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I've tried various DEs (Xfce, MATE, GNOME...), but I couldn't set up my screens properly in any of those. Here's the setup I'm looking for:

  • 2 screens with different resolutions (LVDS on the left - laptop screen & VGA on the right - external monitor)
  • Whenever I connect the VGA monitor, I want the setup to adapt and set it as my primary display
  • Primary display = taskbar, desktop with all the icons on it, windows placed automatically in there

One of the biggest issues in pretty much every DE I tried was the placement of desktop icons - pretty much everytime I connected/disconnected the VGA display, they were moved beyond the visible area of the screen or weren't visible at all.

When I do the same thing in Windows 8, the icons, windows and taskbars always adapt pretty much perfectly and are always accessible.

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  • I don't think Ubuntu has automatic monitor profile creation. Windows has a feature where it will revert to the latest configuration of the monitors still plugged in when one gets disconnected, but I don't think Ubuntu has this. If you're going to be unplugging the VGA monitor a lot, though, why set it as your main display? When you unplug it, though, you can try pressing the Detect button in the displays preferences. Apr 19, 2015 at 13:05
  • Zacharee1: Basically, whenever I'm at home, I want to use the VGA monitor as my main screen and whenever I'm not, I want to use the laptop's screen only.
    – Baegus
    Apr 19, 2015 at 13:12
  • Well it seems like Ubuntu just can't automatically detect changes in displays. You probably need to just hit Detect in Display preferences. Apr 19, 2015 at 13:26
  • It doesn't do that out of the box, but you could force it to run a script when the monitor is connected via udev rules. You'ld have to set it up both ways manually and let udev events trigger the scripts to change it though. Apr 19, 2015 at 13:32

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Hmm... here's screenshot of XFCE's display properties from my home system with two equal monitors. When I had Benq 24" and LG 19", there also weren't any problem for using two monitors with different resolutions. Left (primary) connected with HDMI, and secondary connected with DVI.

XFCE: 4.12, Ubuntu: 14.04.2

(originally in Russian, I added English overlay)

May be something wrong with your video-card? I use built-in Intel video. It have 3 outputs - VGA, DVI and HDMI. I could detect 3 monitors (2 Benq and 1 LG), connected simultaneously, but could use only 2 of these 3.

Also, dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg may help to re-detect monitors' capabilities.

enter image description here

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  • About the graphics cards: I have switchable Intel HD Graphics and nVidia 630M. I use bumblebee for nVidia Optimus. I don't think it has anything to do with it though.
    – Baegus
    Apr 19, 2015 at 14:09
  • So, how many video outputs you have? Apr 19, 2015 at 14:55

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