Another comment told me to run lsusb -v and the ethernet ports showed up there. Would lsusb -t provide something more relevant? Also, to be clear, the docks work fine in Linux. I am concerned about the ethernet not showing up in Windows without booting Linux first.
I’m not sure if this answers your question, but I have tried using additional USB ethernet adapters plugged into the dock. They have the same issue; unless its less than a 1Gb interface, they won’t show up in Windows without booting Linux first. This applies to anything going through the USB C 3.2 port it seems like.
I have the older 6800 model of the WM2. I haven’t heard from anyone else with that model in the community GPD discord with this issue, but frankly I don’t get much of a response in there in general. Really wish the community didn’t insist on using an IM chat for troubleshooting AND general discussion…
Ill be a bit busy today, so I won’t be able to get into Linux till tomorrow. What exactly did you want me to do with boltctrl? And are you sure its relevant to the Falwedi dock? I’m not using the USB4 port for the dock usually because I have to leave that open for my eGPU, and the Falwedi hub isn’t a USB4/Thunderbolt device anyway.
If I boot into Linux first, and then restart to boot Windows, the ethernet adapter will show up in device manager, yes. I am currently using the Falwedi USB hub after booting into Linux first this morning. Under device manager, it is listed as “Realtek USB GbE Family Controller”. Ill go ahead and toggle/disable the setting to “Allow the computer to turn off device to save power”, but I can’t imagine it will make a difference. Without booting Linux first, plugging in the USB hub will recognize all the other ports on it except the ethernet port. I can’t tell that anything else is reported differently on plugging it in; just that the ethernet port never shows up.
The Falwedi still has the issue with the 3.2 port on the WM2 where I have to boot Linux first to get the ethernet port working in Windows. Otherwise, yes, it works everywhere.
The Kensington issue is likely not related to this ethernet problem. The ethernet port and the dock overall works as expected on the TB3 of the WM1. The ethernet port of the Kensington Dock does not work on the 3.2 port of the WM2 without booting into Linux first. The Kensington dock does not work at all on the USB4 of the WM2 or the 3.0 of the WM1.
And should clarify that I do not have to do anything in Linux to get the Ethernet port working. It functions plug-n-play with no performance issues. The ethernet issue only comes up if I boot into Windows first, without involving Linux.
I have one other computer that has USB C ports to test with, a GPD Win Max 1. It has Intel/Thunderbolt 3 chipset instead of AMD USB4. I also have two separate docks to test with; a bootleg/generic Falwedi USB 3 hub, and a Kensington SD5800T TB4/USB4 dock.
The Falwedi hub has a working ethernet port if I plug it into the USB4 port on the Win Max 2. The ethernet port also works on the Win Max 1 on either its TB3 port or its additional USBC 3.0 port. The Kensington dock for some reason only works on the 3.2 port of the WM2 and the TB3 port of the WM1; the entire dock isn’t recognized at all on the other ports. I find it strange that it only works on the ports I first used it with on each device. I don’t know why it wont work on the WM2 USB4 port. But more to the point, the ethernet port does work on the TB3 of the WM1. This ethernet issue is only present on the WM2.
lsusb -v reports these chipsets for the ethernet interfaces. Please tell me if I am reporting the wrong thing; I don’t use linux that often.
Falwedi: Bus 007 Device 003: ID 0bda:5401 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL 8153 USB 3.0 hub with gigabit ethernet
Kensington: Bus 008 Device 008: ID 0bda:8156 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. USB 10/100/1G/2.5G LAN
I am on the latest BIOS for the GPD Win Max 2. Judging off of their email response, I won’t keep my hopes up that they will release anything to fix this. There were problems with video out on USB C hubs that they fixed with a BIOS update, but that was much earlier in the handhelds life span. They haven’t done any BIOS updates since then.
The hub/docks in question do not have any drivers on the manufacturers website. They are advertised as plug and play. I have been occasionally updating my AMD chipset drivers as they come, but so far the updates have made no difference for this issue.
Ironically, I did have to disable XHCI on one of the ports to fix a issue with the dual SD card reader on this device, reducing it to USB 2.0 speeds. I toggled that setting back to see if it had any effect on the ethernet port, but no dice. I did find a toggle for xHCI handoff enable/disable; toggling it did not seem to have an effect on the ethernet port either.
On top of using include mode, be sure to go into Qbittorrents settings and bind the network interface to the VPN. That will ensure that even if the VPN is disconnected or turned off for some reason, Qbit will not attempt to communicate on clear net. Some people would rely on Proton VPNs kill switch feature for that, but that is not available with split tunneling.