T440p + 40a2 Ultra Dock - Ports not working

[JosephD1902]

Hello all,
I am running Linux Mint 19.1 Tessa, I have recently upgraded my computer and I bought the 40a2 Ultra Dock and all ports excluding power and ethernet are not working correctly.

The ethernet port works as expected, and the laptop charges fine. The issue comes with usb or video devices. Currently I have tried both display ports for video, to no avail, I tested all the usb ports with a usb microphone and again with a usb light, and the TRRS 3.5mm did not work either.

If anyone has insight into a solution I would be keen to hear it, and if any system information is required I will gladly edit this post, or reply to the message with my information. Inxi -Fxxxrz output is as follows:

Code: Select all

System:
  Host: sooth-ThinkPad Kernel: 4.15.0-101-generic x86_64 bits: 64 
  compiler: gcc v: 7.5.0 Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3 tk: Gtk 2.24.31 
  info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm4 dm: LightDM 1.26.0 Distro: Linux Mint 19.1 Tessa 
  base: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 20ANS00000 v: ThinkPad T440p 
  serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: LENOVO model: 20ANS00000 v: 0B98401 PRO serial: <filter> 
  UEFI [Legacy]: LENOVO v: GLET90WW (2.44 ) date: 09/13/2017 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 45.8 Wh condition: 46.4/56.2 Wh (83%) volts: 12.3/10.8 
  model: SANYO 45N1145 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Unknown 
CPU:
  Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7-4900MQ bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
  arch: Haswell rev: 3 L2 cache: 8192 KiB 
  flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 44699 
  Speed: 1391 MHz min/max: 800/3800 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1391 2: 1338 
  3: 1396 4: 1396 5: 1395 6: 1397 7: 1371 8: 1335 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics vendor: Lenovo 
  driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:0416 
  Device-2: NVIDIA GK208M [GeForce GT 730M] vendor: Lenovo driver: nouveau 
  v: kernel bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1290 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.6 driver: modesetting,nouveau 
  unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1366x768~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Haswell Mobile v: 4.5 Mesa 19.2.8 
  compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor HD Audio 
  vendor: Lenovo ThinkPad T440p driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
  bus ID: 00:03.0 chip ID: 8086:0c0c 
  Device-2: Intel 8 Series/C220 Series High Definition Audio 
  vendor: Lenovo ThinkPad T440p driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
  bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:8c20 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.15.0-101-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I217-LM vendor: Lenovo ThinkPad T440p 
  driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: 4080 bus ID: 00:19.0 chip ID: 8086:153a 
  IF: enp0s25 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Intel Wireless 7260 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: 3000 
  bus ID: 04:00.0 chip ID: 8086:08b2 
  IF: wlp4s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 521.66 GiB used: 195.06 GiB (37.4%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: HGST (Hitachi) model: HTS725050A7E630 
  size: 465.76 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s rotation: 7200 rpm serial: <filter> 
  rev: B550 temp: 43 C scheme: MBR 
  ID-2: /dev/sdb model: SC2 M2 SSD size: 55.90 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s 
  serial: <filter> rev: 01.8 temp: 30 C scheme: MBR 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 449.13 GiB used: 97.42 GiB (21.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-1 
  ID-2: /boot size: 703.5 MiB used: 224.1 MiB (31.9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 
  ID-3: swap-1 size: 7.69 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/dm-3 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 53.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nouveau temp: 50 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 2487 
Repos:
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nilarimogard-webupd8-bionic.list 
  1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/nilarimogard/webupd8/ubuntu bionic main
  2: deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/nilarimogard/webupd8/ubuntu bionic main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
  1: deb http://mirrors.evowise.com/linuxmint/packages tessa main upstream import backport
  2: deb http://archive.linux.duke.edu/ubuntu bionic main restricted universe multiverse
  3: deb http://archive.linux.duke.edu/ubuntu bionic-updates main restricted universe multiverse
  4: deb http://archive.linux.duke.edu/ubuntu bionic-backports main restricted universe multiverse
  5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-security main restricted universe multiverse
  6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ bionic partner
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/spotify.list 
  1: deb http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free
Info:
  Processes: 275 Uptime: 28m Memory: 15.36 GiB used: 1.71 GiB (11.2%) 
  Init: systemd v: 237 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 7.5.0 alt: 7 Shell: bash 
  v: 4.4.20 running in: xfce4-terminal inxi: 3.0.27 

Thank you,
Joseph.
------------------------------------------------------------
(30 may 2020 8:59:11PM) Edit in response to:

I've never owned a dock, so can't help any further. I was hoping disabling the autosuspend feature for USB might fix this, but that's obviously not the case.

We'll need to wait for someone else to help at this point. One output that may help someone help you is lsusb

The output of sudo lsusb While the microphone is plugged into the dock is:

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Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:8000 Intel Corp. 
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:8008 Intel Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 045e:07b1 Microsoft Corp. 
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 058f:9540 Alcor Micro Corp. AU9540 Smartcard Reader
Bus 003 Device 005: ID 04f2:b39a Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd 
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 8087:07dc Intel Corp. 
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

While the output while the microphone is plugged into the laptop is:

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Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:8000 Intel Corp. 
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:8008 Intel Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 045e:07b1 Microsoft Corp. 
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 058f:9540 Alcor Micro Corp. AU9540 Smartcard Reader
Bus 003 Device 005: ID 04f2:b39a Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd 
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 8087:07dc Intel Corp. 
Bus 003 Device 006: ID 0d8c:0005 C-Media Electronics, Inc. 
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

The notable addition is the C-Media Electronics, Inc. device which is my Blue Snowball Microphone.

