Checking back in. Dell TB16 dock works out of the box with linux. No issues.
EDIT: Looks like it actually isn’t delivering power. Working on that now.
EDIT2: Same issue as reported by Kevin_Gilliatt. Must plug the dock in while the device is up and running to get it to charge.
Just received this Hub. It is running fine so far. But Windows behavior with direct connection HDMI’s vs through the hub is hilarious. Moving a screen around is a bit clunky if through the hub. Totally a MS issue.
The hub runs warm, charges the laptop fine, and I so far have Cat-6, 2 HDMI, 1 USB-A from a hub taking care of my external keyboard, mouse and trackball. I’ll get more plugged in later on.
Docking Station Dual Monitor, 14… Amazon.com
I have a Razer Thunderbolt 4 Chroma (Buy Razer Thunderbolt™ 4 Dock Chroma - Black | Gaming Pc Accessories | Razer.com). Everything works out of the box with the razer dock in Arch. It was especially impressive to see hotplugging 2 4k monitors work smoother in 2021 linux than with my work mac.
Much thanks for the valuable sitrep.
I think I’ll just hold out until Valve releases their official Steam Deck dock; seems reasonable to anticipate it’ll be turnkey-compatible and retain first-class support on Arch at a minimum.
Added my (albeit brief) experience with the Anker PowerExpand 13-in-1 and some confirmation on the WD19TB for @Alec_Jurisch.
The Anker might be worth looking at for some users, but for the price you can do better I think. If the lack of multi-display carries into Windows as well it’s definitely not worth it. They do explicitly say it doesn’t support Linux, so it was just a hope a prayer since I generally like Anker stuff.
On the WD19TB, I tried in both Ubuntu 21.04 and Windows 10, the Framework only drew power, no ethernet, USB, or display out. Worth noting, I definitely have up to date firmware, I use it daily with my work Dell Latitude 7390 and personal XPS 15, and regularly run Dell Command Update and Dell Assist to make sure things are up to date, and semi-regularly check against the dell.com support page since the 2 apps aren’t great about picking up updates immediately. It might work in Windows, but beyond the firmware Linux should either work or not, and that’s my personal’s main OS so if it doesn’t work… doesn’t work for me.
I’m tempted to look at the CalDigit TS3+, but I tried it previously and with my XPS and work laptop and the experience was terrible. Regularly dropped USB devices, had to replug in devices once an hour at least, and (at the time at least) you can only do firmware updates on Mac OS, and I’m not buying a computer just to perform firmware updates.
I’ve tested 4 docking stations. 2 docks worked great and 2 did not. Below is my DIY laptop config:
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-1165G7
Memory: 16GB (1 x 16GB) DDR4-3200
WiFi: Intel® Wi-Fi 6E AX210 No vPro®
Storage: 500GB - WD_BLACK™ SN750 NVMe™
Linux operating system:
Almalinux 8.4
Dell WDTB - Display port did not work. Keyboard, mouse, network worked fine.
Dell WDTB19 - Checked firmware version. Updated. It worked fine. The available USB-A ports not enough for me.
Cable Matters model number 201054: It did not work! External monitor display port work only once. After restart it no longer worked. Tested all Framework ports and it did not come back. Keyboard, mouse ethernet worked fine. It’s advertised compatible with Linux and Thunderbolt3. I believe it’s not.
Intpw Thunderbolt 3 - Everything worked great for me out of the box. Only 1 display port. 3 USB-C ports. 5 USB-A ports. 1 S/PDIF out connected to DAC. It’s advertised not compatible with Linux but it is in Framework. In gnome device settings dock is listed as “Intel Thunderbold3”.
What kind of monitor(s) are you connecting?
The Cable Matters 201054 is a USB-C (not Thunderbolt dock) dock with a Display 1.2 MST Hub with upstream limited to two lanes of DisplayPort 1.2 + USB 3.0 when in HD mode, and four lanes of DisplayPort 1.2 + USB 2.0 when in 4K mode (the mode is selectable with a switch on the dock).
Does Linux support MST from the Tiger Lake GPU? What’s the kernel version?
Did you try Windows to see if it was an OS issue?
@joevt
I’m connecting to a HD monitor with Display Port 1.2.
Linux kernel 4.18. Almalinux is like CentOS not a bleeding edge distro.
I did not have a chance to test it in Windows. It could be an OS issue.
Technically this is true for Windows, but for Linux the fwupd utility can update these as well. Thanks to Project Sputnik aka Ubuntu from the factory on Dell systems (XPS and Precision so far) they’ve put effort into allowing most firmware updates from Linux as well.
Isn’t 4.18 old for Tiger Lake?
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Intel-Tiger-Lake-Linux-5.7-Hit
What about the drm i915 driver?
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-5.12-Intel-Initial-Gfx
I’m not a Linux expert or user so I don’t know what the differences are or if updates will fix your problem. There’s probably some documentation somewhere that discusses these issues.
I suppose you could try something like Ubuntu 21.04 live USB installer to see if a newer distro would help.
