I'm not on a Mac anymore, but this sounds very similar to something that I experienced when switching over to Linux and trying to use the Apple adapters that I had for my displays.

I can't remember the exact terminology, but there are basically two types of adapters: active and passive. Passive adapters defer some of the work to software on the computer while active have everything needed built in.

All Apple adapters are passive and because of that when you try to use them with non-Apple computers that don't have the expected software/driver...they don't work.

It's been a while but I experienced this with mini-display port to DVI adapters. I don't know if it carriers over to other types as well.