Hey all - this is my first post to the KDE forums, so I hope I'm posting in the right area. Let me describe my issue, and maybe somebody has some insight.

I'm running Gentoo, and I recently updated KDE from 4.4.5 to 4.6.2. I have three monitors running off my ATI card. In 4.4.5, I had each monitor configured as a separate activity, and I could maximize a window to a specific monitor, drag windows from monitor to monitor, and I had full hardware acceleration. After my update to 4.6.2, only my first activity was displayed (and it was stretched across all monitors), and I was unable to interact with open programs and windows, as they appeared in one of the other "monitors" and were off screen.

I removed the .kde4 directory, and logged in to a fresh KDE session, and found myself with one activity stretched across all three monitors. From there, I opened the ATI control panel and began mucking around with the settings.

I tried combinations of enabling and disabling xinerama, and grouping my displays. At one point, I had each monitor as a separate activity, but I could not drag windows between them, nor did I have full hardware acceleration.

So, I submit my query to you: has the feature been removed from KDE 4.6.x, or am I doing something horribly wrong? I'd like to be able to maximize a window to one monitor, while working on another. (Having the ability to switch between that functionality, and the present maximize to all monitors functionality would be splendid, for the purpose of playing games...). Is there a way to achieve my desired effect, once more? Please, help!

If it helps at all, here is my current xorg.conf:

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "aticonfig Layout"
Screen 0 "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0" 0 0
EndSection

Section "Module"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0"
Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
Option "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-1"
Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
Option "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-2"
Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
Option "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "0-DFP1"
Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
Option "DPMS" "true"
Option "PreferredMode" "1920x1080"
Option "TargetRefresh" "60"
Option "Position" "0 0"
Option "Rotate" "normal"
Option "Disable" "false"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "0-DFP5"
Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
Option "DPMS" "true"
Option "PreferredMode" "1920x1080"
Option "TargetRefresh" "60"
Option "Position" "3840 0"
Option "Rotate" "normal"
Option "Disable" "false"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "0-DFP4"
Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
Option "DPMS" "true"
Option "PreferredMode" "1920x1080"
Option "TargetRefresh" "60"
Option "Position" "1920 0"
Option "Rotate" "normal"
Option "Disable" "false"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]-0"
Driver "fglrx"
Option "Monitor-DFP1" "0-DFP1"
Option "Monitor-DFP5" "0-DFP5"
Option "Monitor-DFP4" "0-DFP4"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]-1"
Driver "fglrx"
Option "Monitor-DFP4" "0-DFP4"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]-2"
Driver "fglrx"
Option "Monitor-DFP5" "0-DFP5"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Screen 2
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0"
Device "aticonfig-Device[0]-0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]-1"
Device "aticonfig-Device[0]-1"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]-2"
Device "aticonfig-Device[0]-2"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

In newer versions of Plasma Workspaces an activity affects all screens, i.e. you don't have a separate activity per monitor (unless for some setups; I'm not very familiar with those but I guess you could set up one X session per monitor. However, this would lead to other problems, such as not being able to drag windows between monitors).

I find that this makes more sense since activities are related to the whole workspace rather than a singe desktop/screen. For example, switching to "Development" might change my desktop, but also (in the future) my favorite applications in Kickoff, while switching to "Presentation" changes my power profile and disables notifications and the screensaver. Note that all of this isn't possible at the moment, but hopefully will be in future versions.

I could maybe live with that, if I could maximize a window to a specific monitor, and be able to drag windows between them. I find it interesting that the decision was made to include a feature regression. The way it was worked really well, for me, at least. I'd like some of the newer features of 4.6.x, but I don't want to have to sacrifice so much in the way of productivity.

Hans wrote:In newer versions of Plasma Workspaces an activity affects all screens, i.e. you don't have a separate activity per monitor (unless for some setups; I'm not very familiar with those but I guess you could set up one X session per monitor. However, this would lead to other problems, such as not being able to drag windows between monitors).

I find that this makes more sense since activities are related to the whole workspace rather than a singe desktop/screen. For example, switching to "Development" might change my desktop, but also (in the future) my favorite applications in Kickoff, while switching to "Presentation" changes my power profile and disables notifications and the screensaver. Note that all of this isn't possible at the moment, but hopefully will be in future versions.

HaDAk wrote:I could maybe live with that, if I could maximize a window to a specific monitor, and be able to drag windows between them. I find it interesting that the decision was made to include a feature regression. The way it was worked really well, for me, at least. I'd like some of the newer features of 4.6.x, but I don't want to have to sacrifice so much in the way of productivity.

That's a different issue and shouldn't have changed. I think you need Xinerama for that.

Hans wrote:That's a different issue and shouldn't have changed. I think you need Xinerama for that.

I tried changing my multi-display desktop to a single display desktop (multi-desktop), which gave me the result I was looking for - except my video performance suffered heavily, and I couldn't drag between monitors. Enabling xinerama didn't give the intended effect of being able to drag between monitors, and instead brought me back to square one, with one large desktop.

I have absolutely no idea what I did to fix it, but the issue seems to be resolved. Below are my xorg.conf and krandrrc, for documentation purposes:

[Screen_0]
OutputsUnified=false
UnifiedRect=0,0,1920,1080
UnifiedRotation=1

[Screen_0_Output_DFP1]
Active=true
Rect=0,0,1920,1080
RefreshRate=60
Rotation=1

[Screen_0_Output_DFP4]
Active=true
Rect=1920,0,1920,1080
RefreshRate=60
Rotation=1

[Screen_0_Output_DFP5]
Active=true
Rect=3360,0,1920,1080
RefreshRate=60
Rotation=1

xorg.conf:
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "aticonfig Layout"
Screen 0 "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0" 0 0
EndSection

Section "Module"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0"
Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
Option "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-1"
Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
Option "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-2"
Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
Option "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "0-DFP1"
Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
Option "DPMS" "true"
Option "PreferredMode" "1920x1080"
Option "TargetRefresh" "60"
Option "Position" "0 0"
Option "Rotate" "normal"
Option "Disable" "false"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "0-DFP5"
Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
Option "DPMS" "true"
Option "PreferredMode" "1920x1080"
Option "TargetRefresh" "60"
Option "Position" "3840 0"
Option "Rotate" "normal"
Option "Disable" "false"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "0-DFP4"
Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
Option "DPMS" "true"
Option "PreferredMode" "1920x1080"
Option "TargetRefresh" "60"
Option "Position" "1920 0"
Option "Rotate" "normal"
Option "Disable" "false"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]-0"
Driver "fglrx"
Option "Monitor-DFP1" "0-DFP1"
Option "Monitor-DFP5" "0-DFP5"
Option "Monitor-DFP4" "0-DFP4"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]-1"
Driver "fglrx"
Option "Monitor-DFP4" "0-DFP4"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]-2"
Driver "fglrx"
Option "Monitor-DFP5" "0-DFP5"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Screen 2
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0"
Device "aticonfig-Device[0]-0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Virtual 5760 1920
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]-1"
Device "aticonfig-Device[0]-1"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]-2"
Device "aticonfig-Device[0]-2"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection