network connection over thunderbolt bridge between linux and mac

Question

When plugging thunderbolt cable between two mac computers, it's possible to setup a high speed network connection between them (depending on the thunderbolt version it can be up to 40Gbps).

I was wondering if anyone tried to do something similar between linux and mac?

The goal is to have 10Gbps+ connection between linux and mac.

Solution 1

It's hard finding any info about this, so I wanted to share here what I've found.

According to 01.org(Intels OSS stuff):

Networking over Thunderbolt cable was introduced in v4.15 kernel

This is a very new kernel (i.e. at 10April 2018 CoreOS only offers it on their Alpha-channel).

It does sound like it's perfectly possible if I must believe Phoronix with this new Linux-version:

The patch offers a new THUNDERBOLT_NET option to support creating a network between multiple computers using a Thunderbolt cable. This Linux driver supports the Apple ThunderboltIP protocol and supports any host using this protocol, including Windows and macOS.

lwn:

Thunderbolt Networking for Linux is compatible with Thunderbolt Networking on systems running macOS or Windows and also supports Thunderbolt generation 2 and 3 controllers.

1- https://01.org/thunderbolt-sw/overview

2- https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Thunderbolt-Network-Linux

3- https://lwn.net/Articles/705998/

Solution 2

I got this working with Ubuntu 18.10 on a Intel NUC (Hades Canyon). No setup required - I was trying and failing to get target display over Thunderbolt on a 2013 iMac and noticed that they both showed another networking interface and that the Mac's network shares were showing up in the Ubuntu file manager UI. And that was even using the Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter.

Now if I could only get the iMac working as a remote display....

Comments

[Spiff]

I'm pretty sure it's just 10Gbps, and it works because Apple created a way to use a single 10Gbps Thunderbolt channel for this purpose and present it to the system like a virtual 10Gb Ethernet interface, and Intel shipped support for that for Windows with an update to their Windows drivers for their *Ridge Thunderbolt controllers. If I were you I'd look at the Linux support for Thunderbolt and see if there's any mention of Ethernet or IP networking.

[Artur]

Thanks @Spiff for your comment - it gives a good overview on the situation and confirms my suspicions. Actually before asking a question I already tried searching for Linux support for IP networking over Thunderbolt (with some findings), as you suggested. However I didn't get it working. I was hoping someone tackled that and have some interesting findings to share.

[DDS]

I think you could forward an X-Session over SSH ang go with it.

[lzap]

Great so are you saying that if I run let's say Samba or NFS on my NUC (Linux) and connect this to my new Mac, I should be able to mount these on the mac? That would be so cool, I just bought a new SSD for my NUC.