Ubuntu

How can I get rid of the top black bar on the second monitor?

Asked by Per Kjeldaas

I just install the desktop Ubuntu 12.04-LTS yesterday, hoping to get of a problem that has prevented a number of operations. Here is my setup:
Ubuntu 12.04-LTS, latest as of yesterday.
VMWare Player version VMware-Player-5.0.2-1031769.x86_64.bundle
As a guest in Player: Windows 7.
Ubuntu in primary monitor, full-screen VMWare with Windows in secondary monitor.

Problem: There is a black bar at the top that has no use, but blocks the top of my Windows screen that covers up and shadows the essential (typically menu) information at the top. For a number of Windows applications, having access to the top is absolutely essential, so this a show stopper for me. I had the same problem in Ubuntu 13.04, so I was hoping that 12.04-LTS would solve the problem, but no, it does not.

My work around is to shut down the Windows guest, reboot he computer and use Windows as the main OS, and Ubuntu as a guest, but that is not what I hoped I could do with Ubuntu.

Please make it a choice whether the second monitor has that bar. If a window in the second monitor has focus, the associated menu items can still be shown in the first monitor, so there would be no functionality lost.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

Http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1749696

Alternatively you can install xfce4 and use the XFCE session at the login screen. It is a bit easier to configure.

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Per Kjeldaas (kjeldaas) said : 		#2

actionparsnip,

Thank you for your suggestions. I have looked at them. The thread is from 2011 and shows that people have had this bug for years, and it has not been fixed. In one of the posts in the thread, somebody mention that the current design for the second monitor might have been decided this way for "aesthetic reasons". If that is the case, one person's subjective opinion about that should not be forced upon everybody else, it should be made optional. In any case, I tried some of the work arounds, but they did not work for me.

As to XFCE, I found that environment interesting, however, it requires me to learn a lot of stuff. When I tried it, without having read the manual, I ran into two problems; (1) The terminal app had no command prompt, and did not respond to keyboard input, and (2) I could not find a way to unmirror the screens. I am sure that if I read the manual and spend the time, XFCE may well be a useful work around.

In any case, lots of people have been spending time finding WORK AROUNDS for this HARD problem/bug, but it still a BUG. Since a number of people had to go to other environments, making this environment useless for them, I would say the bug is CRITICAL.

Thank you again.

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Launchpad Janitor (janitor) said : 		#3

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.