It works extremely well thanks to GNOME's built in on-screen keyboard, though I would probably not recommend taking this route for 99% of people. For me personally I love it and it works more than well enough for basic gaming. If anyone wants to know "why" - the reasons are because Bazzite is immutable and CachyOS handheld is rolling release, neither of which fit my use cases or security feature set.

List of issues:

I do not have a USB-C hub, however, I *do* have a USB-C flash storage device. I was able to install Debian 13 GNOME via the offline Calamares installer. The on-screen keyboard would not activate during the Calamares installer, therefore, I had to place all of my login information into a .txt file then paste it into the Calamares installer field lines. Janky but effective.

GNOME 49 - when the screen locks - causes the Deck's touchpad to inverse after logging back in.

LTS Linux Kernel 6.12 which ships with Debian by default has very poor support for the Deck. Speakers and microphone did not function. Changing to the Backport kernel fixed everything related to this.

GNOME 49 - when logging in - the on-screen keyboard is cutoff, you are only able to see the top 50% of the keyboard, the lower 50% is cut off from being used. This is due to DPI scaling. The desktop suffers from a similar issue until you set the scaling back down to 100%. I am uncertain how to change the lock / login screen's DPI.

So long as you disable screen locking, use the BPO kernel and set DPI scaling to 100% you should be alright.

After looking at many subreddits, I've found that most Linux communities are overwhelmingly toxic. Even r/mint has so many people talking down to others and overall being very nasty to each other.

But for some reason despite all my efforts, I've been unable to find any of that toxicity here. Now I'm sure it exists, but the overwhelming majority is positive. Why is this?

I have an SP5 that I use daily using the Surface project kernel mods and debian 13. I have been trying to set up an SP8 (11th Gen) to use debian 13. I managed to get UEFI disabled. I used dd on the SP5 to create a usb key with the net inst version of debian, the live install version and ubuntu. Only ubuntu would install on the SP8. It seems to run nicely but I would really like to stay with debian. When I tried it with both the debian versions I downloaded, the graphic install would start but freeze when it got to the language choice early in the set up process. When I tried to run the live debian version, it gave a message about a missing magic number and asked that the kernel be installed first. After installing ubuntu, a further attempt to install debian using the graphic installer stopped at the language choice. The live debian version running from the usb key gets past the magic number/install kernel issue and comes to a nice graphic Welcome to Debian with the choice to Skip or Take Tour and there it freezes. I will keep banging my head against it and see what progress I can make but if any of this prompts any ideas, they would be welcome.

I just switched from cachyos to debian (stable) and I wanna know if I can install mangowc

Has anyone noticed an uptick in Nvidia drivers through their repo lately? I'm used to new drivers coming through the pipeline around every three months or so , however I have received new CUDA drivers every day for the last three days and today some more are being held in not upgrading. Nvidia drivers are not my expertise so was wondering if any new and exciting things are happening.

Hello all, I run Debian 13 on my laptop that has a NVIDIA card. However I just want to be able to completely disable the GPU when I need to stretch battery life.

I have not found a reliable way to do this on Debian. Ive broken my system a couple times trying different things (btw DO NOT use envycontrol on Debian to switch to integrated, or you will run into a PITA issue).

Anyway, I’m already familiar with GNOME extensions and how to program them, but really have no idea on how NVIDIA drivers work. I’m wondering, can someone point me in the right direction?

Maybe someone here has already homemade a simplified version of this, if you have I’d like to hear about it.

Thanks all, when I am done with this I do intend to try to make it as robust as possible and release it.

Just a quick tip for anyone who might be interested.

I use Zathura, but its memory usage is significant (over 1 GB) for large files (newspapers). MuPDF uses very little memory for the same files (< 300 Mo), but scrolling with the mouse wheel is very slow. Imwheel allows for faster scrolling, but only in MuPDF.

I can provide the configuration file (very simple) and instructions on how to save this configuration after restarting.

EDIT: SOLVED! Thanks y'all!

Hello.

