[DESKTOP] Comments on Kubuntu on this unit: HP Pavilion Plus 14" OLED 2.8k (2880 x 1800) 120Hz Laptop, AMD Ryzen 7 7840U ?

[RLynwood]

The Subject says it. I seem to remember someone saying years ago that HP's BIOS/UEFI didn't play nice with GRUB, or perhaps it had something to do with Microsoft's somehow controlling HP's hardware, limiting Linux's accessibility or trying to control it somehow. Thoughts, observations about the suitability of this unit for Kub.?

[jglen490]

I have an HP Envy 360x laptop. Mine's a few years old with an 11th gen i7 and iRisXe graphics. My Kubuntu 22.04.3 runs well, and I was able to install Kubuntu LTS 20.04 initially. I did have a few issues, at first with that installation but nothing fatal. I was able to disable Secure boot and make full use of UEFI. The BIOS GUI was a bit tricky, and as I recall it was necessary to set up an admin password to do some things. Got through all that, killed the admin password requirement for myself, and it's been smooth sailing. I REALLY like this HP laptop, I use it as my main computer. Don't be afraid of messing with stuff!

[Schwarzer Kater]

The only HP Pavilion Plus laptops listed on "Hardware for Linux" website are the ones with Intel CPUs:
https://linux-hardware.org/?view=com...ptop+%28All%29
But better have a look for yourself as sometimes the computers are listed by model numbers or something else than names…

A friend of mine bought a HP EliteBook 860 16" G10 recently (but also with Intel CPU - 13th gen) which runs like a charm with Linux - the only thing that does not work is the fingerprint sensor.

PS: If you want to be 100% sure that the computer runs with Linux, buy something from e.g. System76 or TUXEDO.
There also is an official list of "Ubuntu certified hardware" which is quite limited: https://ubuntu.com/certified

[claydoh]

There shouldn't be any issues with using an AMD system. What might be a thing to consider is what wifi card it has. Without a specific model number to investigate, it is hard to determine what it may have.
Wifi card, mainly some Realtek ones can be a pita. Most Intel ones will work ootb, except for some of the newest of the new.
Outside of wifi, I personally would have no issues buying this myself, if this is the laptop I was really interested in. Wifi cards are cheap and not usually not difficult to swap out.

Having said that, I also am the sort of person who on purpose ignores looking at any sort of compatibility when getting computers and hardware. I have been mostly successful, even with oddball x86 an Arm based Chromebooks.

However, my recent score may be a handful, a used Arm based laptop, NOT a Chromebook, will be a challenge.

[RLynwood]

Thank you all three. All of your comments seem applicable. I didn't buy this laptop because I liked it; I bought it because it had a 30% discount and was available at that price for only one day. I had tried to get a Lenovo that had slightly better hardware (maybe ot really; it had an Intel processor) at 40% discount. But I dithered all day since I haven't considered myself to be ready to make that expense. When I decided to jump, in late evening, they had sold out of stock. So I jumped almost immediately when this one came available.

I'll post the model number this afternoon. I have work to do all morning. I look forward to your further comments.

[RLynwood]

Sorry for having gotten distracted for so long. The model number is 14-ey0095cl.

[jlittle]

HP Pavilion... I didn't buy this laptop because I liked it; I bought it because it had a 30% discount and was available ...

I did that once, and eventually and painfully concluded that the HP Pavilion line was terrible.

[RLynwood]

Schwarzer Kater, that site didn't tell me anything relevant that I could find quickly. And, yes, I saw nothing but Intel processors on the first page.
Jlittle, what was so terrible about the Pavillion? Did my original question in this post have anything to do with it?
Finally, I'd love to know your preferred laptop brands and models for Linux.

[Schwarzer Kater]

[…]
Having said that, I also am the sort of person who on purpose ignores looking at any sort of compatibility when getting computers and hardware. […]

This is quite a risk I would not take if I were a "normal" consumer.

[Schwarzer Kater]

[…] I'd love to know your preferred laptop brands and models for Linux.

If I were currently looking for a laptop my choice would be https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/T...14-Gen3.tuxedo
For my personal use cases I don't like laptops that are bigger than 13 or 14" (and I try avoiding to work let's say more than half an hour to 45 minutes at a laptop), otherwise I would use a real desktop computer on a real desk with a monitor, keyboard, mouse.
Because laptops are very poor ergonomically - and I have been responsible for ergonomically optimized workplaces several times in my life.

