External screen not recognized through HP docking station

English Hardware
1

Hello everyone,

I am having trouble getting my HP G2 USB-C dock to work with my laptop (HP Spectre x360 Convertible 13-ac0XX) on OpenSuse tumbleweed. The issue is that the docked laptop does not recognize an external monitor when connected on the dock through either an HDMI or DisplayPort, even though all other features of the dock work properly.

I have already updated the dock’s firmware using a software called “firmware” from KDE Discover, but this did not resolve the issue. I also tried booting into Windows 10 on the same laptop and found that the HDMI port worked fine only after installing some updates for Intel drivers through the Windows Update tool.

Given these details, it seems like a potential driver problem related to Intel. The plasma desktop and Wayland session both exhibit this issue. I am not comfortable with terminal commands and prefer a graphical solution if possible.

Has anyone encountered or heard of similar issues? Any suggestions on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated!

2

What does “all other features” mean?? Only other thing I can think of would be an Ethernet pass-thru.

I have Dell and Lenovo laptops with dedicated docks sharing Ethernet, DVI (TW on desktop), HDMI (Win10 on laptop), and USB (keyboard / mouse for both) to a Dell 38" monitor with KVM switching and they’ve worked since day one.

Is the HP G2 fully compatible with the Spectre x360?? There are instances where HDMI /DVI specs don’t quite match, so cause minor issues.

3

Thank you for your answer.

Actually I should not have written “all other features” since I have not tested everything. What works is the supply of power to the laptop, the 4 USB-A port and the one USB-C port.

I suspect HP G2 is compatible with Spectre x360 because what I want to do (to plug an external Sony TV through the dock as a laptop screen) does work on windows.

4

Possibly us knowing your laptop’s graphics setup would help us help you. Run inxi -GSaz in a DE terminal like Konsole or Xterm, then copy/paste input/output from it here using the PRE button above the input window, or by putting ~~~ alone on a line above your paste and again alone on a line below your paste.

5

$ inxi -GSaz

System:
  Kernel: 6.6.2-1-default arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.2.1
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.6.2-1-default
    root=UUID=9047b906-3f1b-4570-b343-2f431bf17c83 splash=silent quiet
    security=apparmor mitigations=auto
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.27.9 tk: Qt v: 5.15.11 wm: kwin_wayland vt: 4
    dm: SDDM Distro: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20231124
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 620 vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915
    v: kernel arch: Gen-9.5 process: Intel 14nm built: 2016-20 ports:
    active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, HDMI-A-1, HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 00:02.0
    chip-ID: 8086:5916 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Suyin HP TrueVision FHD RGB-IR driver: uvcvideo type: USB
    rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 1-5:2 chip-ID: 064e:3401
    class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.9 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.2
    compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa
    alternate: intel dri: iris gpu: i915 display-ID: 0
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 res: 1920x1080 size: N/A modes: N/A
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 23.2.1 renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 620 (KBL
    GT2) direct-render: Yes

Thank you mrmazda for the directions.

Also

There are instances where HDMI /DVI specs don’t quite match, so cause minor issues.

What kind of minor issues could be at the source of my problem?

6

You followed them largely correctly. I’ve corrected in the quote above so that all input/output is within code tags.

Wayland doesn’t provide access to all desired information, so please repeat from an X11 session, and show the command and prompts as you see I did above. Be sure dock and external display are connected and powered when running inxi.

Is your connection from laptop to dock USB-C on both ends?

7

Thank you mrmazda for helping me.

So the following command is issued while the laptop is powered by the dock. The connection from laptop to dock is USB-C on the laptop’s side. On the dock’s side, the cable is sealed to the dock (not unpluggable). A HDMI cable goes from the dock’s HDMI port to the TV’s HDMI port. The sony TV is powered and switched on. The dock is powered. I am logged in a plasma X11 session.

~> inxi -GSaz
System:
  Kernel: 6.6.2-1-default arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.2.1
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.6.2-1-default
    root=UUID=9047b906-3f1b-4570-b343-2f431bf17c83 splash=silent quiet
    security=apparmor mitigations=auto
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.27.9 tk: Qt v: 5.15.11 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 2
    dm: SDDM Distro: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20231124
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 620 vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915
    v: kernel arch: Gen-9.5 process: Intel 14nm built: 2016-20 ports:
    active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, HDMI-A-1, HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 00:02.0
    chip-ID: 8086:5916 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Suyin HP TrueVision FHD RGB-IR driver: uvcvideo type: USB
    rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 1-5:2 chip-ID: 064e:3401
    class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.9 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.2
    compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X: loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa
    alternate: intel dri: iris gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 506x285mm (19.92x11.22")
    s-diag: 581mm (22.86")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: AU Optronics 0x422d built: 2016 res: 1920x1080
    hz: 60 dpi: 166 gamma: 1.2 size: 293x165mm (11.54x6.5") diag: 336mm (13.2")
    ratio: 16:9 modes: 1920x1080
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 23.2.1 renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 620 (KBL
    GT2) direct-render: Yes
8

How much testing was done with Windows? Are you sure it’s reliable even after all the failing with openSUSE? Could it be an iffy docking station or its cable? When was the dock new? Is it returnable for exchange or replacement?

What does ls -1 /sys/class/drm report?

9

The laptop dual boots Windows and OpenSuse Tumbleweed but I rarely use Windows, only about once or twice a year. When I did it for testing purposes, initially, the display was not detected and I had the same result as with OpenSuse Tumbleweed. Then I launched the Windows update tool and saw several optional updates pending, some of which were labeled “intel - something” like “intel - system”. I performed all optional updates and also the recommended ones. From this point (not sure if I had to reboot), on windows, with the same hardware connected as described in my previous message, the TV monitor was immediately recognized when plugged and the screen is immediately shared without needing any adjustments. Later, I reopened Windows and again the device was detected and screen automatically shared as what I hope to achieve in Linux. I repeated the test today and watched an hour of online TV displayed on the external monitor through the dock from the laptop under Windows, and it worked without any issues. That it works on Windows made me hope for a possibility that it could work on OpenSuse Tumbleweed hence my posting here. I very much enjoy having this OS on my laptop, thank you for the great work. I bought the dock one week ago second-hand on Amazon, advertised “as new”. I do not know its date of assembly.

~> ls -1 /sys/class/drm
card1
card1-DP-1
card1-DP-2
card1-eDP-1
card1-HDMI-A-1
card1-HDMI-A-2
renderD128
version