Kernel update help.

Honestly man, the Dell OEM Ubuntu is garbage.  It has kernel 3.13, and the current is 3.19.  For someone who isn't experienced with kernel upgrades, you might want to consider flashing to a stable Ubuntu release.  I made a post a couple days ago with my step by step flashing process, since I was so fed up with how Dell built their OS.

Plus their recovery app is garbage too.  If there's anything you want to preserve, i would suggest installing Deja Dupe to backup your /home/ config.

A clean, stable install with a nice fresh kernel does wonders.

I tried to install the DisplayLink driver on Ubuntu 14.04, but it said my kernel was too old.  So I used the built-in upgrade tool to 15.04, which worked effortlessly.

At this point, the D3100 dock worked, but the mouse pointer flickered at 2-5 Hz.  After a few days, I decided to see if Ubuntu 15.10 would be an improvement.  It was!  No more flicker!

If you are considering the D3100 monitor dock, it works very will with Ubuntu 15.10 and the new DisplayLink driver. Wahoo!

Alan

P.S.  This is with a 2014 Dell XPS 13. YMMV.

P.P.S.  I am running one monitor on the built-in Mini-DisplayPort and a second monitor using the D3100. The laptop build-in display is also running.  Depending on load, the CPU usage is between 50-100% of one cpu (out of 4 total).  So, the total average cpu load is around 12-25%.   Unless you are staring at the performance monitoring tool all day, you will never notice this.

Where did you get the display-driver working with kernel 4.2 ?

Driver is from here:   http://www.displaylink.com/downloads/ubuntu.php

Just used the build-in Software Updater to go from 14.04 -> 15.04 -> 15.10 (2 upgrade steps)

When I bought the XPS 13 in March 2014, it came with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.  I tried to do the built-in upgrade to 14.04 but it crashed and left the computer unusable.

I then got a USB drive with 14.04 and started the live desktop.  A first attempt to install with full features enabled also crashed.  A second attempt to install from the USB live desktop with minimal features worked perfectly.  I have been using it with that 14.04 LTS install for a year now.

Keep in mind that I have a 2014 model, not 2015 - there may be some differences (WiFi card? Other?). However, if the built-in upgrade doesn't work for you, you may have better luck (as I did) doing a clean install to either 15.04 or 15.10.

As always, please do a full backup before ANY operating system upgrade!

This forum s/w seems be mangling the link.

"www.displaylink.com/downloads/ubuntu.php"

"www.displaylink.com/downloads" - then click the Ubuntu symbol

Image link attached

Interesting possibility.  I first used the built-in Software Updater to go from Ubuntu 14.04 -> 15.04, then installed the new DisplayLink driver. Only the next week did I upgrade from 15.04 -> 15.10.

Everything is working flawlessly now.  :)

Good luck!

Alan

Here is a photo of the system running right now. Notice the CPU meter on the built-in display averages around 15% of total, but will spike when I run software or do a lot of activity on the display.

When using only one monitor plugged into the built-in Mini DisplayPort output (I use a miniDP-HDMI adaptor), the CPU does not increase with display activity.  When a 2nd monitor is added, using the USB connection to the Dell D3100 monitor usb adaptor/dock, the CPU is forced to do work previously performed by the video card. While this consumes 10-25% of the total cpu available (counting all 4 cores as 100%), you will not notice it affecting your daily activity unless you stare at the cpu graph.

The D3100 is able to support more than one monitor, but I have not explored this very deeply (I have briefly tried plugging 2 or 3 monitors into the D3100, with the miniDP port empty).  For my full 3-monitor setup at home I have a mid-level ZaReason computer with a regular video card (NVIDIA 750) that works well. It is also on Ubuntu 15.10, although that upgrade was not as smooth as the XPS 13 (the switch to systemd required a change in video card driver install procedure).

Hi I am currently trying to get my 9350 xps 13 tp work on a D3100 dock.  I am following these istruction from the forums, I have updated to 16.04 updated to the latest bios, downloaded the displaylink drivers, and this is what I get

XPS-13-9350:~/Downloads/DisplayLink USB Graphics Software for Ubuntu 1.1.68$ sudo ./displaylink-driver-1.1.62.run
[sudo] password for john:
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing DisplayLink Linux Driver 1.1.62  100%  
DisplayLink Linux Software 1.1.62 install script called: install
Distribution discovered: Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS
Installing
Configuring EVDI DKMS module
Registering EVDI kernel module with DKMS
Building EVDI kernel module with DKMS
ERROR (code 3): Failed to build evdi/1.1.62. Consult /var/lib/dkms/evdi/1.1.62/build/make.log for details..

Any advice how to sort this please,

John

Hi

I think the contents of make.log should give the clue as to what the problem is. 

DisplayLink have released a new 1.2 Ubuntu driver today and it would be worth trying this.

Wim