Multiple X screens and keyboard focus

Sigma001 · 2019-10-17 13:45:05

Sorry if this has been asked before, but I couldn't find anything on a quick search.

Basically, I'm running a triple monitor setup on two (NVidia) GPUs, one running two of the monitors (Screen 0), and one running the third one on a separate X screen (Screen 1).
Screen 1 has awesomewm running, while I use i3-gaps on screen 0, although I doubt this really matters.

The issue I'm having is that if I click on screen 1, keyboard focus shifts there as expected, but to move focus back to the main monitors, I need to click on a specific monitor on screen 0. Clicking on the other one does nothing. This causes me to constantly mistakenly type on the wrong screen.

An ideal solution would be having keyboard focus just follow the mouse without clicking anything, but even simply being able to click on either of the two monitors on screen 0 would work, yet I can't even seem to figure that out.

Some possibly relevant info:
* Xserver version: 1.20.5
* NVidia driver: 435.21
* Kernel version: 5.3.5

seth · 2019-10-17 13:53:59

Welcome to the forum.

click on a specific monitor

What does that mean? Is there a manged window in either location or do you simply click the root window? Is that maybe the difference?

Sigma001 · 2019-10-17 14:15:30

What I mean is clicking on anything on that specific physical monitor.

Based on my testing, it doesn't matter whether I click on the root window or a managed one.

seth · 2019-10-17 14:26:48

Is it always the primary output for that screen or the left one etc.?
Try a different WM (awesome as well or maybe openbox) - the WMs intercept mouse clicks and manage the focus accordingly. So there're two things that can happen here: the WM simply doesn't try to obtain focus or it doesn't receive the event because eg. the pointer is actively grabbed by sth. else. The latter seems unlikely.

Unrelated: if the GPUs are identical you can have as BaseMosaic layout, combining all three outputs crossing both GPUs in one screen (ie. you get away w/ a single WM - if you'd prefer that setup)

Sigma001 · 2019-10-17 14:36:13

It's always the rightmost monitor, which also is not the primary one.

As for a different WM, turns out that Awesome does what I want in this regard, but I'm quite hesitant to switch since I have yet to figure out a way to get layout management as good as i3 in Awesome. But, in any case, the focus thing looks like an i3 issue.

As for the GPUs, sadly they are different, so no BaseMosaic for me.

seth · 2019-10-17 14:47:55

It's always the rightmost monitor, which also is not the primary one.

That works or fails?

Is i3 affected as well or only i3-gaps?

Sigma001 · 2019-10-17 14:51:30

The rightmost monitor is the one that works.

Standard i3 does not work, just like i3-gaps

Arch Linux

#1 2019-10-17 13:45:05

Multiple X screens and keyboard focus

#2 2019-10-17 13:53:59

Re: Multiple X screens and keyboard focus

#3 2019-10-17 14:15:30

Re: Multiple X screens and keyboard focus

#4 2019-10-17 14:26:48

Re: Multiple X screens and keyboard focus

#5 2019-10-17 14:36:13

Re: Multiple X screens and keyboard focus

#6 2019-10-17 14:47:55

Re: Multiple X screens and keyboard focus

#7 2019-10-17 14:51:30

Re: Multiple X screens and keyboard focus

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