Guys i recently bought an ASUS Zenbbok S14

And i hope to use Cachy OS or Debian Unstable with it.

I have some questions and concerns regarding support for my system. Pls help me out

OLED - i have a 2880x1800 oled. does linux have support for oled protection features

Battery - is the linux scheduler good for battery on intel 256V and how big is the difference in battery life between linux and windows

Dolby and hdr: will these features be supported

Npu and Gpu. Does the latest kernel support the nup and will apps like ollama use it by default

Also i have used arch before. I am confortable with command line. I just need to know what to install but tips would still be appreciated.

-Want it to be relatively affordable (no more than £700)
-Long lasting
-Good for both Work and Light Gaming (games like Minecraft and stuff)

I've already had a look at a few (mostly Clevo and Lenovo) but i'm still a bit unsure

I started this project because I wanted a simple, modern drive health monitor for Linux that's easy to use and doesn't require digging through terminal commands.

The goal is to make something that's accessible to everyone while keeping the interface clean and intuitive.

If you'd like to help with development, ideas, testing, or just want to contribute in any way, I'd be happy to have you join the project!

Repository: https://github.com/NoX2SR/drive-health-monitor

Main window

Performance test

Surface test

Cinnamon Tray

Previously I posted a question to find a suitable WiFi 7 card for AMD+Linux builds (I’m using Fedora). People highlighted that WiFi 7 card powered by Intel chipsets (namely Intel BE200) will not work with AMD builds.

Upon this information, I went with an older WiFi 6E technology with card powered by the highly recommended Intel AX210 chipset.

But I found online that the MSI HERALD-BE Wi-Fi 7 MAX which is rocking the Qualcomm NCM865 chipset is doable for this build (stated from Amazon reviews).

In the end I canceled my order on that AX210 and went with the MSI card, I will be posting updates here once I get it.

I have been going in circles trying to find a secure fingerprint authentication for Linux which works with fprintd. Needless to say, finding a good one from reputed brand is hard, especially in a small laptop-friendly form factor. At last, I found https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H2GRH9CD

This is not exactly a fingerprint device but it's a bio FIDO2 key which works well with pam_u2f on nearly all Linux systems (Fedora/Arch/Cachy). With this, the fingerprint is scanned and saved in the device itself while U2F is used to authenticate with PAM. This is far more secure, with the bonus benefit of being able to use it to authenticate with banking and various online accounts.

Hello everyone, I recently bought a new laptop, an Asus Tuf A14 2026 (Ryzen AI Max+ 392 32gb ram GPU 8060s) but I don't like windows at all and I want to make the switch to Linux that I use on an old laptop (Mint) and on handheld (Bazzite).

Because I like Bazzite a lot I think that on this laptop the right choice is Fedora Kinoite (I prefer to use atomic distro) but I want to know if, out of the box, this type of hardware are compatible with this distro, if the are some particular tweaks to use various energy setting (like with Armory Crate) and if I need to install some particular tweaks to use it also for gaming or is better to stick with Bazzite directly?

Thanks for your support!

Background

This isn't my first attempt — I've previously tried Linux Mint, antiX, and now Zorin OS, all with similar boot problems on this specific laptop (GRUB/MBR issues tied to the legacy BIOS). I'm now testing MX Linux as well.

Most recently, I installed Zorin OS 18.1 (Ubuntu-based) from a live USB. Installation completed with no errors, and the live USB always boots fine. But the system won't boot on its own from the internal SSD — without the USB stick, the laptop either shows a blank screen, falls through to PXE/network boot (Intel UNDI, PXE-2.1), or lands on the Toshiba's manual Boot Menu instead of loading GRUB.

Diagnosis so far

Confirmed via ls /sys/firmware/efi in the live session that the system boots in BIOS/legacy mode, not UEFI.

Checked the partition table in the installer: the disk has

sda1 — bios_grub, 1MB

sda2 — EFI, FAT32, ~537MB

sda3 — ext4, root, Zorin OS 18.1

So it's a GPT disk with both a bios_grub partition and an EFI partition — a hybrid layout.

