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iHorseHead

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 1, 2021
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Maybe, but I don't think a better dock is going to overcome the "one external screen" limitation is it? I also have the CalDigit TB3 Plus and it works very well with my M1 Mini. I don't think it would allow the OP's MBA to connect to more than one external display though...unless the Thunderbolt connection can be daisy-chained somehow.
Two external displays are working now + all of the USB devices. So yeah… You're wrong.
 

TiggrToo

macrumors 601
Aug 24, 2017
4,205
8,838
It's like you guys didn't even bother reading my post before shouting more about "OUT OF SPEC".

It's not. The spec merely informs users how many monitors the M1 MBA can drive by itself. Since the M1 SoC supports two video outs, and one is used up by the internal display, you can drive one external monitor.

BUT (and this is a very important but, so please stop ignoring it) the M1 SoC also provides general-purpose USB4/TB ports which can communicate with an extremely wide variety of external peripherals. By Apple's intent and design, this includes third party peripherals which Apple did not design or write drivers for.

DisplayLink chips are simply USB connected peripherals which provide additional video outputs. Apple's driver APIs provide all the necessary interfaces to permit a DisplayLink driver to exist, so there's nothing fundamentally weird or unsupported going on here.

So please just stop. The M1 MBA spec merely documents the limits of the MBA's built-in video output hardware. Somehow you've reinterpreted it as moral law so you can shout at users who connect external video-out peripherals as if they're revolting, disgusting perverts for daring to violate the ONE EXTERNAL DISPLAY COMMANDMENT. It's silly, that's not what the hardware spec means, you aren't actually making a good point.

And to cut off the other angle: Sure, the OP asked their question in a needlessly abrasive way, but treating their problem as if it's entirely their fault isn't helping anyone.

Some similar things apply to another thread topic, USB hubs. Any hub which complies to the relevant usb.org specifications should function on a Mac with no drivers. If it doesn't, it's either a defective unit or Apple's fault. It's fair to bring up that cheap offbrand hubs frequently fail at specifications compliance, but people really should not be so eager to proclaim that the problem can only be the hub. Apple isn't perfect, sometimes they fail to live up to their side of the interface "contract" defined by usb.org specs.
It's hilarious how you admit Apple allow for just 1 external monitor then start trying to convince us that this is then merely a suggestion.

DisplayLink requires other specialized hardware to work. The app compresses the video signal and then sends it down the USB to a hardware device to uncompress.

Here you are trying (failing) to convince us the somehow this is something Apple fully support, even though this requires third party drivers and hardware, is quite laughable.

DisplayLink is not native to MacOS. Heck it can't even handle HDCP and fast moving 4K signals put a huge load on the Mac.

Apple allowing for something is different from Apple supporting something.

If Apple published a spec for such technology, and a series of system calls that can be utilized, then that's different.

DisplayLink puts load on the CPU to compress the video signal, and relies then on the external hardware to decompress.

Key being: External hardware.

That external hardware is not something Apple Support. Nor should they.

Apple Support printers, doesn't mean that a vendor who creates their own fancy method of printing that requires a specialized driver and hardware is supported.

Do you work for Synaptics? Is that why you evangelize so much for them?
 
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iHorseHead

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 1, 2021
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Sorry, I'm coming late to the party, but I am curious if you had the dock installed when you did the actual Monterey upgrade. I've held off the upgrade as I'm in no rush and I don't really want to deal with early issues these days, but would be interested to hear what the lead-up to your bad day was, prior to my eventual attempt!
Yes, it was installed on Big Sur and it always worked. When I upgraded to macOS 12 the USBs stopped working and the USB devices on none of the USB Hubs were working, but the external display was. I was hoping 12.1 would fix the issue but even after the update it didn't work.
Now everything works again, including USB ports and displays. A user on here told me to shut my MBA down for a longer period, which I did and it after turning it on it started working again. Everything works as of now. I restarted my MacBook and everything still works just fine.

Thank you so much!:)
 

Martyimac

macrumors 68020
Aug 19, 2009
2,445
1,678
S. AZ.
When i first got my M1 air, I had similar issues but to the point my air would shut down with an error message. Upon restart things would work okay for a while then all of a sudden another shutdown with error message. Was kind of like you @iHorseHead and was thinking, "It no longer just works". But after a couple of updates, etc etc all is working extremely well now so that tells me it was something in the air/OS matrix that apple fixed. Now I even run all the betas on the M1 MBAir and all works well for me now.
 
