11mo ago

Plasma KDE for Framework 16 Laptop

Edit: Kubuntu22.04 seems to work. Thanks for your help.

I've tried to install plasma onto my new Framework 16. When I installed kubuntu directly, then after the second reboot, my laptop didn't start up again. It shows the Framework logo, but then nothing. Then I've tried to install Ubuntu first, and everything worked, but after installing KDE afterwards and rebooting, I've the same problem. Even esc doesn't bring anything up. What am I doing wrong? Does anybody have experience?

I've used Ubuntu/Kubuntu 24.04

15 comments

You could give Fedora KDE a try. It's officially supported and you even get Plasma 6.
- Thanks I will look into it

that might be because of how buggy ubuntu 24.04 based distros are rn.
maybe have a look at kde neon or kubuntu 22.04
you could also try installing Linux Mint or something and installing kde plasma on that.

Not much help as I use bazzite, and it’s worked (mostly) flawlessly on plasma 5 and now 6 (6 is amazing and so responsive). Could be something to do with the display session manager, atleast on regular Ubuntu and installing KDE afterwards. Do you happen to know the default on regular Ubuntu?
- No I'm not sure what the default is I will compare it

Probably give Kubuntu 24.04 a couple weeks to work out some of the kinks. For now, you can try Kubuntu 22.04 or Fedora 40. Both should work.
- Thanks Kubuntu22 works :)

Can you be more specific about what happens when you reboot? Does it go to blank screen, a blinking cursor, or just shut itself off? Does the operating system start and just get stuck somewhere in the boot process, or does it not even get that far?
I think F12 is the BIOS key, if that helps. If it attempts to boot the operating system, you can press one of the arrow keys to see the boot log.
- It shows the Framework logo for a couple of seconds (but no ubuntu or kubuntu logo), and then the screen just goes black, no cursor, nothing. But the powerbutton glows. If I press esc, nothing happens (Normally, I think it shows the output of the boot process)
  I'm not sure what you mean with f12, and I haven't tried it, but I will probably tomorrow.
  
  From the sounds of it, the OS might not be starting at all, which is a very strange thing to happen after installing a desktop environment. My best guess is that apt uninstalled something important. As other folks said Ubuntu 24.04 is pretty unstable at the moment, so you might have more luck with Fedora, or Ubuntu 22.04 or 23.10. One thing you could try is booting into your (K)ubuntu live medium and running sudo grub-install /dev/sda, to reinstall the bootloader, just in case something broke it.
  Pressing F12 while the Framework logo is visible (but before the OS starts) opens the BIOS boot menu. I assumed incorrectly that that is what you were trying to do with Escape. Trying to boot that way might help elucidate why the OS won't start. You could also get into BIOS settings that way, or boot a USB drive.

I installed kubuntu 24.04 yesterday and everything worked flawlessly. Today if it would boot the touchpad didn't. I reinstalled and it wouldn't boot at all. Just a little bit ago I installed Ubuntu 24.04 and everything seemed fine until I installed KDE. Now it won't boot.
Did you find a solution? Tomorrow I may install 22.04.
- The only "solution" i found was goung back to kubuntu 22.04. Since then it works without Problems. I hope somebody finds the bug and fixes it sometime 🙈 I didn't seem to have problems with ubuntu 24.04. But i didn't try it very long maby i just didn't encounter them.
  
  Thanks for confirming! The keyboard was working intermittently and the touchpad stopped working completely this morning. 22.04 here I come

15 comments