Fun New Garuda Adventure!

Garuda Community
1

Hello all. I've been enjoying Garuda for a while now, started in January of 2021. Unfortunately, my laptop is starting to burn out, both with occasional cpu overheats and the hard disk is beginning to fail, so I ordered a new laptop.

It's going to be interesting to see what kind of issues I'll have getting Garuda working on that machine.

I ordered a Dell XPS 17 (9710). I understand that to get linux to see the SSD I'll have to start with some changes to the UEFI settings right off the bat, updating default SATA mode from RAID to AHCI, should be interesting. On my current laptop, I never made this change (just left windows on the tiny SSD) so linux only sees the second non-SSD drive, the new one only has an SSD so a new adventure..

I've also read that the gpus not working properly with bbswitch, and instead I need to use only primus and bumblebee and to start GPU driven applications with optirun or primusrun, but I know nothing about Garuda defaults yet. Will have to dig in to figure this out.

I've also read that I will have some issues with fan profiles that will need to be addressed in the bios side. Never done any of that before either.

And last, I've read I might need to compile a custom kernel to get all the XPS fixes.

I recall reading on these forums as some point, some details on setting up laptops, I'll have to search those out again too, maybe some other extra insights are already documented here, it's been too long so I don't recall what all was in those posts.

Like I said, an adventure! Should be interesting, and might take a while, but it will be quite satisfying once I work though everything.

Am I the only one who enjoys a challenge like this even though I don't know much about how to deal with these issues at the start?

2 Likes
2

challenges are good, and funnily enough I'm saying that half way through a base arch .iso install (on another machine).

1 Like
3

I've run Dells for years. I think you are anticipating more problems than you will run into once you actually receive the machine. NVidia, yeah. The rest, probably not.

3 Likes
4

Yeah, NVidia has been a problem with my current one too, irritating but not insurmountable.

Dell in general in my experience has been compatible with linux in general, they sell them preloaded with Ubuntu LTS on their business side. Dell has some weird setups where they have the same laptops on a business and home side, they only offer some configurations on one side or the other. To get what I wanted this time, I had to get the home side where there isn't a linux preload option.

I know Garuda will work, I just don't want to leave out some configurations I might need to make to fully utilize the capabilities and to make sure the fans and gpus are working correctly.

2 Likes
5

I find myself constantly looking for and solving different technical issues. Being a software engineer might have a lot to do with it. But, I have a multi boot configuration using BTRFS subvolumes for every distribution (currently EndeavourOS, Garuda Dragonized Gaming, Debian Sid, Fedora, Ubuntu, Manjaro) and I have an Nvidia GPU and like to game... So, there is usually something to tackle that scratches my itch. Whenever I'm not solving a problem, I notice I end up just hitting F5 on forums to look for something to look into :stuck_out_tongue:

TLDR: No you're not alone, it's fun to tinker and find solutions.

2 Likes
6

They do. Other than NVcrap, I try to match what is offered from the home side with what may (or may not) be available, component-wise, on the business side. At least with desktop machines . My last one was an inexpensive 2019 9th Gen. business model mini-tower that has been problem-free (so far), which is why I prefer “component shopping.” Laptops are a different breed o’ cat, though. :wink:

Have fun with your new machine! Vroom, vroom…!

7

When I got my Nvidia+Intel system, I also expected a lot of issues. It turned out that everything almost Just Worked. (the expections being HoI4 and its launcher) I searched how to put nvidia card to sleep manually to figure out that it already sleeps if I don’t do anything :sweat_smile:
Also you should not use bumblebee/primusrun/optirun but instead you should use prime-run. Bumblebee comes with huge performance degradayions.
Regarding sleep, this is how I check it if it works or not.

  • Install nvtop and powertop.
  • Unplug PC and wait for a short while.
  • Open powertop and let it refresh a few times.
  • Open nvtop. Nvtol should wake up GPU and power consumption on powertop should increase.
2 Likes
10

This topic was automatically closed 14 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.