Linux compatibility on MSI gaming laptop?

[Ashleyyyy]

ok, so i'm planning on replacing my power-hungry desktop at some point with a gaming laptop i recently purchased. it's an MSI GE72 6QC Stealth. 

 

what can i expect in terms of Linux compatibility? will the basics work, can i expect led control for the keyboard, etc... anyone have experience with Linux on MSI laptops?

 

specs if it matters:

I7 6700HQ

GTX 960M

8GB RAM

[NelizMastr]

It's generally safe to assume that anything that requires software control, won't work under Linux, much like cheapo Chinese keyboards that enable backlighting via the scroll lock key won't work. You can always ask MSI, of course.

[Guest]

Depends, you can't never know about ACPI issues 

 

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2284315

 

Those people does not seem to be happy 

[NelizMastr]

8 minutes ago, Lukyp said:

Depends, you can't never know about ACPI issues 

 

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2284315

 

Those people does not seem to be happy 

That topic is old, though, and they were running an outdated 14.04 LTS. Linux always has weird issues when you run hardware that's newer than the software. 18.04 should work fine. 

[Ralphred]

5 hours ago, NelizMastr said:

much like cheapo Chinese keyboards that enable backlighting via the scroll lock key won't work

xset [-]led named "Scroll Lock" , cheapo Chinese keyboard fixed.

 

Just get a few "live" images, boot from USB and check drivers are loaded with lspci. Once you find an OS that works, try the different GUI's, find one you like and go with that.

[wasab]

9 hours ago, firelighter487 said:

ok, so i'm planning on replacing my power-hungry desktop at some point with a gaming laptop i recently purchased. it's an MSI GE72 6QC Stealth. 

 

what can i expect in terms of Linux compatibility? will the basics work, can i expect led control for the keyboard, etc... anyone have experience with Linux on MSI laptops?

 

specs if it matters:

I7 6700HQ

GTX 960M

8GB RAM

Yes. It will work. These hardwares are not too old that they are incompatible but not so new that support for them do not exists.

 

Also, the specs are not that great compare to what you can get in a desktop. Are you sure you want a laptop for gaming?

 

Edit: rgb may or may not work. 

[Ashleyyyy]

2 hours ago, wasab said:

Yes. It will work. These hardwares are not too old that they are incompatible but not so new that support for them do not exists.

 

Also, the specs are not that great compare to what you can get in a desktop. Are you sure you want a laptop for gaming?

well it's fast enough to play all the games i want, while consuming about a fifth of the power of my desktop. i'm still going to keep my desktop, but yeah the power consumtion and the noise of that thing made me look to other solutuions. also it's nice that i can take my gaming machine with me places, and i can of course use it as a normal laptop which is cool. 

 

[wasab]

1 hour ago, firelighter487 said:

well it's fast enough to play all the games i want, while consuming about a fifth of the power of my desktop. i'm still going to keep my desktop, but yeah the power consumtion and the noise of that thing made me look to other solutuions. also it's nice that i can take my gaming machine with me places, and i can of course use it as a normal laptop which is cool. 

 

No guarantees features like rgb will work on Linux system however. You should just boot into a live USB. If everything worked on there, it will work when you installed. 

[Ashleyyyy]

27 minutes ago, wasab said:

No guarantees features like rgb will work on Linux system however. You should just boot into a live USB. If everything worked on there, it will work when you installed. 

Not true actually. On my MacBook, WiFi and the keyboard lights didn’t work until i installed ubuntu 18.10 and updated. 

[Ashleyyyy]

@wasab @Lukyp if i try to install 18.10 on my msi laptop, no matter if i select try before install or install in grub, when it gets to the desktop it immediately freezes, and the fans ramp up to full speed.. 

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

@wasab @Lukyp if i try to install 18.10 on my msi laptop, no matter if i select try before install or install in grub, when it gets to the desktop it immediately freezes, and the fans ramp up to full speed.. 

If you reboot what's the content of the /var/log/kern.log ? excluding the currently booted logs

[Ashleyyyy]

20 hours ago, Lukyp said:

If you reboot what's the content of the /var/log/kern.log ? excluding the currently booted logs

how do i check this? i'm trying to boot off an install usb, so... do i just plug it in to another machine?

[Guest]

14 hours ago, firelighter487 said:

how do i check this? i'm trying to boot off an install usb, so... do i just plug it in to another machine?

if you want yes, its just the saved kernel logs, which presumably could have saved the freezing issue 

[Ashleyyyy]

Just now, Lukyp said:

if you want yes, its just the saved kernel logs, which presumably could have saved the freezing issue 

ìt's irrelevant. i'm giving up on Linux. i'm done messing around with this crap. 

[PineAppleLogic]

The Linux community, has made this for MSI laptops

https://github.com/FaridZelli/ISW-Modern

 

It allows you to set battery charge threshold, and control your fan/fans speed...