dash to dock multi monitor

[jaccoh]

Is it possible to make dash on dock appear separately on multiple monitors? So for example, 2 docks, one on each monitor?

[franglais125]

Hi all, I just updated (rebased) the branch to follow the latest developments, and more specifically to include a nice fix for Wayland: thanks Michele!

From what I gathered, the feedback has been rather positive about how the multi-monitor dash is working. However, if anyone else willing to test it, please let me know if you find problems.

https://github.com/franglais125/dash-to-dock/tree/multi_monitor

[jonnjonzzn]

@franglais125 I have just updated my workstation at work with a fresh install of fedora 25. I just installed your latest update/rebase and will pass along my feedback. Initially everything is working as expected and looks good.

Thank you.

Michael

[franglais125]

@jonnjonzzn thanks for lettming me know!

To all: again, following recent commits, I rebased multi-monitor today.

[thejacer87]

i installed yesterday, other than what appeared to be some conflicts while trying to install it, the extension is working beautifully so far

[harry-cpp]

Found a bug with overview on second monitor:

[franglais125]

@cra0zy Are you referring to the overlap between the dash and the window? If so, then I think it's a duplicate of https://github.com/micheleg/dash-to-dock/issues/410.

[harry-cpp]

@cra0zy Are you referring to the overlap between the dash and the window? If so, then I think it's a duplicate of #410.

Yup.

[franglais125]

Thanks, the problem does not originate from the multi-monitor implementation, but still, I'll try to see if I can fix this.

[michelebariani]

Tested this for a few days now, no problems so far. Great work, thanks!

[franglais125]

For anyone interested: I just rebased the multi-monitor branch again to include the latest commits from the master branch.

Cheers!

https://github.com/franglais125/dash-to-dock/tree/multi_monitor

[thejacer87]

thanks man, any ETA on when itll get accepted into master?

[franglais125]

@thejacer87 unfortunately, no. AFAIK, @micheleg doesn't have an extra monitor to test the changes. The modifications are not minor, and even though the multi-monitor branch has received positive feedback so far, it is difficult to review and merge code that you can't test properly.

I'm doing my best to keep it up to date until it can be merged (hopefully).

[thejacer87]

sounds good, keep up the good work

[DaRo0]

@franglais125 Tested with Ubuntu 16.04 (gnome 3.18.3) and working perfect! Thanks buddy

[gabrielmoreira]

I have been waiting for a long time to see this feature integrated into the master. I use 3 monitors at work, and at home, sometimes I use 1 monitor along with the TV. And I've never had a problem using this @franglais125 branch. Using Manjaro (4.9.15-1-MANJARO) GNOME Shell 3.22.3.

[micheleg]

I do agree this is a nice feature to have, and I'd like to see it merged (@gabrielmoreira I'd like to have three monitor too!)

@franglais125 how do you judge your branch on a scale of "it's an hack"..."I thoroughly thought about how to structure things"?

I haven't looked at the code recently. I guess we are somewhere in between, also because you probably tried to not disrupt too much the current code structure. So my question is, would a bigger core reorganization to accommodate the existence of multiple docks be desirable?

More generally, what kind of multimonitor are we looking for? Duplicated dock on all screen? Screen restricted dock? Dock moving from monitor to monitor (à la MacOS if I remember correctly). Should it depend on the workspace settings (workspace on secondary monitors or not)?

[franglais125]

@micheleg you bring up some nice questions!

Structure

As you said, the patches I propose can feel a bit like a hack in the sense that I tried not to be disruptive, while keeping a sane implementation. However, I did think of a consistent structure:

• Just like the dock contains a dash, which contains AppIcons, what I introduce is a dockManager, which contains docks, which then contain the necessary objects.
• Although there are 6 patches this is the main commit to look at: [bffca45f32bb64d663dd63a8b578654308f34a62].
• The other commits are secondary (but necessary to avoid crashes). For instance, we need proper signal handling, as docks can now be dynamically created/deleted. Since I'm moving a lot of signals to a signalHandler, the changeset might look big, but it's actually a large copy-paste, with appropriate brackets.

What kind of multimonitor are we looking for?

For now, the multi-monitor option simply duplicates the dock on all screens. My idea was first to get the basic support in, and then introduce subsequent smaller features.

• For instance, it would be nice to have a "screen isolation" option, just like workspace isolation.
• I'm not aware of how the dock behaves on MacOS. A dock simply appears on the screen where the mouse is active?
• As for adding more settings (dependent on workspace settings for instance), I think this is not difficult to add within the dockManager class. It's only a matter of adapting _createDocks() and _deleteDocks().

PR?

At this point I think it would be simply better to start a PR and discuss structure/commits over there.

[gabrielmoreira]

@micheleg, you will need an extra monitor when this feature is merged.

I recommend at least buying a cheap monitor $ 119 https://goo.gl/scEvvu

I can contribute $25, if we can get some more donors I think it's worth it for everyone. https://www.bountysource.com/issues/1218983-dash-to-dock-multi-monitor

What do you think? If you agree, I can make the donation.

[franglais125]

@gabrielmoreira I was going to suggest something like this too. I can chip in as well, if @micheleg is interested!

