I Can't Get Anything To Work On This Laptop PLEASE HELP ME!

Framework Laptop 12 Linux
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I’ve had my framework laptop for about 5 months and every time I try to use it for either work or entertainment there is a new problem with Ubuntu that I spend two hours on forums trying to fix until eventually closing the laptop and not touching it for two weeks.

When the laptop first arrived I was excited to set it up, I had my Dad help me set up Ubuntu and I followed tutorials to download a few applications to learn Linux software with. My dads worked with Linux for over a decade and it took him an hour just to figure out how to get my keyboard to switch languages (I work and live in Korea and ordered the laptop with a Korean keyboard). After seemingly figuring it out (we had to program a special command using multiple keys), I was frustrated to find that the keyboard command had reset itself upon opening the computer again, and I still haven’t been able to get the keyboard language switch button that’s built into the keyboard to work properly. I also haven’t been able to get the volume or brightness buttons to perform their prospective functions (basically none of the F1-F12 buttons do anything).

Brave is the only application I’ve been able to launch and use properly. I tried to download Steam, first through the applications center, then through snap, and with both methods I can’t get the program to launch through the pressing the icon or through the terminal command. I attempted to download Ubuntu studio for my work (I’m a music producer and the whole reason I bought the laptop was because of it’s RAM capabilities because my old computer would crash every time I used more than one plugin at once) and even after following online tutorials to a tee I can’t get the program to show up as an application.

Basically everything I bought the computer for doesn’t work. As far as I can tell there is no support team for Ubuntu and Framework Support doesn’t appear to offer help with software issues so this is my last ditch effort. I was so excited to switch to this laptop and start using Linux and I’m just super bummed at how inaccessible the software is. If there’s anyone who can help me solve any of the these problems, please leave a reply!

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Hi! Welcome to the Framework forums. I’m a fellow user of a Framework laptop and I’m sorry to hear that Ubuntu isn’t doing what you want it to do. Computers are merciless: good at doing exactly what you ask from them (at speed and repeatedly) and not good at puzzling out what you want and helping you to achieve it. Edit to add, like @Guest68 says below, Ubuntu has had time and effort put into making it easy to work with, this is not what I would expect to have happened.

Ask your dad to walk you how he thinks about solving problems with Linux computers – you will need to work out the right questions to ask search engines and the right ways to get people to help in forums. GenAI chats like Claude and ChatGPT are improving from telling plausible lies and outdated info to helpful factual content – but they are really helpful for turning ‘what I want’ into ‘how everybody talks about that so I can ask people to help me’.

The kind of help I can offer (like the rest of the community and volunteers here) is about the Framework hardware, while Ubuntu Forums or Ubuntu Discourse would be where I’d go for the Ubuntu software-specific questions you’re asking.

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Interesting. That’s definitely not how things should have gone. The above tips are good advice. Like @Kenny_Lewis says, this is a hardware support forum more than general software (your distro’s forum members know best about that), but this is the right place for things like setting the keyboard mode (another FW 12 owner would probably know what you need). If you provide some more info about your software or OS (e.g. with inxi -Fz) regarding the other issues, it’s more likely someone will be able to identify what might be wrong and what to try to fix it.

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It would be helpful to know:

  • What version (release) of Ubuntu is it? (26.04? 22.10?)
  • What flavor of Ubuntu is it? (Ubuntu Desktop? Kubuntu? Ubuntu Studio?)

how to get my keyboard to switch languages

Do you have multiple Input Sources configured? Use alternative keyboard layouts

Make sure your preferred default is the first entry in the list.

Note that the “Super” key mentioned is the one with the framework logo. On Windows this would be the “Windows” key.

I still haven’t been able to get the keyboard language switch button that’s built into the keyboard to work properly.

Make sure you’ve turned on the “Compose” key: Enter special characters

I also haven’t been able to get the volume or brightness buttons to … do anything

Have you tried pressing the “fn” key at the same time as the volume or brightness key? If that works, note that you can press fn+esc to invert the fn mode, so that you can use volume & brightness without holding fn.

I tried to download Steam …

When you try to run it from the terminal, do you get any errors? The error message would probably be helpful for troubleshooting this.

I attempted to download Ubuntu studio … I can’t get the program to show up as an application.

As far as I’m aware, Ubuntu studio isn’t a specific program. It’s an Ubuntu “flavor”, or an equivalent installer, which install a bunch of applications related to media production.

There’s a list of applications here: Ubuntu Studio - Wikipedia

You would need to run a specific application such as “Ardour” or “MuseScore” or whatever.
The Ubuntu Studio installer will install those for you, or you can install them individually.

As far as I can tell there is no support team for Ubuntu
Canonical offers paid support, but I understand not wanting to use that.
Community support is at https://askubuntu.com/

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