Move TopBar to another monitor on window fullscreen

[Rutherther]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Hello, I have a problem that when I maximize fullscreen something on my main monitor, the top bar info (time, date, tray) is not visible.

Describe the solution you'd like
I am not sure what the best solution is. I was trying to use Fullscreen Avoider, but it seems that it does not work with PaperWM. I suppose that is because of how PaperWM handles the top bar.

I also found that there was a feature make topbar follow with focus that was removed due to some #544 issues with that.

Last possible solution that comes to my mind is having the top bar on all monitors.

Describe alternatives you've considered
I wanted to ask whether I am possibly missing some configuration setting that would already solve this? It's possible I missed something.

[jtaala]

Well, like gnome paperwm doesn't show the topbar on other monitors. What you're likely on the non-main monitor is the window position bar.

You can turn this off in PaperWM settings.

Hello, I have a problem that when I maximize something on my main monitor, the top bar info (time, date, tray) is not visible.

This sound like you're "full-screen"ing application (not maximising it) - how are you "maximising" the window? (keybind?)

Last possible solution that comes to my mind is having the top bar on all monitors.

This is not a gnome feature - although there might be some extension that does this.

[jtaala]

I also found that there was a feature make topbar follow with focus that was removed due to some #544 issues with that.

Last possible solution that comes to my mind is having the top bar on all monitors.

We would not re-implement this - it was a largely hackish implementation that became unmanagable. If you'd like this functionality it would need to implemented by gnome (wouldn't be a part of paperwm).

Feel free though to either submit this as a feature request to Gnome, or, implement this in a fork and submit a PR to PaperWM.

[Rutherther]

I haven't looked into how PaperWM manages the topbar that much to tell, so may I ask, do you think a separate extension could be done to switch the panel? I was trying out this one https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/4362/fullscreen-avoider/. But the thing is, it stops working as soon as PaperWM is enabled. I assumed from that its PaperWM somehow preventing it from working. I will try to look into that and implement this feature, as it's very painful for me without it.

[jtaala]

so may I ask, do you think a separate extension could be done to switch the panel? I was trying out this one

Sure, if someone wants to create one they definitely could. I wouldn't use that functionality so I wouldn't do it myself.

If you don't want to fullscreen, and want to always see the topbar, why don't you just maximise window width in PaperWM instead of fullscreening?

[Rutherther]

If you don't want to fullscreen

The problem is when I want fullscreen. Of course, I am using this feature as well, but for some things I want fullscreen

[jtaala]

The problem is when I want fullscreen. Of course, I am using this feature as well, but for some things I want fullscreen

I see, was just trying to understand exactly what you were trying to do (I got it now, you trying to do fullscreen but have the Gnome TopBar move to some other monitor).

In that case, it sounds like the easiest approach would be to dig into PaperWM's topbar.js and see how you go with re identifying what PaperWM might be doing to stop that extension working.

We don't really have the resources to look at individual extension conflicts - it's open source though so if someone is particularly interested in in a feature here, they're encouraged to work on it and submit PRs back to PaperWM.

I'll leave this enhancement here in case others too are interested in this feature (moving Gnome TopBar to another monitor on fullscreen) and want to work on it.

[Rutherther]

I see, was just trying to understand exactly what you were trying to do (I got it now, you trying to do fullscreen but have the Gnome TopBar move to some other monitor).

Aha. The thing is that I don't have much of an opinion on what the best solution is, either of the one I specified would work for me. "Fullscreen Avoider" functionality makes the most sense to me.

Thank you for the answers. I of course understand that you cannot do everything. One of the reasons I opened this issue was just in case it was obvious on first sight on what could cause the conflict as you are more knowledgeable of what PaperWM does.

[Lythenas]

Actually I would also be interested in something like this. Mostly so I can see the time on my second monitor when I'm playing games. @jtaala if you remember we had discussion before about dash-to-dock or showing the time on all monitors. But really I wanted something like the Fullscreen Avoider.

To me it sounds like getting the Fullscreen Avoider extension to work is the most reasonable and probably least effort. I will try to look into this as I have some time next week, but can't guarantee anything^^

[Rutherther]

The main problem that I see is that PaperWM hides the topbar. So fullscreen avoider correctly changes its position, but the panel is just not visible.

I've tried just removing calls to hide the panel (and trying it out without Fullscreen Avoider active), and it seems that that introduces a bug. When I go to fullscreen, the panel isn't showing. But as soon as my cursor goes to another monitor, the panel starts showing in front of the fullscreen window on the primary monitor. Any idea on what could be causing that? Maybe if this is fixed, there will be no more need for hiding the panel?

With .hide calls removed and Fullscreen Avoider activated, the panel is correctly moved to second monitor when window is fullscreen, but still the first issue persists. When I try to move my cursor to the panel, the panel moves to the primary monitor as soon as my cursor enters other than primary monitor. Another issue is that as both panels are transparent, it may be seen that there are two at once. Setting /org/gnome/shell/extensions/paperwm/disable-topbar-styling true could be a workaround for that.

[Rutherther]

Also I think I should mention this, I am on gnome 44, so I am using 44.15.1, not the newest version. Maybe this is not an issue in the newest version anymore, I cannot check easily now

[Lythenas]

Findings so far:

We have a "Hide top bar" setting per workspace. Enabling this hides the top bar (duh) but the space will still be taken up when not on the primary monitor when "Enable Window Position bar" is active. (separate issue I think)

Same behavior on gnome 45 as @Rutherther described on gnome 44. After disabling all the hide calls of the top panel, the top bar is moved correctly when I put a window into fullscreen. But as soon as a focus another monitor, the top bar moves back. For some reason something in paperwm makes gnome think that the monitor is no longer in fullscreen ("Fullscreen Avoider" uses monitor.inFullscreen). This might be due to our click overlay or something else paperwm does. I don't know if we can fix that. Therefore I think we would need to implement this directly in PaperWM instead of using "Fullscreen Avoider".

@jtaala do you have any comment or pointers here?

Alternative we could try is call some gnome code to actually change the primary monitor instead of manually moving the top bar. But not sure if that is possible or would cause other issues.

[jtaala]

"Fullscreen Avoider" uses monitor.inFullscreen

This one is interesting - from memory, in PaperWM we use a custom function hasFullScreenWindow() (in tiling.js) which is used by updateWindowPositionBar().

But as soon as a focus another monitor, the top bar moves back

Focus as in move the mouse to it? If so, that does kind of sound like something triggered by the ClickOverlay. You could console.error(new Error()); in fixTopbar or other methods to see who is calling that when switching focus.

PaperWM keeps track of the topbar with the hasTopBar class getter (in Space class) - I'm guessing Fullscreen Avoider does stuff and PaperWM doesn't know it moved the topbar and corrects itself when focusing another monitor?

Jay.

[Rutherther]

For some reason something in paperwm makes gnome think that the monitor is no longer in fullscreen ("Fullscreen Avoider" uses monitor.inFullscreen). 

Also note that if you disable PaperWM's top bar hide on full screen, disable full screen avoider, then full screen a window on primary monitor, and move mouse to different monitor, the top bar will appear. So maybe thats linked.