I, like many others, have been getting worn down by Microsoft’s awful changes to Windows over the years, and I finally said enough is enough and moved to Linux.

I had a little linux experience beforehand due to my work, but this is my first time using it as my main OS. I am still very much a noob when it comes to linux.

So far it’s been great though. I am running Linux mint.

I am having 2 issues I can’t seem to solve, though. The taskbar (or I guess as Linux is calling it, the Panel) was only on one monitor rather than both. I managed to put a second one on my other monitor, and I enabled the “show windows from all workspaces” option on both panels. But it isn’t behaving like I have come to expect using the Windows one.

For example, both panels have the icon for Firefox. If I have Firefox open on my main monitor, and click the firefox icon on my second monitor’s panel, it just opens a new window instead of bringing the existing firefox window into focus.

An example of why this annoys me that sometimes I am playing a game that is full screen, and the flow i have over a decade of experience with is that i could click that firefox logo on the second monitor to bring up the window i already have open.

Is it possible to just have 2 identical panels that function the way the taskbar does on windows?

I am willing to switch from cinnamon to a different DE if thats what it takes. I tried installing xfce, but it seems like the issue is exactly the same there too. Not sure if switching to a different DE will help.

Or is the solution to just use a different applet than the default one in the panel?

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, this is the only linux forum I am aware of.

EDIT: Strangely, it seems like this issue is only occurring on the second monitor. If an application is open on the second monitor, but I click the icon on the first monitor’s panel, the behavior I want happens, it just puts the existing window in focus. Not sure why that is, the applets on both panels are identical as far as I can tell.

  • @BitrotEnglish
    6•7 months ago

    The grouped window list applet seems to get confused when there are multiple instances of the applet. It will display windows that you create on that monitor on a separate workspace (new desktop) but not the ones you create on the other monitor.

    The window list applet seems to work more like you would expect when the option is turned on, so maybe that’s a workaround. It doesn’t group windows though.

    IMO this is a bug and not the expected behavior.

    Edit: it seems like it is coded to act this way, but I still think it is bad behavior with the “all workspaces” option enabled. There is a workaround, but YMMV: https://electro-dan.co.uk/blog/34/linux-mint-cinnamon-multi-monitor-show-all-apps-on-every-panel

    Edit 2: @jjsca@infosec.pub in the Applets menu, Downloads tab, CobiWindowList works more like you would expect. It doesn’t show from every Workspace (virtual desktop) but will show from each monitor. The setting for both used to exist in the grouped window list but was apparently broken (from github issues).

    • @jjsca@infosec.pubOP
      3•7 months ago

      Oh my god. CobiWindowList just completely solved my issue. You are my hero. Thank you so much for this.

      I don’t want to piggyback with an unrelated issue, but i have one other linux issue I am wondering if you can help with.

      I have 2 monitors on my desk, and a big TV on the wall on the other side of the room. I have an HDMI cable running along the wall to connect it to my computer. I rarely use the TV, I only turn it on when I want to play games in bed / not actually at my PC.

      I have it disabled in Linux and that works as expected. However, I have noticed that that “setting” doesn’t kick in until I have passed the login screen. And for some reason, on the login screen, it really wants the powered off TV to be the primary display. So when I am on the login screen, I can’t actually see the login prompt.

      I am wondering if there is a way to make that display stay disabled always unless I manually enable it. Or an alternate fix, make the correct monitor be the primary display while on the login screen.

      • @yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2•7 months ago

        Have you found the display settings in Cinnamon? There should be a way to toggle primary screens similar to what you’re used to on Windows (perhaps w/ some quirks).

        I also used Linux Mint with Cinnamon for several years, but it’s more than a year since I’ve switched to Fedora, so my memory’s a little fuzzy.

        • @jjsca@infosec.pubOP
          2•7 months ago

          Yes, I did that immediately on loading into the OS for the first time. I set the correct one as my primary display, and disabled the one I don’t want it to use. It works fine when logged in, but i suspect it isn’t loading those settings until it gets into the user account and thats why it isn’t respecting what I set.

          • @yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.mlEnglish
            2•7 months ago

            Have you tried hitting the Super key and searching the menus for the word “login”? According to this article, there should be a separate configuration screen for the login window. Otherwise, try searching DDG for “linux mint cinnamon primary login screen”—hopefully someone else has had the same problem before you.

            The only other thing I can think of is user settings tend to be saved as dot-text files in the user’s home directory (e.g. in /home/USER/.config/), but I wonder if there’s a similar config for system wide settings, like in /etc/ or /opt/ or something like that. Hopefully someone else who knows more than I do can chime in.

            Good luck!

          • @MsFlammkuchen@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            1•7 months ago

            The login screen is handled by the display manager (DM). Linux Mint Cinnamon (not sure if you’re using that) uses lightdm with the slick greeter by default.

            Here are two links with different solutions:

            https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/LightDM#Multiple-monitor_setup you can get the settings you have from running the command xrandr without any options or using arandr as described in the other link.

            https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=360800 Here I would tweak it a bit and not use chmod 700, but instead use chmod 744.