Looking for an elegant dual monitor auto-configure solution (SOLVED)

Question

I am currently using XFCE becuase Gnome and KDE are both too heavy for my weak little laptop with intel onboard graphics.  The number one thing I miss is auto-detect and configuration when I plug or unplug my monitor.
I can't find anything that works automatically in an elegant way, the only thing I can do is poll the system every second.  There appears to be a way to make a udev rule but that is a little bit out of my depth.
My current solution is below, does anybody have a suggestion for something more elegant?  It would be awesome if there was something in the AUR.
#!/bin/bash
#inspired of:
# http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/4489/a-tool-for-automatically-applying-randr-configuration-when-external-display-is-p
# http://ozlabs.org/~jk/docs/mergefb/
dmode="$(cat /sys/class/drm/card0-VGA-1/status)"
export DISPLAY=:0
export XAUTHORITY=~/.Xauthority
# actual script
while true
do
if [ "${dmode}" = disconnected ]; then
/usr/bin/xrandr --auto
elif [ "${dmode}" = connected ];then
/usr/bin/xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --right-of LVDS1
else /usr/bin/xrandr --auto
fi
sleep 1s
done
SOLVED using inotify see below and thanks for all the help
#!/bin/bash
#inspired of:
# http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/4489/a-tool-for-automatically-applying-randr-configuration-when-external-display-is-p
# http://ozlabs.org/~jk/docs/mergefb/
# http://superuser.com/questions/181517/how-to-execute-a-command-whenever-a-file-changes/181543#181543
export MONITOR2=/sys/class/drm/card0-VGA-1/status
while inotifywait -e modify,create,delete,open,close,close_write,access $MONITOR2;
dmode="$(cat $MONITOR2)"
do
if [ "${dmode}" = disconnected ]; then
/usr/bin/xrandr --auto
echo "${dmode}"
elif [ "${dmode}" = connected ];then
/usr/bin/xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --right-of LVDS1
echo "${dmode}"
else /usr/bin/xrandr --auto
echo "${dmode}"
fi
done
Last edited by originalsurfmex (2013-10-28 20:51:45)

Answer 1

Thanks very much for pointing me to inotify.  This is exactly the type of solution I was looking for!  I wasn't too excited about creating some udev tool.  Here is the script using inotify:
#!/bin/bash
#inspired of:
# http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/4489/a-tool-for-automatically-applying-randr-configuration-when-external-display-is-p
# http://ozlabs.org/~jk/docs/mergefb/
# http://superuser.com/questions/181517/how-to-execute-a-command-whenever-a-file-changes/181543#181543
export MONITOR2=/sys/class/drm/card0-VGA-1/status
while inotifywait -e modify,create,delete,open,close,close_write,access $MONITOR2;
dmode="$(cat $MONITOR2)"
do
if [ "${dmode}" = disconnected ]; then
/usr/bin/xrandr --auto
echo "${dmode}"
elif [ "${dmode}" = connected ];then
/usr/bin/xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --right-of LVDS1
echo "${dmode}"
else /usr/bin/xrandr --auto
echo "${dmode}"
fi
done
I am marking this as solved.  If you have more critique or suggestions I'd be open to improve the script.