umonitor

Manage monitor configuration automatically

The goal of this project is to implement desktop environment independent dynamic monitor management. Dynamic monitor management means that the positions and resolutions of the monitors will automatically be updated whenever monitors are hotplugged. This program is written in C using XCB to directly communicate with the X11 server and consists of only one binary. This program is targeted at users who are using a window manager on a laptop who hotplug monitors frequently.

I encourage you to look at a rewrite of this program in Cython/Python here called python-umonitor. A higher level language such as Python allows quicker development times and easier maintenance, and using Cython allows me to continue using XCB's API. The program also has several additional features.

Installation

Run make. umonitor binary will be created in bin.

For Arch Linux users there is an AUR package here.

Usage

• Setup your monitor resolutions and positions using xrandr or related tools (arandr is a good one).
• Run umonitor --save <profile_name>.
• Run umonitor --listen to daemonize the program and begin automatically applying monitor setup.

The configuration file is stored in ~/.config/umon.conf. You can load a profile manually by executing umonitor --load <profile_name>. Profiles can be deleted umonitor --delete <profile_name>.

Example scenario: You are working on a laptop. You want to save just the monitor configuration of just the laptop screen into the profile name called 'home'. At home you plug in an external monitor, and you want to save that configuration as 'docked'.

# With only the laptop screen (no external monitors)
$ umonitor --save home
Profile home saved!

# Plug in external monitor

# Setup your desired configuration
$ xrandr --output HDMI-1 --mode 1920x1080 --pos 1600x0
$ xrandr --output eDP1 --mode 1600x900 --pos 0x0

# Save the current configuration into a profile
$ umonitor --save docked
Profile docked saved!

# Begin autodetecting changes in monitor
$ umonitor --listen
home
docked*
---------------------------------
# Monitor is unplugged
home*
docked
---------------------------------

Program help can also be viewed through umonitor --help.

If you would like to auto start this program, you can add the program to your .xinitrc:

$ cat ~/.xinitrc
#!/bin/sh
...
...
...
umonitor --listen --quiet
exec i3 # your window manager of choice

Features

Give me some feedback!

• What is saved and applied dynamically:
  • Monitor vendor name + model number
  • Crtc x and y position
  • Resolution
  • Primary output
  • Rotation
• Daemonizes when called with --listen
• Prevents saving of duplicate profiles
• Valgrind clean

Future improvements:

• Bugs:
  • Tell me! Run umonitor with the --verbose flag to get debugging output

I'm open for any feature requests!

Inspiration

I drew inspiration of this program from udiskie. I enjoy using only window managers. For me, udiskie is one essential program to automount removable storage media. I would just include it in my .xinitrc and not have to worry about mounting anything manually again. I thought to myself, "Why not have the same program but for managing monitor hotplugging?"

At first, I found that the most common solutions to managing monitor hotplugging were using xrandr scripts. These scripts seemed really hacky to me, involving hardcoding of the DISPLAY environment variable. The reason why the DISPLAY environment variable needed to be hardcoded is because these scripts would be run by udev. udev runs your desired script as root and has no idea of the desired user's DISPLAY environment variable when it detects monitors being hotplugged.

The most popular program that manages monitor setups autorandr also has this problem, as it is setup to be run from a udev rule. It solves it by checking all processes not owned by root and seeing if the user of that process has a DISPLAY variable. For all users that do, it forks itself and changes its uid/guid to that user. Autorandr does not know which user you are, it just runs for all users!

I believed a better solution existed. By using the XCB library, I can communicate directly with the X11 server with this program running as just a single user. I do not need to rely on udev directly because the X11 server sends signals when monitors are hotplugged. Furthermore, using this program is as simple as including it in the .xinitrc, just like udiskie. For a Linux laptop user who uses a window manager only like me, I believe this software is almost a necessity for a good user experience!

Related Projects

• autorandr
• srandrd and screenconfig

This program is different from existing projects because it is written entirely in C using xcb calls and accomplishes dynamic monitor management in a single binary. Unlike autorandr, there is no need to install rules for udev or hooks for pmutils. Srandrd + screenconfig seems pretty promising to me, but there are features missing such as setting the crtc xy positions. Maybe if you combine srandrd with autorandr I would view the solution as not hacky.

About

This is my personal project. My motivation for writing this program comes from using i3 wm on my laptop. From writing this program I have learned a great deal about how to interact with the X11 server, trying out OOP in C, and hope to continue learning even more in the future. I want to work on this project until I deem that it is "complete", fufilling its purpose of dynamic monitor management for those who do not use a desktop environment.

Credits

I borrowed the edid parsing code from eds.