Which Linux (not a mock question)

[lane17]

Which distro for my laptop?
I'm asking because currently I'm using Mint 20.2 and since the very start I had nothing but problems with it. Starting with lack of wifi. I found somewhere on github a driver written by someone and the guy said his not talking any responsibility and he will not be updating it (if I remember correctly). I'm only saying this because I had to turn on Windows to check something (first time after like four moths) that's in parallel with Mint and it started what? Yes, updating. It updated BIOS as well and now I have no wifi what so ever.
To be fair after one of the Mint updates system completely refused to work. It was freezing all the time if of course I managed to boot in to it in the first place So now I'm running it on the outdated kernel.

I was just wondering what is your experience? Which distro runs best on what hardware?
This is me HP Envy R7 5000 16GB.

System: Kernel: 5.11.0-22-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A Desktop: Cinnamon 5.0.7
wm: muffin dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal
Machine: Type: Convertible System: HP product: HP ENVY x360 Convertible 15-eu0xxx v: N/A
serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 31 serial: <filter>
Mobo: HP model: 888A v: 63.29 serial: <filter> UEFI: AMI v: F.06 date: 07/28/2021
Battery: ID-1: BAT0 charge: 47.0 Wh condition: 47.0/47.0 Wh (100%) volts: 12.9/11.6
model: 333-AC-3A-A BN03051XL serial: <filter> status: Full
Device-1: hid-0018:04F3:2D04.0005-battery model: ELAN2514:00 04F3:2D04 serial: N/A
charge: N/A status: N/A
CPU: Topology: 8-Core model: AMD Ryzen 7 5700U with Radeon Graphics bits: 64 type: MT MCP
arch: Zen rev: 1 L2 cache: 4096 KiB
flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm bogomips: 57493
Speed: 1397 MHz min/max: 1400/1800 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1393 2: 1393 3: 4334
4: 4342 5: 1930 6: 1930 7: 1930 8: 1930 9: 1397 10: 1397 11: 1397 12: 1397 13: 1397
14: 1370 15: 1930 16: 1924
Graphics: Device-1: AMD vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: amdgpu v: kernel bus ID: 04:00.0
chip ID: 1002:164c
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 driver: amdgpu,ati unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa
resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: AMD RENOIR (DRM 3.40.0 5.11.0-22-generic LLVM 12.0.0)
v: 4.6 Mesa 21.2.6 direct render: Yes
Audio: Device-1: AMD vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 04:00.1
chip ID: 1002:1637
Device-2: AMD Raven/Raven2/FireFlight/Renoir Audio Processor vendor: Hewlett-Packard
driver: snd_rn_pci_acp3x v: kernel bus ID: 04:00.5 chip ID: 1022:15e2
Device-3: AMD Family 17h HD Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel bus ID: 04:00.6 chip ID: 1022:15e3
Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.11.0-22-generic
Network: Device-1: Realtek vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: rtw89_pci v: N/A port: f000
bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8852
IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives: Local Storage: total: 476.94 GiB used: 403.96 GiB (84.7%)
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Western Digital model: PC SN530 SDBPNPZ-512G-1006
size: 476.94 GiB speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter>
Partition: ID-1: / size: 133.62 GiB used: 106.85 GiB (80.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p6
USB: Hub: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002
Device-1: 1-4:2 info: Elan Micro ELAN:ARM-M4 type: <vendor specific> driver: N/A
rev: 2.0 chip ID: 04f3:0c4c
Hub: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 3.1 chip ID: 1d6b:0003
Hub: 3-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002
Device-2: 3-2:2 info: Microsoft Nano Transceiver v1.0 for Bluetooth
type: Keyboard,Mouse,HID driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 2.0 chip ID: 045e:0745
Device-3: 3-3:3 info: Realtek Bluetooth Radio type: Bluetooth driver: btusb rev: 1.0
chip ID: 0bda:2852
Hub: 4-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 3.1 chip ID: 1d6b:0003
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 48.8 C mobo: 31.0 C gpu: amdgpu temp: 37 C
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos: No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list
1: deb [arch=amd64] https: //dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com uma main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
6: deb http: //archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
Info: Processes: 385 Uptime: 3d 16h 31m Memory: 15.05 GiB used: 4.94 GiB (32.8%)
Init: systemd v: 245 Compilers: gcc: 9.4.0 alt: 9 Client: Unknown python3.8 client
inxi: 3.0.38

 

[lane17]

So maybe to simplify my question. Would you say that (statistically maybe?) Intel is friendlier to linux than AMD?

This just happened to me And like this guy below, I also have AMD:
https://serverfault.com/questions/1...day-goes-back-203647us-taking-countermeasures

 

[osprey]

Which distro for my laptop?
....
I was just wondering what is your experience? Which distro runs best on what hardware?
This is me HP Envy R7 5000 16GB.

There are many approaches to this question. One is to download a bunch of different live distro isos onto usbs and just try to run them on your machine to see how you like them. Have a look at ventoy as one economical means of do this.

