Framework Laptops are now Thunderbolt 4 certified

I’d second that request, it would be useful for 11th-gen owners to know where they can expect limitations in TB4 performance (and implicitly, where they can expect things to work without fault). Pity that some things were not solvable in firmware, but that’s the reality of hardware design, of course :slight_smile:

7 Likes

Glad to hear FW has official TB4 cert on the 12th gen. As an 11th gen owner, it’s a minor bummer that it’s not official… but honestly not a big deal. Every thunderbolt accessory I’ve used has worked fine for me.

Like others, I would like to know what limitations exist as far as not meeting certification standard just to know what issues I might encounter.

6 Likes

I’m begining to feel like a second class customer being on 11th gen. I suspect more of the same to keep happening as more board models keep coming. Not cool. At least fix the title of this blog to 12th Generation Framework Laptops are now Thunderbolt 4 certified.

4 Likes

It seems FW is quite good actually at bios updates up to now. Most consumer laptop do 1 year bios and that s it . Professional like thinkpad do 5 years. If you are in software you know some stuf are hard to achieve. Sometime you think honestely something will take 3 days to develop and after 3 monthes you still don t have a clue of when it will be delivered.
It hard to achieve such an industrial project as FW, they have been fast to deliver a complex product that quite work on its first gen and do work good on 2nd. I also have a faire phone 4 which I believe for a 4th iteration is not as good as FW.

4 Likes

Can I ask why? Is it because 11th gen has the RTC bug and other unresolvable hardware flaws? What do you mean by “more of the same”? That 11th gen will continue to be left behind? Or that FW will drop support as soon as a replacement come out? As I would agree with the first but not the second. I would also say that 11th gen was a first-gen FW laptop, issues are to be expected, some more serious than others. TB4 certification seems less important so long as the issues are constrained to edge cases, which seems to be the implication.

6 Likes

I mean it will inevitably continue to be left further and further behind as limited people-power is shifted to newer boards. Another reason I’m not a fan of the one off chromebook edition. To their credit the firmware updates have been steady improvements up to this point on 11th gen. As you mentioned though there are already issues that don’t seem to be on the table as going to be fixed. Can’t imagine this situation improves over time but would be estatic to be proven wrong.

I’m less worried about a sticker from Intel as I am with capable hardware not being fully supported with available features. This has a direct implication on hardware usability as it ages and therefore a direct correlation with a stated goal of Framework.

I agree but it’s also something I would expect the Framework team to know and address accordingly not to just expect customers to upgrade.

2 Likes

It would be good if Framework set a support/firmware update timetable for each version like Google does for its phones etc.

Does each version get 1/2 or 3 years of firmware updates and hardware availability etc.?

At the moment it feels like most IT depts I’ve worked in, the new sexy hardware arrives and the kids all drop the current ‘old’ stuff to work on the new sexy stuff.

“Hey guys, you still need to finish this…nevermind!”

does this mean I’ll be able to use the screens since the beginning of the boot process? also I have some quirks when resuming from hibernation where sometimes I can use one of the two connected displays, I attribute this to TB not being correctly implemented in the current firmware as well

This is excellent news. Is there any sort of rough ETA on that 12Gen 3.06 firmware update?

2 Likes

@SustainableTechGuy You’ll find the FW is very tight lipped about things. Never expect any kind of announcement about when or if something is in the works. Based upon previous history, I’d expect the firmware update to come out in the next 6 months or so. Anymore specific than that seems unlikely. FW does not develop the BIOS themselves, it gets contracted out to Insyde. Insyde is slow as hell.

8 Likes

@GhostLegion and @anon81945988, thanks for the insights. I didn’t intend my post to be needy/whiny ( I did say rough ETA). Is it not natural to ask about a timetable in a case like this - in direct response to the manufacturer’s announcement?

To be clear, my expectations are in check - I don’t have any illusions about how difficult the dev on this stuff is, or the fact that FW is an early stage company doing a very ambitious thing. I also get that FW doesn’t want to set a bunch of deadlines and then fall short of them. I believe in the FW mission, and so I voted with my checkbook. Very much looking forward to getting off of the Dell hamster wheel. :peace_symbol:

4 Likes

Totally is! No worries :blush:

I’ve said this in another post but FW isn’t known to release any details until it’s literally already out. They’re pretty secretive about stuff. I don’t really like that approach but I totally get why! :orange_heart:

Hope this helps~

2 Likes

Take heart, we have avx512 unlike those unfortunate 12th genners

3 Likes

Intel fused off avx512 in alder lake so disabling the E cores is no longer a work-around

5 Likes

Since battery time / power consumption changes were mentioned regarding the 12th gen firmware, are 11th gen users going to get the firmware update that improves the battery drain situation during sleep mode? (Not hibernate, i.e for me, I’m on FreeBSD and we don’t have hibernation so this wouldn’t be a workaround). I remember earlier in the year there was activity regarding this issue but the 3.10 update didn’t include those changes since there was still some development work left for those updates.

As the announcement is older than 2 weeks now, I’m just wondering when we will get the update?
I’m not asking for a specific ETA, I’m just interested if we may get it this year or not? (this year only lasts a few more weeks ^^)

So no stress from my side, this is just an informational question.

6 Likes

@fearedbliss, the battery drain issue, as well as other battery fixes, were mentioned in the update notes for the 3.09 release.

Here are some issues that were supposed to be fixed:

  1. Fix bios menu options for battery charge limit and CPU flex ratio setting cannot change value using F5/F6.
  2. Fix battery cycle count is not valid in battery info reported to OS.
  3. Reduce main battery drain in off state by turning off analog reference in charger IC.

Were these fixes not actually fully implemented?

I am about to install Ubuntu 22.04 on my new 12th gen Framework, I hope the battery issue that plagued some early reviews is fixed for everyone.

Back to the topic on hand - congratulations Framework team on getting Thunderbolt 4 certified!

1 Like

@Kris_Keillor I don’t believe so. I did post this on August 12 asking a similar question:

Hi Everyone, We are still working through a few issues with the various installers for this update to make sure that everyone gets a good update experience across Windows/Linux and other OS’s.
This update requires updating a few additional components of the system that we have not had to update before, and have created our own updater/installer packages to support this.

21 Likes

So according to this post, this Thunderbolt certification includes a firmware update:

However, while there’s lots of talk in this thread about firmware and LVFS, there’s no official thread for BIOS version 3.05 on the site that I can see. The knowledgebase also says “The Factory-Installed BIOS (3.04) is the latest version”. Can we get a thread, or at least confirmation here, of the new BIOS - as welll as it being added to the knowledge base?

I am new to LVFS and the discrepancies in this information are making it harder for me to learn. Thank you Framework team!

On that note, if I have the fwupdmgr command I therefore have the fwupd daemon i.e. LVFS, right?