How to properly configure external monitors in Arch with MacBook Pro 11,4

Question

Dual booting on a MacBook Pro late 2015 model (11,4) works great with arch linux using the Antergos distribution. Though I have two basic issues related to the display resolutions:

1. xrandr settings to not persist after a logout/reboot
2. External monitors break xrandr settings almost every time and sometimes completely lockup and crash my screen making me have to restart

To start, I set the scaling factor for the displays to 1 which seem to be the way to add support for HiDPI screens. Note I have tried with 2 but have similar issues.

I have managed to get the proper xrandr settings with no external monitors by changing the scaling to 1.25 and updating the panning as well. Typically when connecting one external display, it also shows part of my primary screen. I have not yet tried adding my second display (both via the 2 display ports).

Ideally i have one monitor above my laptop screen, and the second is to the right of the first external monitor. I want to try and make a script that runs whenever monitors are unplugged or plugged in to properly set their state, as well as on login. But havent been able to get one to work properly.

I was hoping to see what setups others have accomplished to do this.

Note: I do not have the dedicated GPU, only the Intel chip. I have mostly referenced HiDPI Settings for setting up the the displays as well as MacBookPro11,x.

Answer 1

It appears, as though I was using the current linux 4.8 kernel which apparently has issues with the intel display drivers. Switching to the linux-lts 4.4 kernel (also installing the headers) did the trick. Make sure when you do this to either update grub, or your systemd settings which i had to do.

sudo pacman -S linux-lts linux-lts-headers

then for systemd I updated the file

$ cat /boot/loader/loader.conf
default antergos-lts

Which refers to this entry (that I did not have to modify if I recall correctly)

$ cat /boot/loader/entries/antergos-lts.conf 
title   Antergos LTS
linux   /vmlinuz-linux-lts
initrd  /initramfs-linux-lts.img
options root=UUID=1aa7683c-f42b-4399-bf63-b4493f40177b rw quiet disable_mode=1