Hello everyone,
I'm happily using Kubuntu since years. I'm currently using Kubuntu 22.04 on an old but robust Lenovo T460P.
Recently, I purchased an external monitor (Gigabyte M28U) with the hope of using it both as external monitor for my laptop and occasionally to play video games. But the experience with my laptop has been a bit disappointing and today, I ran in more trouble than usual, so I decided to ask for advice because it seems that my naive expectation that I could simply plug and unplug this monitor to my laptop using the HDMI cable to use it or not use it, was wrong.
First, there has been many instances where I would plug the external monitor to my laptop using the HDMI, and the screen of the external monitor, initially black, would display a message saying "HDMI2 No signal", which I find a bit funny because it obviously received a signal since it decides to talk to me, but not "enough signal" to decide to display something useful. So for a while, I gave up the idea of using it and I kept the HDMI cable unplugged. But this morning, I felt adventurous and I tried again. It seemed to work. I had to go in the "Settings > Display and Monitor > Display configuration" and using the mouse, drag the laptop screen such that the laptop screen would be below the external monitor like this:
But then, I noticed that the menu bar (the horizontal black bar in the picture) had been moved from my laptop screen to the screen of the external monitor, which is inconvenient for me as the top of my laptop covers the lower part of my external screen. I tried to change this, by changing things in the setting, and I think that one of the thing I tried was to change the status of the "Primary" field in the above screen-shot. I don't remember if I put the external monitor as primary or if I made my laptop screen non-primary, but the surprising thing is that it worked. The menu bar was back were it belonged: on my laptop screen. I know that it seems counter-intuitive, as you would assume that the menu bar goes where the primary screen is, but I'm pretty sure that this is what happens. With hindsight, I realize that I shouldn't have done that as it gave the wrong impression to the OS that I wanted the external monitor to be the primary screen (I feel dumb writing this as, it's literally what I selected, but until this point, I had never thought too much about what is a primary screen and what happens if you disconnect the primary screen). And then a bit later, I went one step further in my idiotic experimentation and I disconnected the HDMI cable of the external monitor because I wanted to work on my sofa.
And that's the moment things started to go really sideways. Subverting my expectations, the menu bar (standing on my laptop screen until this very moment) vanished. I tried to see what was happening in the settings, but now, there seemed to be only one screen, and there wasn't any option to set it as primary. It felt like the menu bar had stayed with the external monitor. This impression was reinforced when I reconnected my laptop to the screen and saw the menu bar come back. Then I tried to restart the computer and change settings again, but it just became worse. At some point, I restarted the computer and now the external monitor was mirroring the laptop screen but neither had the menu bar. I then disconnected it again, and (following one of ChatGPT's pieces of advice), I did a right-click on my desktop > "Add pannel" and I added a new menu bar. But it didn't have all the icons I had added before and its size was slightly different which makes me believe that it's not my good old menu bar back where it belonged but a new one. At that point, I wondered what would happen if I would connect again my external screen to the laptop. I plugged the HDMI cable, and nothing happened, but I saw that the monitor was again visible in the display settings, but not "Enabled". So I checked the "Enabled" box and for a few seconds, the external monitor seemed to work well except that it had my old menu bar attached to it, even if the new one was still on my laptop screen. And then after a few seconds, the external monitor turned black again and showed me its favorite message ("HDMI 2 No signal") before going completely black.
I researched a bit this forum and I found this post from Schwarzer Kater:
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/forum/...399#post678399
but before trying out this
"
to additionally use the Kubuntu Backports and Kubuntu Backports PPAs for Kubuntu 22.04 LTS, because then you will get Plasma 5.27.x and in Plasma 5.27.x the multi monitor support has been vastly improved compared to Plasma 5.24.x …
If interested see e.g. KDE Plasma 5.27.11 available in Kubuntu Backports Extra.
"
I wanted to ask it sounds reasonable and if people have advice, because I'm a bit afraid of doing more mess. All I want is an external screen that I can add and remove by plugging a cable. It doesn't seem like an unreachable goal. I know that it's possible because it's working like this in my office where I have Ubuntu 20.04 (I'm not allowed to have Kubuntu) and a different external monitor.
Best,
I'm happily using Kubuntu since years. I'm currently using Kubuntu 22.04 on an old but robust Lenovo T460P.
