How to use a laptop as a second monitor to connect to kubuntu?

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1

Ubuntu Version:
kubuntu 24.04 LTS

Desktop Environment (if applicable):
KDE plasma

Problem Description:
I want to use my linux mint laptop as a second monitor. the laptop i’d connect it to would be my kubuntu laptop. Ive read online to use a hdmi cable to connect the two but I’m not sure if linux mint is compatible with Kubuntu 24.04 LTS.

The second laptop(the one i want to use as a second monitor) is older and I am willing to put a lightweight ubuntu-based distro on it to make it work well with KUbuntu if i have to (and any reccomendations are welcome)

the kubuntu lapotp specs:
operating System: Kubuntu 24.04
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.12
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.115.0
Qt Version: 5.15.13
Kernel Version: 6.14.0-33-generic (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 20 × 13th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-13650HX
Memory: 15.3 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: Mesa Intel® Graphics
Manufacturer: Acer
Product Name: Predator PHN16-71
System Version: V1.18

2

One general idea to explore:

First, you’ll need a piece of hardware to connect the two laptops, this hardware must look like a HDMI receiver to your Kubuntu 24.04 LTS system and look like a USB camera to the “second monitor” laptop. If you don’t have a hardware like this and are not sure what to look for, start with a search for “hdmi capture card”.

Then you’ll need a software on the receiving laptop to display this “camera” input. If you don’t have a preferred camera software and you use Linux on the second laptop, you might consider guvcview, VLC media player, or OBS Studio.

Your results may vary depending on the processing power of the receiving end to display a sufficiently high framerate from the video stream to be usable as a full-capable “second monitor”.

3

Scenario 1:       Are you looking to expand the “usable surface area” available to the Kubuntu laptop as “desktop” space?
      I don’t know how to make that work.

or

Scenario 2:       Are you looking to use the Mint laptop to simply display content windows for ouput commands originating from the Kubuntu laptop (i.e. Mint laptop as “display-only” client for Kubuntu-originating directives)?

For this scenario, you could use a remote shell session, over an internet connection, to push the pop-ups onto the Mint laptop.


As a related aside, you might be interested in a tool which would allow you to tweak your displays afterwards, if Scenario 1 is feasible.

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