Cinnamon: Programs "spawn" on wrong monitor (not primary one)

[ReaderGuy42]

I've been working with a second monitor for a while now, and for the most part it's been pretty good.

However, one issue I have is that programs open on the second monitor, even though I click an icon or shortcut on the primary monitor. This can be confusing sometimes when the window isn't huge and I wait and wait for the program to open, when it's actually sitting on the second monitor but I haven't expected it to be there, since I clicked the thing on the primary monitor.

Is there a way to have programs "spawn"/open up, either on the monitor that the shortcut was clicked, or just simply that programs would always open on the primary monitor?

Any ideas?
Thanks

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inxi -Fxxxrz
System:
  Kernel: 5.13.0-27-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A 
  Desktop: Cinnamon 5.2.7 info: kdocker wm: muffin 5.2.0 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 
  Distro: Linux Mint 20.3 Una base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Acer product: Aspire A315-51 v: V1.14 
  serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: SKL model: Venusaur_KL v: V1.14 serial: <filter> UEFI: Insyde 
  v: 1.14 date: 10/31/2018 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 8.6 Wh condition: 8.6/37.0 Wh (23%) volts: 8.6/7.7 
  model: PANASONIC AP16M5J type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Full 
CPU:
  Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i3-6006U bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
  arch: Skylake rev: 3 L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx 
  bogomips: 15999 
  Speed: 2000 MHz min/max: 400/2000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2000 2: 1264 
  3: 2000 4: 2000 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520] 
  vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
  chip ID: 8086:1916 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 driver: modesetting 
  unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1366x768~60Hz, 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 520 (SKL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 21.0.3 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3 chip ID: 8086:9d70 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.13.0-27-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
  vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 3000 
  bus ID: 02:00.1 chip ID: 10ec:8168 
  IF: enp2s0f1 state: down mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter 
  vendor: Lite-On driver: ath10k_pci v: kernel port: 3000 bus ID: 03:00.0 
  chip ID: 168c:0042 
  IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
  IF-ID-1: docker0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 522.25 GiB (56.1%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WDS100T2B0A-00SM50 
  size: 931.51 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: 20WD scheme: GPT 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 915.40 GiB used: 522.24 GiB (57.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 54.0 C mobo: N/A 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list 
  1: deb https://typora.io/linux ./
  2: deb https://screenrec.com/download/ubuntu stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/alexlarsson-flatpak-focal.list 
  1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/alexlarsson/flatpak/ubuntu focal main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/apandada1-libhandy-1-focal.list 
  1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/apandada1/libhandy-1/ubuntu focal main
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list 
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cozy-team-cozy-focal.list 
  1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/cozy-team/cozy/ubuntu focal main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/flatpak-stable-focal.list 
  1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/flatpak/stable/ubuntu focal main
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list 
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
  1: deb http://mirror.funkfreundelandshut.de/linuxmint/packages una main upstream import backport
  2: deb http://ftp.uni-mainz.de/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
  3: deb http://ftp.uni-mainz.de/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
  4: deb http://ftp.uni-mainz.de/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
  5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
  6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/protonvpn-stable.list 
  1: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/protonvpn-stable-archive-keyring.gpg] https://repo.protonvpn.com/debian stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list 
  1: deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg] https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/smathot-cogscinl-focal.list 
  1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/smathot/cogscinl/ubuntu focal main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/syncthing.list 
  1: deb https://apt.syncthing.net/ syncthing stable
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/wereturtle-ppa-focal.list 
  1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/wereturtle/ppa/ubuntu focal main
Info:
  Processes: 257 Uptime: 1h 55m Memory: 7.65 GiB used: 4.84 GiB (63.3%) 
  Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Shell: bash 
  v: 5.0.17 running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.0.38 

[scottbouch1]

Yes, I also get this. Not for all programs though....

My setup: One graphics card, 2x DVI outputs, 2x monitors, right hand being the primary monitor with panel. Linux Mint 20.2 MATE 64bit.

From some experimentation of opening and closing programs on both screens, I have these results:

Opens on Primary monitor every time:

• Xed text editor
  Mate terminal emulator
  Thunar file manager
  Thunderbird
  Firefox
  Transmission

Opens on Non-Primary screen every time:

• Blender
  Flightgear (main simulator window, terminal opens on Primary)

Re-appears where last left:

• Arduino IDE
  LibreCAD

It's annoying for me as the left (non-primary) screen is shared between my Mint PC and my work Windows laptop; using the buttons on the monitor, I switch monitor inputs between DVI and DisplayPort to change which computer is being displayed. This is why the right monitor is primary so I can use both computers at the same time, work on the left, Linux on the right on one monitor, but when launching certain programs that end up on the non-primary monitor, when the monitor is in in Windows / work DisplayPort work mode, It gets annoying to change monitor input over to DVI, drag the program across to the primary monitor, and change the monitor's input back to DisplayPort again for Windows work.

One feature that Windows does actually do well is the Windows key and up / down / left /right arrows to position the active program, this can bring a program from a turned off display over to the active display quite easily.

Any ideas are appreciated, thanks!

[ugly]

Yeah, I've had this issue for a long time.

My left monitor is the non-primary monitor and the right is the primary.

I have not found a way to fix this.

Most programs work properly. Often when a program spawns a sub-window it will open on the left monitor. And some programs work fine, until I move it to the left and then back to the right, then it will seem to prefer to open on the left.

I assume that many programs see the left-most monitor as a 0,0 origin point and attempt to spawn there, even if it isn't the primary monitor.

[ReaderGuy42]

Yeah, I was about to say the same thing, that regardless of the position of the actual primary monitor, the left one usually gets most of the new windows opening up. Since no one has replied with any solutions, I'm guessing that there aren't any. Oh well.

[scottbouch1]

I conducted one further test:
I swapped over the DVI cables on my graphics card, and also swapped the primary monitor in Mint. This was just in case some programs actually reference which hardware socket is which, but this didn't make a blind bit of difference, same performance as before. Only difference it made was placing the boot console guff on the other monitor; but from log-in screen onward it was situation normal as described above.

Cheers, Scott.