egpu-switcher

Distribution agnostic eGPU script that works with NVIDIA and AMD cards.

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.

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Limitations

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

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Requirements

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

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Installation

Ubuntu (apt)

The PPA is no longer maintained for now (see #90)

Arch (aur)

paru -S egpu-switcher

🌳⚡ 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 [email protected]: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

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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.

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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

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Troubleshooting

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