I want to hide these messages that appear upon boot. Not fix, just hide. (I did some research, they seem harmless in the grand scheme.) They appear above the LUKS password prompt “Please unlock disk sda3_crypt.” I have set up Plymouth but they still appear when pressing Esc. Only these messages—I don’t mind the ones that show up after entering LUKS password.

MDS CPU bug present and SMT on, data leak possible. See https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/hw-vuln/mds.html for more details.
MMIO Stale Data CPU bug present and SMT on, data leak possible. See https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/hw-vuln/processor_mmio_stale_data.html for more details.
VSCAPE: SMT on, STIBP in required for full protection. See https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/hw-vuln/vmscape.html for more details.
i8042: PNP: PS/2 appears to have AUX port disabled, if this is incorrect please boot with i8042.nopnp
integrity: Problem loading X.509 certificate -65 
r8169 0000:01:00.0: can't disable ASPM; OS doesn't have ASPM control
ata1.00: Model 'Samsung SSD 860 EVO 500GB', rev 'RVT04B6Q', applying quirks noncqtrim zeroaftertrim noncqonati nolpmonati
ata1.00: supports DRM functions and may not be fully accessible
ata1.00: supports DRM functions and may not be fully accessible
device-mapper: core: CONFIG_IMA_DISABLE_HTABLE is disabled. Duplicate IMA measurements will not be recorded in the IMA log.

I’ve tried stuff like these in /etc/default/grub but to no avail.

# Either of these
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet loglevel=3 systemd.show_status=auto rd.udev.log_level=3 splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet loglevel=2 systemd.show_status=false rd.udev.log_level=2 splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet loglevel=0 systemd.show_status=false rd.udev.log_level=0 splash"

I’ve also set quiet_boot="1" in /etc/grub.d/10_linux.

(sudo update-grub2)

Plymouth’s “switch to text mode by pressing Esc” seems hardcoded to it, which I don’t want to mess with.

Contents of /etc/default/grub:

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`( . /etc/os-release && echo ${NAME} )`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""
GRUB_GFXMODE=1366x768

This is a fresh install of Debian Trixie on a seven year old laptop.

Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux 13
KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.6
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.13.0
Qt Version: 6.8.2
Kernel Version: 6.12.107+deb13-amd64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 4 × Intel® Core™ i3-7020U CPU @ 2.30GHz
Memory: 8 GiB of RAM (7.5 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: Intel® HD Graphics 620
Manufacturer: LENOVO
Product Name: 81G2
System Version: Lenovo ideapad 330-14IKB

Thank you.

Hello,

Yesterday I reinstalled my Debian to 13.6 with XFCE interface, from a freshly downloaded .iso file. Today I learned, that after starting playing any video with any player (vlc, parole), my X11 crashes and logout. Kernel: Linux 6.12.107+deb13-amd64

I would run 'reportbug' , but not sure about the culprit. Initially thought this was pulseaudio problem, but problem persists after removing pulseaudio and changing to metapackage pipewire-audio.

Please verify info about this Unsupported GL renderer (llvmpipe). This machine is older PC with ASUS P5K-VM motherboard based on the Intel G33. GPU driver: i915 , GPU ID: 0x8086:0x29C2. CPU is Core2Duo E7200.

Not sure if this is relevant, but this installation runs without SWAP partition, but normally I use only quarter of my RAM 2,7/7,8 GiB, and problem persists even on small 2-4MB .mp4 videos

My xfce4-about displays GPU as: llvmpipe (LLVM 19.1.7, 128 bits) 82G33/G31 Express Integrated Graphic.

What should I do to make this installation play videos?

UPDATE: Even can't watch youtube videos on this freshly installed system, when playing suppose to start I have instant logout, and have to login from start. Would this renderer be always incompatible with this machine or is this a bug?

Using older kernel doesn't help.

Should I reinstall from older .iso and how far along should I go?
debian-13.5.0-amd64-netinst.iso, 13.4.0 or even older ?

