Taskbar on second monitor

[tbekolay]

Really loving Mint 12 with Cinnamon. One feature that would be great for the future would be to allow a second taskbar on a second monitor, listing the windows currently showing on that monitor, as was possible in Gnome 2.

[slinkp]

+1

[Marlinc]

That is a great idea! +1

[groening]

Yes, this is a musthave concerning multi head sessions +1
I would also love to place custom things on that bar like system monitor hddtemp and such stuff but that's another point and certainly not that important

by the way: currently the whole work space (here consisting of two screens) gets closed, when there are only windows on the secondary screen

[alefq]

Not sure if it's related, but I don't have virtual workspaces in the second monitor. Virtual workspaces, only affect the main monitor, where Task Bar is located, Windows in the secondary display, shows in every workspace.

[slinkp]

alefq, see #104

[gnoling]

+1

I really miss having a panel (with just a window list, personally) on my second screen. :)

[crosser]

Either another panel on the second monitor, or configure on which monitor the panel is. When you connect a notebook to an external monitor you usually will want that monitor to be "primary" and the notebook screen "secondary". Please! :)

[groening]

I disagree with crosser - the notebook screen should stay primary in default!
Laptops as used as mobile device in general terms and will be more often connected to presentation devices (beamers, TVs) than to monitors on the desk. You sure do not want IM-notifications interrupt your presentations and seriously not show them in public!
There is already the possibility to define which screen to be primary using GNOME's control center -> Screens / Resolution Management.
Just drag the black top bar to the other one of the two monitor images -> DONE!

It could of course be handy to configure such stuff also within cinnamon's preferences GUI.
By the way: best thing to include in development would be a profile-management, so that users could define screens as primary which may not always be available/connected.
This way:

1. crosser would not need to define his primary screen each time he connects his laptop to monitors and
2. the default behavior could stay as it is - which will be more suitable for common usage

[crosser]

I did not say that the external monitor must become primary for everybody. Both use cases are equally valid. I said the user should be able to configure on which monitor they want the panel to be (or which of multiple panels on which monitors, like it was possible in gnome2). And of course this configuration should be preserved across reboots.

[slinkp]

+1 to having both options (laptop as primary / external as primary),
and +1 to having profiles to switch between your common
configurations.

[gnoling]

I wouldn't mind profiles, but personally, I see that as a completely
separate unrelated request.

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 9:54 AM, slinkp <
reply@reply.github.com

wrote:

+1 to having both options (laptop as primary / external as primary),
and +1 to having profiles to switch between your common
configurations.

---

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
#130 (comment)

[DorianScholz]

+1 for freely configurable panels (on primary and secondary screen)

I currently have a very limited version of this using the classic layout, as my two monitors are located on top of each other, the top panel shows on the top of the upper (primary) monitor and the bottom panel shows on the bottom of the lower (secondary) monitor.
But to get two window lists (one for each monitor/panel), I had to make a copy of the window-list applet under a different name. (Is there a better way to start multiple instances of an applet?)
Still both window lists show all windows from both monitors, not only from the monitor the windows list is located on...
So I'm hoping for a more freely configurable solution!

[codeworkx]

+1
The only thing which is holding me back from using cinnamon.

[Rahabib]

I like not having the taskbar on the second monitor, but I would like it as an option at least. Also as an option, to have it show ony windows on that monitor or show all windows. I would prefer to have all windows myself (so I can just click - say thunderbird to look at the email, but not have to actually active the window).

[chewbakartik]

This is a major request of mine as well. I just switched to Cinnamon to try it out, but without the ability to have a panel on each screen showing which screen windows are open on, I might not stick with it for long, and keep on searching for an option that better suits my needs.

[korvus81]

This is a request of mine as well. I tend to have a lot of windows open (due to all my screen real-estate) and since I logically separate windows into right/left monitors, it's nice to not have to look through a list of all windows when I know which monitor the window in question should be on...

[bundabrg]

I would like to request that the panel be configurable as to which screens it will display the windows list of. For example, I have a 6 display setup in a 3x2 config and would ideally like a panel on each of the bottom three screens that contains the windows that are on the bottom screen AND the screen above it (which does not have a panel).