Added Kensington SD5700T to unsupported, although in the future it may work.
I tried with Ubuntu 21.04, worked very, very briefly. Maybe 20 seconds. Enough to give me hope, then nothing. Rebooted, unplugged and plugged back in, power cycled dock, etc., just wouldn’t come back. Went into Windows, same thing, eventually one of the power cycles got it to work in Windows for ~20 seconds again. Spoke to Kensington support, they asked me to try another laptop… plugged in my Dell XPS 15, worked flawlessly. The support agent suggested since the Framework isn’t TB4 certified yet they can’t really do much to assist with getting it working. Meaning, hopefully, in the future it will work. I say hopefully because… it’s a pretty dang nice dock, works with my XPS 15 better than my WD19TB does.
They did suggest the Kensington SD5600T, because it’s TB3 & USB 3.1 backwards compatible. So, although it might not “work as well as it could” it should still work. Might give it a shot, but having trouble finding one that ships fast. I’ve got the week off work, would prefer finding something that I can know works so I can spend some time rewiring my desk, but don’t want to commit to doing that until I have the new dock sorted…
Getting spammy today, apologies!
Amazon luckily had a Anker PowerExpand Elite 13-in-1 Thunderbolt 3 Dock available for same day, just tried it out. All seems to be working as expected. Added notes above. The only concern I have is the Windows 10 power indicator on both my XPS 15 and the Framework were both showing a yellow triangle, that the charger isn’t powerful enough, but Anker says it’s capable of 85W USB-C PD. The XPS makes sense, it’s a power hog, but the Framework surprised me. Both were still charging, but they must have interpreted it as trickle charging.
Tomorrow I’ll hopefully be able to utilize it to start switching over to my Framework more fully and I’ll do some further testing on the headphone/mic combo jack and whatnot.
My old CalDigit TS3 Plus had hardware failures. I replaced it with a new Anker Apex 12-in-1 Thunderbolt 4 Dock with my Framework laptop.
The Anker Apex 12-in-1 comes with a TB4 cable & a 120W power brick. The dock delivers a max of 90W for charging the laptop and a max of 15W through the front USB-C port plus 5W through the rear USB ports.
This dock is much smaller than the CalDigit TS3 Plus & runs much cooler.
I’m only using the GBE, TB4 for display (2Kx60), HDMI1 (2Kx60), and one of the USB3.1/g2 ports so far, but all work well and restore as expected when the laptop resumes from sleep.
If you’re looking for a good TB4 docking station with a variety of ports, this may be a good option.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0928W3XHD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Are there any docks with 2.5GbE ports?
I doubt it, 2.5GbE is rare and the adapters have only been on the market a year or two.
But I figured I’d ask! All the ones I see have gigabit ports, if they have networking ports at all.
There are some interesting ones with DVI and VGA ports.
10G, I can hear the dollar signs from here…
Also a lot of 10G is not multi-gig, i.e. not compatible with 2.5G.
The beauty of the existing 2.5G USB adapters is they’re affordable. I see one under $30 CAD and a few at around $35 CAD. I could picture a dock like those here with 2.5GbE for $100 CAD or so, if they can have ones with gigabit at $60.
Just noting, that Echo 11 @RandomUser linked looks virtually identical to the Kensington I tried. Could be the same unit, rebranded. That said, the dock itself doesn’t have 10GbE, just a downstream TB port that can be used with their TB 10GbE adapter, which probably would work more successfully.
If I was to get a dock it would be to wire it to the network while charging. A simple dock like this would work I imagine:
If I was to want to connect it to my monitors, one with 2 X HDMI would be best I believe. No need for DVI or VGA now that I think of it, I’ll be getting a new monitor for Christmas:
Don’t need too many additional ports, a card reader or VGA but the ones with 2 X HDMI all seem to come with these.
Should work?
Spent a bit of time with one of Anker’s hub, I’ve updated the wiki.
In general it works well, except that HDMI output doesn’t work during boot. It might be a problem with the laptop and not with Dock though. On my old setup (Dell XPS + Dell TB16) you have output on the external monitor right from the start so you can enter BIOS (or grub) with the laptop with the lid closed.
I guess this is not a deal breaker but it’s a bit annoying at least.
Tested my Dell TB16. Key points:
Deeply tempted by a “type” of hub I’m seeing on Amazon.
It’s shaped like a wide wedge with a nonslip strip on top. The laptop sits on top of it and all the ports are on the back. It would be ideal, not taking up any additional space and with all the cables routed around back.
BUT - all the lower-priced variants are direct from China with long deliveries (long enough that by the time it arrives, the return window is over) and NONE have any reviews. The higher-priced “fulfilled by Amazon” or direct from Amazon ones of this type have less than stellar reviews. Most note overheating. Some note loose cables and ports. One noted missing ports (i.e. the ports promised were not what was delivered).
Seeing that, I’ll go for a higher priced less convenient “oval” type with reviews like I posted above.
Still, $60 CAD for a wedge-type with dual HDMI? Tempting!
