Hyprland disable/enable display on HDMI connect/disconnect

README.md

A small setup for Hyprland to disable a monitor (e.g. the laptop buildin screen) using hyprctl when a second screen is connected, and to re-enable the screen when all external displays have been disconnected.

1. Create the file switcher.sh in your preferred directory (e.g. /home/yourusername/scripts/).
2. Create the file hypr-display-switcher.service in /etc/systemd/user/.
3. Create the file hyprland-display-switcher.rules in /etc/udev/rules.d/.
4. (optional) Make sure that on every login the environment value HYPR_BUILDIN_MON is set to your preferred settings.
5. Add exec-once = /path/to/switcher.sh to your hyprland config, so it get's set up when you log in.
6. Reload the systemd daemon with systemctl daemon-reload.
7. Test the setup by (un)plugging a display to your computer.

See also

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Udev

RedHat systemd documentation

hypr-display-switcher.service

[Unit]
Description=Enables/disables the buildin display when connecting/disconnecting an HDMI cable.

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/full/path/to/switcher.sh

hyprland-display-switcher.rules

ACTION=="change", SUBSYSTEM=="drm", TAG+="systemd", ENV{SYSTEMD_USER_WANTS}="hypr-display-switcher.service"

switcher.sh

#!/bin/sh

# This script uses an optional environment variable $HYPR_BUILDIN_MON. If it is available, it is
# used to re-enable your display. Otherwise, the default setting ($DEFAULT_BUILDIN_ENABLE) is
# used.

BUILDIN_DISPLAY_NAME="eDP-2"  # Get the name of your buildin display using "hyprctl monitors all"
DEFAULT_BUILDIN_ENABLE="$BUILDIN_DISPLAY_NAME, highresxhighrr, 0x0, 1"

num_of_monitors=$(hyprctl monitors all | grep Monitor | wc -l)  # this might break in the feature
                                                                # or for different setups.

if [[ $num_of_monitors -gt 1 ]]; then
    # disable buildin monitor
    hyprctl keyword monitor "$BUILDIN_DISPLAY_NAME, disable"
else
    # re-enable buildin monitor
    if [[ -z "$HYPR_BUILDIN_MON" ]]; then
        # use default settings
        hyprctl keyword monitor "$DEFAULT_BUILDIN_ENABLE"
    else
        # use environment settings
        hyprctl keyword monitor "$HYPR_BUILDIN_MON"
    fi
fi