Apologies for going so far OT, but couldn't think of a better place to ask.

Anyone know if those USB->VGA devices out there are any good? Also, reasonable Linux support with them?

I imagine HDMI->VGA is likely junk, since they'd presumably be limited to 60Hz output, which is just masochistic on a true VGA monitor (ie CRT).

But I dunno about the USB stuff. They would essentially be their own independent video card, right? Bypassing the PC's internal GPU. Or do their drivers take the framebuffer from the GPU and send it out through USB? In which case, would there tend to be some display lag?

Heck, I wouldn't even be asking, but it seems that getting native VGA-out on a laptop these days limits your options somewhat.

On Tue, 19 Aug 2014 16:44:50 -0400, Nick Sabalausky wrote:

> Apologies for going so far OT, but couldn't think of a better place to ask.
> 
> Anyone know if those USB->VGA devices out there are any good? Also, reasonable Linux support with them?
> 
> I imagine HDMI->VGA is likely junk, since they'd presumably be limited to 60Hz output, which is just masochistic on a true VGA monitor (ie CRT).
> 
> But I dunno about the USB stuff. They would essentially be their own independent video card, right? Bypassing the PC's internal GPU. Or do their drivers take the framebuffer from the GPU and send it out through USB? In which case, would there tend to be some display lag?
> 
> Heck, I wouldn't even be asking, but it seems that getting native VGA-out on a laptop these days limits your options somewhat.

I'm using Plugable's USB 2.0 UGA (model UGA-2K-A).  Kernel support has come and gone with various regressions, but it's working great with 3.14-2-amd64.  It outputs DVI but comes with a VGA and HDMI adapter-- haven't tried either of them.  I've got it outputting 1920x1080 and framerate seems fine, though I haven't tried watching video or anything on it.  With past kernels it's been plug-n-play, currently have to execute a single xrandr command when I plug it in:

xrandr --setprovideroutputsource 1 0

but it hasn't bothered me enough to track down why.