I asked a similar question and I was lead to this post.

I got side tracked and eventually lost motivation to get it working. I might give it another try in the new year. Hopefully this is what you are looking for. I assume your distribution is using PipeWire, otherwise you may have to look into HRIR for PulseAudio.

For those who are interested, here is a 20 minute mini-documentary about this individual that goes by the name of Mr. Swirl.

Fortunately I updated my BIOS from windows before switching to Linux and as of recently, I still have the latest version.

I added amdgpu.runpm=0 and that did increase stability considerably. My system froze up way less often which was great.

I also found that adding processor.max_cstate=1 has made my system even more stable and I haven’t had a freeze up in days now. This page gives a nice run down of what it does.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a freeze up in the future but overall my system has been a lot more stable making everything far more enjoyable.

That makes sense. I guess for my case it’s fine since I have more storage than I can use. Additionally, I keep my most important data on multiple offline storages and even that is quite minimal.

I have an AMD + AMD setup but apparently the Dell G5 series has issues with linux so it’s been an uphill challenge.

I did see that LMDE 6 makes it easy to boot different kernels at startup which is handy. I tried looking at Liquorix Kernel but I don’t think it’s ready for LMDE 6 just yet. I can’t recall exactly why but I got a big nope when trying to download it. I think I tried looking at the Zen Kernel as well but couldn’t figure out if it’s just for Arch or if it’s compatible with Debian.

Too much to learn and now enough hours or attention span. Slow progress but I guess it’s a thing to do besides watching my plants grow.

Thank you, that makes sense.

What reasons would people not like doing that?

I personally feel like separation of user data and OS data is easier for me to manage.

I’ve spoken to another user who has the same issue as me and they made a couple suggestions including disabling certain options in BIOS or trying a distribution with a newer kernel.

At first I thought it was issues with iGPU and dGPU switching but I’m beginning to suspect that’s not the case.

Reproducing when it freezes is a challenge because it’s very inconsistent and does not leave and crash reports.

The only improvement I’ve seen yet is switching from Linux Mint 21.2 to LMDE 6 but the kernel is still older compared to the versions that I was suggested for my hardware.

I would like to try a newer kernel just for the sake of trying.

That first bit makes sense, I should be able to figure that out I think.

The reason I want to avoid using an external drive is because it takes a minimum an hour to transfer 4 games worth of data currently. That time is an inhibiting factor for me. I’d like to minimize downtime.

Also I’d like to test gaming oriented distributions with newer kernels compared to what Linux Mint ships with.

I’m not experienced enough with linux to understand if this is a question or a statement on what I can do. In either case, I don’t know how to interpret what this means.

Thanks, that really helps. Copying everything sounds like the quickest and simplest way but it’s good to know that everything is easily accessible.

I tried the beta and liked it. The only issue I ran into was that the MozillaVPN app wasn’t working on debian.

I also had not seen much progress on the Debian version of the app from what I found. I could be wrong as that was my first dip into Debian.

Mullvad is available and I might switch to that at a later time when the motivation strikes me.

I prefer the idea of community driven projects though.

My system still freezes outside of Steam and gaming. My best guess based on searching around for issues related to my system is that Linux doesn’t handle switching from integrated to discrete graphics that well with amd+amd systems. Other users who have Dell G5 SE systems have had the same issue for at least 3 years now.

It’s tolerable because it doesn’t freeze while gaming and that’s the most intensive thing I do on my system. If I was writing or editing and it froze and I lost work constantly, I’d be more upset and annoyed.

Occasionally it will freeze just from opening discord or steam but the load up time is significantly shorter than a windows hard reset. It’s tolerable for me, for now.

I should also add, I can’t start steam normally. It still freezes constantly unless I start directly opening to steam Settings from the start menu.

Adding the command seems to work quite well. All of my games are launching just fine now with all the system updates applied. Which is great because the graphics and fps have improved considerably too.

I did some searching around and it seems the Dell G5 SE line seems to have issues in general with Linux. I tried installing Pop!_OS and the live USB would lock up constantly.

I’ll have to be patient and hope things get sorted out down the line. For now it’s tolerable with Mint, maybe I’ll try some other non-ubuntu distributions later when I’m in the mood and see how stable they are.

I bought a Raspberry Pi a few months ago and I feel strangely prepared. I wanted to use Home Assistant to have greater control over my devices since Philips Hue’s app seemed limited.

I feel like a sucker for falling for Philip’s marketing but at least I can use zigbee. I have now decoupled myself from their Hue Hub and app. Unfortunately I now have a wasteful hub sitting around. I have it posted for free on the classifieds in hopes it will disappear.

I may just switch to another distribution in the future when I have the time. I think I’m also traumatized by windows.

Usually I have to schedule an entire day reformatting and updating windows. Compared to setting up Mint the first time which took maybe a couple hours. A lot of that time was going through the settings just to set things to my preferences.

Still can’t shake the feeling of dread about installing a new OS when deep down inside I know it’s not so bad hahaha

In Mint, from the start menu you can right click on the app you want to run and from the drop down menu you can select to launch with dedicated GPU. Otherwise left clicking will launch with the integrated GPU as normal.

From the other comments, it looks like it may be an ubuntu issue so I’ll consider another distribution and maybe things will run a bit smoother in general.

You indirectly answered another question that got lost in my head. I’ll add those commands to my cheat sheet so I can attempt to diagnose problems myself in the future.

I won’t have a chance to try it out soon but that sounds like the solution I am looking for. I’ll give it a try when I can.

If it’s an ubuntu issue, I may switch over to a different distribution when I have the time to set it up properly.

Thanks for the info.

Shattered Pixel Dungeon is a great game if you are into rogue-like games. Expect to die waaaay more than you win. There is a lot of depth and quite a few ways to solve the the puzzles and enemy encounters.

The developer has done an amazing job picking up where the original developer of Pixel Dungeon left off. Very consistent and solid updates and has plenty of plans for future updates which look interesting.

There are plenty of forks ranging from adjusting difficulty to overhauling the art or expanding the gameplay significantly. If you ever get bored, you can just try something new.

I’ve enjoyed the growth of this game over the years after the development of the original game stopped.

I don’t think I’ve heard one good user view on snaps, which is what I’m assuming you are refering to when talking about containers. I don’t have much experience with it but the view on them is overwhelmingly negative.

I do like the concept of cutting out the middle man in this case. However, I’ll probably stick with cinnamon for a while as I’m still learning about the linux environment and distribution hopping will add lots of unnecessary frustration for me.

Thanks for the write up.

I’ve used linux sporadically throughout my life and only started using it daily in the last couple months. I’ve used ubuntu in the past but I can understand the reason to move away from commercial distributions. Since my knowledge of Linux is quite shallow, I have a ton of questions and a need to understand everything.

What is Debian and what makes it an appropriate choice for Linux Mint to switch over to this base?

Also, what values does the development of Debian have compared to Ubuntu?

I get the feeling that moving away from Ubuntu is a step in the direction of a more open source space away from corporate forced standards, is that accurate? If so, what development direction could this take for a project like Linux Mint?