[SOLVED] missing graphics driver on Dell XPS, no external monitor (displaylink installation causes hdaudio error)

[stefano_to]

Hi!
I recently installed `./displaylink-driver-5.4.1-55.174.run` to try getting my DELL P2417H work via usb-c on my Dell XPS13. The installation works fine, then asks for a reboot. At reboot, I get a

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hdaudio hdaudioc0d2: Unable to bind the coded

error message, then nothing more and the system/GUI doesn't load. I "solved" by booting in recovery mode - root terminal and uninstalling it by

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sudo displaylink-installer uninstall

Still, my external monitor situation didn't improve. Did anyone get into this? How do you get both displaylink installed (and hopefully the external monitor recognized) AND a bootable linux mint?
Thanks!

System config:

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Linux Mint 20
5.4.0-91-generic
#102-Ubuntu SMP Fri Nov 5 16:31:28 UTC 2021

[SMG]

System config:
Linux Mint 20
5.4.0-91-generic
#102-Ubuntu SMP Fri Nov 5 16:31:28 UTC 2021

Welcome to the forum, stefano.

Please give us information about your install by entering this command in a terminal: inxi -Fxxxrz
Click </> from the mini toolbar above the textbox where you type your reply and then place your cursor between the code markers and paste the results of the command between the code markers [code]Results[/code]. This will let us know how Mint sees your hardware.

Please also let us know where you obtained the DisplayLink driver you used.

[stefano_to]

Hi! Thanks a lot for the reply and sorry for the delay... I probably should activate email notifications + xmas happened. However, the issue is still there and my eyes would really appreciate having an external monitor connected to my Dell.
Here is the result of the command requested:

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System:
  Kernel: 5.4.0-109-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.4.0 
  Desktop: Cinnamon 5.0.7 wm: muffin 5.0.2 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 
  Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Dell product: XPS 13 9305 v: N/A serial: <filter> 
  Chassis: type: 10 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: Dell model: 0PPYW4 v: A02 serial: <filter> UEFI: Dell v: 1.2.0 
  date: 11/11/2021 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 43.0 Wh condition: 46.8/52.0 Wh (90%) volts: 8.2/7.6 
  model: SMP DELL G8VCF6C type: Li-poly serial: <filter> status: Discharging 
CPU:
  Topology: Quad Core model: 11th Gen Intel Core i7-1165G7 bits: 64 
  type: MT MCP arch: Tiger Lake rev: 1 L2 cache: 12.0 MiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx 
  bogomips: 44851 
  Speed: 1078 MHz min/max: 400/4700 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1093 2: 1070 
  3: 1058 4: 854 5: 961 6: 1026 7: 958 8: 1144 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel vendor: Dell driver: N/A bus ID: 0000:00:02.0 
  chip ID: 8086:9a49 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 driver: fbdev 
  unloaded: modesetting,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~77Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 12.0.0 256 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 21.2.6 
  compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
  bus ID: 0000:00:1f.3 chip ID: 8086:a0c8 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-109-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 vendor: Bigfoot Networks driver: iwlwifi 
  v: kernel port: efa0 bus ID: 0000:a4:00.0 chip ID: 8086:2723 
  IF: wlp164s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 476.94 GiB used: 313.00 GiB (65.6%) 
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 model: KBG40ZNS512G NVMe KIOXIA 512GB size: 476.94 GiB 
  speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> rev: 10410106 scheme: GPT 
RAID:
  Hardware-1: Intel Volume Management Device NVMe RAID Controller 
  driver: vmd v: 0.6 port: 3000 bus ID: 0000:00:0e.0 chip ID: 8086.9a0b 
  rev: N/A 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 27.38 GiB used: 19.42 GiB (70.9%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/nvme0n1p5 
  ID-2: /home size: 351.93 GiB used: 293.49 GiB (83.4%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/nvme0n1p6 
  ID-3: swap-1 size: 8.57 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap 
  dev: /dev/nvme0n1p7 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 36.0 C mobo: N/A 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list 
  1: deb https://qgis.org/ubuntu uma main
  2: deb https://qgis.org/debian uma main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
  1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com uma main upstream import backport
  2: deb http://mirror.cc.vt.edu/pub2/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
  3: deb http://mirror.cc.vt.edu/pub2/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
  4: deb http://mirror.cc.vt.edu/pub2/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
  5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
  6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list 
  1: deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg] https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/skype-stable.list 
  1: deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.skype.com/deb stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/slack.list 
  1: deb https://packagecloud.io/slacktechnologies/slack/debian/ jessie main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teams.list 
  1: deb [arch=amd64] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/ms-teams stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntugis-ppa-focal.list 
  1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntugis/ppa/ubuntu focal main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntugis-ubuntugis-unstable-focal.list 
  1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntugis/ubuntugis-unstable/ubuntu focal main
Info:
  Processes: 284 Uptime: 7h 47m Memory: 15.36 GiB used: 2.42 GiB (15.7%) 
  Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.4.0 alt: 9 Shell: bash 
  v: 5.0.17 running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.0.38
  

If I understand correctly, there is a problem here

Graphics:
Device-1: Intel vendor: Dell driver: N/A bus ID: 0000:00:02.0
chip ID: 8086:9a49
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 driver: fbdev
unloaded: modesetting,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~77Hz
OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 12.0.0 256 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 21.2.6
compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes

Thanks for any help sorting this out!

[SMG]

Hi! Thanks a lot for the reply and sorry for the delay... I probably should activate email notifications + xmas happened. However, the issue is still there and my eyes would really appreciate having an external monitor connected to my Dell.

Your hardware is too new to be using the 5.4 kernel. It does not have the necessary graphics drivers (as you have noticed).

System:
Kernel: 5.4.0-109-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.4.0
Desktop: Cinnamon 5.0.7 wm: muffin 5.0.2 dm: LightDM 1.30.0
Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal

Instructions for upgrading to the 5.13 kernel:

• Open Update Manager.
• Select View > Linux Kernels and click Continue.
• Make sure 5.13 is selected on the left panel and then click the top-most option on the right panel. An "Install" button will appear.
• Install the kernel and then reboot for it to become active.

That should install the proper drivers. Let us know if that clears the issue with the external monitor.

I want to caution you that your Mint installation is rather full so you will need to make sure you are diligent about "housekeeping" with regards to unnecessary software.

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Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 27.38 GiB used: 19.42 GiB (70.9%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/nvme0n1p5 
  ID-2: /home size: 351.93 GiB used: 293.49 GiB (83.4%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/nvme0n1p6 
  ID-3: swap-1 size: 8.57 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap 
  dev: /dev/nvme0n1p7 

Once you have two 5.13 kernels installed (one for use and one for a back-up in case you need to revert to it), you can remove all installed 5.4 kernels. Until you remove all of them, you will continue to get update notifications for them. Considering they do not have the necessary graphics drivers for your system, I suggest just installing a second (older) 5.13 kernel and removing all the 5.4 versions.

You can remove 5.4 kernels individually using a process similar to what I listed for installing the 5.13 kernel. Just select 5.4 on the left panel and then click a kernel with "Installed" in the middle column to have the "Remove" button appear.

[stefano_to]

Sounds great, thanks! I'll try and let you know! (and yes, rather than software it is "research output", but still mostly unnecessary experiment leftovers ^^)
UPDATE: that worked, thanks a lot for the support and easy fix with step-by-step instructions (I really wish I would have seen this message several months ago! ). Sometimes sticking to LTS versions might be counter-productive, especially with new hw...