When I plug in my Startech display port hub into USB-C it doesnt seem to work everytime and my syslog reports this:
Feb 28 08:34:39 BakingBeaver kernel: [ 767.177531] usb 3-2: new high-speed USB device number 12 using xhci_hcd
Feb 28 08:34:39 BakingBeaver kernel: [ 767.697464] usb 3-2: New USB device found, idVendor=2109, idProduct=0100, bcdDevice= 2.00
Feb 28 08:34:39 BakingBeaver kernel: [ 767.697482] usb 3-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Feb 28 08:34:39 BakingBeaver kernel: [ 767.697488] usb 3-2: Product: USB 2.0 BILLBOARD
Feb 28 08:34:39 BakingBeaver kernel: [ 767.697492] usb 3-2: Manufacturer: VIA Technologies Inc.
Feb 28 08:34:39 BakingBeaver kernel: [ 767.697496] usb 3-2: SerialNumber: 0000000000000001
Feb 28 08:34:39 BakingBeaver kernel: [ 767.896324] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] ERROR Sending link address failed with -5
Feb 28 08:34:41 BakingBeaver kernel: [ 769.666975] usb usb2-port1: attempt power cycle
Feb 28 08:34:50 BakingBeaver kernel: [ 778.122995] usb usb2-port1: unable to enumerate USB device
I have tried both of my USB-C ports as well as removing the “keys” and trying those USB-C ports. All have the same outcome.
I tried another hub with good results. plugged it in and it worked. Though I have seen that hub also have problems after a time.
Note: just want to mention I’m having a similar problem with an external usb hard drive. It does not mount after being plugged in even though gparted shows the drive.
External hard drives are notorious for shipping with awful, ultra-cheap USB cables. If you’re using the stock cable that came with the external hard drive, try a different cable.
Yes, if the cable is good, then you should see the drive in lsusb and also see the drive’s partitions in gparted and also be able to mount the filesystems on the drive if there are any valid filesystems for which you have the drivers.
For example, let’s say you have an external hard drive with a properly-working USB cable that’s got a GUID partition table, with one giant partition, but the filesystem on the partition is APFS (Apple File System). You would see the drive in lsusb, you would see the drive and one partition in gparted, but you couldn’t mount the filesystem unless you got a driver for APFS…
Back to the display hub. i tested it with several other devices and it worked as expected. I see the hub on lsusb but it still requires a restart to get it to work.
At this point I’d begin to suspect a linux kernel bug. If the Startech display hub works fine with other devices, and you continue to get the error
[drm] ERROR Sending link address failed with -5
when hot-plugging it, it is likely you have ruled out the cable between the Startech hub and the computer, and the Startech is probably good (though not guaranteed–it might need a firmware update, which might not be user-serviceable).