Hi,

I recently added a second monitor to my system. I've been trying to get it setup to have independent workspaces/desktops on each monitor, but I run into what I think is a bug, but it could be the way I'm setting it up too. This is what I'm trying to do.

1. Set the main monitor up with 4 desktops. This is my main monitor for working.
2. Set the second monitor up with 2 desktops. This is my second monitor for displaying auxiliary stuff.

This way I can be working on one monitor, switch desktops, but leave the second monitor where it's at and have the option to clear the screen to see the background widgets (often with relevant information) on the second monitor. Make sense? Hope so.

But I'm also big on esthetics, and the main reason I stay with KDE is because I can set different wallpapers and widgets up per desktop. Unfortunately, while I can get the main monitor setup with nice independent desktops (i.e. different wallpapers and widgets per desktop), when I try to set the second monitor up with different desktops, it always displays the same wallpaper and widgets no matter how many desktops I set. When I set the wallpaper on one desktop, it sets the wallpaper to the same on on all the second monitor desktops (it does leave monitor 1 alone). Same thing happens with widgets.

I have set the "use different widgets" option for each monitor workspace. To do that, I've added a launcher on the second desktop and launched the 'configure desktop' panel within the second monitor. It all seems to work, except I can't get independent wallpapers on the second monitor even though everything I seem to be able to configure is set the way I think it should be.

Is this a bug? Or is there something in the configuration setting I am missing. Here is my xorg.conf file. I am unsure of any other files that might affect it, so any help would be appreciated.

Most of this is autogenerated by the nvidia-config tool, but I did try to make two Serverlayout sections one time, but that seemed to make things worse.

xorg.conf:
---------------------
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
Screen 1 "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
Option "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
# HorizSync source: xconfig, VertRefresh source: xconfig
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Ancor Communications Inc ASUS VE278"
HorizSync 28.0 - 33.0
VertRefresh 43.0 - 72.0
# 1920x1080 59.96 Hz (CVT 2.07M9) hsync: 67.16 kHz; pclk: 173.00 MHz
Modeline "1920x1080_60.00" 173.00 1920 2048 2248 2576 1080 1083 1088 1120 -hsync +vsync
# 1680x1050 59.95 Hz (CVT 1.76MA) hsync: 65.29 kHz; pclk: 146.25 MHz
Modeline "1680x1050_60.00" 146.25 1680 1784 1960 2240 1050 1053 1059 1089 -hsync +vsync
# 1400x900 59.96 Hz (CVT) hsync: 56.01 kHz; pclk: 103.50 MHz
Modeline "1400x900_60.00" 103.50 1400 1480 1624 1848 900 903 913 934 -hsync +vsync
# 1280x1024 59.89 Hz (CVT 1.31M4) hsync: 63.67 kHz; pclk: 109.00 MHz
Modeline "1280x1024_60.00" 109.00 1280 1368 1496 1712 1024 1027 1034 1063 -hsync +vsync
Option "PreferredMode" "1920x1080_60.00"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
# HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
Identifier "Monitor1"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Envision H190L"
HorizSync 30.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 76.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce GTX 550 Ti"
BusID "PCI:3:0:0"
Screen 0
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device1"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce GTX 550 Ti"
BusID "PCI:3:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "Stereo" "0"
Option "nvidiaXineramaInfoOrder" "CRT-0"
Option "metamodes" "DVI-I-0: 1920x1080 +0+0"
Option "SLI" "Off"
Option "MultiGPU" "Off"
Option "BaseMosaic" "off"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1920x1080"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen1"
Device "Device1"
Monitor "Monitor1"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "Stereo" "0"
Option "metamodes" "DVI-I-1: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
Option "SLI" "Off"
Option "MultiGPU" "Off"
Option "BaseMosaic" "off"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Can you clarify by "Desktops" you mean Virtual Desktops, and not Activities?

Is this a bug? Or is there something in the configuration setting I am missing.

Neither. The concept of virtual desktop per screen does not exist in the NETWM spec (which is rather unaware of multiscreen setups anyway)

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=107302

Well, for something that doesn't exist, you'd be surprised how close it is to working. Maybe it's a undocumented feature or a capability that no one has really thought about, but the code almost supports it.

So then I'd rather add this to a feature list, the ability to have different desktop configurations per monitor. And yes, I am talking about virtual desktops as defined in the "Configure Desktop->Workspace Behavior->Virtual Desktops" and not activities. This is about setting up a custom configuration of widgets and backgrounds that is independent per monitor. As I said, everything works except that on the second monitor, I don't get unique widgets and backgrounds per desktop. The first monitor supports this concept just fine, but the second monitor configuration doesn't seem to understand that "Different widgets for each desktop" means different ones. I would almost bet, uneducated as it may be, that if whatever structure is controlling widgets and desktops on the second monitor could read that setting, it would work just fine.

