Close lid behavior on laptop with external monitor.

[Axios]

Hi

Summed up, I think I need a 'do nothing' when I close my laptop lid in Settings > Power Management. Is this possible? Now this is why I think, I need this:

I just installed Ubuntu 9.10 with Wubi on my HP 8510W laptop.
When I'm at home, I plug in an external monitor, a 24" Samsung SyncMaster 245B, to the laptops HDMI port, with a HDMI to DVI converter to the monitor.
Now usually in Windows XP i connect the monitor with HDMI, and close the lid on my laptop, and XP figures out, that I want to use the Samsung at it's native resolution as my single screen. The native resolution of my laptop screen and monitor is both 1920x1200.

Now as the 8510W has Nvidia graphics, I use the nvidia driver for it. So I set the Administation > 'Nvidia X Server Setting' to display on my Samsung and set my laptop screen to off, this is working and I am using my Samsung rigth now, with the laptop display turned off. The problem is, when I close the lid on my laptop. First time I did this, the laptop went to sleep mode, now I changed this behavior to 'Blank screen' in Power management. The problem is, this turns of my Samsung, and there is no option to do nothing, when I close the lid.

With the laptop lid open, I can use the PC as I would like to, but I would like to have the laptop running with the lid closed, as I will have far less dust on my laptop screen and in my keyboard. If there would be an option to, 'Do Nothing' in Power Management, when I close my laptop lid, that would be perfect. Can I do this?


Thanks.

[aberdeenjetman]

Having the same problem with a HP530 and intel945 graphics.

Ubuntu didn't recognise the lid button before but 9.10 does which is causing the issue for me.

Thanks

[Boondoklife]

I have a 1420 that I hook up to my tv and use a bluetooth keyboard/mouse with, I have mine set to blank screen and it does just that if i close the lid, but if I press a button on my bluetooth keyboard, the tv screen lights up. Seems like it is working just fine for me.

Also just a word to the wise, laptops tend to run hot with the lid closed which will lessen the life of your laptop.

[xantus]

This option was hidden. Here's how you can set it:

#$ gconftool-2 --type string --set /apps/gnome-power-manager/buttons/lid_ac "nothing"

Reference: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...er/+bug/416236

[seth556]

Sweet, this option worked perfectly for me on my Acer Aspire One running UNR. Just went to display in the settings and disabled the laptop monitor and turned up the resolution on the other monitor.

[dhondiba]

Thanks! Worked for me as well.

[jcrawford]

I have this working on my macbook pro install of Ubuntu 10.04. However I must ask is there not an automated way to have all of this work?

I would love for it to turn off my internal laptop display and set the external to be primary when the lid on the laptop is closed. This is the default behavior for Windows/Mac but for some reason not Ubuntu/Linux.

I find it to be a pain to manually turn off the laptop display in the Nvidia settings every time I wish to use my external display. What happens when I forget to turn it back on and head off on the road with the laptop. The display is turned off so I will not be able to see anything or do anything. Chances of forgetting to turn the display back on are high because I am used to other OS's doing this automatically for me.

Is there not a script or something that could be executed upon closing the lid?

[topgun98]

I have this working on my macbook pro install of Ubuntu 10.04. However I must ask is there not an automated way to have all of this work?

I would love for it to turn off my internal laptop display and set the external to be primary when the lid on the laptop is closed. This is the default behavior for Windows/Mac but for some reason not Ubuntu/Linux.

I find it to be a pain to manually turn off the laptop display in the Nvidia settings every time I wish to use my external display. What happens when I forget to turn it back on and head off on the road with the laptop. The display is turned off so I will not be able to see anything or do anything. Chances of forgetting to turn the display back on are high because I am used to other OS's doing this automatically for me.

Is there not a script or something that could be executed upon closing the lid?

Bump.

[collin2010]

This option was hidden. Here's how you can set it:

#$ gconftool-2 --type string --set /apps/gnome-power-manager/buttons/lid_ac "nothing"

Reference: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...er/+bug/416236

Exactly what I was looking for.
Thanks.

[Schuby007]

Thankyou! Now I am able to use my external with my laptop lid closed.

HOWEVER... I've found that when I close my laptop "lid" the screen saver and gnome-power-manager "put the display to sleep" functions stop working on the external. It's weird, cause the screen goes dark after 5 minutes (which is what I set in screen saver settings) and it asks for password when I shake the mouse (which is what I want) but I don't get the actual screen saver nor does the display turn off after 30 minutes which is what I set in gnome-power-management. NOTE: these two items DO WORK when I have my laptop lid OPEN.

It seems to me that the gnome-screensaver and power management are getting confused between my internal and external monitors. Perhaps it could be because display settings are handled by nvidia-settings?? If thats the case then I consider it bad practise for Ubuntu to include the proprietary nvidia drivers without proper support.

I'd be very interested in knowing if anyone else is having this problem. And would be thrilled if anyone had any solutions.

Thankyou
P.S. Is there any way to disable the "lid-close" switch in Ubuntu at least while I have my external connected. I would like the system to be aware that I close my laptop lid when I'm using the laptop by itself, but it seems to be a problem here when I'm using only my external monitor.