Framework 16 Ports Randomly Not Working

Framework Laptop 16 Linux
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I’m using Fedora KDE 43 6.17.12-300.fc43.x86_64 with the BIOS 03.04. I’m using the AMD AI 350 CPU with no GPU. I have three USB c expansion cards, an HDMI, an audio, and a USB c.

I got this laptop a few weeks ago, and everything was running fine until the top two ports stopped working, they wouldn’t charge at all. I disconnected then reconnected the battery and that worked for a day, and now it’s back to it, but only the top right port for some reason. Running /sys/class/typec/portX shows port stuck in source role with no partner detected, and Kernel logs show PD negotiation failures (UCSI_GET_PDOS failed). I’ve also done a Hard EC reset, but that hasn’t proved successful either. I’ve looked at other forum posts and I can’t find someone whos has this issue that wasn’t fixed by that, so I’m not sure what else to do at this point. I submitted a support ticket because I think it might be a hardware issue, but I’m not entirely sure.

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I believe there’s something in this. I received my new board w/ AI 370 just few days ago, but only now had chance to connect it to my desktop setup. I’m experiencing massive problems with my monitor with USB-C/Thunderbolt port - depending on cable it’s constantly flapping, negotiating too low current or most works, but starts flapping upon screen suspend (after few minutes of inactivity).

May not be directly related, but def. USB port related.

It’s worth to mention that it worked perfectly fine on my old Framework mobo, I had zero problems. After recent firmware update even Thunderbolt speeds negotiation got fixed.

I’ll be following on that in different post, after I gather more data.

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ive also had issues with the ports. looking at the expansion card guide, ports 1, 4, and 5 (either with usb-a or usb-c) have stability issues where anything thats connected to those ports seem to stop transferring both power and data. ive noticed this using wired, and wireless mice as well as my usb flashdrives. its definitely a port issue because it happens both on my windows 11 installation and kali linux, with linux specifically mentioning that there is some sort of usb controller issue. it said something along the lines of “usb error 256” during the boot up process

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i managed to get the error code when kali boots up. it shows twice:
”ucsi_acpi USBC000:00: unknown error 256”

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So, for me this is super internmittant, as in - I dont have a valid “reproducer”.

That being said, I did some digging found that disabling link power management may help prevent this from happening.

(this will lower battery life)

You can try to disable LPM with the following:

sudo grubby --update-kernel=ALL --args=“usbcore.quirks=32ac:0012:k” EDIT - this is to the keyboard module, not the expansion cards/usb c ports - Im still digging for those. Dont do this yet :slight_smile:

I have no idea if this will work, or how bad it will affect battery life, or if its safe.

Do this at your own risk :slight_smile:

So, I was able to get a reproducer. And, as much as I hate it, I got some help from AI (claude with a local MCP server that can read logs faster than I have time to)

Ill add the diagnostics it gave here, and for fun, I am going to test it out..

I found that I had one USB device not working (specifically port 5 - right middle). The AI was confused at first and not able to tell which port, which makes sense, its not like they are numbered the same internally as externally… So, after finding it, I asked it to get me the ID so I could try and disable LPM:

Prompt:

i just did a disconnect and reconnect of the hub with issues and its working - what is the id of this one?

Response:

Let me check
Looking at the dmesg output, I can see the issue - you had a USB disconnect at timestamp 1557 seconds, and then the UCSI error 256 appeared at 1710 seconds.
The problematic hub that required reseating is likely one of these:
• Bus 001 Device 011: ID 05e3:0610
• Bus 001 Device 012: ID 05e3:0610
• Bus 001 Device 015: ID 05e3:0610
Since it required a physical reseat to work and you just got the UCSI error 256 in dmesg after reconnecting, this is a USB-C port initialization issue, not specifically the hub.
The USB-A expansion card with issues uses:
ID 05e3:0610 - Genesys Logic Hub (USB 2.0)
To prevent this from happening again, add the quirk:
sudo grubby --update-kernel=ALL --args=“usbcore.quirks=05e3:0610:k”
sudo reboot
This will keep the hub from entering low-power states that might trigger the UCSI error. However, the root cause is still the UCSI firmware issue - update your BIOS to properly fix it.

I do appreciate it points to this being a firmeware issue - and will probably ask it to dig a bit more - but, I plan to test this out for a few days.

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