[oshunluvr]

I'm more like Claydoh - I fail to dig too deep when buying/building a new PC. The only thing that's totally failed - over time - to eventually work with Linux is the fingerprint reader on my Lenovo laptop. I can't think of one single other thing that didn't work OTB or within a year or so.

Couple of comments: I had an HP Pavilion monster 17"+ laptop 100 years ago (or whatever) that lasted for 4-5 years. It wasn't physically very durable - keys popped off easily and the case eventually cracked. But that was circa 2000 and I would't apply that experience to today's models.

I use Dells all the time 'cause work but they're crap spec'd government supplied models. I wouldn't trash Dell because of them either.

My current Lenovo 2018 laptop is awesome. Metal case, so solid even if a bit heavy. plenty of power and mem and 1TB nvme drive. Wasn't cheap tho. Also I go the 4k screen which I now feel like was a bad idea. Really sucks battery when in 4k mode using nvidia and gaming. I'd have been better off with HD screen and external monitor when gaming. Lesson learned...

[claydoh]

This is quite a risk I would not take if I were a "normal" consumer.

yes, but even still, I have had very minimal hardware related issues, or poor Linux support in general, outside of the Arm based laptops. And even there, it has been more success than failure (but some fun work figuring it all out)
My Lenovo Flex 5G will be a LOT of work, hopefully fun. No Keyboard or trackpad on the desktop, nor audio and wifi/WWAN, yet. Plus UFS storage isn't detected without faffing around and loading extra modules on most distros I have looked at so far.

Like oshunluvr , I find fingerprint readers are mostly a miss in Linux. That is the only issue I have come across in quite a while.
I will say that I have stayed away from dual-graphics laptops, as I have no need, and Nvidia in general. That is 85% due to the cost difference vs AMD in terms of gaming performance. I am not afraid to use one, but the costs are far too dear.

The model number is 14-ey0095cl.

The wifi is Mediatk, which probably will work, but I can't find out the exact card it has, only the Windows driver, which covers multiple devices.
If it is the MediaTek Wi-Fi 6E MT7922 as mentioned HERE it seems to be supported, potentially with some manual firmware updates on LTS, and likely fully supported in the current release. The current LTS kernel should support it.
I'd buy it if I was interested in this.

I personally prefer Lenovo. I don't care much for Thinkpads with their buttons and things for the track pad, but that is minor. Those are usually quite well supported, as well as having very active Linux communities.

HP is hit and miss, plus a miss, for me, from the laptops I have seen.

[RLynwood]

These experiences/evaluations seem in general to support my impression. Originally, I just wanted something I could travel with and have as a functional back-up if something stopped me from using my computer. Then I thought of combining purposes and using the laptop as both something that I'd have all important data on in travel and that by way of it's being a back-up for the computer. I still don't know what I'm going to do, still musing. Thank you all.

[GreyGeek]

I am running an HP 17-cn1xxx laptop, which I got for my birthday two years ago.

I have nothing but praise for it. I especially like the illuminated keyboard. On my old Acer I wore the lettering off. That won't happen on the keyboard on the HP because each letter on the keyboard it lite from behind.

I upgraded this HP by swapping the 500Gb spinner for a 500GB SSD, and I added a 1TB archive SSD.
I upgraded the RAM from 8GB to 16GB, which is the highest it will go.

It ran Kubuntu 20.04 on top of BTRFS flawlessly. The Intel Iris Xe Graphics works very well. I ran Minecraft and reached up to 125 fps easily. The Universe Sandbox^2 ran smoothly, even with the most explosive models, like 50 moons circling the Earth, or two galaxies colliding.

When I moved to Debian Bookworm with KDE (Plasma 5.27.5) the performance continued. Like Kubuntu, I get a cold-boot to working desktop time of around 12 sec, +- 2 seconds.

The only thing that didn't work was the WIFI chip. I replaced it with a RealTek 8822bu USB chip and I compile the rtl_8822bu.ko driver each time the kernel is updated, which takes only a minute or so to do.

[jlittle]

Jlittle, what was so terrible about the Pavillion?

It overheated very easily, to the point where folks were using ovens to reflow the solder on the motherboard. And that was just the most memorable of its faults. The plastic bits broke, and the screen developed dead pixels, and a sort of cast.

I was responding to the statement I quoted. I had made a purchase decision similar to that you reported.