flexible monitor setup

answered 2014-03-24 14:10:41 +0000

OliverUv
11 ●1 ●1

Can't edit the above answer so here's how to use --primary with xrandr:

--primary will set a display to be primary, which will not affect which workspaces are on it, but can change where your systray icons are displayed if you've configured i3 to that effect.

I execute my xrandr commands in this way:

exec --no-startup-id xrandr --output HDMI-0 --off --output DVI-I-1 --mode 1280x1024 --pos 0x0 --rotate normal --output DVI-I-0 --primary --mode 1920x1200 --pos 1280x0 --rotate normal --output DVI-I-3 --off --output DVI-I-2 --off

That is, I give it a complete specification of my screens. The easiest way to find out what this should look like is to set up your screens the way you want, then use arandr (a simple xrandr gui) to export the xrandr line (Layout->Save As). Note that arandr will not set --primary for you. Do this yourself, immediately after the display you want to make primary.

You said you wanted --primary to ensure workspace 1 goes on your primary monitor. This won't happen, but you're going to want to move your workspaces between monitors dynamically and this will let you achieve what you want:

# move current workspace between monitors
bindsym $mod+Control+h move workspace to output left
bindsym $mod+Control+j move workspace to output down
bindsym $mod+Control+k move workspace to output up
bindsym $mod+Control+l move workspace to output right

I also use these things to rename workspaces. I often do this to rename workspace 2 to 10, so that I can have workspaces on my second monitor go from 10 downwards.

# rename current workspace
bindsym $mod+Control+r exec i3-input -F 'rename workspace to "%s"' -P 'New name: '

If you give a workspace a name such as "5: ssh", you can still go to it only if you've changed your binds like this:

# switch to workspace
bindsym $mod+1 workspace number 1
bindsym $mod+2 workspace number 2
bindsym $mod+3 workspace number 3
bindsym $mod+4 workspace number 4
bindsym $mod+5 workspace number 5
bindsym $mod+6 workspace number 6
bindsym $mod+7 workspace number 7
bindsym $mod+8 workspace number 8
bindsym $mod+9 workspace number 9
bindsym $mod+0 workspace number 10

answered 2013-08-09 19:31:34 +0000

syl20bnr
123 ●6 ●8 ●16

updated 2013-08-10 04:54:00 +0000

You can define key bindings to summon some xrandrprocesses as explained in the user guide: http://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html#m...

For instance:

bindsym $mod+m         exec xrandr --output HDMI1 --off
bindsym $mod+shift+m   exec xrandr --output HDMI1 --auto --right-of LVDS1

Edit to add a better answer to the OP question

You could try the --primary argument for xrandr. I did not succeed in making it work with i3. Maybe there is a recipe to make it work.

Another solution is to fake a swap of primary monitor by reassigning the workspaces outputs in your config.

1) First assign the output for each monitor

workspace 1 output $mainoutput
workspace 2 output $secondoutput

2) Then you define the variables:

At home:

set $mainoutput   xinerama-0
set $secondoutput xinerama-0

At work, edit the config file:

set $mainoutput   xinerama-1
set $secondoutput xinerama-0

3) Reload your config

It could be easily automated with a script which modify the config given a template and then call i3-msg restart.

answered 2014-03-26 17:49:33 +0000

morgan_greywolf
1 ●1

updated 2014-03-26 17:53:40 +0000

Personally, I use a script to manage my multiple monitor screen configurations; this way I never have to worry about switching it, the script will just do the right thing when i3 starts. I have three configurations: one at home (small monitor to the right of my LVDS), work (larger monitor to the right of my LVDS), and one on the road (just LVDS). I always use the native resolution of the flat panel. Other configurations will work, but you will have to alter the script.

#!/bin/bash
for output in $(xrandr | grep '\Wconnected' | awk '{ print $1 }'); do
    if [[ $output =~ ^LVDS.*$ ]]; then
            lvds=$output
    fi
done
for output in $(xrandr | grep '\Wconnected' | awk '{ print $1 }'); do
    if [[ ! $output =~ ^LVDS.*$ ]]; then
       xrandr --output $lvds --auto --output $output --pos 0x0 --auto \
              --right-of $lvds --primary
    fi
done

I call this script "autoxrandr" and it's placed in my $HOME/bin directory. I then call it from ~/.i3/config via a line like

exec --no-startup-id autoxrandr

The script works like this: it discovers which XRandR output is named LVDS-something and then assumes that all other monitors are to the right of the LVDS. This works for me because I always place the larger monitors on the right, because due to problems with my vision, I see better out of my right eye. It also will assume that the monitor furthest to the right will be primary. Obviously this is very simplistic and probably won't work for some other monitor setups.

If you want to have more monitors, say, one on the right and one the left, etc., to know which monitor is which you can get at the monitor's EDID via 'xrandr --verbose'; this will uniquely identify each monitor. Then you could build some smarts in your script that places each monitor where you want it, sets up the resolution, determines which is primary, etc. I'll leave that as an exercise to the reader.