USB-C/Thunderbolt Dock Megathread

Hey everyone,

I bought the Anker 777 dock for my 12-gen Framework and in general I’m quite happy with it. However, one thing that bugs me: During boot, the external monitors connected to the dock are not working, so I have to open the Laptop’s lid until my Arch Linux booted up.

Does anyone else has this problem? Any ideas how to solve it?

Thanks!

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Seeing a similar issue. I have a 12th gen Framework running Ubuntu 22.10 and TB16 with two monitors connected, one to the full-size displayport and the other to the mini-dp via an adapter.

Unfortunately, only the mini-dp seems to actually be picked up when I connect it. Everything else seems to work fine (USB, Ethernet, Power), and I can switch monitor works by swapping their plugs. But seemingly nothing will cause the third monitor to flare to life, or even show up in Gnome Settings.

I got a replacement dock, and it doesn’t keep acting up, so my first one was definitely defective. I haven’t used the new one enough yet to see if it has the same once-a-day flicker that you have, but I should have an answer to that in the next few days.

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I think you can display things on your external display using this config, however, you will not see something on your internal display incase something goes wrong with your setup!

Hey all,

Reporting in that (at least within the first few minutes) Anker 777 worked out of the box with 12th gen i5 FW with Fedora 36, kernel 6.0.15. Here’s the setup:

  • 2 LG g-sync 2K monitors via HDMI. Full res at 99hz each.
  • Audio via HDMI through one of the monitors
  • Ethernet
  • Charging via TB4
  • USB 3.0 KVM switch with webcam, keyboard, mouse via rear USB
  • Pressing the power button from suspend will bring back monitors fine
  • Laptop is in a vertical stand closed (but was able to do triple display with it open immediately upon connecting)
  • BIOS is unchanged from shipping (3.04, I believe)

From @Anachron’s last few posts, can confirm that while the dock is recognized by the system on restart, the login screen doesn’t show on the other monitors (which is a bummer). So you either need to open the laptop or use the work around described in their post. Formerly with my cheaper USB-C dongles, the login would appear on all displays, so I do wonder if there is a way to replicate that with the dock, but that’s above my pay grade with Linux. I mostly use suspend at the end of the work day so I will probably not worry about this too much.

Thanks to ALL of you out there testing docks. I don’t know how many times I referenced this thread to narrow down my options. FW community FTW!

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Thanks, but unfortunately, that didn’t work for me. I described what I did in the extra thread, which is probably a more adequate place to discuss than in the megathread.

@Firestorm980, as you seem to have the same dock and the same issue: In case you find a solution or workaround, please comment in the extra thread as well.

It would be super nice, if we could find a solution to the display issue. Because besides that, the dock works perfect for me :slight_smile:

Hey,
reporting that i-tec C31DUALKVMDOCKPD worked for me out-of-the box.
System:

  • Framework 12th Gen BIOS 3.05
  • Ubuntu 22.10

Tested:

  • Power delivery built-in (up to 65W)
  • Headphone-/Mic- Combo-Jack
  • Ethernet
  • 2 * 2560×1440/60Hz Displays
  • USB ports (although I cannot test the full USB 3.2 bandwidth)

Additionally, it is a KVM dock, so you can switch between two PCs.

I have also tested it on MacOs (with the caveat that you can only have one external display) and Windows but not on my Framework, but I did not see any issues.

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At first glance the Dell WD19S I got from my job seems to working fine. The framework laptop is new and only has the default driver pack. Dock is updated to the latest firmware.
I will do more testing after work.

System:

  • Framework 12th Gen Bios 3.05
  • Windows 11

Tested:

  • Displayport (1080p)
  • HDMI (1080p)
  • Ethernet
  • USB ports (but only mouse and keyboard)
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NEC MultiSync EA271U - no hotplugging

I’ve tested my Framework 12th Gen laptop with a NEC EA271U monitor (which has a builtin USB-C dock). The Framework does work fine if the monitor is plugged in at boot, but if I disconnect and reconnect the monitor, the display is not recognized anymore. Power Delivery and USB devices still work. This problems happens both on Windows 11 and on Ubuntu 22.04, which likely makes it a firmware issue.

