Display Arrangement should be part of setup for users with more than 1 monitor
Premise: Physical monitor layouts do not change often.
Currently users with multiple monitors have to configure their display arrangement on first login. This display layout then only applies to this user (~/.config/monitors.xml)
Issue: Upon a reboot the global GDM config is used, this can be different from the users config resulting in the primary display being a different display or different monitor orientations being applied. For the user this means the login prompt maybe on a different screen than expected.
Proposed Solution(s):
Solution A) During gnome-initial-setup the display configuration settings should presented to the user (for users with more than 1 monitor). This display configuration should then be copied to the global gdm config (/var/lib/gdm/.config/monitors.xml). This would solve the display configuration changing upon the next boot.
Solution B) gnome-control-center could:
- Provide a button in the display configuration to apply the display configuration system wide.
- Automatically make the display configuration system wide based on the stated premise.
Solution A in gnome-initial setup removes an annoyance for users with multiple monitors having to setup the monitor layout after the initial setup. It can even be the case that the initial setup is being run on the monitor in a orientation the user is not expecting.
Solution B in gnome-control-center provides an easy way for users to update the monitor layout should it change.
The gnome-control-center feature request is logged here: gnome-control-center#104 (closed)