Dell's Thunderbolt TB16 Dock Can Work With Linux & Drive Dual 4K Displays

[RussianNeuroMancer]

If anyone from Dell reading this, please do something about this issue.

[torsionbar28]

Dual 4k monitors huh? I bet CoolRetroTerminal looks fantastic on those.

For sure, it'll look so good, the only thing better than 4k is an actual CRT.

[Ananace]

Interesting. I wonder how the display works via Thunderbolt - does it use a passthrough mechanism or some DisplayLink chip? Is there enough bandwidth for 4k?

Thunderbolt 3 uses a displayport passthrough to do connected displays, so that's most likely what's being used to drive the displays. (Thunderbolt 3 specs explicitly include the requirement to be able to drive twin 4k screens)

I'd personally love to see a Thunderbolt dock that includes a discrete GPU though, that'd be really useful for me as well.

[Beraqqu]

phoronix Be aware that having your xps closed a lot of the time while running can lead to a bulge under the keyboard.

On my xps 9350, I use thermal pads on the heatsink and nvme drive for better heat distribution, but after about a year running it daily for 14 hours closed this happened: https://s8.postimg.cc/4ljklslmt/xps_9350.jpg

Apart from the appearance I haven't noticed any other deficiencies.

[jasondclinton]

phoronix Be aware that having your xps closed a lot of the time while running can lead to a bulge under the keyboard.

On my xps 9350, I use thermal pads on the heatsink and nvme drive for better heat distribution, but after about a year running it daily for 14 hours closed this happened: https://s8.postimg.cc/4ljklslmt/xps_9350.jpg

Apart from the appearance I haven't noticed any other deficiencies.

That looks like standard Li-ion battery failure, to me. Can be accelerated by long periods of little use.

[M@yeulC]

It's nice that it suits your usage! Those things are working surprisingly well out of the box under Linux.

For what it's worth, the dock I have at work for my lattitude 5580 is working perfectly (I do not recall the model, but it is thinner, the wattage is lower and it doesn't have HDMI, micro DP nor micro USB; not sure if it uses thunderbolt or USB 3.1, I'll have to look into this).

The way you setup your laptop is nice, but I'd personally try to use the screen. Maybe the laptop could be mounted upside down fully opened? That would be a bit more complicated to setup, though. Maybe a nice use-case for these "convertibles" with 360° hinges?

I'd be interested in some benchmarks too, though I am not sure how you could measure all of this. Maybe with some really good USB storage device, with and without your 4K monitors playing movies?

[M@GOid]

phoronix Be aware that having your xps closed a lot of the time while running can lead to a bulge under the keyboard.

On my xps 9350, I use thermal pads on the heatsink and nvme drive for better heat distribution, but after about a year running it daily for 14 hours closed this happened: https://s8.postimg.cc/4ljklslmt/xps_9350.jpg

Apart from the appearance I haven't noticed any other deficiencies.

Dude, asjasondclinton said, that probably is a battery problem. Just take it to a shop to have it verified. You do not want that thing to explode, even less while you are near to it.

[caligula]

Thunderbolt 3 uses a displayport passthrough to do connected displays, so that's most likely what's being used to drive the displays. (Thunderbolt 3 specs explicitly include the requirement to be able to drive twin 4k screens)

I'd personally love to see a Thunderbolt dock that includes a discrete GPU though, that'd be really useful for me as well.

Ah, true. I somehow mixed this with USB-C and thought the dock somehow communicates TB via USB-C.

[Guest]

Any chance to test KDE Plasma on the 13 XPS with dual 4k screens?

[Beraqqu]

jasondclinton & GOid

Thank you for your replies. I opened my laptop and indeed the battery is swollen (surprise surprise, what else could it be?). Removing the battery resolved the deformity, but it doesn't power on without it.

I looked into it furter and there are numerous reports of this problem. Since I've no warranty anymore I ordered a replacement.

I was being lazy about an issue that could have severe implications.