(sorry, but my account is new and I cant yet post links so unfortunately you will have to correct the link to view the laptop since i had to bypass the filter.)
I have some questions regarding this HP Envy laptop www-bestbuy-com/site/hp-envy-2-in-1-15-6-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i7-16gb-memory-512gb-ssd-32gb-optane-natural-silver/6479183.p?skuId=6479183 and installing Manjaro KDE Plasma on it.
Some notes:
- when i refer to Linux in the list of questions, I’m referring to Manjaro KDE Plasma as that is what I want to install. (single boot btw)
- i haven’t yet bought the laptop, I want to make sure things run smoothly first
I heard that HP laptops generally have driver issues with Linux, so here come the questions
Would driver issues prevent me from successfully installing linux?
if not, would there be a headache involved?
are driver issues the only issues that would occur? what else would I have to be weary of?
what exactly do I need to test in the Live Boot mode? I want to test everything I can to make sure my laptop doesnt get messed up like the previous one (samsung galaxybook 360 pro) when I tried getting manjaro.
would I be able to install / fix any drivers that I need AFTER the installation?
what other risks / dangers are there? what else should I consider or be aware of?
P.S., i already know how to make a bootable USB and how to boot into the USB (for the samsung laptop at least, I might have to do a little bit of googling for this HP laptop), so hopefully that saves you from some writing
My goal is to have a smooth Linux download without a major headache.
If you have such questions, then one could write a whole book about it. And believe me, you get only short opinions, which doesn’t cover everything. But in short: If it is fully INTEL, then commonly it works very good. AMD should be also work very good for every day work, but I saw a lot of problems with dedicated GPUs when you need it for gaming. Especially the Power Management is not configured for that and profiles must be set manually.
General problems are mostly firmware related, since such notebooks are made with Windows in mind and not Linux.
If you need just that, then look for laptop which are advertised and preinstalled with a Linux Distribution.
Sure HP has also Laptops which are clearly marked as supported by Ubuntu, RedHat etc. Therefore fully Linux compatible and should be able to run with Manjaro.
Just search the web and you find some nice products.
it shouldn’t be that problem. the only thing that can cause trouble is the touch-screen. it’s possible that it will be a little bit fiddeling and needs manual installations afterwards, but that’s a 50:50 but it should work in general. be aware to update the bios first to the latest avaiable version before installing linux.
i expect that ms-windows is pre-installed and there will be a installation-util to do this. for better information check the hp-homepage, download the manuals for this laptop and read them first. that is very helpful not to run in issues that you have to solve later with more headache. usually there is a update avaiable that you have to run under windows. do a backup of your initially bought computer before installing a new os. in this case your always able to redo everything if a installation breaks for whatever reason. always remember better safe than sorry and no backup - no mercy.
do a backup of your initially bought computer before installing a new os. in this case your always able to redo everything if a installation breaks for whatever reason. always remember better safe than sorry and no backup - no mercy.
backup the pre-installed system. there are a lot of solutions to do this and it would fill up the thread. it is always a good advice to know how you can backup your system. my preferred solution is clonezilla and a external backup-disk, i would always use this but in fact there are a lot of other solutions. it is a good point of start to find a strategy how to use a backup-solution and it doesn’t matter if it’s linux or microsoft. very often people don’t care about backup until they need it, but it’s too late to cry afterwards.
it shouldn’t be that problem. the only thing that can cause trouble is the touch-screen. it’s possible that it will be a little bit fiddeling and needs manual installations afterwards, but that’s a 50:50 but it should work in general. be aware to update the bios first to the latest avaiable version before installing linux.
So excluding the touch screen, things should go pretty smooth right?
i don’t know the package of this system. it’s possible that a ms-windows dvd is part of the buy, sometimes they want you to burn it yourselve etc… it’s not easy to give hints, but in general, do a backup that does work before installing something else.
this is a general tip. always backup before installing something new and always do have a backup of the pre-existing system and it does not matter which system it is.
P.S.: yes it is always a good idea to think about a external backup-storage wheter a stick or a disk. it should be a fast storage-system because backing up GB’s of data can waste a lot of time. the faster it is the better it is.
search the link below for “hp envy”, you can read that there were several hp-envy’s and they had no big issues. the chipsets they are usually using are very common, drivers should be no problem.
great. only problem is that the best buy page doesnt tell me which exact model of the Envy x360 it is. which could be problematic if its one of the 2 models that i read had issues
nevermind i clicked on the HP Envy 15 link and everything is working. In the best buy page it says its an HP Envy x360 15 so i think thats the exact model. i could be wrong
hard to say. it’s common to them selling a product but depending of the generation they change hardware to newer ones. don’t worry too much. there is always a solution to get it running but i don’t expect big issues and if touch-screen is no need for you then do it.