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Ethosik

Contributor
Oct 21, 2009
7,816
6,722
Why is a data bit something USB is designed for if it is part of an Ethernet packet, but not something USB is designed for if it is part of a video stream? There's nothing magical about video; to engineers (which I am one of btw), bits are bits.

Video streams do tend to require a very high data rate, and USB can be a significant bottleneck, but that's why video compression was invented. DisplayLink uses some form of it to make their technology work.

Performance is bad, but also fit for purpose. Lots of people just need another monitor where their email client or a PDF doc always lives - reference material they're glancing at while doing their main work on another display. When the image is mostly static, it hardly matters whether performance is bad. And "bad" is relative; DisplayLink is good enough for office productivity apps like word processors. That's the niche market which DisplayLink lives off of, and given that they survived as an independent company for over 15 years before being acquired by Synaptics, it's a healthy niche.

Apple's own engineers have designed something quite similar. If you buy an Apple Lightning video output adapter for use with your iPhone, what's actually going on under the hood is that the iPhone compresses a video output stream using a lossy codec (H.264, probably), transmits it across USB 2.0 to the adapter (the actual signal on the Lightning wire is usually USB 2), and inside the adapter there's an Apple-designed SoC which decompresses the video stream and uses it to drive either VGA or HDMI, depending on which model of adapter you bought. If all that sounds familiar, it's because it is very similar to DisplayLink. The only substantial difference is that IIRC DisplayLink's tech was at least traditionally based on a compression scheme similar to VNC rather than a lossy codec such as MPEG or H.264. (Now that so many systems include a hardware H.264 encoder somewhere, I wouldn't be surprised if recent DisplayLink SoCs support it, at least as an option.)
Okay then let me ask you this. Why can my 2560x1440 monitor at 144hz work at full 100% where as its limited to 60hz with DisplayLink? Or my 4k monitor at 144hz too. DisplayLink is not designed for high resolution/high throughput as displays are meant to be directly tied to the GPU for these type of results.

My iPhone/iPad is limited in the video output it generates. I cannot output 2560x1440 resolution from my iPad, it replicates the internal screen real-estate.
 
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usagora

macrumors 601
Nov 17, 2017
4,869
4,451
So please just stop. The M1 MBA spec merely documents the limits of the MBA's built-in video output hardware. Somehow you've reinterpreted it as moral law so you can shout at users who connect external video-out peripherals as if they're revolting, disgusting perverts for daring to violate the ONE EXTERNAL DISPLAY COMMANDMENT. It's silly, that's not what the hardware spec means, you aren't actually making a good point.

Yikes . . . straw man much? The point I and others are making is not that it's not possible to use more than one external display with the M1 MBA, nor are we saying someone is a "disgusting pervert" for attempting to do so (seriously?). What we're saying is that once you move beyond native display support to a third party solution, you can't blame Apple for any problems encountered. The responsibility is 100% on the third party device manufactuer to ensure their product is 100% compatible with any given OS release. That's the whole point of developer BETAs is it not?
 

millerj123

macrumors 68030
Mar 6, 2008
2,580
2,580
Excuse me sir, how difficult it is to understand that the issue still persisted with one display? How difficult? Tell me how difficult?
Do I have to write this in bold? Let me try:

NONE OF THE USB DEVICES WERE WORKING EVEN WHEN THERE WAS ONLY ONE DISPLAY OR NO DISPLAYS CONNECTED. I CONNECTED IT TO WINDOWS PC AND IT IMMEDIATELY WORKED. ON A MAC EVEN MY LAVA LAMP DIDN'T WORK NOR MY HEADPHONES CHARGED.

THE ISSUE IS RESOLVED NOW. I DON'T KNOW WHY IT WORKS, BUT IT DOES NOW AND I BELIEVE ONE USER'S THEORY THAT M1 MACS RESET PRAM AUTOMATICALLY WHEN THEY'VE BEEN SHUT DOWN FOR AWHILE.


This thread has turned people mad. My dear lord, I just wanted some help and I posted this question before but only got one response, which was "This is a well known issue with macOS 12" and I had unbelievably awful day yesterday and I've been dealing with so much stress lately and I'm honestly exhausted. Of course I wanted my docking station to work again on macOS, because it did before. I tried USB Hubs and those didn't work either. Displays work fine and yes, even one display works fine but no USB devices were working at all, but they worked on Windows PC. I went to purchase cheap USB Hubs to test it out and saw that GreenCell USB Hubs are pretty cheap, so I could just test this out.
Display worked, USB devices didn't and I was so excited for macOS 12.1 thinking it'll fix my issue, but it didn't.

