ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

[Simos Xenitellis <simos.lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, Oct 10, 2015 at 1:22 PM, Ionut Negru <blackjohnny@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I wonder if there is anyone that has tried to use the phone with external
> keyboard, mouse and display all together. Is mhl support working yet? What
> accessories did you use?
>
> I run ubuntu on mx4. Thanks!
>
>
There was a recent discussion about MHL support.
Meizu does not explicitly mention MHL support for the MX4 (not the MX4 Pro)
on Android.
Some people asked at http://forum.meizu.com/viewthread.php?tid=17450 with
no reply.
What is not conclusive, is whether the MX4 has the full hardware set of
parts to support MHL.
The SoC for the MX4 (MediaTek) supports MHL, however the phone needs an
extra chip that will work
with the SoC for MHL. It is not clear if it is there.
If you see
http://www.siliconimage.com/Company/News_and_Events/Press_Releases/2014_02_23_-_Silicon_Image_Announces_New_MHL%C2%AE_Smartphone_Reference_Designs_with_MediaTek/
it mentions (that's how I interpret it) that a device needs to also have
the SiI8348 MHL transmitter chip
to work with the SoC.
We either get the Meizu tech people to make a statement, or we find some
high resolution images
of the MX4 board and then try to identify whether the MHL support chip is
present on the board.

Regarding keyboard and mouse: there will be an update in the Bluetooth
software to BlueZ 5.0
(currently BlueZ 4.0) which will probably allow to use Bluetooth
peripherals.
Some Bluetooth devices might work already, however the update to BlueZ 5
will be substantial.

At the moment you can use an adapter for microUSB to standard USB (female),
which allows to connect all sort of USB devices. Many people use that and
it works well.
See for example,
http://www.amazon.com/Micro-USB-Male-Female-Adapter/dp/B0027YYMU6
It might make sense to get something like
http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-5in-Micro-Host-Adapter/dp/B00B4GGW5Q/
so that there would be less chances for an accident that would break the
MX4 USB port.

Simos