2 virtual desktops, although only 1 in settings

[bennypr0fane]

Hello,
In System Settings>Desktop Behavior>Desktop Settings>Tab: desktops, I have "number of desktops" set to 1.
However, there are definitely 2 of them. Often the first application I launch after startup actually opens on the 2nd desktop, and I have to move it over through right-click>other actions>move.
How can I get rid of the second virtual desktop?

[bweinel]

In System Settings>Desktop Behavior>Desktop Settings>Tab: desktops, I have "number of desktops" set to 1.

In 14.04 (trusty tahr) the virtual desktop settings are located in System Settings>Workspace Behavior>Virtual Desktops>Desktops (tab).

If you set Number of Desktops to 1 and Number of Rows to 1, and then hit apply, you should have only one desktop.



Hope that helps...

cheers,
bill

[bennypr0fane]

This is exactly what I did. Sorry id I didn't get the names of UI elements right, I'm translating it from my German interface.

So this is what it looks like, but I do have 2 desktops.
I wonder if KDE maybe thinks I have 2 displays and the desktop on the right is for the "other one" (there is no 2nd display tho, I have only one)

[oshunluvr]

Is this a laptop? Some laptops external video connections are detected as "live" when they are not. In a terminal type:

xrandr - q

and it will show how many connections are in use.

Could it be 2 "Activities" rather than desktops you're seeing?

[bennypr0fane]

This is my desktop PC.
xrandr gives me only one display

~$ xrandr -q
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1360 x 768, maximum 8192 x 8192
VGA-1 connected primary 1360x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 160mm x 9
   1360x768       60.0*+
   1280x768       59.9  
   1024x768       75.1     70.1     60.0  
   800x600        72.2     75.0     60.3  
   640x480        75.0     72.8     60.0  
   720x400        70.1  
DVI-D-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

I have the pc connected to the montior through VGA, and I had a cable plugged into the DVI in but not attached to any source. I unplugged it now, I'll see if that was it after the next reboot.
I do have two activities, but shouldn't they each have separate settings for the number of virtual desktops?
Here's a screenshot of my settings for Activities:

[oshunluvr]

So, at here: If I have two activities, I can "move" a window from one to the other.

I'm just wondering if your windows are opening in one activity because of some setting.

[bennypr0fane]

It seems to be fixed, it must have been that DVI cable plugged in, because it went away after I removed it. Do you think there's something to that theory? That the extra desktop was supposed to be for the extra source? Doesn't really make sense, does it? Bcs normally you need to switch sources on the monitor. It came to my mind only when posting the question...
I wouldn't know how to move a window between activities. Now when I move it to the right edge, it snaps into place covering half of the screen - as opposed to before, where it just vansihed.
Will mark as solved if the problem doesn't come back (already has once).

[oshunluvr]

Either way, it's odd behavior. It's possible that the DVI port detects the cable (not likely) but if the system thought there was a monitor there, it would have showed up in xrandr -q - which it did not. That's why I thought activities might be the issue. It is possible to have a larger desktop size than your monitor will display (it's called a viewport) but that should have shown up in xrandr too.

The system would - if detected - attempt to expand the current desktop onto a second monitor, but it would not create a second virtual desktop (the kind you would create in system settings).

Here what I would do if you want to keep trouble shooting this. Boot system without cable attached. Verify only the visible desktop s available. Make a copy of /var/log/Xorg.0.log. Shut down. Reboot with cable inserted until you get the odd behavior back. Once observed, make a new copy of Xorg.0.log and then compare the two copies side-by-side to see what differs. I'll bet there's something in there (probably from your BIOS) that's triggering a second monitor.

[bennypr0fane]

It turns out that, for some reason I don't remember, I had the DVI cable plugged in to the same PC. Still odd, right? But then, this monitor has been giving headaches from day 1 - till I figured out that the DVI port was actually broken.