Driving a monitor over USB

[DiBosco]

Hi folks,

Friend of mine (using Windows) is able to drive several monitors over USB. I think it might be called displaylink? Is that possible with Mageia does anyone know? When doing a forum search there is no return for displaylink and display link gives various results but nothing that seems to address this problem.

If you Google it for Linux there seem to be various things for Ubuntu and in my experience if it works on Ubuntu it works on Mageia.

The Arch wiki has this:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/DisplayLink

I can see nothing in our repositories for displaylink either.

Anyone played with this? Is it possible? Impossible?

Thanks!

[duncangareth]

I have been looking into this issue lately. I have had some success with the Fedora displaylink package, and the evdi module sources. I found that I had to compile the evdi.ko module by hand and install it under /lib/modules/`uname -r`/drivers/evdi/evdi.ko, and then run "depmod". Then it is possible to run "modprobe evdi".

I shall be able to test the external display tomorrow when I go to the office. Also, I think one needs to run "modprobe udl" first.

[wintpe]

I have one of these monitors as well, just a 7inch, would be interested to try what you have done as well.

regards peter

[JoesCat]

Worth mentioning for anyone interested, but never used these devices - so you know more-or-less what to expect display-wise....

I had to use something similar for work (running Windows7 at that time, evga USB device), and running into the problem of not enough deskspace to open-up all the pages I needed to see, continuous overlap and bringing pages to the front.

You need to note that the display is a bit laggy with these USB display devices, so if you are trying to run something with a high update rate like a 3D 1st-person video game, or watching a video, you'll end up a little disappointed, however, if you're doing something with a very low update rate, like a text screen or a static picture, then it appears satisfactory. For myself, it was helpful having extra displays to see work related documentation, text, etc, but you did notice the choppiness as you dragged stuff to/from/across a USB display.

[duncangareth]

It has been several months since I said I would give this a try. I have not yet succeeded in getting the device to work correctly. It works fine as an extra network port, sound output, and USB hub, but the HDMI output is giving me a bit of a hard time. If I get it right I shall post the method.

[isadora]

I have been looking into this issue lately. I have had some success with the Fedora displaylink package, and the evdi module sources. I found that I had to compile the evdi.ko module by hand and install it under /lib/modules/`uname -r`/drivers/evdi/evdi.ko, and then run "depmod". Then it is possible to run "modprobe evdi".

I shall be able to test the external display tomorrow when I go to the office. Also, I think one needs to run "modprobe udl" first.

I ran into the same thing. It is still very laggy (2020 now). Attempted to install the Fedora 31 RPM for 5.4 Kernel. It fails on compile of evdi module. To compile that I did the following: First the source is in /usr/src/evdi-1.6.4 (note it will change with version of evdi)

So go to the source directory.
Then do the following commands as root:

Code: Select all

# dkms add -m evdi -v 1.6.4
# dkms build -m evdi -v 1.6.4
# dkms install -m evdi -v 1.6.4

I should warn you this is probably dangerous so be careful on your main rig as this is linking to your kernel. It will likely break with a kernel upgrade as well. However, you can get the display link to work. Just expect lagginess and high cpu usage when it is in use.