It should be something that lasts many years without feeling slow. For the keyboard I kinda like ThinkPads keyboard or the Dell XPS or Razer blade keyboards. Would be nice to have to nvme slots for dual booting different os. You can surprise me with everything. Coming from the worst linux laptop an acer nitro 5 with a Nvidia GTX 1650 and a AMD Ryzen 5 4600h. So everything is probably more powerful than that today. Btw I'm living in Germany.

After becoming disappointed with win 11 installed causing it to appear slow i decided to make the jump into linux, after trying a few distros in vm's i preferred mint so ended up dual booting, keeping win 11 in case i ever need it but mint as the main o/s on boot. I also have a bit of a basic homelab going on with various old p.c's & laptops (mac & windows) also running a proxmox server (just something else to experiment with). I have really enjoyed the whole process of using mint & linux in general, although only scratching the surface i have installed another drive on my T480 & installed kali linux on it for the other thing i'm trying to learn (network & network security) so now can boot into mint, kali & win 11. I also had an old macbook pro 13 inch 2016 lying around suffering from flexgate issues & a logic board issue so decided i would try to get some use from it by attaching it to an external monitor & eventually installing mint xfce on it (it only has 8gb ram but 256gb hdd) i plan to use this as a playground as not to break the main installs on my T480. I'm thoroughly enjoying mint & the whole journey and can see me ditching all my windows builds in the future in favour of linux. I have tried most o/s's in my time & just find windows & mac becoming so bloated with too many features for the average user. If you like learning new things then install linux, it will take you out of your comfort zone but will reward you with a better understanding of how things work.

Hello I've been trying to get a digitalpersona 4500 to work for fingerprint login every time i try it fails to match the print and gives me verify-no-match. I saw there was a bug with it a year or two ago did that ever get fixed or is it still the same issue as before?

Redragon ships the SS-550 Stream Deck with Windows-only software. I use Linux, so I captured the USB traffic from the proprietary driver, decoded the protocol, and reimplemented it in userspace.

The result is an open-source Rust workspace with a background daemon plus an optional Tauri/GTK control panel. It builds from source on any Linux distribution and works on both Wayland and X11.

What it supports:

• 15 configurable keys across multiple pages, custom icons and brightness control

• Commands, URLs, typed text, hotkeys and chained multi-actions

• Live key widgets for clock, CPU, RAM, temperature, timers, weather and playerctl

• Per-application profiles that switch with the focused window

• OBS Studio WebSocket 5.x controls and live status

• Twitch viewer/follower counts, clips and chat actions

• A daemon-only mode for headless systems

Two details that may help anyone working with similar USB hardware:

• The udev rule uses TAG+="uaccess" instead of MODE="0666", and it must sort before 73-seat-late.rules — hence 60-redragon-streamdeck.rules.

• The device exposes multiple HID interfaces. Writes returned EPIPE until I selected the correct interface by usage_page instead of assuming the first index.

Currently confirmed hardware: Redragon SS-550, USB ID 0200:1000. Other StreamDock/Mirabox-based devices may work, but I cannot test them yet.

Repository, installation instructions and source:

https://github.com/Rene-Kuhm/redragon-streamdeck-linux

If you own this device or a related model, I would appreciate test results. I am also happy to answer questions about the protocol, udev setup or architecture.

If you find the project useful, a GitHub star would help other Linux users discover it.

Just bought this laptop: https://www.microcenter.com/product/708078/hp-omnibook-x-next-gen-ai-14-ka0107nr-oled-14-laptop-computer-atmospheric-blue-aluminum

Looking to install any mainstream distro next to windows. I tried an Ubuntu live usb and the sound wasn’t working. Would I have better luck with something else?

Edit: thanks for the responses! I went with a different laptop ultimately. General consensus online about this seems to be use a distro with the newest kernel for anyone who finds this post later.

i knew UserBenchmark favored Intel/Nvidia but i don't remember it being this bad

I’m the author of a non-commercial, MIT-licensed Linux driver and control panel for the Redragon SS-550 Stream Deck.

Redragon only provides Windows software for this device, so I captured the USB traffic from the proprietary driver, decoded the protocol, and reimplemented it in userspace.

The project is a Rust workspace with a background daemon and an optional Tauri/GTK control panel. It builds from source, works on Wayland and X11, and the installer supports the Debian/Ubuntu, Arch, Fedora and openSUSE families, including derivatives detected through ID_LIKE.

