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This guide is for Advanced users!
Basic knowledge of the terminal is required to follow this Guide. Please read Using the Terminal.
DisplayLink support on Linux is considered experimental. This guide provides Steam Deck specific instructions for getting DisplayLink to work. Please refer to the Arch Wiki article for further guidance.
Set up for installation[edit | edit source]
If you have not already, make sure to follow the Installing Packages guide to set up SteamOS for using pacman.
You will need to be able to use pacman, and install packages from the AUR.
You will also need the headers package for Linux, which on SteamOS is linux-neptune-headers.
# pacman -S linux-neptune-headers
Installing Evdi[edit | edit source]
The main evdi package from the AUR does not work on SteamOS.
You will need to install the evdi-steamdeck patched version.
Using the pre-compiled release[edit | edit source]
The SteamDeck Linux github fork of Evdi has pre-compiled packages available for download. They can be found in the releases.
Make sure you install at least SteamOS Patch 2, as it switches to use the AMD patch for Evdi.
To install the downloaded release:
# pacman -U <release file name>
For example:
# pacman -U evdi-git-1.10.1.r1.g3b80ae6-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst
Cloning it yourself[edit | edit source]
If you would rather compile the package yourself, it will need to be done on a separate Linux install, as it seems to not compile on SteamOS.
$ git clone https://github.com/steamdeck-linux/evdi-steamdeck-pkg.git
After cloning, cd into the directory
$ cd evdi-steamdeck-pkg
Then run:
$ makepkg
Then move the generated package to your SteamDeck, and run:
# pacman -U <package file name>
Configuring Evdi to fix refresh rate issues[edit | edit source]
There is a known issue that Evdi drivers on Linux, with AMD, can cause low refresh rates on monitors.
However, there is luckily a fix.[1]
Run the command below, replacing %DISPLAYS% with the amount of displays you will be using.
# echo "options evdi initial_device_count=%DISPLAYS% vmap_texture=1" > /etc/modprobe.d/evdi.conf
Installing DisplayLink[edit | edit source]
If you have an AUR helper, for example, yay, you can simply install the displaylink package.
$ yay -S displaylink
After a successful install, run:
# systemctl enable displaylink
Then reboot your machine. DisplayLink should now be working.
Known Issues[edit | edit source]
DisplayLink does not function when in Gaming Mode, you will need to switch to Desktop Mode for it to function correctly.
Plasma reportedly has issues where desktop icons fail to display correctly when using DisplayLink. This could potentially be a known issue, to be fixed in Plasma 5.25[2].