Hi, new here! Just bought a used TP c13 w/ Ryzen 5 and am very hyped to install a lightweight linux distro on it (I’ve installed linux on CBs before).
Are there any distros better than other for the AMD processor and videocard? I’ve run various distros, with Kubuntu on my desktop, but thinking of Nobara or Bazzite maybe, since I only plan to browse and game on it.
Any other tips or suggestions?
Do not use anything immutable like bazzite. There is a list of recommended distros on the docs.
OK, thanks. I didn’t know much about it yet. New here and wasn’t aware of the docs, I’ll check them out now. Thanks!
Btw, would you have a rec?
Seems like you like fedora-based distros, which will work just fine as long as they aren’t immutable.
I’m actually more debian-based, only recently trying Nobara on a windows laptop. I like it and it’s worked for me, but I’m more familiar with debian. Fedora-based does seem like what people recommend most, though, so I’m not sure why way to go.
dnf and apt have a very similar syntax, so using fedora should be relatively easy.
I’d recommend Fedora or Nobara for an install here. If you wanted to go the Debian route, I’d recommend Debian Testing as I’ve heard it has more up to date packages.
I appreciate the suggestions. I actually tried Nobara first, but had some problems that weren’t easily fixable - don’t recall which - and ended up with Cachy. I’m liking it quite a bit. Still haven’t figured out keyboard backlighting and screen rotation, but haven’t tried since they’re not pressing.
I have a Thinkpad C13 and was considering installing an Arch-based distro. Has anyone tested its performance? Does the graphics card work well for less demanding games?
Why should “immutable” Fedora variants not work?
The patch scripts for audio and keyboard dont work. I am currently working on custom chromebook images for that reason.
But the base, especially on AMD or Intel, is the same as “chaotic Fedora” which I personally had many issues with, upgrading versions.
I used Cachy for while, which is a performant OS with any setup. Graphics card hasn’t let me down. I’ve yet to have any major slowdowns, though I don’t play any newer, graphics-heavy games. I was having some issues and returned to Nobara recently, which you might also want to consider.
Nice, I’ll install these distros in a VM to check them out. Did the fingerprint reader work in your installation?
I don’t have the model with fingerprint reader. With Cachy (arch-based), the little mouse stick worked, but not the backlit keyboard. And the sound setup was crazy, like there were numerous soundcards, I constantly had to set headphones to the application I wanted. I didn’t try to figure out a solution to either, perhpas they would be easy, but I’m not linux savvy and was new to arch. With Nobara (fedora-based), everything just worked. No weird issues with ghost soundcards and backlit keyboard works.
You’re experince could definitely be different, of course, and you’re probably more equipped to address any issues you might encounters.
Btw, it’s incredible how powerful this lil rig is with both OSes! I swiped mine for $200 used on e-bay, grade A condition. I feel like I have a near-$1000 machine for 1/5 that. It could easily be a daily driver. Hope one works out for you and you have as good of an experience!
I decided to install my favorite distro, Manjaro with XFCE. I had no issues with sound, and to activate the keyboard backlight, I installed chrultrabook-tools. The pen also worked fine. Now, the fingerprint reader isn’t working, and since the keyboard is limited, I’ll need to remap some keys. In tablet mode, and the screen isn’t rotating, the keyboard still stays on, so I’ll probably need to configure that manually.
That’s cool. Hope it works well for you. If you have too much trouble, give Nobara a try. Everything worked for me out of the box. And the kernal has a bunch of tweaks to improve overall performance, as well as gamign specificially. It’s made to be a gaming distro, so a lot of game setup is done, and the rest of importance is very easy. And it’s maintained by Glorious Eggrroll, who’s famous for Proton-GE. I really love this thing, like a bit too much. Can’t believe I got something so beautiful, solid build, amazing keyboard, cool extra features (I keep forgetting the stylus!), and blazing fast - for the price paid. Anyway, enjoy!
Using Fedora with GNOME on the C13, I ran into that same issue with the keyboard not disabling itself while in tablet mode, but the auto-rotation and trackpad disabling worked fine for me. The keyboard did properly disable itself before I installed the cros-keyboard-map, so the workaround I found is to just toggle the keyd service on/off with a keyboard shortcut if I go into or out of tablet mode. I’m not sure if that’s a bug that could be fixed, but the workaround works fine for me for now. Since it needs superuser privileges to run, and since the FP sensor isn’t supported, I have to enter my password every time. But it gets the job done
I found a script that is supposed to solve this issue. I couldn’t get it working on Fedora but ymmv. I might try again or honestly I might just switch to Arch lol
This is probably from Investigate `ModelTabletModeNoSuspend=1` · Issue #19 · WeirdTreeThing/cros-keyboard-map · GitHub. The solution is to either set ModelTabletModeNoSuspend=1 or remove it, depending on your Chromebook. Try both out and see if it solves your problem.
I found that issue earlier, it says Morphius also disables the volume buttons with that change, which is why that script I sent was made. But I can give it a try