Docking Stations for OpenSUSE

English Hardware
#1

I have a Lenovo FLEX 5 running Tumbleweed, and with some help on this forums I was able to get my DisplayLink based docking station to work. That said, the DisplayLink software has been running at 200% CPU regularly, and a quick search of the web reveals that seems to be the norm, and DisplayLink has no intention of fixing it for Linux users.

Taking that into account and the amount of time I have sunk into it, I am willing to just replace the docking station with one that doesn’t use the DisplayLink software and works better with Linux, specifically OpenSUSE. I did a search, but I didn’t find anything in the OpenSUSE Wiki about docking stations. When searching the web, I was having trouble finding any docking stations that didn’t use DisplayLink, so I thought I would ask the Forums if they knew of any that worked well.

Any suggestions?

#2

Hi
Do you have a part number for the docking station? So this docking station connects via USB, have you tried a different USB port?

If USB, can you post the output from;


lsusb -t
#3

Here is the result of lsusb -t:

/:  Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/6p, 5000M
/:  Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/12p, 480M
    |__ Port 2: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
        |__ Port 1: Dev 4, If 1, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
        |__ Port 1: Dev 4, If 2, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
        |__ Port 1: Dev 4, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
        |__ Port 4: Dev 6, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
            |__ Port 1: Dev 9, If 6, Class=CDC Data, Driver=cdc_ncm, 480M
            |__ Port 1: Dev 9, If 4, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 480M
            |__ Port 1: Dev 9, If 2, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 480M
            |__ Port 1: Dev 9, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=usbfs, 480M
            |__ Port 1: Dev 9, If 5, Class=Communications, Driver=cdc_ncm, 480M
            |__ Port 1: Dev 9, If 3, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 480M
            |__ Port 1: Dev 9, If 1, Class=Application Specific Interface, Driver=, 480M
        |__ Port 3: Dev 8, If 0, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 12M
        |__ Port 3: Dev 8, If 1, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 12M
    |__ Port 5: Dev 3, If 1, Class=Video, Driver=uvcvideo, 480M
    |__ Port 5: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Video, Driver=uvcvideo, 480M
    |__ Port 6: Dev 5, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=, 12M
    |__ Port 7: Dev 7, If 0, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M
    |__ Port 7: Dev 7, If 1, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M

Also, there is only the one USB port on the appropriate side of the computer, but I wasn’t sure why you thought it would be a USB issue.

#4

Hi
So how does the docking station connect if not via USB? Can you post the part number of the docking station?

I’ve seen a few issues with USB and cpu usage along with the xhci_hcd driver here, unplug and use a different port and all is good.

#5

Not sure about the type that the OP is referring to but I have seen proprietary docking stations (eg for HP, Dell etc) which seem to utilize a dedicated connection slot (although these may ultimately be connected the USB subsystem perhaps). They’re not so common anymore. Most people seem to be using USB-c connected port replicators these days.