I read this: macOS Monterey Users Report Connectivity Issues With USB Hubs , soo…Right? Makes sense? I started facing issues after upgrading, so I thought it was the OS.

Now everything works normally and I don't know why it works.

My dear lord… This thread has turned into a complete war zone.
No. You personally started and perpetuated a war zone.
 

Fomalhaut

macrumors 68000
Oct 6, 2020
1,892
1,589
Thanks.
But now it works. Should I restart my Mac and see if it still works? Maybe it's fixed?
Try thinking like an engineer/scientist - stuff doesn't "just fix itself" - there is a reason for everything. You have to analyze observations and behavior and try to find an explanation for what you see.

Software can be complicated, and intermittent problems can be some of the hardest to debug. You might just need to accept the limitations and run a single display (which is all that Apple specifies), and if you need more ports, use a port-extender/dock/hub that is known to work.

I think you need to re-calibrate your expectations.

FWIW, I have a Caldigit TB3 Plus dock and it works very well with my M1 Mini - zero issues. Buy once, cry once, and avoid the cheap stuff that will only give you ulcers.

But have you SHUT DOWN the mac? Fully. No restart, no sleep mode. Full shut down, wait a minute, then power back up. USB issues can be like that. But new Apple releases are like that also. I make it a point to not even consider a macOS release until .3 or later. They release at beta-quality level and then inch toward complete functionality by .5 or .6 of any OS release in the past decade. Depending on what you do or don't do, .1 through .4 may work just fine for you. If you do advanced network or rending things.... wait!
But before you try to downgrade, try a full power off. Let those usb chipsets truly reset.
In my experience with recent MacOS releases - it's generally fairly solid by x.3 or x.4. If I can, I avoid upgrading until that point, or about 4-6 months, whichever is later.

There is a reason that businesses often lag OS releases by up to 2-3 years - they don't have the time to act as beta testers for Microsoft/Apple/Ubuntu etc. Most users should wait until there is a stable release that is known to work with their hardware. If you want to be a pioneer, expect to get a few arrows in your back or get scalped now and again....

My mini supports two and my new 16” supports three (four with hdmi)
The OP has an M1 MBA - it supports a single external display. Whatever you have is irrelevant to their situation...so why bring it up?

Wait is the hub green cell or dell?
Both - He has a Dell D6000 dock (I have one too that works well with Big Sur) and Green Cell hubs.
 

iHorseHead

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 1, 2021
1,307
1,575
Both - He has a Dell D6000 dock (I have one too that works well with Big Sur) and Green Cell hubs.
Can you upgrade to Big Sur and let me know if you start facing issues as well? You don't have to take a risk though, but it always worked perfectly with Big Sur.
 

Ethosik

Contributor
Oct 21, 2009
7,816
6,722
The OP has an M1 MBA - it supports a single external display. Whatever you have is irrelevant to their situation...so why bring it up?
Okay now you are the second person to really irritate me on this. I was responding to someone saying I was using MONITORS....PLURAL. So I cannot respond to anyone that is NOT directly tied to the original post? Okay, then lets prune this topic as there are a lot of other posts that are irrelevant. Geez people. Look at the conversation at hand. And what/who I responded to. I got questioned why I said plural monitors, so I explained. I really don't see the need to constantly call this "irrelevant".

And it is indeed relevant because I do NOT use 3+ monitors on my Mini (SAME EXACT SPEC that the AIR has just one less display) and I do not use 5+ monitors on my 16" MBP. SAME ARGUMENT!!!!! SO yes it is INDEED relevant.

Air supports 1 monitor OFFICIALLY, OP is using more than one.
Mac mini supports 2 monitors OFFICIALLY, I said I don't use more than that.

The argument is doing things that are unsupported.


SAME......THING......

Let me spell things out to you people that are just getting on my case about this being irrelevent.

I have a M1 Air and a Windows laptop that supports one external display. I do NOT use all three of my displays since that is out of spec.

I do NOT use more than 2 monitors on my mini as that is out of spec

I use all three of my monitors with my PC and 16" Macbook Pro M1 Max because my GPU in my PC and the new MBP SUPPORT THAT MANY DISPLAYS!!!! Therefore, the ENTIRE CONVERSATION is relevant.
 
