this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2024
17 points (94.7% liked)

Arch Linux

8162 readers
46 users here now

The beloved lightweight distro

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I'm running Garuda. My laptop screen is on its very last legs. I have an external monitor that connects via USB-C. It has a Display Port connection, but the laptop itself does not. I'm using HDMI to connect to a larger display, but not having two monitors available is driving me insane. I know that the firmware supports display over USB-C, since it has worked before on previous distros and on Windows. My issue is that I can't get the system to recognize the display, and I'm not sure where to start troubleshooting.

I can post whatever dumps etc. if asked, but here's a neofetch screenshot screenshot for starters:

Are there packages I need to install? Drivers? I'm clueless and would really appreciate a starting point at the least. The last thing I need is a broken system because I'd have to use the (almost) entirely broken laptop screen to attempt a reinstall/change the BIOS.

top 7 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I think the issue is due to the fact that your laptop has a discrete Nvidia GPU, which complicates things on Linux machines. Your display outputs are therefore controlled by the Nvidia drivers themselves rather than the Linux kernel.

Check out sections 2.4.x of the Arch wiki Nvidia page and maybe you can find a way to configure it manually.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Thanks a lot! I knew this might be a rabbit hole, so thanks for the starting point!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think you're looking for DP alt mode drivers. That's what allows DisplayLink over USB.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Awesome! Do you happen to know where/how I can grab those? ETA: Installed the DisplayLink stuff, but don't know where to go from here.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I got the same roadblocks when trying this on my debian machine. I'm not sure what the fix is.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Did you also enable the required service?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago

that is one long host name