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Comment by nkrisc | Hacker News Reader

This is perfect. The software competent is exactly what I was missing from my setup. I use a USB switch to switch my peripherals but I've been manually changing the input on my monitor like a caveman.

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I'll have to have a go at this DDC/CI stuff as well. I too have a USB switch that just works (click button, two seconds later other computer has keyboard and mouse, and whatever else is on it, click again, back to the other one). It's simple, it's foolproof, and I can do it with my eyes closed if I so wanted to.

Now, switching the monitor however…

This involves clicking the six buttons on the rear of the monitor in an arcane sequence (your fingers sort of curl around the side, the buttons have labels on the front of the monitor on the right-side bezel, and yes, that works as well as you can imagine). Which then switches the monitor:

* Button 1: activate menu

* 1 again: select input

* 2: move down list of three inputs

* 3: select mini display port

A somewhat similar sequence exists for going back to its HDMI input.

But hold on! It gets better if you turn off the computer you have live at the moment. The monitor then goes blank, and until it throws its 'no signal found' message, it won't respond to anything. If you are lucky, you can switch inputs before the current computer is shut down completely and the monitor blanks itself.

I do feel like a caveman.

The software on modern displays is often abysmal, with the exception of Dell's in my experience.

It really is. All I want is one button that just cycles to the next active port connected.

Unfortunately it looks like my monitor does support DDC but does not support VPC Code 96 (0x60) meaning I can't programmatically change the input. What a bummer.

Monitor is ASUS PG348Q.

That's a shame. I had more luck it seems — BenQ PD2700Q:

    Feature: 60 (Input Source)
        Values:
           0f: DisplayPort-1
           10: DisplayPort-2
           11: HDMI-1

    sudo ddcutil setvcp 60 0x11 # To HDMI
    sudo ddcutil setvcp 60 0x10 # To DisplayPort 2

Nice! Installing ddcutil¹ was a breeze too. No extra configuration needed on Ubuntu Linux. Although a few tweaks are needed to give the local user access instead of root.

1: http://www.ddcutil.com/

My LG 38WN95C says it supports 0x60, but then doesn't nothing when I set it (whereas other controls work, such as volume and brightness).

I wonder if there's any hope of hacking a solution to this, as it seems unlikely the LG would actually fix it.

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