Skip to content
GitLab
Open
Created by Drei Eck@dreieck

Window cycling popup does not show at all when two monitors configured to mirror output and external monitor is primary.

The "Window cycling popup" (I don't know what is the correct name of this thing; I mean the popup which comes when <ALT>+<TAB> is pressed, see this screenshot for what I mean) does not appear at all for me if I have an external monitor and my laptop monitor configured to show the same content and if I have set my external monitor as primary monitor.

I use two monitors; internal laptop monitor, further on called DSI1, and external monitor, further on called HDMI1, corresponding to the outputs they are connected to as reported by xrandr.

When I have DSI1 and HDMI1 configured to show the same content -- hereby it does not play a role if I have configured my external monitor with the same resolution as the laptop display (and let the scaling be done by the monitor), or if I have configured my external monitor at it's native resolution and do the scaling with xrandr --output HDMI1 --scale <x> --, and when I set xrandr --output HDMI1 --primary (i.e. having the external monitor as primary), the xfwm window cycling popup does not show up at all (on any monitor). If I set xrandr --output DSI1 --primary (i.e. having the laptop monitor as primary), or if I set xrandr --output HDMI1 --unprimary and xrandr --output DSI1 --unprimary (i.e. not having any monitor as primary), the window cycling popup shows up. Also as soon as I change the resolution of HDMI1 or move it a bit with xrandr so that they do not exactly show the same, the window cycling popup shows up even if HDMI1 is primary.

Here the output of xrandr with HDMI1 as primary and both configured at same resolution, scaling done by monitor:

Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1280 x 720, maximum 32767 x 32767
DSI1 connected 1280x720+0+0 right (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
   720x1280      60.08*+
   640x480       59.94  
   720x405       59.51    58.99  
   360x640       60.00  
   640x360       59.84    59.32  
DP1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI1 connected primary 1280x720+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 310mm x 170mm
   1920x1080     60.00 +  50.00    59.94  
   1600x1200     60.00  
   1680x1050     59.88  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1440x900      74.98    59.90  
   1366x768      60.00  
   1280x800      59.91  
   1152x864      75.00  
   1280x768      59.87  
   1280x720      60.00*   50.00    59.99    59.94  
   1440x576      50.00  
   1024x768      75.03    70.07    60.00  
   1440x480      60.00    59.94  
   800x600       72.19    75.00    60.32  
   720x576       50.00  
   720x480       60.00    59.94  
   640x480       75.00    72.81    66.67    60.00    59.94  
   720x400       70.08

Here the output of xrandr with HDMI1 as primary and both configured at native resolution, scaling done by Xorg:

Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1281 x 721, maximum 32767 x 32767
DSI1 connected 1280x720+0+0 right (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
   720x1280      60.08*+
   640x480       59.94  
   720x405       59.51    58.99  
   360x640       60.00  
   640x360       59.84    59.32  
DP1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI1 connected primary 1281x721+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 310mm x 170mm
   1920x1080     60.00*+  50.00    59.94  
   1600x1200     60.00  
   1680x1050     59.88  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1440x900      74.98    59.90  
   1366x768      60.00  
   1280x800      59.91  
   1152x864      75.00  
   1280x768      59.87  
   1280x720      60.00    50.00    59.99    59.94  
   1440x576      50.00  
   1024x768      75.03    70.07    60.00  
   1440x480      60.00    59.94  
   800x600       72.19    75.00    60.32  
   720x576       50.00  
   720x480       60.00    59.94  
   640x480       75.00    72.81    66.67    60.00    59.94  
   720x400       70.08

Here the output of xrandr with no monitor as primary and both configured at same resolution, scaling done by monitor:

Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1280 x 720, maximum 32767 x 32767
DSI1 connected 1280x720+0+0 right (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
   720x1280      60.08*+
   640x480       59.94  
   720x405       59.51    58.99  
   360x640       60.00  
   640x360       59.84    59.32  
DP1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI1 connected 1280x720+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 310mm x 170mm
   1920x1080     60.00 +  50.00    59.94  
   1600x1200     60.00  
   1680x1050     59.88  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1440x900      74.98    59.90  
   1366x768      60.00  
   1280x800      59.91  
   1152x864      75.00  
   1280x768      59.87  
   1280x720      60.00*   50.00    59.99    59.94  
   1440x576      50.00  
   1024x768      75.03    70.07    60.00  
   1440x480      60.00    59.94  
   800x600       72.19    75.00    60.32  
   720x576       50.00  
   720x480       60.00    59.94  
   640x480       75.00    72.81    66.67    60.00    59.94  
   720x400       70.08

Note that the laptop screen is natively portrait but mounted in the laptop landscape, so that it is rotated right to display correctly, and it's native resolution is 720x1280 instead of 1280x720 (rotation does change it to 1280x720 for the user).

Setting xrandr --output HDMI1 --primary I need to do so that Touchégg multitouch gesture recogniser works correctly, see here (Reason is that the laptop display (DSI1) is physically a portrait display so it is to be rotated to display correctly; the external monitor (HDMI1) is landscape, and Touchégg interpretes the rotation and without setting the external screen (HDMI1) as primary it would wrongly think from the configuration of the laptop monitor (DSI1) that it has to rotate the touch gestures. My touchscreen is the external monitor (HDMI1).)