[SOLVED] Show laptop display on external screen in Mageia 4?

[seanmacsuibhne]

I use an external screen to view my laptop at home as the external screen is bigger. I also use an external mouse and keyboard. This arrangement worked great in Mageia 3. There is nothing to setup or change and the external monitor is a clone of the laptop screen.

On Mageia 4 I get 2 different screens. The laptop is the normal screen and the external one is an extension of the laptop screen. I do not have mageia (Start) button at the bottom left of the external screen and if I start any thing from the menu or taskbar it only appears on the laptop screen. If I set the external screen to be the main display then the Mageia Button moves to the external screen but anything programme launched shows on the laptop screen only.

What am I doing wrong?

Seán

[doktor5000]

How do you set the external screen to be main display?

Also, what desktop environment do you use?

[seanmacsuibhne]

> How do you set the external screen to be main display?

In Mageia 4 Click on system settings on the taskbar at the bottom and pick Display and monitoe in the Hardware section. In Display Configuration I see 2 Monitors . If I click on the star, that makes it the Primary output.

There isnt any way way to change the position of the external screen in M4 as you could in M3 in Display Configuration.
That is the setting I am looking for I think.




> Also, what desktop environment do you use?

I am using the default KDE one.

Thank you for replying.

[seanmacsuibhne]

Hi
I have a command line fix
the settings for multiple screens are in a file in the directory ~/.kde4/share/apps/kscreen/
so type

ls ~/.kde4/share/apps/kscreen/

Make a back up of the file first by using the cp command eg

cp 764556476445 764556476445.bak

Your file name wont be 764556476445 so copy what ever your one is called.
then edit the file that is in the directory.
Then look in the file for
"pos" : { "x" : 0, "y" : 0 }
that will be the x and y coordinates for the laptop screen
Then look in the file for something similar but with a greater than 0 valuse for the x coordinate. Change it to 0 and save file.
Logout and log back in and the external screen has now the same starting position as the laptop screen.
In my case the laptop is not showing the entire area that the external one is. but it gets me out of my problem.
If I understood more about the format of the config file I could have both screens showing the same content with in their respective resolutions.
All tyhe best

Seán

[doktor5000]

You can freely move the positions via drag & drop of those screens.
Resolution can be changed at the bottom of each displays via the rightmost button, which offers a dropdown list of supported resolutions.

Is that what you wanted to know?

[yankee495]

I just got a nice projector for $10 at a thrift store so I Googled the same thing. You drag one on top of the other to clone and click the star icon to set the main display. Be sure to hit apply or you can click all day and not see changes. Like Dok said, drag them left or right, top or bottom, but, to clone, drag them on top of each other.

[seanmacsuibhne]

> You can freely move the positions via drag & drop of those screens.
> Resolution can be changed at the bottom of each displays via the rightmost button, which offers a dropdown list of supported resolutions.
>
> Is that what you wanted to know?

Yes thats close enough. And a lot easier than what I did myself. I cant say its obvious though and I couldn't find anything on google that gave istructions on how to get the external monitor to act as the main disply.

The external screen isnt a clone of the laptop though. There are bits missing on the laptop screen at the bottom and to the right. I wouldn't say that the problem is solved, unless what |I am asking for isn't possible?

Thank you both for your help

All the best

Seán
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Ná bris nós agus ná tosaigh ceann nua!

[yankee495]

> . There are bits missing on the laptop screen at the bottom and to the right. I wouldn't say that the problem is solved, unless what |I am asking for isn't possible?

Thank you both for your help

All the best

Seán
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Ná bris nós agus ná tosaigh ceann nua!

That has to do with resolution. Also when you search, search for this "kscreen clone monitor" or KDE clone monitor".

Be very specific and you'll get plenty of matches. If you searched "Mageia.....whatever" you limited your results.

[seanmacsuibhne]

>

That has to do with resolution. Also when you search, search for this "kscreen clone monitor" or KDE clone monitor".

Be very specific and you'll get plenty of matches. If you searched "Mageia.....whatever" you limited your results.

Ok Thank you very much. I am not sure that your suggested search terms would be that obvious to someone looking to resolve this situation. A normal user or a new user would not necessarily know that "kscreen" has any involvement or even that it exists.

The interface could be a bit more like that in M3 and the default should be that the external screen should be a clone of the laptop screen by default.

Also it now means that I cannot use M4 to live boot a laptop whose screen is broken because you need to make the adjustments to enable full external screen use on the screen you cannot see.

As I say in my sig

"Don't break an established practice or start a new one!"

All the best

Seán
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Ná bris nós agus ná tosaigh ceann nua!

[yankee495]

I fully understand. It could use a little more info right there about cloning and I'm sure the default can be set somewhere, though I don't know where.
Kscreen is fairly new and you can uninstall it and install krandr. And yes, new users who think like Windows users Google the OS name "Mageia" when in fact they should Google the desktop environment name a lot of times. With Windows you Google "Windows" to find any information most of the time.

If you just install krandr it will tell you you need to uninstall kscreen first and then install krandr and you can have it back like you like it.

[doktor5000]

I cant say its obvious though and I couldn't find anything on google that gave istructions on how to get the external monitor to act as the main disply.

Yes, you're correct that it's not that obvious how to use it.
Also there's currently not much documentation on kscreen obviously available apart from http://userbase.kde.org/Kscreen
What should also be working is the function key of your laptop to switch display, this cycles to the 4 standard modes:
internal display only, external display only, cloned display, extended desktop

There is more information available via blog posts and videos from the author
http://www.afiestas.org/screen-management-got-magic/
http://www.afiestas.org/kscreen-0-1-alpha-released/
http://www.afiestas.org/kscreen-1-0-released/

Some more documentation:
https://community.kde.org/Solid/Project ... Management
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/KScreen


Totally apart, I like kscreen much better, as setting location of display by entery X and Y coordinates like in the old krandr was really ugly.

[doktor5000]

It seems all the information is there all right and I have embarked on a rediscovery of the wheel exercise! Kscreen so simple when you know how to use it.
I have installed it on Mageia 3 here and I like it too.

Thank you very much for being so helpful and explaining it all so well. I am very grateful.

All the best

Seán
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Ná bris nós agus ná tosaigh ceann nua!

[doktor5000]

Please next time do not use fullquotes, but only use the Reply function. Greatly improves clarity and reading flow

Also, your signature belongs here: ucp.php?i=profile&mode=signature

[seanmacsuibhne]

Thank you again.

Seán

[doktor5000]

Please mark the thread accordingly by editing the topic of the first post and prefix it by [SOLVED], thanks