Laptop for linux.

[Mehcanic]

Hi all.

 

I'm looking for laptop that win run Pop_os without any problems. I'm currently on Lenovo Legion 5 and the only problems I've got are high fan noise, high temperature sometimes and low battery (because it can run properly on Nvidia only). I'd rather buy another laptop just for linux to stop eliminate potential problems with dual boot.

 

Thanks all

[Gokul_P]

12 minutes ago, Mehcanic said:

Hi all.

 

I'm looking for laptop that win run Pop_os without any problems. I'm currently on Lenovo Legion 5 and the only problems I've got are high fan noise, high temperature sometimes and low battery (because it can run properly on Nvidia only). 

 

Thanks all

There is actually ways to Tune fans and change power profiles or Using mux switch (Optimus) in Pop OS so Fixing it will be the better idea. 

 

This is for mint so some stuff doesn't work But it does have a fix for the battery issue so try it https://github.com/wottreng/Linux-Mint-on-Lenovo-Legion-5  . You could tune Fan curves from bios that will be ideal and most gaming laptops do have Higher fan noices& Temperatures when it is operating at full power If your bios dont have that try this https://askubuntu.com/questions/22108/how-to-control-fan-speed. For ARGB (Keyboard backlight) use Open RGB

[Mehcanic]

Already tried this. The fans kick in when I plug any external monitor and laptop is on idle.

[10leej]

Why not buy a system76 laptop and support the company behind Pop_OS! Directly?

[RollyShed]

4 hours ago, Mehcanic said:

problems I've got are high fan noise, high temperature sometimes

Have you tried compressed air through it to remove dust? I had one laptop, nearly burn a finger if placed on the underside. Blew it out and it was near impossible to know if it was going from feeling it for warmth it was so cool.

[Mehcanic]

I clean it every 6 months. It doesn't happen on windows. 

 

I thought about System76 but I'm in UK and not sure about potential warranty issues. I'm pretty unlucky with all electronic devices bought recently...

[TorC]

The X260 here with 16GB RAM looks good, to me. 

One does not need 'fancy' to run a Linux distro.I never hadaprblem losing any money on eby.

[Mehcanic]

I'm kind of in a place where I'd like to keep it nice and slim.

Im thinking about new dell XPS or Lenovo YogaSlim 7i pro (both intel) or one of Asus ones. Of course non touch displays.

Or something made by Linux people based in Europe 

[The Hope]

You now have several manufacturers that support Linux or focus specifically on Linux. Here some examples:

 

https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/Linux-Hardware/Linux-Notebooks.tuxedo

 

https://starlabs.systems/

 

https://puri.sm/products/librem-14/

 

https://laptopwithlinux.com/

 

https://frame.work/

 

If you take an Acer laptop or other brand that just has Intel or AMD for the CPU and GPU, it will usually work perfectly.

But always first check on the internet that the specific model works well with Linux in this case.

[gRaN-Ma project]

On 2/17/2023 at 4:17 PM, Mehcanic said:

Hi all.

 

I'm looking for laptop that win run Pop_os without any problems. I'm currently on Lenovo Legion 5 and the only problems I've got are high fan noise, high temperature sometimes and low battery (because it can run properly on Nvidia only). I'd rather buy another laptop just for linux to stop eliminate potential problems with dual boot.

 

Thanks all

Some developer laptops come with linux pre-installed. But I don't think they can help you with the fan noise. Also dual booting is difficult only at the beginning. You will learn to manage it. Try the rEFInd Boot Manager... Also learn how to mount efi partition from command line.

[The Hope]

https://junocomputers.com/us/product-category/laptops/

[johnfan]

I had the same problem with the fans. They were almost always on or periodically on/off even if the temps are low. Therefore, I developed a tool for Linux to control the fan curves, power mode. The tool Lenovo Legion Linux (https://github.com/johnfanv2/LenovoLegionLinux) can be used to set similar features like Legion Toolkit or LegionFanControl in Windows. It works on almost all Legion 5 or 7 models except a few random old models (similar like LegionFanControl).

The methods mentioned above (by @Gokul_P ) do not work. To get cool temps and mostly idle fans (when reading, programming, writing, ...) you should prop a the back of the laptop, e.g. with a book. This will improve temps by 5-10 degrees and keep fans quiet/off.

I run the laptop on the settings "hybrid graphics" (in BIOS) and let all programs run on the internal GPU if not specified (on-demand). Normal programs run on the internal GPU (on the CPU). Then the NVIDIA GPU powers node (confirmed via powerstate) and you get a long(ish) battery time.

I use normal Ubuntu.

[Mehcanic]

About the GPU I run on external. I can't figure out brightness control in hybrid mode. 

 

Thanks for the link. I'll check it today about the fans. 

[The Hope]

1 hour ago, LloydLynx said:

Please avoid Acer, especially for Linux. I've had suspend and touchpad issues with them. Other users reported BIOS updates preventing Linux from booting. And to even get the BIOS to update, you have to use Windows because the update comes in the form of a .exe file. The build quality is very poor too in my experience. Acer reels you in with a great price for the specs, and gives you a laptop that disrespects the user and starts falling apart after a year. 

Someone I know had an Acer TravelMate P256, and I put a Linux distro on it a few years ago. The TravelMate was very compatible with it, no problem at all in that area. But you are right about the quality. It turns out that this laptop no longer boots up. If you press the on/off button, you only see a blue light that (sometimes) turns on very briefly and then immediately goes off again. Many other laptops last 13 years or more. When I have opened this laptop I see that it is designed in such a way that it is very difficult to replace certain important specific parts. It's actually made in such a way that it's easy to break things when you try to fix it.

