How To Make Ubuntu 13.04 Work With DisplayLink Monitor?

Solution 1:

Woohoo, I found a solution (no extra adapter required)!

In Ubuntu 13.04, installing the precompiled 3.9 raring kernel from kernel.ubuntu.com makes my display plug-and-play. Using the "Displays" utility, mirroring and extended desktop both work. It's not 100% buttery smooth, but it works. The Saucy 3.10.1 kernel also works just fine with Raring. I can't tell any difference between the 3.9 and 3.10 kernels in terms of DisplayLink.

If your DisplayLink monitor does not work out of the box with Ubuntu 12.10 or 13.04, installing Linux kernel 3.9 or higher may "just work". Apparently the baked in DisplayLink drivers have been improved.

Installing a prebuilt kernel is simple; download the header and image deb files for the kernel of your choice (3 files total). Install the headers first, then the kernel image. Next time you reboot, you should be using the updated kernel (check the version with "uname -r"). If you want to boot into an older kernel again, holding the shift key while your computer is booting will bring up a menu that allows you to select which kernel to boot. If you have issues with a new kernel, you can always uninstall it. I recommend using Synaptic to do so.

http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/

Solution 2:

As an intermediate step, you can place a static image on a DisplayLink device using the instructions here: https://askubuntu.com/a/393117/46709 If the static image works, then stepping up to the 3.9 Kernel has a chance of working.