[micheleg]

Thanks all for the offer of support. Unfortunately, the reason I don't have a secondary monitor is really lack of space for it rather than economical affordability... However, I can occasionally hook up my laptop to a tv, it's just not the most comfortable developing location, especially for extensive testing and bug hunting.

That said, I intend now to work on this feature and try to merge it in the next release, time permitting.

[skerit]

I'm looking forward to this, we'll definitely need it now Unity is dead.

[quangtt-rks]

Great work! That's what I'm looking for, thank you!

[esbennn]

This is great! An extra nice touch might be the option to have different positions on each monitor. For example, on my left monitor i'd like to keep the dock to the left, on the right monitor i'd keep it to the right. That way, it doesn't "catch" my mouse when moving it from right to left monitor.

[uloco]

How can i try this new functionality or when do you plan to push an update to the gnome extensions store? I tried building from sorce and installing manually on ubuntu-gnome, but it did not appear to have any differences to the official version.... I think, I did something wrong....

[franglais125]

@uloco if you install from source, I assume you mean running make install. You need to checkout the multi_monitor branch to get the new feature. Something like:

git clone https://github.com/micheleg/dash-to-dock
cd dash-to-dock/
git checkout multi_monitor
make && make install

A word of caution: it's an experimental branch, and might have a few problems still, hence why it isn't merged yet.

[uloco]

It works, thanks! Looks like I forgot to check out the right branch :see_no_evil:

[franglais125]

Hi everyone!

The work to enable multi-monitor support has been included in the master branch. Thanks a lot @micheleg for the review and inclusion of this feature! In the testing I did things seemed to work fine, but if people can test more and report on bugs you find,it would be great to make sure we haven't broken anything.

We can perhaps keep this open until a new version is uploaded to e.g.o, so that it's easier to find for people looking for this issue.

Cheers!

[micheleg]

This has been merged into master. Please provide any useful feedback, in terms of bugs and possible improvements.

[micheleg]

What is the behaviour with the extension disabled? Does the icon show up in the default dash (inside the overview)?

[franglais125]

@micheleg I think you meant to write the last comment in #483 ?

[harry-cpp]

Is it possible for the app drawer to be displayed on the second monitor?

[micheleg]

@franglais125 Yes, too many tabs github tabs open...

[micheleg]

@cra0zy You mean the grid of applications you get in the overview?

[harry-cpp]

@cra0zy You mean the grid of applications you get in the overview?

yissss

[thejacer87]

does that fact that this is in master mean that enabling it from the gnome extensions website will have this feature in there?

edit: just tried and didn't seem to work. i just realized what "e.g.o" was in franglais last post.

any ETA for the ego release?

[micheleg]

It will be included in the next release. I'm waiting for some feedback but I should upload a new release reasonably soon (~1 week time).

[harry-cpp]

I feel forgotten :(

[franglais125]

@cra0zy While the answer to your question could be "yes it's possible", I don't think it is straightforward. I'd love to implement it, but I doubt it will be worth the trouble.

Perhaps I'm mistaken, but the (short) look I took at the code looked like a hard thing to implement.

[micheleg]

@cra0zy this is something that could be implemented, although I'm not sure how easy it is. I've always tried to avoid disrupting too much the default shell behaviour and not to do things that are outside the scope of this extension. I will consider it, but I'll think twice before doing it. Would you mind opening an issue for it?

[harry-cpp]

492

[uloco]

Found a bug... When you have two windows on the second screen open and you tap the super key, the left windows' close button becomes unaccessible. This happens, because the dash just overlays the screen but should pad the screen to the right. My dash settings are like classic unity: a static dock on the left, full length top to bottom, always visible, both monitors enabled.

[franglais125]

@uloco Indeed, this was reported some time ago #410, we still need to fix it. The bug is also present even if you don't use "Show on all monitors".

[harry-cpp]

Found a bug?: Minimizing animation is always tied to one of the docks even if you drag the window to a second monitor. Not sure if you can do anything to fix it tho.

[franglais125]

@cra0zy I forgot to comment about that. Normally windows should minimize to the corresponding dock (screen where the window is).

Can anybody else reproduce this problem? On my system it's working fine, i.e. the window minimizes to the correct dock (assuming you are using multiple docks obviously)>

[harry-cpp]

Just FYI I am running GNOME 3.24

[franglais125]

@cra0zy I just tried on Gnome 3.24 and still can't reproduce the problem. If you are still seeing that behavior, can you open a new issue and describe what's happening?

[luisvasquez]

Hi everyone!

The work to enable multi-monitor support has been included in the master branch. Thanks a lot @micheleg for the review and inclusion of this feature! In the testing I did things seemed to work fine, but if people can test more and report on bugs you find,it would be great to make sure we haven't broken anything.

We can perhaps keep this open until a new version is uploaded to e.g.o, so that it's easier to find for people looking for this issue.

Cheers!

Does it work on gnome-shell 3.18?

Thanks!

[d2a-raudenaerde]

Please release the multi monitor version, so I can ditch Unity :)

[franglais125]

@luisvasquez it should work on 3.18, but I didn't test that in a while. Let me know if you find problems related to multi-monitor!

[collinpeters]

multi_monitor branch is gone?