Thanks! I picked up what I assume is the non-smart version, WD25TB5.
It fixes the external monitor issues that I had with the older dock, but comes with its own issues (at least on the 13 AMD 7040):
boltctl on fresh boot, requires an unplug/replug cycle to address.fwupd seems to have, if not the same, then a vaguely similar issue making pending updates “sticky”.The firmware issue is def real, but with it showing up as usb rather than thunderbolt is a rabbit hole that I experienced with HP T4 dock.
It comes down to:
a) how you set up your early boot.
b) what devices you have connected.
The first one is, that the dock negotiates 3(?) times on boot-up: UEFI, then preboot, then boot/os.
The second one, is that some devices (like one of my old custom keyboard with a wierd firmware) doesn’t really like resetting which inturn seems to get the dock stuck at a certain stage, which is usally more limited, depending on your config.
So my suggestion is, see what USB devices at the dock might cause problem. My setup currently loads usbhid and xhci_hid modules in initramfs, but no thunderbolt.
Edit: I also have options pci hpbussize=0x33 hpmemsize=256M set as a kernel parameter, idk if it ever helped.
Has anyone tried using this AmazonBasics TB4 dock? I’m tempted to give it a shot just to see what happens. It’s very inexpensive.
That looks identical to the Kensington SD5780T, itself a rebrand of an ODM model whose name escapes me. I used it for years, it works, with some display quirks (on AMD 7040: very picky on cable combo for external 4K@60 to work, and lately had some apparent signal quality/sync problems, creating screen artifacts). Good cheap & cheerful deal for the price IMO.
Edit: Forgot that the first one partly died (display output stopped working) after a few months, replaced on warranty.
I’m currently looking at a Ugreen Revodok Max 213 for the simple fact this one does have a DisplayPort at the back and my current LG screen has 2 DP inputs (plus a HDMI input, and a USB-C/TB3/TB4-ish looking input)
It’s currently priced at 245 EUR which is already quite pricey enough for me.
Wonder if it’s any good?
If you’re in Germany, their official website has it for 210€, if not, maybe amazon.de delivers to you
A little late to the party from the prior discussion, but one of the recent bios or driver updates has enabled the power button on my WD19TB dock to begin working as expected on the FW16 1st gen.
I just got this dock today. Ugreen Revodok Max 213 also known as U710. I can’t make it work in my 13 Ultra. It would not recognize the laptop or vise versa, I am not sure. When I connect it, lights green which mean standby I think. It does not charge and no attached devices are being recognized, does not show in TB device list in Linux. Its not OS related as it fails to charge even before OS boot. Tried the dock on Lenovo laptop, no problem. I am on the 3.06 BIOS (latest) and I have done retimer updates. when doing fwupdmgr get-devices they show as
Devices that have been updated successfully:
• UEFI Device Firmware (0x000000cf → 624)
• UEFI Device Firmware (0x000000cf → 624)
The only way I got it to connect is full power off, battery disconnected, keep power button pressed for 60 sec. Then plug in the dock without the battery connected. It worked. After I connected the battery and rebooted, same issue again. I spent whole night trying to make this thing work. I have external thunderbolt enclosures and I can’t do without a dock. My old razer dock worked too, but this one won’t.
Any ideas, very much appreciated!
I’ve been using the Caldigit Element Hub 4 for years with my 13” 11th gen running Arch Linux without any issues, but since about two months ago, USB-A devices don’t seem to register at all when connected through the hub (while the thunderbolt ports work perfectly with 4k display via displayport adapter, 10 Gbit ethernet dongle, etc.).
I updated to the 3.24 firmware and the 6.18.2.arch2-1 kernel, but no luck. Any ideas for what could cause this?
edit: power cycling seems to help, and sometimes it’s not an issue at all
The table up at the top appears to have reached its maximum size, which I only learned after I tried to add info on the dock I’ve been using with my 11th-gen Framework 13:
Dockteck USB-C docking station
I currently have Artix Linux and Win10 installed, and everything works properly. In the past, I’ve had Gentoo, Arch, and Win11 installed.
Got that one too. It was cheaper then the WD version. As far as I understand, the normal version would not have the WiFi card and its probably not showing up as a network device when the host is disconnected (to be remotely managed and self-update). So possibly, the idle power consumption of the WD variant would be lower, but it seems to not “do“ much until its configured to do stuff.
I was very curious that its using a Realtek USB3 2.5G ethernet controller, despite also having an Intel PCIe 2.5G controller and drivers. Seems like it will only switch to the PCIe controller on specific professional laptops from Dell for even more remote management functions of the notebooks.
The Intel USB4 controller can do UHBR10 and UHBR20 (not UHBR13.5). The MST Hub is a Synaptics VMM9430, which can do UHBR20. They don’t say much about lower speeds, but I’d assume that includes UHBR13.5. So, TB outs can do UHBR10+UHBR20, the DP (incl. DP Alt port) should do everything up to UHBR20.
With my Strix Point FW, I managed to test 2xUHBR10 and 4xUHBR10 host connections.
Well, the USB4v1 standard and all Frameworks to date only support max. DP 1.4 in terms of tunneling through USB4. So our hosts are limited to max 4xHBR3 per DP tunnel (even though some of them already support some UHBR speeds for native output out of the same ports).
Newer controllers could use the UHBR speeds (although not much use of that on a 40G USB4 connection) as long as the bandwidth fits, which can get very complex for USB4.
The TB5 / USB4 80G controller in the dock (the only one so far) can do 3 DP tunnels in any which combination that is not UHBR13.5. Rest depends on the host’s decisions.
Our hosts also only do 2 DP tunnels. And because of the way MST is handled, if that is in use, it will get the highest supported speed connection. So typically, we would loose a 4xHBR3 connection to the MST Hub and then what little remains (in 40G) could be used for a 4xHBR1 connection out of any of the TB outs.
With a host maxing out the features, it would probably go into 120G/40G mode and use a 4xUHBR20 tunnel to the MST hub. With probably enough bandwidth left over to do another 4xHBR3 or 2 4xHBR2 connections out of the TB ports.
But any host that can do that, may also be smarter about bandwidth allocation, where GPU and USB4 driver coordinate. Then they can be lots more flexible.
Most likely both. I am pretty sure Dell only updated their old docks to use the PD spec for the button presses after a few years and it was originally fully proprietary. Just as the power LED feature of the dock still is.
Different topic as a warning: I have the Ivanky Fusion Dock Pro TB5 dock as well. They try to do the power button PD standard, but failed. I can sniff the USB-PD communication and see, that they are producing invalid packets and thus it does not work with most laptops (there are 2 locations where bits are supposed to be set in those packets. One for button-press/release and another few to indicate that its about a power button. And they lack the identification of the power button. So only devices that have very broken parsing of that PD packet will understand this). And they seem to not do firmware updates.
I want to add a great dock that works very well on my FW13 running Fedora 43. No fuss.
Inland USB Type-C 8-in-1 Hub with DP1.4 (available at Microcenter).
SKU: 484725 Mfr Part#: D01022-00193
All ports work out of the box, no additional drivers needed in Linux/Mac etc. and it’s affordable ~$60.
Features: 2 HDMI ports that support 4K/60Hz(single)/(dual) 30Hz, Gb Ethernet, 2 USB-A (3.0), SD card slots and 100w Type-C PD for charging.
What platform of FW13 are you using? There can be a big difference between intel and AMD boards when it comes to how well a docking station is supported.