ThunderBolt 3 Dockingstation and Linux?

[gugkfot]

Hi,

how good is the Linux support for the ThunderBolt 3 Dockingstation? Are there any drivers or tricks?
As far as I can see only DisplayPort, the power button and loading the laptop are working through it out of the box. Networking and USB are not working.

My setup: T470s, ThunderBolt 3 Dockingstation (40AC0135EU), OS is Antergos (ArchLinux-based, Kernel version 4.10.13)

BR Andreas

[gugkfot]

Update: USB does work if the ThunderBolt and USB device options are enabled in the BIOS in Config / ThunderBolt 3 / Support in Pre Boot Environment. Audio does work too. But ethernet is still not recognized. Does anybody have an idea for that?

[martiniturbide]

Hi

You may already know that formally the device does not have Linux support.  But what I recommend you to do (sadly I don't have that device) is that you try to get the hardware id of the network adapter to see if you can recognize the chipset and find out if it is supported on Linux.

On other docks I notices that the ethernet port is recognized as an USB device. If you can find a tool on Linux to review your USB ports, maybe you can find out the deviceID of the Ethernet chipset.

Sadly from only looking at the support site drivers I can not tell if it has a Realtek or Conexant chipset.

https://support.lenovo.com/ec/en/accessories/acc100356

Regards

[Bazinger]

Since the price of the Lenovo dock is insane, I opted for a small little third party one, which is here.  It has 4 outputs --HDMI, VGA, USB3 and Ethernet-- and all of them work perfectly in Linux, including the Ethernet port (Ubuntu 16.04, on kernels ranging from 4.8 to 4.10). So what you want your dock to do is at least possible.

[hexmode]

They are pricy.

But I now have 3 external monitors hooked up to one, plus ethernet and a wireless keyboard.

To get USB on the docking station to work in Linux I had to disable security for Thunderbolt connections in the BIOS.  I'm not sure what the security got me, so I'm ok with that.

Now, if only we could use the docking station for charging, I would be over the moon.

[amery · Accepted solution]

if you use the type-c connector on the back of the dock you can charge the laptop.

Thunderbolt 3 "security" is there to prevent untrusted hardware to access the guts of your computer, but surely an "insecure" docking station is better than a not-working docking station

the ethernet adapter is r8152, but the driver doesn't seem to be available on Ubuntu 16.04

[gugkfot]

Thank you for the information that the ethernet adapter is a Realtek r8152. Arch users can find the package r8152-dkms in the AUR which works fine for me. Finally all that I need to connect to my laptop is the USB-C connector of the docking station

[hexmode]

Ok, I'm over the moon. Thanks for pointing out that connector on the back.

I'm using Debian Stretch, and it is using the cdc_ether driver for the Thunderbolt dock's USB.  dmesg shows the following when I just unplugged the the Thunderbolt cable to move it to the back connector:

[32550.814629] cdc_ether 6-1:2.0 enx0050b6898083: unregister 'cdc_ether' usb-0000:41:00.0-1, CDC Ethernet Device
[32557.624319] cdc_ether 6-1:2.0 eth0: register 'cdc_ether' at usb-0000:41:00.0-1, CDC Ethernet Device, 00:50:b6:89:80:83

Can I just say how surprised I am that everything on this is working (mostly) out of the box.  I plugged in 3 monitors and they all work.  No drivers or anything.  I changed a bios setting after getting the hint here and the usb ports on the dock work.

I do seem to be limited to 3 screens.  It won't let me laptop's display and the 3 external monitors at the same time.  It does recognize them all, but only lets 3 be active at once.  Given I couldn't have three external monitors on my old docking station, though, this is wonderful.

[Psi]

So you guys have tow external Monitors on the TB3 running with Linux?

Can anyone tell me if it's possible to connect two 4k Screens @60Hz?

I read about TB3 has different Speed-Specs so I need one with 40Gb?

[rh78]

I have the TB3 dock and am using it with Fedora 28 on a X1 Yoga 3.  USB, notebook charging over thunderbolt, 2 external displays plus the built in display work simultaneously (no flickering), network adaptor, audio jack.....it all works out of the box. Hotplugging and unplugging works fine too. 

If you use gnome, make sure to set thunderbolt security settings to User (in bios) and then goto the thunderbolt settings in gnome settings and authenticate.  Otherwse you may need to set security settings in bios to off (or install boltd and  authentica via cli).  Haven't tried 4k monitors.