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Looking for Linux Distro that works well on big screen (1920x1080) AMD Radeon
team_traitor
Member
I need help or advice guys.
Any linux fan/lover here? I need some help and suggestions.
I am currently have Ubuntu Mate on my laptop and recently I bought
a used desktop from a friend (he needs funds).
It is loaded with windows 10 and lots games but I am not really a fan of windows (due to heavy updates)
I created a bootable usb (ubuntu mate / kubuntu) installation went well but when I try to boot I only see black screen.
I tried booting in safe graphics and it loaded okay (terminal only). I do think that these 2 distros I have now does not support a high resolution pc (correct me if I'm wrong).
So I am now hunting for a linux distro that will work very fine on this pc
CPU/VID : AMD A8-7680 Radeon R7 (built in 2GB graphics)
Monitor: is 24inch (maybe)
I cannot download randomly because data on my location is expensive like $5 per 5Gb so I need an advice or suggestion from someone who uses GNU/Linux and has big reso / screen.
I am interested with the following but I have not tried yet (files too big and download time is around 4hrs)
Ubuntu budgie
Elementary OS
Solus OS
Open Suse is kinda big (monster) for me.
Can you recommend something? I am not a fan of CentOS.
I only tried debian-based distro's.
What OS works best on big screen?
PS:
I already tried Ubuntu Mate / Kubuntu (20.4LTS) but failed.
Comments
Its not the 24 inch screen, it your Processor, its pretty new, so you want a newer Kernel.
The Original Ubuntu Desktop 20.04 installs automatically with HWE-Kernel (Hardware Enablement Stack), you could try that. Or try Ubuntu Desktop 21.04, it has Linux Kernel 5.11. Or Solus.
This doesn't sound like an Ubuntu problem to me. Drivers more likely. Your installation system hasn't picked up the make or model of your screen. You'll probably hit the same snag whichever distro you choose. There are no known problems on Linux with large or high definition screens per se.
It may simply be that you have a minimal version of the OS, if you've put it onto a USB stick? In which case only what the compilers decided was useful, driver-wise, will have been included.
Check online whether the screen manufacturer of your screen has Linux drivers available. If not, check online to see if there is a community-built driver available for your make and model. In either case, download and install it. QED.
Finally, if both of those fail, look up the technical specifications and enter them by hand. It's years since I used Ubuntu (or any Debian derivative other than as a server) so do a search or I may mislead you due to being out of date. But there are lots of tutorials to choose from. Be careful to ignore the out of date ones.
@cyagon I have not tried the ubuntu desktop. I'll do some research every data counts. Thanks for the input.
@dominame that is also weird. I thought monitor/screens does not require drivers or stuff. I have HP V242. I have to do research again. Can't afford to waste data alloc. Thanks for the input.
@team_traitor AFAIK most if not all HP screens are well covered driver-wise. It's more likely the stripped down version of the distro.
Most of us only find out about this by, quite literally, accident unless we are formally trained. In recent years Linux has been so efficient on drivers we don't need to know when installing a standard distro.
So if you prefer to only have what you need without all the fluff (one of my main reasons for preferring Arch, plus the rolling release advantage), you can meet your wishes by simply adding the correct driver.
N.B. I'm not recommending Arch for servers. Rolling releases have some advantages in that respect but IMHO the downsides are bigger.
POP_OS!
It's amazing and built on ubuntu.
It's only using the core of ubuntu so any apps will run, but the frontend is custom and amazingly polished.
I used them, about for a year, and switched back to windows because I need to run windows apps pretty often.
I'm planning tho to have a dual boot on my new computer.
Can defenedly recommend it!
And where do you live, or are you using data?
I'd agree with whats been said, this is just a driver issue for the newer hardware.
There are some additional drivers available for Debian (and I assume Ubuntu) plus a utility you can install via apt which should identify the chip and try and suggest the best driver package to install.
