I just purchased an Asus Zenbook Duo laptop working very well with Windows 11. Especially when two external screens are connected to an iTec docking via HDMI cables and the docking connected with the laptop via USB-C port. The two internal monitor screens are complemented with other 2 external screens via the docking. Under Windows 11 the external monitor screens are as fast as the internal ones. I am using Windows 11 because it was delivered with the laptop but in practice I prefer Ubuntu Mate. Installing Ubuntu Mate 24.04.2 LTS caused me plenty of issues. The main one is the connection of the two external monitor screens via the iTec docking. I needed to search the internet for comments and decided to upgrade the Display Link driver. As a result, I have now the 2 external monitor screens working under Ubuntu but they are very slow. This is not related to the hardware because the same setup works fine with Windows. I conclude that the interfacing of the docking with the laptop is having issues. What could I do other than upgrading the firmware and taking the last driver from Display Link? I am so desparate that I will start working in Windows and wait until someone finds a solution for Ubuntu.
Hi, @Noste99 and welcome to the Ubuntu MATE Community!
It might help others if you supply some more information about your system, i.e.
lsusb | grep '[Dd]isplay[Ll]ink'- should help identify the product id of the dock.inxi -Gxxxzsummary information about your graphics and displays.xrandrmore information about the displays i.e. sizes and refresh rates detected.
I have now the 2 external monitor screens working under Ubuntu but they are very slow.
Can you describe what you mean by 'very slow'?
FWIW - this is probably a linux driver stack issue more than an issue specific to Ubuntu MATE; so you may need to make a support request with the DisplayLink developers.
@stephematician, thanks for your reaction, and sorry for my delayed reply.
---> The result from "lsusb | grep '[Dd]isplay[Ll]ink'" is Bus 002 Device 005: ID 17e9:6000 DisplayLink USB3.0 5K Graphic Docking
---> About the second bullet "inxi -Gxxxz" I get the following result:
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel Meteor Lake-P [Intel Arc Graphics] vendor: ASUSTeK
driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-13 ports: active: eDP-1,eDP-2
empty: DP-1,DP-2,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 0000:00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:7d55
class-ID: 0300
Device-2: Shinetech USB2.0 FHD UVC WebCam driver: uvcvideo type: USB
rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 3-9:3 chip-ID: 3277:0055
class-ID: fe01 serial: <filter>
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6
compositor: marco v: 1.26.2 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: iris gpu: evdi,i915 display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3840x2160 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 1016x572mm (40.00x22.52")
s-diag: 1166mm (45.9")
Monitor-1: DVI-I-1 mapped: DVI-I-1-1 pos: top-left model: No Monitor
serial: <filter> res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 size: N/A modes: max: 1280x1024
min: 640x480
Monitor-2: eDP-1 pos: primary,top-right model: Samsung 0x419d
res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 161 size: 302x189mm (11.89x7.44")
diag: 356mm (14") modes: 2880x1800
Monitor-3: eDP-2 pos: bottom-r model: Samsung 0x419d res: 1920x1080 hz: 60
dpi: 161 size: 302x189mm (11.89x7.44") diag: 356mm (14") modes: 2880x1800
API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: intel iris platforms: device: 0 drv: iris
device: 1 drv: swrast gbm: drv: iris surfaceless: drv: iris x11: drv: iris
inactive: wayland
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: intel mesa
v: 24.2.8-1ubuntu1~24.04.1 glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: Mesa
Intel Arc Graphics (MTL) device-ID: 8086:7d55
---> xrandr provides me with the following "LONG" reply:
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 3840 x 2160, maximum 16384 x 16384
eDP-1 connected primary 1920x1080+1920+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 302mm x 189mm
2880x1800 60.00 + 120.00 +
2880x1620 60.00
2560x1600 60.00
2560x1440 60.00
2048x1536 60.00
1920x1440 60.00
1856x1392 60.00
1792x1344 60.00
2048x1152 60.00
1920x1200 60.00
1920x1080 60.00*
1600x1200 60.00
1680x1050 60.00
1400x1050 60.00
1600x900 60.00
1280x1024 60.00
1400x900 60.00
1280x960 60.00
