Running Nine USB-Based Displays On Linux

Posted by Michael Larabel on January 26, 2010

Last May we were briefed that DisplayLink would provide open-source driver support on Linux. DisplayLink is a company that makes graphics processors capable of powering high resolution displays that work over a USB connection. This technology is found within products from Hewlett-Packard, ASUS, Samsung, and others. Since last year DisplayLink and the Linux community has been working on a LGPLv2 software stack and in June first released a frame-buffer and X.Org driver and since has released other improvements.

The DisplayLink kernel driver landed in the staging area with the Linux 2.6.32 kernel and there are additional patches already queued up for the Linux 2.6.34 kernel. This afternoon though, Bernie Thompson of Plugable, a company that sells products using DisplayLink technology, shared with us an interesting video. The video (embedded below) shows nine USB DisplayLink displays with touch-screen support all being connected to an Apple Mac Mini that is running Ubuntu 9.10. The video itself was made by Hal Glenn of 2G Engineering.


These graphics processors may not be as powerful as the discrete ATI/AMD and NVIDIA offerings, but they're low-power and there is no limit to how many can be connected to a single system (besides USB 2.0 bandwidth deficiencies). This is also running a fully open-source driver stack. AMD previously showcased a 24 monitor setup on Linux using their Eyefinity Technology, but that required four high-end ATI Radeon graphics cards and their proprietary driver stack in an unreleased form.

For those interested in building their own USB monitor array on Linux, Amazon sells many DisplayLink products. Shopping from the above link (thanks to commissions) will also help us in continuing to provide us with the latest Linux hardware news.

Discuss this article in our forums, IRC channel, or email the author. You can also follow our content via RSS and on social networks like Facebook, Identi.ca, and Twitter (@Phoronix and @MichaelLarabel). Subscribe to Phoronix Premium to view our content without advertisements, view entire articles on a single page, and experience other benefits.
Latest Hardware Reviews
  1. Intel Haswell HD Graphics 4600 vs. AMD Radeon Graphics On Linux
  2. Intel Haswell HD Graphics 4600 Performance On Ubuntu Linux
  3. Intel Core i7 4770K "Haswell" Benchmarks On Ubuntu Linux
  4. The First Experience Of Intel Haswell On Linux
Latest Software Articles
  1. Optimized Binaries Provide Great Benefits For Intel Haswell
  2. 11-Way Linux, BSD Platform Comparison
  3. SNA Acceleration Works Great For Intel Core i7 Haswell
  4. The Linux Evolution For Intel Haswell's Performance
Latest Linux News
  1. Mir's GPLv3 License Is Now Raising Concerns
  2. NVIDIA Driver Soon Likely To Support EGL, Mir
  3. OpenMandriva Goes Into Alpha Form, Russian-Based
  4. NVIDIA Brings Their Linux Driver To ARM
  5. D Language Still Showing Promise, Advancements
  6. Planetary Annihilation Released For Linux Gamers
  7. Gentoo Starts Work On KDE-Wayland Support
  8. NVIDIA To License Its Kepler GPU Technology
  9. KDE's KWin Made Lots Of Progress In 4.11
  10. Ubuntu Announces Carrier Advisory Group
  11. Qt 5.1 Release Candidate 1 Has Arrived
Latest Forum Talk
  1. Gentoo Starts Work On KDE-Wayland Support
  2. Mir's GPLv3 License Is Now Raising Concerns
  3. D Language Still Showing Promise, Advancements
  4. Benchmarking The Intel P-State, CPUfreq Changes
  5. Intel GPU Driver Tries To Rip Out FBDEV Support
  6. Five Years Later, Intel Poulsbo Is Still A Linux...
  1. Computers
  2. Display Drivers
  3. Graphics Cards
  4. Motherboards
  5. Peripherals
  6. Processors
  7. Software
  8. Operating Systems
  9. All Articles
  1. Linux Benchmarking
  2. OpenBenchmarking.org
  3. Phoronix Test Suite