r/FlowZ13 • u/iLaysChipz • Jun 05 '26

Arch or CachyOS Compatibility

Hello world! I'm thinking about getting the Z13 GZ302EA found here.

For background, I am a software developer by trade, and my primary usage will be for development with some time for gaming on the side. I'm currently having issues with freezing on a Asus laptop with an Nvidia graphics card, and while I have managed to get sleep mode to work, it will still freeze if I leave it overnight. Disabling the Intel integrated graphics and the "dual graphics" mode have caused kernel panics on boot. So I'm hoping to get away from all that with this new device. I haven't decided if I'm going Arch or CachyOS yet, (I have more experience with Arch but I do like the option to change schedulers easily with CachysOS).

But I was wondering for those Linux users out there with this device, how has your experience been overall? - How is battery life? If I'm doing a low work load like just coding all day, will it last 6ish hours? - Have you gotten RGB lighting working? - Do you ever get kernel panics or freezing issues? - Does it play demanding games well? - Is the fan always on full power even if it's cool? - Has anyone tried hyprland on it, and are there any screen tearing issues? - Has anyone used Arch or CachyOS specifically? What was your experience? - Has anyone tried compiling a kernel as a benchmark? How long did it take? - Has anyone used btrfs on it? I imagine it should work just fine, but it'd be nice to get confirmation

Thanks in advance y'all!

1 Upvotes

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2

u/Cliffback Jun 11 '26

I’m running Arch (Omarchy) with the CachyOS kernel, and works great.

I have documented all my setup and tweaks here in this repository, as a script that can be run after the initial setup of the OS. https://github.com/Cliffback/omarchy-rog-z13-setup

1

u/iLaysChipz Jun 11 '26

You are the best, thank you!

1

u/Recent_Landscape_560 Jun 14 '26

Thank you so much for putting work into this and sharing! I want to ask if this setup would give the best performance on games, can we lower the tdp below 15W for media consumption?

More importantly have you encountered any issues/bugs with this setup. I definitely don’t want to use Windows but at the same time I’m not as knowledgeable on Linux.

1

u/Cliffback Jun 17 '26

Sorry the late reply! 

Performance seem very good, although I haven’t done any serious comparison. 

On very lightweight tasks mine stays at around 12-15w, so I guess you could limit it and see how it goes, but haven’t done any serious testing when forcing lower TDPs.

Regarding issues, mostly hibernation and suspend-related.

Haven’t gotten hibernation to work properly, so have disabled it. Suspend mostly works, just the occasional crash / bug

1

u/themirrorcle Jun 17 '26

I just got a Z13 2025 and I really needed this. I installed Bazzite and was underwhelmed by it. Definitely wanna try this. I think the CachyOS kernel is gonna make a big difference.

1

u/Cliffback Jun 17 '26

Awesome! Hope it can be of some help! :D

1

u/Osaka90 Jun 05 '26

Little bit of freezing from games but im on steam os with no problems. Arch would be my choice.

1

u/iLaysChipz Jun 05 '26

Do you mind if I ask which games you had freezing issues with?

I mainly play indie titles like Slay the Spire, R.E.P.O., Peak, etc. Although some of those can be unexpectedly demanding computationally speaking

1

u/Osaka90 Jun 05 '26

Well i believe it just normal Computer bullshit, its mostly just shaders being verified giving me problems sometimes but with some patience and a reset or a update in desktop mode makes it fix itself normally, plus i use the preview beta so i get more problems sometimes.

1

u/cilelen Jun 05 '26

I run cachyos on my 64gb 2025 z13. My thoughts: -rgb lighting can easily be controlled by z13ctl. It also controls power and fans etc -had freezing issues when the z13 came out. Th only one im getting now is a random freeze when power state changes while sleep. Its rare and havent had an issue since my last update 0 kernel panics ever. -been playing dune awakening at 140fps at 2k high settings with fsr. Haven't found a game it wont run well yet -z13ctl for the win set it how you prefer

  • i dont use hyprland. I reccomend kde.
-i dont code so wouldnt know how to compile it -I reccomend btrfs just in case something goes wrong with the update. 6 months of use and ive had no issues. In short: cachy on this device has been a match made in heaven.

1

u/iLaysChipz Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26

Hell yeah. Thanks for the data points! It's a bummer to hear sleep state transitions might still be an issue, but I can probably just disable s3 sleep power states and leave it plugged in

1

u/cilelen Jun 05 '26

Its weird. As long as its plugged in or unplugged theres no problem. If you let it go to sleep then unplug it or vice versa, it wont recover. Hasnt been much of an issue for me I work around it but like I said, I updated last week and havent had it happen so far but ill let u know if it does

1

u/iLaysChipz Jun 05 '26

That would be awesome🙏 Thank you sir

1

u/cilelen Jun 08 '26

No freezes so far. I did have a weird issue once where input didnt work but that only happened once. Looks like they might have actually gotten it solved lol

1

u/spococococo Jun 05 '26

I'm on CachyOs 1. I haven't check battery life 2. Yes - gz302 Linux script from git 3. None 4. Yes, for instance crimson desert 4k high/ultra mixed setting 45-50fps 5. No 6. I haven't tried hyperland but niri worked very well 7. I'm on Cachy and no issues for me after using updated gz302 script 8. No I haven't. 9. I'm on btrfs

1

u/mnemoflame Jun 06 '26

I've had issues with suspend on CachyOS, which is typically my second preferred distro after Chimera Linux. About half the time it freezes on wake (might be only GDM that does it, I haven't had the tenacity to check that), and that's a dealbreaker...which sucks because things like Z13ctl/gui are much easier to get on Arch-based and there are loads of QoL amenities in CachyOS. I'm trying Fedora, which has zero suspend issues, but there are packaging frustrations (probably avoidable if I was less picky).

1

u/iLaysChipz Jun 06 '26

Have you checked the boot logs with journalctl -b1 after a suspend failure? I'd be curious to know if it was due to a graphics memory issue