Garuda Linux on the Framework Laptop

I use Fedora on my current machine, but with a Framework laptop pre-ordered, I had been hoping to try out another distro. From what I’ve seen Garuda seemed appealing. From what I’ve seen here, Fedora generally works really well with the Framework, but has anyone tried using Garuda on it? Have you had any issues?

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I haven’t tried it yet, but I am getting my laptop soon, I am going to try to Run Garuda Linux first. I have been running Garuda on my current laptop and it has been great. based on the research I done, mainly the arch wiki and the specific post on here, it seems that Garuda should work, we may have to use an older kernel though for the wifi chip framework provides for bluetooth.

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Haven’t tried Garuda yet but downloading it now. Will install it tomorrow and let you know :slight_smile:

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hey update, there is a guy on youtube who tested multiple Linux distros, and of the 6 that he tested, two of them were arch based Manjaro, and EndeavourOS and the only two points of issues were scaling and the fingerprint reader for both, luckily Garuda does offer scaling options in the menu, and the fingerprint is set up able, just need to do some work. Here is the link to the video. Best Linux for Framework? 6 Distros Tested! - YouTube

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So I tested Garuda on my laptop and just the fingerprint reader doesn’t work out of the box. The display scaling is too small for me out of the box but can be easily adjusted in the system settings. The bluetooth does not work after a soft-reboot (see: Using the AX210 with Linux on the Framework Laptop)
The video that @Joe_Hogan is a great reference, especially the Manjaro part since it is the closest to Garuda (at least from my small amount of time using Garuda).

Hope this helps!

EDIT: I recommend a look at this too, just in case. Arch Linux on the Framework Laptop

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I’m evaluating Garuda now, the FP Reader is installed OOTB however there isn’t a UI to initialize it, but you can enroll your print in the terminal and then just edit the auth config files to activate use. See here fprint - ArchWiki
And I haven’t found a solution to the Bluetooth issue other then downgrading the kernel.

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My laptop just came in today and I am currently running Garuda Linux. It has been mostly a pleasant experience. The Garuda Welcome app gave me no problem and didn’t fail to install any packages. I am having a problem with adjusting the keyboard brightness with the keyboard shortcuts. For me at least Bluetooth is working fine. @Rodrigo_Luzuriaga what type of Bluetooth device are you using because I am using a mice and I want to know if other devices will not work on my laptop.

Also funny note. The video that I linked to earlier was made by @CJ_Elevated so just wanted to say thank you and keep up the good work.

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What is the battery life like running Garuda? I know it uses a bit more of your system resources, I assume that translates to shorter battery life.

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I tried installing Garuda on my framework that I received yesterday, but I could not get a usable boot usb drive. I was using the iso from sourceforge, and using rufus to make the usb drive. I did get fedora 35 to work without a problem though. I would have liked to try Garuda though.

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I just got mine and I had the same issue; it didn’t work with dd or balena, but fedora 35 booted first try.

Edit/Update: I’ve tried two other arch-based distros now (ArcoLinuxB and EndeavourOS) and haven’t been able to get them to boot either. Not sure what’s going on; but I can stick with Fedora for now.

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Has anyone had any luck with Garuda yet? If so, how did you get it to boot? While fedora 35 has been working perfectly for me so far, I still kind of want to try Garuda.

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I figured out that I had not disabled secureBoot in the bios. Once I did that, i could get the usb drive to boot.

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Ahh, I forgot to do that too. I now have Garuda up and running! I’ve been liking it so far, although I was having some weird issues with interactions between Kitty and Fish.

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@Nova_Berman Do you like it better than Fedora 35?

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I would say so, but that very well might just be the novelty of switching.

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@Nova_Berman I am genuinely interested in a longer term (more than a week or so) review of your impressions. I originally wanted to run Garuda on my framework, but have fedora setup pretty much the way I want it now, so I am hesitant to switch.

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@Chris_Frank
So it hasn’t quite been a week yet, but I’m starting to think that it’s probably not worth switching, and I’m considering dropping it. On Fedora, my power usage would normally hover around 7-10 W, but Garuda brings that up pretty considerably to around 10-14 W. Although I like Garuda in general, it’s not worth the loss in battery life IMO.

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@Nova_Berman I think I will stick with Fedora. I alreayd have the Sweet theme, and I made a custom icon set by mixing the sweet icons and the BeautyLine icons from Garuda. So it looks a lot like Garuda, but with the advantage of being Fedora.

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Yeah, I’ve dropped Garuda and now I’m just working on getting an Arch install set up with the bits of Garuda I liked but without the bits I didn’t like. It’s nice to actually have a reasonable battery life again.

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It is very easy to switch from “Enable Performance Tweaks,” the default setting, to “Enable Powersaver Tweaks” in the Garuda settings menu. Give it another shot some day–battery life is amazing!

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