Bug 456547

Summary:	Can KDE provide better info about USB-C cables/devices plugged in?
Product:	[Applications] kinfocenter	Reporter:	Steve Zakulec <spzakulec>
Component:	USB Devices	Assignee:	Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs>
Status:	RESOLVED INTENTIONAL
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	hubn3rd, nate, sitter
Priority:	NOR
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Neon
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Steve Zakulec 2022-07-10 13:19:34 UTC

SUMMARY
***
It would be nice if KDE could tell you if USB-C devices & cables are properly matched, and at the right speeds.
***

I read these two tweets from Benson Leung, the Google ChromeOS USB-C expert, and thought this sounded like something KDE should have.
Tweet 1:
https://twitter.com/Laughing_Man/status/1512839814885765124
"Why doesn't my OS tell me what the cable or device I've plugged in is, and tell me about any problems?" Right now, there are big gaps in all OSes around USB-C messaging to the user.

Tweet 2:
https://twitter.com/Laughing_Man/status/1530228725953884161
Coming to Chrome OS M102: Newer Chromebooks (11th Gen Intel or newer) will notify you if the USB-C cable you're using with a dock or a monitor does not support DisplayPort!


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
This library seems like it could be useful in this, unless KDE already has a library that processes USB-C/USB PD devices:
https://github.com/Rajaram-Regupathy/libtypec
https://people.kernel.org/bleung/now-how-many-usb-c-to-usb-c-cables-are-there-usb4-update-september-12
More details on info that may already be available.

Comment 1 Harald Sitter 2022-07-22 10:06:10 UTC

Out of the 5 devices I've tried none actually have any useful output in ./typecstatus  --all. That makes time investment into this kind of a waste. Do you happen to know why devices wouldn't expose their ports properly?

Comment 2 Steve Zakulec 2022-08-02 03:18:53 UTC

So, apparently my kernel isn't new enough to take advantage of typecstatus, so if you're getting garbage, this ticket can be closed then- I'd have to ask one of the folks who worked on this about that to get you a better answer.

Comment 3 Harald Sitter 2022-08-04 18:32:15 UTC

I've also been unable to garner any more details. Feel free to reopen this bug should more information become available but right now any work on this is blocked on not having a dump of a suitable typec directory.

Chances are that if this becomes a bit more wide spread supported we can simply build a module based on libtypec's CLI tools. For now I'm hesitant to do that if we cannot expect the module to do anything useful for 99% of systems.