Multi-Monitor setup in Fedora Asahi Remix 40
As an owner of the base Mac mini M2, I was eager to run Linux on it. Virtual machines weren’t an ideal solution due to the limited RAM and storage on my device. Thankfully, there’s a Linux distribution designed specifically for Apple Silicon: Fedora Asahi Remix.
The installation process was surprisingly straightforward, and one of the best features was the ability to set up Fedora alongside macOS. This dual-boot configuration meant that if anything went wrong, I could easily remove the Fedora partition and revert to macOS without losing any data or needing to reinstall the operating system.
Once the installation was complete, I was greeted by the KDE Desktop environment. To my surprise, everything ran incredibly smoothly—far better than I had expected. The performance was almost buttery, with no noticeable lag or issues. A big shoutout to the talented team at Asahi for making this seamless experience possible on Apple Silicon.
After finishing the setup, I quickly realized that Fedora Asahi Remix didn't support monitors over USB-C. The Mac mini M2 only offers one HDMI output, I was limited to using just one display. While this wasn’t a dealbreaker for me, having a secondary, inactive monitor sitting next to my primary screen was a bit frustrating
Since Apple doesn't natively support running multiple monitors from a single USB-C or Thunderbolt cable, I had previously purchased a DisplayLink adapter to expand my display setup. With this adapter, you can connect a monitor via USB 3.0, but it does require installing the DisplayLink driver on the system. While there are some limitations in terms of refresh rate and resolution, it worked fine for my secondary display, which is just a 1080p monitor running at 75Hz.
Next, I set out to find the DisplayLink driver for Fedora Asahi Remix, hoping it would allow me to use my secondary monitor. To be honest, I wasn't very optimistic—it seemed unlikely that everything would work, given potential issues with page size and other system limitations. Still, I was determined to give it a try.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a driver for Fedora on the official DisplayLink download page. However, they do support Ubuntu, which gave me some hope that an RPM package might be available elsewhere—either on their site or, more likely, on GitHub
As it turns out, I was right. I found the DisplayLink RPM repository, but unfortunately, they didn’t provide an ARM version for Apple Silicon. This meant I would need to compile the driver myself—one of the perks of running Linux!
After cloning the above repository and installing the following dependencies:
rpm-buildmakegcc-g++libdrm-devel
I ran make rpm-github, anxiously waiting for a success message. Fortunately, the driver compiled without issue. I then installed it using:
dnf localinstall aarch64/<compiled-driver>.rpm
However, for some reason, the systemd unit wasn’t starting as expected. After a quick reboot, everything came up correctly. By this point, my secondary display was already connected to the Mac mini via the DisplayLink adapter—and to my delight, the monitor finally came online! Thus, I was able to configure and run two monitors with Asahi Linux.
I couldn’t find a guide for this specific setup, so I decided to write this blog post to share the process with others who might want to run multiple monitors but are limited by lack of Asahi USB-C display support.