Plugin: Dell USB-C Dock

Dell System

Unlike previous Dell USB-C devices, a Dell system is not needed for updating.

Components

The device contains components the following directly updatable components:

  • USB hubs
  • MST controller
  • Thunderbolt controller
  • Embedded controller

This plugin is used to perform the update on the USB hubs as well as the Dell Embedded controller. The USB hubs are updated directly over a USB HID endpoint while the embedded controller is updated using an I2C over HID interface.

The fwupd thunderbolt plugin is used for updating the Titan Ridge controller.

The MST controller is updated through either the DP Aux interface (SynapticsMST plugin) or I2C over HID interface provided by this plugin.

Device topology

When this plugin is used, devices present in other plugins may be shown in the topology of this dock. This is intentional as this plugin works together with those plugins to manage the flashing of all components.

Firmware Format

The daemon will decompress the cabinet archive and extract several firmware blobs with an unspecified binary file format.

This plugin supports the following protocol ID:

  • com.dell.dock
  • com.synaptics.mst

GUID Generation

These devices use several different generation schemes, e.g.

  • USB Hub1: USB\VID_413C&PID_B06F&hub
  • USB Hub2: USB\VID_413C&PID_B06E&hub
  • Embedded Controller: USB\VID_413C&PID_B06E&hub&embedded
  • Update Level: USB\VID_413C&PID_B06E&hub&status
  • MST Hub: MST-panamera-vmm5331-259
  • Thunderbolt Controller: TBT-00d4b070
  • USB4 Controller: TBT-00d4b071

Update Behavior

All devices will be updated the next time the usb-c plug from the dock is unplugged from the host.

USB4 Controller

This device will be probed by dell-dock plugin over the USB interface, additionally will be probed by thunderbolt plugin if thunderbolt hardware is enabled at the host. The primary plugin has been chosen to dell-dock for broader supoprt, the device introduced by thunderbolt plugin will be default inhibited, before fwupd version 1.8.2 (include), Update Error will be seen which is expected.

USB4 controller in Dell dock:
    Device ID:        ce501f4b2e03e819c525bb9354aa88c03db4f11e
    Summary:          USB4 controller
    Current version:  36.00
    Vendor:           Dell Inc. (THUNDERBOLT:0x00D4, TBT:0x00D4)
    Install Duration: 46 seconds
    Update Error:     firmware update inhibited by [dell_dock] plugin
    GUIDs:            4fb9d92e-2b96-51a7-9ed5-3db156dfcf12 ← THUNDERBOLT\VEN_00D4&DEV_B071
                      bd79ce60-525b-5f39-a3f6-c98c495039ff ← TBT-00d4b071
                      03f008d5-d06a-5d2e-89ca-61f12a8dbf73 ← TBT-00d4b071-controller0-3
    Device Flags:     • System requires external power source
                      • Device stages updates
                      • Updatable
                      • Signed Payload

After version 1.8.2, the device introduced by thunderbolt plugin will be default hidden, so only the primary plugin will be seen on the device view.

Vendor ID Security

The vendor ID is set from the USB vendor, in this instance set to USB:0x413C

Quirk Use

This plugin uses the following plugin-specific quirks:

DellDockUnlockTarget

The EC argument needed for unlocking certain device usage.

Since: 1.1.3

DellDockBlobMajorOffset

The offset of the major version number in a payload.

Since: 1.1.3

DellDockBlobMinorOffset

The offset of the minor version number in a payload

Since: 1.1.3

DellDockBlobBuildOffset

The offset of the build version number in a payload

Since: 1.1.3

DellDockBlobVersionOffset

The offset of the ASCII representation of a version string in a payload.

Since: 1.1.3

DellDockBoardMin

The minimum board revision required to safely operate the plugin.

Since: 1.1.3

DellDockVersionLowest

The minimum component version required to safely operate the plugin.

Since: 1.1.3

DellDockBoard*

The board description of a board revision.

Since: 1.1.3

DellDockInstallDurationI2C

The duration of time required to install a payload via I2C.

Since: 1.1.3

External Interface Access

This plugin requires read/write access to /dev/bus/usb.

Version Considerations

This plugin has been available since fwupd version 1.2.0.

Data flow

  flowchart TD
      subgraph Dell Dock
        I2C([I2C Bus])
        EC
        EC_SPI[(EC\nStorage)]
        USB1
        USB1_SPI[(SPI)]
        USB2
        MST_SPI[(SPI)]
        USB2_SPI[(SPI)]
        MST
        TBT(TBT/USB4)
        TBT_SPI[(SPI)]
      end
      subgraph fwupd Process
        fwupdengine(FuEngine)
        dell_plugin(DellDock\nPlugin)
        tbt_plugin(Thunderbolt\nPlugin)
        usb4_plugin(USB4\nPlugin)
      end
      dell_plugin<--hid proxy-->I2C
      tbt_plugin<--thunderbolt-->TBT
      usb4_plugin<--hid-->TBT
      fwupdengine --- dell_plugin
      fwupdengine --- tbt_plugin
      USB1<-->I2C
      USB2<-.->I2C
      EC<-.->I2C
      TBT<-.->I2C
      MST<-.->I2C
      EC<-.->EC_SPI
      USB1---USB1_SPI
      USB2---USB2_SPI
      MST---MST_SPI
      TBT---TBT_SPI
      I2C~~~EC
      I2C~~~MST
      I2C~~~USB1
      I2C~~~USB2

Owners

Anyone can submit a pull request to modify this plugin, but the following people should be consulted before making major or functional changes:

  • Crag Wang: CragW
  • Mario Limonciello: superm1