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42

AFAIK Linux distro secure boot support in general is based on the shim. BIOSes generally have a Microsoft-owned key built in, so whatever the UEFI boots into needs to be signed by that key. To avoid having to have Microsoft sign every build of everything, the solution is to have Microsoft sign a shim, which can then verify the distro’s signature on the bootloader to chain to it securely.

If you want to put in the work you could load your own keys into the BIOS and sign your bootloader/kernel/etc yourself, but many people don’t want to bother with all that.

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43

Secure boot in Linux is a pain because anytime you have ANYTHING modify the kernel you need to resign the keys. It is just a hassle. I mean instead of using secure boot I would think something like Coreboot/Pureboot/Heads and the TPM would be a better solution that can detect tampering without any assistance from any other entity.

If you are using Windows, and especially Bitlocker, then Secureboot makes sense, and I recommend using it.

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45

For people with one stick of RAM (I have been seeing this more and more with the framework build reviews), avoid doing this. Unless you want the framework to perform like junk.

You will get better performance from 2x8GB of ram compared to one 16GB. Spend the extra few dollars and get the pair kits. Trust me you will notice the difference.

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46

Honestly, it’s a bit too extreme to say it will perform like junk. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with running with one stick of RAM.

Discounting the extra costs, waste from packaging, closing off a chance of upgrades, creating a problem of what-to-do with old RAM… etc. I think the only benefit two sticks of RAM can bring is performance and being reliable.

Yes, there is a performance penalty when running on one stick of RAM, but it’s not noticeable to a casual user unless they are a hard core gamer or have that specific need.

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Agreed mrwm. The other advantage to going one stick is that you can eventually grab another 16gb (or whatever equivalent you need) and double your RAM. Instead of needing to replace both of the RAM sticks you bought for newer larger ones.

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@mrwm @2disbetter You guys brought up some really great points, thank you :pray:!

Yes, I have to admit that saying it will perform like junk is maybe :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: exaggerated, I should have added some more context to make sure what I said was clarified.

All personal preference of course, and I never said it was wrong with running one stick, just something I wanted to state considering I have seen benchmarks or performance comparisons of the framework and I wouldn’t want people to compare those with one stick when performance is their goal in mind.

@mrwm that benefit you mentioned is a pretty big and in my eyes an important one :smiley:.

I don’t upgrade ram as frequent as I would like to think so having performance/reliability up front trumps upgradability since I might not do an upgrade for a few years and that time memory would (hopefully) be less expensive and better ram would be around. Also from my experience mixing ram is risky (for perf/stability).

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49

Good afternoon fellow frame.work’ers. I received my i5 DIY build kit last Friday, so I thought I’d give the community my thoughts on the laptop.

The TL;DR points below:

  • The Good: Overall … everything. I’m running Fedora 35 and it installs and configures and works like a champ. Fingerprint scanner, camera, microphone, and touchpad all “just work” as you’d hope. I’m currently in the process of migrating all of my work related projects from my MacBook Pro and simply cannot wait to leave that thing behind and never use Mac OS again. To avoid e-waste, I’m going to wipe it and sell it for whatever I can get for it.
  • The Bad: Well … everything works … until it doesn’t. I can’t say for sure whether my minor issues are Fedora 35 issues or Framework BIOS/HW issues, but some things are pretty strange. When the system is put to sleep while the lid is open … no problem. It wakes up when you press keys and life goes on. But when you have the unit docked with the lid closed and then go into suspend mode … it just … doesn’t. It’s hard to tell what’s happening because the lid is closed, but when you try to wake up the system via the docked keyboard/mouse/trackpad … nada … but when you open the lid and try to wake the unit up … still nada. If you press the power button, it will throw some failures up on the screen and then you have to power cycle it get it back up and running.
  • The Perplexing: The system could use a once-over when it comes to operating while docked. When the unit is asleep and you plug it into a dock, there’s kind of no way to wake it up (at least not that I’ve seen). You have to open the lid and physically touch keys or the power button to wake it up. This is kinda lousy. It makes the processing of transitioning between portable and stationary modes a bit clumsy.

