Arch Linux

init5

Member

Registered: 2023-09-24

Posts: 3

Can't use external displays through docking station

Hi, first of all I really appreciate all the people in this forum! I always find solutions for nearly all my problems here, so thank you in advance!
Please be kind as English is not my first language and this is my first post here.

I'm the owner of a Lenovo Thinkpad T14 (intel) Gen 4. Yesterday I got to sleep and my setup was working fine. I've just powered on the PC but I noticed that the external monitors weren't working through the docking station (not Thunderbolt, but USB C).
Please note also that when I boot my PC I usually see the Firmware stuff and bootloader on all screens, now I can't. That is why I'm really confused.
My setup is peculiar as I use KDE+i3WM, but I'm savvy enough to adapt all suggestions to my needs.

Xrandr ouput:

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1920 x 1200, maximum 16384 x 16384
eDP-1 connected primary 1920x1200+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 302mm x 188mm
   1920x1200     60.00*+  59.95    48.00  
   1920x1080     59.93  
   1600x1200     60.00  
**TRUNCATED FOR BREVITY**
HDMI-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-4 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

lspci -k output:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Raptor Lake-P/U 2p+8e cores Host Bridge/DRAM Controller (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 230e
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Raptor Lake-P [Iris Xe Graphics] (rev 04)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Raptor Lake-P [Iris Xe Graphics]
	Kernel driver in use: i915
	Kernel modules: i915
00:04.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Raptor Lake Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework Processor Participant (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 230e
	Kernel driver in use: proc_thermal_pci
	Kernel modules: processor_thermal_device_pci
00:06.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Raptor Lake PCIe 4.0 Graphics Port (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 230e
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:07.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device a76e (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 230e
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:07.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device a72f (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 230e
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:0d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Device a71e (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 230e
	Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd
	Kernel modules: xhci_pci
00:0d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation Device a73e (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 230e
	Kernel driver in use: thunderbolt
	Kernel modules: thunderbolt
00:0d.3 USB controller: Intel Corporation Device a76d (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 230e
	Kernel driver in use: thunderbolt
	Kernel modules: thunderbolt
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake PCH USB 3.2 xHCI Host Controller (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Alder Lake PCH USB 3.2 xHCI Host Controller
	Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd
	Kernel modules: xhci_pci
00:14.2 RAM memory: Intel Corporation Alder Lake PCH Shared SRAM (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Alder Lake PCH Shared SRAM
00:14.3 Network controller: Intel Corporation Raptor Lake PCH CNVi WiFi (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device 0090
	Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi
	Kernel modules: iwlwifi
00:15.0 Serial bus controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake PCH Serial IO I2C Controller #0 (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Alder Lake PCH Serial IO I2C Controller
	Kernel driver in use: intel-lpss
	Kernel modules: intel_lpss_pci
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake PCH HECI Controller (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Alder Lake PCH HECI Controller
	Kernel driver in use: mei_me
	Kernel modules: mei_me
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Raptor Lake LPC/eSPI Controller (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 230e
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Raptor Lake-P/U/H cAVS (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 230e
	Kernel driver in use: sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl
	Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel, snd_sof_pci_intel_tgl
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Alder Lake PCH-P SMBus Host Controller (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Alder Lake PCH-P SMBus Host Controller
	Kernel driver in use: i801_smbus
	Kernel modules: i2c_i801
00:1f.5 Serial bus controller: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-P PCH SPI Controller (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Alder Lake-P PCH SPI Controller
	Kernel driver in use: intel-spi
	Kernel modules: spi_intel_pci
00:1f.6 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Device 0dc6 (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 230e
	Kernel driver in use: e1000e
	Kernel modules: e1000e
02:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Sandisk Corp WD Black SN770 / PC SN740 256GB / PC SN560 (DRAM-less) NVMe SSD (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Sandisk Corp WD Black SN770 NVMe SSD
	Kernel driver in use: nvme
	Kernel modules: nvme

If you have some suggestions or need more details please reach out.

Thank you,
Valerio

impossibleveins23

Member

From: Israel

Registered: 2022-06-18

Posts: 147

Re: Can't use external displays through docking station

Hi,
1. How's the monitor is connected to the docking station? DisplayPort? HDMI?
2. What happen when you connect it directly to the laptop?

