output.

FWIW, I know KDE4 still does not handle dual screen setups well, so some of the strange behaviour with respect to panels, may be down to that, and a bug report may need to be searched for or submitted.

**freeman33** · 08-Nov-2010, 00:48

Thanks for reply. Sometimes there's a nag Monitor setup changed but sometimes not.
There's no xorg.conf, I did not manual edit of threse files.
I'm using opensource driver, amd driver causes "sleep to death" problem.
So I think is related purely to KDE4.
I can try to search for bugs on kde.org then.
So no solution so far...

**deano_ferrari** · 08-Nov-2010, 02:16

There's no xorg.conf, I did not manual edit of threse files.

Ok, so Xorg is autodetecting your attached display devices at boot.

Sometimes there's a nag Monitor setup changed but sometimes not.

Sorry, what's a 'nag' monitor setup? Do you mean 'dual'?

I'm using opensource driver, amd driver causes "sleep to death" problem.

You still haven't provided requested graphics chipset and driver details. It may help others to assist.

So I think is related purely to KDE4.

You're probably correct.

**freeman33** · 09-Nov-2010, 03:30

Sorry I have ati hd3400 and opensource radeonhd driver. But I think it will do the problem with any card.
"Sometimes there's a nag Monitor setup changed but sometimes not. " I meant that sometimes when i connect/disconnect monitor a popup message "Monitor setup changed" appears. But sometimes not.

**deano_ferrari** · 09-Nov-2010, 11:51

Most of these type of problems are hardware-influenced, and depend on the interaction of the graphics driver employed, but there are so many subsystems involved with Xorg and the DE, that its difficult to nail down the problem without developer assistance sometimes. I would recommend filing a bug report if you would like this behaviour fixed.

BTW, I'm surprised that you mention the radeonhd driver is in use, as it is my understanding that the radeonhd driver is deprecated, and the recommendation is to use the radeon driver instead. In particular, it does not support KMS which is enabled by default in the openSUSE kernel.

Have you considered using the proprietary fglrx driver instead? It comes with its own config utility for configuring multi-screen environments.