Framework Support has been responsive but unfortunately unable to solve this, and now asked me to post here.

Device: 12th Gen, 3.05 and 3.06 Beta BIOS.

Kensington SD5780T

TB4, 96W PD, specced at 2x4K@60Hz among other monitor combos. I only have one 4K@60Hz monitor, connected over HDMI. Also have a USB keyboard, a scanner and sometimes an Android phone connected to the dock.

Seems to work well with:

  • Framework 11th gen, BIOS 3.17, Fedora 37. Had to switch from deep to s2idle sleep to get thunderbolt to work after waking up, other than that no issues so far.

  • Work-issued Macbook Pro M1 13 inch. This is what pushed me to finally get a dock. The design gods only blessed this one with two ports.

  • Older Thinkpad T495, Fedora 37. This one is AMD so no TB, but still has alt mode so display also works fine with the dock.

Overall mildly pleasantly surprised so far. Kensington’s MSRP at $400 is too high, it’s almost $100 less on Amazon.

edit: On the FW and at least under Linux, I had to go back to s2idle and do some more workarounds. Still working well enough:

I currently have " ThinkPad USB-C Dock Gen 2" (partly because of this thread) but my problem is that when I plugin my Framework Chromebook it has problems identifying my monitor properly. ChromeOS sees it correctly by name but it has what seems like a random resolution. I can spend 15 minutes plugging and unplugging the thing until it finally recognizes the full resolution (5120 x 1440). Both the monitor and my dock are Display port 1.4 and I bought a “Thunderbolt 4” cable to rule that out. I also had the same issue using an Intel Nuc with this dock.

Could this be a dock problem? Or something else? It’s frustrating enough that I am considering upgrading the dock but am not sure if that’s the root cause. Considering CalDigit TS4 Thunderbolt 4 Dock.

I got my Steam Deck Dock a few weeks ago, and meant to post about trying it with my Framework (11th gen). Power delivery wasn’t working, but the rest worked out of the box in Linux - HDMI and Displayport just showed up in X, USB ports worked. I tried with my Framework’s charger, the Steam Dock’s charger, and a Macbook 90w USB-C, but none of them allowed charging.

Not a huge deal to plug the power in separately, but definitely not the perfect experience I had hope for.

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Is there a way that I can have my docking station plugged into power but not charge my Framework when connected?

@Daniel-L it should respect the max-charge setting of your BIOS.

But I guess what you’re trying to do is not possible right now.

@Daniel-L If you connect to your dock with an optical thunderbolt cable (very expensive), it should behave like that. Data transmission but no power transmission.

Just out of curiosity, why would you want to do this?

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Framework model i5-1240p
Dock model: Cable matters 201055-BLK
Monitors: 2x 1440p @ 60Hz
Operating system: Linux (NixOS)

Works out of the box. One of the displays went blank during a boot, but unplugging and replugging the usb dock resolved the issue.

Model: i5 1240p
Dock: DELL WD19TBS
Monitor: gigabyte 3440x1440 @60hz
OS: Fedora 37

I couldn’t get this to function as expected at first but I noticed others mention the Dell docks need firmware. But I haven’t seen anyone mention that there is a linux utility. I found this here.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=cwcf9

After running this and updating the firmware the dock seems to function as expected.

Model: framework 12th gen
Dock: Anker USB C Hub, 555
Monitor:LG 27EA53
OS: manjaro linux (6.1.12)
USB-C Hub (8-in-1), with 85W Power Delivery, 4K 60Hz HDMI Port, 10Gbps USB C and 2 USB A Data Ports, gigabit Ethernet Port, microSD.
I did not test 4K resolution, but it works fine with manjaro linux and supports gigabit ethernet.

I just tested my Steam Deck Dock with my 12th gen Framework running linux (Pop_OS) and power delivery works for me, with both the steam deck charger and the framework charger.
USBs, ethernet, HDMI all work as well. I haven’t tested Displayport yet.

The only issue is that the dock’s usb connector has a nub which makes it stick out from the bottom of the laptop. One might be able to cut the nub off but I don’t know. It’s fine if you put the laptop on a platform with the side hanging off but even then the shape of the Steam Deck Dock is a little awkward for anything that’s not a Steam Deck.