Is anyone using RHEL on their Framework laptop? Does it work? All hardware supported, etc?
For various reasons I’m looking to maybe use it on my FW 13.
But I am not seeing anything here on the forums about it, and that worries me.
RHEL updates very slowly, it’s a very stable enterprise distribution and IMO more for servers and stuff. You need a pretty new kernel for the Framework PC to make use of all the hardware and you’ll probably have some problems.
I would recommend trying Fedora instead. It’s more or less the same as RHEL, only more up-to-date. It’s also oficially supported by Framework.
Yeah I’ve used Fedora, but its 6 month update cycle is less then desired for me. The stability and professional scope of RHEL is what is appealing to me. If by some chance the current kernel in RHEL 9.2 works I would very much appreciate it.
Regarding the stale nature of RHEL’s repos; I would say that flatpak, snaps, and appimages make this not really an issue.
Thank you for the suggestion though!
RHEL is usually paid for and probably not used much on laptops, especially in the more consumer sector the Framework is currently aimed at. So I don’t think there will be many RHEL users (if any).
I would expect it to work if you can get a recent kernel, but you’re probably more or less on your own then.
Yep, I think I’m going to give it a shot.
Free Developer account will make trying it out painless.
I generally don’t recommend RHEL except in a supported enterprise environment. You can easily run it with a Developer License however it is not ideal as a daily driver. I do use it on my company issued laptop, however I would never run it on my personal laptop. You do not need to update with Fedora on every release, I do and I have not had a problem with any upgrade in the last 5 years. I also know plenty of users who only upgrade every other release, which makes it a once a year item.
Looks like 12th gen Intel processors are supported since the 9.1 update, so you should be good. Also I strongly recommend sticking to Flatpaks. Snaps are a mess, even on Ubuntu. Good luck.
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I have used Fedora on my Framework laptop before. It ran well. I just prefer the more reserved approach of a distro like Debian. My experience has shown me that things which are professionally developed (IE: paid developers working within a structure and with leadership) just perform and are better as a whole. Fedora’s main purpose is to test bed a lot of stuff that will eventually make its way into RHEL. So based on my experience it seems like RHEL is where I want to be, and if I need things more current than what is in their repos, I have flatpak. I mention snaps, because sometimes the software I want is only in a snap. I honestly don’t have a preference. Most container packaging systems have roughly equivalent pros and cons by my estimation. (But I’m ignorant on the details.)
I think the point is whose purpose? Red Hat, Amazon, and other Fedora downstream Linux distro’s purpose, or Fedora project’s purpose?
I think testing things that are beneficial for downstream Linux distro is one of the purposes why Red Hat which has Fedora downstream distro RHEL and Amazon which has Fedora downstream distro Amazon Linux would sponsor the Fedora project. But I don’t think testing for RHEL is the Fedora project’s purpose. I don’t think that Debian’s main purpose is to test things for Ubuntu.
I think Fedora is trying to be inclusive and neutral for every Linux distro like Framework is trying to be neutral for every Linux distro and OS.
- Our Neighbors - Fedora Discussion - We have CentOS and Asahi Linux categories on the forum.
- Please add "neighbors" category for Rocky Project - Fedora Discussion - Rokey Linux is welcomed too.
I want to believe Fedora just exists for the greater good. Fedora’s main page (https://www.fedoraproject.org/) title explains the purpose: “It’s your Operation System”
As a technical difference between Fedora and RHEL, RHEL ships even more secure features than Fedora Linux such as more strict encryptions, and ships components for enterprise use case. These too-secure features are sometimes not convenient for Fedora users (non-enterprise users).
RHEL ships the same encryption as Fedora. RHEL however is FIPS140-2 validated, and offers STIG versions at install. FIPS140-2 does not use state of the art encrytion, it is however validated you must place your machine in FIPS mode to use this more limited set of encryption. STIG is a set of standards requiring a variety of items to be in place and set in a specific manner. Many of the rules enhance the security, and many of the rules are provably stupid merely making it inconvenient to use/maintain. It is also targeted toward organizational deployment and usage. I would never consider running a personal system in FIPS mode or using the STIG unless you are a masochist and want a lot of stuff to simply break.
