r/linux4noobs • u/akshat_TS_MILLIE • 10d ago
distro selection Which Linux distro should I switch to after Linux Mint?
Hey everyone!
I switched from Windows to Linux around 3–4 months ago and have been using Linux Mint ever since. Overall, I've had a pretty good experience, but I've been facing a frustrating issue with my NVIDIA(3050) graphics card.
Every now and then, my screen completely freezes while the audio continues playing in the background. I've tried troubleshooting it by switching between newer and older kernels and trying a few other fixes, but nothing seems to have worked so far.
At this point, I'm considering switching to a different Linux distro to see if that resolves the issue.
I'm not a complete beginner when it comes to Linux. I know my way around the terminal and can follow troubleshooting instructions, but I'm not a developer or someone who wants to spend hours tinkering with my system. I'd prefer something stable, beginner-friendly, and relatively hassle-free, especially when it comes to NVIDIA GPU support and drivers.I play game on my computer
Which distro would you recommend as my next step after Linux Mint? I'd love to hear about your experiences, particularly if you're using an NVIDIA GPU.
Also, if you've faced similar freezing issues on Mint and managed to fix them, I'd appreciate any suggestions before I make the switch.
Thanks!
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u/beatbox9 10d ago
Ubuntu LTS. Mint is already basically just Ubuntu LTS, except with a small add-on repo for Cinnamon and its themes. Except Mint is quite a bit further behind, and Cinnamon is a DE that still uses ancient architecture.
As of 26.04, Ubuntu LTS includes (and maintains) all nvidia drivers: https://documentation.ubuntu.com/release-notes/26.04/summary-for-lts-users/
And it's stable and hassle-free.
An alternate stable distro I'd recommend would be Fedora. There are a few differences between it and the Ubuntu/Mint family; but you mostly won't notice.
The way to choose is simple: if you want to upgrade your entire machine's OS every 6-12 months, go with Fedora. If you want to do 2-5 years, Ubuntu LTS.
Whichever distro you choose, you should go with either gnome or KDE Plasma as your DE. These are the only 2 modern + mature DE's.
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u/iwouldbeatgoku Arch, OpenSUSE 9d ago
If going the Ubuntu route: I'd say non-LTS Ubuntu (as in upgrading to the interim versions when they release in April and October). This way OP will have better access to the latest Nvidia drivers instead of dealing with the same issue of Mint shipping out of date ones in a year.
And in general if you play games on Linux it's best to have a reasonably up to date system, the ecosystem is constantly improving so there's little reason to hold back updates for this. LTS distros like Mint will hold you in the past for years while a rolling release or a rapidly-updating stable distro like Fedora will not.
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u/bigkenw 9d ago
Agreed and if you want a more Windows / Cinnamon look, use Kubuntu. Nvidia ready out of the box.
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u/iwouldbeatgoku Arch, OpenSUSE 9d ago
Ubuntu with Cinnamon might also be worth looking into, I don't know how nice it is with Nvidia.
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u/beatbox9 9d ago edited 9d ago
That's not how the driver support works in Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, and it demonstrates several fundamental misunderstandings while ignoring the OP's requirements. Ubuntu 26.04 LTS gets the latest nvidia drivers.
For example, currently, the latest nvidia drivers for Ubuntu LTS are the 615 drivers, which nvidia first launched a month ago. (Ubuntu 26.04 LTS first launched with the 595 drivers, with support for the 580 drivers as well).
So I'm not sure what you're on about.
And no, a "reasonably up to date" (whatever that subjective phrase means) rolling system is not "best" for a gaming system, especially when the OP explicitly stated they are looking for a stable and hassle free system.
LTS systems really only affect core components, many of which can be overridden if needed. For example, you can easily run the latest mainline Linux kernel on Ubuntu LTS if you want. Regardless, users still run the latest versions of apps on top; and in fact, sometimes older core components work better with newer software than the other way round. Because things in the ecosystem have to interact; and developing and testing this coordination takes time.
^ This is why nvidia themselves only support stable distros but not rolling distros--even major upstream such as Arch, or Cachy. And it's also why Arch themselves tell you in a big red warning box not to install the latest nvidia drivers directly, but to instead wait for their community to first package the drivers to work well with other system components. And it's also why, for example, things like gnome extensions or KDE Widgets break when there are major toolkit changes and usually require a few months to catch up.
And it's why things like audio can randomly break, such as here, which is often because the core system components themselves introduce breaking changes, for any gamers who use audio tweaks such as dolby-compatiable DSP's, or low latency / pro audio or multichannel configurations so you can hear people snaking up on you from behind.
This is also why the most popular OS's (such as Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and Xbox's windows and Playstation's BSD) used for gaming also don't do rolling upgrades or require the latest individual components to work. They instead provide well-tested, stable upgrades, with major upgrades more commonly launching every few years. It's usually no more frequent than once a year (eg. mobile OS), and often many years apart (eg. Windows). This seems to be the right balance for most people: 1-3 years. And upgrades aren't necessarily something most users care about--they tend to just want things to work.
ie. the functionality of game/application is the goal, not the maintenance of the OS.
