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=X40 + Ubuntu 8.10=
I'm using an IBM ThinkPad X40 w/ Ubuntu 8.10.
I edited the .Xauthority bash script slightly because it wasn't working for me.  I simplified it to just switch from one monitor to the other.  It switches the display fine; however, the buttons to open programs in the panel get messed up.  Right now, the rightmost four slide all the way to the right of the panel, and the rest (3) stay where they were originally.  Is anyone else experiencing this?  If you're going to test it out, make sure you have at least 7 buttons.  Here is the script I'm using to switch screens:

 #!/bin/bash
 # From: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Sample_Fn-F7_script
 #
 # External output may be "VGA" or "VGA-0" or "DVI-0" or "TMDS-1"
 EXTERNAL_OUTPUT="VGA"
 INTERNAL_OUTPUT="LVDS"
 
 function screen_external(){
       xrandr --output $INTERNAL_OUTPUT --off
       xrandr --output $EXTERNAL_OUTPUT --auto
 }
 
 function screen_internal(){
       xrandr --output $EXTERNAL_OUTPUT --off
       xrandr --output $INTERNAL_OUTPUT --auto
 }
 
 function screen_toggle(){
       # Figure out current state
       INTERNAL_STATE=$(xrandr | grep ^$INTERNAL_OUTPUT | grep con | sed "s/.*connected //" | sed "s/(.*//")
       EXTERNAL_STATE=$(xrandr | grep ^$EXTERNAL_OUTPUT | grep con | sed "s/.*connected //" | sed "s/(.*//")
 
       if [ -z "$INTERNAL_STATE" ]; then
         STATE="external"
       else
         STATE="internal"
       fi
 
       case "$STATE" in
               internal)
                       screen_external
                       ;;
               external)
                       screen_internal
                       ;;
               *)
                       screen_internal
                       ;;
       esac
 }
 
 # based on /etc/acpi/screenblank.sh (Ubuntu 7.10)
 # . /usr/share/acpi-support/power-funcs         # for getXuser
 getXuser() {
       user=`finger| grep -m1 ":$displaynum " | awk '{print $1}'`
       if [ x"$user" = x"" ]; then
               user=`finger| grep -m1 ":$displaynum" | awk '{print $1}'`
       fi
       if [ x"$user" != x"" ]; then
               userhome=`getent passwd $user | cut -d: -f6`
               export XAUTHORITY=$userhome/.Xauthority
       else
               export XAUTHORITY=""
       fi
 }
 # end of getXuser from /usr/share/acpi-support/power-funcs
 #
 for x in /tmp/.X11-unix/*; do
   displaynum=`echo $x | sed s#/tmp/.X11-unix/X##`
   getXuser;
   if [ x"$XAUTHORITY" != x"" ]; then
       export DISPLAY=":$displaynum"
      screen_toggle
   fi
 done
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=R50e + Fedora 9=
Using Fedora 9 on a Thinkpad R50e, and works like a charm for me - only had to do one modification:
If the environment is such that X_USER equals USER, then the version with citation marks - like in

 $SU "xrandr --output $INTERNAL_OUTPUT --off"

does not work, bash would complain that the command was not found.
It would then have to be

 $SU xrandr --output $INTERNAL_OUTPUT --off

However, this does not work anymore then as soon as $SU is not empty.

The simplest solution - can surely be done in a more elegant way - is thus to replace e.g. the first two lines of this kind with

       if [ -z "$SU" ]; then
           xrandr --output $INTERNAL_OUTPUT --off
           xrandr --output $EXTERNAL_OUTPUT --auto
       else
           $SU "xrandr --output $INTERNAL_OUTPUT --off"
           $SU "xrandr --output $EXTERNAL_OUTPUT --auto"
       fi



Thanks a lot! --mflechl


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Note: you will need to change the internal and external resolution until someone fixes this script to figure it out from xrandr, you may also need to change output names from "VGA" and "LVDS" to what your xrandr tells you.

why not just use --auto ?

 xrandr --output LVDS --auto --output VGA --off
 xrandr --output LVDS --off  --output VGA --auto
 
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Good point, made the changes --seva

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# This is to figure out which user and X11 display to work on
 # TODO there has to be a better way to do this?
SU="su $(w -h -s | grep ":[0-9]" | head -1 | awk '{print $1}') -c"
export DISPLAY=$(w -h -s | grep ":[0-9]" | head -1 | awk '{print $3}'


concerning detecting what is currently active from xrandr. with VGA off xrandrq shows