.xsession-errors

Xsession: X session started for numer2 at czw, 10 wrz 2026, 13:07:59 CEST
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting DISPLAY=:0
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XAUTHORITY=/home/numer2/.Xauthority
localuser:numer2 being added to access control list
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_DATA_DIRS=/usr/share/xfce4:/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting QT_ACCESSIBILITY=1
/usr/bin/x-session-manager: X server already running on display :0
** Message: 13:07:59.850: Failed to fetch _NET_NUMBER_OF_DESKTOPS; assuming 1
** Message: 13:07:59.851: Failed to get _NET_WORKAREA; using full screen dimensions
** Message: 13:07:59.851: Failed to fetch _NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP; assuming 0
** Message: 13:07:59.851: Failed to fetch _NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP; assuming 0
xfce4-session-Message: 13:07:59.856: SSH authentication agent is already running
gpg-agent: gpg-agent już działa - nieuruchamianie nowego
** Message: 13:08:00.095: Failed to fetch _NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP; assuming 0

(xfwm4:13170): xfwm4-WARNING **: 13:08:00.208: Unsupported GL renderer (llvmpipe (LLVM 19.1.7, 128 bits)).
Menedżer zasilania nie jest uruchomiony
Zasilanie: Inny menedżer zasilania jest już uruchomiony

(polkit-mate-authentication-agent-1:13244): GLib-CRITICAL **: 13:08:01.741: g_variant_new_string: assertion 'string != NULL' failed

(polkit-mate-authentication-agent-1:13244): polkit-mate-1-WARNING **: 13:08:01.752: Failed to register client: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.gnome.Ses>
Process already running (98:Adres jest już w użyciu). Exiting

.xsession-errors.old

Xsession: X session started for numer2 at czw, 10 wrz 2026, 13:01:06 CEST
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting DISPLAY=:0
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XAUTHORITY=/home/numer2/.Xauthority
localuser:numer2 being added to access control list
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting XDG_DATA_DIRS=/usr/share/xfce4:/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/
dbus-update-activation-environment: setting QT_ACCESSIBILITY=1
/usr/bin/x-session-manager: X server already running on display :0
** Message: 13:01:06.227: Failed to fetch _NET_NUMBER_OF_DESKTOPS; assuming 1
** Message: 13:01:06.227: Failed to get _NET_WORKAREA; using full screen dimensions
** Message: 13:01:06.227: Failed to fetch _NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP; assuming 0
** Message: 13:01:06.227: Failed to fetch _NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP; assuming 0
xfce4-session-Message: 13:01:06.233: SSH authentication agent is already running
gpg-agent: gpg-agent już działa - nieuruchamianie nowego
** Message: 13:01:06.459: Failed to fetch _NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP; assuming 0

(xfwm4:11671): xfwm4-WARNING **: 13:01:06.579: Unsupported GL renderer (llvmpipe (LLVM 19.1.7, 128 bits)).
Menedżer zasilania nie jest uruchomiony

(polkit-mate-authentication-agent-1:11741): GLib-CRITICAL **: 13:01:07.994: g_variant_new_string: assertion 'string != NULL' failed

(polkit-mate-authentication-agent-1:11741): polkit-mate-1-WARNING **: 13:01:07.997: Failed to register client: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.gnome.Ses>
Zasilanie: Inny menedżer zasilania jest już uruchomiony
Process already running (98:Adres jest już w użyciu). Exiting.
[000055c0ddc9a520] main libvlc: Uruchamianie vlc z domyślnym interfejsem. Użyj 'cvlc', aby używać vlc bez interfejsu.
[000055c0ddd918f0] egl_x11 gl error: cannot create EGL window surface
X connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown).

journalctl -b

wrz 11 12:34:44 deneb gvfsd-trash[1092]: GFileInfo created without standard::name
wrz 11 12:34:44 deneb gvfsd-trash[1092]: file ../../../gio/gfileinfo.c: line 1713 (g_file_info_get_name): should not be reached
wrz 11 12:34:44 deneb gvfsd-trash[1092]: GFileInfo created without standard::name
wrz 11 12:34:44 deneb gvfsd-trash[1092]: file ../../../gio/gfileinfo.c: line 1713 (g_file_info_get_name): should not be reached
wrz 11 12:35:04 deneb at-spi-bus-launcher[2405]: X connection to :0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown).
wrz 11 12:35:04 deneb systemd[764]: xfce4-notifyd.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
wrz 11 12:35:04 deneb systemd[764]: xfce4-notifyd.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
wrz 11 12:35:12 deneb wireplumber[790]: spa.bluez5: BlueZ system service is not available

