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Troubleshooting

This is a collection of tips and common problems that might occur when trying to use an eGPU on the Linux Desktop. This document is not supposed to be a step-by-step guide on how to setup an eGPU, but rather provide some TL;DR assistance if you are running into problems.

Please feel free to provide your own solutions to problems you might have had by issuing a Pull Request to this repository.

Common Problems

For general problems with your graphics card or graphics drivers, please do a web search first. Consider reading the corresponding articles in the ArchWiki (eg. NVIDIA/Troubleshooting - ArchWiki) in order to find a solution to your problem.

  • My eGPU is not recognized on egpu-switcher setup / egpu-switcher config

    Please check for the usual errors first, maybe by trying the eGPU unit with a different device or operating system:

    • Does the GPU work?
    • Does the power supply of your eGPU case work?
    • Does your TB3 cable work?
    • Does your USB-C Port support TB3?

    If you can exclude the issues mentioned above, check for the following:

    • Does your system meet the requirements?
    • Is Thunderbolt enabled in your BIOS?
      Also check whether you've set Thunderbolt Security to USB-DP only by accident.
    • Did you authorize your eGPU? (see boltctl)
    • Check if your eGPU shows up when running lspci. The egpu-switcher script is running this command internally to detect GPUs. If lspci doesn't find your GPU, neither will egpu-switcher.

  • My eGPU is not selected automatically on bootup

    • Make sure the GPU is connected before you start your computer.
    • Check if egpu-switcher even detects your eGPU at runtime by executing egpu-switcher switch auto with the eGPU connected. If it doesn't recognize the eGPU please see the troubleshooting tips above.
    • Try to re-run the egpu-switcher config and egpu-switcher setup command to reconfigure egpu-switcher.
    • Check whether the egpu.service is still enabled in systemd and check its output in journalctl.
    • In case there is a race-condition happening between bolt and egpu-switcher, try enabling Pre-Boot ACL in the BIOS and re-authorize your eGPU. With this setting enabled, your eGPU gets connected much faster. Be aware that this setting only makes sense with the Thunderbolt Security set to user (see #50).
    • Try changing your Thunderbolt Security Level and see if it changes anything (I personally use Thunderbolt Security Level user and Pre-Boot ACL enabled).

  • I can't update / uninstall egpu-switcher

    Up until version 0.12.0 there was an issue that the cleanup command needed the egpu-switcher to be set up for the cleanup to work. If you are having trouble to cleanup, remove or upgrade the egpu-switcher take a look at this possible fix.

Tips

Below you'll find a none exhaustive list of some general tips that may prevent you from running into certain problems. The list is based on personal experience and not necessarily on best-practices, please take into consideration that it might be outdated, depending on the time you read it.

  • Drivers
    If you happen to have an NVIDIA GPU, it's preferrable to use the proprietary NVIDIA graphics drivers rather than Nouveau (see NVIDIA - ArchWiki).

  • Thunderbolt
    There have been less issues reported when Pre-Boot ACL was enabled in the BIOS. Enabling Pre-Boot ACL allows authorized Thunderbolt devices to connect during pre-boot and leads to the eGPU connecting much faster on bootup, therefore limiting the impact of race-conditions between egpu-switcher and bolt. Please be aware that this only makes sense with Thunderbolt Security set to user.

  • Don't choose an explicit internal GPU
    Although egpu-switcher config will ask you whether you want to specify a specific internal GPU, it's not recommended to do so. Many users have reported that specifying the internal GPU explicitly will cause problems in certain situations, especially with the intel drivers (see #33, #28, #36, #37).

  • Display Settings (BIOS)
    If you are using a laptop with hybrid graphics (dedicated GPU + internal graphics) try changing the Display Settings in your BIOS if a problem occurs and see if it changes anything. I've personally experienced system freezes in distro installers (I think it was Ubuntu 19.04) that could only be solved by changing Display Settings from Hybrid Graphics to Discrete Graphics before starting the installation. After the installation went successful, the display settings could be changed back to Hybrid Graphics without any issues.