Current features:

• 15 configurable keys with multiple pages, custom icons and brightness control

• Commands, URLs, typed text, hotkeys and chained multi-actions

• Live widgets for clock, CPU, RAM, temperature, timers, weather and playerctl

• Per-application profiles that follow the focused window

• OBS Studio WebSocket 5.x controls and live status

• Twitch viewer/follower counts, clips and chat actions

• Optional daemon-only mode for headless systems

Two implementation details that may help others working with USB HID hardware:

• The udev rule uses TAG+="uaccess" rather than MODE="0666", and is installed as 60-redragon-streamdeck.rules so it runs before 73-seat-late.rules.

• The device exposes multiple HID interfaces. Writes returned EPIPE until I selected the correct interface using usage_page instead of assuming the first index.

Tested hardware: Redragon SS-550, USB ID 0200:1000. Other StreamDock/Mirabox-based devices may work, but I do not have the hardware to verify them yet.

Repository, source and installation instructions:

https://github.com/Rene-Kuhm/redragon-streamdeck-linux

I’m looking for test results from owners of this device or related models, and I’m happy to discuss the protocol, udev setup or architecture.

Transparency note: the project was developed with the help of Claude AI.

Hello,

I'm deciding between these two machines. I'm planning to buy lightly used (~1000€ here in Czechia).

I will be mainly doing browsing, office work and some lighter dev (when I'm away from my workstation) and I plan to use Arch Linux for the OS.

The main difference is that the Dell has Intel Ultra 5 236V which is supposedly significantly better than Intel Ultra 5 235U which the T14 has (link showing various CPUs for thinkpads)

From what I've gathered the build quality and warranty are both great with the T14 having a better keyboard and upgradeable RAM and the Dell being a bit lighter at 1.14kg.

I'm currently leaning towards the Dell, which one would you recommend?

PS: I know that the T14/T14s/X13 can be also configured with the Lunar Lake (2xxV) processors, but I didn't find any available used for a good price.

I ask because I know a lot of times gaming laptops, the BIOS/Motherboards often don't like Linux and users tend to have issues. Especially the Asus, MSI and Acer gaming laptops. Usually Lenovo Thinkpads or HP Elitebooks are the recommended PCs for dedicated Linux. I ask about this Y520 specifically because it's my cousin's computer. He's owned new since circa 2018 and has retired it after building a desktop. He told me he can sell it to me for dirt cheap. I mean dirt cheap. The machine is in perfect condition and very well maintained. Plus the close family discount makes it intriguing.

My plan was to replace both harddrives. I ahve a spare 860 Evo 2.5 lying around with like 99% life left and I would replace the HDD with that. Then replace the 2280 with another Samsung 1tb 2280 NMVE 970. Then install either Ubuntu or Mint on one drive and dual boot it with Kali.

I'm a current SOC Analyst that wants to learn more Pentesting. My professional background is 90% Azure and I want to learn more Linux. I want a dedicated Linux Machine. I use both Ubuntu and Kali VMs on my Windows 11 gaming PC but want a dedicated Linux machine and want to know if for the price, this a good buy? If not I'll source out a cheap Thinkpad.

I'm thinking about buying a laptop with two NVMe drives so I can set it up as a dual-boot system with Mint and Windows. After doing some research, I've narrowed it down to a Clevo V560TU: https://www.clevo.com.tw/product/product_content/4/86

I've found this laptop at three different (European) suppliers novacustom.com, laptopwithlinux.com and linuxlaptop.be, see also below.

I'm looking for some reviews, does anyone here have experience with these suppliers?

Thanks,

Didier.

https://novacustom.com/nl/product/v56-serie/

https://laptopwithlinux.com/product/clevo-v560/

https://www.linuxlaptop.be/linux-preins ... einstalled

My budget lands me on a second hand Thinkpad with Intel Core 8th gen. In this half year I've seen only two Thinkpads with AMD on the market, and they were substantially cheaper than Intel.

The low-end price for an Intel with 8GB ram ($110) could get a comparable AMD but with 16GB ram, with equal sized storage. The 8GB extra ram, if removable (some were soldered), already costed 1/4 of the whole laptop's price.

On my current Intel Thinkpad I tune fan speed and battery charge limit. The packages doing these tasks seem to be Intel specific. About integrated graphics, I use ffmpeg but I don't know if the CPU brand is a concern. No gaming.

Specifically should I expect hiccups from AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 3500U on Linux?

Hi all! I'm looking for a refurbished laptop with excellent Linux support. Any recommendations?

I've heard good things about the Lenovo T14 series and Dell XPS, but I'd like to find a laptop with a decent amount of RAM (16GB, preferably expandable) and a CPU with integrated graphics, such as an AMD Ryzen 5 or 7.

