Bdtyktl

Why do I get this message on my Lenovo Y720 laptop? I have a thunderbolt 3 port, but for some reason it says this:

I don't suppose it's because I have no cable inserted.

• Secure boot is disabled


• Fast boot is disabled


• AHCI mode enabled


• UEFI mode enabled


• The port works if I connect to my phone, but I cannot test it with another thunderbolt device as I do not have any.

Not sure if you're still looking for an answer, but I ran into this same issue and got it working.

I'm running Ubuntu Budgie 18.04.1 and it seemed to be missing the bolt package.

If you're also missing the package, running the command

sudo apt install bolt

and then a restart should give you the ability to access your thunderbolt settings.

And no, even with no devices plugged in, you should still be able to see the controls.

Edit: Another thing you can do is run lspci -tv and look to see if the thunderbolt ports are even recognized by the system.

The thunderbolt port itself works (not hotplug, so I have to restart with the device plugged in for it to be detected). I have no thunderbolt device to test if thunderbolt is turned on though, but the port can move files between my phone and PC, this is the closest I see I will get to the answer.

Check the BIOS settings for thunderbolt security. I've heard that with the Yoga 720 there is thunderbolt security implemented at the BIOS level. You have to either specifically allow each device or turn the security off.

Also, make sure your thunderbolt 3 device is plugged in when you check this tool. On my Yoga 920, it shows the same thing until a thunderbolt 3 device is actually plugged in, and only then does it "wake up."

Finally, I've found some TB docks don't work as reliably as others. I have a Dell TB16 dock that works somewhat sporadically, but my Lenovo Thunderbolt 3 dock seems to do better (I've only had it for a few days, so jury is still out on stability with Ubunut.)

I don't suppose it's because I have no cable inserted.

Actually that is probably exactly the problem. Thunderbolt is controlled by the BIOS and depending on BIOS it can be setup and configured in different ways. What you probably want is BIOS Assisted Mode. That completly disconnects the thunderbolt once the cable is unplugged. You won't see it in lspci or any other tool, and that would explain the screenshot you provided.

Thunderbolt controllers in BIOS-assisted enumeration mode go to sleep when not in use.
All that is left is a PCI hotplug bridge with no child bridges attached.

The Thunderbolt controllers that break this rule are:

• Titan Ridge


• Presumably any future controllers released after Titan Ridge


• Some Alpine Ridge controllers with updated firmware and BIOS to support (uncommon)

https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/thunderbolt.html

From the above link, we find a command to force the power and wake the controller (usually used for firmware updates without requiring Thunderbolt devices to be attached).

"echo 1 | sudo tee /sys/bus/wmi/devices/86CCFD48-205E-4A77-9C48-2021CBEDE341/force_power" without the quotes, should wake it up. Then "lspci -vnnt" to visualise the difference. If you want, you can post the output of "lspci -vnnt" for us to confirm for you.

But this only works on recent kernels. I cannot remember which one was the first, but 4.20 most definitely has it (and definitely some earlier ones but for the sake of simplicity, just use that one).

Hopefully this works and allows for your Thunderbolt controller to be acknowledged by Ubuntu. However, since you said you do not have any Thunderbolt devices, I am not sure why you care (although I do not say that discouragingly). But that should be the solution.

Oh, and remember, if you have another Thunderbolt 3 laptop and a USB-C to USB-C cable with USB 3.X speeds, you should be able to connect the two laptops together via their Thunderbolt ports, which will wake the controllers and result in emulated 10GbE networking in between them. If they are both Linux then you will have to "sudo modprobe thunderbolt-net" on one of them.