I have a Dell XPS laptop running Ubuntu 23.10. When it updated it also updated its firmware. Now my docking port is no longer seen bt my laptop. This includes two external monitors, a USB headset the network connection, the mouse and power (the laptop has stopped charging). I switched the connector to a different USB 3 (thunderbolt?) connector, powered the docking port on and off several times and still nothing. Oddly, I still have internet conectivity… maybe via wireless? Not sure.
It is connecting via WiFi BTW
Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks, Dan
What model dock are you using? Is there any chance you are having a power issue with the dock? My lenovo dock required 2 beefy laptop power supplies. Using a smaller power supply meant only a couple ports worked.
I’ve heard stories of Dell pushing firmware upgrades that borked compatibility with non-dell docks, but that was on windows. fwup does the same thing though, so if you have it, you might be in trouble.
I personally don’t want to believe it, as a latitude fanboy myself. But I am lately getting very sick of shenanigans like this with big OEMs and don’t feel like supporting them. TBF I haven’t bought an OEM device for myself in ages, but for my family, I did (and kinda regret, because troubleshooting them was horrible - they were not latitudes).
Hi ThatGuyB and JohnReese,
The dock is a Dell WD15. The laptop (purchased as a Linux machine) is a Dell XPS 9320 (core i7-1360P) and is about a year and a half old. The dock on the other hand is quite old (though it worked fine until Monday after a firmware update. Just FYI, the Gnome Software module would sometimes have a small flag on the Update button, when pressed it would sometimes list Firmware Update (I don’t recall the exact wording). When clicked and install was clicked, nothing would happen other than the flag on the update button would clear. That is, until I happened to reboot the system, it would start to boot Linux and then some obviously Dell software would take over and do BIOS updates, Firmware updates and so on. As it finished it would say “Restarting Linux” and Linux would restart. All was well until the update on Monday (which did a firmware update as described above). I did notice that while the power brick for the dock is working fine, the LED on the connector that plugs into the thunderbolt socket is not lit, even when plugged in (I’m pretty sure this used to light up). Maybe the dock just failed on me… it is several years old after all.
I’m going to give Dell support a try though I have some pretty low expectations. I’ll let you know how it goes.
And thank you for the assistance! I really appreciate it!
Dan Rhea (aka Lurchicus)
So, I completely disconnected everything from my docking port (Dell said it was too old to support by the way) and was preparing to dispose of it and replace it with a new port. I decided to reconnect everything and try one more time. It started working again. I guess this was the extreme version of turn it off and turn it back on. I am still planning on replacing it as it is really ancient, but no rush for the moment.
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