Sample Fn-F7 script

This guide will help you configure Fn-F7 key combination to toggle between internal, mirror, external, or both screens. This was tested on ThinkPad X60s running Fedora 8, please comment if it works or does not work for you.

Works like a charm on X61s with Xubuntu 7.10. Working with R60e with some modifications noted below.

configuring the virtual screen size

Add a "Virtual" statement to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf, the total resolution should be large enough to fit all your screens in the configuration you want, for example if you have 1600x1200 monitor to the left of your internal 1024x768 monitor, your total max resolution is 2624x1200 (See Xorg RandR 1.2 for more details):

Section "Screen"
       Identifier "Screen0"
       Device     "Videocard0"
       DefaultDepth     24
        SubSection "Display"
               Viewport   0 0
               Depth     24
               Virtual   2624 1200
       EndSubSection
EndSection

Restart X server at this point (i.e. logout and login).

configuring acpi

Create /etc/acpi/events/thinkpad.conf:

event=ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001007
action=/usr/local/sbin/thinkpad-fn-f7

or you may (eg Ubuntu 7.10) already have /etc/acpi/ibm-videobtn

# /etc/acpi/events/ibmvideobtn
# This is called when the user presses the video button. It is currently
# a placeholder.

in which case modify the line 'action=/bin/true' to run the script as above. It may also be necessary to enable acpi events as per How to get special keys to work with

$echo enable,0xffff > /proc/acpi/ibm/hotkey

identify output devices

Note the names of your output devices as you will have to change EXTERNAL_OUTPUT and INTERNAL_OUTPUT to what xrandr shows, for example VGA and LVDS in this case:

$ xrandr -q
VGA connected 1600x1200+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 432mm x 324mm
...
LVDS connected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

The bash script

Create /usr/local/sbin/thinkpad-fn-f7, you can set EXTERNAL_LOCATION to one of: left, right, above, or below.

#!/bin/bash

# External output may be "VGA" or "VGA-0" or "DVI-0"
EXTERNAL_OUTPUT="VGA"
INTERNAL_OUTPUT="LVDS"
EXTERNAL_LOCATION="left"

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

# Switch to X user if necessary
if [ "$X_USER" != "$USER" ]; then
       SU="su $X_USER -c"
fi

case "$EXTERNAL_LOCATION" in
       left|LEFT)
               EXTERNAL_LOCATION="--left-of $INTERNAL_OUTPUT"
               ;;
       right|RIGHT)
               EXTERNAL_LOCATION="--right-of $INTERNAL_OUTPUT"
               ;;
       top|TOP|above|ABOVE)
               EXTERNAL_LOCATION="--above $INTERNAL_OUTPUT"
               ;;
       bottom|BOTTOM|below|BELOW)
               EXTERNAL_LOCATION="--below $INTERNAL_OUTPUT"
               ;;
       *)
               EXTERNAL_LOCATION="--left-of $INTERNAL_OUTPUT"
               ;;
esac

# Figure out current state
INTERNAL_STATE=$($SU xrandr | grep ^$INTERNAL_OUTPUT | grep con | sed "s/.*connected //" | sed "s/(.*//")
EXTERNAL_STATE=$($SU xrandr | grep ^$EXTERNAL_OUTPUT | grep con | sed "s/.*connected //" | sed "s/(.*//")

if [ -z "$INTERNAL_STATE" ]; then
       STATE="external"
elif [ -z "$EXTERNAL_STATE" ]; then
       STATE="internal"
else
       INTERNAL_STATE=$(echo $INTERNAL_STATE | sed "s/[0-9]*x[0-9]*//")
       EXTERNAL_STATE=$(echo $EXTERNAL_STATE | sed "s/[0-9]*x[0-9]*//")
       if [ "$INTERNAL_STATE" = "$EXTERNAL_STATE" ]; then
               STATE="mirror"
       else
               STATE="both"
       fi
fi

function screen_external(){
       $SU "xrandr --output $INTERNAL_OUTPUT --off"
       $SU "xrandr --output $EXTERNAL_OUTPUT --auto"
}

function screen_internal(){
       $SU "xrandr --output $EXTERNAL_OUTPUT --off"
       $SU "xrandr --output $INTERNAL_OUTPUT --auto"
}

function screen_mirror(){
       $SU "xrandr --output $INTERNAL_OUTPUT --auto"
       $SU "xrandr --output $EXTERNAL_OUTPUT --auto --same-as $INTERNAL_OUTPUT"
}

function screen_both(){
       $SU "xrandr --output $INTERNAL_OUTPUT --auto"
       $SU "xrandr --output $EXTERNAL_OUTPUT --auto $EXTERNAL_LOCATION"
}

function screen_toggle(){
       case "$STATE" in
               internal)
                       screen_mirror
                       ;;
               mirror)
                       screen_external
                       ;;
               external)
                       screen_both
                       ;;
               both)
                       screen_internal
                       ;;
               *)
                       screen_internal
                       ;;
       esac
}

# What should we do?
DO="$1"
if [ -z "$DO" ]; then
       if [ $(basename $0) = "thinkpad-fn-f7" ]; then
               DO="toggle"
       fi
fi

case "$DO" in
       toggle)
               screen_toggle
               ;;
       internal)
               screen_internal
               ;;
       external)
               screen_external
               ;;
       mirror)
               screen_mirror
               ;;
       both)
               screen_both
               ;;
       status)
               echo "Current Fn-F7 state is: $STATE"
               echo
               echo "Attached monitors:"
               $SU xrandr | grep "\Wconnected" | sed "s/^/ /"
               ;;
       *)
               echo "usage: $0 <command>" >&2
               echo >&2
               echo "  commands:" >&2
               echo "          status" >&2
               echo "          internal" >&2
               echo "          external" >&2
               echo "          mirror" >&2
               echo "          both" >&2
               echo "          toggle" >&2
               echo >&2
               ;;
esac

set permissions and restart acpi

As root, run the following commands,

# chmod 755 /usr/local/sbin/thinkpad-fn-f7
# service acpid restart

You should be ready to go, just press Fn-F7 to try.

Alternative script using .Xauthority rather than su

Use this script as an alternative

action=/usr/local/sbin/toggle-display.sh

for /etc/acpi/events/ibm-videobtn

#!/bin/bash

# usr/local/sbin/toggle-display.sh 
# thinkwiki(a)djclark.co.uk     2007-11-23 
# based on /etc/acpi/screenblank.sh (Ubuntu 7.10)

# . /usr/share/acpi-support/power-funcs         # for getXuser
umask 022;

PATH="$PATH:/usr/bin/X11"

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"

1. . /usr/share/acpi-support/screenblank.sh

       /usr/local/bin/toggle.py

   fi

done

Each user has an ~/.Xauthority file with one line for each X display containing a 'magic cookie' (Run "xauth list" to see the contents). The Xserver reads the record in ~/.Xauthority matching its display. When an X client application starts it also looks for that record and passes the magic cookie to the server. If it matches, the connection to the Xserver is allowed. The above example runs the python script below but could run a modified version of /usr/local/sbin/thinkpad-fn-f7 without the USER, and DISPLAY detection SU commands.

A Python Toggle script

This is a somewhat over-elaborate script which could be cut down when run by the /usr/local/sbin/toggle-display.sh script above. It was written to explore all the possibilities rather than economy of execution. The appropriate outputs can be specified on the command line and it is not necessary to call it via acpi.