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jimimac71

macrumors 6502a
Sep 21, 2019
501
205
California
I did not read all 11 pages here, but my brand new 2007 iMac had an issue with the brand new Leopard install. I did not buy Apple Care and my 90 free phone support was going to be short. I was told I’d need to wait for a fix in 10.5.1.
At the time, I only had dialup, which I knew would need to change.
My iMac came with Tiger and an upgrade DVD for Leopard.
I broke my OS, as a new user, in a matter of days.
The grey install DVDs for Tiger were no good. Apple gave me restore DVDs for the mini.
I gobbled up my free 90 days of support getting new DVDs from Apple, sent in the mail. They also had to send me an iLife DVD.
I have limited issues with Windows 10, except my PC cannot upgrade to Windows 11. Other than that, it works okay.
My TL,DR story here says, in a nutshell, Apple is capable of mistakes too.
After all this time, Apple fans still slam Microsoft.
All I know to say is, who has the biggest market share?
I enjoy my new iPad but it is not as friendly for my needs as Android.
Standing on my head hurts my shoulders.
My Apple TV was a $200 mistake.
I will return to Android and Roku.
 

mr_roboto

macrumors 6502a
Sep 30, 2020
770
1,648
Okay then let me ask you this. Why can my 2560x1440 monitor at 144hz work at full 100% where as its limited to 60hz with DisplayLink? Or my 4k monitor at 144hz too. DisplayLink is not designed for high resolution/high throughput as displays are meant to be directly tied to the GPU for these type of results.
Let me ask you this: Why do you think this is a gotcha question for me? When have I said that DisplayLink is a perfect no-compromises substitute for a native connection to a GPU? Or good for 144 Hz work? Of course it's not - it's essentially VNC over a really good network connection, and everyone who's used VNC (you have if you've ever used Apple's Screen Sharing feature) knows it isn't as good as a direct connection between GPU and display.

That was never my point. My point was that it's not smart to scream endlessly about someone violating Apple's specs because they dared to connect a second external display to a M1 Air through a DisplayLink based product. No, they didn't violate any specs. No, that technology isn't fundamentally bad, it's very useful to many. My goal was to get the people obsessing about that to stop and focus on the OP's actual problems instead. Obviously, I've failed...
 

Ethosik

Contributor
Oct 21, 2009
7,816
6,722
Let me ask you this: Why do you think this is a gotcha question for me? When have I said that DisplayLink is a perfect no-compromises substitute for a native connection to a GPU? Or good for 144 Hz work? Of course it's not - it's essentially VNC over a really good network connection, and everyone who's used VNC (you have if you've ever used Apple's Screen Sharing feature) knows it isn't as good as a direct connection between GPU and display.

That was never my point. My point was that it's not smart to scream endlessly about someone violating Apple's specs because they dared to connect a second external display to a M1 Air through a DisplayLink based product. No, they didn't violate any specs. No, that technology isn't fundamentally bad, it's very useful to many. My goal was to get the people obsessing about that to stop and focus on the OP's actual problems instead. Obviously, I've failed...
No my argument was the OP came in here guns blazing blaming Apple when it clearly states only one external monitor is supported. Instead of targeting their issues towards the makers of DisplayLink. That the user did not understand that Apple only supports one display OFFICIALLY and going outside those specs and official supported means definitely leads to these issues. I would not be surprised if it fails to work tomorrow since it is NOT supported.

Feel free to use these unsupported means, but don't be surprised when issues occurs. This is like blaming Apple for issues with your Hackintosh or Monterey issues on your old unsupported mac. Feel free to do those things, but don't blame Apple as it is not supported. You are on your own.
 
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jimimac71

macrumors 6502a
Sep 21, 2019
501
205
California
Why do people feel the need to “make a point” by going completely off-topic and arguing that apple makes mistakes. We know this. We lived through years of the butterfly keyboard. So what?

Water is wet. Do we need to start an 11 page thread pointing out the obvious?
I have been using Windows for years, not living through the years of the butterfly keyboard. Got my Dell PC in early 2015, a very useful All In One.
My iMac still works, but not well. I would pitch it to the curb, but just as soon as I do, I’ll find a use for it. It has audio I/O, which Apple has since abandoned.
It’s okay to bash MS, but I guess there’s no Apple bashing on a Mac site.
I suppose the truth makes fans uncomfortable.
I’ll bet there are “I’ve never owned an Apple device” people who come here to learn.
 

mr_roboto

macrumors 6502a
Sep 30, 2020
770
1,648
No my argument was the OP came in here guns blazing blaming Apple when it clearly states only one external monitor is supported. Instead of targeting their issues towards the makers of DisplayLink. That the user did not understand that Apple only supports one display OFFICIALLY and going outside those specs and official supported means definitely leads to these issues. I would not be surprised if it fails to work tomorrow since it is NOT supported.

