USB-C dock

[zaius]

I have a Cablecc dock (ethernet, usb, hdmi, sdcard). Everything is working out of the box except ethernet. It is a realtek ethernet chip (8152) which is detected but eth0 is not displayed in the network manager. It seems that it needs an updated driver.
It does not work at all in the default debian but is working well (except ethernet) on Ubuntu.

but on Ubuntu:

Ethernet Not OK. It is seen using dmesg but eth0 does not show up. The nic chip is supposed to be supported though. Maybe in a later kernel version...

Single-purpose Ethernet to USB adapters that work automatically with the stock Debian, do not work automatically with the Bionic-Mate build, either.

[DrYak]

TL;DR: very weird behaviour, but actually workable. (Though only in one USB-C orientation). Probably fixable?

USB-C mini-dock by LMP (it's the standard issue for Mac Books, etc. at my employer (ETHZ) )

Identifies on the USB as:

• Bus 008 Device 075: ID 058f:8468 Alcor Micro Corp.
  
• Bus 008 Device 076: ID 0bda:8153 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8153 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
  
• Bus 008 Device 074: ID 0bda:0411 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
  
• Bus 008 Device 073: ID 2109:0813 VIA Labs, Inc. USB3.0 Hub
  

Tree:

Code:

/:  Bus 08.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci-hcd/1p, 5000M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 73, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 5000M
        |__ Port 2: Dev 74, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 5000M
            |__ Port 1: Dev 76, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=r8152, 5000M
        |__ Port 4: Dev 75, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=usb-storage, 5000M

According to specs, this dock is both able to do UHD (4K at 60, etc.) and USB-3 (+ Network, SD and µSD over USB).
(So probably it's capable to dynamically remap the high speed lanes to either USB 3 and/or DisplayPort as needed)

I'm using it on Manjaro ARM which uses the latest upstream 5.4 kernel.

Now the weirdness:
When plugging the USB-C in one orientation, never works, except charging.

When I plug everything (with charger) and the USB-C in the other orientation (just reverse the connector, turning the USB-C the other way around), the dock keep cycling on/off as long as there is USB-PD powering.

Weirdness increases:
If I time correctly and unplug the USB-PD at the right moment (e.g.: by watching stuff getting detected and cycled on the `journalctl --follow`), the dock stops cycling at a moment when the DP-to-HDMI output converter is detected (I can see the monitor on output DP-1 in `xrandr`).
I can then set the monitor enabled and the resolution to something that only uses 2 out of the 4 high speed lanes (e.g.: 1920x1080 @24fps).

From that point onward, every thing (HDMI, USB-PD charging, USB3 hub, Ethernet and SD/µSD reader) work reliably even when unplugging/re-plugging.
But only in this orientations.

To me it seems like some race condition happening between the OS trying to enumerate everything available (USB-PD, everything on USB-3, all the display modes on DP) and the drivers assigning high-speed lanes to either USB-3 or HDMI (probing 4K @60Hz requires 4 DisplayPort lanes, which would yank out the two USB3 lanes, which would trigger a rescan of the USB-3, etc. thus the on/off cycles).

(I've pinged the mainline kernel dev in the other thread).

[DrYak]

Another test:

Apple's official USB-C to VGA (usb id: 05ac:1461)
Everything works (Charging, USB 2.0, VGA)

Manjaro with latest mainline 5.4 kernel.

[Luke]

As for the default Debian + MATE build, most USB-C stuff should work now (update v1.7)

[neilman]

As for the default Debian + MATE build, most USB-C stuff should work now (update v1.7)

I can confirm that the latest Mr Fixit update has magically enabled all the functionality of my Amazon special ZM100 USB-C multi-function Hub.


I can now use the wired Ethernet port to boost my down data rate from WiFi's 15-22Mbps to 76Mbps (only 17Mbps up though!)  
The HDMI and USB outputs allow me to plug in my KVM for vision, wireless keyboard and mouse.

I will try my other USB-C hub later on which has SD/uSD media reader sockets on it.

I think we're well past "best invention since sliced bread" - thanks to all the industrious "back room geeks"

[Luke]

HDMI out currently has some issues - just a heads-up.

[DrYak]

And more adventure in dock-testing land:

Simple HP USB-C to HDMI (03f0:434a) - works, well okay, it's not a multi-function dock, only a single purpose dongle, so it should work rather easily.

Apple's original USB-C to HMDI (05ac:100f) - everything works (HDMI, USB 3.0), but has some trouble flipping USB-C orientations (probably again a question of negotiating high-speed lanes  as on the larger dock with network ?)

[Thatoo]

About USB-C docs - we're looking into one particular dock at the moment. We didn't have a chance to take a look at docks in-depth prior to shipping because of all the issues we had to resolve. @Mrfixit2001 is getting one candidate dock any day now, and we'll see if he can make it work -- if/when it works, it will be available for purchase in the PINE64 store. Since its a generic dock that we'll rebrand, we'll let you know which other names it can be found under on amazon/ ebay etc.,

@jabo 4k desktop performance will be poor - at least on current builds. But 4K desktop on the RK3399 is asking a lot.  However  1440p is perhaps just 10-15% slower than 1080p -- probably comparable to your ultrawide setup right now.  Should be OK.

Is there any update on the coming of this dock to the PIN64 store?
Is it possible to imagine adding it to our brave heart order?

Thank you,

[nosy bay]

About USB-C docs - we're looking into one particular dock at the moment. We didn't have a chance to take a look at docks in-depth prior to shipping because of all the issues we had to resolve. @Mrfixit2001 is getting one candidate dock any day now, and we'll see if he can make it work -- if/when it works, it will be available for purchase in the PINE64 store. Since its a generic dock that we'll rebrand, we'll let you know which other names it can be found under on amazon/ ebay etc.,

@jabo 4k desktop performance will be poor - at least on current builds. But 4K desktop on the RK3399 is asking a lot.  However  1440p is perhaps just 10-15% slower than 1080p -- probably comparable to your ultrawide setup right now.  Should be OK.

The dock DELL DA200 Noir USB Type-C https://www.amazon.fr/Dell-DA200-Noir-US...B012DT6KW2
does not work. Testings on a 1920*1080 screen shows up HDMI display issues.


Regards

[Luke]

About USB-C docs - we're looking into one particular dock at the moment. We didn't have a chance to take a look at docks in-depth prior to shipping because of all the issues we had to resolve. @Mrfixit2001 is getting one candidate dock any day now, and we'll see if he can make it work -- if/when it works, it will be available for purchase in the PINE64 store. Since its a generic dock that we'll rebrand, we'll let you know which other names it can be found under on amazon/ ebay etc.,

@jabo 4k desktop performance will be poor - at least on current builds. But 4K desktop on the RK3399 is asking a lot.  However  1440p is perhaps just 10-15% slower than 1080p -- probably comparable to your ultrawide setup right now.  Should be OK.

The dock DELL DA200 Noir USB Type-C https://www.amazon.fr/Dell-DA200-Noir-US...B012DT6KW2
does not work. Testings on a 1920*1080 screen shows up HDMI display issues.


Regards

OS, kernel version, dmesg, etc., please