egpu-switcher

Description

The goal of this CLI is to lower the barrier for Linux users to use their eGPU on the Linux Desktop. With the egpu-switcher config command the user can choose their external GPU. On every bootup the service will check if the eGPU is connected and if so, make X.Org prefer it.

Limitations

• No hotplugging is possible. Users still need to reboot their computer to connect / disconnect the eGPU.

Requirements

• Running X.Org
• Thunderbolt connection to eGPU is authorized
• Necessary graphics drivers for eGPU are installed

Installation

Ubuntu (apt)

The PPA is no longer maintained for now (see #90)

Arch (aur)

paru -S egpu-switcher

:deciduous_tree::zap: Save time and energy by using the pre-compiled egpu-switcher-bin package

Manual

Installation and setup

Download binary from latest release

Copy binary to /opt, apply proper permissions, and link it in /usr/bin

sudo cp <downloaded-binary> /opt/egpu-switcher
sudo chmod 755 /opt/egpu-switcher
sudo ln -s /opt/egpu-switcher /usr/bin/egpu-switcher
sudo egpu-switcher enable

Uninstall

sudo egpu-switcher disable --hard
sudo rm /usr/bin/egpu-switcher
sudo rm /opt/egpu-switcher

Build

Prerequisites

Install the go toolchain

Installation and setup

git clone git@github.com:hertg/egpu-switcher.git
cd egpu-switcher
make build -s
sudo make install -s
sudo egpu-switcher enable

Uninstall

sudo egpu-switcher disable --hard
sudo make uninstall -s

Commands

Usage:
  egpu-switcher [command]

Available Commands:
  config      Choose your external GPU
  disable     Disable egpu-switcher from running at startup
  enable      Enable egpu-switcher to run at startup
  help        Help about any command
  switch      Check if eGPU is present and configure X.org accordingly
  version     Print version information

Flags:
  -h, --help      help for egpu-switcher
  -v, --verbose   verbose output

Use "egpu-switcher [command] --help" for more information about a command.

Configuration

The config file is created automatically and can be found at /etc/egpu-switcher/config.yaml. Below you can see an example of a configuration file, annotated with additional information.

egpu:
    # the 'driver' and 'id' configs are generated by 'egpu-switcher config'.
    # you probably shouldn't change this manually unless you understand why.
    driver: amdgpu
    id: 1153611719250962689

    # OPTIONAL: do not load 'modesetting' in the egpu config
    nomodesetting: false

# OPTIONAL: how many times 'egpu-switcher switch auto' should retry finding the egpu.
# this can be helpful if the egpu takes some time to connect on your machine,
# the following values are the default.
detection:
  retries: 6
  interval: 500 # milliseconds

# OPTIONAL: if you want to execute a script after switching to egpu/internal.
# the values must be absolute paths to a shell script, this script will
# then be run with '/bin/sh $script'.
# 
# it is required that the script is owned by root (uid 0) 
# and has a permission of -rwx------ (0700).
hooks:
  internal: /home/michael/tmp/internal.sh
  egpu: /home/michael/tmp/egpu.sh

Troubleshooting

If you run into problems, please have a look at TROUBLESHOOT.md before reporting any issues.