How do I perform easy switching to external monitor

11.04 nvidia multiple-monitors thinkpad external-monitor

9,490

The nvidia tool nvidia-settings can be used from command line, but is not capable to activate or deactivate screens. xrandr is not supported by the propietary NVIDIA-drvers.

To switch displays you can use the tool disper: disper on launchpad It's a command line tools, wich exactly fits your problem an is easy to use.

Some example scripts for automatic switching at startup can be found here: Ubuntuusers.de wiki

I use these scripts to switch my monitors. It works perfectly.

9,490

YXD

o.O

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

YXD over 1 year

I am currently changing between my laptop and my external monitor with the NVidia X Server Settings program and I'm sure I'm doing it in a really dumb way:

I currently select the external monitor, set it from "Disabled" to "TwinView", then then select the laptop screen and change it to "Disabled". Then I press "Apply" and it's done. I do this in reverse when I need to disconnect.

It's the only way I've managed to switch monitors (both VGA and DisplayPort connections on my ThinkPad), and it's a really fiddly process which I have to perform multiple times per day.

However I really want to be able to switch with Fn-F8 or some other keyboard shortcut but this doesn't appear to work with any connection method. Is there anything better than I can do?
- Benji over 12 years
  
  I've wrestled with this issue too. I know that my Fn-F5 (or whatever it is) keyboard shortcut works in the rare occasion when I boot into windows. So, for at least some laptops, this keyboard shortcut works through software, not hardware.
- YXD over 12 years
  
  Fn-F5 turns wifi on and off, Fn-F8 enables and disables the touchpad it seems...
- Bruno Pereira over 12 years
  
  Can you please add your xorg.conf file?
- YXD over 12 years
  
  @brunopereira81 : pastebin.com/QC4UnBve
- Nagendhiran over 10 years
  
  Excellent, I just used the disper (disper --direction=left -e) and able to move the external display to left side. Good tool to have in place for developer and gaming enthusiasts.
YXD over 12 years

Thanks, I'm away from the office until next week but I'll give it a try then.
lbo almost 4 years

disper is in the repositories as of Trusty (14.04) and Xenial (16.04), so it can be installed via sudo apt-get install disper. Unfortunately, that's no longer true in Focal (20.04). What a pity!