Request: Option to fix desklet location relative to particular display

[kauffy]

 * Cinnamon 3.6.7
 * Mint 18.3
 * Graphics:  Card-1: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller
           bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0412
           Card-2: NVIDIA GM206 [GeForce GTX 960] bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1401
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 driver: nvidia Resolution: 1920x1200@59.95hz, 2560x1080@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: GeForce GTX 960/PCIe/SSE2 GLX Version: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.30 Direct Rendering: Yes

 * 64 bit

Issue
Desklet location is mapped to absolute coordinates of the entire desktop. This causes the desklets to change location if monitors are added/removed.

Steps to reproduce
On a multi-monitor system, move (virtually) one monitor over the primary monitor. Then disable all the monitors, except the primary.

Place a desklet at the top of the screen on the primary monitor.

Enable the monitor above the primary monitor.

The desklets will have moved location, relative to their placement on the monitor they were added to.

Expected behaviour

That desklets will remain fixed in place on a given display, regardless of the configuration of other monitors on the same system.

Other information
In the attached pictures, which include the entire desktop of 2/3 monitors, you can see in the desktop with just two monitors that the desklets for disk space (the green circles on the left), appear about half-way down the desktop, and other desklets appear in the top-right.

In the picture with three monitors, the diskspace desklets appear at the top of the screen (desired location), the other desklets that had been in the top-right, are now gone (presumably moved up into the invisible area not covered by any monitor), and two other desklets (pictures and binary clock) are now visible on the bottom-right (again, presumed to be in dead space below the primary display when just two monitors are on).

This is an issue on several systems for me:
On this system (a desktop), I turn this top display on and off regularly (it is a 40" HD that is connected to many things)

. If it's on, there's a fair chance that items may launch to that display, even though I may have something else displaying on that monitor (as in, it's not displaying this machine).

On my laptops, they are sometimes connected to external displays.

[memeplex]

Same here, desklets are barely usable if you have a dynamic setting plugging/unplugging external monitors. There is an option to keep the icons in the primary monitor, something like that is needed for desklets also.

[BobBorges]

Agreed with ^. I'm working in academia and I move between setups with different monitor configurations and rooms with projectors multiple times a day – it would be nice not to put my system monitor and 3-day weather up on the projector for a classroom full of students or a meeting room full of colleagues.

[icarter09]

Many thanks for submitting your feature request for Cinnamon. Your feature request has been documented and will be reviewed by the Linux Mint team.

For more information on our workflow and feature requests, read https://linuxmint-troubleshooting-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/faq.html.

[BobBorges]

Did anything ever happen with this? I've resolved to just not using desklets, but I miss them.

[andreacasini]

Still seems to be a problem in Mint 21, was there any progress with this?

[BobBorges]

Nothing I know of. Still using mint w/out desklets :D

[mdsakibanwar]

:(

[jahagirdar]

Why is this marked as completed? I still see this problem. I switch between 3 configurations.

1. Only laptop Display
2. Laptop +FHD Display
3. Laptop + 4K display.
   My desklets are visible only in the 3rd configuration. Atleast an option to "Collect all desklets on this display" will make it useful. Right now I have no method for recovering my desklets in configuration 1 & 2

[sfrooster]

Current state of desklets in multi-monitor setups is that the desklet will simply not display. Try this:

• boot with multiple monitors; I'm using an old Macbook Pro so it has the built-in plus 2 external monitors
• add a desklet (I've tried this with two different ones)
• the desklet won't be displayed - try whatever you want - it won't show anywhere
• shutdown the system
• disconnect the external monitors
• start the system

The added desklets now show on the primary/built-in monitor with no additional work