I just got my thinkpad t480 for simple school task and maybe some very light gaming on the side and I was wondering if Linux would help it run better or if I can still use it for school with Linux.

Hello mint users! Does any body teryed to install gnome desktop on Linux mint?

I made the switch to Cachy-os and really love the set up! It games beautifully and most everything I have set up works perfectly. The only problem so far is davinci resolve. I got it installed and everything, it looks fine, but when I try to import media nothing happens. Whether I’m importing from the menu, dragging from files, or opening the video with davinci, nothing happens with any of it.

I don’t edit much, so it isn’t a deal breaker, but I do really want to get it working. I figured it be pretty easy to install a more favorable distro to a spare hard drive so I can just choose to boot to that whenever I need to sit down and edit anything.

I figured Ubuntu Studio would make sense as a dedicated editor, unless anyone has any other suggestions. Or, if there are any common fixes to get Davinci working on Cachy-os, I’d appreciate the advice.

do you guys ever need to share your PC's internet with your Android phone over USB, or use your phone's internet on your Linux PC that way?
I've been messing around of finding ways to do so, and I'm wondering if it's actually something, someone has ever thought of, or am I just thinking of a problem nobody has lol.

Hello LQ,

I was checking previous posts and didn't see this asked, but in theory would a hard drive die quicker on linux than windows if you used it as a game drive?

I have a Xeon E3-1230 v1, 16GB of RAM, 256GB Sata + 512GB mSata + 1TB Seagate slim 3.5 hdd (I shucked from a DVR), RX 480 4GB on Windows 11.

With translation layers like proton needing to recompile shaders for vulkan on most games, would I be better off only keeping the SSDs installed because of all the extra writing to the disc (I understand the SSDs would go through the same process, I was more thinking about the processing time, age and history of my hdd)?

Or is it a non issue, because all components die eventually, and I can wait a few extra minutes?

I have only tried mint for gaming and it worked pretty well on my 4800H, 2060m, 48GB, SSD based laptop, but thought about Cachy, especially for the vram patch

so i've been thinking about dualbooting on my pc and i want to use linux mint and tbh i am not sure if i want to do it so what should i expect when installing linux, what should i do after installing linux, are there some quality of life apps i can install on linux etc. i just want to know anything that could be helpfull with starting with linux and if i don't like it how can i uninstall it

(and i feel like its important to say i use my pc mostly for gaming)

i am sorry if i write wierd but english isn't my native language

I'm interested in what experienced Linux users would recommend to someone who mainly wants to use their computer for browsing, studying, office work, programming occasionally, and general everyday tasks.

There are so many distributions and desktop environments that choosing one can feel harder than actually installing Linux. Every recommendation seems to come with a different philosophy, customization options, or warnings about what beginners should avoid.

For someone who values stability, sensible defaults, good hardware compatibility, and minimal maintenance, would you recommend something like Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Fedora, or something else?

I'm not necessarily looking for the most customizable or technically interesting setup. I'd rather have something that works reliably without needing to troubleshoot it every other week.

What would you install for that kind of user today, and are there any common beginner mistakes you'd suggest avoiding?

Here’s pre story, I’m a noob at IT and all I do on my cheap as laptop is watch YouTube time by time and that’s all. My ex boyfriend installed a damn Ubuntu on it when we were together. But now after breaking up it keeps messing up with windows and I can’t launch my laptop simply as before. It broken down or something I have no idea. I need someone to guide me and help me to fix my old laptop and make it windows only as it was before.

See title?

Hey y'all so basically I have been using Windows 11 and it is pissing me off and I am frustrated I want to make the jump to Linux. I have used Linux before specifically Kali so I know my way around the distro and so basically I also do game and I am currently torn between Linux Mint and Nobara for anybody curious I have a Ryzen Laptop with AMD iGPU with 16GB of ram it is not the Greatest but it plays the games I like pretty well nothing AAA od course but yeah, so basically Looking for advice on what distro between Nobara or Mint to use I know Nobara has the edge as far as Mesa graphics but I do also want a simple time and not have to worry at much breaking which I know Mint slightly Excel at I would go with Cachy since I also do some Dev work specifically Cybersecurity I also want to go into Game dev but anyway my point is the Cachy rolling release thing worries me so basically That is my predicament hence why I am here. Feel free to leave some advice below or if you have other suggestions it would be greatly appreciated also no Pop OS I have trauma from it kindly.

