Questions[thunderbolt](ubuntu)

Currently having major issues with thunderbolt ethernet adapter.

The device is a "Razer Core X" thunderbolt eGPU enclosure which has a built in USB3 hub and gigabit ethernet port. Essentially a very powerful dock with its own GPU (utilizing the 4 lanes of PCIe on the thunderbolt port).

The same issue occurs if I use the built in ethernet port or if I plug in my own USB3 ethernet adaptor into the USB3 hub on the dock. The issue does not occur if I bypass the thunderbolt dock and plug an ethernet adaptor in directly (although this kind of defeats the purpose of the dock).

The same issue also occurs on different laptops that both use this dock. My work laptop is on 18.04 and my new personal laptop is on 20.04 and both versions of Ubuntu on both laptops have the exact same behavior.

When the ethernet fails it is no longer able to resolve DNS nor can I even ping anything on my local network, but the device still appears "connected" in the NetworkManager UI. When I toggle the connection off/on then it shows "Connecting" and stays stuck there permanently.

When I check dmesg/syslog I see the exact same bunch of errors every single time. Below is an example of the error. Here you can see in the logs I reload the driver via modprobe which causes connection to work again briefly. Then the exact same error and symptoms occur moments later:

[SAME ERROR REPEATED ~20 times]
[  543.814402] xhci_hcd 0000:0c:00.0: Looking for event-dma 0000000425e6e3f0 trb-start 0000000425e6e2e0 trb-end 0000000425e6e2e0 seg-start 0000000425e6e000 seg-end 0000000425e6eff0
[  543.815185] xhci_hcd 0000:0c:00.0: ERROR Transfer event TRB DMA ptr not part of current TD ep_index 4 comp_code 13
[  543.815186] xhci_hcd 0000:0c:00.0: Looking for event-dma 0000000425e6e400 trb-start 0000000425e6e2e0 trb-end 0000000425e6e2e0 seg-start 0000000425e6e000 seg-end 0000000425e6eff0
[  543.815271] xhci_hcd 0000:0c:00.0: ERROR Transfer event TRB DMA ptr not part of current TD ep_index 4 comp_code 13
[  543.815272] xhci_hcd 0000:0c:00.0: Looking for event-dma 0000000425e6e410 trb-start 0000000425e6e2e0 trb-end 0000000425e6e2e0 seg-start 0000000425e6e000 seg-end 0000000425e6eff0
[  543.815356] xhci_hcd 0000:0c:00.0: ERROR Transfer event TRB DMA ptr not part of current TD ep_index 4 comp_code 13
[  543.815357] xhci_hcd 0000:0c:00.0: Looking for event-dma 0000000425e6e420 trb-start 0000000425e6e2e0 trb-end 0000000425e6e2e0 seg-start 0000000425e6e000 seg-end 0000000425e6eff0
[  543.815822] xhci_hcd 0000:0c:00.0: ERROR Transfer event TRB DMA ptr not part of current TD ep_index 4 comp_code 13
[  543.815823] xhci_hcd 0000:0c:00.0: Looking for event-dma 0000000425e6e430 trb-start 0000000425e6e2e0 trb-end 0000000425e6e2e0 seg-start 0000000425e6e000 seg-end 0000000425e6eff0
[  609.127969] usbcore: deregistering interface driver ax88179_178a
[  609.128443] ax88179_178a 10-1:1.0 enx90203a1c2b65: unregister 'ax88179_178a' usb-0000:0c:00.0-1, ASIX AX88179 USB 3.0 Gigabit Ethernet
[  609.643604] ax88179_178a 10-1:1.0 eth0: register 'ax88179_178a' at usb-0000:0c:00.0-1, ASIX AX88179 USB 3.0 Gigabit Ethernet, 90:20:3a:1c:2b:65
[  609.645089] usbcore: registered new interface driver ax88179_178a
[  609.646672] ax88179_178a 10-1:1.0 enx90203a1c2b65: renamed from eth0
[  612.705215] ax88179_178a 10-1:1.0 enx90203a1c2b65: ax88179 - Link status is: 1
[  612.735735] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): enx90203a1c2b65: link becomes ready
[  652.991795] xhci_hcd 0000:0c:00.0: ERROR Transfer event TRB DMA ptr not part of current TD ep_index 4 comp_code 13
[  652.991799] xhci_hcd 0000:0c:00.0: Looking for event-dma 0000000384cb4280 trb-start 0000000384cb4260 trb-end 0000000384cb4260 seg-start 0000000384cb4000 seg-end 0000000384cb4ff0
[  652.991859] xhci_hcd 0000:0c:00.0: ERROR Transfer event TRB DMA ptr not part of current TD ep_index 4 comp_code 13
[  652.991862] xhci_hcd 0000:0c:00.0: Looking for event-dma 0000000384cb4290 trb-start 0000000384cb4260 trb-end 0000000384cb4260 seg-start 0000000384cb4000 seg-end 0000000384cb4ff0
[  652.991944] xhci_hcd 0000:0c:00.0: ERROR Transfer event TRB DMA ptr not part of current TD ep_index 4 comp_code 13
[  652.991945] xhci_hcd 0000:0c:00.0: Looking for event-dma 0000000384cb42a0 trb-start 0000000384cb4260 trb-end 0000000384cb4260 seg-start 0000000384cb4000 seg-end 0000000384cb4ff0
[  652.992030] xhci_hcd 0000:0c:00.0: ERROR Transfer event TRB DMA ptr not part of current TD ep_index 4 comp_code 13
[  652.992032] xhci_hcd 0000:0c:00.0: Looking for event-dma 0000000384cb42b0 trb-start 0000000384cb4260 trb-end 0000000384cb4260 seg-start 0000000384cb4000 seg-end 0000000384cb4ff0
[  652.992121] xhci_hcd 0000:0c:00.0: ERROR Transfer event TRB DMA ptr not part of current TD ep_index 4 comp_code 13
[  652.992122] xhci_hcd 0000:0c:00.0: Looking for event-dma 0000000384cb42c0 trb-start 0000000384cb4260 trb-end 0000000384cb4260 seg-start 0000000384cb4000 seg-end 0000000384cb4ff0
[SAME ERROR REPEATED ~20 times]

