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List:       ruby-talk
Subject:    Re: Detecting hardware with Ruby
From:       Simon Strandgaard <neoneye () adslhome ! dk>
Date:       2004-03-25 14:14:29
Message-ID: pan.2004.03.25.14.08.17.176129 () adslhome ! dk
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On Thu, 25 Mar 2004 22:57:06 +0900, Jamis Buck wrote:
> Here's a rather off-the-wall question: how would I go about detecting 
> the presence of external hardware in Ruby? Specifically, sometimes my 
> laptop is attached to an external monitor, and sometimes it isn't. Just 
> before X starts, I'd like to have a Ruby script that runs and checks to 
> see if the monitor is present, and if it isn't, chooses a different 
> server layout from the XF86Config file.
> 


This should be possible with the DDC protocol
http://www.vesa.org/summary/sumvbeddc11.htm

It requires that the driver supports DDC, which I think most
drivers in XFree86 does.  

I don't believe XFree86 will allow you to use DDC without switching to
graphics mode first. Then you can detect if a display is present, and then
you can switch back to good old 80x50 text mode.

I have only tried tweaking XFree86 a little bit, and have absolutely no
idea where go from here.

--
Simon Strandgaard



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