Let xrandr set display number? [SOLVED]

Question

I have a laptop running Arch-x86_64 with openbox, and I am using xrandr and a custom script to connect two external displays to my laptop, one VGA and one DVI. Since the graphics card (ATi Mobility Radeon HD2400XT) only supports two screens simultaneously, I turn LVDS off before turning the external monitors on. My problem is, that whenever starting the laptop with external monitors connected at boot, the DVI screen is set as display one, and the VGA as display two. When I connect the screens after logging in and starting openbox, the VGA screen is set as display one, and the DVI screen as display two. Is there any way to explicitly set which monitor to use as display one/primary in xrandr?
The shell script is the exact same in both cases, and looks like this:
xrandr --output LVDS --off
xrandr --output DVI-0 --auto
xrandr --output VGA-0 --auto --right-of DVI-0
Last edited by MFserver (2012-03-01 16:16:33)

Answer 1

I sat down today and merged 4 script files into one, and noticed a certain behaviour of xrandr. The code:
xrandr --output VGA-0 --off
xrandr --output LVDS --auto --primary
xrandr --output DVI-0 --off
Turns my external monitors off, and sets my display resolution correctly. Though, invoking the following:
xrandr --output VGA-0 --off --output LVDS --auto --primary --output DVI-0 --off
Does absolutely nothing. Here's my now working script:
#/bin/sh
usage="This script is used to set monitor configuration. Usage: monitor {laptop|workstation|presentation|check}"
DVI=$(xrandr | grep "DVI-0 connected");
VGA=$(xrandr | grep "VGA-0 connected");
echo $usage
echo $1$VGA$DVI
function restart
killall conky
conky &
openbox --restart &
nitrogen --restore &
function laptop
xrandr --output VGA-0 --off
xrandr --output LVDS --auto --primary
xrandr --output DVI-0 --off
xcalib /usr/share/color/icc/LVDS.icc
killall terminator
terminator -b --title=background-terminal-laptop --geometry=899x800+48+0 &
notify-send -i notification-display-screen 'Monitor profile: Laptop' 'The monitor profile is set to \"Laptop\"'
restart
beep
function workstation
xcalib -c
xrandr --output DVI-0 --auto --primary
xrandr --output LVDS --off
xrandr --output VGA-0 --auto --right-of DVI-0
xcalib -c -screen-1 -screen-2
killall terminator
terminator -b -T background-terminal-workstation --geometry=1200x1200+1920+0 &
notify-send -i notification-display-screen 'Monitor profile: Workstation' 'The monitor profile is set to \"Workstation\"'
restart
beep -r 2
function presentation
echo 'This function is not yet implemented'
notify-send -i notification-display-screen 'Monitor profile: Presentation' 'This monitor profile is yet to be implemented'
beep -r 3
if [ $1 = laptop ];
then
laptop
fi
if [ $1 = workstation ];
then
if [ -n "$DVI" ];
then
if [ -n "$VGA" ];
then
workstation
else
notify-send -i notification-display-screen 'Monitor profile: Workstation' 'Failed to set monitor profile, the VGA monitor is not connected.'
beep -l 1000 -r 2
fi
else
if [ -n "$VGA" ];
then
notify-send -i notification-display-screen 'Monitor profile: Workstation' 'Failed to set monitor profile, the DVI monitor is not connected.'
beep -l 1000 -r 2
else
notify-send -i notification-display-screen 'Monitor profile: Workstation' 'Failed to set monitor profile, no external monitors connected.'
beep -l 1000 -r 2
fi
fi
fi
if [ $1 = presentation ];
then
if [ -n "$DVI" ];
then
presentation
else
if [ -n "$VGA" ];
then
presentation
else
notify-send -i notification-display-screen 'Monitor profile: Presentation' 'Failed to set monitor profile, no external monitors connected.'
beep -l 1000 -r 2
fi
fi
fi
if [ $1 = check ];
then
if [ -n "$DVI" ];
then
if [ -n "$VGA" ];
then
workstation
else
presentation
fi
else
if [ -n "$VGA" ];
then
presentation
else
laptop
fi
fi
fi
I have experimented with the -s parameter of xcalib, and found that I don't know how to manually load icc profiles for the external monitors. That will have to be discussed in another thread, though. This can be marked as solved now, thanks for the help guys!
Last edited by MFserver (2012-02-26 11:32:56)