I'm using Debian with Mate on my desktop with 2 x monitors (1920x1080 each) so it works, but I'm on older hardware plus onboard graphics.
This might be of help? https://wiki.debian.org/AtiHowTo
I've used Fedora for about 10 years, with several different laptops.
Since Fedora 13 it works fine.(On Fedora 12 there is a problem related to KVM)
My current laptop also has 1920x1080 resolution, although I think the problem is not with the resolution.
In my opinion, Fedora has good support of various hardware, and thus I expect that it supports your hardware.
This is onboard graphics. Its am AMD APU.
@William I think AMD-A8 is also older not sure though
I think the driver for graphics is installed too. When I run the script below.
lspci -nn | grep VGAI get this result
But when I try booting it normally all I get is a blank screen. This is crazy.
I am downloading the debian net install iso @Mr_Tom hoping that this is the one. BTW what desktop environment did you install Gnome/KDE/XFCE? Which envi you are using with 1920+ screen?
@zxrlha I have not tried Fedora ever since. What is the desktop environment of fedora by default?
The default one of Fedora is gnome. And now Fedora 34 ships with Gnome 40.
I thought that but figured it must be a newer CPU/APU that perhaps the current drivers didn;t fully support.
I'm running MATE desktop, I believe it;s one of the options via the netinstall ISO. I prefer the older style GNOME which MATE was forked from (I always used to run Gnome 2 under Slackware) so I stuck with MATE on Debian. On my system full HD worked out the box, including the dual monitor setup. (AMD FX4100 with Radeon 3000 according to lspci)
Try out Elementary OS. It's easily the best and most polished Linux distro I've used. It's my main OS for my laptop these days.
Try zorinOS
or ubuntu budgie 21.04
It's an APU from 2018....
The fuck is pretty new about that APU? Its based on Excavator for gods sake.
Anyway, monster or not I really suggest OP try Suse out. I'm on AMD myself as well (both Zen and Bulldozer) and it works without any issues. Not to mention AMD directly supports the opsuse project.
On paper. Both Nvidia and AMD refuse to provide opensource AND high end closed source/BLOB drivers for modern GPUs.
TBH i ALWAYS had issues with AMD APUs and Linux - They have no L3 cache, they run at insanely weird clock schedulers and the GPUs are cut down so far that often even the AMD driver would not install, even on Windows.
They are fine for servers/headless, but GUI.... maybe not.
I suggest also Opensuse, i don't like it - at all - but it has a very good track record for drivers and such hardware.
Nvidia is a joke when it comes to linux but I haven't had amd gpu issues in oS. Maybe I'm just lucky.
FWIW: I'm running MXlinux/Xfce (debian based, no systemd) on a AMD 4750G (way newer than @OP's A8) without any problems on a 4k screen using the built-in linux radeon driver.
The only caveat is that one should not upgrade to a 5.x kernel because some kernel/driver a__hole has gone woke and made the screen go offline/blank ("energy saving") after a few minutes of user inactivity, no matter the settings. Better stick with 4.19.
Full ACK.
thanks guys for the suggestion. I tried debian netsint as someone suggested and pick kde plasma as the desktop env.
There is one thing that is so weird that I notice. Every boot or during boot process I get an error like amd.gpu firmware missing something like that. I had to login in a console way manner and manually type "startx" just to bring the desktop ui.
I download elementary OS too but I have not tried yet. This kde plasma seems slow for me. I thinking of elementary OS. Atleast for now debian with KDE works.
Thank guys for the input. Let's close this thread. Many thanks.
PS: I tried debian first with GNOME and it did not work. I get the error am.gpu firmware missing and I cannot start or go on login page/console. So I re-installed again and selected kde plasma the second time that work but so weird.
Did you use the non-free ISO?
@lukgth I did not know such iso exist. I only downloaded the link of netinst and follow instruction. It okays for now.
I'm downloading openSuse and will try it once download finished.