Another noteworthy piece of information is that when using a usb led strip, one that has no buttons it just turns on when given access to power, it will turn on only in a port designated with a yellow color/colour rather than the standard blue for usb3.0 or black for usb2.0.

[MrEen]

Hi Joseph, and welcome to the forum.

This is just a guess, but it's easy to undo if it doesn't work. Run this in the terminal then reboot:

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sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/usb-fix.conf <<<'options usbcore autosuspend=-1'

If this had no effect, simply run sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/usb-fix.conf to remove the change and reboot once more.

[JosephD1902]

Hi Joseph, and welcome to the forum.

This is just a guess, but it's easy to undo if it doesn't work. Run this in the terminal then reboot:

Code: Select all

sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/usb-fix.conf <<<'options usbcore autosuspend=-1'

If this had no effect, simply run sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/usb-fix.conf to remove the change and reboot once more.

Hi Een,
I ran your code and restarted, no perceivable changes were done and my usb microphone is continuing to be disabled. The 3.5mm jack which I use as a line in onto another computer is left undetected by the system and audio is routed through the laptop's speakers. Video also is not being output to the monitor, nor is it detected by the system as far as I can tell.
It seems as though no power is being output by the usb ports, as the microphone's(blue snowball) light is not displaying red as it does when it has access to power. I am concerned that the issue could possibly be that the dock is not functioning correctly. However there is a live usb port, but I do not believe it is for data transfer as it is yellow and marked with a battery logo, when used with a usb light, the light turns on in that port only.

[MrEen]

I've never owned a dock, so can't help any further. I was hoping disabling the autosuspend feature for USB might fix this, but that's obviously not the case.

We'll need to wait for someone else to help at this point. One output that may help someone help you is lsusb

[JosephD1902]

I've never owned a dock, so can't help any further. I was hoping disabling the autosuspend feature for USB might fix this, but that's obviously not the case.

We'll need to wait for someone else to help at this point. One output that may help someone help you is lsusb

No worries, thank you for the help you have given!
I will update my original post with the output of lsusb.

[MrEen]

I did find a review by Martin W here that implies you should be able to get things to work. Unless it's a dud of course, and that sometimes does happen.

[JosephD1902]

I did find a review by Martin W here that implies you should be able to get things to work. Unless it's a dud of course, and that sometimes does happen.

Hmm, yeah I had been searching it up earlier and I saw that there were others with issues, but I could not find an exact one similar to mine, the ports just not registering.But I did see many people were using the dock on linux but I could not figure out how they did so. I may have a dud, but I am hoping that is not the case because the always on usb seems to provide power. But I do not know how the dock functions in normal situations. I am going to continue searching for an answer, thank you for your help.

[JosephD1902]

After further searching I am thinking that maybe the docks firmware is out of date.
This is the readme.txt of the update. https://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/mobiles/fwdphb07.txt (link derived from https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/migr-4tpjf4 and search for 40a2, firmware update is under there too.

So it seems I need the "Synaptics VMM2322 Display Port HUB firmware", but I cannot seem to figure out how I would install this onto linux since the installer is compiled for windows and is an exe. Maybe I will try and install wine? I will post an update after I do so.

This is all pure speculation because I am not knowledgable enough on the subject so I could be doing something completely wrong.

[MrEen]

I don't think using WINE for that is the way to go. I could be wrong on that. I think you'll be better off creating a boot USB such as Hiren's BootCD for installing something like that, although I'm not even sure if that applies to Linux in any way.

EDIT: I just searched some dock threads, and it appears upgrading the firmware on Windows did make a difference for some in Linux, so I think it might be worth a shot.

[JosephD1902]

I don't think using WINE for that is the way to go. I could be wrong on that. I think you'll be better off creating a boot USB such as Hiren's BootCD for installing something like that, although I'm not even sure if that applies to Linux in any way.

EDIT: I just searched some dock threads, and it appears upgrading the firmware on Windows did make a difference for some in Linux, so I think it might be worth a shot.

I saw the same results of users using windows to upgrade, I had tried to create a boot usb which worked only temporarily a couple of weeks ago. Definitely gonna check our this Hiren's BootCD. I'll let you know asap if it works

[JosephD1902]

Booted into windows using the cd. Attempted to update the firmware to no avail, the most recent software which was version 7 wouldnt load because of it being unable to load the needed libraries for graphics apparently and I saw no fix to that issue. I attempted version 6 and it said the dock was not discoverable either. So I am unsure of my next steps to get the dock working. I believe those issues stemmed from the use of windows on that DVD because it was a very modified version.
I may have a new lead though, someone I know has a lenovo laptop running windows so I may be able to borrow theres if it connects. That could be a few days though, and that would not be an applicable solution to anyone else who has this issue, unless they were to install a fresh copy of windows on their own device.

Edit: Laptop was a t430 and according to Lenovo's forums the dock will not fit the device.

[MrEen]

Good luck Joseph! I hope you can get this sorted out!

[Peter Linu]

Hi Joseph,
I received great help from the Lenovo website.
https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/au/en/prod ... ordSearch=

You'll probably need to change to your country to get help.

Cheers,
Peter Linu