[SOLVED]: USB KVM Switch does not connect to Display

[joaper]

I am trying to connect my Laptop to a Startec USB3DDOCKFT KVM Switch over USB 3.0 ports on my laptop.keyboard, mouse and sound is working fine but I cannot get the Display working. I still have Win 10 installed in dual for some reason and I tried it in Windows and it works there so it is clearly not a hardware issue. I have looked around for some tips for a tie abut not found anything useful so far.
Does anyone have any experience with this?

[SMG]

I am trying to connect my Laptop to a Startec USB3DDOCKFT KVM Switch

Is this Dual-Monitor KVM USB 3.0 Docking Station for Two Laptops the one?

It indicates it is a docking station rather than just a KVM. If that is the correct piece of hardware, then it appears DisplayLink drivers are needed for it to work properly. Let us know if that is correct and we can point you to info for downloading and setting up DisplayLink drivers. DisplayLink drivers are third-party proprietary drivers and thus are not included in Linux Mint. That listing does not indicate support for Linux-based distros with that docking station, but I'm presuming it can work if the DisplayLink drivers are installed. I do not know that for sure, however.

[joaper]

I am trying to connect my Laptop to a Startec USB3DDOCKFT KVM Switch

Is this Dual-Monitor KVM USB 3.0 Docking Station for Two Laptops the one?

It indicates it is a docking station rather than just a KVM. If that is the correct piece of hardware, then it appears DisplayLink drivers are needed for it to work properly. Let us know if that is correct and we can point you to info for downloading and setting up DisplayLink drivers. DisplayLink drivers are third-party proprietary drivers and thus are not included in Linux Mint. That listing does not indicate support for Linux-based distros with that docking station, but I'm presuming it can work if the DisplayLink drivers are installed. I do not know that for sure, however.

Yes. That is the one! I guessed that additional driver would be neede but I was not sure. I would be very grateful if You could point me to wherer I can download the DisplayLink drivers!
I am curious however how you found that the DisplayDrivers are needed? I tried to find information about that but failed.
I hope it will work with the right drivers, I cannot really see why it shouldn't baut am also not sure. The idea is to be able to switch between a Windows laptop and a Linux laptop both used for work but different things.

[SMG]

I am curious however how you found that the DisplayDrivers are needed?

If you click the link Dual-Monitor KVM USB 3.0 Docking Station for Two Laptops and scroll down the page a little bit, there are tabs for Overview, Technical Specifications, Accessories, Drivers/Download, and Support. Click the Drivers/Download. Displaylink is listed as the driver. There are no links there for Linux-based distros because they do not support them.

I would be very grateful if You could point me to wherer I can download the DisplayLink drivers!

I suggest you take a Timeshift snapshot before downloading and installing the driver. I do not use this driver, but feedback from others indicates you might have to do some tests or tweaks to get the driver to work properly.

Here is the link for DisplayLink Driver for Ubuntu.

This post describes a patch needed for the DisplayLink driver to work properly with the 5.4 kernel. However, the person in this post only needed to use the first two steps of the patch.

Those people were using the DisplayLink driver version which came out May 2020. There is a newer version which came out in April 2021, but I only know of one person who tried it and I do not know all the details of how it worked. I think that person went back and used the May 2020 version with the patch, but I do not recall why. If you take a snapshot, you can try the newer version and see if it works. If it does not, it's easy to roll back with Timeshift to try the prior version and add the patch.

[joaper]

Thanks.I will try and get back to you with the result!

[joaper]

This post describes a patch needed for the DisplayLink driver to work properly with the 5.4 kernel. However, the person in this post only needed to use the first two steps of the patch.

Those people were using the DisplayLink driver version which came out May 2020. There is a newer version which came out in April 2021, but I only know of one person who tried it and I do not know all the details of how it worked. I think that person went back and used the May 2020 version with the patch, but I do not recall why. If you take a snapshot, you can try the newer version and see if it works. If it does not, it's easy to roll back with Timeshift to try the prior version and add the patch.

I had some problems from the start since I had 18.3 installed and needed to upgrade to at least 19.3 but the last upgrade crashed the system. A clean install of 20.1 ontop existing partitions solved the problem however.

Installing the driver following the posts above both failed when installing the evdi library. Error text below.

Code: Select all

 file included from evdi_lib.c:5:
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/9/include/stdint.h:9:16: fatal error: stdint.h: No such file or directory
    9 | # include_next <stdint.h>
      |                ^~~~~~~~~~
compilation terminated.
make: *** [<builtin>: evdi_lib.o] Error 1
ERROR: Failed to build evdi/5.3.1.34 library.

This was solved by installing libc6-dev and redoing the install procedures. The version from April 2021 did not work but the older version from May 2020 worked fine. So, many thanks for the advice and tips! I would consider this now as solved for now!

[SMG]

This was solved by installing libc6-dev and redoing the install procedures. The version from April 2021 did not work but the older version from May 2020 worked fine. So, many thanks for the advice and tips! I would consider this now as solved for now!

Thanks for the feedback on what did and did not work.

If you consider this solved, please go to your first post in this thread and click the pencil icon to edit the title and add [SOLVED]. This will let others with a similar problem know there is a solution in this thread.