Why open source rocks – a new SM750 (Silicon Motion GPU) HDMI Driver
A developer has released an open-source Linux display driver for the Silicon Motion SM750 GPU, specifically for the SE-DP750A-HDMI PCIe card. The article provides instructions for building the driver via DKMS and notes compatibility requirements for modern Linux kernels.
Why it matters
It demonstrates the importance of community-driven open-source development in maintaining support for niche or legacy hardware on modern operating systems.
Push this card to real 2048-wide output or a software-scaled 2560x1080 ultrawide desktop, with bandwidth-saving colour conversion and update optimisations for smoother performance.
Linux display driver for the single-HDMI SE-DP750A-HDMI PCIe card.
Experimental: this driver is for one specific SM750 board. Optional modes can exceed published GPU or monitor clock limits and may produce no signal, distortion, or an unstable display. Keep SSH or another recovery route available when trying non-EDID modes.
The tested board is sold or marked as SE-DP750A-HDMI and has all of these:
The PCI ID alone is not enough. Other SM750 cards may use VGA, a different transmitter, or different GPIO wiring and are not currently supported.
Ubuntu 24.04 and Linux Mint 22 users can build a DKMS package locally:
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