I'm leaving Windows soon and I need a program to take notes for studying.

I really like the infinite page layout (especially vertically), the textboxes and the section subdivisions (although I'd like the chance to nest subdivisions, if possible) as well as the markdown, the high number of list bullets and sync options.

What alternative would be the best compromise? I've heard of Obsidian, Xournal++ and other options, but IDK what's the best option for me

**Hardware**

* Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9E (modelo 83ME), BIOS Q8CN17WW (23-01-2025)

* Intel Core i5-12450HX, iGPU Intel UHD (Alder Lake) plus NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU (PCI 10de:25ac)

* Painel interno no iGPU Intel (eDP-1, 1920x1080, \~144 Hz). Monitor externo via HDMI (1920x1080, 60 Hz). A porta HDMI está conectada à GPU NVIDIA, então a dGPU fica `active` enquanto o monitor está conectado.

* Secure Boot desabilitado

**Software**

* Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS, GNOME, sessão Wayland. `Prompt=lts` está configurado e o caminho 24.04 → 26.04.1 está habilitado em `meta-release-lts`.

* Kernel `7.0.0-38-generic`

* Driver NVIDIA `580.178.04` proprietário (fechado), `nvidia-dkms-580`, DKMS construído para 7.0.0-34 e 7.0.0-38

* `prime-select`: sob demanda

* O arquivo de 26.04 contém `nvidia-driver-580` `580.178.04-0ubuntu0.26.04.1`, a mesma versão upstream

**Configuração do NVIDIA em uso (valores efetivos de** `/proc/driver/nvidia/params`**)**

* `PreserveVideoMemoryAllocations=1`, `nvidia-drm.modeset=1`

* `EnableGpuFirmware=0` (GSP desabilitado)

* `DynamicPowerManagement=2`, `EnableS0ixPowerManagement=1`, `RegistryDwords="RmEnableAggressiveVblank=1"`

* Linha de comando do Kernel: `quiet splash acpi_osi=Linux nvidia.NVreg_PreserveVideoMemoryAllocations=1 nvidia-drm.modeset=1 pcie_port_pm=off intel_idle.max_cstate=4 pcie_aspm=off pci=noaer pci=nommconf`

* `/sys/power/mem_sleep`: `s2idle [deep]`

* Governador `performance`, `intel_pstate` ativo, TLP 1.10.2 do PPA do linrunner

**Vídeo**

* Chrome 155 com `--enable-features=VaapiVideoDecoder,VaapiVideoDecodeLinuxGL`. A decodificação roda no iGPU com `intel-media-va-driver-non-free 26.3.2` do PPA do kobuk-team. A dGPU não é utilizada para decodificação.

* O gargalo no YouTube 1080p foi corrigido anteriormente limitando a qualidade a 1080p (aquilo foi no X11).

**O que eu descobri até agora**

* Launchpad #2143635 (kernel panic antes de suspender com módulos NVIDIA, kernel 7.0) e #2149963 (duplicata): “Correção liberada” apenas para `nvidia-graphics-drivers-595` e `-595-server`. Não há tarefa para 580. Não encontrei nenhum relatório que a reproduza com 580 em uma RTX 3050, mas um comentário menciona uma RTX 3050 Mobile com 595 no kernel 7.0.0-15.

* Não encontrei nenhum relatório público para o LOQ 15IAX9E no 26.04.

* Não está claro para mim o que `ubuntu-drivers` escolhe no 26.04 para um laptop Ampere (595-aberto vs 580).

