[SOLVED, kind off..] USB Display adapter

heikkikk · Apprentice Joined: 05 Feb 2008 Posts: 220

Hi.
I have a laptop with 1 hdmi plug.
I'd like to have another one for a third monitor.

I know there are USB TO HDMI adapters to connect a HDMI display to a USB connector.

But are they compatible with Linux? Some say "Only for Windows"...

Would be nice to know the compatible devices, if any.
Thanks.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2023 6:29 pm Post subject:

heikkikk,

These days there are two flavours of these devices.

The newish one needs USB-C and for the hardware to support USB-C Alt mode.
Then its a USB-C to HDMI cable and your GPU drives the USB-C port in Alt mode.

The older way was a GPU driven over USB. It was usually VGA only too.

One of us needs to read the fine print in your laptop user manual.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

heikkikk · Apprentice Joined: 05 Feb 2008 Posts: 220

Thanks for the reply.
my laptop does not have USB-C in any mode. Just regular USB-2 and USB-3 plugs, according to the manual.

The manual talks about usb-c but says if it is present it is located in such and such place on the device. But there is no connector for it in this particular model

But thanks anyhow.