Thinkpad Thunderbolt 3 Gen 2 docking not working

Framework Laptop 16 Linux
1

Hello Together,

I try to use my FW16 running Fedora 40 with KDE Plasma 6.1 with a Lenovo Thinkpad Thunderbolt 3 Gen 2 docking station. Unfortunately, it does not seem to work properly.

First of all, it is not consistently recognized when plugged into the laptop. Sometimes it is recognized, sometimes it is not. Secondly, it only recognizes one of my two monitors (both are plugged in via display port into the dock, both are definitely functional and they are the same model). Lastly, ethernet does not work at all and I receive error messages periodically about it.

According to boltctl, the dock is authorized and should technically function as a thunderbolt device. Has anyone had similar problems with this type of dock or generally knows how to troubleshoot/fix this? Based on some research online, this dock should work with Linux, but other people have reported issues and I can’t seem to find a conclusive guide on how to get it to work.

2

Have you tried the other thunderbolt port on the dock? My lenovo dock seems to overwhelmingly go into usb-c fallback mode when I use the actual uplink port on it but consistently uses thunderbolt on the other one (without power delivery of course unfortunately but fort the 16 you’d want more than 65w anyway).

3

I just tried that and it offers the exact some functionality as the TB port in the back (only one display, keyboard works, no ethernet) minus the power delivery.

4

Guess that’s a different issue then, ethernet even works in usb-c fallback mode in my case.