A suggestion for multi-monitor setups, don't reconfigure after initial boot.

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jgold
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A suggestion for multi-monitor setups, don't reconfigure after initial boot.

Post by jgold »

Hi,

I love Mint but there's a specific behavior that I would like changed if possible. I don't know where to post this. I couldn't find a "Suggestions" section for the developers. Maybe someone could point me in that direction.

I have three monitors set up on my system. I run two virtual machines. One of them runs across two monitors. The other takes half of the third monitor. I then have half of the third for the Linux system. As you can imagine, it takes a little bit of time to set them up. I don't reboot my system very often so normally I wouldn't have to change them once they're running except....

At night, I want to turn the monitors off. I'm in Scottsdale, AZ and it gets hot at night. The three monitors add a significant amount of heat to the room so having them on is bad. It also wastes electricity which I don't want to do. The problem is, when I turn the monitors off, the desktop re-configures itself. This wouldn't be so bad except due to bugs in the video chain (Nvidia drivers to Vmware drivers in the virtual machine, etc.) sometimes Vmware gets totally confused and it all comes crashing down and I have to reboot and re-configure.

The result of this is that I often just leave the monitors on. I know, that's bad. I shouldn't be wasting electricity just to make my life a little easier but that's what I find myself doing.

One solution would be to have an option to turn off the automatic configuration of the video displays. You would still want to check for the existence of the monitors during boot but after that, leave them.

That would fix the issue for me but I understand it would cause problems in certain cases. Moving the display to a working monitor if the current one stops working is usually a good feature. You don't end up thinking that your computer is dead when it's just writing it's data to a non-functioning monitor.

Anyway, the think that prompted me to make the suggestion is that I find myself wasting electricity that I wouldn't be wasting if I could just turn of this normally helpful feature. Maybe others are doing the same thing so this might be a way to fix it.

Thanks
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Moonstone Man
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Re: A suggestion for multi-monitor setups, don't reconfigure after initial boot.

Post by Moonstone Man »

jgold wrote: Fri Jun 18, 2021 3:23 pm I couldn't find a "Suggestions" section for the developers.
That would be because there isn't one due to this not being a developer forum but a user forum where users help other users. Github is usually the place to go. However there are issues with your suggestion.
At night, I want to turn the monitors off. I'm in Scottsdale, AZ and it gets hot at night.
Not all Mint users live in Scottsdale, AZ.
That would fix the issue for me
QED

Your suggestions haven't got a hope unless they are applicable or useful to the majority of Mint users.

A quick browse of your posts seems to indicate you haven't asked about anything related to this suggestion, except that 3 monitors were causing crashes. Asking before suggesting is usually the best place to start.

viewtopic.php?p=1319304#p1319304

You might find that helpful.
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