That "transfer event" error is in the logs every single time I check them after noticing the symptoms and the timestamp in syslog appears to correspond precisely to the moment the network stops working. As you can see from this run there is no other log output between loading the driver and experiencing the issue.

When I google that error message there are multiple articles talking about thunderbolt bandwidth management issues, but every post I can find is years old and just says it's fixed in the kernel now. But it doesn't seem to be fixed for me (5.3.0-51-generic). The error does occur much more quickly when I am doing something that requires more network bandwidth (like streaming a movie) so that does seem to point to thunderbolt bandwidth issues, but again I cannot find a fix/supposedly this was all fixed years ago.

Linked here is my output from the networking diagnostic script: https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/FmG8hGzkXV/

I've tried disabling autosuspend (using powertop) of both the ethernet device and the USB bus that the device is attached to, but it does not help. My laptops do not appear to have laptop-mode-tools nor tlp installed.

Can someone please help me figure out what is going on? I feel like a thunderbolt device like this should be able to work on Ubuntu. If anything I expected issues with the GPU part of the eGPU but that is working fine as I am currently typing on dual 4k monitors being driven by the dock, the only issue is with the ethernet (keyboard, mouse, usb sound card all work fine when plugged into dock).

In pursuit of an answer to this question, I purchased a Dell WD19TB dock for my XPS 13 7390 "Developer Edition" running 18.04.3 LTS. After connecting everything, the HDMI external monitor works fine, but the USB 3 and gigabit ethernet ports don't work at all. I looked at my devices->Thunderbolt, and the dock shows up as "pending":

I clicked on the dock name in that screen and this dialog popped up, asking me to "authorize and connect" to the dock:

I click the "authorize and connect" button, and after typing in my sudo password, I got another dialog stating "Failed to authorize device: kernel error."