Feel free to use these unsupported means, but don't be surprised when issues occurs. This is like blaming Apple for issues with your Hackintosh or Monterey issues on your old unsupported mac. Feel free to do those things, but don't blame Apple as it is not supported. You are on your own.
You guys obsessing about your right to yell at the OP for doing something "unsupported" seem to have lost sight of the fact that Apple is selling you a general purpose personal computer which Apple designed to permit and even encourage the use of third party hardware and software. No, that third party tech isn't something Apple is directly on the hook for, but I suspect if DisplayLink employees file a Radar bug, someone at Apple pays attention.

The question is, does DisplayLink try to extend the system in a crazy way which Apple didn't intend? The answer, so far as I can tell, is no. I downloaded and installed the latest beta DisplayLink driver just so I could check out what it is, and it turns out it's clearly software which has adopted Apple's modern best practices for drivers. It's all signed properly, installs no KEXTs, and doesn't require you to disable SIP. In fact, it installed nothing beyond a single 15.1 MB app bundle.

The only remotely unusual thing you must do is give that app permission to record your screen in the Security and Privacy pane of System Preferences. But that's not scary or crazy, it's because they use one Apple API to create a virtual display, then another Apple API to record that virtual display so they can copy the virtual display's frame buffer across USB to the DisplayLink chip's frame buffer. Apple correctly regards screen recording as something which requires explicit user permission, but it is supported. (There's that tricky word again. It has different meanings in different contexts, guys.)

This is such standard and vanilla stuff that apparently DisplayLink plans to distribute future versions of their driver through the Mac App Store. That seems like a sane plan to me - they should be able to do everything even if the app's completely sandboxed. So please stop pretending that this is anything even in the same galaxy as Hackintosh.
 

Ethosik

Contributor
Oct 21, 2009
7,816
6,722
You guys obsessing about your right to yell at the OP for doing something "unsupported" seem to have lost sight of the fact that Apple is selling you a general purpose personal computer which Apple designed to permit and even encourage the use of third party hardware and software. No, that third party tech isn't something Apple is directly on the hook for, but I suspect if DisplayLink employees file a Radar bug, someone at Apple pays attention.

The question is, does DisplayLink try to extend the system in a crazy way which Apple didn't intend? The answer, so far as I can tell, is no. I downloaded and installed the latest beta DisplayLink driver just so I could check out what it is, and it turns out it's clearly software which has adopted Apple's modern best practices for drivers. It's all signed properly, installs no KEXTs, and doesn't require you to disable SIP. In fact, it installed nothing beyond a single 15.1 MB app bundle.

The only remotely unusual thing you must do is give that app permission to record your screen in the Security and Privacy pane of System Preferences. But that's not scary or crazy, it's because they use one Apple API to create a virtual display, then another Apple API to record that virtual display so they can copy the virtual display's frame buffer across USB to the DisplayLink chip's frame buffer. Apple correctly regards screen recording as something which requires explicit user permission, but it is supported. (There's that tricky word again. It has different meanings in different contexts, guys.)

This is such standard and vanilla stuff that apparently DisplayLink plans to distribute future versions of their driver through the Mac App Store. That seems like a sane plan to me - they should be able to do everything even if the app's completely sandboxed. So please stop pretending that this is anything even in the same galaxy as Hackintosh.
For the millionth time....it is not Apple's fault that this happened. Apple provides the API and development tools, but in no way officially supports the millions of codebases out there. Just like it is not Microsoft's fault if I have a problem with my NVIDIA drivers....it is NVIDIA that I need to contact. And yes, I have even had to run previous GPU drivers on Windows due to some MAJOR issues, but I did not go yelling at Microsoft about it as it is not Microsoft's code or fault!