Recently, I purchased an external monitor (Gigabyte M28U) with the hope of using it both as external monitor for my laptop and occasionally to play video games. But the experience with my laptop has been a bit disappointing and today, I ran in more trouble than usual, so I decided to ask for advice because it seems that my naive expectation that I could simply plug and unplug this monitor to my laptop using the HDMI cable to use it or not use it, was wrong.
First, there has been many instances where I would plug the external monitor to my laptop using the HDMI, and the screen of the external monitor, initially black, would display a message saying "HDMI2 No signal", which I find a bit funny because it obviously received a signal since it decides to talk to me, but not "enough signal" to decide to display something useful. So for a while, I gave up the idea of using it and I kept the HDMI cable unplugged. But this morning, I felt adventurous and I tried again. It seemed to work. I had to go in the "Settings > Display and Monitor > Display configuration" and using the mouse, drag the laptop screen such that the laptop screen would be below the external monitor like this:
But then, I noticed that the menu bar (the horizontal black bar in the picture) had been moved from my laptop screen to the screen of the external monitor, which is inconvenient for me as the top of my laptop covers the lower part of my external screen. I tried to change this, by changing things in the setting, and I think that one of the thing I tried was to change the status of the "Primary" field in the above screen-shot. I don't remember if I put the external monitor as primary or if I made my laptop screen non-primary, but the surprising thing is that it worked. The menu bar was back were it belonged: on my laptop screen. I know that it seems counter-intuitive, as you would assume that the menu bar goes where the primary screen is, but I'm pretty sure that this is what happens. With hindsight, I realize that I shouldn't have done that as it gave the wrong impression to the OS that I wanted the external monitor to be the primary screen (I feel dumb writing this as, it's literally what I selected, but until this point, I had never thought too much about what is a primary screen and what happens if you disconnect the primary screen). And then a bit later, I went one step further in my idiotic experimentation and I disconnected the HDMI cable of the external monitor because I wanted to work on my sofa.
And that's the moment things started to go really sideways. Subverting my expectations, the menu bar (standing on my laptop screen until this very moment) vanished. I tried to see what was happening in the settings, but now, there seemed to be only one screen, and there wasn't any option to set it as primary. It felt like the menu bar had stayed with the external monitor. This impression was reinforced when I reconnected my laptop to the screen and saw the menu bar come back. Then I tried to restart the computer and change settings again, but it just became worse. At some point, I restarted the computer and now the external monitor was mirroring the laptop screen but neither had the menu bar. I then disconnected it again, and (following one of ChatGPT's pieces of advice), I did a right-click on my desktop > "Add pannel" and I added a new menu bar. But it didn't have all the icons I had added before and its size was slightly different which makes me believe that it's not my good old menu bar back where it belonged but a new one. At that point, I wondered what would happen if I would connect again my external screen to the laptop. I plugged the HDMI cable, and nothing happened, but I saw that the monitor was again visible in the display settings, but not "Enabled". So I checked the "Enabled" box and for a few seconds, the external monitor seemed to work well except that it had my old menu bar attached to it, even if the new one was still on my laptop screen. And then after a few seconds, the external monitor turned black again and showed me its favorite message ("HDMI 2 No signal") before going completely black.
I researched a bit this forum and I found this post from Schwarzer Kater:
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/forum/...399#post678399
but before trying out this
"
to additionally use the Kubuntu Backports and Kubuntu Backports PPAs for Kubuntu 22.04 LTS, because then you will get Plasma 5.27.x and in Plasma 5.27.x the multi monitor support has been vastly improved compared to Plasma 5.24.x …
If interested see e.g. KDE Plasma 5.27.11 available in Kubuntu Backports Extra.
"
I wanted to ask it sounds reasonable and if people have advice, because I'm a bit afraid of doing more mess. All I want is an external screen that I can add and remove by plugging a cable. It doesn't seem like an unreachable goal. I know that it's possible because it's working like this in my office where I have Ubuntu 20.04 (I'm not allowed to have Kubuntu) and a different external monitor.
Best,
LLM s have a hard time keeping up with the constant changes in Linux as well as user-supplied incorrect or non-working answers to things that clog search results.. Tread carefully.
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