A simple post here to give some feedback on the use of the GPD G1 on a FW13 AMD and Linux, in one word: Amazing.
I am running NIxOS with kernel 6.9.7 and I only had to plug the G1 using the USB4 cable to use it. I first thought I would have to set the DRI_PRIME variable but it seems not be the case at least in the game I’ve tested. Diablo IV for instance is hitting 100 fps on high using the internal display (~40 fps with the iGPU).
I am honestly very surprised on the ease of use. I will try to do more test (especially the dock functions and stability) in the coming days but overall and for the moment I am very satisfied. with the product.
I’m on kernel 6.9.8 under Arch. Are you using the mainline kernel amdgpu driver? Was there any specific setup required or was this basically plug and play? I might have to order this too
Yes I am using the mainline.
I did not setup anything special it was pretty straight forward.
I used all-ways-egpus to ensure the egpu is used on external display.
I noticed 2 things:
the laptop takes more time to post when booting with the egpu plugged
the OS crashes if I unplug the egpu even if no app is using it.
Can you say something about the fan speed? I have the 2024 model of the G1 and the fan does run all the time (at low speed though). Using it in desktop mode with external display would be better without any fan at all. I wonder if my unit acts weird or this is normal.
I also discovered that you can get the best performance removing the igpu on runtime:
echo 1 > /sys/class/drm/card1/device/remove
As root will disable the igpu and only external displays at the egpu will work then. But you get the best performance because the image is not transfered over the thunderbolt, too.
The fan is on almost constantly but at low speed too, I think your unit is fine. I agree with you it could be better to have it off with low load but I guess the form factor forces it.
For the switch you do not have to remove the card, you can either set AQ_DRM_DEVICES (hyprland) or WLR_DRM_DEVICES (wlroots) or use boot_vga flag of the devices.
I did not managed to hot unplug it though, it crashes my DE whatever I do.
