Hi! I’m thinking about buying a Framework 13 Intel laptop, but i wanted to know if my favourite linux distro will run on it. Has anybody tested kubuntu on the laptop, with all the fixes installed? If yes, can you please tell me how you installed them and how the os is running? Thx!
We’d recommend the LTS as 23.04 (GNOME at least) is rough around the edges. Kubuntu 22.04 should be fine. Make sure to update everything after installing.
I’m in process of updating the Ubuntu 22.04 guide to reflect some specific changes, but it will be updated today to reflect the .3 changes to 22.04.3
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Hi @Marco_Vanoni , you may test Live kubuntu first for awhile, and see if there’s anything odd, but generally should just okay provided you have updated to latest package. cheers!
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So I can follow the Ubuntu guide and not have a lot of problems?
Hi @Marco_Vanoni, we provide officially tested and vetted support for Ubuntu 22.04.3 and Fedora 38. This will then evolve into the next Ubuntu LTS going forward and Fedora 39.
We do not test KDE desktops at all, however, we have countless folks who use it. So what this means is if you run into an issue, you’d posted to the forum here and we’d provide best effort support. If we are unable to help within a KDE environment or need to see if there is a larger issue had, we’d ask you to test with a Live ISO of Ubuntu 22.04. And if an issue went into a support ticket, all instructions would request testing on Ubuntu 22.04 as it is a verified distro release/desktop.
Will Kubuntu works well on Framework (or most laptops for that matter), ideally, yes, baring any Plasma/KDE issues that can crop up. You’d install Kubuntu 22.04, follow the guide for Ubuntu 22.04.3 and make sure that step 9 is followed to the letter - I see so many tickets where folks install Ubuntu and call it good. Getting that OEM kernel setup exactly as described matters. 
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Kubuntu 23.10 on the Ryzen 7 runs fine, BIOS 3.03 beta.
This is a 6.5.x kernel, with amdgpu.sg_display=0 added to /etc/default/grub to stop the flashes of white screen
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This is correct for those experiencing this.
Both of the only two officially supported Linux distributions, Fedora & Ubuntu, are Gnome distributions. Is there any reason why Framework is limiting official support to only the one DE?
Thanks,
rik.
Framework is limiting support to two distros. Fedora and Ubuntu. The real question is why does neither distro ship KDE by default, and for that you can go down the rabbithole of history, corporate sponsorship, enterprise support, half as many components and a single fixed release date that distros can key off of. KDE in its current incarnation is a pain to ship, but that may be changing with Plasma 6.
Super short answer - officially supported distros and their officially supported desktop environments.
Longer answer: Why these two? Because we have two entities we have a long standing partnerships with that have been amazing to work with. As we grow, we will be adding additional distros that also have shown themselves to be amazingly cooperative.
Understand though, we have folks who are rocking Nix, Qubes, Debian (with newer kernels in play) and other distros here all over the forums.
Arch for example, has shown its community is very willing and able to provide amazing community support. This is coming to the Linux Landing page here very soon (like in the next page refresh). In 2024 and beyond, we will be looking at distros that align with where believe we can forge amazing community partnerships.
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Thanks again for all the hard work you all do!
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That sounds great, thank you for the information!
Is it planed that you can update to a newer ubuntu-version without reinstalling when its ready?
updating from one lts version to the next lts version is generally pretty painless in my experience. they roll out every couple years – so we’ll be getting another one later this year.
of course, the upgrade process doesn’t automatically enable until a while after the release, to let early adopters on fresh installs find any warts that slipped through the testing process before any existing installs move to it, and past that it’d also be a good idea to wait until framework has had a chance to verify there aren’t any framework-specific issues.
Thanks for this information. If it will work like this, I would be happy
You can absolutely update from from one release to another, even one LTS to another (within reason).
However, always, always, always have get your backups in order. If it all goes to heck and you lose access for some reasons, this is preventable with a proper backup.
concur. i also tend to outright mirror my system volume before doing a dist upgrade, to ensure i can immediately get back to a working system if something goes awry.
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