[RollyShed]

I see at least 8 Acers on my list that I've put Linux on. They all get SSDs fitted and all go OK. One is noted as being very easy, only 2 screws. Another, a space for an SSD but no cables and they had changed that model to using an M.2 card.

[Alexeygridnev1993]

Installed Ubuntu 22.04 on Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro, no problems at all. Avoid the distros with kernels above 5.18 though, I did get random freezes on Fedora with the latest kernel, and, upon googling, I found out that it was indeed related to the kernel

[Mehcanic]

@Alexeygridnev1993Which CPU did you get? I was thinking about this one or Tuxedo laptop. And how is the battery life?

 

[SubsonicAssault]

I just got an Asus G15 Advantage Edition specifically for Linux and it works great. All AMD makes it easy. Gaming on Fedora with Wayland is nice and smooth.

[Alexeygridnev1993]

2 hours ago, Mehcanic said:

@Alexeygridnev1993Which CPU did you get? I was thinking about this one or Tuxedo laptop. And how is the battery life?

 

AMD Ryzen 5 5600H with integrated Radeon graphics. The battery life is pretty poor on Linux, even in Power save mode in Ubuntu it is not more than 4 hours.

[10leej]

On 2/19/2023 at 5:02 AM, Mehcanic said:

I clean it every 6 months. It doesn't happen on windows. 

 

I thought about System76 but I'm in UK and not sure about potential warranty issues. I'm pretty unlucky with all electronic devices bought recently...

Oh, think penguin and tuxedo are both based in UK, then you have access to Entroware as well

[The Hope]

16 hours ago, 10leej said:

Oh, think penguin and tuxedo are both based in UK, then you have access to Entroware as well

Tuxedo is a German computer company. They are known for quality laptops and good support.

It's not necessarily because he stays with a shop in the UK that he would get better quality, support and warranty.

 

I think Juno Computer which I talked about earlier has a branch in Islington, London, United Kingdom 

 

ubuntushop.eu also has the option to set the currency in pounds, so I suspect they frequently deliver to the UK:

https://www.ubuntushop.eu

 

The framework is of course also a good option because he will be able to repair everything easily himself, or easily have the problematic part replaced by a knowledge or pc shop.

 

The following shops are also located in the UK:

https://www.bargainhardware.co.uk/

https://starlabs.systems/pages/contact-us

 

Purism is for the person who uses ONLY free software and is ok with losing nonfree software. Purism also has the secondary goal of completely removing the Intel backdoor (Intel ME). So there are people in the UK who order Purism because there are few alternatives. So all of my previously mentioned options are probably good options for him depending on his preferences.

 

[10leej]

12 hours ago, The Hope said:

Tuxedo is a German computer company. They are known for quality laptops and good support.

It's not necessarily because he stays with a shop in the UK that he would get better quality, support and warranty.

 

I think Juno Computer which I talked about earlier has a branch in Islington, London, United Kingdom 

 

ubuntushop.eu also has the option to set the currency in pounds, so I suspect they frequently deliver to the UK:

https://www.ubuntushop.eu

 

The framework is of course also a good option because he will be able to repair everything easily himself, or easily have the problematic part replaced by a knowledge or pc shop.

 

The following shops are also located in the UK:

https://www.bargainhardware.co.uk/

https://starlabs.systems/pages/contact-us

 

Purism is for the person who uses ONLY free software and is ok with losing nonfree software. Purism also has the secondary goal of completely removing the Intel backdoor (Intel ME). So there are people in the UK who order Purism because there are few alternatives. So all of my previously mentioned options are probably good options for him depending on his preferences.

 

system76 also disables the IME last I checked.

[Mehcanic]

Thanks everyone for your help. I've decided to get standalone mini pc for Linux with vm or docker for development. New things I have to learn 

[ChuckFeed]

you want a laptop for linux?

an old thinkpad supported by libreboot, ideally an X200 if you can find one, they are very easy to libreboot compared to other models (not to be confused with X200s/X200t, X201, and similar models!)

there is nothing you can do wrong, its one of the best supported laptops and will run basically any distro (including entirely free ones like debian or FSF endorsed ones like trisquel and guix)

very hard to break, relatively cheap (price has gone up lately), easy to repair and get parts for, and no backdoors you cant remove by flashing a new firmware (IME, proprietary BIOS, etc)

before anyone mentions companies like tuxedo, system76, or purism:

all of those companies just buy off-the-shelf components and slap them together, slap a half proprietary firmware onto it and say they "disable" the intel ME for you (which is literally impossible to do on intel hardware made after 2008 but ok, you can partially disable it and make it nicely ask to kill itself after boot and thats totally fine since you can trust the IME to actually do that)

and no, purism does NOT only use free software. i especially discourage purism hardware because its overpriced to the point where its just scam, and because they shove blobs from the kernel onto read-only parts of the hardware (read only for the user, read-write for anyone with external flashing equipment), thus making it even worse for users who actually wanted to replace this firmware with some reverse engineered versions that might come out in the future.

they do all this just to get pureOS FSF endorsed with their stamp of approval on it, while its literally just debian but with the ability to enable nonfree/contrib repos taken away from you.

system76... another scam company that exploits people who dont know what to buy

tuxedo?

i dont even know honestly, but it sounds the same to me, just get an old thinkpad and save your money.

(50-200$ on ebay, some even pre-librebooted for higher prices)

forgot to tell you, you can also dock your thinkpad and use it as a hybrid desktop/laptop like a nintendo switch or a steamdeck if you want to.

[gRaN-Ma project]

On 3/1/2023 at 3:51 PM, Mehcanic said:

Thanks everyone for your help. I've decided to get standalone mini pc for Linux with vm or docker for development. New things I have to learn 

Anyway you can purchase an independent software vendor (ISV) certified computer. Certification ensures that hardware solution is compatible with the software products that will run on it.