TB16 Dock Linux Support

It works fine in Fedora Linux Workstation 27, out of the box, 10-minute installation succeeds on an empty computer. 

Once you remove all the Microsoft garbage from your computer, use F12 to enter BIOS, and somewhere in the BIOS check the boxes to allow all docking stations. 

The computer came with windows 10, it took over an hour to install it and a whole lot of stuff didn't work. 

Linux just works :-)

Just wanted to report that it works great with elementaryOS 0.4 ("Loki") on the Precision 5510. Ordered it, plugged the laptop using the thunderbolt cable, my 4K ASUS PB27U monitor, and my USB wireless keyboard + mouse after disabling thunderbolt security in BIOS. Everything just worked out of the box, very happy so far :)

 Dell 5520 with Ubuntu 16.04. Updated bios to latest from April 2018, and still cannot get monitors to work. When viewing dmesg, I can see that all the data ports work, and get all the other external devices. Just my monitors.

I have dual Apple Cinema Displays. When daisy chained and directly plugged into the USB-C plug with the apple thunderbolt-2-to-3 adapter, they are picked up immediately and work. However, when plugged into the dock's usb-c plug, I get nothing.

I've tried directly plugging a single monitor in via the display port in the TB16, and still nothing.

What am I missing in getting this working?

I've read elsewhere that the Apple thunderbolt 2-to-3 adapter does not work with the TB16. Those people reported success with the Startech adapter. Might want to give that a try. I ordered one on that recommendation, but I'm still awaiting arrival of my laptop so I cannot test it for you. Good luck!

I can now confirm that my Apple thunderbolt display works with the XPS 9370 through the TB16 dock with the Startech thunderbolt-3-to-thunderbolt adapter.

i'm running Ubuntu 18.04 on an XPS 15, unfortunately i have no luck with the display port. xrandr outputs stuff about it:

DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

but i can't see the second monitor under settings/displays. any pointers?

thanks

Current environment:
Dell XPS 15 9560 (Early 2017, delivered Feb 2017), 4k display, with Ubuntu 16.04.5, 2 separate TB16 docks - a Dell UP3216Q monitor connected to one and an AMH A409U 40" 4K monitor connected to the other via miniDP to DP cables. I also get 6+ hours of battery life running Ubuntu doing normal workflow.

2 mods done day of delivery immediately after running full Dell diagnostics on initial boot to make sure it found no issues:

(1) I swapped the Toshiba 1TB nvme SSD (OEM Win10) with a Samsung 960 Pro 1TB nvme SSD (Ubuntu 16.04, fresh install) - I only swap back to the Toshiba when I want to update firmware and drivers using the OEM Win10 install, which I have done once in 18 months.

(2) I replaced the OEM Killer wifi card with an Intel 8265.

I turned on TB dock options and set security level to no security in BIOS. Set power setting in Ubuntu to do nothing when lid is closed. Initially the TB16 was nothing more than a USB-C charger for the XPS-15 - I couldn't get any peripheral ports to a usable state. May have been linux driver support, linux kernel support, Dell firmware, or a combination of all three.

On 2018.08.20, I upgraded all Dell firmware and drivers current at the time - BIOS 1.11.1, TB16 f/w, and more that I can't recall - this did fix all of of problems with the TB16. It was also on this day that I received my second TB16 and the Dell UP3216Q.

This works pretty flawlessly now - my only minor issues (I hot-plug the TB16s and rarely reboot the XPS 15) are:

I cannot control the brightness of the external monitors from the laptop brightness function keys, the laptop display changes brightness but the external monitor connected via a miniDP cable from the TB16 does not.

Whenever I close the lid on the XPS-15, the external monitors think I unplugged them from the TB16 and go black (to sleep). I have not checked the other peripheral devices when I close the XPS-15 lid.

The TB16 DVI port does not appear to work with an older monitor, either using a DVI-D to DVI-D or a DVI-I to VGA cable.

My next issues, if I upgrade Ubuntu, are with Unity being deprecated in favor of Gnome 3 and fractional scaling of the display settings going away and only allowing 100% or 200%. My laptop 4K is perfectly usable at 150%, the UP3216Q is fine at 125%, and the AMH is fine at 100% scaling.

I'm having the exact same issue as mike65535, i.e., audio through the dock headphone jack on the TB16 has stopped working but everything else is fine.

Anyone found a way to fix this?

I just finished the upgrade to F29 - and it still doesn't recognize my plugging headphones into the TB16.

Note the dock works fine in Windows 10.  (I'm dual boot)
Also note that my original installation and several subsequent (earlier) versions of F28 did work properly with this same hardware.  Later versions of F28 did not.

Bronkoo's advice 
https://www.dell.com/community/Linux-Developer-Systems/TB16-Dock-Linux-Support/m-p/5109165/highlight/true#M7503
has been taken ;-)

IMO, it's not that the audio is muted or some such.  The physical plugging in of the headphones is not being picked up through the TB16.  The app pavucontrol and Fedora's  Settings -> Sound show no activity on the headphone jack of the TB16 when inserting or removing the plug.  They (pavu and sound)  respond appropriately, however, to activity on the native headphone socket on the 5530.  

I'm using Kubuntu 18.04 with the TB-16 dock and have been for about 18 months but has any actually been able to get the USB ports on the dock working and working in a stable manner? By stable I mean where they keep working especially after having to unplug the dock to fix it dropping out screens? I find that sometimes the USBs will pick up but if I am trying to use a headset like the Arctics Pro, whilst the dock passes through power the OS won't recognise anything as being connected. I also find this same issue with USB drives though they will sometimes work. I find that if I plug a mouse and keyboard in they will work for a short period of time, maybe a few minutes and will then loose connection where I will have to unplug them and plug them back in. I turned the thunderbolt security off ages ago

I have exactly the same issue. Never sure if the two external screens will pick up when the mouse is moved. Occasionally lose the function keys on the USB keyboard or the USB Mouse. Have to unplug the DP port and plug in again to get the screens back. Same with the USB.

Recent visit by Dell engineer to replace swollen battery in XPS15 said it's probably the board in the TB16 and to request another one, so thinking of doing that. BUT, I have no way of updating the firmware as I don't run Windows at all.  The only reason I managed to get the latest drivers in the one I have is I had a colleague with an XPS13 who did it for me. I work alone now. Dell aren't very helpful in this regard. Windows, windows, windows. Why they don't sell them as Windows appliances and not PC's I'll never know. They're certainly not Personal Computing devices.

@Slough100 I've managed to solve most of the issues now by updating the firmware using fwupdmgr.

This guide covers everything you need to know if you are running a Debian based OS https://itsfoss.com/update-firmware-ubuntu/ but essentially it's:

1. Check the device supports LVFS - https://fwupd.org/lvfs/devicelist

2. Check if fwupd is installled by running

which fwupdmgr

3. Start the daemon if its not running

sudo service fwupd start

4. Update the list

sudo fwupdmgr refresh

5. Apply updates

sudo fwupdmgr update

I still get the odd issue but nothing like before and the screen dropout is a lot less often

@Steve Mapes, where did you find the TB16 firmware?  I don't see anything listed in LVFS, and when I run;

(a) 'fwupdmgr get-devices', it lists the current version for my Dell TB16 as '0.0.0', which seems unlikely to be the latest version; and

(b) 'fwupdmgr update ' or 'fwupdmgr update ', it returns "No releases found".  

Your thoughts much appreciated. 

Regards