I looks like he is using the ExpressCard (PCMCIA) slot to get USB 3.0 port. If that could be sourced today in 2022, then I suppose that could work as alternative to Thunderbolt -> USB 3.0...
RE: External Display / External Monitor / Dual Display / displaylink
Hello. Hopefully you got your situation resolved already. For anyone that hasn't here's what I did.
After months of not spending anymore time on trying to solve this issue, and what seems like a year or more of not being able to use the late 2011 mbp, I "solved" the issue today. As I mentioned, displaylink were not willing to assist me at all.
I have a 15" late 2011 mbp, 8,2, with a failed amd gpu, and dosdude1's gmux ic bypass performed on it.
That was working fine until I upgraded from high sierra to catalina, using dosdude1's catalina patcher, at which point the external display setup stopped working (using a display link adapter).
Today, I decided to just try a few things, before attempting to downgrade to mojave, or lower, to see if I could just get my old setup working again and have a usable external display.
I was reading some information/how to's on the displaylink site when I just decided to try installing software and trying it (on my second drive, which also has catalina patched os). It was running the "displaylink manager" software - which did not/has not worked.
Here is what I installed: " DisplayLink USB Graphics Software for macOS5.2.6-EXE.dmg ", From this page on displaylinks driver download page: https://www.synaptics.com/products/displaylink-graphics/downloads/macos
Scroll down to:
"DisplayLink USB Graphics Software for macOS
Catalina 10.15, Mojave 10.14
Release: 5.2.6 | May 21, 2021"
Download the file and install. It worked on the drive that already had diaplaylink manager installed on it (though now the 'manager' complains about detecting 'legacy software'. I'm sure 'manager' can be uninstalled, or just quit, and select "don't start with windows" option.
But then I tried installing just the "usb graphics software" (linked above) on the newer drive, which does not have the 'displaylink manager' installed yet, restarted, and it worked.
Hopefully, if someone else gets stuck, or can't find help, this'll assist them. Also, hopefully this continues to work and I can get some more time out of this mbp.
To the 'experts' who might read this, this might sound 'super duper obvious' and all that. I'm not an expert, and I was kinda being led in circles, etc. But feel free to comment or add your insight if you think it'd benefit anyone.
Thanks.
Edit:
Oh, by the way, I'm using this displaylink adapter: USB32HDPRO. And the Kanex KTU10 is not needed (I'm using just the USB32HDPRO, connected directly to the mbp usb 2.0 port.