Live data from Hacker News

Framework 13 with AMD Ryzen 7040 Series Makes for a Great Linux Laptop

phoronix.com

71–80 of 105 posts

Re: Framework 13 with AMD Ryzen 7040 Series Makes for a Great Linux Laptop

#71
post #4

Got one here, AMA!

Which linux distro did you install and have you had any issues?

I went straight for fedora 39. The two issues I had were 1. the initial BIOS update hung, and I had to run it again - elsewhere, someone who had this problem had reported that it bricked their machine, however I was able to get through it: https://www.reddit.com/r/framework/comments/17jzj40/bios_upd...

Then for 2., there's a kernel param I had to set to avoid a display issue, that's mentioned here: https://www.phoronix.com/news/AMD-Scatter-Gather-Re-Enabled , I had that exact problem.

Re: Framework 13 with AMD Ryzen 7040 Series Makes for a Great Linux Laptop

#72
post #23
post #18

Wish they were including a Macbook Air with Asahi Linux running on it. Nowadays you can get an M1 for $750 on sale or an M2 for $900. Even though these are the 8GB models only they are very much comparable to the review models in the test.

Phoronix already did an article comparing the M2 running Asahi with Zen 4 machines. https://www.phoronix.com/review/apple-m2-zen4-mobile

It's not fair to be comparing it with the passively cooled and throttled Macbook Air. The Acer Swift Edge is a 16" twin fan air cooled machine. You should compare it to the top of the line MBP for a fair benchmark without thermal throttling concerns.

Re: Framework 13 with AMD Ryzen 7040 Series Makes for a Great Linux Laptop

#73
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which linux distro did you install and have you had any issues?

I went straight for fedora 39. The two issues I had were 1. the initial BIOS update hung, and I had to run it again - elsewhere, someone who had this problem had reported that it bricked their machine, however I was able to get through it: https://www.reddit.com/r/framework/comments/17jzj40/bios_upd... Then for 2., there's a kernel param I had to set to avoid a display issue, that's mentioned here: https://www.phoron…

Thank you for sharing your experience and fixes. Sounds straight forward to fix, although a bit disappointing that they don’t put the effort to supply kernel patches to make it work out of the box, particularly for a laptop that claims to be diy friendly. To be fair, i’d rate it 3/5 based on people experience with it.

Re: Framework 13 with AMD Ryzen 7040 Series Makes for a Great Linux Laptop

#75

It's been good for me; I think it'll be great soon. AMD support on Linux is the biggest issue. The upgrade experience from the Intel 12th gen to a Ryzen 5 took about a half-hour, doing only the mainboard and no display or hinge upgrades, and I was already familiar with the internals from assembling it as a DIY. It's not trivially easy, and there were a few frustrating moments that aren't unique to the Framework (ok,…

> The weird power supply limitations for using the board standalone, requiring at least a 100W supply for still less than full performance unless any battery is attached, also limits the flexibility that makes these boards attractive outside of the laptop case, whether bought for that intent or as a post-upgrade reuse. That's because Framework doesn't want to risk getting liable for damaged power supplies. With a bat…

You're not wrong, but the problem is a difference in capability combined with a performance cap that you can't power-scale your way out of.

The 100W suggestion is the same as the Intel board, though the Intel board can run standalone on the stock 60W supply without a battery by staying in a lower-wattage mode. The 100W problem specific to AMD is the inability to boot at all without a battery at under 100W, and not being able to hit max stock TDP with a 100W or greater supply unless a battery is also installed — even if it never draws from it.

From Framework's emails to early-batch buyers on the subject:

> Note that performance will currently be limited without the battery present. We’re working with AMD and our manufacturing partner Compal to tune and improve this. In the meantime, we recommend using a 100W USB-C power adapter to mitigate some of the performance reduction.

Re: Framework 13 with AMD Ryzen 7040 Series Makes for a Great Linux Laptop

#76

It's been good for me; I think it'll be great soon. AMD support on Linux is the biggest issue. The upgrade experience from the Intel 12th gen to a Ryzen 5 took about a half-hour, doing only the mainboard and no display or hinge upgrades, and I was already familiar with the internals from assembling it as a DIY. It's not trivially easy, and there were a few frustrating moments that aren't unique to the Framework (ok,…

Just did my own swap yesterday: I was lazy (practical?) and just kept the Intel wifi chip I had already so I wouldn't have to redo the antenna connections.

I'm on Ubuntu 23.10 and I think just the pretty new kernel, plus my Framework board being a later build with the newer firmware, meant I dodged any graphics issues (at least any I'd have immediately noticed).

Re: Framework 13 with AMD Ryzen 7040 Series Makes for a Great Linux Laptop

#77

At the risk of sounding negative I have to dissent. Linux on the Framework is great * if* you use GNOME or KDE. Those two DE's specifically support Fractional scaling in Wayland the best I've been using XFCE for the better part of 15 years meanwhile. Its Wayland support is a permanent unfortunate "work-in-progress" (apparently they only have two full-time developers for the whole project?) and I'd assume many other l…

The solution I've been pretty happy with instead of Wayland fractional scaling is to have scaling set at 1:1 and use GDK_DPI_SCALE (I think that's the one) at 1.5 or 1.25 or whatever. Things like Firefox, Chrome, the standard GTK system apps will scale nicely, and stuff that doesn't support it will just be small instead of doing a blurry zoom.

Re: Framework 13 with AMD Ryzen 7040 Series Makes for a Great Linux Laptop

#79
post #56

Oddly specific question, but can anybody confirm whether the AX210 (no vPro) wifi works with the AMD motherboards? I've seen some pretty bad reports about the realtek chip they're defaulting to on the AMD systems, and I already have the AX210, so if I could just keep using it, that would be ideal.

The ax210 does work in the ryzen motherboard but just ok. I had persistent errors relating to the card in dmesg and occasional disconnects. The wifi that ships with the ryzen framework is made by MediaTek, not Realtek, and it's been working smoothly since I installed it.

Okay, good to hear on both counts. Thanks!

Re: Framework 13 with AMD Ryzen 7040 Series Makes for a Great Linux Laptop

#80
post #6

Nice hardware, except for that black strip between the |\ key and the enter key, making them look as one big enter key.

The 'black strip' between enter and backslash is actually just a recessed part of the enter key. It's not a separate plastic piece.

Source: typing this on my Framework 13 AMD right now :)

Post reply on HN