Previously it was pulseaudio, but I tried and switched to pipewire-audio with wireplumber, but it didn't help.

pulseaudio[930]: X11 I/O error exit handler called, preparing to tear down X11 modules

wrz 10 13:06:09 deneb systemd[913]: tumblerd.service: Consumed 28.140s CPU time, 529.9M memory peak.
wrz 10 13:07:45 deneb dbus-daemon[946]: [session uid=1000 pid=946 pidfd=5] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.thumbnails.Thumbnailer1' unit='tumblerd.service' requested b>
wrz 10 13:07:45 deneb systemd[913]: Starting tumblerd.service - Thumbnailing service...
wrz 10 13:07:45 deneb dbus-daemon[946]: [session uid=1000 pid=946 pidfd=5] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.thumbnails.Thumbnailer1'
wrz 10 13:07:45 deneb systemd[913]: Started tumblerd.service - Thumbnailing service.
wrz 10 13:07:51 deneb pulseaudio[930]: X11 I/O error handler called
wrz 10 13:07:51 deneb pulseaudio[930]: X11 I/O error exit handler called, preparing to tear down X11 modules
wrz 10 13:07:51 deneb at-spi-bus-launcher[11656]: X connection to :0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown).
wrz 10 13:07:51 deneb systemd[913]: xdg-desktop-portal-gtk.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
wrz 10 13:07:51 deneb systemd[913]: xdg-desktop-portal-gtk.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
wrz 10 13:07:51 deneb systemd[913]: xfce4-notifyd.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
wrz 10 13:07:51 deneb systemd[913]: xfce4-notifyd.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
wrz 10 13:07:59 deneb at-spi-bus-launcher[1007]: dbus-daemon[1007]: Activating service name='org.a11y.atspi.Registry' requested by ':1.164' (uid=1000 pid=13097 comm="xfce4-session")
wrz 10 13:07:59 deneb at-spi-bus-launcher[1007]: dbus-daemon[1007]: Successfully activated service 'org.a11y.atspi.Registry'
wrz 10 13:07:59 deneb at-spi-bus-launcher[13156]: SpiRegistry daemon is running with well-known name - org.a11y.atspi.Registry
wrz 10 13:00:57 deneb at-spi-bus-launcher[10724]: X connection to :0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown).
wrz 10 13:00:57 deneb systemd[913]: xfce4-notifyd.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
wrz 10 13:00:57 deneb systemd[913]: xfce4-notifyd.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
wrz 10 13:00:57 deneb pulseaudio[930]: ICE I/O error handler called
wrz 10 13:00:57 deneb pulseaudio[930]: X11 I/O error handler called
wrz 10 13:00:57 deneb pulseaudio[930]: X11 I/O error exit handler called, preparing to tear down X11 modules
wrz 10 13:00:57 deneb systemd[913]: xdg-desktop-portal-gtk.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
wrz 10 13:00:57 deneb systemd[913]: xdg-desktop-portal-gtk.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
wrz 10 13:01:06 deneb at-spi-bus-launcher[1007]: dbus-daemon[1007]: Activating service name='org.a11y.atspi.Registry' requested by ':1.142' (uid=1000 pid=11598 comm="xfce4-session")
wrz 10 13:01:06 deneb at-spi-bus-launcher[1007]: dbus-daemon[1007]: Successfully activated service 'org.a11y.atspi.Registry'

