MST on Arch Linux

Question

I have this device https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00XXPZ3AQ when I connect it to Thinkpad x260 using the MiniDP, then connect into the splitter two monitors using DP cables I see no image. Any one has experience how to configure this ? The two monitors I connect are from packedpixels.com.

Answer 1

EDIT:

I have now realized ArchLinux has already solved the problem (for the distro) by providing an excellent package that will solve all of your problems, just read here. I am leaving the original reply as background for future users, should anyone stumble upon it.

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The Startech MultiMonitor Splitter you bought is based upon a DisplayLink chip. I have bought several different verions of the splitters in question, settling eventually for this Dell dock station.

Linux support is sketchy: it works fine on my Ubuntu and Debian laptops, but their own site states that they provide support only for Ubuntu. You can find the proprietary driver here, together with a list of the chips supported, basically: DL-5xxx, DL-41xx, DL-3xxx. I think your device works on a DL-5500 (see here under Technical specifications), so you should be in luck.

The instructions on how to install this on Ubuntu are on a separate Web page (unbelievable, isn'it?), and the instructions on how to uninstall it on yet another page. Suggestions on how to port this on other Linux distros can be found here (you guessed it, it is still another Web page). [[After buying my Dell Docking Station, it took me half a day to collect all of this information]].

The driver is made up of two parts: an OpenSource kernel module called evdi (Extensible Virtual Display Interface) and a closed-source user-space driver called DisplayLinkManager, which is lodged in shared memory (/run/shm), both developed by DisplayLink. What I mean by proprietary is really proprietary: if you enable error messages, they will appear in encrypted form, you will have to upload them to their forum, and they will be decoded by their own technicians. Luckily, I did not have to do this.

There is no obvious reason why you should not be able to port this to Arch, but I am not sure the proprietary driver will manage to work with Arch's cutting edge Linux kernel: I have a 4.4 on which the DisplayLink module works fine, but their Web pages make no promise as to the driver's portability to newer kernels.

How do these things work? I found out I needed a relatively powerful pc to make it work properly (an old 2008 Toshiba Portege' R600 wouldn't cut it), but it survived a powerful stress test: three screens each with a different HD movie, downloading a large file to my NAS on my LAN at 1Gb/s, and transfering a file over the Internet at 150Mb/s (what I currently have) all simultaneously worked perfectly. Only problem, screens freeze occasionally, and there is no way that I could find to diagnose the problem, buried as it is inside DisplayLinkManager, the proprietary driver.