External USB-C Monitor Drivers Not Found on Ubuntu 18.04

Graphics / Linux Linux
1

The USB-C monitor/video drivers are no longer working/recognized on my Ubuntu laptop.

I have a DELL laptop running Ubuntu 18.04 64-bit. My 2 HP external monitors were working fine when using a DELL docking station connected to the laptop’s USB-C port (so I know it supports video over usbc). After trying to change the resolutions of the monitors one of them went black and only the mouse was visible. I rebooted the laptop and now USB-C does not recognize the drivers for any of the monitors.

Simplifying things, I removed the docking station and plugged in one of the HP monitors directly into the USB-C port, but still nothing. Here is the output of lsusb:

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 015: ID 1fc9:5002 NXP Semiconductors 
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0c45:6720 Microdia 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Monitoring dmesg -wH it does detect a new USB device, but it uses the wrong driver for idVendor=1fc9, idProduct=5002.

[Oct26 22:57] usb 1-5: new full-speed USB device number 10 using xhci_hcd
[  +0.150661] usb 1-5: New USB device found, idVendor=1fc9, idProduct=5002, bcdDevice= 1.00
[  +0.000006] usb 1-5: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[  +0.000003] usb 1-5: Product: PTN5002
[  +0.000003] usb 1-5: Manufacturer: NXP
[  +0.000003] usb 1-5: SerialNumber: 0000054fbfc5
[  +0.044941] usb 1-5: USB disconnect, device number 10
[  +0.392387] usb 1-5: new full-speed USB device number 11 using xhci_hcd
[  +0.149725] usb 1-5: New USB device found, idVendor=1fc9, idProduct=5002, bcdDevice= 1.00
[  +0.000005] usb 1-5: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[  +0.000003] usb 1-5: Product: PTN5002
[  +0.000003] usb 1-5: Manufacturer: NXP
[  +0.000002] usb 1-5: SerialNumber: 0000054fbfc5
[ +30.739677] usb 1-5: USB disconnect, device number 11

The attached nvidia-bug-report was created during this erroneous state. I’m currently using the nvidia-driver-470 metapackage.
nvidia-bug-report.log.gz (291.9 KB)

I know the HP monitors are still fine:

  1. when I use the laptop’s HDMI port, both HP monitors work just fine.
  2. when I use another laptop (Windows) with the same USB-C cables, both HP monitors work just fine.

I even tried a third (DELL) monitor which works via the HDMI port, but it doesn’t work via the USB-C port. Still uses the same erroneous driver.

Any help is really appreciated. Thanks!

2

The nvidia gpu doesn’t have any outputs, so poking at it won’t help. All external outputs are on the intel igpu but that doesn’t detect any connected monitor.
If cable and monitor are fine, the usb-c connector of the notebook might be partially broken.
Please check if there’s a bios setting that somehow got toggled.

3

Thank you for your response @generix.

I tried everything you suggested with no luck. Downloaded and installed firmware “blobs” for i915 (there were some missing after last kernel update) and updated-initramfs, following this great answer, and nothing. Went back to last known “working” kernel but nothing. Next, I tried all the available BIOS settings for the Thunderbolt and still nothing.

Lastly, to ensure the laptop’s USB-C connector is still working, I replaced the Ubuntu SSD and used the original SSD which boots Windows 10. At first it didn’t boot because I had to use Secure Boot, so I changed that in the BIOS. Now it did boot but during the login screen, one of the monitors had a black screen (similar to the Ubuntu last working state). However, after I logged into Windows, both monitors worked just fine. At this point I knew the BIOS and hardware (including USB-C) were fine.

To my surprise, when I put the Ubuntu SSD back, both monitors (using the docking station) magically started working just fine. Does this make sense?

Was the solution to use Secure Boot? I’m not sure if this makes a lot of sense. Maybe the changes I was doing in Ubuntu misconfigured the NVIDIA card (which messed up the drivers) and using Windows somehow reconfigured everything back to normal?

4

One more update. While using Secure Boot, VirtualBox stopped working and I wasn’t able to launch any VM, so I had to disable Secure Boot. After that, I started the Ubuntu laptop and both monitors are still working just fine. So maybe Secure Boot wasn’t the underlying problem?

5

Rather sounds like the mainboard somehow entered an incorrect state and booting Windows reset it.