Dell Docking Station USB's not reading

moctir

I got a Dell Pro 13 Plus at work during the week, and on both my work and home Dell docking stations, the display works, but all USB ports and ethernet do not. I have been googling this for a while but have not found solutions that work for me.

Things I have tried are changing the Thunderbolt settings in the BIOS, this didn't affect it, from the arch wiki, forcing a PCI rescan:
# echo 1 > /sys/bus/pci/rescan

Things I have seen online but not tried are updating the BIOS (I have deleted the Windows partition so not sure how I'd go about this now) or installed some other firmware, disabled the C-state option in the BIOS.

Before I waste any more time trying things, has anyone else had this problem and solved it? I can't find anything searching here.

brent

moctir got a Dell Pro 13 Plus at work during the week, and on both my work and home Dell docking stations, the display works, but all USB ports and ethernet do not. I have been googling this for a while but have not found solutions that work for me.

I would have said defective dock or laptop not snug enough in the dock but this happens with two computers in two locations with two docks so now it's weird. And my thinking shifts from hardware to software.

No usb and no ethernet in dock seems to mean inconsistent power but..
Did this work in Solus for a while then all of a sudden stop?
Or did you just buy this dock?
Or did you just buy the laptops and docks?
Did dock work with any other distro?

(Questions to narrow down the situation)

edit:

moctir Maybe I should mess with more BIOS settings...

everything is so fabulously cryptic and random in BIOS world, it's maddening. feel like I need a translator

AlphaElwedritsch

What DE are you using.
In my current Gnome and also in the previous KDE I was able to make permission settings for Thunderbolt in the Gnome or KDE Control Center.
Let's see...

moctir

AlphaElwedritsch I'm using Plasma, I hadn't thought to check the settings but it actually says "No Thunderbolt devices connected". So now I'm wondering if I am missing some driver...

AlphaElwedritsch

HP is mine
Dell is my wifes

Connected my HP EliteBook 840 G5 for testing on the Dell dock.

Both works out of the box. Displays, NIC, USB, ...
HP: everything works
Dell: everything, except the mouse

moctir

Thanks, I suspect mine is something to do with this new Dell model. Maybe I should mess with more BIOS settings...

moctir

brent So this works on my last Dell laptop (on both docking stations) which was running Solus Plasma. With the new laptop USB and ethernet don't work on either on the dock.

I haven't tired any other distributions and don't really intend to! I have googled it a lot and it is most likely something to do with the BIOS. Some Windows users updated some firmware and it solved it for them. If you look at the arch wiki link I put in the first post, it is a known issue, but their solution didn't work for me. I tried changing a few more BIOS settings but no luck yet!

Axios

moctir I would suggest making sure firmware is up to date computer and dock

Just giving this for reference may or may not go with your dock (Info only)
https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=w5jt8

moctir

Axios Thanks, the only format is .exe, does Wine install these okay? I might try it tomorrow and report back.

AlphaElwedritsch

It's a Windows executable.
I'm sure wine can execute it, but I'm also sure wine cannot install the firmware on the dock. I think it's to barbone...

brent

dell fix for Pro 13 no LAN: https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000289260/dell-dock-cannot-use-lan-port-or-update-dock-firmware spoiler: bios moves

still hunting for usb port info

moctir

brent Thanks, did this already and didn't resolve it unfortunately.

@minh Yes that was preinstalled but this is a USB-C dock rather than a Thunderbolt one actually.

@TraceyC Yes this isn't really a Solus issue, I just wondered if anyone else has encountered this here, this is a Dell Pro 13 Plus PB13250. This is the first time ever I deleted the Windows partition as I was unable to resize it. After a few days usage I'm having a surprising amount of other woes, the laptop cannot suspend RAM, when it wakes up from hibernate, the touchpad moves on it's own (found a potential solution to this on another forum). I've been installing Linux on computers for over 12 years and never had this many issues.

minh

Have you installed this package eopkg info bolt? Mine is Lenovo adapter with XFCE, but I think same issue

TraceyC

It's unfortunate that not all manufacturers provide Linux support for BIOS and firmware updates, but that's the situation we're in. I also have a Dell Thunderbolt dock. I've done firmware updates for the dock and XPS laptop through my Windows install on the laptop, which dual-boots with Solus. It's the only reason I keep the Windows partition around. I wouldn't want to trust something as critical as a BIOS or firmware update to Wine.

I don't think there's anything Solus can do to fix it, it's best to reach out to Dell.

Axios

moctir This may or maynot be of use.
https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/dell-pro-pb13250-2-in-1-laptop/dellpro13plus_pb13250_om_lnl/updating-the-bios-in-linux-and-ubuntu?guid=guid-788e5d66-c463-49a4-aa6c-01c115a999f3&lang=en-us
https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000131486/update-the-dell-bios-in-a-linux-or-ubuntu-environment

The thing about bios is it can become corrupted and its hard to tell and flashing bios again cures that
not saying thats the issue.
Not sure the date of your machine either.

moctir

Axios It is quite a new model as far as I can see, our company have a contract with Dell and this is one of the few models available to us since May this year. I suspect as time goes on, some of these issues will get resolved as more models have similar issues.

TraceyC

What's the output of lsusb? The kernel has to see the USB ports before anything else can use them.