Docking Solutions
Docks allow users to connect a variety of external peripherals simply by attaching their ThinkPad to the dock. Lenovo sells three types of docks for current ThinkPads, the ThinkPad Port Replicator II, ThinkPad Mini-Dock, and ThinkPad Dock II. Additionally, Lenovo's line of ultralight notebooks, the X-series, have a on-the-go dock called the UltraBase. Lenovo's docks are known to be some of the most flexible and useful docks available among all notebook manufacturers. |
Linux support
With recent distributions, docking and undocking should function out of the box. You can monitor this by running # udevadm monitor
and when you dock or press the undock button you should see a flurry of events.
There are some issues though
No event on undock
In some cases you may not get any events on undock. This is due to the ACPI dock drivers only registering the first logical Dock port they encounter and in some rare cases there may be more then one, such as on a ThinkPad X40 with ThinkPad X4 Dock. Patches are available, and should be merged upstream soon.
Filesystem corruption
Pressing the undock button will immediately unplug all dock attached devices. This can easily lead to problems, for instance if you have a USB or Ultrabay storage device attached to the dock and have a filesystem mounted RW, this can easily lead to filesystem corruption.
The solution for now is to always make sure any storage devices attached to the dock are unmounted BEFORE pressing the undock button.
External display issues
Docking or undocking will also not change the display configuration, which can lead to issues when your undock and your screensaver decided to put the unlock dialog on the secondary display, effectively requiring you to unlock the screensaver blind, before you can press Fn-F7 to restore your display setup to ThinkPad (LVDS) only. This last issue can be resolved by creating a custom udev rule and script as shown below. This script can also be used to take other actions on dock/undock such as automatically configuring your external display on dock.
create a file /etc/udev/rules.d/81-thinkpad-dock.rules
KERNEL=="dock.0", ACTION=="change", RUN+="/usr/local/sbin/thinkpad-dock.sh"
Then create the file /usr/local/sbin/thinkpad-dock.sh
#!/bin/sh # wait for the dock state to change sleep 1 DOCKED=$(cat /sys/devices/platform/dock.0/docked) case "$DOCKED" in "0") #undocked event /usr/bin/xrandr -d :0.0 --output DVI1 --off --output VGA1 --off ;; "1") #docked event /usr/bin/xrandr -d :0.0 --output DVI1 --right-of LVDS1 --auto ;; esac exit 0
And set it executable
chmod +x /usr/local/sbin/thinkpad-dock.sh
Part of this is based on information from a thread on the Ubuntu forums
Available Docking Stations and Port Replicators
- ThinkPad Mini Dock Plus Series 3 for Mobile Workstations (T400s, T410, T410s, T510, W510)
- ThinkPad Mini Dock Plus Series 3 (T400s, T410, T410s, T510)
- ThinkPad Mini Dock Series 3 (T400s, T410, T410s, T510)
- ThinkPad Port Replicator Series 3 (T400s, T410, T410s, T510)
- USB Port Replicator with Digital Video
- ThinkPad Essential Port Replicator (T60, Z series models)
- ThinkPad Advanced Dock (T60, Z series models)
- ThinkPad Advanced Mini Dock (T60, Z series models)
- X200 UltraBase (X200, X200s)
- X6 Tablet UltraBase (X60 Tablet, X61 Tablet)
- W700 Mini Dock
- W700 Mini Dock 2.0
Withdrawn Docking Stations and Port Replicators
- ThinkPad 700/720 Dock
- ThinkPad 700/720 Port Replicator
- ThinkPad Dock I (3545) (360/370/750/755/760 series models)
- ThinkPad Dock II (3546) (360/370/750/755/760 series models)
- ThinkPad Port Replicator Model 1 (360/370/750/755/760/765 series models)
- ThinkPad Port Replicator Model 2 (360/370/750/755/760/765 series models)
- ThinkPad MultiPort (510Cs)
- ThinkPad MultiPort II {701C/701CS)
- SelectaBase Model I (TP 760 and 765 series models)
- SelectaBase 600 (TP 600 series models)
- SelectaBase 770 (TP 770 series models)
- SelectaDock I (TP 6003, 7601, 7651 and 7702 series models)
- SelectaDock II (TP 6003, 7601, 7651 and 7702 series models)
- SelectaDock III (TP 6003, 7601, 7651 and 7702 series models)
- TransNote Port Extender (ThinkPad TransNote)
- ThinkPad i Series Port Replicator (TP i1400, i1500 Series)
- ThinkPad 365 Port Replicator (TP 365)
- ThinkPad 365X Port Replicator (TP 365X)
- ThinkPad 380/385 Port Replicator
- ThinkPad 560 Port Replicator (TP 380/385 series, 560 and 5704)
- ThinkPad Enhanced Port Replicator (TP 380/385 series and 560X)
- ThinkPad Port Replicator with Advanced EtherJet (TP 380Z, i1720, i1721 and 390, 570, 600 and 770 series)
- ThinkPad Port Replicator (A20-A31p, R30-R32, T20-T30, X20-X32)
- ThinkPad Port Replicator II (A,R,T,X series models)
- ThinkPad Dock (A,T,X series models)
- ThinkPad Dock II (A,R,T,X series models)
- ThinkPad Mini-Dock (A,R,T,X series models)
- UltraBase (TP 570 series)
- UltraBase X2 (X20, X21, X22, X23, X24)
- UltraBase X3 (X30, X31, X32)
- UltraBase X4 (X40, X41)
- ThinkPad X4 Dock (X40, X41, X41 Tablet)
- UltraBase X6 (X60, X60s, X61, X61s)
Monitor and Notebook Stands
- ThinkPad Adjustable Notebook Stand
- ThinkPad Monitor Stand 2001 - (withdrawn)
- ThinkPad Monitor Stand 2000 - (withdrawn)
Other
- Dock II Adapter Kit - (withdrawn)
- Direct Dock Adapter - (withdrawn)
- SelectaBase PC Card Enabler - (withdrawn)
- SelectaBase PC Card Enabler with Advanced EtherJet - (withdrawn)
- Portable Drive Bay (PC-Card UltraslimBay adapter) - (withdrawn)
- Portable Drive Bay 2000 (PC-Card/USB UltraBay 2000 adapter)
External Sources
FOOTNOTES [Δ] |
- requires SelectaBase Model I
- requires SelectaBase 770
- requires SelectaBase 600
- requires Direct Dock Adapter or UltraBase