DisplayLink driver issue

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.

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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 -Gxxxz summary information about your graphics and displays.
  • xrandr more 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.

2 Likes

@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

1 Like

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.

3 Likes

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 )

3 Likes

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

3 Likes

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.

2 Likes

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.

2 Likes

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.

1 Like

I would double check that it's actually using X11 and not running xwayland on top of wayland.

2 Likes

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.

3 Likes

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).

1 Like