FileVault 2 and Thunderbolt docks

[macbrun]

At my institution we are using the Belkin Thunderbolt Express dock with many of the Macbook Pros we've deployed and have been mostly pleased with them. Recently, we have begun encrypting the laptops with FileVault 2 in order to comply with the results of a security audit. What we've begun experiencing is that any peripherals, in particular the keyboard and mouse, plugged into the dock are disabled until after login on encrypted machines. Once logged in, the dock is fine again.
Has anyone seen this and/or have any idea of a solution to prevent this from happening?

[gregneagle · Accepted solution]

This is not terribly surprising. When a machine is at the FV2 pre-boot authentication screen, OS X is not running. Instead, the EFI firmware is running the hardware. The EFI Firmware has a subset of the peripheral drivers available in OS X, and apparently the needed Thunderbolt drivers for your Thunderbolt dock are not there.

Once you authenticate, OS X actually boots (and then logs you in), and the full complement of drivers is available.

You'll also find that external displays don't have video at this stage.

All you can do is engage in user training. They'll need to use the laptop's internal keyboard, trackpad and display to authenticate at the FV2 pre-boot authentication screen.

[macbrun]

Makes perfect sense, thanks Greg!

[Josh_Smith]

I agree with @gregneagle. I wanted to add that there are docks that work--my external keyboard works at the FV2 screen when plugged in to a thunderbolt dock with the following equipment:

-http://www.startech.com/Cards-Adapters/Laptop-docking-stations/Thunderbolt-Laptop-Docking-Station~TB...
-Apple Wired Keyboard
-Apple Magic Mouse (not connected to dock of course, working via Bluetooth)

My external displays do not work until after the OS begins to load.