I am fairly new to Ubuntu, and am running 20.04. When I was using Windows I had a Startech USB to VGA adapter () to add 2 external monitors to my laptop. When I switched to Ubuntu, the adapter no longer worked, and there doesn't appear to be an Ubuntu driver for it. I was looking on Amazon and there are some that are only 10 dollars, but the ones that specifically mark they are for Ubuntu are about $50 or more. I don't mind spending that much but if I could get one for less I'd much rather do that. Does anyone know of any relatively cheap USB to HDMI adapters that work with Ubuntu? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you!
11 Answer
I have heard that USB-to-video adapters using DisplayLink GPUs have Linux drivers and work well enough. I say "well enough" because USB was not built to support computer displays, it's something of a hack to use USB for this.
If your laptop has a DisplayPort or HDMI output, and I suspect it does as not having a video output on a laptop is rare, then getting an adapter for one of those to VGA should be more stable, give better performance, and not need driver updates with each new OS upgrade. Avoiding the use of VGA would also be wise but I can understand the need to keep using it in some cases. I've used DisplayPort to VGA adapters before and found them inexpensive and "there is no step three" simple to use.
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