Repair attempt (chroot from live USB)

Código

grub-install reported "Installation finished. No error reported." update-grub found the kernel/initrd correctly. Exited chroot, unmounted everything, rebooted.

Result: no change. Still fails to boot from the SSD, still falls back to the Boot Menu / PXE, despite grub-install reporting success and the bios_grub partition existing on the GPT disk.

Question

Given grub-install --target=i386-pc completed without error, why would legacy BIOS still fail to find a bootable GRUB image on this GPT disk? Anyone run into the bios_grub flag not getting set correctly by the Ubuntu/Zorin installer, or some other gotcha with GPT + legacy BIOS on old hardware like this? Is this a recurring incompatibility with this specific Toshiba/Phoenix BIOS combo, given I've had similar issues across multiple distros?

Current plan

Since the GPT + EFI + bios_grub hybrid setup seems fragile for legacy BIOS booting, I'm doing a clean install of MX Linux 25.1 (Xfce, sysvinit) using an MBR partition table from the start to sidestep the GPT issues entirely.

Basically title says it all. I daily drive a Legion Y530 for my tasks. But I'm looking to get a secondary device for cheap that can run Linux and get most basic tasks and some light web browsing done.

I don't want to spend more than ₱5000 on this since its just a secondary device and I plan to use Fedora as my distro.

I also don't mind a little experimentation and tinkering, so im all good with older devices.

Looking at my local Facebook Marketplace I found 2 options. My choices are as follows:

- Thinkpad x240 i5 with 4GB RAM and a non working Internal battery for ₱3400

- Macbook Air 2014 i5 w/ 4GB RAM without a charger for ₱3500

Between the two choices, which would you recommend for this weekend project of mine? Thanks in advance!

hello good people,

I am Fedora user since.... ages... but this is my first time on a laptop.

Went with a DELL Pro 7 13 2-in-1 since I really dig the form factor and wanted to utilize it.

## Hardware Information:

- **Hardware Model:** Dell Inc. Dell Pro 7 13 2-in-1 P703265

- **Memory:** 32.0 GiB

- **Processor:** AMD Ryzen™ AI 9 PRO 465 w/ Radeon™ 880M × 20

- **Graphics:** AMD Radeon™ 890M Graphics

- **Disk Capacity:** 1.0 TB

## Software Information:

- **Firmware Version:** 1.2.3

- **OS Name:** Fedora Linux 44 (Forty Four)

- **OS Build:** (null)

- **OS Type:** 64-bit

- **GNOME Version:** 50

- **Windowing System:** Wayland

- **Kernel Version:** Linux 7.0.13-200.fc44.x86_64

but it seems my accelerator or other something else is not working properly as neither Tent or Tablet mode work and the screen is not rotating

fun fact: even the built in fingerprint reader worked out of the box, I was really surprised to see that.

Any ideas where to start troubleshooting with the sensor for the screen rotation?

First thing I did, was update the BIOS to 1.2.3, as you can see

So I have been looking for a WiFi 7 card that supports my current build, and I have seen people say the intel WiFi cards don’t work well with AMD CPUs. Is this correct?

What are my best options?

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for the best laptop on the market for a pretty specific use case and I’m hoping you guys can point me in the right direction. I'm an electronics engineering student focusing heavily on embedded systems and connected objects, but I'm also simultaneously diving deep into cybersecurity (specifically IoT and hardware hacking).

Here is exactly what I'm looking for:

Heavy Dev & VMs: I work with codebases and complex projects. I also need to run multiple virtual machines smoothly for pentesting and hacking labs. A beefy CPU and a ton of RAM are non-negotiable.

All the Ports: Because I do electronics work.

Perfect Linux Support: I am running Linux full time. All the drivers MUST agree with Linux right out of the box.

What is the absolute best laptop that fits these exact characteristics? . Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone, I'll be straightforward.

