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Tracking this closely honestly. Once external screens work I will switch to Apple hardware. But I hear that USB/TB is a total nightmare to RE and implement.

Very happy I won't need to do the nixos stuff myself!




It will be fascinating to see if they can get the hardware to support multiple displays under Linux on devices given that Apple doesn't support it.


Apple does support multiple displays when the hardware supports it. The base M series processors only have two display controllers in their architecture so can only support two displays via hardware. They support more on the higher end SKUs with more display controllers.

This is also a difference from the A series which only have a single display controller, so can only drive a single display.

Anything higher than the hardware limit is done in software, like screen mirroring or any of the macOS workarounds to get more displays.


> any of the macOS workarounds to get more displays.

Are you referring to that Sidecar or similar software which lets you use an ipad as a second display, or are there different workarounds you're thinking of?


You can use DisplayLink to drive external displays.

https://www.macworld.com/article/675869/how-to-connect-two-o...

With some docks and adapters like https://www.sonnettech.com/product/m1-mac-dual-displayport-a...

They’re not completely successful from what I hear, but I know it works for some folks.

I have an M1 Max so I haven’t tried myself.


DisplayLink in my experience has horrible performance. Not a good experience and I think that's why Apple avoided it.


i think this is unlikely given that it's presumably actually "hardware-limited"

https://social.treehouse.systems/@marcan/109528880850349638


Woah that's a good thread, thanks for linking! Guess I should look into this Mastodon thing.

If there's anything hardware hackers are famous for, it's abusing hardware to get it to do unintended things. I think my favorite that isn't Linux running on a badger is the RTL SDR, so maybe there's a way to get a super shitty software muxer going, or maybe map two displays into one but drive it from software so even if there's a special dongle required, the hard work isn't being done by that dongle making it a $30 piece of kit instead of $150.


external display over HDMI works on mac mini & studio


And on macbooks.




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