USB4NET doesnt recognize plugged in USB4 Device. Thunderbolt laptop works

Hardware Hub Networking
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Hi together,

i am desperate for help. I am trying to build a USB4NET cluster out of 3 Minisforum NPB7. I used this guide Thunderbolt Networking Setup · GitHub but i can’t get USB4NET to work. When i plug the NBP7 into each other there is no event in udevadm monitor. When i plug them into my laptop which has thunderbolt 4 all events show and the interfaces are detected as network interfaces.
I don’t know what i should do to fix that. I tryed around with boltctl commands but that doesn’t helped. Can somebody please help me?

Thanks in advance.
Adrian

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Hi @AdrianS,

I am in the same situation with a couple of NPB5.

I can see the thunderbolt controllers with bolctl list -a and both the thunderbolt_net and thunderbolt modules are loaded correctly. I also tried with multiple USB4 and Thunderbolt4 cables to no avail.

I believe this is a firmware/BIOS issue on the minisforum side, I have emailed their support contact, let’s see if they can investigate on this. I suggest you to do the same.

boltctl list -a output

 ● INTEL Gen12
   ├─ type:          host
   ├─ name:          Gen12
   ├─ vendor:        INTEL
   ├─ uuid:          db408780-f144-7ef1-ffff-ffffffffffff
   ├─ generation:    USB4
   ├─ status:        authorized
   │  ├─ domain:     db408780-f144-7ef1-ffff-ffffffffffff
   │  └─ authflags:  none
   ├─ authorized:    Wed 03 Jan 2024 05:35:17 PM UTC
   ├─ connected:     Wed 03 Jan 2024 05:35:17 PM UTC
   └─ stored:        no
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Minisforum came back saying this connection mode is not supported on NPB5/NPB7 and other models.

It seems that you can’t connect 2 hosts together via usb4/thunderbolt but in theory you can connect to another thunderbolt device (I haven’t tested this yet). Based on that, we are SOL.

The only other option I can think of to connect those 2 mini pc at high speed, is the use of a thundebolt 10gbit ethernet or SFP+ adapter (but it’s 30gbit slower and those are usually expensive)

edit: grammar

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@DespiseTheSize hey thanks for the answer. Can you send me your contact at minisforum. Maybe with enought pressure the release a bios update. :slight_smile:

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I used [email protected] to reach them

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@DespiseTheSize have you made any progress on this? I’ve also purchased x3 of the MinisForum NPB5 Mini PCs and am having issues setting up the USB4NET/Thunderbolt ethernet connection between the 3 minis.

I’ve updated the bios, and attempted every walkthrough that I could find without any success. My best result was connecting a MAC with Thunderbolt port to the NPB5 USB4 port and the devices was created in Linux, however I wasn’t able to establish a complete connection to make it useful.

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Not really. I’ve updated to the latest BIOS but I haven’t had the time to test it yet.

Maybe the new BIOS fixes the issue? worth testing

What version are you on?