I recently had to show a presentation at a client’s location and they were using a Benq smartboard. I tried to connect to the monitor with my laptop running uBlue:main but while the monitor would detect that something has been plugged into it and switch to the HDMI input, my laptop refused to detect that it was connected to anything. Fortunately, I had backed up the presentation on an external drive so we connected my colleague’s windows laptop and gave the presentation.

Now what I am curious about is why my laptop would not detect the smartboard as a video output. Do display outs have to be added to some kind whitelist? If I wanted to file a bug report for the same, where should the report be filed? In the kernel development, in the mesa project or somewhere else?

System specs :-

  • Ryzen 5 5600H + Radeon RX5500M

  • HDMI 2.1 port on the laptop

  • Fedora Silverblue - uBlue:main

  • Kernel version 6.11.10 (at the time)

  • Mesa version 24.2.x (don’t exactly know which version was running at the time i think it was 24.2.8)

  • Telorand@reddthat.com
    6·
    2 days ago

    I use Bazzite on a laptop, and it is permanently attached to a TV as its primary video output. You should not have to do anything with whitelisting; video out should just work as expected, besides maybe needing to manually select the audio output.

    My suspicion is that there’s some kind of extra data being pushed over the HDMI, since the Smart Board is more than just a monitor (mouse data, smart pens, etc.). The video driver is probably shitting itself after the “monitor” detection. I don’t know for certain, but that’s my guess.

    I would start by asking in the ublue Discord. There may be an easy fix, or they may direct you to the project where you should file a bug report.

    • SentauOP
      2·
      2 days ago

      My suspicion is that there’s some kind of extra data being pushed over the HDMI, since the Smart Board is more than just a monitor

      Yeah I have similar suspicions. Maybe some non standard HDMI protocols or extensions are at play. After all it is a patented, closed source protocol. Standard monitors and TVs (smart or otherwise) connect without any issue.

      I would start by asking in the ublue Discord. There may be an easy fix, or they may direct you to the project where you should file a bug report.

      Thanks for the advice. I will start with this.

  • Hector@lemmy.ca
    2·
    2 days ago

    I don’t know if this is relevant but my BenQ monitor will only turn on for Bazzite when I disconnect all other HDMI connectors and its the only screen left.