Generic USB Display Driver Published For Linux - Allowing Nifty Possibilities With Raspberry Pi, Etc

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Generic USB Display Driver Published For Linux - Allowing Nifty Possibilities With Raspberry Pi, Etc

Longtime Linux DRM developer Noralf Trønnes has written a new driver for Linux to serve generic USB display purposes. This driver was written following his idea of turning a Raspberry Pi Zero into a USB to HDMI display adapter...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-Generic-USB-Display

[kpedersen]

Nice. This sounds really interesting.

I wonder if this will be useful for emulators / virtualisation where either emulating the entire video stack is too expensive, or there are no virtualized drivers available.

Pi Zero is USB 2.0. Would an ethernet to HDMI display adapter not offer better speeds (i.e using the Pi Zeros network interface)?

[ids1024]

Pi Zero is USB 2.0. Would an ethernet to HDMI display adapter not offer better speeds (i.e using the Pi Zeros network interface)?

I don't believe the Pi Zero has Ethernet. Also, the Raspberry Pi 1, 2, and 3 use USB-Ethernet adapters internally for the Ethernet port, so it can't offer better than USB 2.0 speed anyway. I believe the SoC in the Raspberry Pi 4 has built-in Ethernet, but it also supports USB 3.

[brent]

I don't believe the Pi Zero has Ethernet. Also, the Raspberry Pi 1, 2, and 3 use USB-Ethernet adapters internally for the Ethernet port, so it can't offer better than USB 2.0 speed anyway. I believe the SoC in the Raspberry Pi 4 has built-in Ethernet, but it also supports USB 3.

The Raspberry PI 4 has native Gbit Ethernet, a USB 3 controller attached over PCIe 2.0 and a native USB 2.0 single-port controller (which is mostly used in device mode). Oh, and the SD card slot finally is capable of UHS speeds. They definitely addressed the lack of fast I/O thoroughly, I'll give them that.

[hourwatch]

Would this be useful to make a chromecast alternative TV dongle with something like NymphCast?

[kpedersen]

I don't believe the Pi Zero has Ethernet.

... good point. I always have a micro -> usb -> ethernet adapter plugged in on mine so I completely overlooked the fact that it doesn't actually have one inbuilt. XD

[nerdopolis]

What does this mean for DisplayLink v3 devices? Would it make it easier to support those?

[wizard69]

This is rather cool. The first thing I thought of was USB hooked up generic mini displays. Things like status displays, point of sale displays, MMI terminals and the like that might not need to do video over the connection. The fact that they are demoing video over the connection already is just icing on the cake.

It will be interesting to see what the developer has in mind for hardware. A range of USB powered displays with all the hardware/software built in would be great.

[milkylainen]

So in the end the point is to do exactly what USB Displaylink does?
Or the is the gadget driver some generic framebuffer concept?
I'm not sure I fully understand.

[caligula]

... good point. I always have a micro -> usb -> ethernet adapter plugged in on mine so I completely overlooked the fact that it doesn't actually have one inbuilt. XD

Can't you just use the ethernet USB OTG gadget, it's much easier?