xrandr 1.2 - reorder outputs (How to get LVDS before VGA)

[Mildred]

Hi,


I believe this question was raised few times already ... But I couldn't
find any satisfying answer yet. So ...

Well, to start, let me tell you I'm using the new 'intel' driver,
and it works fairly well, thanks to all the developers. But when it
comes to multi-screen display ... let's say that things could be a
little better

I have 4 outputs that xrandr can use: VGA, LVDS, TDMS-1 and TV (in that
order). VGA is where I connect my external monitor (or projector) and
LVDS is my laptop screen.

Now, when I want to use a xrandr configuration like this one:

	xrandr --output VGA --below LVDS (--mode 800x600)

I get the VGA screen below LVDS. But it seems that now LVDS became the
primary output, and that's not what I wanted. That means that:
- gnome-panel is on VGA now
- during actual presentations, I had some popups showing here and there
on the VGA display (very annoying when you try to be convincing with
GNU/Linux instead of MacOS)
- I believe that some notification popups can show there as well

So, that's very annoying.

I'm aware that the xrandr order wasn't meant to be significant, but
whenever you like it or not, there is an order (that's not just plain
random), and some application will rely on that order (isn't it most
applications nowadays ?)

I'm also aware that there are few workarounds here and there (you can
move windows away, you can move the gnome-panel as well) but these are
not satisfying because during a presentation, that's hardly something
you want to do.

So, what about a new option in xrandr that would let the user reorder
outputs. For example something like:

	xrandr --output VGA --after LVDS
	xrandr --output LVDS --before VGA
	xrandr --reorder LVDS,VGA,TDMS-1,TV


Or, do you have a better solution ?



Well, while I'm in this e-mail, I can talk about something related.
When you have a configuration like:

	xrandr --output VGA  --mode 800x600  --same-as LVDS \
	       --output LVDS --mode 1280x600

That is the VGA output is included in the LVDS output.
Currently, when I do that, I get the gnome-panel in the middle of my
screen fitting the VGA output. When I maximise windows, they get
maximised to the VGA output and I can still see parts of the desktop
when I look at LVDS.

How are applications supposed to handle that ?

In fact, for the moment, this does exactly what I want. That is, when
I'm going to show videos on the VGA output this afternoon, they will
get full screen and fit exactly the VGA output.

But what if I wanted the contrary ? Full screen on LVDS and not VGA ?

Perhaps the output chosen to maximise a window is chosen given the
outputs order ... One more reason to be able to change them. Perhaps
that's something else ...




Thank you for reading me


Mildred

-- 
Mildred Ki'lya
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