Can we please get an update on the status of Linux on AMD? It was originally stated that BIOS versions prior to 3.03 would only work with F39 Beta or Ubuntu 22.04 with an OEM kernel. The last I saw, BIOS 3.03 (Beta) was pulled and the advice was to stick with 3.02. At the same time, I see reports of people running F39 Beta or Ubuntu with an OEM kernel that are seeing issues (stuttering, lagging, booting into X because Wayland will not work until a logout, and so on.)
It would be very helpful to know:
What is the current recommendation (Distro/Kernel) for running Linux on AMD?
If a new BIOS is needed (and it surely does seem so), when do you expect that it will be available, at least for testing?
Will this new BIOS work with anything other than the very limited distro / kernel set (I do not mean be supported, I mean generally work with.)
In addition to what I just asked, they are going to ask:
What kernel version works with the Framework AMD laptop?
What additional drivers / driver versions are required in order to work with this laptop?
Are there any additional userspace tools or libraries required by this laptop (lipfprintd, mesa, fancontrol?) and what versions are needed?
So I’ll ask the same here. I was trying not to be quite so detailed, but you make a good point. All of these details would be super useful, but most notably:
What kernel version is needed along with which BIOS version?
I think currently the only stable kernel versions are the Fedora kernel and the Ubuntu OEM kernel. At least with the current BIOS.
I tried kernel versions 6.4.19, 6.5.7 and 6.6.0rc6. All of those experience driver resets half of the time when starting Steam (I am guessing this affects most chromium embedded framework and/or Electron based software).
So if you want a stable experience, stick to the officially supported distros for now (and follow the guides).
If you don’t want to do that, make sure you do have the one patch to prevent the flicker when you have 64GB or more RAM. You can also try to limit the gtt size, which I think made games a bit more stable on my end, but that could be just placebo (using amdgpu.gttsize=4096).
Apart from that, I am currently waiting for a new BIOS release to see if that mitigates the driver resets. If it doesn’t, I’ll dig some more into why the driver crashes.
Regarding the fingerprint reader, it works fine for me with just fprintd, although I did update the firmware for it using the Intel 13th gen guide. You also want to use the power-profile-daemon, if you distro doesn’t come with that out of the box, see the guide here: Optimizing Ubuntu Battery Life
Mesa and stuff you obviously need, fancontrol should happen automatically via the firmware, no software needed.
Didn’t see this until now as it wasn’t posted to community support or in the Linux subforum.
3.03 is correct. I use it daily with a fully up to date Fedora 39 install. 3.02 is really rough, unsure who is recommending this. If you have a link suggesting folks stick to 3.02, please link to it so I can set that straight.
The beta label was pulled, 3.03 has been officially supported for a while now.
Again, please remember the forums are customers and some posts from us. Guides and knowledge base articles are us. Rely on the latter please.
The keys to a solid experience are as follows.
Follow the guide.
Much of what appears on the forums has issues that do not fall into AN AMD has issues blanket. Remember, this is a source for help. You will only see those with issues, not those who are not.
Once you venture into untested territory, you are left to community support. We are a tiny team with a huge lift. We focus on providing support for distros where we have partnerships and that have proven (again, not everything appears on the forums, like the positive experiences) track records for just working when guides are followed.
Freezing, etc, 99% of the time there are variables we’re sorting out with the ops for those posts.
Our recommendation.
Guides first, forum second. This alone will make a tremendous difference. These guides are part of the email we send to customers when they purchase from us and can be found at guides.frame.work
Yes, on 3.03 BIOS, meaning you have an AMD board, you will likely do fine on community supported distros on 6.5 kernels and above. Arch for example. We encourage you to run whatever you like, but understand that some things may appear on Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS and Fedora, first, before landing on other distros. Again, partnerships in play here.
You would not. Please, please stick with the official recommendations for distro support and their guides. Unless you are very comfortable in providing your own support, you will be able to get a far easier experience.
However, I have been daily driving the AMD Framework 13 for two months now with a non-officially supported distro (Gentoo but Debian 12 works just as well) and it has been absolutely rock solid. I would, however, recommend kernel >= 6.6.6, if given the option, for better experience as it also has improved AMD P-state drivers for CPU power savings.
The only quirks I’ve had have been from kernel issues and not Framework. Notably, kernel 6.6.5 and 6.1.66 cause random hangs due to WiFi driver issues in the kernel. This was quickly resolved upstream and is now fine.
Bottom line, if something doesn’t work as expected try one of the supported distros to confirm. If it works there, then it’s probably a distro issue. If it still doesn’t it could be an issue that Framework can resolve
But bear in mind, as with the WiFi example above, not all quirks are due to Framework. The hardware is relatively new and AMD are still constantly getting in patches to the upstream kernel which, unless critical enough to backport, will take some time to propagate downstream to individual distros. These forums are an excellent source to share issues and find out if a given problem is distro related or stems from something else.
I run Manjaro as my daily driver, but keep a supported Ubuntu partition for FW debugging purposes. That way, I can run the distro I want while keeping on Matt’s good side
