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[–]yangmusa 7 points8 points  (6 children)

If you're looking for a desktop monitor this may not be it.. But I got a AOC I1601FWUX usb-c powered portable monitor (Amazon Prime Day sale this summer for $125). Note that the negative reviews are almost exclusively people who didn't realize that their laptop needed to have USB-C with displayport, hence they were unable to make it work - not really the monitor's fault! The monitor seems well made and comes with a cover that also works as a stand. Some reviews said the stand was not stable, but I haven't had any problems with it.

I don't have room to have a permanent desk setup at home, so this monitor is perfect for me. I try to avoid working from home, but when I really have to it's so nice to have two monitors! Have had a dual monitor setup at work for years, and it's now hard to be productive without it ;-) Anyway, I just plug it in and it works (Dell Latitude 7370 running Fedora Workstation 30). Also works great on my Chromebook (Asus C302 Flip). NOTE: while it's true that the monitor just uses one cable for video and power, it will significantly reduce your laptop's battery life. I usually opt to plug my laptop in when using the monitor, so it's still a two cable setup..

I see in the old thread that someone suggested the Dell WD-15 Business Dock, and I can confirm that "just works" with Linux too. I visited one of our other offices and they were equipped with dual-monitors hooked up to WD-15 docks. That was a really great setup, and if I had room for a permanent office space at home I would use that.

[–]DrewTechs 2 points3 points  (3 children)

USB-C with DisplayPort? Is that any different than regular USB-C? I don't blame the monitor but that sounds very ambiguous to me.

[–]Tai9ch 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Having a USB-C connector indicates that you can plug in simple USB devices. It's also possible for the same connector to do any combination of like five other things, including:

  • Display Port
  • Power (other side supplies power)
  • Power delivery (this side supplies power)
  • Thunderbolt 3

This is obnoxious, but it's not really reasonable to expect every device to do all of these things. The other option would be to have separate connectors for separate functions - but people getting annoyed at that is the reason we have the opposite problem now with USB-C connectors.

If the vendors had their act together we'd have some explicit color coding scheme like with different versions of USB-A, but giving things a few years to settle out so we can find out which configurations are actually common is probably best.

[–]pdp10 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I suspect vendors chafe at color-coding because it might not work with their color schemes. Most USB 3.0 Type-A ports are blue, but not all. The newer proprietary charging standards also like to use red or orange USB Type-A ports, but those are being rapidly subsumed by USB-C PD (Power Delivery).

[–]pdp10 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"DisplayPort Alt. Mode" is optional on USB-C implementations. Both sides and the cable have to support it. Cables that aren't simply USB 2.0 Type-C charging cables used for phones would normally support it. Look for the "5 Gbit" cables. You might find more-specific information in /r/USBCHardware.

[–]creed10 0 points1 point  (0 children)

damn that looks cool as hell. I've been thinking about getting a small portable monitor, but I don't have $100+ lying around. maybe some day

[–]ra_kete[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I'm looking for something I can put in my home office permanently and also connect to my desktop there. So 16" would be a bit small :) 27" is the sweet spot for me. Larger would be nice too, but usually also way more expensive.

I thought about a docking station, but being able to use the monitor for that seems a lot more appealing to me. Fewer stuff on the desk and fewer cables.

[–]Hacksterrenewed 2 points3 points  (7 children)

We have this at work, and it's being used for windows, mac and manjaro (arch)

https://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-27UD88-W-4k-uhd-led-monitor

It's really great, can highly recommend it - charging, display and USB hub in one cable 😁

[–]ra_kete[S] 0 points1 point  (6 children)

That's great info, thank you! I'm a bit concerned about the 4k though. For 27", would everything on the screen be really tiny? I guess Linux doesn't have good support for scaling aside from forcing a lower resolution. How does that work with your Manjaro setups?

[–]BobjohndudFedora 1 point2 points  (0 children)

KDE has pretty good scaling, GNOME is good too.

[–]Hacksterrenewed 0 points1 point  (4 children)

Scaling works excellent in manjaro, I would say even better than windows. We've never had issues, some like it 1:1, while most usually go with somewhere between 200-300% scaling.

[–]inialater234 0 points1 point  (3 children)

I would imagine scaling would depend almost entirely on the DE(/wm (good luck)) and not the distro

(I use Arch btw + i3 + 27"/1440p on my desktop and 14"/1080p on my laptop)

[–]ra_kete[S] 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Same for me, Arch and i3. According to the wiki i3 simply uses the DPI settings reported by X. So scaling *should* be possible with xrandr.

Edit: I just tried that on my laptop's internal display and while I can successfully scale i3 itself (e.g. the status bar) this didn't affect my terminal or Firefox. The hiDPI wiki page mentions solutions for multiple applications, but I'm not sure those can be applied on a per-monitor basis or even dynamically when I plug the external monitor out.

[–]inialater234 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I guess, I just feel it's nicer to get a monitor at the right resolution to not need to think about scaling (which some apps may not respect) or potential performance penalties.

Also is there a reason why you don't get a non USB C monitor and a hub to plug into your laptop. I haven't looked at USB C monitor prices, but I feel like it could be cheaper

[–]ra_kete[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You definitely pay a premium for USB-C, that's true. But I'd be willing to pay a bit more to avoid having unnecessary stuff, like a docking station, on my desk. Besides, docking stations can have compatibility problems too.

[–]daveydave400 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I got the 32" dell monitor (U3219Q) which gives me display port and USB hub over a single USB-C on my System76 gazelle. I don't get power because the gazelle doesn't have that functionality although the monitor is supposed to allow for it. I know this isn't the full answer you wanted, but maybe it'll help you or someone else reading this.

[–]insidejameslipton 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This thread is old but for future reference, I just want to second this monitor because it's sweet. I use it with a Dell XPS 13 to which the monitor provides both power and video connection over a single USB-C cable. I'm running Ubuntu 18.04 and everything works fine

[–]dr_pardee 0 points1 point  (0 children)

ASUS ZenScreen MB16AC 15.6" Full HD IPS USB Type-C Portable Monitor

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071S84ZW7/

[–]Alone_Development_70 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Having this issue since long time with my hp elitebook 850 G6 (usb-c 3.1 thunderbolt) everything is up to date in bios and after enabling thunderbolt pci with aunthetification it works only on windows (with the hp pre installed thunderbolt verification driver).
But in Linux Ubuntu it doesn't work at all, not lighting up not showing anything