Lenovo Docking Station - Ubuntu

[DevilSocks]

Hi

I have purchased a Lenovo Docking Station (40AF) which I have attached with 2 screens. I have a lenovo laptop (E495) that I want to use the docking station and beforementioned screens.

I tried to download and install the driver for display link as explained here: https://www.synaptics.com/products/d...wnloads/ubuntu

and worked through various processes but got it installed. But it is not working. The last thing I can think of is to update the firmware of the docking station, but before I went through that then i wanted to ask if anyone had encountered this before and could possibly help?

Thanks in advance!

[mjaroch]

Hello DevilSocks,

Thank you for reaching out.

To report Ubuntu issues, please follow the instruction which you can find here.
Also you can try to type in the terminal: "apt search displaylink-driver" to verify if everything is installed properly.

Please give our support a feedback if your issue is resolved.

[DevilSocks]

Hi

Thanks for your quick response. I have just tried that, but get the following:

head: cannot open '/sys/devices/evdi/version' for reading: No such file or directory
pgrep: pattern that searches for process name longer than 15 characters will result in zero matches
Try `pgrep -f' option to match against the complete command line.
Couldn't canonicalize path: No such file or directory

So I am pretty sure my attempt to install did not go as I planned. Though it went through everything.

Do i need to start over?

[mjaroch]

It is possible that you have to start again. But we are trying to find out where exactly an issue occurred.
Could you give us some more information about the installation process? Have you restarted your computer completely when installing the driver?

Also, please check out this and let us know if this step showed up.

[DevilSocks]

Sure! I went to the displaylink site and downloaded the driver. It turned out to be a zip file, so I unpacked it and inside was a .run file. I opened the terminal and went to the downloads folder.

Then I made the file executable with this command chmod and ran it by typing ./"filename.run" (I entered the file name). A lot of things happened on screen but was prompted with a Y/N and went for Y. I then got a message that I needed to be root to use the script so used the sudo command on it and followed the instructions.

I think this is as close I can get without providing screenshots. Was this helpful? Sorry, I am bit new to the help page and not sure what info is enough.

Thanks again!

[DevilSocks]

Hi again,

I looked at the link you sent over and tried to disable secure boot but sound that the device was not eligible or something in the BIOS. I also used the terminal to disable it. So I am not sure if secure boot is in the of this. The final option was to sign the evdi kernel, but I think that is little above my current skills. However, would this be the final option?

But looking at the video for option one, then it looked a lot like the install I did on the machine, so pretty sure it is similar. I hope this answers your question, otherwise to let me know.

Thanks again for all the help.

[DevilSocks]

Hi,

I did the install again and then the secure boot actually came up during the install. I prompted a password, continued the install and then restarted. In the restart I could enroll MOK which I did and entered the password. Continued the reboot and then checked for the install. However, when I do the check in the terminal it doesn't send anything back. So it still looks like it is not installed. And I cannot change anything in the BIOS reg. the secure boot.

Does this help in any way?

[DevilSocks]

Hi everyone,

I eventually got this solved, so my screens are now working. I am a total noob at this, so I am very proud right now - however, I wanted to post this for others, because if I can get this, so can you. I would like to add and say, I cheated by using ChatGPT. It explained me the terms and commands to use and helped me troubleshoot. Yes, some of us needs someone to hold our hand, and here it was just AI. Anyhow – as you will notice, then I have gone a bit deep into some details, however, I tried to explain it so that anyone with my experience might also understand.

Here was the problem:
I have a Lenovo E495 Laptop with USB c connector for a docking station.
I bought a 40AF lenono docking station so I could add two monitors via. HDMI.
I need to install the Display Link driver to Kubuntu (Ubuntu) and followed the guide from here: https://www.synaptics.com/products/d...wnloads/ubuntu

This did not work however and I had to troubleshoot and figure out why it did not work. As mentioned above in the post then the Secureboot was to be disabled (this was not as easy as I had hoped - but we will get to that).

Here is the full guide of what should be done:

Step 1: Download the display link APT driver from the link above and try the guide. Maybe it works for you and you don't have to go through the rest.

Installing the driver was not fully simple though. Here is the steps I took:

I downloaded the driver and adding it to the Downloads library. This was a .zip file I had to unpack. It is still in the downloads folder at this point.

This file was at present time called: displaylink-driver.6.1.9-17.run

We have to make it executable, there are a couple of ways, but the easiest is to right click the file and enter ”Properties”. Go to the Permissions tab and find the check box called ”is executable”. Check it. Click OK.

Then I Opened the terminal and updated:
”sudo apt update”

After this:
”sudo apt install dkms libdrm-dev”

The DKMS is needed for Kernel support. And the libdrm helps with the graphics in some way as I understand it.

Step 2. Run the installer: sudo ./displaylink-driver*.run (instead of * use the number listed above or from the driver number you have in your file)

The terminal will prompt some things that you need to accept. If your system is all ready for it, then it should not be a problem and you can re-boot and everything should work fine.




This is where the problems began for me. At the end I saw that I have 3 challenges:

1. Secureboot
2. DKMS
3. EVDI

First things first – the Secureboot is part of your BIOS settings. It prevents malicious software from loading when your PC boots. It needs to be switched off – as the driver cannot load when this is on.
Ok – but is that then a problem now, will my PC get infected with all sorts of stuff? The short answer is NO – however it is a bit more complex than that. If you run on a trusted network, don’t dual boot with Windows or am downloading shady things it should not be a problem. Always also use an official Linux Distro. There are some workarounds so you can keep it on, but I will not go into that here.

DKMS is the Dynamic Kernel Module Support. This provides support for installing suppl. Versions of kernel modules. Just like we want to do know – add a driver to the kernel so the system can use it. For me this did not work probably and I had to recheck and troubleshoot this area to ensure I could actually add the driver.

EVDI – Finally I had to check if this was installed or updated proberly. The EVDI or Extensible Virtual Display Interface*is almost self-explanatory. But this has to work to add the extra monitors.


So the next steps for me was to troubleshoot all of this. I started with the secure boot. I restarted and entered the BIOS (look up your pc for the right approach – it is usually by pressing Delete, F12 or the likes in the start of the boot).

In the BIOS – find the UEFI settings (usually under something with Security). When found, then disable it. Save the settings and exit the BIOS and let the PC boot.

This will in some cases make the driver work. But you may want to check once you have entered Kubuntu if you can see the displays in the display settings. If not, continue to nex steps.

As this didn’t work for me I checked the DKMS and opened the terminal (or bash) and used the following command:

dkms status

If this shows something like evdi, 1.12.0, 6.5.0-XX-generic, x86_64: installed then you are good (it just need to throw something back at you.

If empty – then you need to reinstall:

sudo apt-get install –reinstall dkms

After this remove the broken or old DisplayLink install:

sudo displaylink-installer uninstall

Then you run the installer again, as described on the top steps. Make the file executable and run the driver install.
Now to the EVDI piece. Check that EVDI is now visible to DKMS run this command:

dkms status

If it doesn’t appear try this:

sudo dkms add -m evdi -v 1.12.0
sudo dkms build evdi/1.12.0
sudo dkms install evdi/1.12.0

Finally you can reboot and test with the dock connected. If the screens still don’t work, then check the service:

Terminal:

systemctl status displaylink-driver.service

you can also force it to start if needed:

sudo systemctl restart displaylink-driver.service

Basically after this you should be able to go to your display settings and find the screens in the menu.

This process I think is much similar to what is already in the guides linked to above – which apparently was too difficult for me to follow – however, I hope it can be helpful for someone else