Having more desktop real-estate on your laptop is great. Well, here is my experience in configuring an external-monitor to my laptop running Xubuntu. This setup is a three step process: A. Get to know all names of display outputs on your laptop B. Create a shell script file to house dual-monitor configuration C. Setup Xfce desktop session to recall dual-monitor configuration during login Target hardware --------------- Laptop type: IBM Thinkpad T43 External monitor type: EIZO-FlexScan S2202W (Resolution: 1680x1050; Connection: VGA) Available Software ------------------ Xubuntu 10.04(lucid) xrandr Setup procedure --------------- A. Get to know all names of display outputs on your laptop In order to know the list of outputs for displays available/connected to your laptop's POSIX OS. I run the below command in the terminal: $ xrandr In my case, xrandr lists these outputs [Note! At the time of running xrandr in my terminal... I have already established the dual-monitor setup & it's up-and-running]: ......................................................................... Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 3080 x 1050, maximum 4096 x 4096 VGA-0 connected 1680x1050+1400+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 474mm x 297mm 1680x1050 60.0*+ 1280x1024 75.0 60.0 1280x960 60.0 1152x864 75.0 1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2 640x480 72.8 75.0 60.0 720x400 70.1 DVI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) LVDS connected 1400x1050+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm 1400x1050 60.5 + 60.0* 1600x1024 60.2 1280x1024 59.9 60.0 1440x900 59.9 1280x960 60.0 59.9 1280x854 59.9 1360x768 59.8 1280x800 59.8 1152x864 60.0 1280x720 59.9 1152x768 59.8 1024x768 60.0 59.9 800x600 60.3 59.9 848x480 59.7 720x480 59.7 640x480 59.9 59.4 S-video disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) ......................................................................... Now that, xrandr has helped me to get a list of names related to display outputs. Knowing these names as references to the display outputs, I can now setup the external monitor connected to my laptop as an expansion to Xubuntu-desktop's real-estate (i.e. a dual-monitor setup): VGA-0 <- This display output name refers to my laptop's own display LVDS <- This display output name refers to the external display connected to my laptop via VGA cable B. Create a shell script file to house dual-monitor configuration Create the below shell script file called '.dualmonitorsettings.sh' and give it executable-rights. Note the below points! - I saved this shell script file under user's root directory i.e. /home/USER/ - Last section in this shell script i.e. "# Restart QuickSynergy-Client". Is applicable, only if you have QuickSynergy running in client mode on your laptop. If you don't understand what this is or you have not installed QuickSynergy as a client on your local machine then comment the two lines belonging to this section. ......................................................................... #!/bin/bash # Created on Nov 17, 2012 # Author: Nirdharsh Shetty # # Help: Shell command to list the names of display outputs => xrandr # External-Resources: http://askubuntu.com/questions/91221/how-to-tell-xubuntu-not-to-clone-but-to-expand-the-laptop-display-to-the-externa # # RESOLUTION SETTINGS # This sets your laptop monitor, LVDS to its best resolution. xrandr --output LVDS --mode 1400x1050 --rate 60 # This sets your VGA-0 monitor to its best resolution. xrandr --output VGA-0 --mode 1680x1050 --rate 60 # MONITOR ORDER # Put the Laptop right, VGA-0 monitor left # xrandr --output VGA-0 --left-of LVDS # Put the Laptop left, VGA-0 monitor right xrandr --output LVDS --left-of VGA-0 # PRIMARY MONITOR # This sets your laptop monitor, LVDS as your primary monitor. xrandr --output LVDS --primary # This sets your VGA-0 monitor as your primary monitor. # xrandr --output VGA-0 --primary # Restart QuickSynergy-Client kill `ps h -o pid -C synergyc` synergyc 192.168.1.33 & ......................................................................... Now, a quick test of the newly created shell script -> '.dualmonitorsettings.sh' as a dual-monitor configurator. I run this script in the terminal and got the results I wanted, i.e.: - An external monitor connected to my laptop, now acts as an expansion to Xubuntu-desktop's real-estate - Latop is placed to the left-side-of external monitor - QuickSynergy-Client has been restarted and it automatically re-scales to the newly configured desktop real-estate C. Setup Xfce desktop session to recall dual-monitor configuration during login So to make the Xubuntu remember the dual-monitor setup, I reference the '.dualmonitorsettings.sh' shell script within Xfce desktop session's startup setting. This startup setting will be invoked during login to Xfce desktop. Here is the step-wise explanation: i. Under Xubuntu navigate to the following: Applications > Settings > Exfce 4 Settings Manager > Session and Startup ii. In the 'Session and Startup' window select the tab 'Application Autostart'. Now, click the button 'Add' and configure these fields in the appearing dialog window: ......................................................................... Name: DualMonitorSetup Description: Setup external monitor as a dual-monitor configuration Command: /home/USER/.dualmonitorsettings.sh ......................................................................... Note! Make sure this newly added Xfce desktop setting is ticked (i.e. tick the check-box) You have now completed the setup procedure for expanding desktop's real-estate on to the external monitor. So, every-time you logon to your Xubuntu machine, your dual-monitor setup will be made available to you. That's all folks...
0 Comments
|
AuthorCategories
All
Archives
January 2019
|