I take my laptop into conference and training rooms and need to use whichever available monitor is available. Can someone help me sort out the tinkering and adjusting that I do for each situation?

I expect to do some tinkering for any completely new-to-me monitors, but I hope to discover ways to script or create config files that make this easier than time spent doing point-click.

The hardware just works!

• Lenovo laptop with display port
• display port adapter to HDMI cable
• monitor connection
  • direct HDMI
  • adapter HDMI to DVI
• EXCEPTION
  • Lenovo VGA port to monitor VGA port

Since every new room has some different monitor, I must make adjustments to XORG things and Desktop things before I can get down to configuration for the presentation software that I use.

Thanks in advance,
~~~ 0;-Dan

One would think it just works. If you do not have xorg.conf that is. You can always run xrandr --auto from CLI if needed.

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Foremost, I was not aware of xrandr --auto. Thank you for pointing this out.

Next:
I know that this command can be part of my per-login session scripts. Where might I put it so that it is a system-wide feature rather than per-login? Can I do this in /etc/rc.local?

Thanks, again,
~~~ 0;-Dan

Not sure, since it is an X application I'd say it needs X started to be useful. Somewhere in your X startup files would do. If your setup is parsing traditional ~/.xinitrc it will work from there.

The ~/.xinitrc and various desktop-environment specific resources are per-login -- that is, per-user. I'm sure that there is some system-wide file that is part of the X-windows run-time.

Frankly, it has been forever since I've dug into X-Windows startup details. That was on VAXs decades ago. On Linux, things just worked and I was a happy user. This will give me the kick needed to blow the dust from what I think I know.

Cheers,
~~~ 0;-Dan

I tend to use xrandr to adjust after X is started. Although I never used --auto.

Extra devices might make more sense than adapters depending on the situation. Networked with vnc or ssh -X type setups and it's just as good as an adapter with a few bonus features (if you have knowledge and setup time). Various SBCs outs now with a variety of outputs for < $100. Some as low as $5. Or it's just my inner redneck coming out since ethernet cables are $5-ish and HDMI cables are still $30-ish. Or several hundred if you want an HDMI longer than ten feet.

I'm not clear where you are going with this...

Situation I
My laptop at home office at my desk uses the same external monitor always.
I want to "store this configuration" so that it is handy without having to tinker
when I connect in my home office.

Situation II
I go walkabout for a presentation. Lord only knows what I'll face for an external monitor. Sometimes its a "monitor". Sometimes its a "projector". Sometimes its a "classroom" [see note]. I'd like to:

• automate as much as is reasonable
• be able to store and re-use external monitor configurations
• failing config re-use, minimize the per-site tinkering that is required.
  (I'm just starting to investigate using "xrandr --auto" and expect that will help some.)

NOTE -- "classroom" is just that, but technically I connect to some brick at the presenter's desk. The brick connects to who knows what. Once connected, all the room tech drives all of the displays and projectors and such.

Thanks in advance,
~~~ 0;-Dan

In case xrandr --auto works for you - use xbindkeys to assign this command to a key on your keyboard.

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Thanks for the tip about a key binding...

ASIDE re: "Religions"
If you are speaking of belief systems, I agree. However, it seems that the institutions and political systems that grow up around those beliefs have a poor track record for human happiness.
END-ASIDE

It is the rest of the tinkering that tangles my hair. xrandr tells X-windows all about the new hardware. Somehow I still must tell my desktop environment about what is now available from X-windows.

There's a number of low power and cheap SBCs designed for digital signage. With most of the video outputs one would ever need. Although you might need more than one type to cover all options. So instead of having a bag of adapters, you could take one or more of these along and bridge the gap. With various ways to stream your desktop to said device and other options.

Just an option as I recall buying a GPU to have HDMI out and an expensive HDMI cable during the digital TV conversion. These days I could have just streamed my existing setup to a Raspberry Pi over an Ethernet cable. Versus an aftermarket GPU that burned a lot of watts, put out a lot of heat, and only lasted two years. And probably accelerated the death of at least two PSUs during those two years.

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Thanks to all for your comments and suggestions.

You have convinced me that while Linux display hardware and software have certainly improved since the original X-11 days, it still has not embraced usability by non-wizard mortals doing the useful things that we want to do.
We complain about the walled-gardens that are Windows and Macintosh. I run Linux because I want the flexibility to solve my own problems. That doesn't mean that I want to be forced into tinkering to accomplish everything.

Why doesn't Linux display management and desktop enviroment parts do something like this:

• end user describes how they want to use their displays (This might be the result of a SAVE operation
  after tinkering a set of parts into cooperation.)
• on startup, display parts map available hardware onto the SAVEd configuration
• where possible, the display parts cooperate with what is SAVEd
• where conflicts exist, the display parts ask the end-user to select among alternate SAVEd configurations or to fall-back to a set of defaults.
• at the end of this startup negotiation and selections, the end user is asked to SAVE that configuration.

NOTE -- It seems that this is what happens with network wire and wireless configuration.
I guess that the display folks never got this memo.

Heavy sigh,
~~~ 0;-Dan

Perhaps wayland and mir address this issue in particular.

There is xrandr and arandr (a gui for xrandr) available to any X session. Although nVidia proprietary drivers do not play well with xrandr, but that might have changed, it's been a few years. The proprietary drivers tend to have their tools to adjust X settings like layout and color. The mainstream desktops have built in options too. Using xrandr is more of a when all else has failed option. Like intel that doesn't seem to have gui linux tools for their video drivers but otherwise plays well with xrandr, xbacklight, xsetbg, and other options.

$ amdcccle

$ nvidia-xconfig

$ arandr

And other options I'm probably not familiar with.