I have the USB 2.0 display adapter. Model UGA-2K-A Is it compatible with OSX Lion?
Thanks for posting! We’ve been bracing for a flood of Mac questions today, as you might imagine…
The short answer is it can be made to work today, but less adventurous users may want to wait for a next driver update. Here’s the details:
Lion originally broke all DisplayLink-based devices (the only USB graphics devices that have Mac drivers at all for now), including ours. So if you have an earlier DisplayLink Mac driver, you *must* uninstall before upgrading to Lion.
Fortunately, DisplayLink was able to release an updated 1.7 beta 2 driver which fixes these problems, with some caveats (version 1.7 b2 is available here http://displaylink.com/support/mac_do… and for direct download without registration here http://displaylink.org/forum/attachme… )
All of our Plugable UGA graphics devices, including the UGA-2K-A, use DisplayLink’s technology and work with all driver updates directly from DisplayLink.
The most important caveat/limitation we know of now with Lion, is that anyone with a hybrid graphics Mac (dual Intel/nVidia, etc.), must go into their energy saver preferences, and set graphics to “higher performance” before installing the DisplayLink drivers. Without this, the login screen won’t render correctly – a nasty problem.
You can get more details here: http://displaylink.org/forum/showthre…
And if you get stuck with that blank login, you’ll want to boot the Mac into safe mode (here’s how: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1455 ), run the uninstaller in Applications/DisplayLink (here’s how: http://www.displaylink.org/forum/show… ), and then make that change to power settings before re-installing again.
But by changing the power settings first, you’ll be able to avoid the problem completely, and we don’t currently have any reports of any other major issues.
Hope that background helps! If you subscribe to our RSS feed (http://feeds.feedburner.com/Plugable) or twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/plugable) we’ll be posting updates about Lion compatibility for all our devices, as the dust settles.
And if anyone needs any help with their particular Plugable product, please email support@plugable.com anytime. We would appreciate any reports of Lion specific issues here on our forums, or with an email, so we can track them down.
Thank you!
Bernie
I have installed the beta drivers. Just thought I would note that my monitor is very laggy now. I know the drivers are in beta so I hope an update comes soon.
Hi Jason - Thanks for that note. We’re seeing that elsewhere, too – we think one cause is that Lion makes heavier use of global animation (effects, transitions, etc) than earlier versions did. This pushes a lot more pixels through the driver and over USB.
We’re also hopeful that future driver updates will help, but there might be limits given the “virtual” nature of USB graphics (which renders using the host’s resources, and then only sends final changed pixels over the bus).
Again, thanks for Lion-specific comments like these - they help other users to get info up front.
I’m running the beta driver, and have worked about the Login window (also the App Store window display incorrectly) issue. But, I’m also experiencing drag-and-drop issues. When I drag a file to copy it, or to add an app to the dock, I cannot drop it. Uninstalled the driver, and the issue disappeared. Have you seen this?
Hi Keith - Thanks for posting! Others are also seeing the drag and drop issues on Lion + DisplayLink. It looks like this thread @ DisplayLink is the one to follow for this issue: http://displaylink.org/forum/showthre…
A driver update from DisplayLink is almost certainly going to be required to fix an issue like this, and unfortunately that’s a multi-week process (just to set expectations).
We’ll be tracking things closely, and will provide updates - but you may also want to track at the DisplayLink forums, as they’ll have news there first. Thanks again for this report, and thanks for your patience!
Bernie
I was speaking with support about this today, and figured its best to post here in case others are having the same problem.
The “display” works fine (mimo monitor), but the “touch” isn’t. I can do the 4pt calibration on the display, but when I actually try to “touch” the mouse there it doesn’t work. It ends up simultaneously moving the mouse on the main display. This results in a sort of “loop” from the cursor, which can’t decide if it should be on monitor 1 or monitor 2.
I tried a full uninstall + reinstall with latest software, same problem.
Thanks for the reply, Bernie.
yikes, just got the product today. I didn’t realize how it lags all the other screens when plugged in. I wouldn’t mind having the monitor that’s on the usb lag, but having my other two screens lag when scrolling through different screens is a bit of an annoyance. is this going to be fixed in a later driver update?
Thanks for posting! We’re seeing reports of a significant performance drop with Lion & USB graphics. Here’s a DisplayLink forum with other reports: http://displaylink.org/forum/showthre…
Given the symptoms (affecting all displays, not just over USB), we’re hopeful this will be a solvable problem, but we don’t have official word from DisplayLink yet.
DisplayLink is actively working on updates of their driver - we’d recommend monitoring their forums, and we’ll also post here and on plugable.com when there are new releases and significant improvements.
Until then, it’s important to set expectations that Lion (10.7) has a noticeable drop from 10.6 – and neither is as fast as Windows at this point, unfortunately!
I normally work with my DisplayLink screen in portrait mode rather than the usual landscape mode. However, after installing Lion and the 1.7b2 driver update, I don’t get the option to rotate the screen anymore. Is that an issue that would be addressed by the DisplayLink driver?
Trying to get DisplayLInk to work on my MacBook Air, Lion O/S. Installed the 2.7 driver (beta) and when I plug in DisplayLink, it freezes and I have to reboot by holding down the Power button. Anyone else experiencing this? Bernie, any ideas? Thanks for your help.
Hi Garin - I don’t think I’ve seen a description of that matches that exactly. Do you have a Plugable brand adapter, or another? A first thought would be to see if there’s a relationship with power settings:
- Go to the “Energy Saver” control panel and set it to “higher performance”
- Set displays to not go into standby on their own
If you do find a relationship, please let us know. Thanks for your patience!
Hi Antonio - For the rotation issue, DisplayLink has recommended these steps http://www.displaylink.com/support/ti… Have you already had a chance to try? Any help?
There is a good thread about the drag and drop issues at Apple. Apparently it’s a Lion problem that affects many types secondary display connections (not just USB graphics). So I’m hopeful there will be an Apple fix for Lion soon. Here’s the main thread: https://discussions.apple.com/message… including some workarounds (sleep/wake the system). Thanks!
Excellent! Thanks a lot Bernie!
Bernie, I looked for this earlier because of earlier posts, but can’t seem to find ‘higher performance’ as an option on the Energy Saver dialog box. All I see are options for Battery or Power Adapter.
Installed the Displaylink 1.7 beta 2 driver to get my EVGA Plus 16 monitor adapter working…but having two big issues that I was hoping someone might have some input to solve.
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In Mac Finder, if you select “Cover Flow” as your view option…the upper “preview” screen doesn’t function.
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Ever since I installed the Displaylink driver…Safari is acting funny. Specifically…a new page will load, but within 5 seconds just goes to a blank, white screen.
Help! (thanks in advance)
Hi Garin - that may only be present on systems with hybrid (dual GPU) graphics. If you don’t have that option, it’s not a path to any workaround, sorry …
Hi Matt - Thanks for posting, as it might trigger a discussion from others seeing the same thing. That said, we can’t provide support for non-Plugable brand products, but you can go to EVGA or direct to DisplayLink (the top-level Mac forum is at http://displaylink.org/forum/forumdis…) – there’s lots of active discussion there right now, with Lion’s release last week.