**Situação atual**

* Conexão a quente com monitor externo, PRIME offload e vídeo do Chrome testados no Wayland: todos os três passaram. HDMI reconectado 3 vezes com ambas as telas voltando a 1920x1080; o aplicativo de offload apareceu no nvidia-smi e a dGPU voltou a ficar suspensa com o HDMI desconectado; 1080p no Chrome rodou suavemente com decode de hardware.

**Perguntas**

1. Alguém rodando 26.04 (ou 24.04 com o mesmo kernel) em um LOQ 15IAX9E ou outro notebook híbrido Intel + RTX 30xx? Como estão o suspend/resume, saída HDMI e gerenciamento de energia em runtime da dGPU?

2. O NVIDIA 580 fechado ainda é uma boa escolha no 26.04 com kernel 7.x, ou eu deveria migrar para 595 ou um módulo aberto? Algum problema conhecido com a construção DKMS ou suspensão no 580?

3. Fazem sentido ainda `EnableGpuFirmware=0`, `pcie_aspm=off`, `pci=nommconf` e as outras opções da linha de comando, ou podem causar problemas após a atualização?

4. Algum problema conhecido com o GNOME 50 no Wayland com a porta HDMI conectada à dGPU (congelamentos, tearing, VRR)?

5. Conselhos sobre a atualização em si: PPAs sem uma série `resolute` (CopyQ), extensões de GNOME de terceiros, venvs do Python 3.14, `sudo-rs`?

As the title goes, I'm looking for a distro that I can use for both gaming and programming. Currently I have debian and bazzite but it would be cool to have just one to rule them all. Two things to know:

- I'm on a laptop dell g15 5515 ryzen edition, and for instance with debian is impossible to set up nvidia drivers ("nvidia f**k u :D")

- For programming i mostly mean web development and game development

I was installing Linux Mint on my laptop when I started encountering several errors. Somehow, I ended up at a CMD and ran the "exit" command; immediately, a kernel panic appeared, stating something like "attempted to kill init," along with an exit code consisting entirely or mostly of zeros, I don't recall exactly. When I turned the laptop off and back on, it booted into the Windows installation I already had, but Linux Mint failed to install. Have I damaged any of the hardware?

I want to switch from Windows to Linux; I have the laptop model mentioned, and I use Steam for gaming. What else should I keep in mind when installing Ubuntu?

Hello everyone and thank you.

I have some questions regarding maximizing battery life on my HP Omen 16 (Core Ultra 5 225H | RTX 5050) gaming laptop that's on CachyOS.

When I'm on battery, I switch to 60Hz, lower brightness as conditions allow, and have it automatically switch to Power Save mode.

I've read about PRIME Offload so, should I still go into iGPU Mode through BIOS?

Should I use TLP instead of the default Settings's Power Management? Or, Auto-CPUfreq?

Any other advice?

I’m running into an issue getting Ollama to work on my NixOS setup. Everything else in my system configuration works fine, but ollama.service fails to activate whenever I rebuild my config.

Here is how I’ve configured Ollama:

services.ollama = {
  enable = true;
  openFirewall = true;
  user = "ollama";
  package = pkgs.ollama-cuda;
};

Here is the error output during nh os switch:

> Activating configuration
Error:  
    0: Activation (test) failed
    1: Activating configuration (exit status ExitStatus(Exited(4)))
      stderr:
         Checking switch inhibitors... done
         activating the configuration...
         reloading user units for <user>...
         restarting the following user units: nixos-activation.service
         restarting sysinit-reactivation.target
         the following new units were started: NetworkManager-dispatcher.service
         warning: the following units failed: ollama.service

And here are the relevant logs from journalctl -u ollama.service:

systemd[1]: Starting Server for local large language models...
(ollama)[59822]: ollama.service: Found pre-existing public StateDirectory= directory /var/lib/ollama, migrating to /var/lib/private/ollama.
(ollama)[59822]: ollama.service: Apparently, service previously had DynamicUser= turned off, and has now turned it on.
(ollama)[59822]: ollama.service: Failed to set up special execution directory in /var/lib: Device or resource busy
(ollama)[59822]: ollama.service: Failed at step STATE_DIRECTORY spawning /nix/store/...-ollama-0.32.3/bin/ollama: Device or resource busy
systemd[1]: ollama.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=238/STATE_DIRECTORY
systemd[1]: ollama.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

Not sure if it helps but I use preservation (impermanence/state persistence).

