xrandr-extend

Extend a HIDPI screen to a normal DPI external display. This command line tool implements various solutions described in the HIDPI Arch Linux wiki page.

• Free software: GNU General Public License v3

Installation

pip install xrandr-extend --user

or alternatively use pipx:

pipx install xrandr-extend

Configuration

If the installation was made using pip, run:

python -m xrandr_extend.config

Alternatively, if you did use pipx, run:

pipx run --spec xrandr-extend python -m xrandr_extend.config

instead.

For both case, this creates the config file ~/.config/xrandr-extend.cfg which looks like this:

[provider:modesetting]
primary = eDP-1
hdmi = HDMI-1
vga = DP-1

[provider:intel]
primary = eDP1
hdmi = HDMI1
vga = DP1

[resolutions]
primary = 3200, 1800
hdmi = 1920, 1080
vga = 1920, 1200

# [scaling]
# primary = 1.0
# hdmi = 2.0
# vga = 2.0

# [rotation]
# hdmi = left
# vga = right

The first few sections have the name in the format [provider:display_driver]. Run xrandr --listproviders to find what your system has. The values in this section should be given as profile = monitor_name, as in the output of xrandr --listmonitors command. You may even remove existing sections and add more sections for your display driver.

Each line in the [resolutions] section signifies a resolution profile in the format profile = [width_in_pixels, height_in_pixels]. The profile primary should contain the resolution of your built-in display. You may edit or remove the remaining values hdmi and vga.

The [scaling] section contains the scale factors, which if uncommented, overrides the scale factor computed from the resolutions.

The [rotation] section specifies the directions to rotate the output contents similarly to xrandr --rotate.

Quick reference

usage: xrandr-extend [-h] [-p PRI_RES PRI_RES] [-e EXT_RES EXT_RES]
                     [-x EXT_SCALE] [-m] [-n] [-o] [-s] [-d]
                     profile

Extend a HIDPI screen to a normal DPI external display

positional arguments:
  profile               Use preset external resolution profiles (available:
                        ['hdmi', 'vga']).

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -p PRI_RES PRI_RES, --pri-res PRI_RES PRI_RES
                        Modify preset resolution of primary display (default: 1920, 1080)
  -e EXT_RES EXT_RES, --ext-res EXT_RES EXT_RES
                        Modify preset resolution of external display (default based on
                        profile)
  -x EXT_SCALE, --ext-scale EXT_SCALE
                        Sets the scale factor of external display (DPI of primary display /
                        DPI of external display), overriding scale factor estimation from
                        resolutions
  -r {normal,left,right,inverted,same}, --rotate {normal,left,right,inverted,same}
                        Rotation can be one of the above strings. This causes the output
                        contents of external display to be rotated in the specified direction.
                        For example 'right' specifies a clockwise rotation, 'normal' orients
                        it horizontally and 'same'preserves the current orientation.
  -m, --mirror          Mirror the external display
  -n, --pan             Pan the position of external display
  -o, --only            Extend and use only external display
  -s, --pos             Set the position of external display explicitly
  -d, --dry-run         Preview command without executing it

Examples
--------
# Built-in options or user-configured options are used when only the display
# profile is mentioned

$ xrandr-extend --dry-run vga
$ xrandr-extend vga
$ xrandr-extend hdmi

# Other options to extend the display

$ xrandr-extend --pan hdmi
$ xrandr-extend --only hdmi
$ xrandr-extend -e 1024 768 -n vga  # Pan with custom external resolution
$ xrandr-extend -x 2.0 hdmi         # Custom scale factor
$ xrandr-extend -r left hdmi        # Custom direction to rotate

Credits

This package was created with Cookiecutter and the ashwinvis/cookiecutter-pypackage project template.