People online complain that Linux is hard to install for new users. But who are these people and why do they levy these complaints? The biggest barrier for the new Linux user isn't the installer; i...
I’ve tried PopOS 22.04 and Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS and 25.04.
PopOS mostly worked but almost none of my games worked, they acted like they weren’t being hardware accelerated by my GPU when they launched at all, and every time I tried to update the driver the install process hard-locked my system and when I rebooted it it came back up with no video driver at all. I was finally able to get one driver version to work, after doing about 10-15 install/reboot/unfuck cycles (the 555-server closed source driver.) I tried a couple versions of the open source drivers and they didn’t work either. I also had this weird issue with (I think it was) pipewire where my sound would cut out at random and the only way to get it back was to go into the sound control panel and toggle between speakers and headset repeatedly. I noticed this especially when joining a voice channel in discord, but it would just happen out of the blue too.
Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS installed fine but whenever it boots the monitor goes into standby with a no-signal notice. The system seems to be running, ctrl+alt+del reboots it, but I can’t even us ctrl+F2-6 to get a curses terminal where theoretically the video drivers shouldn’t matter at all? When I tried to install 25.04 (on the assumption that it would have a newer video driver) I booted on the USB key and even the installer didn’t work, same issue: monitor goes no-signal.
In case it matters, my specs are:
Ryzen 7 3800X 3.9GHz 8-core
Gigabyte Vision OC 12 RTX3060 w/12GB VRAM
32GB DDR4-3200 RAM
Multiple SSDs, some SATA, some NVMe in M.2 slots, but I’ve only ever installed linux on my BPX Pro 1TB NVMe drive that’s ~4-5 years old.
Okay, so I’m assuming with Pop you used the nvidia driver edition which meant it loaded using that. It’s possible that Ubuntu tried using nouveau and failed to work I guess but I think I need to know more. Tell me about how you are connected to your monitor. Display port or hdmi? Do you have a docking station?
Were both installs using Wayland, xorg or dont know?
It’s interesting that Pop installed and showed everything but Ubuntus later version didn’t because Pop is based on Ubuntu and theoretically has most of the same drivers. I’ve experienced it not working exactly the same before but yeah, that’s odd.
Does your computer use secure boot and was it on at the time you tried installing Pop, and Ubuntu?
Was anything above the usb in the boot priority during the Ubuntu installation? If the screen was unresponsive and the device rebooted using Ctrl,Alt,Del then how do you know that was ubuntu?
Do you have a spare device such as a laptop around with an Ethernet port?
What other distros have you tried and have you ever used Linux Mint? It’s my GOTO for anyone new to linux (including myself).
Sorry that’s a lot of questions but I think more information could be very useful.
I’ve tried PopOS 22.04 and Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS and 25.04.
PopOS mostly worked but almost none of my games worked, they acted like they weren’t being hardware accelerated by my GPU when they launched at all, and every time I tried to update the driver the install process hard-locked my system and when I rebooted it it came back up with no video driver at all. I was finally able to get one driver version to work, after doing about 10-15 install/reboot/unfuck cycles (the 555-server closed source driver.) I tried a couple versions of the open source drivers and they didn’t work either. I also had this weird issue with (I think it was) pipewire where my sound would cut out at random and the only way to get it back was to go into the sound control panel and toggle between speakers and headset repeatedly. I noticed this especially when joining a voice channel in discord, but it would just happen out of the blue too.
Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS installed fine but whenever it boots the monitor goes into standby with a no-signal notice. The system seems to be running, ctrl+alt+del reboots it, but I can’t even us ctrl+F2-6 to get a curses terminal where theoretically the video drivers shouldn’t matter at all? When I tried to install 25.04 (on the assumption that it would have a newer video driver) I booted on the USB key and even the installer didn’t work, same issue: monitor goes no-signal.
In case it matters, my specs are: Ryzen 7 3800X 3.9GHz 8-core Gigabyte Vision OC 12 RTX3060 w/12GB VRAM 32GB DDR4-3200 RAM Multiple SSDs, some SATA, some NVMe in M.2 slots, but I’ve only ever installed linux on my BPX Pro 1TB NVMe drive that’s ~4-5 years old.
Okay, so I’m assuming with Pop you used the nvidia driver edition which meant it loaded using that. It’s possible that Ubuntu tried using nouveau and failed to work I guess but I think I need to know more. Tell me about how you are connected to your monitor. Display port or hdmi? Do you have a docking station?
Were both installs using Wayland, xorg or dont know?
It’s interesting that Pop installed and showed everything but Ubuntus later version didn’t because Pop is based on Ubuntu and theoretically has most of the same drivers. I’ve experienced it not working exactly the same before but yeah, that’s odd.
Does your computer use secure boot and was it on at the time you tried installing Pop, and Ubuntu?
Was anything above the usb in the boot priority during the Ubuntu installation? If the screen was unresponsive and the device rebooted using Ctrl,Alt,Del then how do you know that was ubuntu?
Do you have a spare device such as a laptop around with an Ethernet port?
What other distros have you tried and have you ever used Linux Mint? It’s my GOTO for anyone new to linux (including myself).
Sorry that’s a lot of questions but I think more information could be very useful.