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Old 10-17-2016, 01:36 PM   #2
Joachim Martillo
Junior Member
 
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 21
Angry

I upgraded my XPS-13 (9350) from Ubuntu 16.04 LTS to 16.10 and added the latest DisplayLink driver so that I can connect a HannStar 27" display via the D1000 docking station.

The upgrade was probably the easiest I've ever done. I tend to make such upgrades only under duress and not when I'm under a deadline, but my kids managed to make the system very ill (especially wrt sound output), and I decided, "What the hell."

I seem to be seeing something like what the header to this thread describes.

If I have Chrome in full screen mode on the HannStar display and run youtube it looks like the old slow scan video of 1980s teleconferencing (one frame every 1/12th second or slower).

The mouse and pull down menus become extremely sluggish.

If I take Chrome out of full screen mode on the HannStar display but leave it in non-full screen mode on the HannStar display, everything is fine.

Chrome behaves without problem in full screen and non-full screen modes on the built-in display.

Firefox does not have any problem on the built-in display or on the HannStar display connected via the D1000 docking station.

At this point I don't have time to analyze whether the problem is in Chrome, Unity, DisplayLink, the hardware drivers, or something else.

Here is what lsusb tells me about the video hardware.

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Iris Graphics 540 [8086:1926] (rev 0a)
DeviceName: Onboard IGD

When I get the chance, I will start the analysis with Chrome, but so much changed with the upgrade, that I may be looking for a needle in the haystack.

I have experimented some more with Chrome. The sluggishness does not go away complete in non-full screen mode. It merely diminishes.

Totem movie player exhibits the same problem as Chrome, there is no difference in behavior between full screen and non-full screen mode.

The totem movie view presents images smoothly on the HannStar display connected to the D1000 docking station as long as a small piece of the image is displayed on the built-in display.

Is there perhaps some sort of issue of misidentification and inability to use hardware acceleration in one of the shared libraries which is possibly interacting badly with the DisplayLink driver?

The Chrome browser in non-full screen mode has the sluggishness problem until it is moved partially to the built-in display. Once it runs partially on the built-in display, the problem vanishes and does not return even if the browser window is moved to run entirely on the HannStar display connected to the D1000 docking station.

As I move the Chrome browser window between the two displays, eventually the browser window evinces the same behavior as the totem movie viewer application. Sluggish if running only on the HannStar Display connected to the D1000 and normal if running at least partially on the built-in display.

Firefox runs correctly whether on the HannStar Display, the built-in display, or split between the two dispalys.

I'm using a later version of the kernel than the original poster, who opened this thread.

Here is the output of uname -a.

Linux algotrader-XPS-13-9350 4.8.0-22-generic #24-Ubuntu SMP Sat Oct 8 09:15:00 UTC 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Chromium works correctly with the latest DisplayLink driver and the D1000 docking station just like Firefox.

Last edited by mlukaszek; 10-19-2016 at 12:40 PM.
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