Swapping CPU and MB: How Easy with Garuda?

Hi,
I have a rather old cpu and have been considering replacing it. While the current CPU is fine, I'm going to start using a FocusRite Scarlett 2i2 for my guitar along with Audacity, Rakarrack, and Nootka. I expect it may be more than my CPU can handle (TBD). Unfortunately, that means a new MB.

What would be the best steps for swapping the MB and CPU with Garuda? Is it as easy as maintaining the drive and partition order (sda, sdb, sdc) and Garuda will automatically handle any devices or am I looking at a possible re-install?

System:
Kernel: 6.3.4-zen1-1-zen arch: x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.27.5
Distro: Garuda Linux
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: RAMPAGE IV GENE v: Rev 1.xx
serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 4901
date: 05/15/2014
CPU:
Info: 6-core model: Intel Core i7-4930K bits: 64 type: MT MCP cache:
L2: 1.5 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 3337 min/max: 1200/3900 cores: 1: 2085 2: 2771 3: 3900
4: 3900 5: 3900 6: 1283 7: 3900 8: 2711 9: 3900 10: 3900 11: 3900 12: 3900
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA GA102 [GeForce RTX 3090 Ti] driver: nvidia v: 530.41.03
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.8 with: Xwayland v: 23.1.1 driver: X:
loaded: nvidia unloaded: modesetting,nouveau gpu: nvidia
resolution: 3440x1440~60Hz
API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 530.41.03 renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090
Ti/PCIe/SSE2
Audio:
Device-1: Intel C600/X79 series High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
Device-2: NVIDIA GA102 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
Device-3: Logitech Blue Snowball driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid
type: USB
Device-4: Schiit Audio Unison Universal Dac driver: snd-usb-audio
type: USB
API: ALSA v: k6.3.4-zen1-1-zen status: kernel-api
Server-1: PipeWire v: 0.3.71 status: active
Network:
Device-1: Intel 82579V Gigabit Network driver: e1000e
IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 7.51 TiB used: 1.59 TiB (21.2%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: SSD 830 Series size: 238.47 GiB
ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 EVO 2TB size: 1.82 TiB
ID-3: /dev/sdc vendor: Western Digital model: WD6002FZWX-00GBGB0
size: 5.46 TiB
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 238.17 GiB used: 110.61 GiB (46.4%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2
ID-2: /boot/efi size: 299.4 MiB used: 576 KiB (0.2%) fs: vfat
dev: /dev/sda1
ID-3: /home size: 238.17 GiB used: 110.61 GiB (46.4%) fs: btrfs
dev: /dev/sda2
ID-4: /var/log size: 238.17 GiB used: 110.61 GiB (46.4%) fs: btrfs
dev: /dev/sda2
ID-5: /var/tmp size: 238.17 GiB used: 110.61 GiB (46.4%) fs: btrfs
dev: /dev/sda2
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 15.56 GiB used: 2 MiB (0.0%) dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 23.0 C mobo: 32.0 C gpu: nvidia temp: 38 C
Fan Speeds (RPM): fan-1: 806 fan-2: 376 fan-3: 0 gpu: nvidia fan: 0%
Info:
Processes: 363 Uptime: 4m Memory: available: 15.56 GiB
used: 3.02 GiB (19.4%) Shell: fish inxi: 3.3.27

Thanks,
Kottonballs

Usually it should just work. All the drivers neccessary are already part of your Linux-kernel and should be loaded accordingly when booting up the system.

I do however only have experience with swapping the CPU, which works flawlessly, and haven't swapped the MB as well yet ever. It should work just as unproblematically, but maybe someone has first-hand xp.

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My Garuda install has booted and ran flawlessly on 3 different MB/CPU combo's in the last 2 weeks. Starting with a Ryzen 7 1700/b350 board that was damages in an upgrade attempt, Followed by a old AMD FX-8350 I pulled out of the closet and finally in a Intel i5-7600k/Z270 I got a good deal on. The only thing I had to do was select the proper boot device in the bios but my drives are all mounted by UUID.

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I recently swapped from intel to ryzen, so CPU + mobo swap. Everything else works fine except for suspend/restart/shutdown. OS does shut down, but system doesn't.

I've heard many people have no issues.

I would suggest you reinstall since you have major hardware changes. There are several posts on forum where people have issues after swapping hardware and reason is best described in the video below the advice given here isn't windows specific and affects all os'es.

4 Likes

you should reinstall as any OS needs the unique hardware device identifiers built into the mobo components to run the machine properly and without significant issues.

1 Like