1440x810 60.00
1368x768 60.00
1280x800 60.00
1152x864 60.00
1280x720 60.00
1024x768 60.00
1024x768i 60.00
960x720 60.00
928x696 60.00
896x672 60.00
1024x576 60.00
960x600 60.00
832x624 60.00
960x540 60.00
800x600 60.00
840x525 60.00
864x486 60.00
700x525 60.00
800x450 60.00
640x512 60.00
700x450 60.00
640x480 60.00
720x405 60.00
720x400 60.00
684x384 60.00
640x400 60.00
576x432 60.00
640x360 60.00
640x350 60.00
512x384 60.00
512x384i 60.00
512x288 60.00
416x312 60.00
480x270 60.00
400x300 60.00
432x243 60.00
320x240 60.00
360x202 60.00
360x200 60.00
320x200 60.00
320x180 60.00
320x175 60.00
eDP-2 connected 1920x1080+1920+1080 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 302mm x 189mm
2880x1800 60.00 + 120.00 +
2880x1620 60.00
2560x1600 60.00
2560x1440 60.00
2048x1536 60.00
1920x1440 60.00
1856x1392 60.00
1792x1344 60.00
2048x1152 60.00
1920x1200 60.00
1920x1080 60.00*
1600x1200 60.00
1680x1050 60.00
1400x1050 60.00
1600x900 60.00
1280x1024 60.00
1400x900 60.00
1280x960 60.00
1440x810 60.00
1368x768 60.00
1280x800 60.00
1152x864 60.00
1280x720 60.00
1024x768 60.00
1024x768i 60.00
960x720 60.00
928x696 60.00
896x672 60.00
1024x576 60.00
960x600 60.00
832x624 60.00
960x540 60.00
800x600 60.00
840x525 60.00
864x486 60.00
700x525 60.00
800x450 60.00
640x512 60.00
700x450 60.00
640x480 60.00
720x405 60.00
720x400 60.00
684x384 60.00
640x400 60.00
576x432 60.00
640x360 60.00
640x350 60.00
512x384 60.00
512x384i 60.00
512x288 60.00
416x312 60.00
480x270 60.00
400x300 60.00
432x243 60.00
320x240 60.00
360x202 60.00
360x200 60.00
320x200 60.00
320x180 60.00
320x175 60.00
DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-I-4-4 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-I-3-3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-I-2-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-I-1-1 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
1280x1024 59.89 +
1920x1200 59.88
1920x1080 60.00*
1600x1200 60.00
1680x1050 59.95
1440x900 59.89
1280x720 60.00
1024x768 60.00
800x600 72.19 75.00 60.32
768x576 59.98
720x480 59.71
640x480 59.94
---> It is difficult to explain what I mean with "very Slow". Consider I open a terminal on the external screen. The window is clearly visible. When I move it, the first second or so, I see horizontal line segments where the initial window was, and these segments are all replaced by pixels of the final colour. The effect is strong in the horizontal direction. Extending the vertical size of the window does not result in these small line segments. It is mainly disturbing with youtube videos because changing frames trigger all the time this changes. If I can catch the effect in a small video I will post it here.
Thanks a lot for your support,
Stefan
I don't quite understand what you mean by segments. You can't post videos on this forum, but you can link to a video hosting platform (e.g. youtube).
At this point I'd be getting in touch with Synaptic support instead. I can see a few potentially related open issues upstream: DisplayLink/evdi: Extensible Virtual Display Interface - Issues - but I have too little expertise to know for sure.
Also, it looks like you're running Wayland - that's not what I was expecting with Ubuntu MATE 24.04; and adds another variable to the mix (one which I am not familiar with at all). This is the output on my Ubuntu MATE 24.04 (with an amdgpu iGPU and an nvidia dGPU), it doesn't specify Xwayland:
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 compositor: marco v: 1.26.2 driver:
X: loaded: amdgpu,nvidia unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa
dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu,nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch display-ID: :0.0
screens: 1
This feels like a very specific Wayland + driver + device issue.
Remove Xwayland, it does not belong on UbuntuMATE and can be a source of problems when not used with a wayland compatible backend (Mutter, Kwin, Mir )
Thanks again for the interesting reflections.
When searching the web two weeks ago I found that I should install the most recent DisplayLink drivers, what I did. I was quickly in trouble because when installing the system reported issues about evdi not being found.
I reinstalled Ubuntu Mate again from scratch and have now checked the most recent drivers for the iTec docking. The result was again a DisplayLink "run" file I run as instructed by the doc from iTec. This time the DisplayLink driver installed well and seems to run well.
