DisplayLink is a USB2 solution to send display data from a USB source to a digital monitor (using a DVI interface). Why would you care ? Well, the Pandora has a USB2 port, and can support higher resolutions, therefore it can act as a display source and connect on a monitor to display a Full HD desktop. Don’t except stuff like playing games or videos with it, though, since the bandwidth of the USB2 port is too narrow to stream full HD video in realtime. But since the Pandora is very much a portable computer, you can enjoy the richness of its desktop applications (LibreOffice, Quassel, Firefox, etc…) with this device. Here’s how you set it up.
[ This is a guest post from Takedown of the Pandora boards ]
Hey guys, Takedown here. Ekianjo asked me to do a tutorial on how to set up and configure a DisplayLink device, be it a standalone one or a complete docking station.
First off, we’re going to set up the Pandora for DisplayLink use. Because we don’t have permission to modify /etc/X11/, we’re going to use thunar with root permissions.
To do that, we head over to the Terminal and type “sudo thunar /etc/X11/”.
It should send us straight to where the xorg.conf files are located.
There are two files, one is named “xorg.conf” and “xorg.conf.DisplayLink”. All you need to do is rename “xorg.conf” to “xorg.conf.default” and “xorg.conf.DisplayLink” to “xorg.conf”.
Now to set up the hardware.
Make sure everything is connected as per instructions of the docking station or standalone device. We now connect the DisplayLink device to the USB Host of the Pandora and enable USB host. You should get a green screen on the monitor.
All you need to do now is log out. The login should appear on the monitor instead of the pandora. Enter your login info and away you go 😀
The desktop wallpaper… why? 😀
Could be Takedown wanted to make it look like he’s running Windows on Pandora or something. Who knows ? 🙂
Can you confirm the model number of the adaptor you are using please? I’m guessing UGA-2K-A?
I’m interested to know that as well… so many DisplayLink licensed stuff out there.
I’m just using the UGA-165 to keep compatability at bay because I’m not sure if the newer ones will have any issues with the driver on the pandora.
Short and sweet tutorial, but it’s good to put it out there with screenshots too.
It works really nicely and for applications it is very nice. While it is not realtime I did attempt playable some games using this and it’s a case of YMMV.
In most cases the games are hardcoded to Pandora’s native resolution and you’ll get a small window in the middle of the screen!
Did you notice high CPU consumption when using the DisplayLink ? Apparently it uses CPU+GPU to compress the stream to be sent via USB2, and that can be quite intensive on the Pandora… are applications still usable in these conditions ?
I’m mostly interested to know if browsing in full screen, for example, would be acceptable with this kind of solution.
It can easily handle any apps that don’t require much movement on the screen. The only thing that slows down in firefox is scrolling, but most apps shouldn’t have any problem running on DisplayLink.
Why not use the displayLink.conf all the time? If you have them renamed for displayLink use but don’t use an external monitor, what are the drawbacks on pandora use only and be able to plug in DisplayLink (and logout) to use external monitor when ever you want?
There is no need to change the config files every time you want to use the adapter, just plug in, log out and it automatically sets itself up and you’re good to go!
Hey – any chance you could share the secret of how you got the Motorola Lapdock connector wired up? I’d love to use mine with my Pandora ..
I’ve never heard of the lapdock until I saw your comment! I don’t think I’ll be owning one tho… They seem quite expensive.
I got mine for 50eu, lol! 🙂 Sorry, I thought that was a Lapdock in the first DisplayLink picture, with the orange background .. never mind! 😉
Just trying out a DisplayLink adaptor now. Connected through a powered hub which is also providing a mouse, keyboard and an ethernet connection. Overall, I’m pretty impressed. There is a tiny lag when you drag windows etc, but overall for desktop work it is very useable. I haven’t found an elegant disconnect method – I just re-boot, which powers off the USB port and then things go back to normal (ie, I’m back to the built in OP screen). I can then remove the USB cable. Surfing isn’t too bad. I wouldn’t want to use this as my primary web… Read more »
Is it just me or is all non-text content (pics, code) missing in this post. (I sit behind a proxy at the moment).
I was thinking to give this one a try:
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&cs=19&sku=470-ABHH&baynote_bnrank=0&baynote_irrank=1&~ck=dellSearch
with the ethernet and USB port and a USb switch I could nicely switch between the Desktop ccomputer and the pandora…
It’s not just you, I am fixing the image links one by one, but it takes time seeing the number of articles we have here 🙂
Let us know if the model you selected works with the Pandora 🙂