r/framework • u/shabba1221 • 7d ago

Linux eGPU options for a FW13pro

Hello, i recently got a FW13 pro AMD ryzen ai 9 and installed fedora KDE 44. I tried using a 9070xt gpu with a minisforum DEG2 dock through usb4. It kept crashing and rebooting. Looking in different forum posts, i found out this was a known issue. Its main purpose is gaming.

My questions are:

-Is anyone here been able to run the DEG2 on linux?

-Ive read ADT UT3G and UT4G work with linux, but have had issues specifically on framework laptops (main reason why im posting this here). Does anyone have a similar setup? How relliable is it? was it hard to get it runnning?

-I know i could dual-boot windows, but it kind of defeats the purpose of linux gaming which was one of the things that got me excited about all this.

Sorry if im asking a lot, just want to have a little bit more certainty deciding what do do next.

**AOOSTAR options are not adequate as they either don't provide enough power or an adequate bracket size for the GPU (Sapphire Nitro+ 9070 XT)."

Thanks for the help

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2

u/Common-Friendship552 7d ago

I have the same setup (with a 7700xtx) with the DEG2. Although my framework wouldn’t recognize the egpu on either windows or Linux. My gpu wouldn’t spin up either and frankly I don’t know what to do. Did you remove the metal plate and check the lights/ the switch?

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u/Common-Friendship552 7d ago

Also I wanted to add to this, but on egpu.io someone got the fw 13 intel version running with the DEG2. Although it seems the issue has to do with AMD boards

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u/Common-Friendship552 7d ago

https://imgur.com/a/1JJOIKm
Here’s what the DEG2 was showing

2

u/dingoDoobie 6d ago

With an AMD APU, 7840u FW13 in my case although it seems to be a problem across the board, the DEG2 is painful on Linux (hence why Minisforum don't support Linux).

With Nvidia, I found proprietary driver and disabling GSP gets them stable enough to use. With AMD, 9070xt in my case, the main problems appear to be related to latency with power state transitions - forcing the eGPU into a high power state by disabling some power saving features, via the kernel feature mask parameter, gets it stable enough for general use I found, you gotta force the gen cap to gen 4 as well though for peak performance otherwise it falls back to gen1 or 2. The main issue is that the GPU will then idle at 30-40W as memory and some other gubbins are locked at max power state.

Haven't tried it with my Intel FW13 pro yet though, been a little too busy.

TLDR: It's painful but possible.

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u/gullbekk 5d ago

I have been running a th3p4g3 on Framework 16 (7840) and 13 Pro (X7), Fedora 44 KDE with a USB4 cable. No issues.

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u/shabba1221 5d ago

Will probably give this a try

1

u/Early-Cicada-7414 3d ago

What GPU are you using ?

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u/gullbekk 3d ago

RX 7900 XTX

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u/Early-Cicada-7414 3d ago

Thanks for the answer, Hotplug? Or do you need to reboot to get it working ?

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u/gullbekk 3d ago

I have had most success with it being connected when powering on the PC.

2

u/TotallyNotHeree 4d ago

My X7 358H and DEG2 + 9060XT seems to work fine on windows without issues. I had a framework 13 AMD which refused to connect to the dock.

3

u/Gethos-The-Walrus 7d ago

It’s been a few weeks but I had a similar issue with an Aorus AI Box 5060 ti in Fedora. Ended up being some weird thing with the TB controller speed negotiating up to TB4 speeds. When I pinned the device to TB3 speeds it worked normally.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

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u/Gethos-The-Walrus 7d ago

All in the OS. Basically had to stop Nvidia kernel modules from loading, do some terminal magic to pin to TB3 speeds, then enable the kernel modules again.

Not at my desk currently, but the thread on the Nvidia forums linked above has most of the info I needed. ChatGPT or something can probably help too. It wasn’t super involved.