Apple - Force macbook to sleep when lid closed and external monitor connected in Lion
This worked in 10.7 and 10.8 with my MacBook Air:
sudo nvram boot-args=iog=0x0
After restarting, it should restore the pre-10.7 behavior:
- Closing the lid puts a laptop to sleep even when it is connected to an external display
- If you then wake the laptop up and open the lid, the internal display doesn't turn on
To undo it, run sudo nvram -d boot-args
or hold ⌥⌘PR on startup.