I’m having trouble getting the DP Expansion card to work on my Framework Intel 11th Gen Laptop. The card is a “(2nd Gen)” card that I ordered just a couple of weeks ago. I’m using Arch Linux with the latest 6.10.3 kernel with sway as the wm. I also have the latest BIOS firmware installed.
The monitor and cable can be ruled out because they work when I connect the laptop with a Thunderbolt4 dock.
The card is getting recognized by the kernel which I can confirm with lsusb. I tried monitoring journalctl while plugging in the monitor or power cycling it, but there is nothing new logged and no secondary output appears.
I don’t think this is a hardware issue as the card gets recognized. Maybe it has something to do with the power saving features of the 2nd gen cards (not waking up properly).
It’s worth trying a different cable. Even if it works elsewhere it might not work here. I don’t know why, but another user changed the cable and it fixed their problem.
On a FW13 intel, I don’t think it matters which slot you plug it in. On AMD boards, it matters.
You may still want to try other expansion bays, just to rule out if that expansion is already faulty.
Alongside your distro of choice, also try the latest supported distros on live usb (Ubuntu 24.04 and Fedora 40)to be certain that it’s not arch specific issue.
I tried every port and none of them seem to make a difference. What does make a difference is a different cable. With the second cable the adapter recognizes the display instantly, which is weird because I’m using the first cable at the moment without a problem with the OWC Thunderbolt Dock.
So if someone stumbles on this post and has the same problem, try another cable
Can you describe the difference between the working and non-working cable? Make/model and cable length?
Maybe the cable attenuation sensing / adaption is not working. The gpu will adjust levels on the data lines depending on cable length and other things.
The symptoms of this is normally the gpu working with short cable but not a long one.
The not working one (only with the Framework DP expansion card) is the one that came with my monitor. The cable is aprox. 1.5m long. I don’t see any information on the cable itself. Is there a way I can get more information without a cable tester?
Maybe some information about my display is important. I’m using an LG Monitor with 2560x1440@144Hz.
