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Humblenoise4

Member

Registered: 2024-12-21

Posts: 9

How to register external monitors as "docks" on HP laptops

Hello,

I've been trying to set up my laptop to be able to run in clamshell mode with external monitors connected. For this purpose, I want to set HandleLidSwitchDocked=ignore in /etc/systemd/logind.conf and the intended behavior is that closing the lid does not cause the laptop to suspend if an external display is connected.

My main issue is that it seems that the default behavior is that the "docked" state is not set by connecting an external monitor. I can confirm this by checking /sys/devices/platform/hp-wmi/dock while connected to an external display and it indeed returns the value zero. So naturally, my laptop suspends upon closing the lid, even when connected to an external display.

My question is what can I do such that the "dock" variable is set to 1 when an external monitor is connected (and so that hopefully closing the lid won't suspend the laptop when connected to an external display)? Is it even possible to change this behavior? Is there some other workaround for this?

Thanks!

Laptop model: HP OMEN Laptop 15-en0xxx

Edit: Looking at the documentation, it explicitly states:

HandleLidSwitchDocked= defaults to "ignore". If the system is inserted in a docking station, or if more than one display is connected, the action specified by HandleLidSwitchDocked= occurs

Since the behavior that I'm seeing is that the laptop suspends when the lid is closed while it is connected to an external display (and I'm pretty sure that nothing else is hijacking systemd-logind), I guess what I'm seeing counts as a bug? Still looking for away around it, though.

Last edited by Humblenoise4 (2025-04-01 23:59:13)