Fullscreen in dual monitors causing strange behaviour in other monitor

JasonMehmel · 2023-03-27 18:37:01

I've got two monitors, a built in one on my laptop and a second one connected through a mini-HDMI jack on the laptop.

I've noticed that whenever I run something in fullscreen, from Sublime Text to a game, the other screen will go white and start showing patterns; it looks like a screensaver.

This happens on both monitors, to the other monitor. (if that makes sense)

(This also happened when I had xscreensaver running, I've stopped doing that, but I guess there's a screensaver program already running?)

The screensaver looks like it's just covering the wallpaper, because it's behind any other windows on that other monitor.

It's not a dealbreaker, but it's kind of annoying?

Any information about either turning off this behaviour for fullscreen or finding more controls to help me change the settings?

(I'm not sure where the screensaver is.)

Last edited by JasonMehmel (2023-03-31 17:00:16)

JasonMehmel · 2023-03-31 16:59:27

Some more information:

It looks like xscreensaver was running! I noticed it in htop and shut it down.

But I've still got my problem. When I go full screen on certain apps. (Games, Sublime Text) on one monitor, the second one goes black, but just the background. Any windows open on that monitor stay visible.

It seems like there's something around the full screen rules that is actually covering the wallpaper, but because I've got two monitors, I'm seeing something that would normally be in the background?

Is there a fix for this, or is it specific to the BL configuration of windows managers?

rbh · 2023-04-02 20:42:24

JasonMehmel wrote:

Is there a fix for this, or is it specific to the BL configuration of windows managers?

I have used dual screens on Debian/openbox derivates for more than 20 years.
I have never experinced your problems. Never seen anyone else describe it.
So, it is not BL specific.

You found out you had xscreensaver running. That is not BL default. Maybe you have made other changes resulting in this behavior?

First of all, check BL live session. If the problem doesn't show up in live session, create a test user in your system. Does the problem persist?

Check Debian live session. Still same problem?

JasonMehmel · 2023-04-03 18:17:44

Thanks for the ideas! I'll give those a try ASAP and report back!

#1 2023-03-27 18:37:01

Fullscreen in dual monitors causing strange behaviour in other monitor

#2 2023-03-31 16:59:27

Re: Fullscreen in dual monitors causing strange behaviour in other monitor

#3 2023-04-02 20:42:24

Re: Fullscreen in dual monitors causing strange behaviour in other monitor

#4 2023-04-03 18:17:44

Re: Fullscreen in dual monitors causing strange behaviour in other monitor

Board footer