how to get a DisplayLink display adapter working in Ubuntu 13.10

Question

I have a UGA-2K-A USB 2.0 to DVI DisplayLink graphics adapter and I'm trying to get it to work on Ubuntu 13.10 in order to hook it up to a display.

First, I confirmed that the package xserver-xorg-video-modesetting was installed. It was by default.

Next, I connected the graphics adapter. The dmesg output on initial connection connection was as follows:

[ 4679.672775] usb 2-2: new high-speed USB device number 9 using xhci_hcd
[ 4679.690786] usb 2-2: device descriptor read/8, error -32
[ 4679.810714] usb 2-2: device descriptor read/8, error -32
[ 4680.025025] usb 2-2: new high-speed USB device number 10 using xhci_hcd
[ 4680.045611] usb 2-2: New USB device found, idVendor=17e9, idProduct=0378
[ 4680.045621] usb 2-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 4680.045626] usb 2-2: Product: Plugable UGA-2K-A
[ 4680.045631] usb 2-2: Manufacturer: DisplayLink
[ 4680.045634] usb 2-2: SerialNumber: 786492
[ 4680.097418] [drm] vendor descriptor length:22 data:22 5f 01 00 20 05 00 01 03 00 04
[ 4680.330439] udl 2-2:1.0: fb1: udldrmfb frame buffer device
[ 4680.330452] [drm] Initialized udl 0.0.1 20120220 on minor 1
[ 4680.330503] usbcore: registered new interface driver udl

I understand that the line

udl 2-2:1.0: fb1: udldrmfb frame buffer device

implies that the kernel driver has bound.

At this point, the LED on the device was not lit and the display connected to the graphics adapter did not register a signal.

Some information on the kernel and xrandr is the following:

uname -r
3.11.0-18-generic

xrandr --version
xrandr program version       1.4.0
Server reports RandR version 1.4

xrandr --listproviders
Providers: number : 1
Provider 0: id: 0x49 cap: 0xb, Source Output, Sink Output, Sink Offload crtcs: 4 outputs: 6 associated providers: 0 name:Intel

I rebooted the computer with the graphics adapter attached. The relevant dmesg output on boot was as follows:

[    2.118884] usb 2-2: new high-speed USB device number 3 using xhci_hcd
[    2.138973] usb 2-2: New USB device found, idVendor=17e9, idProduct=0378
[    2.138978] usb 2-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[    2.138980] usb 2-2: Product: Plugable UGA-2K-A
[    2.138982] usb 2-2: Manufacturer: DisplayLink
[    2.138984] usb 2-2: SerialNumber: 786492
[    2.144629] [drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
[    2.149981] [drm] vendor descriptor length:22 data:22 5f 01 00 20 05 00 01 03 00 04
[    2.262948] tsc: Refined TSC clocksource calibration: 2394.457 MHz
[    2.290353] open /dev/fb0 user=0 fb_info=ffff88020e9e2800 count=1
[    2.293046] [drm] write mode info 153
[    2.293051] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 210x65
[    2.307012] usb 2-4: new full-speed USB device number 4 using xhci_hcd
[    2.317593] udl 2-2:1.0: fb0: udldrmfb frame buffer device
[    2.317595] udl 2-2:1.0: registered panic notifier
[    2.317599] [drm] Initialized udl 0.0.1 20120220 on minor 0
[    2.317628] usbcore: registered new interface driver udl
[    2.324247] usb 2-4: New USB device found, idVendor=8087, idProduct=07dc
[    2.324251] usb 2-4: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[    2.491175] usb 2-5: new full-speed USB device number 5 using xhci_hcd

At this point, the LED on the device is lit and the display connected to the graphics adapter registers a signal (though the image is black).

The output of xrandr --listproviders remains the following:

Providers: number : 1
Provider 0: id: 0x49 cap: 0xb, Source Output, Sink Output, Sink Offload crtcs: 4 outputs: 6 associated providers: 0 name:Intel

I am not sure what to do next. According to a forum post, it may be that I need to slave the second graphics device to the first, but I have no idea how to do this. I would really appreciate some guidance. :) Thanks!

Solution

While the framerate is a little sluggish at times and there can be misidentifications of the the display dimensions occasionally, it is working in Ubuntu 14.04, so upgrading is one solution.

Comments

[Timothy Leung]

Did upgrade solve your problem?

[noleti]

I would like to add that the USB3.0 Displaylink devices are NOT supported under Linux, only the USB2 devices. See here: askubuntu.com/questions/517339/…