Hi @CBarty, I have now used the U3421WE for almost a year, so I am doing a follow-up post with my experience until now. Maybe it is of help.
The monitor itself is amazing, and I am very satisfied with it. This is the first time I use a curved monitor, so most of the upgrade lies in using a single curved monitor, instead of a dual 24'' setup.
More on my setup: I have my wireless mouse and keyboard connected to the monitor and two laptop, the work laptop (windows) is connected to the monitor via USB-C, while my Dell laptop running Fedora Linux with KDE is connected through HDMI + USB-A.
In my use-case, I rarely need to use both laptops at the same time, so switching between laptops is easy. Usually it is enough to put one to sleep and the other one shows up automatically. The mouse and keyboard follow whichever laptop is active at the moment. One issue I have experienced, is that the Linux laptop sometimes has trouble redetecting the mouse+keyboard combo when waking up again after its sleep. Removing and reinserting the USB-A cable helps most of the times. This doesn't seem to work if the Linux is at the login screen, so in those cases I am forced to enter the password from the laptop keyboard, and then everything works again once the login is performed. I don't think the monitor is to blame though, my guess is that this is a Linux or Fedora or KDE issue.
I have also used the Picture-by-Picture a handful of times. It is possible to do it via the menu, although it is not very user-friendly. The USB-C laptop is shown on the left side by default, while that laptop is on the right side of my desk, so I've ended up needing to move the screens around when I to set this up. My impression is that this setting is not remembered if you switch between different PbP settings. Using the KVM switch in PbP mode requires a handful of clicks on the menu button, but is also OK (although not as seamless as advertised in Dell Display Manager).
All in all the U3421WE is a great screen and its KVM-switch has made it easier for me to switch between my laptops without needing plug and unplug cables, thus also bringing some more order on my desk. The Dell Display Manager would have been an upgrade, and probably would have enabled me to use PbP more often, but my particular use case works well enough as it is.
Let me know if you find some way to install Dell Display Manager on you Linux.
I have now taken a deep dive into the U3421WE User's Guide, especially the OSD (On Screen Display) menu.
All in all, I got the impression that setting up the USB mouse and keyboard switching should be quite straightforward from the OSD menu, which is very positive! I guess that answers the KVM switch part of my original question.
There are also a few PbP/PiP settings available from the OSD menu (the three side-by-side PbP options look the most useful to me; then there's eight PiP settings which I am not sure how they would actually work). It is unclear though if the menu tinkering needed to activate/configure these settings would make them user friendly enough for them to be useful in realtime. So the second part of my question still stands: is there any way to configure/switch between different PbP/PiP modes via software from Linux?
I'm in the same boat ... I have mixed systems - Ubuntu and Win10 ... I haven't done any detective work yet other than finding this post but it would be nice if the Dell Display Manager ran in the Dell-installed Ubuntu.
jonosphere
3 Posts
0
February 11th, 2023 04:00
Hi @CBarty, I have now used the U3421WE for almost a year, so I am doing a follow-up post with my experience until now. Maybe it is of help.
The monitor itself is amazing, and I am very satisfied with it. This is the first time I use a curved monitor, so most of the upgrade lies in using a single curved monitor, instead of a dual 24'' setup.
More on my setup: I have my wireless mouse and keyboard connected to the monitor and two laptop, the work laptop (windows) is connected to the monitor via USB-C, while my Dell laptop running Fedora Linux with KDE is connected through HDMI + USB-A.
In my use-case, I rarely need to use both laptops at the same time, so switching between laptops is easy. Usually it is enough to put one to sleep and the other one shows up automatically. The mouse and keyboard follow whichever laptop is active at the moment. One issue I have experienced, is that the Linux laptop sometimes has trouble redetecting the mouse+keyboard combo when waking up again after its sleep. Removing and reinserting the USB-A cable helps most of the times. This doesn't seem to work if the Linux is at the login screen, so in those cases I am forced to enter the password from the laptop keyboard, and then everything works again once the login is performed. I don't think the monitor is to blame though, my guess is that this is a Linux or Fedora or KDE issue.
I have also used the Picture-by-Picture a handful of times. It is possible to do it via the menu, although it is not very user-friendly. The USB-C laptop is shown on the left side by default, while that laptop is on the right side of my desk, so I've ended up needing to move the screens around when I to set this up. My impression is that this setting is not remembered if you switch between different PbP settings. Using the KVM switch in PbP mode requires a handful of clicks on the menu button, but is also OK (although not as seamless as advertised in Dell Display Manager).
All in all the U3421WE is a great screen and its KVM-switch has made it easier for me to switch between my laptops without needing plug and unplug cables, thus also bringing some more order on my desk. The Dell Display Manager would have been an upgrade, and probably would have enabled me to use PbP more often, but my particular use case works well enough as it is.
Let me know if you find some way to install Dell Display Manager on you Linux.
DELL-Chris M
Community Manager
•
56.9K Posts
0
December 20th, 2023 14:25
No. DDM will not receive Linux support.
What is Dell Display Manager
jonosphere
3 Posts
1
March 29th, 2022 00:00
I have now taken a deep dive into the U3421WE User's Guide, especially the OSD (On Screen Display) menu.
All in all, I got the impression that setting up the USB mouse and keyboard switching should be quite straightforward from the OSD menu, which is very positive! I guess that answers the KVM switch part of my original question.
There are also a few PbP/PiP settings available from the OSD menu (the three side-by-side PbP options look the most useful to me; then there's eight PiP settings which I am not sure how they would actually work). It is unclear though if the menu tinkering needed to activate/configure these settings would make them user friendly enough for them to be useful in realtime. So the second part of my question still stands: is there any way to configure/switch between different PbP/PiP modes via software from Linux?
Cheers!
Joni
CBarty
1 Message
1
February 9th, 2023 07:00
I'm in the same boat ... I have mixed systems - Ubuntu and Win10 ... I haven't done any detective work yet other than finding this post but it would be nice if the Dell Display Manager ran in the Dell-installed Ubuntu.
Thanks for the info @jonosphere
jonhp-charter
1 Rookie
•
1 Message
2
December 20th, 2023 13:38
Hello Dell.
When will Dell provide DDM on Linux?
Jon