Discussion between Pixelated Fish and marc.soda

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02:35

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Q: Dual monitors: on startup, screenbrightness only changes for one monitor

I am trying to change my default screen brightness on startup. I have added the following script to ~/.config/autostart screenBrightness.desktop: [Desktop Entry] ...

Pixelated Fish

Can you post the output of `xrandr | grep " connected " | awk '{ print$1 }'?

marc.soda

@PixelatedFish yes, see above

Pixelated Fish

Interesting. What happens if you remove that line from the desktop file?

marc.soda

@PixelatedFish if I remove the exec line from the desktop file, both monitors are at 100% brightness on startup.

@PixelatedFish note that I also added the command to my .profile out of curiosity, and the behavior was the same: on startup, the HDMI display brightness was at 70% and the DVI display was at 100%. Very strange behavior...

Pixelated Fish

I wonder if, for some reason, the DVI monitor hasn't been setup by the time that command runs. Maybe try setting the exec command to `bash -c '$(xrandr | grep " connected " | awk '{ print$1 }) >> /tmp/monitors', and post the contents of that file? Not sure if that command would even work in the exec line. Also might want to try in a terminal first.

marc.soda

02:41

I am getting a syntax error when entering the command you suggested. Trying to fix it now, but I'm unfamiliar with awk.

Pixelated Fish

oh, that would be because I lost a single quote. Should probably be bash -c '$(xrandr | grep " connected " | awk '{ print$1 }') >> /tmp/monitors'

marc.soda

marc@bigBoop:~$ bash -c '$(xrandr | grep " connected " | awk '{ print$1 }') >> /tmp/monitors'
print: -c: line 0: unexpected EOF while looking for matching `)'
print: -c: line 1: syntax error: unexpected end of file

Pixelated Fish

oops again. bash -c '$(xrandr | grep " connected " | awk '{ print$1 })' Sorry I'm making so many errors

marc.soda

marc@bigBoop:~$ bash -c '$(xrandr | grep " connected " | awk '{ print$1 })' >> /tmp/monitors
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `)'

no worries! thanks for helping me out with this, I appreciate it

Pixelated Fish

Wow... I chopped off the same single quote again. Try bash -c '$(xrandr | grep " connected " | awk '{ print$1 }')'

marc.soda

02:51

marc@bigBoop:~$ bash -c '$(xrandr | grep " connected " | awk '{ print$1 }')'
print: -c: line 0: unexpected EOF while looking for matching `)'
print: -c: line 1: syntax error: unexpected end of file

Pixelated Fish

Alright, bad solution: try putting xrandr | grep " connected " | awk '{ print$1 }' >> /tmp/monitors into a file (/home/user/test.sh), and running chmod +x on it. Then just set the exec line to execute that file.

or, better yet, just xrandr >> /tmp/monitors

marc.soda

doing that now

okay so I changed the .desktop to

1 [Desktop Entry]
2 Encoding=UTF-8
3 Version=1.0
4 Type=Application
5 Name=screenBrightness
6 Comment=automatically configures the screen brightness at startup
7 Exec=test.sh
8 StartupNotify=false
9 Terminal=false
10 Hidden=false

Pixelated Fish

Sorry I haven't been working on this myself; I'm not on Ubuntu right now.

marc.soda

No worries at all

Pixelated Fish

Just to be safe, you should put the absolute path to the file instead of just test.sh

marc.soda

02:59

test.sh is:

okay i'll do that

the .she file is

randr >> /tmp/monitors

.sh not .she ^^

Pixelated Fish

Again just to be safe, put #!/bin/bash at the top of the file

marc.soda

done.

nothing changes on login. what is the expected behavior?

Pixelated Fish

You have execute permssions on the file?

marc.soda

/tmp/monitors contains the output of xrandr

yes I do

Pixelated Fish

ok

what does /tmp/monitors say?

marc.soda

03:03

both monitors are at 100% brightness on login

Pixelated Fish

They should be

marc.soda

1 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 3840 x 1080, maximum 16384 x 16384
2 DisplayPort-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
3 HDMI-0 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 476mm x 268mm
4 1920x1080 60.00*+ 50.00 59.94
5 1680x1050 59.88
6 1280x1024 60.02
7 1440x900 59.90
8 1280x800 59.91
9 1152x864 75.00
10 1280x720 60.00 50.00 59.94
11 1024x768 70.07 60.00
12 800x600 60.32 56.25

Pixelated Fish

Ok, so the DVI monitor is connected by the time that command is run

marc.soda

Oh, yes, I see what you were trying to do there.

Yes it appears so.