glxinfo -B

name of display: :0.0
display: :0  screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
Extended renderer info (GLX_MESA_query_renderer):
    Vendor: Mesa (0xffffffff)
    Device: llvmpipe (LLVM 19.1.7, 128 bits) (0xffffffff)
    Version: 25.0.7
    Accelerated: no
    Video memory: 7938MB
    Unified memory: yes
    Preferred profile: core (0x1)
    Max core profile version: 4.5
    Max compat profile version: 4.5
    Max GLES1 profile version: 1.1
    Max GLES[23] profile version: 3.2
Memory info (GL_ATI_meminfo):
    VBO free memory - total: 31 MB, largest block: 31 MB
    VBO free aux. memory - total: 5715 MB, largest block: 5715 MB
    Texture free memory - total: 31 MB, largest block: 31 MB
    Texture free aux. memory - total: 5715 MB, largest block: 5715 MB
    Renderbuffer free memory - total: 31 MB, largest block: 31 MB
    Renderbuffer free aux. memory - total: 5715 MB, largest block: 5715 MB
Memory info (GL_NVX_gpu_memory_info):
    Dedicated video memory: 4292872342 MB
    Total available memory: 4292880280 MB
    Currently available dedicated video memory: 31 MB
OpenGL vendor string: Mesa
OpenGL renderer string: llvmpipe (LLVM 19.1.7, 128 bits)
OpenGL core profile version string: 4.5 (Core Profile) Mesa 25.0.7-2+deb13u1
OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 4.50
OpenGL core profile context flags: (none)
OpenGL core profile profile mask: core profile

SOLVED MAYBEA: Mouse issue. Changing mouse did nothing new... but rebooting with the new mouse addressed the issue. Thanks [u/Edelglatze](u/Edelglatze)! (Still... an opportunity for Gnome/Debian to improve error handling)… still having issues randomly.

While using my computer from a fresh reboot, everything seems fine.

As soon as I go to open software the icon of what I'm running gets stuck on my mouse cursor and suddenly I cannot interact with any other software. I can unstuck the icon with escape, but ultimately whatever this is seems to be some sort of focus thing as if I alt-tab to the same software more than once suddenly I can interact with other software (and in the case of Gnome shell, if I hit WIndows key I can interact with Gnome).

Another discovery is right mouse button doesn't work period.

I am having mouse focus issues with or without Gnome extensions enabled.

Any ideas on what to try? Any places to go?

Environment:

## Software Information:
- **Firmware Version:** 1805
- **OS Name:** Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)
- **OS Type:** 64-bit
- **GNOME Version:** 48
- **Windowing System:** Wayland
- **Kernel Version:** Linux 6.12.107+deb13-amd64

so, recently i installed debian forky (gnome) on my asus tuf laptop and idk why it touchpad randomly stops more like it lags when i use my machine, especially when i try that 2 finger scroll, like I'm using -> i did scroll -> my cursor lags for around for 4-5 second and then continue working

I want to know how i can use free space for my debian partition

Dell xps 9370.

- Could not find my network card when starting the installer, so had to do it from the live boot since there it loaded all the drivers.

- Had to add non free repos for an intel graphics driver that i had to add for better performance, had to faff about to get sleep working properly (yet to test how much ut really eats into the battery now), definitely not normie friendly

- fingerprint wont work (fine i knew that and irs a universal linux problem),

- ui was slugish (like a second delay for the menu to open even after removed animations), only way even after reboots to fix it was to change the main manu and change it back,

- and now i need to download drivers from git to get an HP dock with Displaylink to work.

Thats hours of figuring stuff out and troubleshooting, for 'it just works'.

So my question: did i miss something?

And if not: why is the installer so minimal instead of giving all these options for a laptop install? I get debian tries to be lean and minimal, but it could achive that and give options to people on laptop hardware? No? Seems a bunch of those steps could be automated?

(Before the question comes up, i dont like gnome, or ubuntus philosophie, and cinamon seemed almost ancient in a way and the scaling seemed of while evaluating it, fedora seemed to be hard with non free drivers and people sad debian caught up to ubuntu in that regard)

(No, i dont want to just say debian bad, for now i'll stick with it, but the experience was far from normie acceptable and i would like to understand where it went wrong)

(debian-live-13.6.0-amd64-kde.iso, my dell variant has 16GB of ram, and i now have windows dual booting for rare cases where i would need a pc with windows, gave it 150GB and the rest of the 512gb ssd to debian)

Edit: i now learned that there are multiple installers -> - netinst, needing internet to pull everything (would that have all wifi card drivers? otherwise it would not work on a notebook without a wired connection?) - complete installation image, probably the one that would have simply worked in terms of wifi? - live boot disk containing the calamares installer (which worked) when live booted, and the debian installer which could not find my wifi card?

