[RESPONDED] List of "compatible community supported" distros

Framework Laptop 13 Linux
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Currently that’s Mint, Manjaro and non-LTS Ubuntu. I wonder, what’s the criteria and process how another distro gains “community supported” status?

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Anything can be community supported, just search for a thread on it and if one doesn’t exist, feel free to start it. These threads are users helping other users out.

Almost all distros will work. Some require little workarounds, some a little more than that. But for the most part, they will work.

Our Linux friends @Matt_Hartley and @Loell_Framework may come in from time to time with some helpful advice (in fact most of the time I see Matt come in and completely solve an issue with a simple command) but they are not obligated to since they can’t possibly test every single distro.

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“Community support” should be understood as a euphemism meaning no (official) support.
We can post on the forum with our questions; somebody might respond. “Community supported” systems are no different from any other Linux (or even others like BSD) in any way I can discern.

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I’m referring to this URL: Framework | Linux Compatibility on the Framework Laptop

I’m sure I saw more Linux distros discussed here in the forum including guides made by users, but they never made it to that page

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Greetings all,

An important part of the Linux Page is this section near the top:

You can check out our Knowledgebase article for more information about our officially supported Linux distributions versus the compatible community supported distributions.

This provides a link to this page:

Which summarizes this:

This was written to clarify how we support Linux and what that means to Framework users.

Officially Supported Linux Distributions:

  • Official support means we work with the Ubuntu and Fedora teams to do our best to avoid bugs and regressions.

  • We provide official support for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, 22.04 LTS (Long Term Support) releases.

  • We provide official support for Fedora 37 and Fedora 38.

  • We provide consistently updated install guides.

  • We provide support ticket assistance.

  • We provide help through the community forums.

Compatible Community Supported Linux Distributions:

  • Community support for Ubuntu 22.10, Manjaro XFCE 22.0, Linux Mint 21.1.

  • We provide periodically updated install guides.

  • We provide best efforts assistance through the community forums.

  • If a ticket is opened, we’ll help as much as possible, but likely will redirect the customer to the support forum for their distribution.

Untested Linux Distributions:

  • Any distribution or release not listed above.

The TLTR version is this:

  • Officially supported distros are distros we actively work with, run and test against. These are the distros we will pair with troubleshooting against as we have the means of working with issues in this space.

  • Community Supported distros are distros we’ve built guides for, do not test against often and do not have the cycles to provide ongoing support for.

  • Distros not listed above are strictly untested, no guides put together. Arch, Debian, Nix are popular examples.

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Thanks! That makes sense. So basically the main difference between “community supported” and “untested” is that someone wrote an install/post-install guide for that distribution.

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Yep, that and the level of “help” we can provide in a ticket. Like, if we need to verify this is hardware, we’ll need to do so on known to be compatible distros.

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What’s the process of adding a new distro to the “community supported” list. Like, if I as a Framework customer were to create an installation & setup guide with screenshots and explanations, just like the existing guides, and check that all hardware features are compatible and if not, add instructions for that; can it be added as a new community supported distro then? Or is it something that has to be initiated by a Framework employee?

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Community supported are distros/releases we have guides for, but do not actively test against due to available people resourcing. When one of the community supported distros is released, we test against it then at that time, but do not test against it ongoing and do not support it in tickets.

We are a tiny team, so we focus on our officially supported distros.

That said, we have other distros shown throughout the Linux forums such as Debian, NixOS, and others that community members have shared and we have pinned.

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What are the conditions for adding a new (non-official) “community supported” distro?

Manjaro and Mint are listed here as “compatible community supported” for 13th gen Intel but they do not have guides. Versus other distros (such as Gentoo) that do have guides but are not listed.

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Excellent question. Few takeaways here:

  • Both distros were focused on the Intel boards available at that time. As shown on the Landing Page, ending at 13th gen.

  • The landing page is missing guide links as we’re in transition, but the guides are still available. Once I get get things rolling with additional community supported distros, I will be adjusting the page yet again. If Mint and Manjaro would like to maintain guides like we see with Arch or Debian, be it far from complete, we would add them. I’d like to see a little more activity on the wiki for Debian, but I am likely going to add it soon as a community support distro and I suspect we’re going to see more wiki activity.

  • Any distro that would like to participate is welcome, but I am not in a position as a team of two people to do the lifting for those distros.

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I understand and respect that you/Framework don’t have the bandwidth to support more than Fedora and Ubuntu. I’m looking for clarification on what “any distro that would like to participate is welcome” means. Someone added a guide to the Gentoo wiki for the 13 and I am planning on writing a guide for the 16 once I get mine. Is that sufficient? Or does “participation” mean someone on the governing board (or however that works) of the distro contacting Framework and saying, “ officially supports Framework laptops”? Or somewhere in between?

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So went to SCaLE, talked to a ton of amazing folks…including folks from various distros…like NixOS. So the foundation has begun.

Any guide like we see with Arch is fine, and is eligible for linking for Community Support status on the landing page. The process will not be fast, but yes, anyone who have wiki.distro.blah like we see with Arch is welcome.

All I ask is that it’s not on some third party website. Gentoo, NixOS, Debian, etc. I need to see work on docs attached to their support domains. Great start here for example, but I’d like to see more detail.

I am now working with the NixOS team (thanks again Martin) and they are going to help me, help NixOS users with really solid docs as I catch-up from SCaLE.

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