Display Profile Switcher - GNOME Extension

Activate differen xrandr/arandr display profiles from the top panel in GNOME.

Motivation

TLDR:

• I have 4 displays (1 Laptop, 2 Monitors, 1 Beamer)
• My laptop can only handle 3 displays
• I have 2 differents set-ups with 3 displays each
• I use hdmi-switches to avoid unplugging cables
• I didn't find a way to automatically detect which display is connected (after using the cheap hdmi switch)
• So I wrote a small GNOME extension to manually activate different xrandr profiles which i created with arandr

Long version:

I have two different 3 screen set-ups (max my graphics card can handle) that I use with my laptop (XPS 13 7390). Laptop and one screen are always connected but the third screen is either a vertical monitor or a beamer, depending on if I work or if I play games or watch movies.

Layout a)	Layout b)
3 screens for work	2 Screens, one mirrored to beamer for playing games

I created 2 different profiles with arandr that have the right display configurations. It's possible so save these layouts as .sh files with the xrandr-command in it, e.g.:

xrandr --output eDP-1 --mode 1920x1080 --pos 1920x0 --rotate normal --output DP-1 --mode 1920x1080 --pos 1920x0 --rotate normal --output DP-2 --primary --mode 1920x1080 --pos 0x0 --rotate normal

These profiles can also be opened and edited again with arandr.

Layout a)	Layout b)
3 screens for work	2 Screens, one mirrored to beamer for playing games

At first I was still changing the HDMI cable between my vertical monitor and my beamer. It was possible to find out which display is connected and and activate the right profile automatically (loosely based on this). But I had to unplug/plug-in the HDMI cable at my laptop everytime, for the system to get the new devicename. That annoyed me much, so I bought a HDMI-switch and some short HDMI cables. My cable setup looks like this:

*(This includes my PS4 which is not mentioned here anywhere else, because it is irrelevant to this project. But unexpectedly this complicated set-up works very well.)

The problem here is, that I still have to re-connect the HDMI cable to the laptop every time, because the system doesnt register that the device has changed. That basically destroys all the convenience I was trying to achieve and I didn't find any way to automate this. To reduce the physical wear on my USB-C and HDMI ports, I started opening arandr manually and activating the right profile, ALL THE TIME. So I wrote a GNOME extension to make this easier for me

Features

• automatically add all <filename>.sh arandr-profiles to the drop down
  • profiles are always loaded from /home/<username>/.screenlayout/, where arandr saves its profiles
• activate profile when clicking on it

Still missing (or rather features I am considering)

• auto update the list without restarting gnome
• mark currently active profile (with a logo in front of it or something)
• keybindings to quick-switch profiles
• settings to specify path to the profiles
• having an icon for each profile (displayed in the dropdown menu)
• re-implementing the "automatically switch" feature somehow (with a possibility to activate/deactivate)

Install

• clone the repository somewhere:

git clone https://github.com/zagatta/display_profile_switcher

• go into then folder
• make install script executable
• run install script
  • only copies the files to /home/<username>/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/

cd display_profile_switcher
chmod +x ./install.sh
./install.sh

• install and launch arandr

sudo apt install arandr && arandr

• create your display configuration, e.g.

• save it to /home/<username>/.screenlayout/

• restart GNOME

killall -SIGQUIT gnome-shell

• Install and launch GNOME Tweak Tool

sudo apt install gnome-tweaks && gnome-tweaks

• launch gnome tweaks
• activate Display Profile Switcher extension

DONE

You should have an icon in the top panel with a dropdown menu of all your profiles now: Just click on one to activate.