the operating system i primarily use now is LMDE2 because its almost setup out of the box and i prefer the package management system to .rpm, but this situation applies to Ubuntu, Debian, Arch, RedHat. I have the same problem across all these distributions.

Desktop Environments that i've tested so far or that i can remember: Mate, Unity, Gnome, XFCE, KDE

*** Using a dual monitor setup with the primary monitor on the right, secondary on the left I can successfully setup most of the desktop on the right but it seems as though there’s some underlying configuration that has control of some specific monitor settings that’s not changing to the primary monitor on the right. ***

Here are some of the things that are on the right after configuring (config described further down)
- panels/toolbars on right
- some notifications on right
- anything that pops up is usually on the right
- Mint Mate notification pop-up in the top right corner showing network connection and other notifications is usually on the right but not always. This notification might be just wherever my mouse is upon loading.
- After a few days most things successfully end up on the right and the system is mostly configured to satisfaction.

Ive always had ATI graphics hardware:
ATI Catalyst Driver as far back as i can remember i get the same issue across ATI Radeon HD 5970, 6990, 7990 using the open source driver, proprietary driver from repo or catalyst driver from ATI website, as well as using the --buildpkg command on Ubuntu to generate specific packages for my PC. I've also recently tried using smxi to install the drivers.

Here is the issue:

- When gksudo requests root access the left (secondary) monitor dims and the window to enter password is always on the left monitor. Why does gksudo think the default monitor is still on the left? How to make gksudo use right monitor?

- When new programs are installed upon initial launch the program opens on the left (secondary) monitor. After i drag the window to the right moitor it opens on the right from that point on but that’s just defaulting to the last monitor the program was opened on because if i move it back to the left it opens on the left from then on. How do i make any new application initially open on the right/right (primary) monitor?

- Im not sure of this but it seems that the monitor EEID sinal and sync settings of the left monitor are more in to drivers seat than the monitor on the right (which i set to primary). Like i said im not sure of this but it just seems as though My primary monitor (right monitor) displays "poor-er" immages (ever so slightly) and there is more tearing, and trailing shadows and other things i cant quite explain that seem to be functioning worse than on Windows.

- Using the monitor settings GUI to set default monitor from left to right doesnt really work. Ive had to do this:

Edit monitors.xml using your chosen editor (here i use Pluma. Other potions would be gedit, nano)
and set yes to my chcosen monitor between the primary brackets. Change yes/no to correct settings depending on the monitor you want.

to use xorg.conf after ATI driver installation i did the follwoing:
and added the following line under the right monitor.
(x position 1080, and corresponding output from the video card in my case its been labeled DFP5 or DisplayOutput-1).
(I guess this depends on which optput on the graphics card i connect my right (primary) monitor to as well as how the graphics card outputs are mapped upon driver installation)

Add this line:
So what i'm trying to figure out to is how to set everything to use the right monitor as primary. You see my desk chair is on the right and the drawers are on the left. over several years dealing with this issue its become quite a nuisance as you can imagine. Like i said in the beginning it seems as though there is some underlying control mechanism that’s not switching to the primary monitor to the right. Anyone have any ideas? Is there a systems admin out there that has rectified this issue?

Have you tried KDE? It has a concept of a "primary" screen when you have a multi-screen setup, and it's "monitor configuration" panel lets you position your monitors as you wish, and designate any monitor as the "primary" one if you want to do so. (The main problem I have with KDE 5 is that you can only place your task bar(s) on the primary screen. I'd prefer separate different task bars on different screens and work-spaces, since I use them all for different sets of applications. As it is, I have to have each application set in discrete main menu entries which I access from the single task bar.)

If I remember correctly, the desktop file format has a DESKTOP_STARTUP_ID key that can be set to specify the desktop on which the application should be started. That would require editing the .desktop files for the application you want on specific desktops and, I suppose, storing then in your .local directory. If that's correct, it might create a maintenance headache.

Ive tried KDE and am not a fan of the Desktop Environment. But, this issue is across all different desktop environments. I cant believe out of the millions of linux users of which im certain many have dual (or more) monitors, less have primary on right but still... no one is fixing this issue... you would think this would be on the upper portion of the TODO list...

there are a ton of internet posts about dual monitor headache. In some areas windows has Linux blown out of the water. multi-monitor, touch screen, handwriting, voice control, onscreen keyboard... these are just some areas where windows blows linux away.

I dont mind difficult setups and configs, but i do mind when there are no instructions available, and i further when no matter how long i try and how deep i search there are no working solutions.

I'm not asking much... Just for the primary monitor on the right to function perfectly... sigh...

Anyone else have a fix for this issue?