Automatic setup external monitors when docking ThinkPad T530 to ThinkPad Mini Dock

81-thinkpad-dock.rules

# Save this file (after modifying ID_VENDOR and ID_MODEL if necessary) as /etc/udev/rules.d/81-thinkpad-dock.rules

# These values seem to work for "ThinkPad Mini Dock Plus Series 3"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="add", ENV{ID_VENDOR}=="17ef", ENV{ID_MODEL}=="100a", SYMLINK+="tp_mini_dock", TAG+="systemd"

README.md

HOWTO

In this HOWTO I will install for Fedora 23, you may need to adjust for other versions or distros. I've provided links to most sources I used so feel free to check those out for more info.

Steps

1. Make sure you have the Nvidia card enabled in BIOS

    Go to BIOS -> Config -> Display, and select “NVidia Optimus”, and make sure to enable “Optimus OS Detection”.
   

2. Install Bumblebee and intel-virtual-output (provided by the package intel-gpu-tools)

    sudo dnf -y --nogpgcheck install http://install.linux.ncsu.edu/pub/yum/itecs/public/bumblebee/fedora23/noarch/bumblebee-release-1.2-1.noarch.rpm
    sudo dnf -y --nogpgcheck install http://install.linux.ncsu.edu/pub/yum/itecs/public/bumblebee-nonfree/fedora23/noarch/bumblebee-nonfree-release-1.2-1.noarch.rpm
    sudo dnf install bumblebee-nvidia bbswitch-dkms primus kernel-devel
    sudo dnf install intel-gpu-tools
   

3. Copy my xorg.conf.nvidia file to /etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia

   sudo cp xorg.conf.nvidia /etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia
   

4. Reboot to make sure the drivers and modules are correctly built and loaded

5. Test intel-virtual-output

   # Make sure your laptop is connected to dock (or directly to external monitors through DVI/DP)
   intel-virtual-output -f
   

6. If that works, go ahead and set up automation

   sudo cp 81-thinkpad-dock.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/81-thinkpad-dock.rules
   cp docked.target ~/.local/share/systemd/user/docked.target
   cp intel-virtual-output.service ~/.local/share/systemd/user/intel-virtual-output.service
   systemctl --user enable docked.target
   systemctl --user enable intel-virtual-output.service
   

7. (Optional) if you use RedShift and want it to work on your external monitors, set this up as well

   cp redshift-virtual.service ~/.local/share/systemd/user/redshift-virtual.service
   systemctl --user enable redshift-virtual.service
   

8. Undock and dock again, magic should happen and it should automatically start your monitors. When you undock it should stop the service :)

Caveats

Always undock before suspending/hibernating. I've been playing around with various ways to have it stop the service before it sleeps but so far I haven't been successful. I'll update this when I have time to play with it.

I have pretty bad lag with xorg-x11-drv-intel-2.99.917-19.20151206.fc23 so I had to downgrade to version xorg-x11-drv-intel-2.99.917-16.20150729.fc23.x86_64 (I filed a bug here

Sources

• Get most of the way
• How to setup bumblebee in fedora
• How to set up multi monitor with intel-virtual-output
• How to startup redshift on virtual monitors
• How to detect dock events on thinkpad and create udev rules for it
• How to make services running as a specific user

docked.target

# ~/.local/share/systemd/user/docked.target
[Unit]
Description=dock to ThinkPad Mini Dock
Requisite=dev-tp_mini_dock.device
BindsTo=dev-tp_mini_dock.device
After=dev-tp_mini_dock.device
JobTimeoutSec=3

[Install]
WantedBy=dev-tp_mini_dock.device

intel-virtual-output.service

# ~/.local/share/systemd/user/intel-virtual-output.service
[Unit]
Description=intel-virtual-output for external displays
Requisite=docked.target
After=docked.target
PartOf=docked.target
Conflicts=sleep.target
Before=sleep.target

[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=/usr/bin/intel-virtual-output -d :0

[Install]
WantedBy=docked.target

redshift-virtual.service

# ~/.local/share/systemd/user/redshift-virtual.service
[Unit]
Description=RedShift for virtual displays
Requires=docked.target intel-virtual-output.service
After=docked.target intel-virtual-output.service

[Service]
Environment=DISPLAY=:8
ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/sleep 5
ExecStart=/usr/bin/redshift

[Install]
WantedBy=docked.target

xorg.conf.nvidia

# /etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia
Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier  "Layout0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "DiscreteNvidia"
    Driver      "nvidia"
    VendorName  "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
 Option "IgnoreABI" "1"
EndSection