Support for LG Ultrafine 5K monitor

Framework Laptop 13
62

Did you try “Battery Disconnect” in the BIOS? Just wondering if that is a different experience to a physical disconnect.

Also what OS/distrubtion?

63

Physical battery disconnect, and disconnect in bios… the bios didn’t seem to have a toggle in the menu item of disconnect battery.

Bios version 3.17
Running Fedora 37

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64

I don’t recommend buying the LG Ultrafine 5K (or even 4K) to use with Intel Gen 11. It’s a glitchy mess and 3.17 BIOS nor the latest linux kernel has made any difference.

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@nrp It does not work fine at all. I’m happy to help diagnose it but as it currently stands, 5K model is pretty much unusable and the 4K one decides to stop working here and there and takes a full shutdown to make it work again.

66

I’ve also had this issue the display 5k monitor and laptop combination never worked via USB-C. I’ve reached out to tech-support no solution, sent back my laptop immediately.

67

@Alvaro_Tejero_Canter

Here is the display model number I was using: 38WN95C-W
Display Product code: 38WN95C - WY.AUSOMPN

Framework laptop: 11th Gen i5-1135G7
Kernel: 6.2.6
Distro: Pop OS 22.04 LTS

Cable: [Intel Certified] Cable Matters 40Gbps USB4 Thunderbolt 4 Cable 2.6ft with 8K Video and 100W Charging - 0.8m - Backwards Compatible with Thunderbolt 3 Cable and USB-C Cable Matters [Intel Certified] 40Gbps USB4 Thunderbolt 4 Cable 2.6ft/0.8m with 8K Video and 100W Charging - Backwards Compatible with Thunderbolt 3 Cable and USB-C : Amazon.ca: Electronics

Something to note: when I was testing it just now on BIOS 3.10, the display was constantly blacking out and restarting. I just updated to 3.17 and it is stable again.

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68

Just want to note, that there are even worse problems with this display on the AMD Ryzen 7 7840U mainboard.

I have not done a thorough analysis yet, but it also seems to be power related in that with “lowish” (60% and lower ) battery and no other power source connected the display and power source cannot be used (no flickering, only errors in the kernel log).

It works (without any flickering and instantly) at least this time with sufficient battery, charging and a connected framework power source.

As soon as it does not charge from the framework charger anymore (80% battery as per firmware as configured in my BIOS), the display does not work. It still charges via the display though.

69

Using this same display with Ryzen 7840U on BIOS 3.03 and Fedora 39 - works pretty well. Charging and USB work OK and I get full resolution @120Hz. Only issue to speak of is random display whiting out

Sometimes it is most of the screen like this;

IMG_5924
IMG_59242532×1170 199 KB

Other times it is half the screen. It will often flicker as I move the mouse.

70

I’m not using the Ultrafine 5K, but I can confirm that the 7840U with Ubuntu 22.04.3 works with the Apple XDR 32" at full 6K resolution (and scaling to 200%).

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This is passing through the Caldigit Element Hub. I’m controlling the brightness using the Gnome extension vividshade - https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/6463/vividshade-multi-monitor-rgb-dimming-control/

71

@Kent_Brockman that looks like graphics corruption talked about here: [TRACKING] Graphical corruption in Fedora 39 (AMD 3.03 BIOS)

72

I read through this thread quite a bit before purchasing my AMD Framework 13, so I wanted to post here with my findings with the LG Ultrafine 5k (HMUB2LL/A) using the provided Thunderbolt 3 cable.

I tried to get this monitor to work on so many setups. NixOS w/ KDE Plasma would partially work; the display would show up as two separate displays that I could place side-by-side, but that solution didn’t work too well for me. I wanted it to act as one display.

I tried Ubuntu and got it to support full 5k in the demo environment, but later had problems after the full install. Not sure what happened.

Fedora 40 seems to be my answer. It supports full 5k and doesn’t split my monitor in two pieces, but only in gnome!

If anyone has fixes for other OSs, I would love to know.

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73

I bought the Framework 13 (Intel Core Ultra) a month ago. After trying different operating systems (Windows, Fedora) and multiple Thunderbolt cables, I want to share how I got my Framework Laptop working with the Ultrafine 5K. TL;DR, here’s my current setup:

  1. Set the charge limit in the BIOS to 100 (I believe this is the most crucial step).

  2. Use Performance mode when plugged in under the power plan.

  3. Disable any software that adjusts monitor brightness via DDC/CI.

  4. If plug-and-play doesn’t work, try powering the laptop first, then connect the monitor. Once the connection is stable, you can unplug the power, letting the monitor charge the laptop.

  5. I use Windows 11 Pro 25H2 (though I’ve also succeeded on Fedora).

During testing, I noticed that the choice of cable doesn’t seem to matter much. I’ve used third-party Thunderbolt cables (allegedly Intel-certified), Apple’s official Thunderbolt 5 cable, and the cable that comes with the Ultrafine 5K. They either all fail to run stably or all work. I think as long as your cable supports Thunderbolt Passive Mode, it should work.

I also found that disconnections often occur when the GPU is heavily used, such as when resizing windows, using video editing software, or especially during video rendering. So I suspect the issue is related to how the laptop manages charging and video output.

I’m not a computer expert, but after disabling the charging limit in the BIOS, I basically stopped experiencing disconnections. Most of the time, plug-and-play works fine. Occasionally, you might still need to power the laptop first before connecting the monitor to establish a stable connection.

I know this is a bit late, but I hope my experience can help someone who needs it. :smiley:

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74

Just tired to connect my LG Ultrafine 5K to my AMD 7040 Framework 13" via a thunderbolt cable, and it failed to establish a display connection on the far-left and near-right USB-C ports. At some point there was a display connection for a second, but then it stopped. There was repeat connect/disconnection sound effects from the framework computer. Running Fedora.

Here’s the dmesg:

Charge limit 60%, performance mode enabled, full brightness was set. No other devices/cables connected at the time.

75

I’ve looked into this issue a lot for myself and I think it’s simply not possible to get a stable connection. The Ultrafine works with Thunderbolt 3 + dual-DP1.2 tunneling, and was specially optimized for Macs.

I’ve gotten it to work intermittently but as soon as the computer is under load I’ll have all sorts of connection issues. It’s too flaky to depend on.

76

Which Linux kernel version is this with.

There was a fix recently with regards to setting higher bitrates to the display.
For some reason, previously, it would only configure lower rates, even though the hardware could do higher rates.
So, that might help your 5K monitor to work.

77

Running bios 3.17, upgrade to bios 3.18 would always fail

78

I came here in the hope there was a solution for this problem, but alas.

To use my LG UtraFine, I need to run my FrameWork 13 in “power save” mode, else the display starts to disconnect. Also it is not working as an USB-hub. This is an issue which is there for years, without solution, dissapointment.

79

I think there’s something wrong with my old 5k display now, since I’m having trouble getting it to work even with my old Intel MacBook Pro, but in case it helps anyone else, what worked for me in the past was plugging my FW13 into a 100W or better USB-C charger before plugging the monitor in. That way the laptop always charged from the more powerful supply, not the monitor. Seemed to cause it to be reliable.