Configure a second screen (for presentations, external monitor)

I made this small script to help me rapidly connect to external monitors, when I am in a hurry.

For example, if I have to do a presentation at the university, I just connect the VGA output and type


$ vga_conf VGA1 1024 768 60


and that gives me 1024×768@60Hz on the beamer.

The script is extra-simple and doesn’t handle all situations. It’s just a quick way to try to set your resolution and refresh rate when in a hurry.

#!/bin/bash

if [ $# != 4 ]; then
    echo "** Usage: "
    echo "** $0 output height width refresh_rate"
    echo "** Example usage:"
    echo "** $0 VGA1 1280 1024 60"
    echo "** Note: output name can be retrieved from the xrandr command"
    exit
fi


echo "Generating modeline..."
modeline=`gtf $2 $3 $4 | grep Modeline | cut -f3 -d' ' --complement`
mode=`echo $modeline | cut -f1 -d' '`
echo "Creating modeline: $modeline"
xrandr --newmode $modeline
echo "Adding mode $mode to output $1"
xrandr --addmode $1 $mode
echo "Setting mode of $1 to $mode";
xrandr --output $1 --mode $mode

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