Fedora 41 on the Framework Laptop 16

Fedora Workstation 41 is released! You can download Fedora Workstation 41 here .

Official Fedora 41 release announcement can be found here .


Installation Guide: Fedora 41 Installation on the Framework Laptop 16 - Framework Guides

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Heads up on the Fedora 41 XFCE Spin: it has some kind of a kernel issue, or something that appears like a kernel issue, which is not present on the default F41 Workstation install (more below) which has the same kernel. TLDR: need a workaround to install the F41 XFCE spin, and installing all updates fixes the issue. I reproduced it on two different FW16’s, one from one of the initial batches, that I got late last spring, after a 4-month wait, and a new FW16 that was manufactured in October.

After booting the Fedora 41 XFCE Spin live image the keyboard /appears/ to be nonresponsive and typed text (into a terminal window, or at keyboard prompts in Anaconda) does not seem to be echoed back, or it may get echoed back after a lengthy delay.

After some experimentation I determined that this is some kind of an kernel I/O issue. If I move the mouse (or, rather, swipe on the touchpad), the accumualted text gets echoed back. So: I can type a bunch of stuff, wait a few seconds, touch the touchpad, and then all the typed text gets echoed back immediately.

This wasn’t affecting only keyboard input, but it also seemed to be affecting GUI operations too, although I have not narrowed down exactly what kind of UI activity gets “stuck”, until I touch the tochpad.

I was able to successfully install F41 XFCE Spin by, basically, dragging my finger across the touchpad, constantly, while Anaconda was copying the installation image to the HD. After the reboot the I/O issue persisted, but after installing all the updates, including a newer kernel, the problem went away.

I also downloaded the F41 Workstation live image, which has the same kernel, but which worked normally for me, and did not reproduce this issue. Only the F41 XFCE Spin live image is affected. I did not try any other spins.

This is interesting. I have similar problems since the latest kernel updates (6.11.x) on Fedora Workstation KDE Spin (KDE Plasma 6.2.x).

Most applications like Firefox behave normal, but e.g. in my terminal (yakuake) and when using video playback via mpv, vlc or smplayer, it is laggy (1-2 frames per second). While dragging the mouse/moving the mouse pointer during in the terminal/during playback everything is smooth.

This only happens on the internal screen. When I connect the Framework 16 to my ThinkPad USB Dock and use an external monitor everything is working fine.

I tried switching to a longterm kernel (6.6) using the kwizart repo: kwizart/kernel-longterm-6.6 Copr

For now video playback is smooth again (without moving the mouse). Would never have thought that this was some kind of kernel regression, but for the moment it seems like that.

You must be seeing a different issue.

What I saw was not a kernel issue. The problem did not occur with the F41 workstation live image which uses the same exact kernel as the F41 XFCE spin image that had the same kernel.

And my issue wasn’t run of the mill stuttering. Keyboard input was not being processed, at all, unless there was mouse activity. Not only keyboard input, but the spinner while F41 was actually getting installed was not moving at all unless I was moving the mouse.

OK, maybe you’re right and it’s a different problem. Or the problem only occurs in certain combinations of kernel version and desktop environment. Nevertheless, I had a very similar problem - even in the terminal, the written text was sometimes only displayed after a few seconds. On mouse movement, however, immediately.

It would be interesting to know which kernel version was used with the Fedora 41 XFCE Spin live image when the problem occurred. Was it the 6.11 or the 6.10 kernel?

The XFCE spin image used 6.11.4, same as the F41 workstation live image which has no issues.

So now we have:

  • same kernel, different desktop environments (me)

  • same desktop environment, different kernels (you)

After doing some more searching, I found this, which might indicate the same problem: Display freezes until mouse moves when upgrading above Kernel 6.11.2 / Kernel & Hardware / Arch Linux Forums
As of kernel 6.11.3, there seem to be these lags in some constellations - a user of a Framework 16 also reports there.

By the way, my Framework with the 6.6 kernel now also wakes up from standby without any problems which it didn’t with the 6.11 kernel.

Edit: Some more searching…
Might have to do with PSR (Panel Self-Refresh, power optimisation for laptop GPUs) which is activated in some environments while deactivated in others. Kernel > 6.11.2 might have introduced a PSR regression. This would also explain why I don’t experience the bug when connected to my external screen. That screen (or the connection to it) probably does not support PSR.
See this post (in the same thread as above): Display freezes until mouse moves when upgrading above Kernel 6.11.2 / Kernel & Hardware / Arch Linux Forums

Will test if adding the kernel parameter “amdgpu.dcdebugmask=0x10” will solve my problem for newer kernels when I find the time.

Have you tried to use a more up to date Live ISO:
https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/live-respins/

Does it still happen with these newer ISOs?

Linux kernel 6.12.3 might contain a fix for this stuttering.

commit bd8a9576617439bdc907c9ce0875909aea4221cb
Author: Tom Chung (email redacted by mods)
Date: Tue Oct 29 17:28:23 2024 +0800

drm/amd/display: Fix Panel Replay not update screen correctly