Ubuntu 23.04

[jacobpalm]

I have the same laptop, and have been thinking about trying out Ubuntu on it.

Have you had any experience with 23.04, or do you stick with the LTS release? Not looking for support, just some input on the experience.

[joshuagrisham]

Hi @jacobpalm I have been running 23.04 as my "daily driver" for a couple of months now actually 😺

joshua@galaxybook:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Ubuntu
Description:	Ubuntu 23.04
Release:	23.04
Codename:	lunar
joshua@galaxybook:~$ uname -a
Linux galaxybook 6.2.0-20-generic #20-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Thu Apr  6 07:48:48 UTC 2023 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Works really well! I think it can mostly be attested to how good of a job that Intel and the kernel maintainers have done with the CPU and "core" components on this -- everything else is just "extra".

The only thing I have really "custom" is that I have added i915.enable_dpcd_backlight=3 to my default grub so I get backlight control, and occasionally I will run my sound verbs script if I really think I want to play some audio through the speakers (but usually I am using headphones or a headset by choice anyway so it is 99% not an issue for me).

Some of the things which are controlled via the BIOS that I have not worked out yet (e.g. keyboard backlight, fan speed performance, etc) I have handled by booting into Windows, setting them in the Samsung Settings app, and most of these settings seem to still be in effect even when you boot over to Linux. A little annoying but it is typically a "one-time-setup" problem and after that there is not an issue.

Also I noticed that everything seems to get "reset" if you upgrade the BIOS -- you have to kind of set everything again so that it persists even in Linux.

The other thing I have done is removed the bottom cover and installed a second PCIe NVMe drive (there is a second full-size slot) and that is where I have now installed Linux, then removed the Linux partition from the original drive and expanded it so that Windows could have all of the space there again.

Otherwise I am super happy with what I need to do in Linux and using this device! Really loving the keyboard, how thin and lightweight it is, and how great the display is. Also these newer gen CPUs are super fast and really happy with compile speed etc!

[jacobpalm]

Hi Joshua,

After reading your reply, I tried Ubuntu 23.04 in a separate partition for testing, and made the backlight setting to grub as described. It works really well, and with all the performance improvements in recent Gnome versions I have to say the interface feels more smooth than on Windows 11. Everything feels snappy and works well, aside from fingerprint and built-in speakers of course.

Losing fingerprint capability is a minus, but not a deal breaker. And running the audio script is of course a bit tedious, when you use built-in speakers as much as I do. But maybe I'll pin the script to the dock or something for easy access, I can certainly live with it until hopefully it gets fixed.

Good input regarding BIOS settings, hadn't thought of that. It's a shame that Samsung only provides Windows apps for this purpose, but I was planning on keeping Windows for the odd task here and there that doesn't sit well on Linux.

Working in IT, I am almost embarrassed to say that I did not know about the secondary drive slot! I will certainly be putting a bigger, faster SSD in there.

Thanks for the input, very thorough and much appreciated. Looks like this will be the year of the Linux desktop, for me at least :)

[Quentinvarquet]

Do you have any issue with the battery ? I feel like I only have 5 hours maximum on ubuntu ...

If i select the eco mode, then the laptop is very very slow...

[jacobpalm]

Did you try the recommendations Joshua provided regarding battery - charging settings and powertop? I have not had a chance to test battery fully myself, I've only just installed 23.04 on the device.

[Quentinvarquet]

I did, and I have to charge my laptop 2 times per day, a bit annoying :(

[joshuagrisham]

I am not actually doing anything with powertop / laptopmode / similar currently, just running "vanilla" 23.04 with Dark Mode (remember it is the screen which likely draws the most power, and for OLED black=off so any parts of the screen which are black are in theory taking no or minimal power). I also try to keep most things turned off when I am not using them (mostly thinking things like Bluetooth here, for example).

For me it fluctuates a bit honestly depending on what I am doing, but around 5-8 hours feels "typical"

Also I have turned on the feature for battery protection via Samsung Settings in Windows, so the battery always stops at 85%. I also try to make sure to not let the battery go below 20% either if possible.

In general, though, and IMHO shorter battery has always been a bit of an issue with Linux -- there is plenty of info online to be found regarding this... maybe starting somewhere like here would be a good place? https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/pk135e/why_is_linux_so_bad_with_battery_life/

In the end the theme usually feels to me like it is often some kind of "drain" of various devices/device drivers not sleeping as much as or when they should which causes a higher power utilization than what you would see for example in Windows.

If you happen to stumble on any kind of "magic bullet" for this device then please share! I don't remember seeing anything crazy alarming with powertop but I never spent a lot of time digging into all of the details...