I have a laptop that spends some of it’s time docked to a monitor and keyboard/mouse. I would like to know how to change some settings depending on if it’s connected to the dock or not. Is there a program that can help with this?

Some possible use-cases include:

  • Changing size of the taskbar to smaller/bigger
  • Changing the behavior of the taskbar to auto-hide
  • Changing the font size smaller/bigger
  • Changing power settings performance/battery saver
  • Enabling/disabling auto brightness
  • Enabling/disabling keyboard backlight

These are just a few things I can think of but can provide more.

Something like Android’s Tasker but for Linux would be great.

    • Gormadt
      21·
      6 months ago

      I’m a bit (maybe a lot) of a noob to Linux

      What are Udev rules and bash scripts?

      • Jediwan@lemy.lolOP
        7·
        6 months ago

        A bash script is like a shell script in Windows. It is a text file that runs multiple commands in order. As if you opened the terminal and typed them in yourself.

        Udev rules I need to learn about but based on context I have to assume it’s a tool for running scripts when specific events happen (like a monitor being plugged in)

          • Gormadt
            7·
            6 months ago

            I’ve also got to thank you for those guides

            I’m going to use the hell out of Udev now that I know it exists

            • olympicyes@lemmy.worldEnglish
              4·
              6 months ago

              I’d suggest editing these scripts with a tool like VS Code so you can remember exactly what you did.

              • Gormadt
                3·
                6 months ago

                Half the fun of fixing my code later is trying to figure out what the hell I was thinking when I wrote my code lol

            • golden_zealot@lemmy.mlEnglish
              2·
              6 months ago

              You might also be interested in cron/crontab. You can schedule scripts/software to run at specific times of day, week, month, year etc.

              Also if you want to learn more about the linux command line, three super useful commands for you are ‘man’, ‘help’ and ‘apropos’.

              man followed by a command, like ‘man find’ will show you the manual pages for the command ‘find’, showing you how to use it.

              In some cases man wont work for some commands, in those cases try ‘help theCommandThatDidntWorkWithMan’.

              apropos followed by a query like ‘apropos network’ will show you any commands that have ‘network’ in their short description to help you find commands that you might want to use for something.

            • squid_slime@lemm.ee
              2·
              6 months ago

              gnome might be tricky to interface with over shell commands, and sadly i use sway so i am limited with advice, checking ubuntu forums would be a good start for you though.

        • Gormadt
          3·
          6 months ago

          I never knew that was called bash, not sure how I missed the name up to this point lol

          And Udev sounds like something I’m going to get a hell of a lot of use out of given my love of Tasker on Android (basically have it set to do specific things when certain triggers occur (like connecting or disconnecting to or from specific Bluetooth devices, reading specific NFC tags, etc)). I just never thought of trying to set something up like that on my desktops.

      • squid_slime@lemm.ee
        4·
        6 months ago

        bash is one of many ways to interface with linux from shell/terminal, it is what you use to install updates in terminal and can be used to create scripts for automation.

        udev is like an admin tool, udev rules allows a user to apply rules to systems, like if keyboard is removed launch x-application.

      • pete_the_cat@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        6 months ago

        Google is helpful when you have questions 😉

        It seems that you need to read up on the basics of Linux if you don’t know what a bash script is.

            • golden_zealot@lemmy.mlEnglish
              1·
              6 months ago

              Astounding, apparently you can counter the findings of this paper which proves beyond reasonable doubt that google is progressively getting worse when it comes to returning reliable and accurate search engine results.

              https://downloads.webis.de/publications/papers/bevendorff_2024a.pdf?ref=404media.co

              I’m sure the scientific community would be really glad to see the evidence you have to the contrary, I’ll even peer review your paper for you, let me know when you have a draft ready.

              • pete_the_cat@lemmy.worldEnglish
                2·
                6 months ago

                Just because it’s becoming less useful doesn’t mean it’s useless. I search for stuff every day and can find the answer I’m looking for in under a few minutes.

                • golden_zealot@lemmy.mlEnglish
                  2·
                  6 months ago

                  You know what? That is actually some sound reasoning and I think that is an acceptable response.

                  I intended my original comment to be more a a shot at google than yourself, but I can see why you came back with what you said as a result, and then I got salty about it so I apologize.

                  • pete_the_cat@lemmy.worldEnglish
                    2·
                    6 months ago

                    Apology accepted 🙂

                    Google gets a lot of hate, and they, as a company and as a search engine have gotten worse over the years, but they still do a lot of stuff right. I never took it personally, just giving an example.

    • Jediwan@lemy.lolOP
      3·
      6 months ago

      Thanks. I know my way around bash scripts but I guess it’s time to learn Udev rules. Are you aware of any examples I can find online?