After this, back on the devices->Thunderbolt screen, the dock shows with an error:

Dell support has no idea what to do with Ubuntu users, it seems, and directed me to the official Ubuntu forum, where I will be posting as well. Do I need to install some drivers for the dock? If so, what drivers and where do I get them? How do I get a Dell WD19TB dock working with my system?

I have been checking some systemd-analyze outputs and I actually don't have a crucial problem with my boot time but just wondering whether I can decrease it further. I'd like to mention that I'm using an SSD and Ubuntu is my only OS.

systemd-analyze
Startup finished in 5.450s (firmware) + 565ms (loader) + 2.632s (kernel) + 10.086s (userspace) = 18.734s 
graphical.target reached after 10.071s in userspace

systemd-analyze blame
          6.607s NetworkManager-wait-online.service
          5.660s fwupd.service
          5.042s bolt.service
          4.134s plymouth-quit-wait.service
          1.579s dev-sda2.device
          1.552s systemd-backlight@backlight:intel_backlight.service
          1.367s plymouth-read-write.service
          1.211s snapd.service
           903ms systemd-logind.service
           572ms systemd-journald.service
           555ms dev-loop9.device
           523ms dev-loop6.device
           515ms man-db.service
           499ms dev-loop8.device
           478ms dev-loop5.device
           472ms dev-loop13.device
           448ms dev-loop7.device
           441ms dev-loop11.device
           438ms dev-loop10.device
           432ms dev-loop12.device
           415ms udisks2.service
           406ms dev-loop14.device
           319ms snap-gnome\x2d3\x2d28\x2d1804-71.mount

graphical.target @10.071s
└─multi-user.target @10.071s
  └─kerneloops.service @10.042s +27ms
    └─network-online.target @10.032s
      └─NetworkManager-wait-online.service @3.422s +6.607s
        └─NetworkManager.service @3.224s +186ms
          └─dbus.service @3.218s
            └─basic.target @3.211s
              └─sockets.target @3.211s
                └─snapd.socket @3.208s +2ms
                  └─sysinit.target @3.205s
                    └─systemd-backlight@backlight:intel_backlight.service @1.468s +1.552s
                      └─system-systemd\x2dbacklight.slice @1.467s
                        └─system.slice @212ms
                          └─-.slice @212ms

I have been using Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS on a Dell Precision 5510 laptop with a Dell Thunderbolt 3 Dock, model TB16, for over two months with no issues. The system is regularly updated with the latest updates.

January 29th 2019, a notification for a new update appeared :

• Several unused kernel files to be deleted
• (update for Oracle's Virtual Box, seems very irrelevant)

I proceeded to install. However after rebooting, reaching the login screen and entering my password, I only had black screens and a completely unresponsive system.

After several reboots and attempts to diagnose the problem, only when I rebooted the system with the Dell Thunderbolt 3 Dock unplugged that the system successfully booted and displayed the desktop, menu bar...etc. Even then, when I re-plugged the dock, the system became unresponsive with a black screen.

I am currently looking into restoring the pre-update kernel using GRUB.

I'm interested to know if anyone, with a relatively similar setup, is experiencing this issue. Any other insights or ideas that could help are welcome.

Update :

Another report on this issue found (2 posts by the same author), it seems to affect only Dell docks but it is probably not restricted to Dell machines:

https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/678174

After most recent kernel update (4.15.0-44-generic) my tablet freezes whenever plugged into docking station

For now the issue has been resolved by restoring 4.15.0-43-generic using GRUB. I am holding from updating Ubuntu until the bug gets fixed.

Why do I get this message on my Lenovo Y720 laptop? I have a thunderbolt 3 port, but for some reason it says this:

I don't suppose it's because I have no cable inserted.

• Secure boot is disabled
• Fast boot is disabled
• AHCI mode enabled
• UEFI mode enabled
• The port works if I connect to my phone, but I cannot test it with another thunderbolt device as I do not have any.