I have 3 monitors now and they don't like Global

Configuration General Questions
1

OpenBSD fvwm3-1.1.0
The first one is the main one in front of me DP-1
The second one HDMI-1 pivots. I want to use it for things like reading whole pages of PDF’s, writing code and reading web pages or books that are mostly just text.
The third one DP-3 is just old and good for something like running tmux on. It doesn’t have a good picture quality.

DesktopConfiguration Global isn’t OK. Trying to resize Firefox, xterms, etc is a real fight.

xrandr --output DP-1 --mode 3440x1440
xrandr --output HDMI-1 --mode 2560x1440 --rotate left
xrandr --output DP-3 --mode 1680x1050

DesktopSize 5x4 works for me on DP-1
I think DesktopSize 2x2 would be fine for the other two.
I usually run Firefox with 2-3 Firefox windows, stuff like YouTube in one or two of them and text tabs in the last one.
It would be nice to move the Firefox window with text content onto the tall one HDMI-1 and keep the more graphical Firefox ones on the main monitor DP-1

I’m not sure whether shared or per-monitor is a better choice.
I’ll play around with it and see what I discover. I’d appreciate any thoughts.
I’ve developed some leg spasms that wake me up after just a few hours whether in bed or sleeping in a chair, so I’m fuzzy headed. I have a Dr. appt. to see what’s up with that.

2

Hi,

Can you please get the output from BugOpts DebugRandR On? You will need to put fvwm3 in verbose logging mode first, which you can do either at startup, as in:

exec fvwm3 -v

Or, with an already running instance:

pkill -USR2 fvwm3

The output will appear in ~/.fvwm/fvwm3-output.log.

3

I do not see how Global would be a problem when resizing windows. Without more information is hard to be of any help. What is the problem exactly? How can be reproduced? What makes it a real fight? Did you tried using the resize command?

DesktopSize is a global setting. Affects all screens. You can not have a custom desktop size per screen right now.

4

I will do that now and see what I get.
By a fight, I mean that somehow there is an interplay with the different resolutions having an effect on resizing windows. I have trouble resizing Firefox to maximized or xterms, on that I can do it, but it takes multiple resizing to get things right.
I will try again with shared and per-monitor. My first attempts with those put the default pager on every window and when I tried adding different Pagers, I just got three additional ones that were not useful and got in the way.
My motherboards video was defective in some way and I couldn’t get multiple monitors working. The new video card I added has solved that problem.

5

per-monitor:

[1717781567.996486] scan_screens: Case 2.1: new monitor
[1717781567.996494] monitor_mark_new: Added new monitor: DP-2 (0xac8893c2300)
[1717781567.996497] scan_screens: Case 2.1: new monitor
[1717781567.996501] monitor_mark_new: Added new monitor: DP-3 (0xac824aaa300)
[1717781567.996946] monitor_dump_state: Monitor Debug
[1717781567.996950] monitor_dump_state:         number of outputs: 1
[1717781567.996958] monitor_dump_state:         Number: 0
        Name:   DP-1
        Disabled:       false
        Is Primary:     yes
        Is Current:     yes
        Is Previous:    no
        Output: 68
        Coords: {x: 0, y: 0, w: 3440, h: 1440}
        VirtScr: {
                VxMax: 13760, VyMax: 7680, Vx: 3440, Vy: 0
                EdgeScrollX: 3440, EdgeScrollY: 2560
                CurrentDesk: 0
                CurrentPage: {x: 1, y: 0}
                MyDisplayWidth: 3440, MyDisplayHeight: 1440
        }
        EWMH: {
                BaseStrut Top:    0
                BaseStrut Bottom: 0
                BaseStrut Left:   0
                BaseStrut Right:  0
        }
        Desktops:       yes
        Flags:per-monitor

shared:

[1717781644.315296] scan_screens: Case 1: Add new monitors
[1717781644.315372] monitor_mark_new: Added new monitor: DP-1 (0x5a231e84c00)
[1717781644.315415] monitor_mark_new: Added new monitor: DP-2 (0x5a231e61c00)
[1717781644.315438] monitor_mark_new: Added new monitor: DP-3 (0x5a231e84480)
[1717781644.315459] monitor_mark_new: Added new monitor: HDMI-1 (0x5a231e68300)
[1717781644.340710] main: Loading window states via (null)
[1717781644.351259] monitor_dump_state: Monitor Debug
[1717781644.351265] monitor_dump_state:         number of outputs: 1
[1717781644.351273] monitor_dump_state:         Number: 0
        Name:   DP-1
        Disabled:       false
        Is Primary:     yes
        Is Current:     yes
        Is Previous:    no
        Output: 68
        Coords: {x: 0, y: 0, w: 3440, h: 1440}
        VirtScr: {
                VxMax: 0, VyMax: 0, Vx: 0, Vy: 0
                EdgeScrollX: 0, EdgeScrollY: 0
                CurrentDesk: 0
                CurrentPage: {x: 0, y: 0}
                MyDisplayWidth: 3440, MyDisplayHeight: 2560
        }
        EWMH: {
                BaseStrut Top:    0
                BaseStrut Bottom: 0
                BaseStrut Left:   0
                BaseStrut Right:  0
        }
        Desktops:       yes
        Flags:global

[1717781644.351378] CMD_DesktopConfiguration: Shared mode only works if there is more than one monitor attached, and the number of desktops defined via the DesktopName command is more than one.  For now, this command won't change anything.
[1717781644.701623] ewmh_ComputeAndSetWorkArea: monitor 'DP-1': {l: 0, r: 0, t: 0, b: 0} {x: 0, y: 0, w: 3440, h: 1440}

I couldn’t figure out exactly what needed to be done with the error message about Shared mode. I tried a little copy/paste from a post I saw, but that wasn’t successful.
At this point my eyes glazed over and I went to sleep.
I’m still reading manual pages.

6

OK…

So from fvwm’s point of view you only have one monitor. Not the three physical monitors you have attached.

I’m curious. If you were to use a tool such as arandr to configure your monitors, does this change anything?

7

Yes, with xrandr, I can change resolutions for each one separately.
I can rotate HDMI-1 left or right.
However, when logging out, without using xrandr --output HDMI-1 --off
I get garbage on that screen after logging back in from xenodm session manager.
A shutdown followed by powering up again resets everything OK.
I added an AMD Radeon RX 580, if that is helpful. OpenBSD fvwm3-1.1.0

8

I made all three monitors at 1680x1050 with xrandr just now. I did not need to logout or restart fvwm3

9

By using xrandr --output DP-1 --off before starting fvwm3, it then detected DP-3 as the primary monitor. Size constraints for maximize were then controlled by the maximum area of DP-3. HDMI-1was also present, but not affecting the size constraints. I was using per-monitor. So the difficulties I was having originally, came from the maximum size of DP-1, which is the biggest.
This all makes sense. Sorta.

10

Most window managers do not allow you to manipulate maximized windows by default. Fvwm is one of the few window managers that let you do it, but when you do you experience what you just describe. That is the trade off.

Simply: unmaximize, move, then maximize again.

11

I have been amazed at some of the things that are so easy to do. It only took me a few minutes to add to a section of a menu to run perldoc in a popup xterm for some Perl modules of interest just to me.

I rather like that making mistakes while trying to so something is just as educational as doing it correctly. I will keep at this until I have more sensible questions to ask.