Using ThinkPad docks w/ linux?

[memilanuk]

Has anybody done this successfully? Any 'gotchas' I should be watching for?

Just wanted to check out if others have got these working with Linux before I spend the money on one

TIA,

Monte

[Neil]

Hi Monte, welcome to the forum!

I assume you are referring to docks rather than documents. If so, you can read all about 'em here: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Docking_Solutions

[memilanuk]

Ack. Sorry about the spelling snafu... fixed it. Yes, 'dock' and/or 'port replicator' is what I meant. 'Though the more I use the keyboard and screen (both very nice) on my new T530... the less sure I am that I 'need' anything else besides my wireless mouse (old habits die hard).

[ThinkRob]

Yep. They work great (or at least all the ones I've used do!)

About the only issue you might run into is that with *really* old (like, many years old) distros the support for undocking is a little hairier than newer ones. But assuming you're running a distro from the last 5 or so years and you're not running with ancient ThinkPad hardware (think: pre-T20 or so), you should be fine.

[wolfman]

Agree with the above, I have a Thinkpad Mini Dock Plus Series 3 for mobile workstations (a dock I purchased from the outlet) and use it exclusively with the machine in my sig below and Ubuntu Linux 12.04. I have a 24 inch HP ZR24W connected via display port, an external hard drive (backup) via USB, wireless keyboard and mouse dongle and external speakers connected and it works flawlessly with Linux.

I tend to use the laptop in the dock with the lid shut like a desktop when at my desk. The dock is definitely a nice item to have.

[memilanuk]

wolfman,

That would be a nearly ideal setup - just about exactly what I had in mind. Move my aging desktop PC downstairs to the shop as a 'workstation' / file server, and keep the big 23" LCD flatscreen and external speakers w/ subwoofer and wireless keyboard/mouse in place, and just plug the new laptop into a docking station.

It's been *years* (win98) since I used anything like that, though. Even then, I don't think the machine I had at the time (Gateway laptop from work) had a special docking port like the ThinkPad.

If you guys don't mind... could you walk me through how you connect/disconnect from the docking station? Do you have to have the laptop on, screen open, then plug it in (on?) and then close the lid - or can you plug an off/sleeping laptop into the dock station with the lid closed and turn on the machine via the dock?

When you say it 'worked flawlessly with Linux'... did you have to do any of the jumping thru hoops as described on the ThinkWiki site? I ask primarily because it seems like a lot of their articles are somewhat... dated, either in distro/kernel version or hardware version, and I wasn't sure how accurately they reflected the current state of things. I've got myself in deep doo-doo in the past trying to make a newer version of Linux work with a piece of hardware or software using a guide or tutorial targeted at an older version.

TIA,

Monte

[ThinkRob]

When you say it 'worked flawlessly with Linux'... did you have to do any of the jumping thru hoops as described on the ThinkWiki site?

At least with the T420 + dock that I have now, no. Absolutely no configuration required.

[wolfman]

If you guys don't mind... could you walk me through how you connect/disconnect from the docking station? Do you have to have the laptop on, screen open, then plug it in (on?) and then close the lid - or can you plug an off/sleeping laptop into the dock station with the lid closed and turn on the machine via the dock?

When you say it 'worked flawlessly with Linux'... did you have to do any of the jumping thru hoops as described on the ThinkWiki site?

Like ThinkRob said, there was no configuration required for the machine to work with the dock using Ubuntu 12.04. I will typically have the machine shutdown when I attach it to the dock. Once attached to the docking station, there is a power button in the upper left hand corner of the dock that turns the laptop on. From that point, with all the external devices attached and the lid closed, it works just like a desktop for all intents and purposes.

Since I typically use the laptop in the dock with the lid closed, I did set the display on the laptop to be off when the lid closed instead of going to sleep - I did this in case I hot docked it, but can't remember a time that I have...

When I boot the laptop outside of the dock, it comes up just fine with the internal display and works as expected.

When I'm ready to go somewhere with the laptop and it's in the dock I typically shut the laptop down and take it off the dock powered off, so I can't answer any of the hot dock / hot undock questions specifically as I don't use it that way.

The only "gotcha" that I remember was with output through the audio jack on Ubuntu 11.10 (not 12.04) and it was solved with a quick configuration setting as described here: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 34#p668434. Hope that helps...

[ThinkRob]

I hot dock/undock all the time. Works great.

I do make sure to switch my monitor configuration first, since I (deliberately) haven't configured my WM/DE to do automatic switching. Obviously if you use a DE that detects and accommodates monitor switches on the fly then you won't have to do anything video-wise.

The only issue I ran into was that my T400s (when I still had one) absolutely would not put out audio via the dock, no matter what I tried. T420, T410, same dock? No problem. To me that indicates that it was a problem with the T400s, but I figured I should mention that just in case.