Fullscreen XBMC on one monitor, usable mouse/keyboard on another.

bdallen · 2009-05-03 05:25

cornbread Wrote:What I want is xbmc to not accept input from one of my keyboards(the one in front of the monitor). I want to be able to use my computer as normal while xbmc is running on separate x...

What do you mean by "separate x"? There are three ways (or more?) of configuring multiple monitors: using a single X screen across all display (xinerama/MergedFB/TwinView), which allows you to drag windows between display (this is the most common, and probably what you're running if you used configuration tools), using a separate screen per display (this is the only method available if you are using separate graphics cards), and finally running separate X instances on different VTs. My patch works (at least for me) with the first two methods, and the last method would require separate a graphics card, keyboard, and mouse (or maybe mouse/keyboard sharing with synergy?), and should actually do what you want if setup correctly.

If you are using either of the first two methods, both keyboards are going to have focus on the same window. I don't know of any way to change that. However if you have a remote control, my patch may solve your problem.

When I launch XBMC it has keyboard focus, but I can move my mouse to the other display and use my computer normally and forget XBMC is even there. My remote still works to control XBMC, so I can pause music without intefering with typing on my main display. Bascially it runs xbmc as a full desktop sized window with the 'always on top property set', but it's still just another window without any nasty SDL mouse grabbing, so I can go work in other windows on either display.

cornbread · 2009-05-05 20:17

I say two keyboards because I'm using the diNovo Mini bluetooth keyboard because I can't find a good bluetooth or RF keyboard for xbmc. I was hoping I could just isolate the device to a separate x session or something... Confused

jkrellner · 2009-05-05 20:42

bdallen Wrote:What do you mean by "separate x"? There are three ways (or more?) of configuring multiple monitors: using a single X screen across all display (xinerama/MergedFB/TwinView), which allows you to drag windows between display (this is the most common, and probably what you're running if you used configuration tools), using a separate screen per display (this is the only method available if you are using separate graphics cards), and finally running separate X instances on different VTs. My patch works (at least for me) with the first two methods, and the last method would require separate a graphics card, keyboard, and mouse (or maybe mouse/keyboard sharing with synergy?), and should actually do what you want if setup correctly.

I have one graphics card, but can still do separate X screens (screens are completely independent of each other, meaning you cannot drag apps back and forth, etc.). I had the mouse capture problem when I tried running XBMC on one screen and FireFox on the other (for using the web interface), and could not use FireFox properly because the mouse was stuck on the other screen. I do not like the web interface very much anyway, so I was trying to think of other options. Unfortunately, nothing worked out.

Ideally, what I would like is one of the following:

1. XBMC support for Xinerama, such that the main screen shows what it currently shows, and the second monitor shows either the same exact thing or some sort of "mini" XBMC interface that would allow you to control the playback, select items to play, etc. Could be pretty slick and I think it would be heavily used by us theater buffs.

2. nVidia support for scaled cloning. Right now, if you set up cloned displays using two different sizes of monitors (1080p and, say, 1280x1024), one of the displays or the other will have a messed up resolution.

aroby · 2009-05-05 22:09

jkrellner Wrote:I have one graphics card, but can still do separate X screens (screens are completely independent of each other, meaning you cannot drag apps back and forth, etc.).

I would love to be able to do this (see http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=50343). Can you provide any clues as to how to set this up?

jkrellner Wrote:Ideally, what I would like is one of the following:

1. XBMC support for Xinerama, such that the main screen shows what it currently shows, and the second monitor shows either the same exact thing or some sort of "mini" XBMC interface that would allow you to control the playback, select items to play, etc. Could be pretty slick and I think it would be heavily used by us theater buffs.

2. nVidia support for scaled cloning. Right now, if you set up cloned displays using two different sizes of monitors (1080p and, say, 1280x1024), one of the displays or the other will have a messed up resolution.

Either would be fine - I'd vote for #1 though. And I'd say the "main screen" would be the LCD monitor in the media cabinet, and the secondary screen would be the projector screen / output to a matrix switch.

Anthony

jkrellner · 2009-05-05 22:33

aroby Wrote:I would love to be able to do this (see http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=50343). Can you provide any clues as to how to set this up?

