DisplayLink Releases Version 2.1 Driver for Mac OS X

There have been many multi-monitor regressions from OS X 10.8.5 to 10.9, and USB graphics has been significantly impacted.

Part of the confusion is not knowing which new problems are fixable by DisplayLink and which ones will require waiting for the next point releases by Apple.

We have a clearer picture of that now with DisplayLink’s version 2.1 driver final release. A number of things are greatly improved, including a fix for the new performance problems on 10.9 — performance is now back up to 10.8.5 levels.

However, we’re still recommending that anyone on 10.8.5 with a multiple-monitor setup, stay there until Apple has a chance to get out some point releases. In particular, multi-monitor setups of many types are losing configuration, often on sleep. And virtual graphics drivers like DisplayLink aren’t working for 2 or more displays. Both of these problems are new for 10.9.

See the comments on our original 10.9 multi-mon post for different problems reported by customers with DisplayLink and non-DisplayLink hardware. DisplayLink lists the 10.9 issues they’re aware of in the DisplayLink KB article for OS X 10.9.

So, progress .. but for most 3+ monitor users, 10.9 is still not workable. So we can’t recommend any of our Plugable brand products with DisplayLink for Mac, unfortunately. We’ll update as Apple and DisplayLink put out additional point releases.

Feel free to post your experiences in the comments below — it helps everyone to have the behaviors be known. Thanks!

4 comments on “DisplayLink Releases Version 2.1 Driver for Mac OS X”

  1. LMR

    Thanks for this info. If I have Mavericks and a single monitor, are you finding that the updated driver is working OK?

    • Bernie Thompson

      I’m running 10.9 with a single-head dock as I write here on my main system (a 2013 Macbook Air). Unfortunately, I wouldn’t recommend it quite yet, even with DisplayLink’s 2.1 driver. Things are good 95% of the time, but I’ve seen rendering problems at times on the USB display when I plug in before logging in (unplug/replug solves). This wasn’t a problem on 10.8.5. And of course, if I add a 2nd USB display, things just don’t work (and that also was fine on 10.8.5). Unless you’re willing to put up with a little bit of weirdness, I’d wait for 10.9.1 or .2 at least. I know it’s no consolation, but booting the Macbook Air into Windows 8.1 is problem free. We show that here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1FKhEd71cI

      • LMR

        Thanks, Bernie. We’ve been so happy with the dock we’ve on our Windows 7 machine for a year and a half. I can wait until Apple address these issues.

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