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SeagullFish

Member

Registered: 2023-08-10

Posts: 34

Re: Can't use external displays through docking station

I've just powered on the PC but I noticed that the external monitors weren't working through the docking station (not Thunderbolt, but USB C).

This makes me think of an answer to a possibly related question at askubuntu.com. Since you are using a Lenovo laptop, may I assume that you are also using a Lenovo docking station?

Most Lenovo docking stations are based upon either Thunderbolt or DisplayLink. Could it be possible that your docking station is based on DisplayLink, thus needing a driver? If yes, then you will probably find the solution to your issue in this article. Also, maybe this post might be relevant.

init5

Member

Registered: 2023-09-24

Posts: 3

Re: Can't use external displays through docking station

I have no idea why but it solved itself and now it's there again...

Hi,
1. How's the monitor is connected to the docking station? DisplayPort? HDMI?
2. What happen when you connect it directly to the laptop?

1. DisplayPort
2. I can't, but everything is fine using another (windows-based) laptop

Since you are using a Lenovo laptop, may I assume that you are also using a Lenovo docking station?

Yes I am, the dock is this one: https://support.lenovo.com/gb/en/access … vice-parts
I guess the dock is based on DisplayLink, but I didn't need extra drivers and it worked until it didn't

Thank you for your time, I'll try installing the displaylink driver.

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 57,175

Re: Can't use external displays through docking station

If installign evdi doesn't fix it:
Please post your complete system journal for the boot:

sudo journalctl -b | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

Please post your Xorg log, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xorg#General

Though

Please note also that when I boot my PC I usually see the Firmware stuff and bootloader on all screens, now I can't

suggests it's not a software problem.
Does it come to life when you re-attach
- the dock?
- the monitor?

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init5

Member

Registered: 2023-09-24

Posts: 3

Re: Can't use external displays through docking station

suggests it's not a software problem

I think it is a firmware problem. This morning I tried to enable secure boot (but reverted the change) for an unrelated reason and on the very next boot the extenal monitors worked fine.
I really don't have the technical knowledge to know what happened to be honest.

NB: I didn't do anything else.

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 57,175

Re: Can't use external displays through docking station

Could also be a race condition, DP/hdcp is usually more robust than HDMI/hdcp, but the dock in the middle could still throw things off.
If it re-emerges, try to re-attach dock and monitor after the boot.

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How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

network_pun

Member

Registered: 2024-09-15

Posts: 1

Re: Can't use external displays through docking station

I think it is a firmware problem. This morning I tried to enable secure boot (but reverted the change) for an unrelated reason and on the very next boot the extenal monitors worked fine.
I really don't have the technical knowledge to know what happened to be honest.

NB: I didn't do anything else.

Just adding a similar situation I was in.  Not even in Arch, but this is the only place in the internet I could find reference to this situation so figured it's the best place to add more knowledge.

OS: PopOS / ubuntu 22.04
symptom
displays through docking station stopped working after unplugging the laptop a few days ago.  Displays/docking station, laptop don't match OP description at all (system76 laptop, dell docking station)
"not working" means "detected by OS, but no signal received by monitor".  Meanwhile other laptop running windows is fine on this setup.
Since the laptop has an onboard HDMI, I tested cabling direct, and that works fine to either monitor
I didn't have another docking station available to test.

all possible combinations of (laptop, docking station, monitors) x (powered off/on, disconnected/reconnected, cold boot/warm restart, power applied, not applied, etc) got the same results every time.  Also tried various combination of refresh rate/resolution to no effect.

Final Result:  disable TPM and reboot.  Took a very long time to actually reboot, but once it did it came online fine and monitors were perfectly functional for no obvious reason.  In this case it was disconnected from the docking station during boot.

I haven't bothered to re-enable the TPM yet, and I didn't try other BIOS settings, so not sure if there's something important about the TPM, or just "undirected fiddling with the BIOS" would be enough to clear whatever bad state the firmware got into.

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 12,789

Re: Can't use external displays through docking station

Thanks for the input, but OP hasn't visited the forum since their last post over a year ago.

Closing this thread.

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