#nexdock360, #pinephone, #librem5

Can't get the pinephone (#mobian) to work stable with the nexdock - nexdock as single screen. Connecting needs often a few tries and usually includes some waiting until the screen of the nexdock activates. After that it isn't stable: after some time the screen on the nexdock deactivates and the screen on the pinephone doesn't show anything.
To get back control I either have to reboot or try to reconnect until I can reconfigure the screens. kanshi helps a bit.

Since the last updates the screen on the #pinephone switches back on when the #nexdock360 is disconnected. So there's change and progress.

But the last time I tried to get the screen of the nexdock working with the pinephone it didn't switch on at all. Keyboard and touchpad are working, convergence symbol is shown in mobian and I can move windows to the inactive screen of the nexdock.

Everything looks as if the mobian is using the second screen even though no picture is shown.

@chrichri Does it make a difference, if you shut down your Pinephone, plug in the Nexdock and then boot your phone? I don't have a Nexdock, but connecting external displays this way helped recognition on the #pinephone

@pima, thanks for the idea! I connected the switched off #pinephone to my #nexdock360. Switched on the nexdock, then switched on the phone. I had to enter my passphrase for the encrypted volume to boot which does on the pinephone only work using the on screen keyboard (on the librem5 I can use the nexdock keyboard).

After #mobian booted on the pinephone I unlocked the screen and found the convergence symbol in the top bar - but no output to the nexdocks screen.

Recently I started having problems using the #nexdock360 with the #librem5, also: the librem5 didn't show anything on the screen of the nexdock within a few connection tries and then worked as expected.

After I already dumped the usb-cable that came with the nexdock, because I didn't get a consistent result in connecting the librem5 or the pinephone I started suspecting the problem might still be the connection.

Could be the cable I'm using now, could be the connector on the nexdock.

...

Most probably it is not the connector on the pinephone and the librem5 breaking at the same time.

I'll try with different cables first.

BTW: Does anybody have problems with the usb-c connector? If I move the phone or the nexdock there is a good chance it just disconnects, because the cables are somehow stiff and the connection mechanically isn't very strong.

I tried 2 new usb-c 3.1 gen2 4k video cables and both worked with the #librem5 without any problems. I couldn't get a picture of the #pinephone #mobian desktop on the #nexdock360 though.

Both new cables seem to have a plug that fits more tightly into the usb-c connections of the phones and the nexdock and the connections does not break if I move the phone or the nexdock.

On the pinephone I'd like to try a different distribution. The problems started as I remember after an update.