TotalSpaces + External USB Monitor (ASUS MB168B+) = NOPE

TotalSpaces
1

Hey,

big fan of TotalSpaces. Recently I acquired an external USB monitor, the ASUS MB168B+. It’s driven by a proprietary DisplayLink driver. When invoking the “overview view” the whole system freezes for about 5 to 10 seconds before the overview of all active desktops is presented. Same for switching back to a specific desktop. Basically, this way of navigating through desktops becomes completely unusable. Sometimes even the desktop on the external monitor turns 180 degrees when invoking the overview view.

Are you guys planning on smoothing this out? :smile:

Thanks a lot.

Cheers, Flo

2

Yes, DisplayLink is problematic, I have heard of various issues before also.

Do you have problems when activating Mission Control? TotalSpaces2 uses similar graphics techniques, but the windows are bigger and there are more of them, so the demands on the GPU and display driver are greater.

3

Hey Stephen,

your hunch was correct - I experience the same sort of delay when invoking mission control.

Does that mean the problem is effectively out of reach for you?

Cheers,

Flo

4

Hi Flo,

Yes, I’m not sure I can fix this. One thing you can try is to turn lower memory mode on. Use this command:

defaults write com.binaryage.TotalSpaces2 lowerMemoryUsage -bool YES

Theoretically this could also make things worse. But try it anyway. (You can always turn it off again with NO as the parameter).

Also try turning the Zoom to overview grid animation off in General preferences in TotalSpaces2.

If that doesn’t help, then probably significant changes in TotalSpaces2 would be required - some kind of fallback mode where we don’t use the live window previews in the overview grid. I’d need to think about how this could be achieved, no promises right now.