I don't know how I can make this more clear that Apple is not at fault here. It is a third party developer that requires its own software/driver to work. Its not a standard dock that requires no software. I did not need to install any OWC software for the new dock I bought, because that is operating with the standard drivers offered by Apple. But even if that dock had problems, I would not blame Apple I would contact OWC the manufacture of the dock.
 

nastysailboat

Cancelled
May 7, 2021
306
259
I believe they have both a Dell and a Green Cell hub. But that’s why people are getting frustrated because OP wasn’t clear in the beginning. And now multiple people have asked OP to just list all the hardware that’s not working and what methods they tried to see if we can help - but they haven’t done this.


*a normal MacBook Air user. It’s not that uncommon to see 3 screens for a working professional or gamer though.


Many of us have first-hand experience. I can assure you any complaints coming from me came from years of using windows.
This thread has become far to cluttered
 

mr_roboto

macrumors 6502a
Sep 30, 2020
770
1,648
For the millionth time....it is not Apple's fault that this happened.
For the millionth time... I am not saying it is or is not Apple's fault. (Though I am, as a side point, trying to get people like you to understand that it could be Apple's fault, actually - you aren't paying much attention if you think Apple always provides smooth landings to third party developers affected by Apple's API changes, or if you believe Apple ships major OS releases with zero bugs.)

I am mostly just saying that it's really dumb to scream at the top of your lungs trying your damndest to defend mothership Apple against horrible people who dare to install and use hardware and software which extends the base capabilities of a Macintosh. That's what a Mac is supposed to allow you to do! You've tried to equate using DisplayLink with Hackintosh, which is absurd.
 

bgillander

macrumors 6502a
Jul 14, 2007
789
756
Yes, it was installed on Big Sur and it always worked. When I upgraded to macOS 12 the USBs stopped working and the USB devices on none of the USB Hubs were working, but the external display was. I was hoping 12.1 would fix the issue but even after the update it didn't work.
Now everything works again, including USB ports and displays. A user on here told me to shut my MBA down for a longer period, which I did and it after turning it on it started working again. Everything works as of now. I restarted my MacBook and everything still works just fine.

Thank you so much!:)
I meant was the dock actually attached during the Monterey install, or did you unplug it, do the upgrade, and then plug it in again after the Mac was restarted with the new OS up and running correctly? I have found I usually have better luck if with the second method, versus trying to do the upgrade with docks (or anything external) attached. If I recall correctly, there was an upgrade a few years back that would delete external drives if they were attached at the time, so it is usually safest to upgrade just the computer, then attach any externals and upgrade any required drivers after everything on the computer itself is already working. Just a suggestion to try for next time if you didn’t already do it that way this time.

As I said, I’ve held off on this upgrade so far as I’m not in a hurry and I’d rather wait for a couple of updates before trying it, but I’m just trying to find out any steps that have caused issues for anyone else.
 

TiggrToo

macrumors 601
Aug 24, 2017
4,205
8,838
You guys obsessing about your right to yell at the OP for doing something "unsupported" seem to have lost sight of the fact that Apple is selling you a general purpose personal computer which Apple designed to permit and even encourage the use of third party hardware and software. No, that third party tech isn't something Apple is directly on the hook for, but I suspect if DisplayLink employees file a Radar bug, someone at Apple pays attention.

The question is, does DisplayLink try to extend the system in a crazy way which Apple didn't intend? The answer, so far as I can tell, is no. I downloaded and installed the latest beta DisplayLink driver just so I could check out what it is, and it turns out it's clearly software which has adopted Apple's modern best practices for drivers. It's all signed properly, installs no KEXTs, and doesn't require you to disable SIP. In fact, it installed nothing beyond a single 15.1 MB app bundle.

The only remotely unusual thing you must do is give that app permission to record your screen in the Security and Privacy pane of System Preferences. But that's not scary or crazy, it's because they use one Apple API to create a virtual display, then another Apple API to record that virtual display so they can copy the virtual display's frame buffer across USB to the DisplayLink chip's frame buffer. Apple correctly regards screen recording as something which requires explicit user permission, but it is supported. (There's that tricky word again. It has different meanings in different contexts, guys.)

This is such standard and vanilla stuff that apparently DisplayLink plans to distribute future versions of their driver through the Mac App Store. That seems like a sane plan to me - they should be able to do everything even if the app's completely sandboxed. So please stop pretending that this is anything even in the same galaxy as Hackintosh.
If I write an app that calls official system calls and brings the entire system to a crashing standstill - is that something Apple should support, or is it my fault?

What if I wrote it with the best intentions but I still screw up and bring the system to a screeching halt? Should Apple take the blame or should I?
 
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