Move Gnome Panels to a Different Monitor in Ubuntu
My dual monitor setup didn’t work properly in Ubuntu 9.04, Jaunty Jackalope. Fortunately, it does work properly in 9.10, Karmic Kaola. However, this newfound dual monitor setup has given me a new problem: how do I move my panels to the secondary monitor?
My office machine is a laptop. When I get in the office, I hook it up to a 24″ LCD. I’d like to use this external monitor as the primary, which means that I definitely want to have my panels display on it. However, as much as I tried to drag the panels around or play around with settings, there just didn’t seem to be a way to get them over there. However, I just figured it out.
By default, panels are set to expand. This means that the panels will span the entire width or height of the section of the window they occupy. If the expand option is disabled, they turn into self-sizing bar that can be dragged to different edges or centered.
Having the expand option disabled also allows you to grab and edge of the panel and drag it to another screen. Once on the screen you want it on, simply re-enable the expand option and you now have the panel on another screen.
Here’s a step-by-step way of moving a panel to another screen:
- Right-click the panel you wish to move and select “Properties”.
- Uncheck the “Expand” option under the “General” tab.
- Grab one of the edges of the panel by clicking on the left or right end (top or bottom end for vertical panels).
- Drag the bar to the desired screen and position.
- Check the “Expand” option in the “Panel Properties” window and click “Close”.
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Nice! Thanks. Having the panel in the “middle” of my workspace (spans two monitors) was driving me nuts!
You’re welcome Adrian.
Thank you
I was having the very same problem w/ my external monitor.
Glad to help Patrick.
Thanks! worked for me too…
Different but related question for you.
Are you able to close the lid of the laptop without loosing the display on the external monitor?
On my Thinkpad X61, if I close the LCD lid, the external monitor also looses signal.
I just closed the lid, and the external monitor stayed on.
It sounds like you need to go to System > Preferences > Power Management and change what happens when you close the lid.
Thanks for your response!
I tried the Power management option but could not solve it.
Options for “when laptop lid is closed” are:
a. blank screen
b. suspend
c. hibernate
d. shutdown
Do you have anything more in the menu there?
You must be looking at the On Batter Power menu. That menu doesn’t have the option for “Do Nothing” as is on the On AC Power menu. If this is the case, the only solution I see is to plug in the laptop if you need to close the lid while hooked up to an external monitor.
On my machine, I do not get Do Nothing option even in the On AC Power tab.
Thank you for your tip.
great stuff, saved my day
Or the easy way:
Press ‘Alt’ (the ‘move’ button in ubuntu), click on the panel and drag it to the second monitor.
Amazing. I use Alt to drag around windows all the time and never thought to try it. Thanks Dom.
Ah, thanks a bunch! The ‘Alt’ Key version is even easier.
Thanks much for this! Works perfect.
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