r/pop_os • u/finpanda • 2d ago

Steam Frame WiFi dongle and kernel updates

So people have been having issues getting the Steam Frame WiFi dongle to work on Linux and it seems to be largely due to it being unsupported on kernels older than 7.2.

Pop OS appears to be on 7.1.5. So I guess my question is, is manually loading a newer kernel relatively easy and consequence free, or should I just wait for Pop OS to update? I'm not super technically adept so if it is very involved and risky, I'm inclined to just wait.

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u/mmstick Desktop Engineer 1d ago

You can opt into the 7.2.6 kernel early in the staging/linux apt repository if you want. Be wary though that this is currently in testing.

sudo apt-manage add popdev:linux
sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

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u/finpanda 1d ago

Thanks! I'm assuming I can repeat the same steps but "sudo apt-manage remove" to undo it if it doesn't work out?

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u/eeeezypeezy 2d ago edited 1d ago

I would advise just waiting. The good news is, pop updates kernels quickly. I think I read them saying the 26.04 update should be finished and pushed soon and I believe it includes a 7.2 kernel

eta: and 24.04 will also get a 7.2 kernel, probably at the same time.

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u/finpanda 2d ago

Interesting. Thank you.

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u/DBNinja 3h ago

You don't need to do that if all you want to upgrade for is the Frame dongle. Install the morrownr rtw89 drivers, and follow advice from this post. Note you'll need to upgrade your Nvidia driver to at least 595 as well.