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Oh, sorry for my wrong information, and thanks for correcting me.
(For someone who wonders what FIPS is. FIPS is a kind of security policy. The policy has versions such as FIPS 140-2, FIPS 140-3 and etc. The terminology “FIPS mode” means the state applying the FIPS policy to the entire OS in OS.)
I can see RHEL’s FIPS mode document, but I have never seen the FIPS mode document in Fedora. I needed to apply this Ruby OpenSSL library’s patch to make Ruby work on FIPS mode on CentOS 9 stream and RHEL 9. But I didn’t need this patch to make Ruby work on FIPS on Fedora. So, I assume the encryption in FIPS between Fedora and RHEL is something different.
If they were not installed in fips mode or one was and the other simply had it turned on after install they would not necessarily match. Installing in fips mode is the best way to ensure everything is actually correct. Otherwise there are a ton of steps you need to go through to make it actually fips compliant. Best guess RHEL was installed in FIPS and Fedora had it turned on later. It’s one of those instances where if you need to work in more than one mode, a separate device is the way to a saner experience.
I just tried the Fedora Sway Spin and it loaded up no problem, but did not register a tap or click. I remember having to ‘register’ the touchpad in the sway config. One other thing I noticed was that it seemed like it had scaling at 200%. I despise that. @junaruga Is it possible use the Large Text option found in Gnome accessibility on Sway instead of scaling?
I don’t understand your OS environment. Did you install Fedora Sway Spin as guest OS in a virtual machine on RHEL as a host OS?
For now just a live session from boot. Nothing installed. Want to make sure I can get it is all setup before I take the next step. Sway is absolutely what I would prefer though.
I’d just like to add that downstream RHEL is now closed-source to see if that sways your decision. If you’re really looking for a stable unbreakable desktop distro, why not just go with the gold standard of Debian?
Or if you’re desperate for enterprise features, Alma and Rocky should have you covered as they’re the replacements for (no longer forks of) rhel. Rocky even still uses rpm iirc.
In my understanding, I was thinking that Alma Linux planed to change from RHEL downstream Linux to CentOS stream downstream Linux. But Rocky Linux planed to keep it as RHEL downstream Linux distro because their legal advisors advised them it’s still okay to get the RHEL source. Am I missing some information?
AlmaLinux OS - Forever-Free Enterprise-Grade Operating System
Yes. In the immediate term, our plan is to pull from CentOS Stream updates and Oracle Linux updates to ensure security patches continue to be released. These updates will be carefully curated to ensure they are 1:1 compatible with RHEL, while not violating Red Hat’s licensing, and will be vetted and tested just like all of our other releases.
Keeping Open Source Open | Rocky Linux
Our legal advisors have reassured us that we have the right to obtain the source to any binaries we receive, ensuring that we can continue advancing Rocky Linux in line with our original intentions.
Okay.
So, for the touchpad enabling on Sway, you may be able to add the following setting to your ~/.config/sway/config.
For using the Large Text option, maybe it’s possible. In the sway config the font <font name> <size> is to change the font size of the window title. Then you need to change the font size for each application.
I suppose that the Fedora Sway Spin’s default terminal is foot right? I am not using the terminal. But I suppose there is a font and font size setting.
I am using alacritty as my main terminal. And there is a font setting.
https://github.com/junaruga/framework-laptop-config/blob/main/home/.config/alacritty/framework.yml
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Ah my mistake, I didn’t read far enough. Looks like rocky is still a fork.
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Is there a way to kind of apply the font size to everything, in the same way that Gnome does with the Large text accessibility option?
Unfortunately, I don’t know the way. I didn’t know Gnome has the option. Why you don’t like the scale setting output eDP-1 scale N.N in the sway config?