After your request to explain better the slowness of the monitor I tried to record the issue into a video https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5GJSvNG92Nc?feature=share. When I move the window with black background you see the horizontal dashes remaining for a second or so. This issue I do not have on my internal monitors. When trying to record the video with OBS-studio, I see the dashes on the monitor but not on the recorded video. What I posted now on Youtube is a recording taken with my mobile phone.
Your remark about the use of Wayland I am going to check. Seems not too difficult to remove Wayland and the fact that it is not part of the MATE version, it might point to the real cause of the issue. Thanks a lot for this hint and I will keep you posted.
Stefan
I disabled Wayland in the /etc/gdm3/custom.conf file (uncommented the line WaylandEnable=false and rebooted). When checking the $XDG_SESSION_TYPE I find now x11 but the problem remains the same. I also tried to reinstall the ubuntu-desktop but also that did not help.
The last days (I think when I reinstalled the ubuntu-desktop) I was surprised to be asked to chose between gdm3 or lightdm. I briefly checked the difference and took lightdm. Should I do something for lightdm to remove wayland may be?
For the rest, I saw that my Asus machine runs the 6.11.0-24.24-24.04.1 kernel. During the past few days I tried to put the most recent kernel 6.14.2 at that moment availble but did not saw an effect. I returned to the original 6.11.0 version after my system remained hanging. Now that I am back on kernel 6.11.0 at least the system seems more stable bu my monitor issue was not resolved.
I would look at what people have tried here as it seems like the same problem. You could also add details about your system in case it helps the developers identify the cause.
I would double check that it's actually using X11 and not running xwayland on top of wayland.
You can't reinstall ubuntu-desktop, it is not preinstalled. What you have done was to install the ubuntu-desktop metapackage on top of your Ubuntu MATE installation. This metapackage has fetched a lot of dependencies:
$ apt-cache depends --no-recommends ubuntu-desktop
ubuntu-desktop
Depends: alsa-base
Depends: alsa-utils
alsa-utils:i386
Depends: anacron
systemd-cron
Depends: at-spi2-core
at-spi2-core:i386
Depends: bc
bc:i386
Depends: ca-certificates
Depends: dmz-cursor-theme
Depends: fonts-dejavu-core
Depends: fonts-freefont-ttf
Depends: foomatic-db-compressed-ppds
Depends: gdm3
Depends: ghostscript-x
Depends: gnome-control-center
Depends: gnome-menus
Depends: gnome-session-canberra
Depends: gnome-settings-daemon
Depends: gnome-shell
Depends: gnome-shell-extension-appindicator
Depends: gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-ng
Depends: gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock
Depends: gstreamer1.0-alsa
Depends: gstreamer1.0-packagekit
Depends: gstreamer1.0-plugins-base-apps
Depends: gstreamer1.0-pulseaudio
Depends: inputattach
Depends: language-selector-common
Depends: language-selector-gnome
Depends: libatk-adaptor
Depends: libnotify-bin
Depends: libsasl2-modules
Depends: libu2f-udev
Depends: nautilus
Depends: openprinting-ppds
Depends: printer-driver-pnm2ppa
Depends: pulseaudio
pulseaudio:i386
Depends: rfkill
rfkill:i386
Depends: software-properties-gtk
Depends: spice-vdagent
Depends: ubuntu-desktop-minimal
Depends: ubuntu-drivers-common
Depends: ubuntu-release-upgrader-gtk
Depends: ubuntu-session
Depends: ubuntu-settings
Depends: unzip
unzip:i386
Depends: update-manager
Depends: update-notifier
gnome-packagekit
Depends: wireless-tools
Depends: wpasupplicant
Depends: xdg-user-dirs
Depends: xdg-user-dirs-gtk
Depends: xkb-data
Depends: xorg
Depends: yelp
Depends: zenity
Depends: zip
zip:i386
You should now have both GNOME and MATE desktop environments installed on your system.
I noticed that too; I assumed they had a reason for having the plain-vanilla Ubuntu (GNOME) desktop environment, or that they have installed Ubuntu vanilla and then later added the MATE desktop.
In terms of troubleshooting the displaylink driver; it would be handy if the setup was simpler (i.e. only one desktop).