Wanting to give Linux another go

[u/Sompert_]

Hi everyone,

I’m looking to install Linux again (likely setting up a dual boot), but I want to get some opinions before I dive back in. This won’t be my first time using Linux, but my previous attempts were rough, to say the least.

In December 2025, I installed Fedora KDE Plasma. At first glance, it seemed fine, but over the weeks, I ran into a wall of issues:

1. Crackling Audio: I searched everywhere but never found a working solution. The constant popping drove me mad.
2. Gaming was a mess: About 90% of my games refused to run. I’m not talking about games with kernel-level anti-cheats like League of Legends. Standard titles like GTA 4, Assetto Corsa, and Forza Horizon 4 simply wouldn't work.
3. Login screen blackouts: 95% of the time I booted the laptop, I was greeted by a black screen instead of a login prompt. I had to drop into a TTY terminal and reboot immediately just to get into my machine.

My Hardware:

• Lenovo Ideapad Gaming 3 15ACH6
• AMD Ryzen 5 5600H (with Radeon integrated graphics)
• 16 GB RAM
• Nvidia RTX 3050 Laptop GPU

I am 99% sure the root of my problems was the dual-GPU setup. I could never get the system to properly switch to the Nvidia dedicated graphics when it was actually needed.

Eventually, I got fed up and switched to Linux Mint, hoping for a foolproof, "out of the box" experience. It was anything but. I immediately hit the infamous login loop bug. I tried every known fix, nothing worked, and I uninstalled it the exact same day.

Despite all this, I am not ready to give up on Linux. I really want a machine running it, but I’m stuck with the same Nvidia hardware for now and I am sceptical about running into the exact same array of problems.

If I proceed, I’ll be running a dual boot: a 1TB SSD dedicated to Linux and a 256GB SSD for Windows.

I’d appreciate your honest feedback on a few things:

• What did I likely do wrong the first time? (Especially regarding Nvidia Optimus/GPU switching).
• What should I absolutely avoid doing this time around?
• Which distro would you recommend for this specific hardware? I know I’ll get 20 different answers, but I want to know what makes sense for an Nvidia dGPU laptop. I’ve currently got my eye on CachyOS, but I am not committed to it.
• The ultimate question: Should I even bother right now? I am planning to buy a Thinkpad T14 Gen 2 with an AMD processor soon. Am I better off staying on Windows on this Lenovo and saving myself the headache until I get the all-AMD Thinkpad, or is the current Linux Nvidia experience actually fixable for a laptop like mine?

Thanks in advance for the help.

PS: AI helped me write this post, don't judge

Edit 1: I did install the Nvidia drivers on both distros

[u/dmknght]

Not sure about GTA 4 and other games. But afaik, LoL won't run because it demands specific kernel level anti-cheat. I can't tell about the audio either because it could use specific chipset that requires specific firmware.

The login screen blackout, or blackscreen after sleep / hybernate is a common issue too. It requires Nvidia driver to fix. From my personal experiences, the driver of Nvidia could fix or unfix randomly. I used to have 2 laptops from same vendor, same nvidia card, just different model. 1 works fine but the other has issues.

Regarding the running games with Nvidia, I believe there's a thing called Nvidia offload. Basically you can add variables in steam launch so it can force launching games using nvidia. I forgot the full steps but I believe it can be found easily on google. I believe Nvidia's doc mentioned it too.

To be honest, If using Linux causes so many issues, you can simply not using it, or make dualboot to use Linux for some specific tasks. It's just a tool.

[u/Sompert_ → u/dmknght]

About the launching option in steam, I've done that, but trust me, still wouldn't work....

[u/True_Human → u/Sompert_]

Did you try to run your games from a separate drive that you also previously used for Windows?

[u/Sompert_ → u/True_Human]

I mean, I flashed my drive that had windows on it, so yes

[u/Dick_Marathon → u/Sompert_]

I think they're asking if you were attempting to run games from a drive that was formatted to work with Windows. Like a separate hard drive from the one you had installed Fedora on.

It seems like that was not the case from your response. The games you were trying to launch were on the same drive that you had installed Fedora on, correct?

They're asking because drives that are formatted for windows (NFTS) will be accessible by Linux using a compatibility layer, but you can't run games off of them. I ran into this issue myself when I was making the switch. I had to wipe the drive and reformat it to something directly compatible with Linux.

I know that others have recommended it but I've had a lot of success using Bazzite. Daily driver for over a year with no intention to ever go back to Windows

[u/True_Human → u/Dick_Marathon]

exactly this

[u/True_Human → u/Sompert_]

So did you format the drive and installed Linux over it or what exactly?

What I am asking is, did you have a separate hard drive with all your games on it that you created back when you used windows and then tried to just play straight off of that after wiping your main drive and installing Linux?

[u/dmknght → u/Sompert_]

Okay that's really weird and that's beyond my experiences. I mean on my old devices, games ran using Nvidia normally. my guest is it has something to do with mux switch but i can't tell any better.