Notebook/docking station Ubuntu support 2 external monitors

Francis Cagney

11/21/23, 5:33 PM

TLDR What notebook and and docking station seamlessly supports 2 large external monitors?

My personal computer is an Asus zenbook (UX390) with "plugable" usb-c docking station.

I have a Philips 3840x2160 monitor and a BenQ 2560x1440

With windows10 both external monitors worked beautifully

Ubuntu 20.04 there was just no way to get 2 monitors working. I easily spent 40 hours trying things, updating displayport drivers, reading forums. 2 monitors was not to be be

Then work gave me a Thinkpad T14 Gen 2 with its own usb-c docking station. Again windows is beautiful with 2 external monitors.

Ubuntu 22.04 on exactly this hardware sort of, kinda supports 2 monitors. The 4k monitor will just go blank for 5 to 60 seconds. If I want to watch a movie I swith off the second monitor, otherwise the 4k monitor will randomly blank.

I can't read any more forums telling me which driver to try updating, or which configuration file must be tweaked. The joy and curse of Unix is that solutions never die. They can be 15 years out of date and completely irrelevant, misleading, but they never die.

Has anybody had any success connecting 2 large external monitors to a notebook running Ubuntu.

If so exactly what hardware configuration? i.e. Notebook model and docking station.

I want to buy a new computer but I want it to support Ubuntu and 2 monitors reliably.

I really do not love Windows.

270

0 + 4

multiple-monitors

hdmi

displayport

user68186

11/21/23, 5:38 PM

I’m voting to close this question because this question is about hardware recommendation.

Francis Cagney

11/21/23, 6:33 PM

Sorry for posting in the wrong place. Where should I have posted it?

Esther

11/21/23, 6:52 PM

there is a [Hardware Recommendations](https://hardwarerecs.stackexchange.com) Stack Exchange site. However, if you're using USB-C rather than Thunderbolt, you might be using DisplayLink, which has issues with Linux sometimes.

Francis Cagney

11/21/23, 7:10 PM

Aha, I'm sure I am usuing DisplayLink and have updated the drivers too many times. Sounds like the answer is to use a thunderbolt docking station?

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Notebook/docking station Ubuntu support 2 external monitors

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