[Pkg-xfce-devel] Bug#655765: Bug#655765: Panel moves when enabling second display, but doesn't move back when disabling

[Wookey]

+++ Yves-Alexis Perez [2012-01-14 10:40 +0100]:

> How exactly do you enable/disable the external display? Because here,
> nothing happens if I only plug it, so I have to run xrandr --auto.
> Similar, when I unplug it, I need to do xrandr --auto to disable the
> external output. At that point, the bottom panel is perfectly located on
> the bottom of my laptop display.

OK. I used grandr.

I have LVDS1, natural resolution 1440x900 (Lenovo x200s), and VGA1
giving many option. max of 1280x1024.

So, yes, I agree that unplugging the external display and running
xrandr --auto gets the panel bar back at the bottom of LVDS1.

Leaving it plugged in and doing xrandr --output VGA1 --off also
returns the panel to the bottom.

However using grandr:
click on 'VGA1' to select it. untick 'off', select max resolution of
1280x1024 and click 'apply', and external display is enabled, panel
moves to bottom of it. 
Now tick 'Off' and 'apply' and external display is turned off, but
panel remains at '-1024' and thus not visible on LVDS1

quitting grandr and running "xrandr --output VGA1 --off" at this point
prings the panel back to '-900' and visibility.
So I guess I have a workaround now, and perhaps this is a bug in
grandr, rather than xfce4-panel?

It seems that turning 'VGA1' 'off' in grandr is not the same as
running xrandr --output VGA1 --off. 

> > It would be good if the panel noticed these changes in both directions
> > and calulated its best position whever a screen is added or removed,
> > in order to keep itself visible on screens that are currently in use. 
> 
> Afaict it's already the case.

It is using xrandr, but not grandr. 

Do you find the same as me?

I see that grandr has now been removed from unstable and testing as
'better alternatives are available'.

Looking at what these might be for xfce I find that the 'display'
settings app has equivalent functionality for turning on/off displays,
and turning the external display on/off with that does indeed have the
panel moving as desired.

So it seems this bug boils down to 'user still using outdated and now
buggy display control app'. 

However 'display' does not have the grandr functionality for putting
screens side-by-side rather than simply cloning. Do you know what tool
one is expected to use for this these days? Without a replacement for
this grandr still has utility.

Wookey
-- 
Principal hats:  Linaro, Emdebian, Wookware, Balloonboard, ARM
http://wookware.org/