UGA-2K-A works with Linux ?

Anyone know if I can run Plugable UGA-2K-A USB 2.0 to VGA/DVI/HDMI Adapter with OpenSuse, any other Linux ?

Hi - Thanks for your question.

First, the good news,

Support for our devices is in Linux kernel 2.6.31 and later in the form of a GPL kernel framebuffer driver (in staging). And in 2.6.37 the driver is solid enough that it’s started the move from staging to mainline.

Plugable is the main contributor to this driver (http://plugable.com/category/project/… ). We also seed our hardware with the Linux community. So Plugable devices tend to get more testing on Linux than any other (although we develop the driver with the goal of working on all DisplayLink devices).

But the bad news is – configuring Linux to work like like Windows or Mac isn’t easy, and sometimes isn’t possible. At the very least, it involves some ugly xorg.conf editing. On top of that, solid support for multiple PCI graphics adapters isn’t there for X, and the problems are worse for a mix of PCI and USB graphics adapters.

So what you’ll find is usage scenarios where each X display is independent tend to be pretty easy to set up, whereas creating one big extended desktop (like Windows) is not.

So unless you have a specific use scenario that you know works (google displaylink+linux to read about some), we have to say we don’t recommend buying our products for Linux use at this time.

Hope that helps. Sorry the answer isn’t happier. Thanks for the question!

Thanks Bernie,
I’ve ordered one anyway and I’ll persue it with the OpenSuse community if I run into problems. Currently I can plug one extra monitor into the VGA. I’ll certainly write here if it works straight off but I think a lot of people would want this…

Hi,

I just bought this plugable device and I am trying to get three monitors connected in OpenSuse. I was wondering if you were able to get your multi-monitor set up to work.

Thanks,
Amanda

Hi Amanda,

Concerning OpenSuse, you can have a look on this thread for notes by one of our customers for getting a Multiseat setup working.

Also you may find this post interesting on using a combination of vnc2dl and x2x on using a second monitor at the same time but not really extending the desktop. It’s more like two individual desktops for the same user, with mouse and keyboard shared. Would probably work for more than 2 monitors but haven’t tested it yet myself.

Regards,
Lampros