[CALUG] Linux & universal docking stations

[Open Source Rocks]

I have had a few laptops and couple of them have docking stations. Almost a
decade ago, I had an HP laptop with a docking station - Mageia's
predecessor - Mandriva worked well on it, I do not remember doing anything
special, other than changing what the laptop does when the lid is closed. I
would suggest trying 2 OS - Deepin Linux and System76

*Note & Disclaimer:* If you are not aware of Deepin Linux, just read it as
Debian Linux. It is made by a Chinese company - so, many of you might have
reservations. I am behind 2 firewalls and all my outbound traffic is
monitored and I have setup alerts for unusual traffic and in the last 2
years, have not seen anything weird going out. All incoming traffic is
denied.

Lately, in the last 2 years, I have become a fan of Deepin Linux - for its
ease of use, lightness and compatibility. I have it on a Toshiba 4K laptop
(3 years old), HP laptop (7 years old) and a Lenovo laptop (5 years old).
None of them have a docking station, but they are all connected to external
monitors, keyboard and mouse - with the lid closed.

I have Deepin on couple of desktops too - Shuttle PC with Nvidia graphics
card (8 year old intel i7) and an Intel NUC (8i7BEH, Linux is installed on
M.2 ssd). Deepin Linux works well, but with Intel's NUC, the driver is not
the latest, as Intel has not released Linux drivers for this model yet.

I have heard from friends that System76 Linux OS is pretty good and now it
is called POP!_OS - couple of my friends bought the laptop, on which this
OS was pre-installed.

-GG


On Sat, Nov 9, 2019 at 10:03 AM cmccabe <cmccabe at sdf.org> wrote:

> Hi mlh,
>
> I have a Dell laptop and docking station at work, running Ubuntu.  I think
> people have gotten it working with Cent as well.  There have been some
> quirks though, like ethernet not passing through the docking station so I
> have the cable plugged directly into the laptop.  Supposedly it works with
> dual monitors, but I haven’t tried that myself.
>
> If you want to know more, ping me on Tuesday when I’m in the office and
> can check the model.
>
> Carl
>
> > On Nov 9, 2019, at 9:23 AM, mlh <mhartwx at verizon.net> wrote:
> >
> > I would really like to have one for my Mageia linux laptop but I see the
> usual driver problem.  Has anyone on the list been able to use a docking
> station with a Linux laptop?  If so, what distro & what brand of station?
> Targus says their stations work with Ubuntu Linux & displaylink has info
> about porting the Ubuntu drivers to other distros, but I don't have much
> experience or luck with porting drivers.
> >
> > When manufacturers say they support Linux should I assume they mean
> Ubuntu & that is the distro I need to be on to avoid driver porting & other
> hardware headaches?
> >
> > ML Hart
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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>
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