 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1024 x 768, maximum 2048 x 2048
 VGA connected (normal left inverted right)
    1600x1200      60.0 +   59.9  
   1280x1024      75.0     59.9  
   1152x864       74.8  
   1024x768       75.1     60.0  
   800x600        75.0     60.3  
   640x480        75.0     60.0  
   720x400        70.1  
 LVDS connected 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right) 304mm x 228mm
   1024x768       60.0*+   50.0  
   800x600        60.3  
   640x480        60.0     59.9 

with VGA on 
 VGA connected 1600x1200+0+0 (normal left inverted right) 367mm x 275mm
   1600x1200      60.0*+   59.9  
   1280x1024      75.0     59.9  
   1152x864       74.8  
   1024x768       75.1     60.0  
   800x600        75.0     60.3  
   640x480        75.0     60.0  
   720x400        70.1  
 LVDS connected 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right) 304mm x 228mm
   1024x768       60.0*+   50.0  
   800x600        60.3  
   640x480        60.0     59.9  

with LVDS off:


 djc@Twingo:~$ xrandr --output LVDS --off --output VGA --auto
 djc@Twingo:~$ xrandr -q
 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1600 x 1200, maximum 2048 x 2048
 VGA connected 1600x1200+0+0 (normal left inverted right) 367mm x 275mm
   1600x1200      60.0*+   59.9  
   1280x1024      75.0     59.9  
   1152x864       74.8  
   1024x768       75.1     60.0  
   800x600        75.0     60.3  
   640x480        75.0     60.0  
   720x400        70.1  
 LVDS connected (normal left inverted right)
   1024x768       60.0 +   50.0  
   800x600        60.3  
   640x480        60.0     59.9  

so detection should be possible on the differences between
 VGA connected 1600x1200+0+0 (normal left inverted right) 367mm x 275mm
 VGA connected (normal left inverted right)
 LVDS connected (normal left inverted right)
 LVDS connected 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right) 304mm x 228mm

eg between '''xxxx connected nnnnxnn+0+0 (''' and '''xxxx connected ('''

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Regarding 1. acpid runs as root, so I switch to a user account before runinng xrandr, however I need to figure out which user to switch to -- hence the hack.

Regarding 2. that doesn't tell us if screens are being mirrored or exended, just active, i think that in combination with some other tools (xwininfo -root perhaps?) could work.

--seva

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 djc@Twingo:~$ xrandr --output LVDS --auto --output VGA --auto --below LVDS
 djc@Twingo:~$ xrandr -q
 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1600 x 1968, maximum 2048 x 2048
 VGA connected 1600x1200+0+768 (normal left inverted right) 367mm x 275mm
 ...
 LVDS connected 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right) 304mm x 228mm

so the position is in the +0+768

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Akw, I don't think the script needs to be colorized, it better to leave things the user needs to change in bold instead.

Ordonnateur, I've made the changes so the script now figures out the state from xrandr and doesn't need to store it to a file.

--seva

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This is great work, better than I could do. But here is another bug for you: grep connected is also picking up disconnected.

  status)
               echo "Current Fn-F7 state is: $STATE"
               echo
               echo "Attached monitors:"
               xrandr | grep connected | sed "s/^/ /"

gives

 djc@Twingo:~$ Desktop/thinkpad-fn-f7.sh status
 Current Fn-F7 state is: internal

 Attached monitors:
  VGA disconnected (normal left inverted right)
  LVDS connected 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right) 304mm x 228mm

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fixed --seva

Re detecting the X user, it may be just as ugly but have you looked at 
  /usr/share/acpi-support/power-funcs

for example this is the /etc/acpi/screenblank.sh in Ubuntu 7.10

 #!/bin/bash
 . /etc/default/acpi-support
 . /usr/share/acpi-support/power-funcs
 for x in /tmp/.X11-unix/*; do
    displaynum=`echo $x | sed s#/tmp/.X11-unix/X##`
    getXuser;
    if [ x"$XAUTHORITY" != x"" ]; then
         export DISPLAY=":$displaynum"
 	. /usr/share/acpi-support/screenblank
    fi
 done

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Husky69, `w` output looks like this for me:

 [seva@brain ~]$ w -h -s
 seva     tty7     :0                0.00s /usr/bin/gnome-session

So `awk '{print $3}'` is correct, does w output look different for you?

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Thanks for the excellent article. On my x300 running Ubuntu 8.10 the thinkpad-fn-f7 script doesn't work. I changed lines 39 and 40 to:

 INTERNAL_STATE=$($SU xrandr | sed -n "s/${INTERNAL_OUTPUT}\Wconnected\W\([0-9]\+[xX][0-9]\++[0-9]\++[0-9]\+\).*/\1/p")
 EXTERNAL_STATE=$($SU xrandr | sed -n "s/${EXTERNAL_OUTPUT}\Wconnected\W\([0-9]\+[xX][0-9]\++[0-9]\++[0-9]\+\).*/\1/p")

This finds the state of each monitor, so you can tell whether you're mirroring two active monitors, and leaves the variable empty if the monitor is connected but off. I know more about sed than about monitors, so I'd appreciate your feedback if you see a reason why this script wouldn't work in all situations.
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