Hi all,
I’m have a Dell XPS 15 9520 running on windows and I’d like to start using Linux (no dual boot, my current plan is to format the whole disk). I’d like to install endeavouros but I’d like to know if I can use it “in the same way” I use windows.
“the same way” means:
I have an external 27 4k monitor running at 120hz refresh rate with a 200% font scaling (connected via an usb cable), one requirement is to use a Desktop Environment which offers the same capabilities. Gnome o KDE is not important at the moment, what I need is support for different monitors resolution,font scale and refresh rate. I think I need wayland, it it’s true what is the current wayland support and how easy is configuring a system with such requirements?
I currenly musk encrypt the disk, with windows Bitlocker offers the feature out of the box, is it possibile to do the same on endeavouros? i.e. using the tpm for storing the encryption key? if the response is yes how “easy and stable” is the relative configuration?
I’m aware that easy and stable are subjective terms, I consider myself an average Linux user (I can install and use Ubuntu from scratch, I use the shell witohut any particular problem, I can install software using a package manager or via tar, I’m able to modify the system settings).
You are able to run linux. Linux can run on almost (almost) anything. You can use the monitors with some xrandr shenanigans or arandr shenanigans and almost all DEs support these type of monitors. I’m not sure of the encryption, but nowadays Linux can do anything Windows can and even sometimes better. I hope you have a great time in the linux community?
It may also be useful to supply the specs, as this machine is sold in like 3 or 4 models. The lowest peforming one is literally 2x better than my current laptop, and it runs EOS perfectly.
The DELL specs are the following ones:
12th gen intel i7-12700H
Intel xe graphics + Nvidia rtx3050 Ti laptop GPU
PM9A1 NVME Samsung 1TB
Ram 32GB
I’d like to know how much time I should spend to configure my system as described. It it takes several hours (i.e > 6hours) or days I think I’ll look to some alternatives.
Impossible to tell, because it depends on a million things. Try it, if you think it’s too difficult to get it to work as you want, try something else. If you need support, post here on the forum.
My current understanding is that x does not support different font scaling on different monitor. The last time I tried endeavouros via live-usb I was unable to configure my two screens as described using x.
Just try wayland. If it works for you it’s good enough. You can try X if something doesn’t work like you want it. Don’t listen to the frog. He is biased because of his own requirements for running wayland, which are pretty niche and aren’t of importance for the majority of Linux desktop users.
I have roughly the same laptop (maybe one generation newer), with two external 4k monitors. More or less plug and play after a fresh install with KDE. Not counting setting up various other things (e.g. Spotify, Nextcloud etc), it shouldn’t take more than 15 to 30 Minutes from the start of the install to a running setup. (Same for the XPS 13 from 5 years ago, so you can interpolate between those two datapoints to your XPS model )
Although that’s probably a hot topic, I’m daily driving both X11 an Wayland on Nvidia cards, no real issues for ‘office’ applications (w.r.t scaling, refresh rate etc). Gaming is a different story, though.
Edit: I saw several people recommending xrandr or similar. If I’m not mistaken, you don’t need to worry about that if you go with KDE or Gnome. They should have their own display settings menu (should feel familiar coming from Windows) where you can set everything up (and at least on KDE these settings count for both Wayland and X11, I assume for Gnome as well)
Thank you. Since I have a similar configuration can I ask which image choose (with or without nvidia) and if I must go with the nvidia one the noveau driver is ok for my configuration?
I think I choose the Nvidia one, but I recall installing it with the ‘regular’ one by accident once as well.
Ultimately you’ll be most likely driving the displays from the CPU, leaving the GPU for renter offloading (depends a bit on your needs, e.g. if you prefer power saving over performance. See the EOS Wiki for hybrid graphics. I mostly run in hybrid, the CPU graphics are strong enough for two external monitors in an office scenario). Hence you technically don’t need to use the Nvidia option in the installer, but I’d recommend using it to avoid any unseen issues.
I use the Nvidia driver, mostly to get the newest features. From what I’ve read the noveau driver can be a bit lacking for newer GPUs (in regards to bleeding edge features such as ray tracing etc. It’ll still work) and a no-go if you need e.g. CUDA. So I personally would recommend the proprietary driver, but if you want to go the FOSS route the noveau driver should work to some extent.
I guess I would ask, what made you want to leave Ubuntu?
All Linux distros can pretty much do what the others can, in the same or even different ways. Most of it will come down to setup and your personal preferences.
If you were doing it on Ubuntu, what are you hoping will be different in Endeavour?
I’m using ubuntu with WSL and I in the past I used it as main os for some months. I don’t like the idea of using snap, the whole distro seems more rigid to me. Endeavouros seems a better choice (rolling updates, a “low level” package manager). My plan is to try with endeavouros and I’m unable to configure it properly (using both the video cards, installing optimus package, etc) I’ll move to ubuntu
I would recommend that you save yourself future headaches and use the LTS kernel because of your nvidia gpu. Usually there are always some issues with the nvidia driver after a latest kernel release.
options on UEFI differs from windows & linux ,
windows will use Secureboot / fast boot / raid disks
linux need no secureboot / no fast boot / no CSM / no legacy and all disks in AHCI
you can check with usb live iso , with your 2 4k monitor actives , also with terminal
inxi -Full -v8
be very careful with /boot/efi , if only on one disk always add mountpoint with flag boot & esp , do not format , your disk should be GPT formatted
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