Another approach is to search online for linux experiences with your particular model and see what emerges. One issue with that is sometimes the machines with the same major model version number can have different chips in it than others with that major number, so the version numbers and/or full model number will be relevant.

 

[mrcrossroads]

Which distro for my laptop?
I'm asking because currently I'm using Mint 20.2 and since the very start I had nothing but problems with it. Starting with lack of wifi. I found somewhere on github a driver written by someone and the guy said his not talking any responsibility and he will not be updating it (if I remember correctly). I'm only saying this because I had to turn on Windows to check something (first time after like four moths) that's in parallel with Mint and it started what? Yes, updating. It updated BIOS as well and now I have no wifi what so ever.
To be fair after one of the Mint updates system completely refused to work. It was freezing all the time if of course I managed to boot in to it in the first place So now I'm running it on the outdated kernel.

I was just wondering what is your experience? Which distro runs best on what hardware?
This is me HP Envy R7 5000 16GB.

Linux Mint

 

[sphen]

Linux Mint

Are you and @Condobloke still recommending Linux Mint for @lane17's HP Envy R7 5000 16GB after reading about the OP's WiFi issues with Linux Mint in the original post?

 

[Brickwizard]

@sphen the problem will most likely be with all distributions

Ok , there is nothing showing in the report that is telling me there are more problems than normal, what is not showing is the WI-FI, this could be because it has slipped into Hard Block [flight mode] this Dose happen on some machines and Linux,, so check if wi-fi is disabled, secondly its showing a RTL 89 series network controller, this is usually paired with a RTL 88*** series wi-fi chip for which the correct drivers will need to be downloaded and installed for the exact chip version.
for a distribution, try MX-AHS

https://sourceforge.net/projects/mx-linux/files/Final/Xfce/MX-21.3_ahs_x64.iso/download

 

[Condobloke]

I had to turn on Windows to check something (first time after like four moths) that's in parallel with Mint and it started what? Yes, updating. It updated BIOS as well

As far as I am aware, windows does not include bios in its updates

There has to be other factors at play, here

 

[f33dm3bits]

As far as I am aware, windows does not include bios in its updates

Windows updates don't included the bios because a motherboard's manufacturer provides the updates for the bios/uefi, if it is even possible from Windows it would be through an application written by the manufacturer of the motherboard. On Linux you have fwdup to update firmware from within Linux but not all devices and vendors are supported.

LVFS: Device List

fwupd.org

LVFS: Vendor Status

fwupd.org

 

[mrcrossroads]

Are you and @Condobloke still recommending Linux Mint for @lane17's HP Envy R7 5000 16GB after reading about the OP's WiFi issues with Linux Mint in the original post?

Indeed I am. I don't think it's specific to Mint.
As an alternative, I happen to fancy MX Linux as well. ;-)

 

[bob466]

I'm running Mint Cinnamon 20.3 on my 11 year old Laptop and everything works just fine especially the WIFI.

The only thing I've changed was a replacing the HDD for an SSD...blaming Mint for the WIFI problem is like blaming the TV is the power goes out due to a blackout.

 

[Openspaces]

@lane17 , could you run this command and show us the output,
it may help to know what wifi adapter your using.
I am using a HP Pavilion about three year old now.
The below is the output showing I have a Realtec
RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
which did not work without a driver install for Lubuntu.

lshw -c network
You should see something like the following
[email protected]:~$ sudo lshw -c network
[sudo] password for username removed:
  *-network             
       description: Wireless interface
       product: RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: [email protected]:01:00.0
       logical name: wlo1
       version: 00
       serial: 1c:c1:2b:52:d2:43
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rtw_8821ce driverversion=5.13.0-52-generic firmware=N/A ip=192.168.0.199 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11
       resources: irq:135 ioport:5000(size=256) memory:53000000-5300ffff
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: [email protected]:06:00.0
       logical name: eno1
       version: 15
       serial: c0:6c:da:2f:6b:87
       capacity: 1Gbit/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=5.13.0-52-generic firmware=rtl8168h-2_0.0.2 02/26/15 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair
       resources: irq:17 ioport:4000(size=256) memory:52004000-52004fff memory:52000000-52003fff

 

[Brickwizard]

Download source for RTL8811CU, RTL8821CU, RTL8821CUH and RTL8731AU Chipsets, drivers

GitHub - morrownr/8821cu-20210916: Linux Driver for USB WiFi Adapters that are based on the RTL8811CU, RTL8821CU, RTL8821CUH and RTL8731AU Chipsets - v5.12.0.4

Linux Driver for USB WiFi Adapters that are based on the RTL8811CU, RTL8821CU, RTL8821CUH and RTL8731AU Chipsets - v5.12.0.4 - GitHub - morrownr/8821cu-20210916: Linux Driver for USB WiFi Adapters ...

github.com

 

[wizardfromoz]

@lane17 this may bear fruit, and it links to a further article.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/138...ot-detected-on-realtek-rts522a-ubuntu-20-04-3

and

https://askubuntu.com/questions/137...card-to-work-on-my-new-laptop/1379800#1379800

Wizard