how to toggle on/off external and internal monitors

answered 2015-01-09 10:36:16 +0000

Sam73
61 ●2 ●3 ●9

updated 2015-02-23 08:49:59 +0000

Here is a method that will swap between mode :

• both monitors in best resolution
• external only
• internal only
• both in clone mode

First execute the command

xrandr

in a shell to check the names of your plugged in monitors. In my case they are LVDS1 for the internal and HDMI1 for the TV.

Create a script like this updating accordingly external and internal outputs variables :

#!/bin/bash
EXTERNAL_OUTPUT="HDMI1"
INTERNAL_OUTPUT="LVDS1"

# if we don't have a file, start at zero
if [ ! -f "/tmp/monitor_mode.dat" ] ; then
  monitor_mode="all"

# otherwise read the value from the file
else
  monitor_mode=`cat /tmp/monitor_mode.dat`
fi

if [ $monitor_mode = "all" ]; then
        monitor_mode="EXTERNAL"
        xrandr --output $INTERNAL_OUTPUT --off --output $EXTERNAL_OUTPUT --auto
elif [ $monitor_mode = "EXTERNAL" ]; then
        monitor_mode="INTERNAL"
        xrandr --output $INTERNAL_OUTPUT --auto --output $EXTERNAL_OUTPUT --off
elif [ $monitor_mode = "INTERNAL" ]; then
        monitor_mode="CLONES"
        xrandr --output $INTERNAL_OUTPUT --auto --output $EXTERNAL_OUTPUT --auto --same-as $INTERNAL_OUTPUT
else
        monitor_mode="all"
        xrandr --output $INTERNAL_OUTPUT --auto --output $EXTERNAL_OUTPUT --auto --left-of $INTERNAL_OUTPUT
fi
echo "${monitor_mode}" > /tmp/monitor_mode.dat

then add this command to i3 to bind the toggle

bindsym $mod+Shift+s exec --no-startup-id /home/mylogin/bin/monitor