I should mention too that I've gotten this behavior to work on Mint 15, Mint 16, and OpenSuSe 13.1, so it's definitely a property of KDE and not something added in by the distribution integrators.

For clarification:
"Different widgets for each desktop" implies that you use a different activity for each virtual desktop.
That is possible and more or less the plasma way to implement different wallpapers on virtual desktops.
It should also work with several screens (ie. changing the VD should alter wallpaper & widgets on both screens)

What does NOT work (and will no way easily, see bug) is having virtual desktops independent on screens, ie. screen 1 showing virtual desktop 1 and screen 2 virtual desktop 4 etc. nor having only 2 virtual desktops on one and 4 VDs on the other screen.

luebking wrote:For clarification:
"Different widgets for each desktop" implies that you use a different activity for each virtual desktop.
That is possible and more or less the plasma way to implement different wallpapers on virtual desktops.
It should also work with several screens (ie. changing the VD should alter wallpaper & widgets on both screens)

What does NOT work (and will no way easily, see bug) is having virtual desktops independent on screens, ie. screen 1 showing virtual desktop 1 and screen 2 virtual desktop 4 etc. nor having only 2 virtual desktops on one and 4 VDs on the other screen.

I don't mean to be argumentative, but what you say is exactly opposite of the way it is working for me right now. I have no trouble setting up four virtual desktops on monitor 1 and two virtual desktops on monitor 2 and controlling them independently. On monitor one, I can cycle through all 4 desktops and have different wallpapers and widgets on each one, but on monitor 2, when I add a widget to one desktop, it adds it to all of them, ignoring the option. I can be looking at any combination of desktops I want. It's actually quite powerful, and I like having them independent very much, if only I could get the eye-candy of different wallpapers on monitor 2, I'd be pretty happy. Widgets would be a plus.

Heck, I've had 6 virtual desktops on monitor 1 and 4 on monitor 2. I can assure you that works just fine. It's very nice to have a document open on the second monitor and be able to cycle through other applications on my main monitor's destops without losing the view of the document. I often have multiple applications running one per desktop working on a project and have the documentation always visible on the second monitor. I find that a little better than alt-tab'ing between apps, sometimes, depends on my mood.

Now I have also had it work with independent wallpapers on each monitor when I've had the desktop configured to span the two monitors. I think this is what you're referring to, and yes, that works, but doesn't give me the monitor independence I am looking for. The only other thing I've noticed that doesn't work, and this is minor to me, is that I can't send an application to the other monitor by right-click "move to screen" option.

Thanks for the replies though.

That suggests you're running a zaphod mode setup (two independent screens with two window managers: "ps ax | grep kwin")
The zaphod mode has various issues - i can't say whether this is one of them, but since activities are managed by a daemon ("ps ax | grep kactivitymanagerd") which communicates via dbus and there can be only one session bus (on one X11 server, but not the other - core source of most zaphod mode related issues) you're not getting mutiple activities on the other screen, hence only one plasma-desktop setup.

I was unfamiliar with that term, zaphod, but yes, that's what I am going for. The "ps" commands you mention all return a result, so yes, I am configured that way with OpenSuSe now. I have to say it's as buggy as heck in OpenSuSe. It was much more stable, or rather predictable, in Mint using mdm. Kdm seems to be giving me fits with login resolutions. This is probably related to my KVM I use; it just doesn't want to report the main monitor modes right and defaults to 640x480 all the time, even when trying to force it with xorg.

Video really needs some looking at in Linux. It's almost as bad as sound at this point. Too many competing managers stomping on each other. That's my opinion anyway. But hey, I'm sure it will get better with Wayland.

I'll keep trying. If I find a way to make this thing stable, I'll post it. Thanks for the info.

Those commands are supposed to always print sth., but "ps ax | grep kwin" should report 2 kwin instance (while kactivitymanagerd will likely be only one?)
This particular issue would likely not be related to the login manager or distro, but be a general issue with the zaphod mode.

About the resolution (entirely different and unrelated issue)
Tee DM resolutions are Xorg controlled, while the session resolutions are controlled by the session (xrandr/kscreen) - for the latter simply run "kcmshell4 kscreen" (to launch the relevant systemsettings component)
For the DM, add /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/11-monitor.conf, which should contain FOR INSTANCE!:

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "VGA-0" # a valid identifier, see "xrandr -q"
Option "Enable" "False" # turn off this screen for the DM
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "DVI-I-1" # another valid identifier, see "xrandr -q"
Option "Primary" "True"
Option "PreferredMode" "1920x1200" # a mode that shows up in "xrandr -q" for this monitor
EndSection