Okay … if you’re still reading, here are some of my more in-depth thoughts.

I’d like to see better power management options in the BIOS (rather than depending on the OS). It would be nice to have more finely tuned controls over the battery charging. I would like the battery to only charge when it drops below a threshold and stop charging above that threshold or at least to stop charging when at 100% and plugged into power. I’ve noticed the laptop is sometimes warm (but never hot) while idling and my guess is that’s due to charging.

I would also like to understand the expectations of operating while docked. It seems off to me that you’d have to open the lid to wake the unit up in order to use it while plugged in. Maybe someone way smarter than me could make a “wake up” button expansion card. I’d hate to have to waste a slot to add that feature … so maybe “bundle” it with a USB port.

A few knocks on the setup process, and I’m not sure if these problems are Fedora 35 (which just launched) or hardware/BIOS related. The first time I plugged it into power, I was told the unit was charging extremely slowly. Unplugging and reconnecting to power fixed that. Later, the unit was plugged into a USB-C dock/hub/dongle and it didn’t recognize the Ethernet port on that dock … until it was unplugged and reconnected. These are both super minor issues, but I found it weird that unplug and reconnect was beginning to form as a pattern.

I absolutely and wholeheartedly recommend this product. I’m not sure that all or any of the problems I’ve experienced can be attributed to the laptop hardware. I love the openness of the platform and my ability to reduce/throttle the e-waste aspects by choosing to fix, reuse, or repurpose the unit or its parts as time goes by.

I am recommending it to everyone I know who’s looking for a laptop and also suggesting it to folks that currently own closed hardware from ecosystem/platform holders that are just fed up with Big Tech’s shady ways.

Enjoy your new laptops … I’m digging mine.

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50

Would you be able to provide these exact error messages? There’s quite a lot of people on this forum who might be able to help.

I use Fedora 35 as well, but I don’t use a dock. It may also depend on the particular dock you’re using and the hardware inside.

Finally, there might be quirks depending on the suspend mode you’re using. What do you get when you run (in a terminal)

cat /sys/power/mem_sleep

while your dock is connected?

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51

Hi all,

to add my 2 cents after I received my i5-DIY unit:

  • I seemed to be one of the last ones for batch 4 delivery. It got delayed a week into early November. Still, for 4th pre-order batch of a brand new company I am impressed you turned around batches like this. Major kudos!
  • I am on Arch and everything just works, besides a little Bluetooth thing going on, but other wrote already. Sure will be fine eventually.
  • The laptop feels more premium, than I expected! Photos looked more plastic-y.
  • Screen resolution is better than thought. I come from a 2015 Pixelbook with 4k, but the Framework is just fine. 1.5 scaling works very well.

I think the one thing I don’t like is the windows logo on the SuperKey. By selling a DIY model, attracting a ton of linux users, you should have put a framework logo on that key.

Overall very impressed and very happy! Would recommend :slight_smile:

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52

I don’t do Linux, but I agree with it being neutral by using Framework’s logo. Missed opportunity in my mind.

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53

@Devyn_Cairns thanks for the reply. I did a little bit of digging and found that enabling deep sleep through GRUB seems to aid with sleep/wake problems. So far it seems to be behaving better.

It was tough to get the errors from the screen prior to enabling deep sleep because they were in a console text space with no cursor to select or copy/paste. I would have had to transcribe them manually or take a picture.

Below is the output from mem_sleep but this is after enabling deep sleep (which does seem to have helped).

cat /sys/power/mem_sleep
s2idle [deep]
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54

Okay, great, I was wondering if deep sleep would help the issue (or be the cause)

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55

Anyone else noticing really low Wi-Fi strength? Whether I use 5GHz or 2.4GHz, my connection never seems to show full strength, even when in the same room.