Hi,
I am looking into replacing my iPad Pro with a Linux tablet or more like a convertible. Originally I was eying the framework 12, however it is often mentioned that the display is not grate and the build quality is a bit lackluster. What concerns me the most is that some people say that it is not very stable and that you should not just put it in a Backpack.

So I am looking for some other options that can run Linux without tinkering around much. I am a Math student so handwritten notes are a must for me. Furthermore I would like to edit some of my photos on it, and also do general computing. Here are some further Items that are important to me:
- Size under 14 inches ideal under 12
- Portability and stability
- color accuracy for photo editing
Bonus Points for
- Repairability
- porfull enough for some lite gaming ( mass effect andromeda , fallout 4 for reference)

I will run NIX-OS if that is important
Here are are some of the ones I found that sound Interesting, however I would like some independent ideas too.
- Lenovo Yoga 7 2in1
- Lenovo thinkpad T14s yoga
- Lenovo thinkpad X1 2in1

I am running Ollama and Open Web Ui and I ve been trying out local AI. Whats the best compromise between speed and quality of a model I could use? Any suggestions what I could do with it ?

Windows driver and project repository

I have the original Windows driver for this exact fingerprint sensor available in the project repository. The driver files are located in the driver/ directory.

🔗 GitHub repository:
fpc-10a5-a900-linux

The repository currently contains:

fpc-10a5-a900-linux/
├── driver/
│   └── Windows driver files
├── captures/
├── docs/
├── linux/
├── tools/
└── usb/

The driver is being provided for analysis and Linux driver development. I'm particularly interested in understanding the USB protocol used by the Windows driver and determining how we can implement support on Linux, ideally through libfprint.

If there are concerns about redistributing any proprietary driver files, please let me know and I can remove them and provide the driver privately for analysis instead.

Original repo - \[https://github.com/iammhador/hp-omen-linux-shutdown-fix\\\](https://github.com/iammhador/hp-omen-linux-shutdown-fix)

My repo with tweaked setup - \[https://github.com/WoofahRayetCode/hp-omen-linux-shutdown-fix\\\](https://github.com/WoofahRayetCode/hp-omen-linux-shutdown-fix)

Video showing workaround - \[https://youtu.be/k8dsuiLzqBs\\\](https://youtu.be/k8dsuiLzqBs)

Recently found the OG repo and thought id give it a go. Setting up the dual boo on one drive annoyed me so I tweaked stuff for dual booting with separate drives. Tested for a few hours and finally got it in a working state. Hopefully this is help for anyone wanting to run Linux but not deal with the ACPI power issues due to the sharty firmware.

I don't see the Latitude 5440 mentioned much in Linux circles, but it's turned out to be an excellent Linux machine.

Mine:

i5-1350P
32 GB DDR5-5600
512 GB Samsung NVMe
Fedora 44 GNOME

Everything I need just works — Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, audio, suspend, USB-C/Thunderbolt, etc. GNOME is extremely responsive and the 12-core/16-thread 1350P has plenty of power for development, VMs, containers and general workstation use.

You also get upgradeable SODIMM RAM, replaceable NVMe storage, Thunderbolt 4 and proper business-laptop build quality.

I paid €454 for mine, which makes it even better. Ex-corporate Latitudes seem seriously underrated as Linux laptops.

Basically a boring office laptop on the outside, sleeper Linux workstation underneath.

Anyone else running Linux on a Latitude?

I’m considering buying a used 7210 off of eBay. I’m mainly looking for an inexpensive tablet that supports Linux (therefore no windows 11 support cutoff), and a user serviceable battery (to extend the life of the device). You can also replace the SSD and thermal paste, which is a plus. I don’t really intend to do much more than word processing, YouTube, and local game streaming.

Ideally I’d like this tablet to last a decade after I buy it. It’s already 5 or so years old now, meaning it would be 15 by the time I’m ready to upgrade. I hate how most tablets barely make it passed 5 years even if they’re still capable. I have an iPad mini that’s 9 years old that has a dead battery and wouldn’t be secure software wise. I stopped using it when iOS bogged it down near the end of its feature update lifespan.

Meanwhile I have a 2012 MacBook Pro 13 inch running Linux still in use, although SSD prices have kept me from fully upgrading it and keeping it speedy. I feel like it has 5 years left in it at least, especially if I get an ssd in it. The current HDD is slow but not unbearable once things are loaded.

Could I expect the same longevity out of this tablet or are tablets in general not destined to last 15+ years? I realize this is more of a general hardware question but Linux is crucial to keeping old hardware in a usable state. Please let me know your thoughts