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Max N avatar Ubuntu

Thunderbolt subsystem not available

cn flag
Max N

Even though the reason for the issue turned out to be the cable length, I do think this question and the answer contain some valuable hints for users with the same or similar issues and documents troubleshooting procedure. It may well be that this issue is reproducible with the same hardware:

I have a DELL XPS 13 9360 with freshly installed Kubuntu 23.04 (Kernel 6.2.0-1010-lowlatency, also tried with 6.2.0-27-generic but makes no difference) and a Lenovo Thunderbolt 3 Gen2 Docking station. I've set the Thunderbolt security to none. Ethernet, Audio-out and USB hub are working on the Thunderbolt dock. However, in the system preferences the Thunderbolt preference pane looks like this: Thunderbolt preferences shows "Thunderbolt subsystem not available"

Package bolt is installed:

$ pt policy bolt
bolt:
  Installed: 0.9.5-1
  Candidate: 0.9.5-1
  Version table:
 *** 0.9.5-1 500
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu lunar/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

boltctl doesn't see the dock, it shows a different doch which I had connected earlier (not Gen2).

$ boltctl list
 ○ Lenovo ThinkPad Thunderbolt 3 Dock
   ├─ type:          peripheral
   ├─ name:          ThinkPad Thunderbolt 3 Dock
   ├─ vendor:        Lenovo
   ├─ uuid:          cf030000-0080-7708-23f4-60066cf1011f
   ├─ generation:    Thunderbolt 3
   ├─ status:        disconnected
   ├─ authorized:    Mo 21 Aug 2023 07:36:01 UTC
   ├─ connected:     Mo 21 Aug 2023 07:36:01 UTC
   └─ stored:        Mo 21 Aug 2023 07:36:01 UTC
      ├─ policy:     iommu
      └─ key:        no

$ boltctl monitor
Bolt Version  : 0.9
Daemon API    : 1
Client API    : 1
Security Level: none
Auth Mode     : enabled
Ready
1692634019762413 Probing started
1692634021737080 Probing done

The screen on the Display Port shows up in the Display configuration:

Displays preferences, shows DP monitor attached

But the screen says there is no input and goes into energy saving mode.

I do have a thunderbolt 3 controller apparently:

lspci | grep -i thunder
01:00.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation DSL6340 Thunderbolt 3 Bridge [Alpine Ridge 2C 2015]
02:00.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation DSL6340 Thunderbolt 3 Bridge [Alpine Ridge 2C 2015]
02:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation DSL6340 Thunderbolt 3 Bridge [Alpine Ridge 2C 2015]
02:02.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation DSL6340 Thunderbolt 3 Bridge [Alpine Ridge 2C 2015]

dmesg shows me a handful of these messages, not sure if that's related:

[ 1972.661818] pcieport 0000:00:1c.0: AER: Corrected error received: 0000:01:00.0
[ 1972.661828] pcieport 0000:01:00.0: PCIe Bus Error: severity=Corrected, type=Data Link Layer, (Receiver ID)
[ 1972.661831] pcieport 0000:01:00.0:   device [8086:1576] error status/mask=00000080/00002000
[ 1972.661835] pcieport 0000:01:00.0:    [ 7] BadDLLP

and

[   28.590082] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] *ERROR* Timed out waiting for DP idle patterns
[   28.590099] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] *ERROR* Link Training Unsuccessful
[   28.615460] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] *ERROR* CPU pipe B FIFO underrun
[   29.155382] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] *ERROR* Timed out waiting for DP idle patterns
[   29.155391] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] *ERROR* Link Training Unsuccessful
[   29.179997] i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] *ERROR* CPU pipe B FIFO underrun

Is the module loaded?

$ cat /proc/modules | grep bolt
intel_wmi_thunderbolt 20480 0 - Live 0x0000000000000000
wmi 40960 6 dell_wmi,dell_smbios,wmi_bmof,dell_wmi_descriptor,intel_wmi_thunderbolt,video, Live 0x0000000000000000

ls /sys/bus/thunderbolt ls: cannot access '/sys/bus/thunderbolt': No such file or directory

Let's see if there are firmware updates:

$ fwupdmgr get-updates
Devices with no available firmware updates: 
 • USB2.0 Hub
 • USB2.0 Hub
 • USB3.1 Hub
 • USB3.1 Hub
 • MSP430
 • SSD 980 PRO 1TB
 • UEFI dbx
 • USB2.1 Hub
 • ZEDi8
Devices with the latest available firmware version:
 • System Firmware
No updates available

fwupdmgr doesn't see any updates. I did check that the Dock is conected with the right ports, as described.

Since fwupdmgr does not list the dock, I've done a firmware update of the dock using a Windows PC, but this did not help. Dock is working fine on differnt computer withWindows.

What else could I do to get it working on Linux?

Update: Installed Windows on same computer and ran all the updates from Dell and Intel. Dock just not working on this computer, no matter if Windows or Linux. I downgraded the dock to the old one, that works.

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Artur Meinild avatar
vn flag
Artur Meinild
Is the package `bolt` installed? Please check with `apt policy bolt` and include output in your question. Thanks.
1
Reply
guiverc avatar
cn flag
guiverc
Have you tried using the standard kernel? Ubuntu Studio reported that not all hardware modules (*drivers*) work with the low-latency kernel, thus to it should not be the default unless necessary for your actual work (Ubuntu Studio also use the KDE Plasma desktop, thus are rather similar to Kubuntu - though not identical).
2
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Max N avatar
cn flag
Max N
@ArturMeinild Added info regarding bolt.
0
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Max N avatar
cn flag
Max N
@guiverc Standard Kernel makes no difference sadlly
0
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muru avatar
us flag
muru
If someone reproduces the problem with *working* hardware they can post a new question about it. No point in conflating a software problem with one caused by a wonky wire. That will just confuse the discussion.
0
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Artur Meinild avatar
vn flag
Artur Meinild
Hardware troubleshooting is not the scope of this site. A defect cable has nothing to do with Ubuntu.
3
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Max N avatar
cn flag
Max N
@ArturMeinild The cable is not defect. It works well with other computers. I suspect it has to do with the signal strength of the PCI bus of this computer model.
0
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Artur Meinild avatar
vn flag
Artur Meinild
Still hardware specific, and nothing about Ubuntu. This would be well-versed for a hardware site, but this site is about the OS Ubuntu.
2
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BeastOfCaerbannog avatar
ca flag
BeastOfCaerbannog
@MaxN As others said, this is a hardware issue, so it's [not supported here](https://askubuntu.com/help/on-topic). You may feel frustrated by having your question closed, but trying to reopen it will most probably not work for the above reason. I understand that you want to help other people facing the same problem, but Ask Ubuntu is not the correct place for this. You can post your Q&A in [Super User](https://superuser.com/), however, which supports hardware-related questions, so your post will still be useful and helpful to others! I hope you understand and thank you for your effort!
1
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Score:0
Max N avatar Ubuntu
cn flag
Max N

Turns out that a shorter Thunderbolt cable made it work. The longer one, (new and supplied with the Gen2 dock) did not work with the computer and the display did not see the signal. The shorter TB cable from the original dock connected to the Gen2 dock made it suddenly work. The longer cable does work though with other computers.

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