I'm currently using Pop!_OS on my laptop with an integrated AMD GPU. I'm building a new PC that will have an Nvidia 4060 GPU. I'm planning to move my SSD from the laptop to this new machine. Will I face any issues because of the change in graphics hardware, or can I just plug it in and carry on?
2 Answers
You technically don’t need to reinstall anything like you would in Windows. Linux handles hardware detection differently, and usually, moving the SSD should go fine. The BIOS may not immediately recognize the EFI partition, so you might need to select it manually at boot. Once it starts, it will likely load the basic Nouveau drivers for the Nvidia GPU. After that, you can install the proprietary Nvidia drivers without much hassle.
You might run into some issues, especially with Nvidia cards. Generally, Linux is pretty good at handling hardware changes, but Nvidia tends to be a bit trickier. Before you move your SSD, you could set your system to multiuser mode using `sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target`. After moving the drive, you'll need to install the Nvidia drivers. You can try `sudo apt install nvidia-driver-535` and then start your session with `startx` or `gnome-session --session gnome-wayland`. If you run into any trouble, check the logs in /var/log for error messages.
That’s a relief to hear! I really want to avoid doing a complete backup and restore of everything.