[elrepo] package suggestion: USB DisplayLink drivers and X11 driver

[Phil Perry]

On 24/06/11 22:58, Covert wrote:
> On 06/17/2011 07:07 AM, Phil Perry wrote:
>>
>> Hi Greg,
>>
>> Good news the kernel driver is "working" as expected.
>>
>> WRT the errors above, neither of the two missing header files
>> (xf86Resources.h&   xf86RAC.h) are part of the distro so one would think
>> they must be part of the displaylink package(s). The rest of errors all
>> relate to undeclared functions, possible declared in the two missing
>> headers.
>>
>> Yum shows me that xorg-x11-drv-fbdev-0.4.2-1.el6 is available (an older
>> version is also available on el5 too). If that's all that is required,
>> that would be great.
>>
>> Once you have this working, if you are interested in documenting case
>> uses for this driver (with example configs), we'd be happy to provide
>> you some space on the elrepo Wiki to do so or link to any guide
>> elsewhere - just a thought :-)
>>
>> I'll leave it with you for the time being to see how you get on trying
>> the distro xorg-x11-drv-fbdev driver and we'll take it from there.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Phil
>>
>>
>
> Hi again,
>
> I've been a little silent on this, but I really have been working on
> trying to get everything working with the Xorg server over display
> link.  I've kind of become stuck, but I'll explain where I am:
>
> The xorg-x11-drv-fbdev, at the level included with RHEL 6, doesn't work
> with the udlfb driver.  It seems that the reports about fbdev working
> require a much more recent version, and some patches that have been
> submitted to xorg that have not made their way into an official
> distribution.
>
> However, I did get the displaylink driver to compile and install, by
> using the version located here:
> http://git.plugable.com/gitphp/index.php?p=xf-video-udlfb&a=snapshot&h=HEAD
>
>
> If you download that full project from the GIT repository there, the
> drivers compile and install OK.  The only differences are 2 patches for
> the most recent Xorg versions.
> http://git.plugable.com/gitphp/index.php?p=xf-video-udlfb&a=summary
>
> that site:  plugable.com , is actually where the development of the
> modified fbdev driver is occurring, and the users patching the udlfb in
> the kernel, so I trust their source code.
>
>
> After installing that Xorg driver, I have been able to start X on the
> monitor -- But I have not been able to dual screen working at all.   In
> my xorg.conf, I have 2 screens defined, with "ScreenLayout" section that
> is supposed to define their relationship.  For the life of me, I can't
> get them to both work at the same time.
>
> I have to do "startx -- -screen Screen1" -- then the x server will start
> on the USB display.  But my test monitor is so small, I can't really do
> much with it there.
>
> I think my problem might be that my main display is Nvidia, with the
> Nvidia drivers.  Those have their own "special" multimonitor handling,
> and I think its disabling the other Xorg driver that is loaded at the
> same time.  I actually see the displaylink driver unloaded in the Xorg.log
>
>
> So -- I'm not sure exactly what to do next.  I think that if you wanted
> to put the udlfb driver and the xf-video-udlfb driver above in the repo,
> then it should be useful for someone.  I was able to start X on it, so
> that gives you lots of additional configuration options.  But for right
> now, its I'm not able to achieve what I originally wanted to work with it.
>
> Oh, and I would be happy to document everything I've found so far on the
> wiki somewhere, if they are moved into the elrepo.
>
> Cheers,
> Greg
>

Hi Greg,

Apologies for the length of time it's taken me to reply.

Thanks for your experimentation and feedback - most useful.

As you've suggested, I've packaged the xf-video-udlfb driver from the 
http://git.plugable.com repository.

I've named the package xorg-x11-drv-displaylink in keeping with other 
xorg-x11-drv packages within the distro and it provides the 
displaylink_drv.so module.

The following files are syncing to the el6 testing repository:

http://elrepo.org/linux/testing/el6/

xorg-x11-drv-displaylink-0.0.1-1.el6.elrepo.i686.rpm
xorg-x11-drv-displaylink-0.0.1-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
xorg-x11-drv-displaylink-0.0.1-1.el6.elrepo.src.rpm

I wasn't sure on the upstream version numbering for this driver (I 
couldn't find any?) so have just versioned it at 0.0.1. If you know of 
an upstream version number we can use that.

Could you test the above with the udlfb kernel driver and report back if 
they work as expected (i.e, they work inasmuch as you previously reported).

I will create basic pages for these packages on the elrepo Wiki (every 
package has to have it's own page). If you would like to document what 
you've found for these packages plus any configs etc then we can set you 
up with an account on the Wiki and I'm happy to hand the pages over to 
you  :-)

WRT your issues above, about the only thing I can think to suggest is to 
try falling back to the distro "nv" driver if you think the proprietary 
"nvidia" driver is causing multi-display issues. But I'm not the best 
person to ask about X config issues!

Regards,

Phil