with multiple monitors, applications appear on the wrong monitor

[Rick Spencer]

Steps:
1. Have a laptop with an external monitor attached
2. Have the external monitor be to the right of the laption in displays (not mirrored)
3. On the laptop monitor choose System Settings or Displays from the gears menu (the on the laptop monitor)

Result:
The window opens on the external monitor

Expected:
The window opens on the laptop monitor, as the command was invoked from there

This bug occurs on all graphics card types, not just proprietary nvidia.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: unity 5.2.0-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-15.24-generic 3.2.5
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-15-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 1.91-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,decor,grid,regex,compiztoolbox,vpswitch,animation,place,resize,session,imgpng,mousepoll,move,snap,gnomecompat,wall,workarounds,fade,expo,ezoom,scale,unityshell]
Date: Sat Feb 11 15:50:00 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Beta amd64 (20110919)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-01-14 (27 days ago)

[Didier Roche-Tolomelli (didrocks)]

I'm pretty sure it's a duplicate of another bug (with the launcher though), adding it to the list.

[Alexandre Patenaude (alexandrep)]

I'm affected by this bug too, ans it is really annoying when this behavior happens to dialogs, confirmation windows or file selection windows.

I share my external monitor with a laptop (HDMI) and a desktop computer (VGA), and I use to switch the display from time to time to see what happens on my desktop -- so the external monitor does not always show an extension of my laptop's internal monitor. It's annoying when I expect a popup windows to open on my internal monitor -- say because I'm using an app on my laptop monitor while the external gets its inputs from the desktop computer.

[Rick Spencer (rick-rickspencer3)]

fwiw, this has stopped happening to me. I don't know if the bug got fixed or Unity just learned how I do things :)

[FlashBuster (flashbuster)]

This also happens for me, not only for dialogs but also apps.
The launcher is on my primary laptop display and i'm starting apps there, but more often than not the app opens on the secondary.
Is there no fix for this? It's annoying as hell to have to pull every window to the right display again.. :(

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

If you're using NVIDIA then this is probably the same as bug 957786.

[Nick Payne (nick-payne)]

On 12/04/12 13:15, Daniel van Vugt wrote:
> If you're using NVIDIA then this is probably the same as bug 957786.
>
No I don't think so, as you say in that bug that it's a problem with the
proprietary nVidia driver. I'm using the Nouveau driver, not the nVidia
driver.

Regards

Nick

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

On my setup, which is with intel graphics and an external monitor above the laptop monitor rather than right of the laptop monitor:

(a) popup windows open on the external monitor if the originating window is on the external monitor,

(b) if the originating window is on the laptop monitor, popup windows open sometimes on the external monitor but usually on the laptop monitor. However, in the latter case the popup windows appear at the top of the laptop monitor and not centered relative to the originating window (I have seen one exception to this in weeks of use).

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

I spoke too soon. Now with compiz 1:0.9.7.4-0ubuntu3, *all* popup windows are appearing at the top of the laptop monitor, irrespective of the originating window's position.

[walterav (walterav)]

As of today with all the updates on 12.04 amd64 with AMD/ATI H2600xt with galium3d, I was able to "partly" fix this strange Window focus / popup behaviour under the following conditions:

It only works on windows that original(or after alterning) have a smaller "vertical" and or "horizontal" resolution than the smallest screen resolution you use in your multimontior setup(otherwise it defaults to the largest screen another spread bug 919139) and you need to edit the following parameter in ccsm(compiz-config-settingsmanager) therefor it will also place new windows on the screen on which the pointer exist(that pointer option also works right now)!

CCSM>General>Display Settings:
Overlapping Output handling=Prefer smaller output

After this option the "Place Window" plugin finally listens to further settings.

CCSM>Place Windows>General:
Placement mode=centered (just in case)
Multi output mode=Use output device with pointer

After this all popup / new (dialog) windows/applications like chromiumbrowser>printing, or Openoffice>PDF output>nautiluspopup come on the screen where the pointer is postitioned. This makes it finnaly usable!

!!!But still if a program like Blender opens it default jumps to the biggest screen, since it opening state is the resolution of both of the multimonitor screens together!!!

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug 874146, so it is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Feel free to continue to report any other bugs you may find.