[m-ric]

Using Mint 12, I completely share this wishlist. Especially having no taskbar on my external display makes me impossible to scroll down selecting text in firefox. This happens if Firefox is fullscreen, has no bottom bar and if gnome has no taskbar, then you just can't scroll down while selecting text... Very annoying. I workarounded this by adding an addon bar in firefox, but I hate polluting my screen with so-called bars... I always try to optimize my desktop to get the most visible stuff on my browser as possible. Let's say the least control/options/url/menu bars as possible...

[skibum1981]

Definitely wholeheartedly agree. Additionally, I would like the ability to stretch the taskbar to the second monitor (just one taskbar) as well...

[jdale88]

+1 from me. I really miss this feature after using Xfce.

[canha]

Not that it's needed but my +1 here as well. Any realistic desktop environment nowadays should have this since many, many people, now have more than 1 monitor, even at home.

[jevgenim]

Most wanted feature for me also

[mrdaemon]

I would like to register my own interest in this feature as well

[vindolin]

Miss that feature so much +2

[ghost]

I've just switched to Linux (mint) and I'm missing this feature. (multiple screen task bar)

(and i agree with Canha, it's not something exotic)

[skibum1981]

Any progress on this? I think pretty much anyone using two monitors wants this feature...

[ToeBee]

Yes please. Right now I'm trying to decide if I like MATE's ability to have two panels more than Cinnamon's menu behavior for launching applications quickly. It is too close to call.

[polyvisual]

Yep, this would be a really nice feature to have.

[sigpwr2]

+1 for extend the taskbar on the second monitor.

[polyvisual]

I don't mind jumping in and learning about Cinnamon development if it helps implement this.

I've done a Google search for Cinnamon Development and found http://cinnamondocumentation.wikinet.org, but it seems pretty light on information.

Can anyone recommend any further reading?

[dalcde]

Personally I'd recommend learning basic javascript and then referring to the source code itself (i.e. how the functions/libraries are used elsewhere or how they were implemented)

[krisdouglas]

+1 I would like to have a taskbar on the second monitor

[skibum1981]

Pllllllllllllleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase add this feature!

[erenoglu]

I also need this. I have two monitor setup, the big screen monitor sits on top of the laptop monitor. (screen is at a higher level than laptop). I want to have the panel on the big screen monitor, but on the bottom edge of this monitor (not top). Top side is needed for other things like swiching browser tabs without paying much attention to wheree you are clicking (when there's a panel on top, you need to be precise not to click the panel instead).

This can be done with gnome shell reflection extension in gnome shell, but then the window manager does not let you move the windows from upper monitor to the lower laptop screen (the panel blocks the window title bar, it can't pass).

[zamico]

+1

This is a basic usability function for me, along with window tiling. Back to Gnome 2 until they get this fixed!

[gulafaran]

+1 is the last thing i miss from old gnome or tiling wms

[TomCrypto]

+1, it's not a deal breaker for me since I don't use workspaces much but it is irritating not to have the taskbar extend to the second monitor if you're using the two monitors as one big desktop like I am. I tried virtualizing the two monitors as a single one using ATI proprietary drivers but this breaks Cinnamon, unfortunately (and the proprietary drivers are quite unstable in 2D mode anyhow).

This was reported over a year ago, any chance of a fix yet?

[dalcde]

See #1504 and #1506

[ThoWoKi]

+1

[skibum1981]

Update Clem?

[jeanphil77]

+1

[ScipioAfricanus]

Why is this feature not in the Linux Mint roadmap (https://github.com/linuxmint/Roadmap)? Autarkper and dalcde were working (independently) on implementing taskbars/panels on multiple monitors, but unfortunately for some reason it did not make the roadmap. :-(

[flocsy]

+1

[Incanus3]

+1

[eirabben]

Yes, please!

[ndbroadbent]

+1 for me, too!

[pieceofpeace]

+1!

[mgmarcum]

+1

[treffynnon]

👍

[joeha]

+1 - this would be a really useful feature!

[xgdgsc]

+1

[edouard-lopez]

+1 would help at work

[catomann]

+1

[tiborbalogh]

+1

[queos]

+1 thanks to all Mint team members for the excellent work in the cinnamon development so far, this additionally feature would be really great!

