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How to change primary monitor permanently (with ATI driver)?

I am running Ubuntu 12.04 (beta) with a triple head setup and GNOME 3 desktop (ie "GNOME" selected not "Ubuntu" at login screen). It seems that it handles multiple monitors by blessing one monitor to receive the Activities bar, Clock, Login Menu, etc. Let's call this the "primary" monitor. How do I change it (permanently) ?

Update: Ok so:

$ xrandr --output DFP4 --primary

Does the trick temporarily. How do I make it permanent? I'm using latest fglrx ATI Catalyst driver

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... maybe this isnt what you are after, but why not just add that command as a startup application? – fossfreedom♦ Mar 15 '12 at 15:48
I'm looking for an answer to this question too, and there should be a way to incorporate this setting into /etc//X11/xorg.conf (or another config file), but I haven't found it yet. I'm personally not in favor of running the xrandr command in a script on startup. For one thing, that won't help the KDM login show up on the correct monitor. (At times, getting the login to show on the intended monitor can be important.) – MountainX Mar 15 '12 at 21:30
My current workaround is to put above command in ~/.xprofile. I don't like this however - and think it would be more appropriately specified in xorg.conf if possible. – user1131467 Mar 16 '12 at 0:55

marked as duplicate by Bruno Pereira♦ Jan 3 at 4:34

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1 Answer

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By opening System Settings > Displays you can change your "primary" screen by dragging the black little bar to the display you want and hit the Apply button. Restarted my PC and i didn't have to use xrandr anymore ^_^

Better explanation than mine you can find here: http://www.thebinaryidiot.com/archives/2011/11/11/gnome-shell-3-2-and-multiple-monitors/

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Found a solution here: askubuntu.com/a/871/29540. Apparently, there's no longer such a thing as "Primary Monitor" (at least with my setup). With the Displays config window open, I had to hold down the alt key and drag each of the panels to the window that you want to see them on. – lsiden Dec 21 '12 at 23:29
Would it kill them to have a tick box rather than assume people will see that little black bar and then try moving it? I was scratching my head for ages until I read your post... thanks. – Steve Apr 15 at 3:48

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