evdi: (Linux & X11) Extremely slow windows when laptop display is disabled.
When I turn my laptop display off, my displaylink monitors become extremely slow.
Monitors work fine and have no obvious performance issues when connected to my laptop. However, attempting to disable the laptop display (regardless of whether or not the lid is closed – closing the lid doesn’t cause any problems as long as the display has a mode in xrandr), results in extremely slow changes to windows. The cursor seems to move only a little bit slower than before, but windows repaint extremely slowly (measured exactly 1.000 FPS using glxgears).
I’d really like to just plug my laptop in at work and close the lid, making my first DisplayLink monitor primary, and I don’t want to have to buy a Thunderbolt dock if I don’t have to.
Software and System
Lenovo ThinkPad T440s w/ Lenovo Hybrid USB-C Dock. Arch Linux.
- Linux 5.4.11
- Xorg 1.20.6
- displaylink 5.2.14
- evdi 1.6.4-2
$ modinfo evdi
filename: /lib/modules/5.4.11-arch1-1/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/evdi/evdi.ko.xz
license: GPL
description: Extensible Virtual Display Interface
author: DisplayLink (UK) Ltd.
srcversion: 4F284B13CC5D2D97950EA33
depends: drm,drm_kms_helper,syscopyarea,sysfillrect,sysimgblt
retpoline: Y
name: evdi
vermagic: 5.4.11-arch1-1 SMP preempt mod_unload
parm: initial_loglevel:Initial log level (int)
parm: initial_device_count:Initial DRM device count (default: 0) (ushort)
parm: enable_cursor_blending:Enables cursor compositing on user supplied framebuffer via EVDI_GRABPIX ioctl (default: true) (bool)
Steps to reproduce:
- Use linux
- Attach a displaylink monitor to your laptop
- configure an X screen with the evdi device (I usually use
arandr) - disable the laptop screen, something like
xrandr --output eDP-1 --off - observe exactly 1 frame every 1 second
About this issue
- Original URL
- State: closed
- Created 4 years ago
- Reactions: 21
- Comments: 43 (2 by maintainers)
I can confirm that the X.org xserver patch released by Displaylink as a workaround for this issue works pretty well. Here is the link to download it: https://www.displaylink.org/forum/showthread.php?t=67148. Don’t forget to reboot your machine after apply it.
I’m using KDE Neon 5.19 based on Ubuntu 20.04. I got this problem yesterday when I upgraded from Ubuntu 18.04 to 20.04.
Tks Displaylink.
@basprins is your display showing low fresh while placing your laptop on dock? If yes, then one solution is to switch to Wayland.
@elcuervo JakubDabrowski from customer support team released the package for displaylink. I have requested him to release a ptach for 18.04 here https://www.displaylink.org/forum/member.php?u=20834
Same with ubuntu 21.04
I solved the problem activating X.Org X server and stop freezing the screen.
Came here for the exact same thing. Also in 18.04 without a compatible fix
This issue exists even on ubuntu 18.04 ,
xserver-xorg-coreversion2:1.20.8-2ubuntu2.1~18.04.1.@displaylink-dkurek can you please provide the
xserverpackage for18.04.1LTS as well. I tried the 20.04 package. It throws an error while installingif you’re on arch you want to install
xf86-video-amdgpu-gitif you’ve amd igpu to get the latest patch that fixes this issueSame on ubuntu 21.10
Instead of desactivating the built in monitor what I did is mirror my laptop desktop to monitor on the left with
xrandr --output eDP --same-as DVI-I-2-2eDP = built in monitor DVI-I-2-2 = left monitorand extende the build in monitor to my right monitor with
xrandr --auto --output DVI-I-1-1 --mode 1920x1080 --right-of eDPDVI-I-1-1 = right monitorto know your monitors type:
xrandrbuilt in monitor will apear as Screen 0hope it helps for the ones like me that didn’t get the problem solve by downgrading
xserver-xorg-corejust make sure your laptop dont sleep when closing the lid and your are done.
Debian 11 same issue.
There are quite old issue and MR on xorg regarding this: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/xserver/-/issues/1028 https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/xserver/-/merge_requests/460 Closing this issue 😃