[kenske]

+1 The awesome cinnamon applets make this one of the top items on my wishlist

[ghost]

+1. This feature would be the icing on the Cinnamon cake. Please bear 3 monitor setups in mind, too.

[mazzarito]

@fastrde If you want I can make my applet support more than 2 monitors? I just made it for myself and decided to release it and at the moment I only use two 👍

[mdsitton]

@mazzarito If you can that would be awesome. I generally use a varaity of monitor of different sizes, and end up changing configurations around quite often. Normally i have more than 2 monitors.

Also any chances of putting it on github?

[jsquaredz]

+1 for this feature getting into Cinnamon. When its implemented I would like it if its possible that whichever panel you launch an app or window from the app will open on that monitor.

[clefebvre]

Hi,

Thanks everybody for your feedback. I think it's clear this is a popular request and there's no reason not to implement it.

It takes time though, things aren't that simple code-wise, design-wise so please be patient.

On the matter of hardware and money, I'd like to thank those who contributed bounties/money/hardware here because it's nice of them to do so, but at the same time I'd like people to stop doing that. Linux Mint maintains and develops Cinnamon and it receives a tremendous amount of support from its community. We get 300+ donors a month, a lot of money and we've plenty of hardware available. It's important for design not to be motivated by money or commercial aspects though, and bounties go against that. I don't want resources to go towards something somebody pays for, I want them to be allocated based on needs and developers' passion/interest/judgement of what's the most important.

It's also worth mentioning Mint has a budget for developers, to empower them, to make it easy for them to find time, resources, hardware etc.. and that budget also respects their independence, the fact that they manage their time the way they want and assign themselves to tasks they choose to take on.

Now.. that's a lot of words, and you've all waited for this a long time. I hope we get it done some day, I certainly meet a lot of people who would like this to happen. Please be patient, no need for bounties or +1, it's there in our list of "stuff people badly want" so it's a matter of time at this stage.

[solariz]

Totaly understand your explanation, but exactly this request is stopping alot of users to use Cinnamon at all. Open since 2012, still unheard and now closed, it's a pitty :(

[zoebill]

Well that only took almost three years...

[ioquatix]

I'm an open source developer and if people are willing to put up the money I will implement this functionality. How about that? If not me, then how about someone else? Should we start a kick-starter to get the ball rolling?

$30K USD aught to do it (2-3 months full time, one developer).

[mbnoimi]

+1

[gturedi]

i tried solve this problem with 2 extensions but not work. +1

[mazzarito]

@ioquatix see the reply by @clefebvre

@gokhan-turedi The extensions I made are working fine on LM17 if you follow the directions properly... It's a little hacky to setup but, it works fine once it's going, I'm using them daily.

[ioquatix]

@mazzarito Yes that may be true but clearly a need is not being met. I was proposing an alternative, i.e. do you want the feature so much that you'd be willing pay for it? If someone is willing to pay for it I'm sure there are developers who are capable and will do the work.

[mazzarito]

@ioquatix Part of the issue with this that I don't think has been addressed is that the way things are coded now make it difficult to have more than 2 panels:

Right now the panel objects are stored like "Panel1" and "Panel2" IIRC, we would need to convert this to an array and allow for infinite panels. Next problem is positioning. Currently the only way to move panels is to select from the drop downs some static positions. With more than 2 panels, the combination of positions scales infinitely, so this no longer is a functional UI. We'd need to design a way to drag panels around and stuff. Just to be clear, doing this will probably break just about every extension that's been made.

So far I don't think @clefebvre has offered up an explanation this detailed, but from what I can fathom, the work/reward ratio on this makes it difficult to justify right now. Unless we come up with a laundry list of things we'd like to change with the panels system that's long enough (I'm sure this is accumulating and once a tipping point is reached we'll get this rewrite). For me personally, the extension/applet combo I created is working fine and solves my need for now, it preserves the same workflow I had in gnome 2. Also, there is mate for those who want old style panels, although the MATE experience is becoming more dated by the hour.

TLDR; The panel system most likely needs a complete overhaul which in turn will entail overhauling many if not all the default extensions. Testing them, etc.

[ioquatix]

@mazzarito Thanks for the detailed explanation. In the end, it seems like it makes sense to improve Cinnamon in this way even if it requires a lot of work. Perhaps the panel metaphor is incorrect and should be replaced with something else.

