I just set up something really convenient for myself and I have to share it, though it’s somewhat outside of the normal scope of this blog. I use a laptop that’s normally connected to a full-size monitor, so I often have to switch between two different monitor configurations–kind of a hassle. But not anymore, because now I can switch using hotkeys. Here’s how it’s done:
- Get the monitor config tool “ArandR” ($ sudo apt-get install arandr)
- Use it to create and save two monitor configurations, one for the laptop and one for the main screen. These configuration files are actually shell scripts.
- Run gconf-editor and navigate to apps/metacity/keybinding_commands. Set the values of two commands to the paths to your shell scripts. (i.e., /path/to/script.sh)
- In apps/metacity/global_keybindings, set the hotkey combination for the commands you just set.
- Enjoy easy monitor configuration!
Thanks to this tutorial for showing how to set the hotkeys. Note that this uses Metacity, so it will not work if running other window managers, such as Compiz.