How to best go about using several different Display configuration (same outputs connected, different use case)

Brainstorm
,
1

If I get it right, the philosophy of Display configuration KCM is to do the right thing based on the displays connected. It generally does a good job of remembering my last settings with a particular given set of outputs connected.

However, in practice I sometimes want to dynamically change between several profiles. I have three monitors that I use for work and general stuff. Sometimes, I would like to watch a video or play a game. For that reason, I would like to turn off all the displays but one. Right now this is cumbersome:

  1. Manually disable unneeded displays in KCM. Works, but it is a lot of clicking (and actually reenabling them does not wholy remember the display arrangement, so it is kind of repetetive).
  2. Just unplug the monitors I am not interested in. That wears out the connectors that might not be reachable, but in my case is a nonstarter as I need to turn of my laptop’s screen, and that cannot be unplugged.
  3. Have a script using kscreen-doctor. Unfortunately, kscreen-doctor does not seem to have a switch to output the settings in current use, so I would need to figure out how to specify each arrangement I want to use.

For me, an ideal would be a button in the KCM with a function “Save this arrangement for future use.” And another switch that would allow me to easily switch between the profiles. Has something like that be considered? I am not the only one needing this, it seems (it actually sounds like a thing some people might need):
https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/15abgzq/is_it_possible_to_create_display_profiles/

https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/j8n0yw/i_made_a_display_profile_switcher_applet_for_kde/

1 Like
2

Or optionally binding screen configurations to activities.

What you could try until then is to have a different user account.

3

FWIW we had per-screen-arrangement settings in Plasma 5, but stopped it with 6 because it was too buggy and unpredictable, and we struggled to come up with a way to make it more reliable and understandable.

So currently, this is a use case for scripting your multiple setups using the kscreen-doctor command-line tool.

4

Finally something that would make them useful for me :-). Though I guess that would lead to settings diverging on the two activities when I just want to turn of monitors (which could be a good thing, Icould place launchers for games and my folder with video on the Desktop, hmm).

It is actually quicker to turn them off manually in Display configuration than changing user (who I would need to set up to have full access to my primary user anyway), only if I kept not forgetting to hit the “keep” button to preserve the configuration :-).

Then I hope it is revisited at some point. Or that at least kscreen-doctor gets a function to spit out the curent configuration that can be fed back to it, so one does not need to try to understand its syntax :-).

5

That’s a good idea! Can you open a bugzilla ticket requesting it?

6

here you go: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=514233

1 Like