Is there a way I can use my old netbook as a second monitor?

Ask Fedora
1

I have an old netbook with a perfect screen resolution (I need a low pixel per square inch count for specific software and I failed to find such a monitor for sale nowadays). Can I use it as a second monitor with a USB cable?

This netbook has Debian installed (but broken, gonna take time to fix it to make it boot) and SystemRescue XFCE on live USB.

2

most likely not over USB or the display port. display ports allow video output.

USB is not used for video at all, apart from specific USB-C cables that support displayport.

if it allows video transfer, then over the nonfree DisplayLink protocol that often causes trouble.

so instead, either you need software to connect those 2 devices, or connect a display cable to the internal video board of the display (advanced).

Here is an implementation for the former, from Linux to Android

Find a good VNC solution that works on Wayland.

Moonlight is faster I think, and may be possible too

3

There is another way - and I use this regularly when I need a monitor in a hurry to check a machine. I bought a couple of USB capture devices for about €20 each. I got them to experiment with using a Raspberry Pi as a remote KVM, but keep one with me all the time now. If you have the netbook back up and running and have a desktop installed launch an app like cheese fullscreen. These devices appear as an extra camera and take a HDMI input.

Maybe this isn’t exactly what you hoped for, but it gives you a video input on the netbook via USB. The same device works for me on several chromebooks with the default camera app with similar results.

What model netbook is it?