Best distro for MSI laptops?

etcetera · 01-15-2019, 12:35 PM

I got MSI GT80, installed Fedora on it and it was missing the sound . Plus I didn't care for the Gnome windows manager, I think I prefer KDE.

what's the smoothest installing distro on MSI Gt80?

Brains · 01-15-2019, 08:12 PM

Debian testing KDE is my fave on my MSI GT72 6QD, Mint 19 works nice and all is supported, I installed Nvidia drivers but not sure if it was necessary in Mint but is a bonus in Debian.

You can get Fedora with KDE or other desktops here BTW.
As for sound, I haven't installed Fedora native to the SSD, it's in VMWare, but Debian, Mint and Ubuntu had no issues. Debian requires additional firmware packages added after, I usually link to internet via ethernet to install Debian but Mint an Ubuntu will have firmware included and can use the wifi. I can't see how Fedora would have sound issues, maybe a Gnome thing or missing firmware package needed to be installed after the fact. I do like Fedora, but still like Debian testing just a tad bit more.

I have MacOS Mojave, Ubuntu Gnome, Mint Cinnamon, Debian testing KDE, Manjaro Cinnamon, Fedora KDE and OpenMandriva KDE in VMWare. Mint and Debian also in native install on the SSD with Windows 10.
The one I dislike the most...., Ubuntu Gnome. I find Manjaro kinda boring. But the three KDE distros are all nice, OpenMandriva 4 running the highest version kernel 4.20, but Debian is easiest, probably because it's the one I've used the longest (over 10 years)

etcetera · 01-15-2019, 08:38 PM

You are saying that Debian works without issues, sound and all?

I could not get sound with Fedora, why is that?

Brains · 01-16-2019, 01:14 AM

Yes, below is results of lspci command when using Intel Graphics:

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Skylake Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (rev 07)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 530 (rev 06)
00:08.0 System peripheral: Intel Corporation Skylake Gaussian Mixture Model
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (rev 31)
00:14.2 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H Thermal subsystem (rev 31)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H CSME HECI #1 (rev 31)
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 31)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev f1)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #3 (rev f1)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #4 (rev f1)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #5 (rev f1)
00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #9 (rev f1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H LPC Controller (rev 31)
00:1f.2 Memory controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PMC (rev 31)
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H HD Audio (rev 31)
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H SMBus (rev 31)
01:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 32)
02:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5249 PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Qualcomm Atheros Killer E2400 Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 10)
3d:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Toshiba America Info Systems NVMe Controller (rev 01)

And below is results of lspci with Nvidia graphics enabled, my unit don't do optimus, it has a hardware switch for choosing which GPU desired:

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Skylake Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (rev 07)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Skylake PCIe Controller (x16) (rev 07)
00:08.0 System peripheral: Intel Corporation Skylake Gaussian Mixture Model
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (rev 31)
00:14.2 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H Thermal subsystem (rev 31)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H CSME HECI #1 (rev 31)
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 31)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev f1)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #3 (rev f1)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #4 (rev f1)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #5 (rev f1)
00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PCI Express Root Port #9 (rev f1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H LPC Controller (rev 31)
00:1f.2 Memory controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H PMC (rev 31)
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H HD Audio (rev 31)
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H SMBus (rev 31)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM204M [GeForce GTX 970M] (rev a1)
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GM204 High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)
02:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 32)
03:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5249 PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Qualcomm Atheros Killer E2400 Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 10)
3e:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Toshiba America Info Systems NVMe Controller (rev 01)

And I typically install Atheros firmware package for the wifi, but Debian also has CD/DVD images with firmware, never tried those. I use the 350MB netinstall CD to do the install and choose the KDE desktop at software choosing tasksel step leaving Debian desktop enabled also.

pan64 · 01-16-2019, 01:59 AM

but [obviously] you can boot live CDs to check if that works. And if everything was ok (like sound) you can install it and also you can install KDE.

etcetera · 01-16-2019, 05:55 AM

Nobody does CDs anymore.. I can create a live flash drive.

Brains · 01-16-2019, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by etcetera

Nobody does CDs anymore.. I can create a live flash drive.

Same here, using the CD image

Brains · 01-16-2019, 02:18 PM

You can only get Debian stable in live CD, Debian testing is more like Fedora, Beta so to speak but more stable than Fedora. You can build a Debian testing Live using live-build package.

Aeterna · 01-16-2019, 09:00 PM

MSI GT60
runs Slackware-current/Plasma5
all is working: sound, network (including wifi), video (although not using bumblebee anymore - too much hassle)

etcetera · 01-18-2019, 05:51 AM

I see

etcetera · 01-19-2019, 03:13 PM

Anything other than Slackware?

colorpurple21859 · 01-19-2019, 04:18 PM

give kubuntu a try

etcetera · 01-19-2019, 04:19 PM

sounds interesting

pan64 · 01-20-2019, 02:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by etcetera

Anything other than Slackware?

have you already tried anything else?

etcetera · 01-20-2019, 10:34 AM

I tried to install CentOS and I've had major issues with the install process, it would not even detect the non-root disk. I've had 4 SSDs in the machine and it only saw one, which had the Windows installed on it and not the others ones, empty.

I then installed Fedora 29. That went ok but I really did not like Gnome and it would not recognize my sound car - no sound. I want something that works out of the box. Maybe kubuntu.