Linux Fullscreen strecthing across both monitors

swiftoid · 2012-04-27 10:51

Hi everyone. I wonder if you can help. I running XBMC on ubuntu 12.04 with gnome-panel. When I open up xbmc in windowed mode everything works fine, brilliantly in fact, except the panel and title bar is still visible at the top which is a little distracting.

So I thought I'd switch to fullscreen mode. The problem is, I have two monitors (one 16:9 and a 4:3) and when XBMC displays in fullscreen it spans the output across the two monitors. So half appears on one monitor, and the other half appears on the other. It's been like this as long as I can remember testing XBMC on ubuntu. Is there any way to make it just appear on my right hand 16:9 monitor?

Any help would me much appreciated.

swiftoid · 2012-04-27 11:04

Update: If I disable my second monitor before opening XBMC it works ok. But it's a pain to have to do it every time, their must be another way.

swiftoid · 2012-04-27 17:31

Any ideas?

rocker2344 · 2012-04-27 20:16

i had this same issue aswell and i have an nvidia card
run

Code:

sudo apt-get install wmctrl

and open a new file and name it xbmc.sh (or what ever)
and in it put

Code:

#!/bin/bash

move_and_fullscreen(){

  NAME='XBMC Media Center'

  while [ -z "`wmctrl -l | grep \"$NAME\"`" ]

  do

      sleep 1

  done

  wmctrl -r "$NAME" -e '0,1280,-1,-1,-1'

  wmctrl -r "$NAME" -b toggle,fullscreen

}

move_and_fullscreen &

__GL_SYNC_TO_VBLANK=1 __GL_SYNC_DISPLAY_DEVICE=DFP-0 SDL_VIDEO_ALLOW_SCREENSAVER=0 exec xbmc

allow it to run as a program
and run xbmc.sh (click twice)
use your "\" to switch between 2 monitor full screen/left monitor windowed/left monitor full screen/right monitor windowed/right monitor fullscreen

all credit goes to this man
http://wojnickitech.blogspot.com/2011/01...nview.html

swiftoid · 2012-04-27 20:21

Amazing! Thank you so much! Worked first time.

rocker2344 · 2012-04-27 20:22

no prob

swiftoid · 2012-04-27 20:25

Another question, how put that script in my main menu, to replace the normal xbmc icon?

rocker2344 · 2012-04-27 20:56

in termnial

Code:

sudo mv /usr/share/applications/xbmc.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/

sudo chown <username>:<username> xbmc.desktop

mv xbmc.sh ~/.local/share/bin/xbmc.sh

gedit xbmc.desktop

in the text editer change
Exec=xbmc to

Code:

Exec=/home/<user>/.local/share/bin/xbmc.sh

save
now you have an icon (this icon will only show in your side)

if you want for all users (do as sudo) place xbmc.sh into
NOTE=>Name it diffrent from xbmc (maybe xbmc_dual_screen_fix or something JUST NOT PLAIN XBMC)

Code:

/usr/share/bin

and edit xbmc.desktop from

Code:

/usr/share/applications

and edit like above, but you only have to change the "Exec" from "xbmc" to "xbmc_dual_screen_fix"

swiftoid · 2012-04-27 23:21

Thanks again. I don't have a /usr/share/bin so I put it in /usr/bin (duno if that's strictly linux fs safe or not), and I had to change exec to xmbc_dual_screen_fix.sh (notice the .sh), but it all works. Thanks so much.

I do wish that xbmc did this on it's own mind you, instead of having to hack it like this.

bastafidli · 2012-10-03 16:48

Hi,

I had the same exact problem on my system with ATI Radeon/AMD Radeon and fglrx/Catalyst driver on CentOS 6.3. I have primary 4:3 monitor running 1280x1024 and secondary 16:9 TV runnin 1920x1080. I am spanning these using Xinerama. With or without Xinerama XBMC detected always only 1 screen and the only options I had were Full Screen #1 (no #2 was available ever) and Windowed. When running in full screen mode the XBMC always opened only on the 4:3 display. When running in windowed mode, I was able to maximize the window on the secondary screen but it had title bar. With the help of this thread and some others I was able to come up with script which moves XBMC on the secondary screen and disables/hides the titlebar. I wasn't able to use wmctrl toggle fullscreen since every time I did that, XBMC moved to my primary 4:3 screen.

The solution is actually two scripts.

The first script is to turn on and off the title bar for the active window

File window-toggle-decorations.py

Code:

#! /usr/bin/python2

import gtk.gdk

w = gtk.gdk.window_foreign_new( gtk.gdk.get_default_root_window().property_get("_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW")[2][0] )

w.set_decorations( (w.get_decorations()+1)%2 ) # toggle between 0 and 1

gtk.gdk.window_process_all_updates()

gtk.gdk.flush()

The second script is to launch XBMC, position it on secondary screen and toggle the title bar. You have to toggle the decoration twice to actually turn it off. I had to also call the window positioning multiple times, since it doesn't always succeeds on the first or second try.

File xbmcfull.sh

Code:

#!/bin/bash

move_and_fullscreen(){

  NAME='XBMC Media Center'

  while [ -z "`wmctrl -l | grep \"$NAME\"`" ]

  do

      sleep 1

  done

  ./window-toggle-decorations.py

  ./window-toggle-decorations.py

  sleep 3

  wmctrl -r "$NAME" -e '0,1280,0,1920,1080'

  sleep 3

  wmctrl -r "$NAME" -e '0,1280,0,1920,1080'

  sleep 3

  wmctrl -r "$NAME" -e '0,1280,0,1920,1080'

  sleep 3

  wmctrl -r "$NAME" -e '0,1280,0,1920,1080'

  sleep 3

  wmctrl -r "$NAME" -e '0,1280,0,1920,1080'

}

killall xbmc

killall xbmc.bin

__GL_SYNC_TO_VBLANK=1 __GL_SYNC_DISPLAY_DEVICE=DFP-0 SDL_VIDEO_ALLOW_SCREENSAVER=0 exec xbmc & 

move_and_fullscreen

Hope this helps somebody.

swiftoid Junior Member Posts: 25 Joined: Oct 2011 Reputation: 0	2012-04-27 11:04 Post: #2 Update: If I disable my second monitor before opening XBMC it works ok. But it's a pain to have to do it every time, their must be another way.
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swiftoid Junior Member Posts: 25 Joined: Oct 2011 Reputation: 0	2012-04-27 17:31 Post: #3 Any ideas?
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swiftoid Junior Member Posts: 25 Joined: Oct 2011 Reputation: 0	2012-04-27 20:21 Post: #5 Amazing! Thank you so much! Worked first time.
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rocker2344 Junior Member Posts: 8 Joined: May 2011 Reputation: 0	2012-04-27 20:22 Post: #6 no prob
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swiftoid Junior Member Posts: 25 Joined: Oct 2011 Reputation: 0	2012-04-27 20:25 Post: #7 Another question, how put that script in my main menu, to replace the normal xbmc icon?
	find quote

swiftoid Junior Member Posts: 25 Joined: Oct 2011 Reputation: 0	2012-04-27 23:21 Post: #9 Thanks again. I don't have a /usr/share/bin so I put it in /usr/bin (duno if that's strictly linux fs safe or not), and I had to change exec to xmbc_dual_screen_fix.sh (notice the .sh), but it all works. Thanks so much. I do wish that xbmc did this on it's own mind you, instead of having to hack it like this.
	find quote