Is there a way to know what Thunderbolt version I have?

Hardware Support
1

Hey,

I need a Thunderbolt (USB C) to Firewire adapter to make use of an old FW-audio-interface but I will need to know if it is Thunderbolt 2 or 3 to buy the right adapter.

Is there a way to find that out on Linux? Qwant didn't deliver any helpful results...

2

This has a good in-depth guide:

1 Like
3

Thanks, I will have a good read. It really isn't that straight forward then... Seems nearly as confusing as the whole USB 3 "standard" story.

4

Sadly, it's not unusual since the manufacturer developer never considered that the information may need to be clearly displayed. USB ports have this issue on all OS's, too... Eventually, manufacturers started using the Blue ColorCode to show the USB 3 ports. But this quickly became nearly useless when Cheap Knock-off companies began deceptively selling Hubs, etc. with USB 2 ports colored Blue, too.

Checking the speed of the Thunderbolt port above is at least more accurate than relying on something that can easily be visually faked... which is how I identified many USB hubs that are shown as USB 3 but actually USB 2.

  • Speed: Up to 10 Gb/s - Thunderbolt 1
  • Speed: Up to 20 Gb/s - Thunderbolt 2
  • Speed: Up to 40 Gb/s - Thunderbolt 3
1 Like
5

Very good article. What I did was:

lsusb -t
On Bus02.Port1 I had a speed of 10000Mbit/s

sudo lshw | grep -A10 -i usb
On the bottom of the list it confirmed the speed of 10000Mbit/s

So, Thunderbolt 2 it is then :slight_smile:

1 Like
6

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.