Making laptop display default on extended desktop

I just got a new Lenovo Z50-75 laptop and I have an external display hooked up. The panel appears in the external display and I’ve found no way to switch it to the laptop display…Anyone know how? I’d also like every app to open on the laptop display, so I can put it where I want it

Hi,

open Control Centre > hardware > Displays/Monitors and see if you can duplicate monitors!. Does your laptop have a monitor switch to toggle between monitors?, the FN key plus one of the F keys!, check your handbook if you can!. :smiley:

I don’t want duplicate monitors, I want my extended desktop with the panel and controls on the laptop display, in front of my where they belong. This has not been an issue with any other machine I have or any other version of LInux. So this being the first Linux on a new machine it’s impossible to tell which is the issue…I’m just looking for a fix. I also want all apps to open on the laptop display after which I’ll put them where I want them

Hi,

I don’t have a dual monitor set-up so it’s a bit hard for me to duplicate your problem, this might help you?:

Do you have Nvidia graphics?:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NvidiaMultiMonitors

See also:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DynamicMultiMonitor

@wolfman I installed regular Ubuntu, did my Gnome 2 DE conversion, and the issue isn’t there. So it’s an Ubuntu Mate issue. I’ve got the Ubuntu Mate on a SSD. I swapped the SSD out and put the original 1TB mechanical drive back in to dual-boot Ubuntu with Windows 10, I’m waiting on Windows 10 recovery disks from Lenovo to make the SSD dual-boot, since I’ve had bad luck trying to mirror between mechanical and Solid-State drives.
I’ve bookmarked those links and I’ll check it out in a couple days when I’ve got my dual-boot in and am back on the drive with Ubuntu Mate installed, I hate mechanical drives for regular use because now I know how slow they are (especially in Windoze) after going SS and it makes me crazy.

Maybe one of the devs can shed some light on the matter and hopefully be able to give you more advice than I can!. :smiley:

Which version of Ubuntu Mate are you using?
Have you tried to set the laptop display as your main screen?

Check Control Centre / Displays and select your laptop screen. Then click on the Set as Primary buttun.

@wizd3m I’m currently back to 14.04, I did try 15.10 in the hopes of solving another issue (it didn’t), both have the same display issue.
If it was as easy as clicking a “set as primary” button I wouldn’t be here in the forum asking…there is no such animal in the Mate control center/monitors section, not that I’ve located anyway.
I’m patiently waiting for the 16.04 release in the hopes that this and a couple of other issues are dealt with…we’ll see

I just posted the answer for 15.10 and 16.04 in case you used one of them, in 14.04 it needs a bit more tweaking :slight_smile:

Open mate-terminal and type the following:

pluma ~/.config/monitors.xml

You will get something like the following:

<monitors version="1">
  <configuration>
      <clone>no</clone>
      <output name="VGA-0">
          <vendor>SAM</vendor>
          <product>0x0115</product>
          <serial>0x47533139</serial>
          <width>1280</width>
          <height>1024</height>
         <rate>75</rate>
          <x>1920</x>
          <y>0</y>
          <rotation>normal</rotation>
          <reflect_x>no</reflect_x>
          <reflect_y>no</reflect_y>
          <primary>no</primary>
      </output>
      <output name="DVI-D-0">
      </output>
      <output name="HDMI-0">
          <vendor>PHL</vendor>
          <product>0xc0b3</product>
          <serial>0x00005d5d</serial>
          <width>1920</width>
          <height>1080</height>
          <rate>60</rate>
          <x>0</x>
          <y>0</y>
          <rotation>normal</rotation>
          <reflect_x>no</reflect_x>
          <reflect_y>no</reflect_y>
          <primary>yes</primary>
      </output>
  </configuration>
</monitors>

In this file you see a line like <primary>yes</primary> and <primary>no</primary>. You need to change both lines so they read the opposite.

So find the line that says <primary>yes</primary> and change that to <primary>no</primary> and then find the line that says <primary>no</primary> and change that to <primary>yes</primary>.

So in my case the file would look like:

<monitors version="1">
  <configuration>
      <clone>no</clone>
      <output name="VGA-0">
          <vendor>SAM</vendor>
          <product>0x0115</product>
          <serial>0x47533139</serial>
          <width>1280</width>
          <height>1024</height>
         <rate>75</rate>
          <x>1920</x>
          <y>0</y>
          <rotation>normal</rotation>
          <reflect_x>no</reflect_x>
          <reflect_y>no</reflect_y>
          <primary>yes</primary>
      </output>
      <output name="DVI-D-0">
      </output>
      <output name="HDMI-0">
          <vendor>PHL</vendor>
          <product>0xc0b3</product>
          <serial>0x00005d5d</serial>
          <width>1920</width>
          <height>1080</height>
          <rate>60</rate>
          <x>0</x>
          <y>0</y>
          <rotation>normal</rotation>
          <reflect_x>no</reflect_x>
          <reflect_y>no</reflect_y>
          <primary>no</primary>
      </output>
  </configuration>
</monitors>

I had to logout en login again, but it did the trick.

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@wizd3m Ok, thanks very much. I’ll have to wait 20 days for the 16.04 release, it’s bad to do too much read/write to a SSD so I’m not gonna go crazy changing out OSes more than necessary…What sort of tweaks are you talking about for 14.04?

@wizd3m I just did it on 14.04 with no tweaking necessary…This is exactly what I wanted. You rock, thank you!

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