I use DisplayLink at work for multi display setup/Ethernet/etc, all by connecting to a single USB port. Although it’s a nifty little device, its software support isn’t that great.

Only Linux driver they have is for Ubuntu. Which is only optimized to work with 14.04, and latest kernel they support is 3.19!

Their installer script can be modified to work with Debian and Systemd, but even so if you’re using any Linux kernel version other then >=3.14 && <=3.19 you’re not going to have a good time.

displaylink-debian (github)

That’s why I decided to take things in my own hands, and created displaylink-debian.

Tool which allows you to seamlessly install and uninstall DisplayLink drivers on Debian/Ubuntu based Linux distributions.

Supported platforms are:

  • Debian: Jessie 8.0/Stretch 9.0/Sid (unstable)
  • Ubuntu: 14.04 Trusty/15.04 Vivid/15.10 Wily/16.04 Xenial/16.10 Yakkety
  • elementary OS: O.3 Freya/0.4 Loki
  • Mint: 15 Olivia/16 Petra/17.3 Rosa/18 Sarah
  • Kali: 2016.2/kali-rolling

Regardless of which kernel version you’re using.

displaylink-debian licence is GPLv3 and if you’d like to extend it to any other distribution then Debian, be my guest!

Happy hacking & if you found this useful, consider becoming my GitHub sponsor!