I want to install Linux on a MacBook Air A1466 from 2017 and I'm aware of certain common problems with drivers and, what worries me, power management.

I wonder if there's a particular distro that's recommended because it maximizes compatibility with this kind of laptop. I don't need it to work out of the box, I can download and configure anything necessary.

In case it's relevant:

- i5-5350U

- 8 GB LPDDR3

- No T2 chip

- Wifi/Bluetooth 802.11ac

- Battery degraded but working decently (I prioritize keeping it alive)

I appreciate any experience or advice.

Thank you very much.

I have a radeon rx460 in my PC, given the current prices I'm probably not looking into building a new one or investing into a laptop.

I mainly use it for non-gaming stuff, but I'd like to be able to run some older games that i occasionally play at FHD/1080p resolution without lag. These are Hitman, CS2, BG3, Pathfinder games.

I'd like to upgrade to a GPU that can run the above mentioned titles well in FHD and I'd prefer one that is at least as power efficient or preferably more so than my current card.

What options are there, let's say sub 100 or 200 EUR? If there are none, what's the cheapest such card?

I recently purchased an old Optiplex business tower and installed Mint XFCE on it. I want to keep Mint on it as it is so much lighter on the 10 year old tech. It only has Ethernet and I sadly don’t have ethernet access in my room. Right now, I’ve got it jerry-rigged with a small wifi access point LMAO. I’m currently looking for a cheap and reliable wifi adapter that will play well with Mint. The overall goal is to make it a Minecraft server for me and my friends. Thanks!

Hey everyone! I'm finally upgrading my PC — the last time I built a system was back in the i7-7700K era. :) I would love to get your thoughts on this new setup.

The Use Case: I'm not into heavy gaming. The only 3D application I run is Zwift (indoor cycling software). The machine will run Linux (ZorinOS) and is mainly for my Master's degree assignments, programming, and daily work.

The Proposed Build:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9700X (65W TDP is perfect for SFF)
• Cooler: Corsair Nautilus 240 RS LCD AIO
• Motherboard: ASUS TUF Gaming B850M-PLUS (mATX)
• RAM: 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 6000MT/s CL30 (Sweet spot)
• Case: DeepCool CH160 Plus (mATX compatible)
• Fans: 2x Arctic P12 Pro PWM 120mm (for extra airflow)
• PSU: Corsair RM650e (650W, Fully Modular)
• GPU: Nvidia GTX 1080 (Reusing my current card) in the future i will upgrade with amd
• Storage: 2x NVMe M.2 SSDs (Reusing current drives)

Since I’m a bit out of the loop with modern hardware, does this look well-balanced for a quiet Linux workstation? Are there any hidden compatibility issues I should look out for regarding the Corsair LCD/RGB or the motherboard size in this specific case?

Thanks in advance!

Full disclosure: I worked on this review.

We tested Valve’s new Steam Machine, and since Valve has compared it directly to the Steam Deck, I thought the results might be relevant here.

The short version: yes, the Steam Machine is clearly much faster than the Steam Deck. That part is not really in question. But in our actual game benchmarks, we did not see a blanket 6x uplift across the board.

We tested Cyberpunk 2077 and Forza Horizon with Steam Deck-style settings to make the comparison a bit cleaner. The Steam Machine turns 30-ish fps results on the Deck into much smoother triple-digit or near-triple-digit results in some cases, The Steam Machine but the gap depends a lot on the game, resolution and settings.

I would have liked to go into more detail, but I also do not want this to turn into a full repost of the review here.

What I find interesting is that the Steam Machine feels less like a “normal PC” and more like Valve taking the Steam Deck idea and moving it into the living room: SteamOS-first, controller-friendly, more powerful, but still built around realistic settings and upscaling rather than brute-forcing everything.

Curious how other Deck owners see it:

Would you treat the Steam Machine as a natural upgrade path for TV gaming, or does the Steam Deck already cover that use case well enough for you?