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Belkin Expresscard High-Speed Universal Docking Station (F5U273 DL)
Despite all the bad reviews on the Dell site, I thought I would see what I could do with this device, and if I could get it to work under Linux. I have partial success so far...
Belkin F5U273 DL Expresscard High-Speed Docking Station Photo 1
I have started to keep notes and will be providing a full review in conjunction with my Dell m1330n Ubuntu laptop.
The DELL sales and technical support folks BOTH told me that this would work under the default Ubuntu install on my laptop (that I'm evaluating).
I don't really believe them, but thought I would see how much would work, and if there was any way I could MAKE it work, to help out others looking for a possible universal expresscard-based docking station under Linux.
So far the following worked "out of the box" under Ubuntu Linux 7.10 (from Dell) on my m1330 n series laptop:
* USB external hard drive in adaptec acs-120 2.5" enclosure (drive: seagate 120 gb SATA - ST912082 )
* Wireless keyboard and mouse (through usb transceiver) Logitech Wave cordless
* Sony external usb floppy drive PCGA-UFD5 (I have not actually tested a floppy in it yet, but it came up detected correctly).
* external DVDRW - LG Super-Multi GSA-E60L (have not yet burned anything with it through the Belkin yet).
* Video (so far only tried the VGA port on my LG 22" LCD l226wtq-bf Flatron Wide monitor, I have an HDML to DVI-D cable, and HDMI to HDMI cable, but I don't yet have a DVI to DVI cable as is required with the Belkin and this monitor). Not a peep
* Audio (external), it's detected as a USB audio device (see dmesg output), but I will probably have to do some tweaking.
* Western Digital external 2.5" WD2500U017-005 (250 gb) 2500BEVExternal (spins up, the clicks, and repeats that, kind of a scary sound, at first i was afraid I'd had an hd failure, but it only does this when connected to the belkin (any port), works fine when directly connected to the laptop).
There are a number of other devices I plan to test as well (ip90 canon portable printer, a few HP printers I have, Wacom Graphire 4 4x5, and some other odds and ends).
I think with some delving I can probably get the audio working, but I'm not so sure on the video. I'll really have to find some folks willing to help me delve into that aspect (the most important for me). Too many people in the few postings I've found, just give up if it doesn't work right away. All of the postings I've found so far (which have been very negative) have been only on Windows XP and Vista (nothing else officially supported, but I don't usually let that stop me ;-) ), and sounds very much like software and driver issues more than hardware. One article seemed to suggest this might be some sort of dedicated Linux-based appliance, if so, then there are great possibilities.
http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2007/09/docking-station-killer-app-for-thin.html
He was discussing the possibility of using it as a thin-client device. Many great possibilities IF he's right.
I'll be refreshing on how to do very low level hardware dumps from the expresscard slot to see if I can figure out exactly what drivers/chipsets are needed. The driver disk that came with it should provide (hopefully) some useful insight.
Here is the output from /var/log/messages upon plugging in the device:
Apr 10 11:09:26 nix kernel: [ 511.140000] usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 21
Apr 10 11:09:26 nix kernel: [ 511.272000] usb 1-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Apr 10 11:09:26 nix kernel: [ 511.272000] hub 1-1:1.0: USB hub found
Apr 10 11:09:26 nix kernel: [ 511.272000] hub 1-1:1.0: 7 ports detected
Apr 10 11:09:27 nix kernel: [ 511.580000] usb 1-1.5: new low speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 22
Apr 10 11:09:27 nix kernel: [ 511.692000] usb 1-1.5: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Apr 10 11:09:27 nix kernel: [ 511.696000] input: Logitech USB Receiver as /class/input/input18
Apr 10 11:09:27 nix kernel: [ 511.696000] input: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [Logitech USB Receiver] on usb-0000:00:1a.7-1.5
Apr 10 11:09:27 nix kernel: [ 511.700000] /build/buildd/linux-source-2.6.22-2.6.22/drivers/hid/usbhid/hid-core.c: Fixing up Logitech keyboard report descriptor
Apr 10 11:09:27 nix kernel: [ 511.704000] input: Logitech USB Receiver as /class/input/input19
Apr 10 11:09:27 nix kernel: [ 511.704000] input,hiddev96: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [Logitech USB Receiver] on usb-0000:00:1a.7-1.5
Apr 10 11:09:27 nix kernel: [ 511.912000] usb 1-1.6: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 23
Apr 10 11:09:27 nix kernel: [ 512.012000] usb 1-1.6: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Apr 10 11:09:27 nix kernel: [ 512.012000] pegasus 1-1.6:1.0: setup Pegasus II specific registers
Apr 10 11:09:27 nix kernel: [ 512.116000] pegasus 1-1.6:1.0: eth1, ADMtek ADM8515 "Pegasus II" USB-2.0 Ethernet, 00:05:1b:0a:e8:04
Apr 10 11:09:27 nix kernel: [ 512.128000] eth2: set allmulti
Apr 10 11:09:27 nix kernel: [ 512.128000] eth2: set allmulti
Apr 10 11:09:27 nix kernel: [ 512.132000] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth2: link is not ready
Apr 10 11:09:27 nix kernel: [ 512.132000] eth2: set allmulti
Apr 10 11:09:27 nix kernel: [ 512.316000] usb 1-1.7: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 24
Apr 10 11:09:28 nix kernel: [ 512.408000] usb 1-1.7: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Apr 10 11:09:28 nix kernel: [ 512.408000] hub 1-1.7:1.0: USB hub found
Apr 10 11:09:28 nix kernel: [ 512.408000] hub 1-1.7:1.0: 2 ports detected
Apr 10 11:09:28 nix kernel: [ 512.712000] usb 1-1.7.1: new full speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 25
Apr 10 11:09:28 nix kernel: [ 512.804000] usb 1-1.7.1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Apr 10 11:09:28 nix kernel: [ 512.828000] input: USB Audio as /class/input/input20
Apr 10 11:09:28 nix kernel: [ 512.828000] input: USB HID v1.00 Device [USB Audio] on usb-0000:00:1a.7-1.7.1
Apr 10 11:09:28 nix kernel: [ 513.028000] usb 1-1.7.2: new low speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 26
Apr 10 11:09:28 nix kernel: [ 513.124000] usb 1-1.7.2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Apr 10 11:09:28 nix kernel: [ 513.128000] hiddev97: USB HID v1.10 Device [MCT Corp_ Dock 01] on usb-0000:00:1a.7-1.7.2
C-Media CM106 chipset
XGI chipset.
XGI Z9 = SiS driver (maybe)
" (In reply to comment #6)
> > If it's compatible with the Z7, could we just add the Z9 PCI ids to the sis
> driver?
>
> We don't need to add any id for Z9, it could work with current SiS driver.
> But this updated source provides some new features such as DDR2 and DVO as well
> as bug fixing.
Any chance you could add these features to the sis driver or the xgi driver (bug
8611) or at least provide a rough diff of the changes? I'd rather not add a new
driver for one chip that's 99% the same as two other drivers. It will be a lot
harder to maintain and update."
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The Cuckoo's Egg
Additional technical information
The video uses an XGI X9 graphics chipset.
The High-Speed Docking Station supports Primary Mode, Extended Mode and Mirror Mode for video output modes.
It supports 1680x1050 and 1440x900 and 1280x800 as long as the monitor supports them for wide format monitors.
The sound card uses the C-Media CM106 chipset.
Now maybe I can "Force" those drivers to work under Linux. I can maybe cross reference those chipsets in separate products and folks' efforts to make them work in Linux, and hopefully extrapolate that to work through the ExpressCard/USB bus provided. We'll see..... ;-)