[Updated] DisplayLink Ubuntu driver with GPUs using modesetting X driver

[mlukaszek]

Updated 10.10.2017: The following is true for all cases that would normally use page flips enabled in modesetting by default

Hi,

Many of you, who are using Intel GPUs were bitten by the update of X that made the video part of your docking stations not work at all, or caused weird issues. Here's what we found out so far.

Firstly, please read the FAQ article capturing the problem, and two proposed workarounds:
http://support.displaylink.com/knowledgebase/articles/1181623

Long story short: modesetting driver is used by default now for Intel, and the recent changes to it, together with the changes to present code in X are causing page flipping to be enabled in some parts of X, but disabled in others.

This happened on both 1.18 and 1.19 branches of X.org just before releasing from them, so both up-to-date Ubuntu 16.04.x and 17.04 are affected by it. Trunk code of X is already changing in the area in question, however there may be more work needed for page flipping to work properly with evdi.

We invite everyone to work with X developers and propose changes to both X and evdi to help us see such issues early enough to be able to react.

The possible workarounds for now are:

falling back to "intel" driver (instead of "modesetting") if you can, or
switching PageFlip off for modesetting

See the linked FAQ article above for ways of doing it.

Regards,
Michal

[dylanparry]

The second suggestion caused X to fail to load on my system and left me with a command line only. I deleted the config file and rebooted, and X loaded correctly again.

I found that to get the default driver working, I had to use the following config:


Section "Device"
Identifier "Intel Graphics"
Driver "i915"
Option "PageFlip" "false"
EndSection


Which sets the driver to the same one that modesetting detects, but also disables PageFlip.

-- Edit ---

I've found that using the newer drivers with PageFlip disabled causes a huge increase in CPU usage, and an accompanying increase in processor temperature/fan activity.

The old driver, playing Netflix in Chrome will hover around 60°C, whereas the new one with PageFlip disabled will be around 75°C for my system at least. The other issue I have is that with PageFlip disabled, video has a far increased tearing rate, and is not so great to watch.

I have now returned to the old driver until X is updated. The only issue I have with the old driver is that the mouse cursor flickers occasionally, and moving the mouse around the screen isn't particularly smooth compared to the new driver.

[vlna]

Nothing suggested works for me. All latest updates installed and latest DisplayLink driver.

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS: I use triple monitor config side by side (left to right: internal+2xdock) and issues (with different configs) I encounter are:


only one dock monitor is detected
it takes really long to detect dock monitors
dock replug sometimes creates extra /dev/fb*
artefacts on left side of internal panel (invisible mouse cursor, window drag traces, invisible unity dock)
artefacts on right side of right monitor (invisible mouse cursor, window drag traces)
internal panel response is too slow


Now I'm back on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS with 1.1.62 drivers - it works without issues.

[aiguofer]

For me, this doesn't work at all; it boots into no graphics mode:


Section "Device"
Identifier "Intel Graphics"
Driver "i915"
Option "PageFlip" "false"
EndSection


This boots fine, but doesn't work with DisplayLink:


Section "Device"
Identifier "Intel Graphics"
Driver "modesetting"
Option "PageFlip" "false"
EndSection


And this works with DisplayLink, but causes all sorts of issues with my TP UltraDock connected monitors:


Section "Device"
Identifier "Intel Graphics"
Driver "intel"
EndSection


Is there an expected timeframe for the fixes in X?

Or better yet, are there any advancements on getting it to work on Wayland?

[Tianyi]

Yesterday, I update & dist-upgrade my ubuntu 16.04, and displaylink suddenly doesn't work. Then I find this thread, think I was bitten by the same problem here.

I tried every combination to modify the config file (20-displaylink.conf), but none of them work. So I upload the DLSupportTool file here.

Laptop: Acer aspire v13
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 520
Kernel: 4.12
Xorg:1.18
OS: Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS

[Tianyi]

Yesterday, I update & dist-upgrade my ubuntu 16.04, and displaylink suddenly doesn't work. Then I find this thread, think I was bitten by the same problem here.

I tried every combination to modify the config file (20-displaylink.conf), but none of them work. So I upload the DLSupportTool file here.

Laptop: Acer aspire v13
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 520
Kernel: 4.12
Xorg:1.18
OS: Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS

I update Xorg by:
https://launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa

And it suddenly works, even without the config file. I assume Xorg already fixed the bug.

[laurent]

On Dell XPS 13 / Ubuntu 17.04 I had to add Screen Section to xorg configuration to make it work. Here's my /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-displaylink.conf:


Section "Device"
Identifier "Intel"
Driver "intel"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "My Screen"
Device "Intel"
EndSection

[davidmaxwaterman]

On Dell XPS 13 / Ubuntu 17.04 I had to add Screen Section to xorg configuration to make it work. Here's my /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-displaylink.conf:

I guess that's /usr/share/X11...?

I seem to have the same config, but not the same results. What DisplayLink device do you have?

[RussianNeuroMancer]

Is it still necessary? Seems like no workarounds are needed with DisplayLink Driver 4.1 release.

[giuliocoluccia]

It worked fine until today, with no workarounds. Now it's not working again after the Ubuntu update (16.04.3, with Intel GPU), with or without either workaround.

[giuliocoluccia]

The update of today to pulseaudio seems to have solved the problem, again. So, currently working with 4.1 driver and no workaround.