how-to-autodock-with-autorandr-and-poll-xrandr.md

How to auto-switch active screens when docking laptop using autorandr and poll-xrandr

• autorandr is a bash script for saving monitor setup and then change to those setups. It uses xrandr.

• poll-xrandr is a bash script that polls xrandr and runs autorandr --change --force if undocked

The old version is unmaintained; the new version (a rewrite in python) is here: https://github.com/phillipberndt/autorandr/

Deb is here: https://packages.debian.org/sid/all/autorandr/download

Install with

dpkg -i [file]

Setup autorandr with stored screen layouts

autorandr --save [docked|mobile|home|etc]

This line is active in my .config/i3/config

# script to monitor undocking:
exec --no-startup-id /usr/bin/poll-xrandr

And below is the tweaked contents of my /usr/bin/poll-xrandr where I removed the if-check on running process as it did not work:

#!/bin/bash

# Help
if [ -n "$1" ] && [[ $1 == "--help" ||  $1 == "-h" ]]; then
  case $1 in
    -h|--help)
        echo "Usage:
  poll-xrandr COMMAND [OPTIONS]

Help Options:
  -h, --help      Show this help

COMMAND is required and is a command to be executed on any detected change to xrandr displays.

Application Options:
  -i, --interval     The interval for polling, defaults to 4 seconds (-i=4)
"     ;;
    *)
      poll-xrandr --help
      ;;
  esac
  exit
fi

#if [ -z "$(pgrep poll-xrandr)" ]; then
  i=4 # default interval for polling.

  connected="$(xrandr -q | grep " connected"|cut -d ' ' -f1|xargs)"

  # Endless loop
  while : ; do
    # Re-read the status
    #new_cat="`cat $f`"
    connected_recheck="$(xrandr -q | grep " connected"|cut -d ' ' -f1|xargs)"

    # If original contents don't match new we need to run command.
    if [ "$connected" != "$connected_recheck" ]; then
      # Set the original contents the same as new to avoid unnecessarily repeating
      connected=$connected_recheck
      autorandr --change --force
    fi

    shift 1
    while [[ $# > 0 ]]; do
      key=$1

      case $key in
        -i=*|--interval=*)
          i="${key#*=}"
          ;;
        *)
          echo "Unknown option provided, you should fix that."
          ;;
      esac
      shift
    done

    sleep $i
  done

#else
#  echo "poll-xrandr is already running: aborting..."

OLD Instructions by nalipaz

The maintained version is described above.

The OLD, unmaintained version: https://github.com/nalipaz/autorandr/

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/4489/a-tool-for-automatically-applying-randr-configuration-when-external-display-is-p/22462#22462