ZorinOS 12 Ultimate // Add Icons to desktop function lost

Hello,

fresh installation of ZorinOS 12 Ultimate here (2nd Try). Basically just updated itself, installed proprietary drivers (Intel Microcode and nVidia 367.57 from stoneage). I'm running a Multi-Display Environment here (four Displays) which bascially works fine.

The problem: Once I arranged my Displays via Settings->Displays all Desktop-Icons get wiped and I don't have an option mostly to add new Icons and if I have it, it doesn't seem to work without further notice. Before I arranged the Displays in the said way it worked just fine.

- Changing the display arrangement again via nVidia Control Panel doesn't bring back the functionality
- Choosing different ZorinOS Styles does not help either
- The Icons that should be there are shown in Files->Desktop

System Specs:

Asrock X79-Chipset Fatality Pro Mainboard
Intel Xeon 2697v2
nVidia 1080
32 GB RAM
ZorinOS Ultimate 12 installed on single Crucial MX300 525 GB SSD (Doing Multiboot via BIOS, so the other shouldn't matter and atm aren't even connected) auto-partitioned by itself during installation

Displays:

LG 34UM95 via DP 1.2 3440x1440 as primary (all others in extended)
Eizo FS2331 via HDMI
2x NEC EA222WMe (one via DVI, the other via active DVI->DP Converters

Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

Does this thread help with monitor issue?:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/68778/ho ... e-same-way

Also Gnome extension for multimonitors:

https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/ ... or-panels/

Not exactly but a hint for the future maybe. Thanks for your help of course!

The answer was not the "Tweak-Tool", nor "Compiz-Setting" and a third thing I already forgot, I really had to learn it the hard way. The Icons and even some Program-Windows (who needs the "process manager"!) simply were outside of the display area. As it seems this Linux or nVidia-Thingy makes a big rectangular desktop space going by the maximum height and witdh adding all displays resolutions resulting in a larger area where actually 30% of all space is not really covered by an actual physical display and then thinks it is an even more awesome idea to put Icons and even programs there so I can have fun to get there.

So this is how my displays are arranged to better explain what happened:



And my Icons I was missing (and even procmon) were all "displayed" in the top upper left corner where no actual display is. Of course the center display is set up as primary which did not help.

So what I now did was temporary move my very left screen simply to the top (left to the Eizo), there I found my missing icons and programs and could move all the stuff back to the center and then i set it up again as in the picture.

What I obviously need to know now is: How can I set this all up in a way that Icons and windows are only put in areas that are actually covered by physical displays, preferably on that center display that is set up as Primary?

Let us know if this helps (and yes I know Zorin uses Gnome Shell and not Unity!):

https://askubuntu.com/questions/760942/ ... r-on-16-04

That tool you are linking to seems to work but unfortunately not fixing my problem. The current setup does not forget what the primary display is, it just keeps putting new "Add to Desktop-Icons" still out of sight in the upper left corner (or the upper right).

Installed and set in Startup

Code:

xrandr --output DP-4 --primary

(Mine is exactly DP-4 has well!)

and also checked the monitors.xml via

Code:

sudo gedit ~/.config/monitors.xml

But everything is alright already, well at least where "Primary" is located.

Code:

<monitors version="1">
  <configuration>
    <clone>no</clone>
    <output name="DP-2">
      <vendor>NEC</vendor>
      <product>EA222WMe</product>
      <serial>11109329NB</serial>
      <width>1680</width>
      <height>1050</height>
      <rate>59.954250335693359</rate>
      <x>5120</x>
      <y>1470</y>
      <rotation>normal</rotation>
      <reflect_x>no</reflect_x>
      <reflect_y>no</reflect_y>
      <primary>no</primary>
      <presentation>no</presentation>
      <underscanning>no</underscanning>
    </output>
    <output name="DP-4">
      <vendor>GSM</vendor>
      <product>34UM95</product>
      <serial>0x01010101</serial>
      <width>3440</width>
      <height>1440</height>
      <rate>59.972618103027344</rate>
      <x>1680</x>
      <y>1080</y>
      <rotation>normal</rotation>
      <reflect_x>no</reflect_x>
      <reflect_y>no</reflect_y>
      <primary>yes</primary>
      <presentation>no</presentation>
      <underscanning>no</underscanning>
    </output>
    <output name="DVI-D-0">
      <vendor>NEC</vendor>
      <product>EA222WMe</product>
      <serial>11109112NB</serial>
      <width>1680</width>
      <height>1050</height>
      <rate>59.954250335693359</rate>
      <x>0</x>
      <y>1470</y>
      <rotation>normal</rotation>
      <reflect_x>no</reflect_x>
      <reflect_y>no</reflect_y>
      <primary>no</primary>
      <presentation>no</presentation>
      <underscanning>no</underscanning>
    </output>
    <output name="HDMI-0">
      <vendor>ENC</vendor>
      <product>FS2331</product>
      <serial>38972062</serial>
      <width>1920</width>
      <height>1080</height>
      <rate>60</rate>
      <x>2012</x>
      <y>0</y>
      <rotation>normal</rotation>
      <reflect_x>no</reflect_x>
      <reflect_y>no</reflect_y>
      <primary>no</primary>
      <presentation>no</presentation>
      <underscanning>no</underscanning>
    </output>
  </configuration>
</monitors>

It still loves to put stuff in the "marked red" areas.



One might think that this couldn't be magic to put stuff only on visible areas. To put it solely on "Primary" automatically is just a bonus! Any of the four displays would be great already, I would love to go from there.

Thank you so much for trying so hard, I wish I could report back something more positive!

Hi, take a look here including links in solution:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/250276/d ... e-monitors

Hi there and thank you again.

I guess I'll stick with this:

I open a Files window (nautilus, nemo, etc.) and navigate to the Desktop folder. I select all my files and just drag and drop them anywhere I want in the visible (and accessible) desktop. No files get copied or cut since it's just a rearrange inside the same folder from two different interfaces. This way you don't have to be constantly changing the Monitor's configuration.

That's simple enough unless the application-windows itself open in an uncovered area (happened with the Chromium Downloads-Window today, using Google Chrome instead).

So to sum that issue up: As soon as you use multiple displays, the X-Server creates a virtual desktop adding all widths and heights no matter if that area is actually covered physically. The more (different sizes) displays and the more "asynchronous" the arrangment is, the worse it gets. In my case it results in a 6800x2520 virtual desktop with 17,14 Megapixels that is only covered by 10.55 million physical pixels, which gives a good chance that stuff ends up invisible.

To get your desktop Icons back in a visible area, the most simple way is that one quoted (so far)! To get back an application-window that can't be even grabbed with ALT+Leftclick the only thing is to adjust the display-setup via nVidia X Server Settings or Settings->Displays via Zorin to get a physical display in that area where the application-windows is. Good thing is, I had only two app-windows in two days and once I recovered they now open in the visual area where I last closed them.

Guess something with similar functionality as "UltraMon" or "DisplayFusion" in the windows world would be cool. Unfortunately "Google says no"...