There's a lot to learn when getting into Linux, from package managers and permissions to system services and reading logs. It can be overwhelming when a simple problem leads you down a rabbit hole of terminal commands and forum posts.

For people who've been using Linux for a while, what skill made the biggest difference in how confidently you troubleshoot problems? Was it learning basic terminal commands, understanding the filesystem, figuring out how to read logs, or something else?

I'd especially like to hear what you'd recommend learning early instead of waiting until something breaks.

Hi.

A novice Linux user is typing something in the web browser, then suddenly the screen goes black.

I come to see what's happening. There is a cursor blinking so it's clearly a virtual terminal. I cycle through Ctrl+Alt+F keys hoping to find the desktop again, as it usually resides in F7 or F9, but to no avail. In F1, I run top, and to my surprise all the apps that are supposed to be running are gone.

So the desktop is completely gone. Killed. But killing X11 normally, via killall X, killall Xorg or kill -9 -1 usually returns to the display manager (lightdm in this case), and here the screen just goes completely black, with an unresponsive cursor icon, though other vterms work correctly and you can start X again, although it's a fresh session.

I am pretty sure a keyboard shortcut is the cause of this, but I haven't been able to investigate which keyboard shortcut it is.

If anyone knows more about this, I would gladly accept any explanations, and solutions on how to disable this.

If nobody knows anything then I'll result to writing a keylogger, since, unlike Wayland, you can do it under X11, and hope it manages to log the shortcut before the shortcut kills it along with all other X11 applications.

Thanks.

Hey, I've been trying multiple linux distros, but one constant is always the same problem with audio. If, while my laptop is turned off, I unplug and plug again my headphones, once I turn it back on, the audio quality is terrible. It's low, it's broken, I can't understand any voice. If I unplug it and plug it back again, it goes back to working. I have searched everywhere. Currently I'm using Fedora 44 with Gnome. I disabled power save on my grub, but only that so far and it didn't work. Any tips?

EDIT1:
i found the following command:
echo "options snd_hda_intel power_save=0 power_save_controller=N" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/audio-fix.conf

sudo dracut --force
which apparently fixed the issue. I tested and it's working. If it breaks again i will return here.

TLDR: Is doing a clean Linux Install best for getting rid of MacOS or can I just delete the MacOS partition and shuffle my existing Linux install to the front of the disc? Are there risks of bricking the laptop with SIP being a thing.

So I've been working on a 2017 Intel Macbook air in Kubuntu and it's great, lots of tweaking to get it just how I like and now it's pretty much flawless, never want to go back.

The issue I'm having is I saved the MacOS partition just in case for dependencies etc, but it keeps messing up the EFI and locking me out of GRUB. I think it's something to do with that System Integrity Protection thing, but can't work out how to nuke that for good either. The only fix I've found is installing Kubuntu again on a spare partition so it can reset GRUB as the default boot and then going back into my old install. Not ideal, huge time sink and I'm always worried about my files, even with regular backups. rEFInd was no help, unfortunately. I've thought of making another boot partition as a backup but that kind of seems like more of a headache.

I'm done with MacOS at this point, just want a single boot system. My question is how do I go about doing that without bricking my lappy? Can I just delete the MacOS partition and shuffle my Kubuntu stuff to the front, or should I do a clean install of the whole drive and start from scratch? Would be nice to not have to re-tweak Kubuntu, but very do-able if it'll mean not risking a brick. Currently sda1 has my boot, then 100GB is in sda2 with MacOS, then I have a swap partition, and all my good stuff is on sda4 with some junk around it.

Thoughts?

I been distro hopping since 2022 and i cannot stop my self ever since i install linux i keep wating to get some thing that a faster and better

[Is there a permanent solution?]