Hey everyone! I'm looking for a Linux distribution that works well for light gaming and everyday browsing. I used to be on Fedora, but after some recent updates, I faced some major issues with my NVIDIA drivers that caused my laptop to freeze. So, I switched back to Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS, but I'm running into problems with the `backport-iwlwifi-dkms` driver, and I get the error: `Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)` whenever I try to install something using `apt`.
Here are my specs:
- HP Omen
- AMD Ryzen 7 5800H
- GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile / Max-Q
- 16GB RAM
Any recommendations?
5 Answers
For gaming purposes, you can also look into CachyOS or EndeavourOS. Both have a solid setup for NVIDIA graphics. If you've been struggling with drivers in Ubuntu-based distros, consider branching out to something Arch-based like these, but just be cautious if you're new to Linux!
You might want to check out Ubuntu 24.04 or Linux Mint 22.1. Both of these distros have solid support for NVIDIA drivers, so you should have a smoother experience without too many headaches. Since Ubuntu 24.04 is the latest LTS, it should be pretty stable too. If you run into any driver issues, just switch to Ubuntu 25.04 if needed!
You mentioned issues with drivers—sometimes the problems persist across different distros because many share the same underlying code. It's worth learning how to reinstall the NVIDIA drivers or try different versions using the terminal, as this knowledge will help you no matter which distro you choose. For Wi-Fi, you might need to specify a driver to load properly.
If you're looking for a gaming-focused distro, you could try Bazzite. It's actually based on Fedora but tailored for light users and gamers. It comes with a lot of things preloaded and is designed to be user-friendly for gaming. Plus, it uses an immutable image system, which makes rolling back easy if issues arise.
I've had a good experience with Linux Mint on both my laptop and desktop. Everything just works right out of the box. I definitely recommend giving it a shot, especially since it’s user-friendly!
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