Two-monitor UI application

StasU · 9 Aug 2016, 13:22

Hey Guys,

I'm writing an application using two screens. The main idea is that one screen shows in fullscreen and on top of every other component (eg. OSD from OS is not allowed) an image. The controls of this view should be displayed on another display.
Several problems occured till now:

How to figure out which screen is the one I need (figure out the model name would be a solution).
Set the displaying ui component in fullscreen to this particular screen.
Forbid anything to go ontop of the display.

We're working with QtQuick 2 on an linux OS.

For the first problem: I could assure the monitor for controlling is accessed via displayPort and the other one via HDMI so I would have to figure out which screen is connected to HDMI.

For the second problem: I tried to use QWindow::setScreen() but no matter which screen I choose the window is displayed on the screen marked as main.
I could configure another X11-Server for the displaying screen. Is there a way to choose which XServer should be used to display the image? (This should also work for disallowing OSD etc. problems mentioned at point 3).

For the last point I thought of setting the Qt::X11BypassWindowManagerHint flag.

Edit:
It's also an option to use QtWidget for the display and QtQuick for the controls if there's a solution for Widgets.

I'm very happy about any suggestion and every hint I get.

Thanks in advance,
Stas

SGaist · wrote on 8 Sept 2016, 20:41

Hi and welcome to devnet,

As a small test you could build an application that use QDesktopWidget to gather the screens information and put one widget on each desktop.

Also, what desktop environment are you running on ? What would be your target ? The distribution you are using ?

StasU · wrote on 10 Sept 2016, 14:34

Hi SGaist,

Thanks for the quick response.
I ran the test with setScreen on Mint 18 and WIndows 7. The target destribution will be either Mint or Ubuntu. I'll try your suggestion on monday.

StasU · wrote on 19 Sept 2016, 16:38

It didn't work. Right now I'm trying to get it via two separate xserver sessions (one on each screen) running. When trying to set a QWindow to the other screen the application output tells me:

Xlib:  extension "NV-GLX" missing on display ":0".

I'm running a GTX980 with nvidia-361 drivers from the repo and let nvidia-xconfig configure the xserver.
For running separate xserver on each screen I chose to add another XServer in the nvidia-settings dialog for display configuration.
It would be ok if I start two different applications on each screens and setup an IPC or use a second video card for the second display.

Btw: here a more detailed SW/HW description:

$ lsb_release -a
Distributor ID:	LinuxMint
Description:	Linux Mint 18 Sarah
Release:	18
Codename:	sarah

$ lspci | grep VGA
05:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM204 [GeForce GTX 980] (rev a1)

$ lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
pci_stub               16384  1
vboxpci                24576  0
vboxnetadp             28672  0
vboxnetflt             28672  0
vboxdrv               454656  3 vboxnetadp,vboxnetflt,vboxpci
binfmt_misc            20480  1
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     53248  1
nvidia_uvm            749568  0
nvidia_modeset        745472  6
hp_wmi                 16384  0
sparse_keymap          16384  1 hp_wmi
x86_pkg_temp_thermal    16384  0
intel_powerclamp       16384  0
coretemp               16384  0
kvm_intel             172032  0
kvm                   536576  1 kvm_intel
irqbypass              16384  1 kvm
crct10dif_pclmul       16384  0
crc32_pclmul           16384  0
snd_hda_codec_realtek    81920  1
nvidia              10182656  144 nvidia_modeset,nvidia_uvm
snd_usb_audio         176128  3
snd_hda_codec_generic    77824  1 snd_hda_codec_realtek
aesni_intel           167936  0
snd_usbmidi_lib        36864  1 snd_usb_audio
input_leds             16384  0
aes_x86_64             20480  1 aesni_intel
lrw                    16384  1 aesni_intel
snd_hda_intel          36864  5
gf128mul               16384  1 lrw
glue_helper            16384  1 aesni_intel
ablk_helper            16384  1 aesni_intel
cryptd                 20480  2 aesni_intel,ablk_helper
snd_hda_codec         135168  4 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_intel
snd_hda_core           73728  5 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep              16384  2 snd_usb_audio,snd_hda_codec
serio_raw              16384  0
snd_pcm               106496  6 snd_usb_audio,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_core
sb_edac                32768  0
edac_core              53248  1 sb_edac
snd_seq_midi           16384  0
snd_seq_midi_event     16384  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_rawmidi            32768  2 snd_usbmidi_lib,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                69632  2 snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq_midi
lpc_ich                24576  0
snd_seq_device         16384  3 snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_midi
snd_timer              32768  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
mei_me                 36864  0
drm                   360448  3 nvidia
mei                    98304  1 mei_me
snd                    81920  28 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_usb_audio,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_usbmidi_lib,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_seq_device
soundcore              16384  1 snd
ioatdma                53248  0
shpchp                 36864  0
dca                    16384  1 ioatdma
wmi                    20480  1 hp_wmi
tpm_infineon           20480  0
8250_fintek            16384  0
mac_hid                16384  0
parport_pc             32768  0
ppdev                  20480  0
lp                     20480  0
parport                49152  3 lp,ppdev,parport_pc
autofs4                40960  2
btrfs                 987136  0
xor                    24576  1 btrfs
raid6_pq              102400  1 btrfs
dm_mirror              24576  0
dm_region_hash         24576  1 dm_mirror
dm_log                 20480  2 dm_region_hash,dm_mirror
uas                    24576  0
usb_storage            69632  1 uas
hid_generic            16384  0
usbhid                 49152  0
hid                   118784  2 hid_generic,usbhid
psmouse               126976  0
ahci                   36864  2
libahci                32768  1 ahci
firewire_ohci          40960  0
firewire_core          65536  1 firewire_ohci
isci                  135168  0
e1000e                237568  0
crc_itu_t              16384  1 firewire_core
libsas                 77824  1 isci
ptp                    20480  1 e1000e
pps_core               20480  1 ptp
scsi_transport_sas     40960  2 isci,libsas
pata_acpi              16384  0
fjes                   28672  0

SGaist · wrote on 19 Sept 2016, 20:35

What do you mean by "it didn't work" ? What result did you got ?

StasU · wrote on 20 Sept 2016, 10:04

It didn't work in terms of it doesn't matter which display I chose the application window always appears on the primary screen. Though I can move the application on another screen via the move method. Then if I want to set the application to fullscreen it appears in fullscreen on the primary display again.

SGaist · wrote on 20 Sept 2016, 14:01

What did QDesktopWidget return as information about your setup ? What window manager are you using ?

StasU · wrote on 22 Sept 2016, 10:00

I'm using a workaround:

first of all I put my screen far away from the main screen (virtual screen position offset to at least one screen size in any dimension so I don't accidentally get tooltips on top of my image).
Then I put the secondary window to this screen via moveframe and set it to the screen resolution imitating a borderless fullscreen mode.
Finally I set the SplashScreen flag so nothing gets on top of the image. Still, it's not the solution I hoped for since I have to figure out the position and the resolution of the second screen myself instead of put the window to a specific screen and tell it to be fullscreen there but it works.

Thank you for your help,
Stas