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dazey

macrumors 6502
Dec 9, 2005
328
56
In short, yes, this (should!) just work. I have a 2012 that over the years has run headless, with dvi extenders and at the moment has only a remote Displaylink monitor. Ran a 20” cinema and it now runs a 4k screen (30hz). There is a performance hit but it works fine. I run Mojave, Displaylink is choosy about OS and drivers (and with every new OS apple breaks it)
you might also look on the Displaylink forums, used to be an active Mac section there.
mine does auto login, perhaps try that and see if that’s the trick.
 
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dazey

macrumors 6502
Dec 9, 2005
328
56
One of the problems with the dummy plugs is that having a second display can be annoying or useful depending on the quirks of the Displaylink driver in use.

many moons ago, some apps would not display on Displaylink due to hardware acceleration. The work around was a dummy plug and mirroring the two screens.

later displaylink supported acceleration without needing a fake screen and actually had a serious problem with mirror mode. Without mirroring you can of course end up with your mouse on the dummy screen, which is annoying.
not completely sure of the current driver situation for your OS.

i have used them over the years (hdmi and vga versions) but I am 99% sure my machine doesnt have one at the moment.
 
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