I’ve reached out the appropriate members of the team for a deeper understanding on what is happening between 3.04 and 3.05 - 3.05 is shipping on new 12th Gen systems. However, no customer facing updates have been issued as of yet - this is why we still have 3.04 on existing systems.
Based on our internal testing there is no advantage to rolling back to 3.04, it is doable.
@Matt_Hartley
Hi Matt, thank you very much for looking into this!!
I submitted a ticket to Support on my specific problem, which is the one that led me to suspect a BIOS issue.
An other FrameWork user with the same Linux kernel, the same CPU, and the same TB dock, (but with BIOS v3.04), reported that it worked flawlessly (except a minor issue for the power on button).
Moreover I tried a USB key with a live Linux on my previous 11th-gen, and the dock works on it, and with the same live Linux key and the 12th-gen it doesn’t work, so an OS issue is unlikely, which is why I started to think about hardware issues.
I would like to try to downgrade to the BIOS v3.04 to see if it changes anything, but right now there is no file at all to download for BIOS v3.04.
Would it be possible to get such file?
I also asked the same to the Support person in contact with me yesterday, so I am expecting a reply any time soon.
Edit: Got a reply! I’m continuing this with the Support staff by email.
So, I followed the advice from Support and I booted one of the Linux distros the most supported on the FrameWork: Ubuntu 22.04.
I just used dd to copy the official ubuntu-22.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso on a USB stick, booted that, plugged-in my TB dock… and the RGB keyboard connected to it lightened up!! So, it was working!
Then, the real surprise: I rebooted on my normal distro on the SSD (Artix Linux), with the dock still plugged in. And again it worked!
So now the issue is solved, for any purpose of using the laptop with the dock!
However I am quite sure that I had tried before to boot (Artix) with the TB dock plugged-in, so something must have happened, maybe a forced reinstall of some Intel thunderbolt firmware during the Ubuntu boot?
It is also possible (even if doubtful) that I had not tried to boot while the TB plugged-in.
Right now, the TB dock works, but if I unplug and replug it, it doesn’t work anymore.
So, don’t worry anymore folks, I think that the BIOS v3.05 had nothing to do with my issue!
@nadb
Although now I have the same Power Delivery problem as yours.
All the other functions of the dock (i.e. except PD) work, and if I boot while the TB eGPU plugged its PD works, while if both are plugged-in nothing is charging the battery…
It took me some time to get aware that the battery was not charging, literally the time for the battery to discharge while the TB dock was functional!
Edit: Nevermind, it works as intended on Ubuntu 22.04.
The problem above was on Artix. It is on me to solve it as it is a non-officially supported distro.
Let me know if you have any instability with that power delivery. I know mine was working for a while, and then stopped working again a day or two later.
@Mapleleaf based on my experience with a variety of docks I would be extremely surprised if this is an OS level issue. Most of thunderbolt is firmware controlled. Hence the possibility it is BIOS related.
@nadb
Yeah but what I mean is that they would actually investigate the issue, even in the BIOS if that’s the case, if you are using the Fedora 36.
Meanwhile if you are on Fedora 37 it’s likely they will tell you that it’s terra incognita for them…
@Mapleleaf Fedora 37 is the new stable version, hence it is supported. Some of the docs on the Framework site may not have been updated yet. Likewise Fedora 35 is EOL.
Regardless I have a ticket open for this, will see where it goes.
Yes you’re right then, they would probably consider Fedora 37 as a supported version.
I can’t wait to see if you find a root cause!!
By the way, my daily driver is Artix, so I might take some time before confirming or not that I have the same issue as yours (the instability), which is actually very likely. But I will make an effort to use Ubuntu more, so that I could oberve it!