A discount code for launch: the UGA-125

Posted on 27. Apr, 2010 by in Windows

We’re about to formally launch Plugable’s new UGA-125 USB 2.0 to VGA/DVI/HDMI Adapter for Multiple Monitors up to 1440×900 each, with DisplayLink DL-125 chip inside.

We’ve been able to get the UGA-125 down under the $50 price point with all the great service and free shipping benefits of Amazon.com. But for our fans who follow Plugable, we have an additional discount.

Enter claim code “LOVEPLUG” before checkout, and you’ll get an additional $5 off. But only during our launch window, from now until the end of April. And only selling in the USA for now, sorry.

And whether in the market for a new product or not, we’d like to send a big “thank you!” to all our loyal customers who take the time to follow what’s new at Plugable.

DisplayLink: Greener Multi-Monitor Solution

Posted on 22. Apr, 2010 by in Windows

This video shows two similar 2-monitor setups: the first using PCIe graphics, the other using Intel chipset graphics + a DisplayLink USB chip like the kind used in Plugable’s products.

The DisplayLink solution takes the power consumption from ~80W down to ~50W. Over time, and as you add more monitors, that’s a huge savings.

Read more about this at http://www.displaylink.com/power_saving.html

udlfb 0.4.0

Posted on 11. Nov, 2009 by in USB-VGA-165

[Update Dec 29, 2011: udlfb was promoted from the staging to the mainline kernel tree in 2.6.38. And in kernel 3.3 pagefault detection and console are enabled by default. See all our udlfb posts for the latest news.]

[Update March 14, 2010: udlfb versions have moved to being released with the Linux kernel. Update on udlfb support in Linux kernel 2.6.34]

[Update Feb 6, 2010: additional features and fixes post-0.4 are available at the plugable git page. Background is in later posts. One major udlfb patch with these changes has made it into linux-next (slated for 2.6.34), and additional patches will be coming as they're ready.]

This is a new release of the DisplayLink kernel framebuffer driver, udlfb.

udlfb was accepted into the Linux kernel staging tree of 2.6 a few months ago. It needs some work to add key features and get it moving from the staging tree, into mainline. Roberto De Iorio, the author of udlfb and displaylink-mod, is focusing on X server work, and is happy with this work happening in parallel to move udlfb forward.

This first release intentionally adds no fundamentally new features. It only gets udlfb up to sync with the displaylink-mod branch (up to Roberto’s last 0.3 release in July 2009) that has been in use the past few months. With this update, displaylink-mod users should be able to switch to this version of udlfb transparently.

Bug reports are very welcome, especially regressions or problems that would stand in the way of moving this driver forward out of staging (comments here are fine for bug reports).

New in 0.4.0 (since 0.2.3 currently in the Linux kernel staging tree)

  • Add dynamic modeset support (from displaylink-mod 0.3 and libdlo)
    • udlfb uses EDID to find the monitor’s preferred mode
    • udlfb no longer has fixed mode tables – it’s able to set any mode (within the capabilities of the chip) dynamically, from the standard VESA timing characteristics of the mode
  • Fix teardown synchronization issues (from displaylink-mod 0.3)
  • Other minor changes related to probe/modeset (from displaylink-mod 0.3)
  • Functionally identical to displaylink-mod 0.3
  • Retains basic layout of udlfb to make diffs more transparent and understandable

Download

See the git project summary page at http://git.plugable.com/gitphp/index.php?p=udlfb&a=summary for information.

Switching from displaylink-mod to udlfb.

Both these drivers match against all displaylink devices. So you don’t want both loading on your system. To clear out displaylink-mod:

sudo rmmod displaylink
sudo rm /lib/modules/`uname -r`/extra/displaylink.ko
sudo depmod -a

Then download, compile, install udlfb 0.4

./configure
make
sudo make install
sudo depmod -a

Todo

  • Merge in enhancements from Jaya Kumar’s displaylinkfb branch (defio support)
  • Merge in enhancements from Bernie’s displaylink-mod branch (performance)
  • Clear up remaining endian issues, to make sure it works on ARM and others
  • Add performance metrics, and sysfs attributes to read/reset them
  • Make allocation/use of backbuffer a runtime option, with param and sysfs switch
  • Figure out what KMS (Kernel Mode Setting) means to framebuffer drivers
  • Move from single URB with synchronous dispatch to ring of USB URBs, with asynchronous dispatch
  • Enhance probe() to better handle chip type detection
  • Enahance mode selection to better handle limits of DisplayLink chip
  • Add simulated hardware cursor support, to prioritize mouse movement

Any feedback or ideas on these todos are very welcome. And, as always, patches are very welcome and will be incorporated as quickly as possible.

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