Alpine Linux support: my progress

[psypete]

Hi there,

I have a Dell D6000 Universal Dock that I need to unplug my HDMI cable into and plug into my laptop to use my monitor, and I would love it if I could just keep it plugged into the dock.

However, I am an insane person, because my laptop runs Alpine Linux. Alpine is a non-glibc Linux distribution, so I understand why this isn't supported yet. However, I'm halfway decent at software development, and would be happy to help support this platform.

Here is how far I've gotten:

1. Install Alpine Linux 3.17.1

2. Install the linux-lts-dev package

sudo apk add linux-lts-dev

3. Install dkms

git checkout https://github.com/dell/dkms.git
cd dkms
git checkout v3.0.10
sudo make install

4. Download displaylink Ubuntu installer and unpack it

- Go to https://www.synaptics.com/products/d...1?filetype=exe and download
- Go to download directory
- Unpack file

unzip "DisplayLink USB Graphics Software for Ubuntu5.6.1-EXE.zip"
mkdir displaylink
bash displaylink-driver-5.6.1-59.184.run --target displaylink
cd displaylink

5. Patch the evdi source code

mkdir evdi.tmp
tar -C evdi.tmp -xvzf evdi.tar.gz
cd evdi.tmp
patch -p1 <<'EOPATCH'
diff -Naur foo2/library/evdi_lib.c foo/library/evdi_lib.c
--- foo2/library/evdi_lib.c	2022-07-13 09:58:06.000000000 -0400
+++ foo/library/evdi_lib.c	2023-04-06 21:22:50.248134186 -0400
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@
 #include <sys/types.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
 
+#include <linux/limits.h>
+
 // ********************* Private part **************************
 
 #define MAX_DIRTS           16
EOPATCH
tar -cvzf ../evdi.tar.gz .
cd ..

6. Truncate the Makefile.gcc-plugins script

sudo truncate -s 0 /usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r)/scripts/Makefile.gcc-plugins

7. Run the displaylink installer

sudo env SYSTEMINITDAEMON=runit ./displaylink-installer.sh

Amazingly, the installer seems to have worked. I'm going to reboot and see what else needs to be done to make it work, probably involving making dkms work properly on Alpine

[psypete]

So, i needed to install the `gcompat` package to run the DisplayLinkManager app...

apk add gcompat

And I created a service to run /etc/sv/displaylink-driver/run at boot time.

However, I don't really know what to do from here... ?

I can see some evdi stuff in my /var/log/Xorg.0.log file

[  5851.582] (II) xfree86: Adding drm device (/dev/dri/card0)
[  5851.582] (II) Platform probe for /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/drm/card0
[  5851.598] (II) xfree86: Adding drm device (/dev/dri/card1)
[  5851.598] (II) Platform probe for /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.0/0000:01:00.0/drm/card1
[  5851.601] (II) xfree86: Adding drm device (/dev/dri/card2)
[  5851.601] (II) Platform probe for /sys/devices/platform/evdi.0/drm/card2
[  5851.601] (II) xfree86: Adding drm device (/dev/dri/card3)
[  5851.601] (II) Platform probe for /sys/devices/platform/evdi.1/drm/card3
[  5851.602] (II) xfree86: Adding drm device (/dev/dri/card4)
[  5851.602] (II) Platform probe for /sys/devices/platform/evdi.2/drm/card4
[  5851.602] (II) xfree86: Adding drm device (/dev/dri/card5)
[  5851.602] (II) Platform probe for /sys/devices/platform/evdi.3/drm/card5
[  5851.612] (--) PCI:*(0@0:2:0) 8086:1916:17aa:381c rev 7, Mem @ 0xa2000000/16777216, 0xb0000000/268435456, I/O @ 0x00006000/64, BIOS @ 0x????????/131072
[  5851.612] (--) PCI: (1@0:0:0) 1002:6900:17aa:381c rev 129, Mem @ 0x90000000/268435456, 0xa0000000/2097152, 0xa4200000/262144, I/O @ 0x00005000/256, BIOS @ 0x????????/131072

But I can't see how to actually use these cards?

Can someone link me to some instructions of how to make use of the drivers now that they're installed and the display manager runs?

I tried running the display manager with logging and debugging turned on, but it's just spitting out base64-encoded randomness at me....


Xorg version:

X.Org X Server 1.21.1.6
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Current Operating System: Linux macintosh 5.15.106-0-lts #1-Alpine SMP Wed, 05 Apr 2023 10:48:45 +0000 x86_64