Pixelated Fish

Sorry I made that take so long.

marc.soda

03:06

No worries, I really appreciate you working with me here!

Pixelated Fish

But you said that exact command to change the brightness will work from a console?

marc.soda

Yes

Pixelated Fish

I am so confused at this point. Down to last resorts, what happens if you remove the stuff for HDMI from the command, and put it back in Exec=

marc.soda

I'll do that now.

The dvi monitor is still at 100%

Pixelated Fish

What if you execute the command with -v in a terminal? Does it give any output?

marc.soda

03:12

Which command?

marc@bigBoop:~$ xrandr -v --output DVI-0 --brightness .7
xrandr program version 1.5.0

Pixelated Fish

that one

oh, sorry again, I just assumed -v was verbose. try --verbose

marc.soda

marc@bigBoop:~$ xrandr --verbose --output DVI-0 --brightness .7
crtc 1: 1920x1080 60.00 +1920+0 "DVI-0"

Pixelated Fish

What about with HDMI?

marc.soda

marc@bigBoop:~$ xrandr --verbose --output HDMI-0 --brightness .7
crtc 0: 1920x1080 60.00 +0+0 "HDMI-0"

Pixelated Fish

The xrandr man page says

Multiple outputs may be modified at the same time by passing multiple --output options followed immediately by their corresponding modifying options.

So did you try xrandr --output DVI-0 --output HDMI-0 --brightness .7

marc.soda

03:20

I'll try that right now

That command doesn't work in terminal

it manipulated the hdmi brightness but not the dvi

I believe that section of the man page is referring to a structure more like this (the command we've been working with): xrandr --output DVI-0 --brightness .7 --output HDMI-0 --brightness .7

Pixelated Fish

The man page is kind of unclear. Maybe it means xrandr --output DVI-0 HDMI-0 -brightness .7?

But I suppose your's does make more sense

marc.soda

yeah that didn't work, it's trying to treat 'HDMI-0' as an option

note that I have also tried splitting the command in two, running two separate commands:

xrandr --output DVI-0 --brightness 1

xrandr --output HDMI-0 --brightness 1

Pixelated Fish

in a terminal? or a desktop file?

marc.soda

i meant .7 instead of 1 but you get the idea

both

Pixelated Fish

And that didn't work in either?

marc.soda

03:25

it works in terminal, not the desktop file. the dvi brightness remains unchanged

on startup

Pixelated Fish

I'm still thinking maybe it hasn't been fully setup

marc.soda

That's really the only thing it could be

Pixelated Fish

maybe because HDMI is the primary?

marc.soda

Maybe. But that doesn't explain why it works in command line after startup.

I could try setting the dvi to be main and see what happens

Pixelated Fish

I'm thinking it might fully activate the HDMI first, and therefore, when the startup script runs, it can't yet change the brightness, which would explain why it works in terminal.

marc.soda

03:29

Yes that makes sense.

Pixelated Fish

I guess try DVI as primary

marc.soda

working on that

I'm not sure how to set DVI-0 to be the primary display on startup if the HDMI-0 is the default primary

Pixelated Fish

I think you'd have to set it to always be the primary

do you have a ~/.config/monitors.xml?

marc.soda

yes

Pixelated Fish

What's in it?

marc.soda

03:39

1 <monitors version="2">
2 <configuration>
3 <logicalmonitor>
4 <x>1920</x>
5 <y>0</y>
6 <scale>1</scale>
7 <monitor>
8 <monitorspec>
9 <connector>DVI-0</connector>
10 <vendor>ACR</vendor>
11 <product>Acer H226HQL</product>
12 <serial>LX2AA0024210</serial>
13 </monitorspec>
14 <mode>
15 <width>1920</width>
16 <height>1080</height>
17 <rate>60</rate>
18 </mode>
19 </monitor>

Sorry, that's confusing to read. I'm not sure why the tabs aren't copying

Pixelated Fish

apparently ther's a primary tag in the xml file for each monitor

see askubuntu.com/questions/760942/set-primary-monitor-on-16-04

the edit on the first answer

marc.soda

checking that

Pixelated Fish

also see here

10

Q: What do the tags in `monitors.xml` do?

I have a GNOME 3 desktop environment installed on my Arch Linux box, and I would like to manually configure my desktop settings. I understand there is a file ~/.config/monitors.xml but I am quite puzzled about what the tags in the file actually do. I am particularly interested in the presenta...

gnome3

I gtg, I'll check back tomorrow

marc.soda

Sounds good. Thanks so much

Pixelated Fish

20:47

What happened with the primary?

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