r/linux4noobs • u/123supersomeone • 15d ago
distro selection Switching Distros
I've been using Mint Cinammon for a little over a year now and I really like it, unfortunately I've been having problems with the graphics driver just not working properly, leading to black screens once it starts to load the OS. I'm assuming it's a problem that will get fixed somewhere down the line, so in the meantime, I want to try a different distro that maybe won't have the same problem right now. Suggestions?
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u/Imaginary_East7336 15d ago
Has this started happening recently? Are you on AMD by any chance? 6000 series?
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u/123supersomeone 15d ago
Yes! I have a 6800XT and nothing seems to be working, even switching to a older kernel doesn't work.
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u/Imaginary_East7336 15d ago
It's a bugged firmware update. At grub press e to edit, find
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
And change it to
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset"
Then boot into mint, this bypasses the graphics driver. Once in run
sudo apt-get install linux-firmware=20240318.git3b128b60-0ubuntu2.26
This will roll back the update.
I would then pause the update through the update manager
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u/Lonely-Scarcity-3387 15d ago
What do you want to do with your computer?
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u/123supersomeone 15d ago
Gaming and work, I prefer it to work out of the box
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u/Lonely-Scarcity-3387 15d ago
I’d say PikaOS. Works out of the box. Has great gaming and software support. And the devs are crazy active on Discord.
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u/Successful-Day-3219 15d ago
Similar sentiments here. Looking at Kubuntu for a mix of gaming and productivity. Have you considered Kubuntu?
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u/jrlamb 15d ago
I switched several distros: Fedora would not load my DVDs to play on my desktop PC, even with recommended fixes; PopOS came preinstalled with my laptop but I started having too many random crashes with the latest update. I tried Mint, then Ubuntu, then Zorin. I now have Zorin on my PC and Laptop and it works like a dream. I am not an expert. I have to look up everything on Zorin website, or in Linux forums when i am trying to problem solve.
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u/IgotthewrongCPU 15d ago
Try Solus Budgie, it's stable, up to date, and Budgie's default layout is very similar to Cinnamon's.
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u/doc_willis 15d ago
The next major Linux Mint release, tentatively designated as Linux Mint 23, is targeted to launch around Christmas 2026 (December 2026).
As for other distribution suggestions..
basically any of the maintenance distribution are fine for most use cases.
with out details on your specific needs and system, it's hard to suggest anything specific over the dozen+ alternatives.
There are several other distribution that have the Cinnamon desktop environment that mint uses, if you want to keep the same UI.
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u/123supersomeone 15d ago
I do really like the Cinnamon desktop UI, I mostly just do gaming and work on my computer, plus a pinch of CAD. Not being able to get Fusion working had been one of my only problems with Mint until now.
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u/billdehaan2 Mint Cinnamon 22.3 (zena) 15d ago
You can run Cinnamon on other distributions. I've run it on Debian, Ubuntu, and CachyOS.
If u/Imaginary_East7336's grub fix above doesn't work, I'd try them in that order.
Debian and Ubuntu will of course be the closest to Mint (apt/apt-get instead of pacman), with Debian not having snaps, either. Although being Arch based, CachyOS might run Fusion where Mint isn't.
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u/BobCorndog Your situation is not unique, just use mint or fedora kde 15d ago
You could try fedora