Dell Dock TB15 charges Macbook Pro but does not show up in System Information -> Thunderbolt | Mac

I have a TB15 connected to two 1920×1080 screens (one via display port, other via HDMI; DP chaining always made trouble) and been using it with an XPS13 9360 running Ubuntu, and a Dell mobile workstation running Windows 7. Some firmare and driver updates needed but then it worked like a charm.

Now I have a MBP… A1708 Mid 2017 running MacOS X 10.13.6, and it does not work at all. When I plug in the TB15 on one of the two TB3 ports the LED on the plug stays off. But the funny thing: the Mac gets charged from the TB15 dock via thunderbolt. So I guess it must be a firmware / driver issue.

What I have tried:

– checking if the two TB ports on the mac make a difference. no.

– installing all OS updates offered. no.

– checking if the dock gets shown in System information -> thunderbolt (see screenshot). “No device connected” on both ports.

– installing the Thunderbolt3Unblocker kernel module that allows for using hardware unsupported by Apple from [1] see also [2]. A…

kextstat | grep ryan

… in the console after a reboot shows it, so I assume it is loaded. I did expect too much, as I read that it only unblocks devices that show up in system information with a remark “unsupported”; but worth a try. However, nothing.

– resetted SMC, NVRAM; see [3]. On reboot after command-option-p-r it asked me for a wifi key during boot, did something then booted up. But also did not solve the problem.

Now I am stuck. I really do not want to buy another dock as the setup has worked for me well; but I have to get the mac to work in my environment…

Any ideas appreciated.

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[1] https://github.com/rgov/Thunderbolt3Unblocker

[2] https://9to5mac.com/2016/11/21/tb3-enabler-enable-unsupported-thunderbolt-3-devices-hack-macbook-pro/

[3] https://fedotov.co/apple-thunderbolt-not-working/