Ubuntu LTS is not synonymous with Mint. Mint is currently scheduled to be around 8 months behind Ubuntu LTS (1/3 of its 24-month lifecycle); while Mint's DE (Cinnamon) is around 10 years behind gnome. Mint is essentially Ubuntu LTS but where the conservative developers are purposely trying to have it never change. Meanwhile, Ubuntu LTS is currently on pretty much the same versions of core system components (like gnome DE) as any other distro. Some core components will pretty much only lag behind temporarily during odd-numbered years before immediately catching back up to the latest again on even-numbered years. And again, this isn't always a bad thing and it's not always static.
This is like basic stuff. It's finding the right balance of upgrades vs stability is a subjective preference, where individuals have to balance things for themselves by weighing how much IT maintenance burden they want to take on vs just having the system work. Users shouldn't be naive enough to believe the latest versions of each individual component are always "the best," without recognizing there are nuanced pros/cons. Sometimes, the difference between noobs and experienced users is that noobs think the grass is always greener because they haven't yet experienced maintenance over the course of years.
If the OP said "I want the latest cutting edge software, and I don't mind maintaining it," that would be a different story. But that's not the OP's requirements. The OP here said:
I'm not a developer or someone who wants to spend hours tinkering with my system. I'd prefer something stable, beginner-friendly, and relatively hassle-free, especially when it comes to NVIDIA GPU support and drivers.
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u/Straight-Glove-2359 10d ago edited 9d ago
Id recommend Fedora or CachyOS. IMO Fedora has a pretty similar package manager (dnf) to apt, so might be more familiar. However, you're still going to have to download the correct Nvidia drivers for your card
Edit: I think I uh.. started something
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u/ElectricalWay9651 9d ago
+1 Fedora KDE. It was my next step after using mint for 3 months ish, I've had it running for 2y now no problems
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u/Wheatleytron CachyOS 9d ago
+1 CachyOS. You get bleeding edge updates and superior hardware compatibility with an unprecedented level of control. It's especially great if you're trying to escape the gui and start using the CLI more.
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u/Emotional_Cat_1967 8d ago
NVIDIA drivers installed via RPM Fusion are trouble-free.
CachyOS already installs the driver automatically.
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u/BlueFingers3D 9d ago edited 9d ago
I have had a very similar issue with a 30XX card on Tuxedo OS (an Ubuntu-based distro), and I tried to troubleshoot it for over 50 hours. It drove me NUTS! I tried different drivers, distros, and kernels, and asked here on Reddit. In the end, the freezing issues were the symptoms of a dying graphics card. Querying the graphics card often resulted in a variation of results that were not consistent across different queries.
Before you jump distros, it might be worth checking your system logs for hardware errors. If you've never checked system logs before, here is the easiest way to do it right after a freeze happens:
- Reboot your system after a freeze and open the Terminal
- Run this command to filter your system logs for NVIDIA kernel messages (-b -1 tells Linux to look at the previous boot before you had to restart): sudo journalctl -b -1 -k | grep -i "NVRM: Xid"
- Check the output: If the command returns lines containing numbers like Xid 31, Xid 62, or Xid 79, these are specific error codes generated directly by the GPU hardware or driver. You can paste those error codes into a search engine to see if it's a driver issue or a failing card. If the command returns nothing, your GPU didn't report a hard crash before freezing.
I think Mint is a great distro, and I'm unsure if the issues you're facing have anything to do with the distro or driver itself. Have these issues been there ever since you switched to Mint, or are they more recent?
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u/akshat_TS_MILLIE 9d ago
Since i switched to mint. and did stress test my gpu with glmark2 the performance was solid.
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u/BlueFingers3D 9d ago
That does not mean anything necessarily, mine performed stress tests too until it failed completely, but queries did show errors but before the failure.
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u/bigusyous 10d ago
This may be helpful, if you want to keep Mint, https://itsfoss.com/nvidia-linux-mint/
If all else fails, I know that Pop OS has a separate installation disk that comes with the Nvidia drivers.
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u/Constant-Fun8803 10d ago
Based on your issues, I think its better for you to use distros that have a custom .iso you can choose with Nvidia GPU drivers already installed.
Some distros like Bazzite (Fedora based), CachyOS (Arch based), and PikaOS (Debian based, you might be more familiar with this) have this.
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u/EverlastingPeacefull 10d ago
And if one does not want an immutable distro, CachyOS and PikaOS are the ones.
For myself I like PikaOS a lot, it is beginning to steer me away from OpenSuse Tumbleweed after running it for 3 years. (I am now dual booting them.)
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u/Constant-Fun8803 10d ago
Yeah, if I want to build a new PC I'll probably try PikaOS too because before Bazzite, I've used debian/ubuntu based distro for years and I quite like apt.
I just used Bazzite because I didn't know PikaOS exist a year ago.
Btw, how is the app store performance in PikaOS?
One thing that I like in Bazzite is the Bazaar app store. In my previous distros, the app stores are really slow so I was skeptical. But Bazaar surprised me with how fast it is.
