[SOLVED] Disabling A Single Monitor

kevinbenko · 11-14-2019, 11:27 AM

I have two monitors, I have a game that WILL NOT work at all with two monitors active. Yes, I can go through the GUI to disable a monitor.

BUT, I know that I can do this on the command line

I did:

"xrandr --output DVI-I-1 --off"
But that killed the wrong monitor, however
"xrandr --output DVI-I-0 --off"
didn't do squat

What would be the proper commandline with xrandr to kill the proper monitor?

Yeah, I read the man entry, but I can't make heads or tails with it.... sorry...

evo2 · 11-14-2019, 08:35 PM

Hi,

are you just guessing that it is called DVI-I-0? Perhaps is is DVI-I-2 or something completely different. You can check with

Code:

xrandr --listmonitors

Evo2.

mrmazda · 11-14-2019, 09:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevinbenko

"xrandr --output DVI-I-0 --off"
didn't do squat

What would be the proper commandline with xrandr to kill the proper monitor?

I did a test to try to replicate, but you didn't give enough information. Which display does xrandr consider your primary? Is your "proper" display the primary display? Is the display you want the game on on the primary display? Where and how did you go about running xrandr? Which DE or WM are you running? Which DDX are you using? Hopefully what I did following will help you work out xrandr command(s) that will give you what you want.

In Xorg startup script I put the following:

Code:

xrandr --output DVI-I-2 --primary --below DVI-I-1

On session start I opened an X terminal on the DVI-I-1 display and another X terminal on the DVI-I-2 display. Panel (toolbar) appeared on DVI-I-2 (primary) display. I ran

Code:

# xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 2640, maximum 8192 x 8192
DVI-I-1 connected 1920x1200+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 519mm x 324mm
   1920x1200     59.95*+
   1920x1080     59.96    59.93
...
DVI-I-2 connected primary 2560x1440+0+1200 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 598mm x 336mm
   2560x1440     59.95*+
   1920x1440     60.00
...
# inxi -GxxS
System:    Host: big41 Kernel: 4.19.0-6-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0 Desktop: Trinity R14.0.7 tk: Qt 3.5.0
           wm: Twin dm: startx Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA G84 [GeForce 8600 GT] vendor: XFX Pine driver: nouveau v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.0
           chip ID: 10de:0402
           Display: server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1920x1200~60Hz, 2560x1440~60Hz
           OpenGL: renderer: NV84 v: 3.3 Mesa 18.3.6 direct render: Yes
# xrandr --output DVI-I-2 --off

in the terminal on the output DVI-I-1 display. This caused the terminal and panel to move from the DVI-I-2 display to the DVI-I-1 display and the DVI-I-2 display to go dark - all expected results from xrandr. I then closed the session.

On next session start I again opened an X terminal on the DVI-I-1 display and another X terminal on the DVI-I-2 display. Again the panel appeared on the DVI-I-2 display. I ran

Code:

# xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 2640, maximum 8192 x 8192
DVI-I-1 connected 1920x1200+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 519mm x 324mm
   1920x1200     59.95*+
   1920x1080     59.96    59.93
...
DVI-I-2 connected primary 2560x1440+0+1200 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 598mm x 336mm
   2560x1440     59.95*+
   1920x1440     60.00
...
# inxi -GxxS
System:    Host: big41 Kernel: 4.19.0-6-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0 Desktop: Trinity R14.0.7 tk: Qt 3.5.0
           wm: Twin dm: startx Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA G84 [GeForce 8600 GT] vendor: XFX Pine driver: nouveau v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.0
           chip ID: 10de:0402
           Display: server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1920x1200~60Hz, 2560x1440~60Hz
           OpenGL: renderer: NV84 v: 3.3 Mesa 18.3.6 direct render: Yes
# xrandr --output DVI-I-1 --off

in the terminal on the output DVI-I-2 display. This caused the terminal to move from the DVI-I-1 display to the DVI-I-2 display and the DVI-I-1 display to go dark - all expected results from xrandr.

kevinbenko · 11-15-2019, 02:33 AM

Evo2:

Nope the monitors are labelled correctly. I have been doing this with a GUI application for years, and I am getting tired of it. The monitors are DVI-I-0 and DVI-I-1.

kevinbenko · 11-15-2019, 02:35 AM

Mrmazda:

You are killing my brain!

I will have to do some actual thinking about this... I will get back with you in a day or two.... thank you for your suggestions, man.....

bgstack15 · 11-15-2019, 08:01 AM

Perhaps you could use program "arandr" to save the settings for when you have the second monitor disabled. This program generates a shell script with the relevant xrandr commands, which you should be able to call from the command line.

kevinbenko · 11-15-2019, 11:50 AM

Mrmazda:

You have forced me to think because of your response.
Not going to explain what I had done, but involved much profanity, coffee, and a desire to go for a drive to get away from my computers.

But, in the end, it worked.

Thank you!

We now return to our regularly scheduled chaos.....

mrmazda · 11-15-2019, 03:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevinbenko

Mrmazda:

You have forced me to think because of your response.

That was part of my intent.

Quote:

...in the end, it worked.

That's the other part.

Quote:

Thank you!

You're welcome! Please click the Yes link in the bottom right corner of post #3 to show your appreciation.

kevinbenko · 11-15-2019, 08:04 PM

Bugger.... I didn't know where to click to give you more "mojo"......thanks for clearing that up.....