The switch-monitor hotkey (Super+P) icons and translation hint are misleading
By pressing Super+P (or some Fn combination on some hw) the switch-display dialog shows up:
The "External only" is implemented by turning on all external monitors, but this can be unexpected, for two reasons:
- The icon (
video-single-display-symbolic
) has a large number 1 in the icon - it can be interpreted that only one monitor will be turned on - The translation hint ("this is for using only an external display.") could mean translations assume it'll only enable a single external monitor
The default label ("External Only") IMO leans towards meaning all external monitors turning on, but it's not all that clear.
Implementation wise, it's explicitly "all external monitors", and there is no code, nor design (that I know of) that attempts to make it work by only enabling a subset of the external monitors.
Related: #3435 (closed), mutter#326