I have been googling Thunderbolt cards in Manjaro, and

So far haven’t found any problems. Does that mean I will have an easy time plugging in a Thunderbolt card to one of my Motherboards PCI slots and plugging in my Thunderbolt devices that I have because I am switching from Macs?

No one can tell but someone who has been there.

Thunderbolt is another name for USB 3.1 also known as USB-C.

SO you’re saying that my thunderbolt devices will plug into the 1 USB Type C slot on my motherboard?

Yup - my macbook has four thunderbolt ports which is basically usb 3.1 and my usb 3.1 devices like a wd passport and my android phone plugs and plays

As noted in later comments I am completely mistaken - please disregard what I wrote.

If it fits highly depends on which Thunderbolt you mean.

Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C are compatible.

Thunderbolt 1 and 2 have a different connector (similar to a mini-Displayport).

1 Like

thunderbolt and USB 3.1 is not the same… they both use the same connector but it’s different protocols etc… Thunderbolt is to be simple PCI lanes on USB-C connectors. with some security added to it.
USB 3.1 is still USB. not all USB-C connector that are USB 3.1 compatible are compatible with thunderbolt.

Thunderbolt 3 defines a superset of capabilities that runs on USB-C connectors and cables. In brief, Thunderbolt 3 brings Thunderbolt to USB-C. Here are the superset of features that Thunderbolt 3 provides:

At 40 Gbps, Thunderbolt 3 is the fastest connection available. By comparison, native USB 3.1 operates at 10 Gbps.
Thunderbolt 3 is bi-directional with four lanes of PCI Express Gen 3 and eight lanes of DisplayPort 1.2.
Now with a Thunderbolt 3 port, you can connect to any dock, device or display, including billions of USB devices.

by check

sudo lspci -v 

you should see if “thunderbolt” or “USB3.1” appears with kernel 5.8

in my case , bios has a bad @adress for thunderbolt so no lines appears for my motherboard

well, that and a little googling tell me that because I have a threadripper I can’t even use an add on thunderbolt card?

Threadripper can you thunderbolt, but you need specific thunderbolt supported AM4 motherboards. There aren’t many of them.

I know the Asrock X570 Creator has it.

I have an Asus Rog Zenith 2 Extreme Alpha, the type C USB port is up to 20Gbps

“1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (up to 20Gbps) ports (Type-C)”

If it doesn’t say thunderbolt in the manual, it doesn’t support thunderbolt. Other option is bypass the firmware, you can look up level1tech videos and forums, because Wendell did it before Thunderbolt compatible motherboards were released.


Also just an fyi, your current title is really bad and not helpful.

I have been googling Thunderbolt cards in Manjaro, and

Typically, you’d want a good title so that people who searches the forum can find the post.

there is confusion on thunderbolt :
here in many case this is a thunderbolt pci for USB 3 / 4 ( linux 5.9 ) ,
all others types ( videos , disks , etc. ) required a specific card or built-in thunderbolts ports

so your question is about thunderbolt pci or thunderbolt ports ( builtin or additional pci cards for ports )