[skibum1981]

I'm not sure it's that complicated @mazzarito. At the very least it seems simple to just enforce the same extensions on each panel. I know this is limited but this is probably how people most often use panels on each screen. Your solution is pretty close to this, no?

[skibum1981]

Agreed, though, there must be a reason why @clefebvre hasn't done this, as it's literally been one of the most requested features. What I'm suggesting is a not completely general approach but still enough to satisfy the masses.

[ioquatix]

LOL @ "Satisfy the masses"

[mtwebster]

Speaking as a developer, what @mazzarito said - it is that complicated, and it also comes along with a bunch of 'while we're doing that let's do X and Y also' and probably a dozen or so subtle regressions to follow up on later.

• It needs to be easy and obvious to configure
• Ideally, it uses a drag-and-drop method of arrangement (at the same time we should make it so you can drag new applets directly onto the panel, rather than the current add-then-move flow. This has its own set of challenges.)
• It needs to present no regressions or breaks to our applet API

The existing panel code works well enough for just two panels, but we would end up rewriting most of it to make sure it's done right, and be stable, instead of some sort of half-measure (limited number of panels or something).

This isn't a light, weekend undertaking. It's also not something that's currently broken or in need of repair.

Now speaking entirely personally, I've learned that the surest way to make sure I fail to get something accomplished is for me to promise to work on it. This is not a job, so I think I subconsciously resent anything or any one trying to guide my development goals. Money doesn't matter for me in this. I will continue to work on what I feel is necessary for the health of the project, and what makes me happy - maybe some day that will dovetail into this request or maybe someone else is planning to work on it as we speak.

[ioquatix]

@mtwebster Yes, this is clearly a feature request, not a bug report.

Speaking from a business point of view, if lots of users are requesting a feature and it makes sense, generally speaking it is a good idea to make it a priority to implement.

[mtwebster]

Agreed, but until Mint 17 a good deal of our development effort had to go towards dealing with constant, and constantly-breaking-stuff changes. I can't think back on a time when I would have felt we were in a good place to tackle this until recently. I can say though, I have a good hunch that this may happen for 2.6. I will not say more than that, so as not to jinx or unduly influence things :).

[domadden]

Does anyone know of some other program that could replace this functionality for now? Or at least something similar? Keep up the good work devs!

[mazzarito]

@domadden see my older post in march for links...

[dalcde]

Or you can try to compile this yourself: #3746
It's functioning but might have some bugs.
Bug reports are welcome

[mdsitton]

Might try to test it out later today :)

[domadden]

@mazzarito Nice! It works. Is there any way to make the buttons on the panel not be in the center? If not i guess i could get used to this. It's not too bad.

[mdsitton]

hmm so one issue... if you remove all of the panels there is no way to get them back :|

[mdsitton]

Not sure if its my 3 monitor configuration, but i cant get the move panel function working. Also add panel doesn't seem to work really either. then remove panel isnt working sometimes. ( yeah i know this is a bit vague :( )

[dalcde]

Weird. It seems to work well with 1 or 2 monitors.

[dalcde]

Added a "Add new panel" button in cinnamon-settings

[mdsitton]

Like i can get one panel to move monitors, then nothing after that. Personally i think it should just be when your in panel edit mode. You click and drag a panel to the monitor you want it on. I don't really see the need for a move panel option. And as it is its not clear what you have to do to make that panel to move.

[dalcde]

That's what I tried last time, and the code quickly became a mess. It can be attempted later, but first we get something to work properly so that it can be merged first :)

[dalcde]

Also can you try to capture a video of what you attempted and how it failed? I can't seem to reproduce it on my machine.

[mdsitton]

I'm away from my desktop for a while, but whenever i get back ill make sure to do that. How is the panel movement meant to work exactly? I hadn't fully figured that out before i left.

[mdsitton]

So just got back, and im playing with it a bit more. Another issue that im seeing quite a lot are ghost panels. Panels with nothing on them that with varying levels on interactivity. Some of them i can right click on and get that context menu. Others don't do anything. On the ones that do give me a context menu being in edit mode, and selecting remove panel does nothing.