I responded in your other thread.

matthewbpt · 2009-05-22 19:22

I have found a simple solution for users running compiz as their window manager. Install the package compizconfig-settings-manager with synaptic. This should add a new compiz configuration item to the Preferences menu. Open this configuration, look for 'Window Decoration' in Effects (or type it into the filter ...) and click on it, you should get some options to control window decoration, what we want to do here is disable window decorations for xbmc. Look for the field 'Decoration windows,' this specifies which windows should have window decorations, its defualt value is 'any' , change this values to,

(any) & !(title=XBMC Media Center)

This tells compiz to use window borders for all windows except those with title=XBMC Media Center. Now open XBMC and it open with no window borders, now if you maximize this window from the taskbar you it will take up the whole screen and not take complete control of the keyboard and mouse!

This worked like a charm for me =D

havel · 2009-05-28 21:09

Question to matthewbpt: does'nt the fact of having compiz enabled have an impact on video performance...like tearing?

VitaminJ · 2009-11-15 20:20

For me, the config that makes the most sense is having two X servers running, one at the resolution of your XBMC display. For me that's 1280x720 for a rear projector. So this would be DISPLAY :0

Then I'd run a virtual X server such as Xvnc, that you connect to from a remote machine to do admin tasks, like managing torrents, etc. That would be DISPLAY :1.

Since Xvnc is a virtual framebuffer server, all of it's devices are virtual and provided by the connecting client, so that alleviates the complexity of trying to share keyboard and mouse between two X servers.

Your administrative X session :1 would be independent of :0, so you can even kill and restart XBMC and its X session while still having Firefox or whatever still running on Xvnc. AND you've got the flexibility to use :1 over SSH from the Internet.

If you still want to share input devices between multiple X servers on multiple different outputs, see this Debian post which details using the x2x tool

jrstravino · 2012-02-10 06:23

AUTOMATIC TWINVIEW ON GNOME-SHELL

1 - Install disper :
sudo apt-get install disper

2 - replace left by right, if your tv is on the right of your screen
disper -d auto -e -t left/right

Code:

#!/bin/bash

disper -d auto -e -t left

sleep 1

__GL_SYNC_DISPLAY_DEVICE=DFP-1 gnome-shell --replace --display=:0 &

move_and_fullscreen(){

  NAME='XBMC Media Center'

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

  do

      sleep 1

  done

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

}

move_and_fullscreen &

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

grekpg · 2012-11-20 18:33

HY, i have same problem,
i run xbmc on tv in tyhis way

env DISPLAY=":0.1" xbmc

- in kde window manager setup xbmc size and anerythink work fine witchout mouse .
(i use radio remote controler - this device put buttons like keyboard so i must acitvate xbmc window)

and dont know how to get back mouse to monitor.
i try add global keyboard shortcut- example env DISPLAY=":0.0" dolphin

to start somethink on first screen so this mayby activate screen but this shortcut dont work when i have started xbmc.
how to do it ?

this script dont change anythink on my system

Code:

#! /bin/bash

STATUS=0

WINCLASS=xbmc.bin.xbmc.bin

DISPLAY=:0.1

SLEEPDELAY=1

/usr/bin/xbmc "$@" &

while [ $STATUS -eq 0 ]

do

  sleep $SLEEPDELAY

  STATUS=`wmctrl -x -l | grep $WINCLASS | wc -l | awk '{print $1}'`

done

wmctrl -x -r $WINCLASS -b toggle,fullscreen

cornbread Junior Member Posts: 14 Joined: Aug 2008 Reputation: 0	2009-05-05 20:17 Post: #42 I say two keyboards because I'm using the diNovo Mini bluetooth keyboard because I can't find a good bluetooth or RF keyboard for xbmc. I was hoping I could just isolate the device to a separate x session or something...
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jkrellner Senior Member Posts: 151 Joined: Apr 2008 Reputation: 0	2009-05-05 22:33 Post: #45 aroby Wrote:I would love to be able to do this (see http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=50343). Can you provide any clues as to how to set this up? I responded in your other thread. Supporter of all things Linux, Android, XBMC and NextPVR
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havel Junior Member Posts: 43 Joined: Jun 2008 Reputation: 0	2009-05-28 21:09 Post: #47 Question to matthewbpt: does'nt the fact of having compiz enabled have an impact on video performance...like tearing?
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