It’s the one thing I’ve noticed after a few days of use that’s really been a drag on the overall experience.

At my desk, I really love using the laptop. It’s docked and has a wired connection to my network, so all is well. But when I start moving around the house, I immediately notice the laggy connection.

Before anyone starts making suggestions about my home network, I’m finding this to be an issue relative to other devices. My phone and Mac Book Pro connect with no problems and consistently show a higher strength connection than my Framework.

Just curious if anyone else has experienced this?

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56

Shameless review on my personal blog: Framework Laptop

tl;dr The laptop is great, the tiger lake CPU – not so much.

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57

@hspak Great review! You mention scaling not being an issue - this is one of the things I’m most concerned about when I recieve my unit, as I’ve heard fractional scaling doesn’t work very well on Linux. I was wondering if you could elaborate on how you set up the scaling?

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@Mirage regarding (fractional) scaling on Linux: from what I’ve read, it’s not an issue on Wayland-based window managers (which is what @hspak mentions using). I therefore suspect there is not much of a setup beyond setting a comfortable ratio (175% seems to work best for most people) to it.

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59

Thank you!

Yup, as Jason mentioned above, Wayland window manager can do fractional scaling no problem. I use sway which allows you to do something like the following in your sway config:

output "<id>" scale 1.5

I believe gnome will also have some option in their display setting as well (I’m not sure of the others).

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60

Well, my new laptop is 6 weeks in. I thought I would give you a review.

My coworkers and I all got new laptops. They got Dell XPS 15’s (2020 spec, Intel Core i7 1165, 16GB ram, 1TB gen 3 ssd $1680 shipped) and I got a framework batch 6 (I7 1165, 32gb ram, and 512GB gen 4 SSD $1430 shipped and I put mine together)

We are tech support and IT network engineers, so we got together in our tech meetings to compare.

First off, on specs, My Framework is faster than theirs. I attribute this to the choice to sacrifice some hard drive capacity to get a generation newer SSD. My hard drive performance is twice the gen 3 in every metric we have run. I also saved $300 by building my machine, and I spent some of that getting faster and more ram. They have me beat in graphics, but honestly, I just don’t feel dedicated graphics are worth the weight and heat.

On display, we each like our own choices. I love the 3:2 display. they like the touchscreens. I like the smaller footprint, they like the bigger ones. But we are all happy.

Weight: I love love love the size and weight. I have a Macbook Air M1 as my second machine, and the frame works is lighter despite being a little bigger.

Port selection obviously goes to me. I have a choice of 7 ports, (4USBc, 1 USBa 1 HDMI, 1 DP.) My normal config is 2 USB-c, left and right, HDMI left, and USB-A right. sucks to be the dell guys, who are stuck with whatever Dell decided to give them. The expansion cards also extended the support for the Mac, since I can now cut down on dongles a lot! I had intended to get a dock, but thunderbolt docks are stupid expensive, so I just use the ports.

Battery life goes to them. Generally I am getting a half day but part of that is I have the screen brightness up. I carry a battery capable of charging the framework and the macbook 3 times over, so I don’t worry too m much about it.

Keyboard, touchpad and fingerprint reader: I love the framework keyboard, and i much prefer the keyboard over the Dell one. Touchpads are about equal, and I kind of wish I had windows Hello in the camera like they do, but I am fine. I really got them beat with the hardware switches for the camera and mics. They have to use tape to control camera access. lol

Overall, I am really happy with my purchase. No issues, no quality problems, and inside, I was able to make certain component choices that give me a faster computer. I paid less, and got more so what is not to like?

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61

Nice review, makes waiting for mine even harder :sob:

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62

What powerbank do you use? I’m still finding out what’s the best one to buy without compromising size. I’m currently looking at the Lenovo Go USB - C Powerbank. Does anyone have this? Is it good?

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