[dalcde]

You're getting weird issues that neither I nor JosephM has experienced. Just to make things clear, this is how add/move panels work:

When you click the add/move panels button, dummy panels will appear in possible locations of the new panel (they can be seen if and only if you are using the default theme). You click on one of theme to select where you want the panel to be. If you change your mind, you can press Esc to cancel the action.

[mdsitton]

That would explain why It was hard to figure out how to move panels. I wasn't using the default theme.

Still getting those ghost panels though. However i have figured out when they start happening.

Seems that moving any blank panel works perfectly. However when moving panels with the default applet configuration on it things, they create ghost panels.

Haven't tested with alternative panel configurations to see if there is any specific applet that is causing it though.

Also here is a bit of clarification with what I'm calling ghost panels, and how they behave.

They basically seem to reference the panel that left it behind. So if i select move on a ghost panel it moves the original panel that created it.

Selecting remove panel on a ghost panel removes neither the ghost panel nor the original panel. However it does break the original panel. When the original panel gets broken like that it cannot be moved or removed, and copying the applets on it seems to crash everything.

Also another issue i came across when trying to track this down, removing a panel doesn't remove the applets from that panel. So whenever you add a new panel it recycles previous panel configurations. Also because of that applets will show as still on a panel, but they have an error status(in the applet settings menu).

All my previous posts are basically invalid :P

[dalcde]

Do you get errors in .xsession-errors/lg?

The retaining of applets is intentional (and was the default behaviour with the old hardcoded 2-panels iirc). It would be annoying if you accidentally removed a panel and have to add all the applets back. However, I also see cases where the user would expect the applets to disappear. It wouldn't be difficult to change this behaviour, so I guess we can sort all bugs out before going into these design decisions.

[mdsitton]

I'm on arch, and don't use a login manager or anything. But yeah there are errors in what would i'm assuming is normally output to .xsession-errors

Here is what i have if it is of any help.

https://gist.github.com/mdsitton/bfa119ba361adbcbf3af

[dalcde]

Try again. Just updated branch

[mdsitton]

Try what again?

[mdsitton]

Oh alright

[mdsitton]

Seems to be fixed, awesome.

[mdsitton]

Now the only complaint i really have is that pressing the super key doesn't open a menu located on the monitor your focused on at that time. Then a feature request: add the ability to show only the applications on a monitor in the window list. Not really sure how difficult those will end up being.

Great job so far though.

edit:
There are also some graphical glitches on the panel when hovering the mouse over the applications menu button.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/37405488/cinnaglitch.png

[JosephMcc]

For now for the window list applet you can use this: http://cinnamon-spices.linuxmint.com/applets/view/181

[anibyl]

+1

[AnatolyRugalev]

+1

[nutztherookie]

+1

[sysadmiral]

+1

[cristiklein]

+1

[cavb]

+1

[anandrkris]

Guys, it is known fact that this is a much needed feature. There is a PR already so please dont bump. Its bumped hard enough already. 😜

[artem-sidorenko]

@dalcde are there any special backgrounds for closing this?

[mtwebster]

This work was merged last night:

23befb8...a60fc6c

Big thanks to @dalcde

There will be bugs - please file new reports for any issues discovered.

Known issues:

• If you have adjacent monitors with different heights (for example, a 1050 and a 1080), even if you disable the 'pointer barrier' you will have an issue with moving from one lower panel to the next, as the 30 pixel shortfall creates its own barrier. We're waiting to see if this is a concern before trying to do anything about it.
• There are panel highlight styles that let you know which panel you're configuring, that currently only exist in the default Cinnamon theme - we're looking at ways to make this universally visible, regardless of theme.
• Our stock applets have not been adapted to understand multiple monitors yet (like the window list) - we'll be going through all of them shortly to a) enable multiple instances where possible, and b) make them work properly if/when there are multiple instances on multiple monitors.

Can we worry about world peace now? :)

[Garibaldo]

Many thanks to @dalcde and @mtwebster ; you guys are really great!

[mazzarito]

@dalcde @mtwebster thanks for all your hard work this is awesome. The solution I hacked together around a year ago included a version of window list applet which allowed for choosing which monitor to show the window list from, should work temporarily for anyone who needs it until the extensions can be worked on:

http://cinnamon-spices.linuxmint.com/applets/view/181

[nri-pl]

+1

[taquangtrung]

+1 from me. I really miss this feature after switching from Xfce to Cinnamon