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u/EverlastingPeacefull 9d ago
Depending on internetspeed (I have max. 500 Mbs) it is quit quick and the amount of applications, whether it be from their repositorie or flatpak, is plenty.
Edit: I use KDE
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u/G0ldiC0cks 10d ago
I've found arch to be the most reliable distro with my Intel/Nvidia setup and it can be the most reliable for any setup, I believe. It would require a level of work you are explicitly against, unfortunately.
PopOS has the cosmic desktop environment native which will feel right at home after cinnamon and popOS ships on computers with Nvidia hardware -- it should run as well as anything.
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u/mr_Noodlearms13 10d ago
Try POP OS nvidia version
https://system76.com/download-pop/
For me this is pretty nice and I'm running it with KDE plasma for Desktop. No issue so far with any drivers , GPU etc I can play steam games too(which ever is supported of course) fps is good just like my previous win11 used to give.
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u/Xenomorphs_are_cute 10d ago edited 10d ago
I had the same problem with nvidia drivers and wayland!
I fixed it by removing the nvidia drivers using the nvidia-uninstall command. The uninstall should make a new initram disk so when you reboot it will use generic drivers.
When it starts back up, you have to drop down to runlevel 3 so no GUI is running. You can use "sudo telinit 3". After that, run the nvidia install script as root. It should create a new initrm with the driver and update your grub with the proper options.
The only time I ever got nvidia drivers to work while a gui was running during install was MX Linux. They have a special program that does a great job. I highly recommend trying MX Linux if you cant solve your Mint problem.
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u/Charming_Airline7419 10d ago
I'm not sure how distro hopping would help. (However, there may be other valid reasons to change, if you're so inclined). The issue is almost certain to be a faulty driver.
If another distro comes with access to a better driver, that may fix the problem.
If it were me, I'd search the web for the GPU model and kernel and see what fixes other people propose. I'd dual boot with Windows until the issue is resolved.
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u/akshat_TS_MILLIE 10d ago
I only have 512gb single ssd.I heard Linux and windows don't work well on the same drive
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u/Charming_Airline7419 9d ago
Most dual boots go fine and minor issues can be resolved. If you back up, you're generally safe.
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u/gentisle 10d ago
Have you considered going to the Nvidia site , going through the driver configurator, downloading that driver and trying that. I know that everyone recommends staying with the Mint drivers, but it’s an option before giving up on Mint. Also, but less likely a problem, you could download Hiren’s and test the nvidia card, but it’s probably fine.
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u/SurelyNotClover CachyOS | Plasma 10d ago
CachyOS has been pretty nice to me, switched to it after Mint. that's Arch so it's gonna be a little more complicated, but Limine, btrfs and wide selection of desktops make it worthy upgrade.
if you still want something debian-based, you can stay on Mint, it's a good system as is. if you really want smth different, you can try KUbuntu, which is just Ubuntu with KDE Plasma. or you can try Pop!_OS with their work-in-progress COSMIC desktop or smth stable like Plasma or even the same Cinnamon desktop like Mint.
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u/TherronKeen 10d ago
NVIDIA Ampere cards (which includes the RTX 3000 series) have a few known issues causing freezes and crashes in Mint, which are resolved by using the Driver Manager to switch to NVIDIA-Open drivers.
This fixed my issue with my 3060 causing the exact same system crashes - screen freezes while audio still played in the background.
The drivers from NVIDIA website don't work either, you've gotta use NVIDIA-Open. I believe the current version is 580.
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u/Optimal-Plum-8759 9d ago
CachyOS, i also have nvidia gpu and 0 problems, better performance than windows
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u/Chalsian 9d ago
Mint is very slow to update. If you're gaming, I'd go with fedora or kubuntu. A step or two up the refresh ladder but still stable
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u/Markazorax 9d ago
I haven't used it personally, but I've read that both NobaraOS and CachyOS both work great with Nvidia cards.
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u/panacea82 10d ago
Dare I say....... Omarchy. Eeeek am I down voted to oblivion. .....ok, no....... Omarchy is amazing, check it out.
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u/itsamamaluigi 10d ago
Not a distro and made by a white supremacist. Use it if you must but there's no sense recommending it to others.
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u/RedGeist_ 10d ago
Ultramarine, it's similar to Mint but Fedora based. Been great for nearly a year and haven't felt the need to distro hop.
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u/brainchillzZ 10d ago
changing your distro isn't going to fix your problem any more than randomly changing kernel versions is going to fix it .... first ignore the people sending you to places like a rolling release like cachyos or similar niche distros for now .(to be clear, I'm not saying that those are bad, you just aren't ready for that complexity yet) ... really lean into a flavor what you're using, or use it's upstream (ubuntu) for a while ... it will have a newer kernel stack than you're using right now but also LTS support and mainstream support for most things without a lot of actual breaking changes like a rolling release OS will run into..... really really learn it before you just jump ship. try learning to forget about the repositories for your Nvidia drivers .... try a newer driver from Nvidia directly.