I’m currently running a Thinkpad P15 gen2 with the iGPU disabled and two external monitors, both driven from a USB-C port through a Ugreen dock. I installed Fedora 42 after having used Nobara 41 without any issues with the laptop’s USB-C ports. Now with Fedora I’m experiencing an odd issue. For reference, this laptop has two thunderbolt USB-C ports, and one non-Thunderbolt USB-C port.
When powering up the laptop (I shut down overnight) it will only output to one external display along side the laptop’s screen. I have to switch from a thunderbolt-capable port to the non-thunderbolt-port OR visa versa. Whichever port had the dock plugged in when the laptop was shut down doesn’t work to output to both monitors upon power-up, the other type of port (thunderbolt/non-thunderbolt) has to be used.
What could be causing this, and how can I go about fixing it?
boltctl list returns nothing while the hub is plugged in or if it’s unplugged.
I ran boltctl monitor while the hub was unplugged, and plugged it in. I then unplugged and re-plugged the hub in while the command was still running, and here’s all it showed:
Bolt Version : 0.9
Daemon API : 1
Client API : 1
Security Level: none
Auth Mode : enabled
Ready
There was no change.
Does this mean I’m somehow missing thunderbolt drivers?
I only had such problems, with thunderbolt devices. You can try switching from Wayland to X11 by editing: /etc/gdm/custom.conf and adding WaylandEnable=false
or maybe you have some kind of problem with your NVidia drivers.
If I enable Legacy OpROM in my BIOS, my laptop display and external HDMI initialize slightly differently (HDMI might show BIOS or not show until late-boot, diffs in starting with lid-shut, etc) vs disabling/using UEFI VBIOS.
GPU-Z on Windows can show whether UEFI GOP VBIOS is used; I’m not sure how to check on Linux, but if you installed in UEFI I think you’d just have to enable CSM in BIOS. If you installed in Legacy, I’d boot a LiveUSB in UEFI for a quick test.
rpmfusion recently pushed the NVIDIA NFB branch to stable. It defaults to building the open source kernel modules for supported GPUs. THis was not the case with the 570.* drivers from the stable branch.
Try to force building the closed source kernel modules.
I have a system that used to display on a monitor with a built-in KVM and also a TV via HDMI. When I first started using it, Gnome often changed the setting for the “primary” monitor, even if the TV was “off”. Eventually, after updates to the KVM firmware and Fedora, the setting became stable, but since then I moved the KVM monitor to a new system where it continues to behave. Have you check to see if Gnome Settings is switching the “primary” monitor?
It hasn’t been. When I change the primary screen manually the top bar follows the selection, and I’ve not seen the top bar move during any of my testing so far.
