Any experience with displaylink adapters as alternative to missing mhl feature?

Luksus · 20 Jul 2018, 21:03

Hi,

there exists an alternative to the mhl-hdmi-out method, called "displaylink".
The question is, if it is working with ubports.

Does someone have any experience with these adapters and ubports?

hardware: http://www.displaylink.com/products/usb-adapters
fairphone-android-experience: https://forum.fairphone.com/t/upgrade-potential-mhl/11145/6
drivers: https://support.displaylink.com/forums/287786-displaylink-feature-suggestions/suggestions/12980403-ubuntu-16-04-lts

Luksus · 4 Sept 2018, 22:29

So I decided to buy a DisplayLink adapter by myself and.... meh:

phablet@ubuntu-phablet:~$ chmod +x displaylink-driver.run 
phablet@ubuntu-phablet:~$ sudo ./displaylink-driver.run 
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing DisplayLink Linux Driver 1.3.54  100%  
DisplayLink Linux Software 1.3.54 install script called: install
Distribution discovered: Ubuntu 16.04.5 LTS
Unsatisfied dependencies. Missing component: Kernel version 3.4.0-g8826794 is too old. At least 3.14 is required.
This is a fatal error, cannot install DisplayLink Linux Software.
phablet@ubuntu-phablet:~$

Is there a chance that the kernel will be updated with a newer android-version vor the FP2?

dobey · 4 Sept 2018, 23:36

DisplayLink is proprietary, so even if the kernel was updated, you would almost certainly not have working drivers that are compatible with any modern devices on market.

Unless Fairphone have updated to a newer Android with a newer kernel, and newer binary blobs for DisplayLink, it's very unlikely you will get it working there.

Luksus · 5 Sept 2018, 06:53

Mh.
But its working without problems on the FP2 with android.
And Linux is officially supported by startech.com (https://www.startech.com/AV/USB-Video-Adapters/usb-3-to-hdmi-adapter~USB32HDPRO)

dobey · 5 Sept 2018, 13:25

The "Linux" support states it only supports kernels newer than 3.16, and it's almost certainly only on x86, and they only support Xorg.

The Android support is almost certainly something Google has been able to provide via a contract with DisplayLink, and those drivers almost certainly only work with SurfaceFlinger on Android.

If the blobs from Android are already included and do work at a lower hwcomposer level, then any display which works with the phone under Android should also "just work" under UT, but it is not something anyone has actually tested AFAIK.

Luksus · 5 Sept 2018, 14:21

Yeah, that doesn't look very promising.

Meanwhile they are working on wayland support (https://support.displaylink.com/forums/287786-displaylink-feature-suggestions/suggestions/16639654-linux-wayland-support).