A magical xrandr incantation

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Here's a handy incantation I use with the Intel X.org graphics driver on my laptop.

Put this script somewhere convenient::

#!/bin/sh
if xrandr | grep '^VGA connected' >/dev/null
then
    #echo "VGA connected"
    xrandr --output VGA --above LVDS --auto
    xrandr --output LVDS --auto
else
    #echo "VGA not connected"
    xrandr --auto
fi 2>&1 | logger -t xrandr-hotkey

and bind it to your "switch video mode" key, e.g. Fn+F7 on my Thinkpad X60s. For instance, I run xbindkeys, so I saved it as autoxrandr and put this in ~/xbindkeysrc:

"exec /home/smcv/bin/autoxrandr"
    XF86Display

Now if you press the "switch video mode" key with a monitor plugged in, you'll get the external monitor appearing above the laptop panel (my preferred configuration - I've balanced my monitor on an N800 box to get the bottom of the screen level with the top of my laptop's screen). If you press that key again after unplugging the VGA cable, the laptop will turn off the VGA output and pull all the windows onto the built-in screen.