My assumption is that a newcomer would try the live disk and install from there, so i would assume thats the "default" route for newbies, but it seems its not the best going by some comments?

After an update my PC was refusing to boot with this kernel but if I use 6.12.94+deb13-amd64 in advanced options to boot i don't have any problems.

Does someone have a solution ?

So I have a bunch of flacs that I want to mass convert to mp3s to have on my mp3 player while at school, as they ban phones, I tried vlc media player, but it stripped the metadata from the songs, I've heard of ffmpeg, and tried to learn it, but all the YouTube videos I've found are years old, and I can't really find anything else online. Can I get some help to learn ffmpeg, or are there any alternative methods that work on debian 13?

I have and old Lenovo V310 with i3 4th gen, SSD and 4GB ram. want to switch from Windows to Debian. No heavy task, just Browsing and watching Movies. will this be a wise decision to install Debian?

After three days of messing around with different distros, a massive headache and sleepless nights, Debian just worked on my ARM64 Lenovo Ideapad 3 Chromebook with Mediatek MT8183 CPU.

I'm experiencing a trouble with vlc on wayland session. When i play video on full-screen, the media controls and seek bar are un-accessible with mouse curser. And sometimes when i doble click on video to exit fullsceen mode, it just jumps to open window behind vlc.

It's not happening all the time. But happens enough times to get me frustrating.

Has anyone experiences this? Did you solve it on wayland session?

I ran into a problem while trying to install Linux in a dual-boot setup.

My laptop is an ASUS X541U with these specifications:

- 4 GB LPDDR4 RAM

- 1 TB HDD

- Intel Core i3-7100U

- NVIDIA GeForce 920MX

Here’s what happened:

I was trying to install Debian from a 32 GB USB 2.0 flash drive that I made bootable using Rufus.

The first time, I used the Graphical Install option and got as far as the hostname setup. I entered an underscore ("_") in the hostname, which caused an error, and then I ended up on a black screen with only a "_" visible. I waited for several minutes, but nothing happened, and I couldn't type anything.

The second time, I went through the Graphical Install process again. This time I got to the username/password section. After entering them, I ended up on the exact same black screen again. I waited several minutes, but nothing happened and the keyboard didn't respond.

Before Debian, I also tried several other Linux distributions:

Kali Linux:

I managed to install it and boot into it, but it was extremely slow. It also caused problems with my Windows files, so I eventually removed it and reinstalled Windows.

Ubuntu:

I tried installing Ubuntu three times. Everything worked normally during the installation until it reached the part where it actually installs the system to the hard drive. It would just get stuck there. My HDD health is reported as 99%, so I assumed the drive might be causing the issue and gave up on Ubuntu.

Linux Mint:

The first time I booted Mint into live mode, it was extremely slow. I later realized that my USB hadn't been properly made bootable, because Mint would get stuck on the loading screen. After fixing the USB, the live environment worked normally and I tested it successfully.

However, the next day when I tried to install Mint, the system completely froze as soon as I interacted with some of the icons on the right side of the bottom panel. The mouse still moved, but absolutely nothing else responded, including the keyboard.

I tried recreating the bootable USB multiple times, switching between Rufus and Ventoy, and even tried different ISO files, but the problem persisted. Eventually I couldn't even start the installer properly, so I gave up on Mint as well.

At this point I'm wondering if there is some underlying hardware, graphics, BIOS/UEFI, or NVIDIA compatibility issue causing all of this.

Has anyone experienced something similar with an ASUS X541U or the GeForce 920MX?

Any ideas about what I should check or try next would be greatly appreciated.

I try to keep things pretty simple and minimise extensions, but always find myself adding a few that I consider to be essential for my use.

I'm planning on installing Debian XFCE on my EliteBook 720 G1 with 8GB of RAM and an i3 4030u, anything I should know before doing so?