Experimental Rust DRM driver targets modern DisplayLink hardware
An experimental Rust-based DRM driver called Vino has been developed to support modern DisplayLink hardware, aiming to provide better Linux display support for these devices through a safer and more modern codebase.
Background
- DisplayLink is a technology that lets you connect external monitors over USB (instead of traditional video ports like HDMI or DisplayPort). It compresses the video signal and sends it over USB, which makes it convenient but also slower and less reliable on Linux, where driver support has been a pain point for years.
- The existing Linux driver for DisplayLink hardware (called "udl" or "udrm") is old, written in C, and only supports very early DisplayLink chips (version 1). Modern DisplayLink adapters (version 2, e.g. DL-6xxx and DL-7xxx chips) are not supported, leaving users with expensive hardware that doesn't work well or at all.
- This article reports on a new experimental driver called "vino" (Virtual Internal Network Object... or just a name). What makes it interesting: it's written in Rust, a safer modern language that the Linux kernel community is slowly adopting for new drivers.
- The driver targets modern DisplayLink hardware (version 2), potentially replacing the old C driver. It's early-stage and not ready for everyday use yet, but it signals that someone is finally working on proper support for current DisplayLink USB monitors on Linux.