I'm having a rough time with my T540p Thinkpad that has an i5 4300m, 8GB RAM, and a GT 730m GPU. I've been trying out various Linux distributions all day, and it's driving me nuts! I've tried Linux Mint with both Cinnamon and MATE, but they didn't work for me. Now, I'm on the latest version of Pop!_OS (24.04 LTS) and I really need some advice.
Here's what I'm facing:
1. I want a battery limiter tool, but when I tried to follow the guide, it gave me an error saying I need System76 firmware.
2. I want to use GNOME extensions, specifically Dash to Panel, but I can't find GNOME Shell settings, and restarting GNOME didn't help.
3. Can't figure out how to disable workspaces anywhere.
4. Bluetooth keeps starting up automatically, and this has been a problem on every distro I've tried.
5. I'm lost on how to add app icons to my desktop.
6. I've had no success installing either the official or open-source NVIDIA drivers.
I'm really at my wit's end!
2 Answers
It seems like GNOME extensions really need a GNOME environment, and since Mint's Cinnamon doesn't use it, that's why you're not having any luck. Have you checked if KDE has the battery limiting feature? It might work better for you than what you’re currently trying.
You might want to give Bodhi Linux a shot; it's stable and comes with the older NVIDIA drivers that should work for your graphics card. It’s based on Ubuntu LTS, so it could save you some headaches!
But I’m worried it’ll feel outdated—does it really work smoothly?