Thunderbolt Support on Void

Sat, 27 Apr 2024 09:46:53 -0500

I've been running Void Linux on a 2017 MacBook Air this machine for some time now, and despite some networking issues (no thanks to the Broadcom chip), it's worked quite well. That being said, I not a huge fan of Apple hardware. The lack of ports, chiclet keyboard, and soldered SSD leave much to be desired. However, since I got it for free, I can't complain too much.

To solve issue with the lack of ports, I bought Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter, Thunderbolt to HDMI, adapter and Thunderbolt to VGA adapter. The adapters themselves work just fine, but I quickly found out that you can't hot swap Thunderbolt out-of-the-box on Void. Fortunately, there is bolt daemon you can install and enable.

The package is called bolt and can be installed as follows:

 # xbps-install -Sy bolt

To daemonize it with runit, run the following command:

 # ln -s /etc/sv/boltd /var/services

To to check the status of boltd run the following command:

 # sv status boltd

That's all there is to it. It's been running for a week with no issue so far.