Precision 5510 Thunderbolt 3 Firmware Updates on Linux

I've asked this before and never seen an answer.  Still very interested.

Bump.  How about it, Dell?

The port works initially and then does not work after a suspend/resume cycle.  Obviously this makes it rather worthless on a laptop.

When can we expect an update?

Kinda in the same boat. I purchased the XPS 15 9550 and wipe Windows partition for Ubuntu. As a full stack web developer I don't "require" Windows (when it comes to testing on various version of IE we have no choice anyway to have several VM of the various combination of Windows and IE which you can get directly from Microsoft). I also bought the TB15 docking station but I only get power and HDMI working. That's obviously not enough as I would like to have; power, HDMI, extra USB and ethernet working. Therefore the docking station is completely useless to me right now. So I had to buy an external USB-C Anker ehternet adapter so I least I can be wired. Which by the way work works well.

Anyway, I've even try to make a bootable usb stick with FreeDos so I would run the Intel Thunderbolt 3 Firmware update in the hope that would help but that executable can't be run under FreeDos :(

Is there any other way to get that Firmware Update running other that having a full version of Windows install?

Dell, any word on this?  Very disappointing that the TB/USB-C ports are essentially broken under Linux, when you ship the system with Linux.

Try kernel 4.6, it has support for Thunderbolt 3.

I have my TB15 working with Dell Precision 5510 on Fedora 23 with this kernel, with 3 screens at 2560x1440 resolution. USB and LAN not working yet, but it's a matter of time (i hope).

@Gregbunk

I apologize, we are currently working with our partners on this.  Stay tuned for more information

thanks,

Barton

@ziomal7 I was referring to a firmware update that has been made available but requires Windows to run. Since Dell has made these machines available without Windows installed on them, people watching this thread are keen to know how they can apply the upgrade to machines purchased with Linux factory installed.

Try kernel 4.6, it has support for Thunderbolt 3.

Thunderbolt 3 works fine initially (I'm actually on 4.7-prerc1, but it also worked with 4.6.)

However, as soon as the machine is suspended/resumed, thunderbolt no longer works, since the BIOS/Thunderbolt firmware does not notify the OS that there has been a hot plug event and even a manual PCI rescan does not see anything plugged in.

This means that TB is essentially entirely non-functional.

Also, just plugging something into the TB3 port to charge (such as my Nexus 6p - which does indeed charge correctly) will stop the processor from hitting higher package C-States.  This dramatically increases heat, dramatically reduces battery life, and is a state of affairs that Intel specific warns might be dangerous.

In a nutshell, TB support under linux is non-functional.  At best.  And there is no way to update the firmware to see if that might help, since that requires Windows and I bought the machine with Linux.

Bump.  Any updates on this issue?  I actually have a need for this TB port.

Here is the update Jared gave on a separate thread (in a nutshell we are actively working on it but dont have an ETA): 

I am one of the Linux OS Architects here and am the technical lead for Project Sputnik as of October.

Linux support for our Type C docks is still actively being worked on by my team. We very much intend to support them. There's much work going on behind the scenes for this, including significant work on supporting updating dock firmware from Linux. (Our docks, like many docks, have multiple separate updatable firmware payloads.) Some of that discussion you'll even see happening on some open fora like on LKML and in fwupd's GitHub project. Some of it is not yet ready to be discussed openly, but rest assured that dock support is a priority for us.

HTH

Thanks.  

Just to be clear, I'm not at all interested in the dock.  

I just want to be able to reliably use the USB-C port, across suspend resume cycles, and without losing the ability for my processor to get into package C States higher than PC4.

In order to do that, I clearly need to be able to update my TB firmware (*not* the dock firmware, the actual TB port firmware) without windows (or, I guess, you guys could ship me a free version of windows to go, though I'm guessing that's not in the cards.)

Just to be clear, I'm not at all interested in the dock.   I just want to be able to reliably use the USB-C port, across suspend resume cycles, and without losing the ability for my processor to get into package C States higher than PC4. In order to do that, I clearly need to be able to update my TB firmware (*not* the dock firmware, the actual TB port firmware) without windows (or, I guess, you guys could ship me a free version of windows to go, though I'm guessing that's not in the cards.)

The work I mentioned is inclusive of support for host-side Thunderbolt firmware flashing.

That's great, and I very much look forward to it.

I'd be just as happy if I could just flash it from the BIOS.  FWIW.

I see there's been another thunderbolt firmware update.  How can I apply this on Linux?