Trouble with Arch Linux on MSI Alpha 15

Technical Issues & Assistance
#1

As it’s possible I’ll be buying a new laptop in a month or two, I’m searching a machine without NVIDIA graphics. Does anyone have an experience with Radeon? I’d prefer quite a powerful card, just in case I wanted to install The Witcher III one day :wink:

Currently I’m focused on 2 possibilities:

- MSI Alpha 15 (AMD Ryzen 7 3750H / AMD Radeon Pro 5500M + AMD Radeon Vega 10)
- ACER Aspire 7 i7-8705G (Intel Core i7-8705G / Radeon RX Vega M GL + Intel HD 630)

Do you know if they are going to work well with Linux? Or maybe you have some other recommendation at similar price?

Finally I’ve bought MSI Alpha 15 A3DD (AMD Ryzen 7 3750H / AMD Radeon Pro 5500M + AMD Radeon Vega 10). Most of this thread concerns troubleshooting Arch Linux installation on this machine.

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#2

At 1st glance real quick I would get the Acer Aspire 7 i7-8705G (Intel Core i7-8705G / Radeon RX Vega M GL) as I have a similar HP laptop, but years older, bet it s 8-10 yo & I haven t have had any bad lucks with Linux installs with this combo.

But one s gotta make his homeworks before buying a new lappy.

My main lappy; HP Pavilion dv7 Notebook/Intel Core i7-2670QM Quad Core cpu.

My gpu s this one;

Radeon HD 6730M/6770M/7690M XT s series. If it can be of any help.

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#3

Both have their pros and cons. E.g. I can buy MSI with a chosen amount of RAM and w/o windows, which is impossible if it comes to Acer 7. The most important thing is if they’re going to work with current kernel and drivers.

#4

Oh , wasn t aware for the RAM issues for the Acer, it sux.

On mine their s 8 which I think can get up to 16 real quick, gotta check it out, might help a bit

Found this;

#5

There’s no issue. Simply the basic configuration of Acer is not exactly what I need. But it’s a minor problem.

I have read through many reviews, but none answered Linux-related questions.

#6

Well , Linux & the computer industry doesn t go together much.

RAM-wise issues, or concerns were more that it couldn t been upgraded at a later date.

#7

Check phoronix.com for benchmarks but AMD support in general is very good indeed — CS:GO reports a significantly higher frame rate in my Debian stable system with the open source amdgpu driver than it manages in Win10.

I bought a laptop with an integrated GPU rather than a discrete unit just for ease of configuration. You don’t need a high-end graphics card for Witcher III:

And I wouldn’t buy Intel at all, the recent side-channel vulnerabilities have put me right off.

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#8

@Head_on_a_Stick This is helpful, thank you.

I’m not strongly against Intel, but the Ryzen - Radeon combo sounds good to me.

#9

My Toshiba laptop has a Radeon graphics card and works just fine with ArchLabs (Linux in general. It’s a couple years old, came out the same year as Windows 10.

Has an issue with the keyboard, easy fix but does seem to be a Toshiba issue in general.

00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Trinity 2 [Radeon HD 7520G]

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#10

I wonder if switching between 2 cards, e.g. as in MSI Alpha (2 Radeons) is going to be the same shit as in case of Intel / NVIDIA combo. Single integrated Radeon looks simple, but to be honest I managed to find 1 such laptop so far.

#11

I use Raedon/ATI and have done for about 10 years. I’ve had no issues graphics wise, though I hardly ever put a game on.

#12

You mean integrated or discrete Radeon?

#13

Certainly not integrated.

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Ellesmere [Radeon RX 470/480/570/570X/580/580X/590] (rev ef)

Its the 580 I have.

#14

So, do you think that buying AMD Ryzen 7 with dual AMD Radeon Pro 5500M + AMD Radeon Vega 10 graphics is safe?

#15

I wish I could say for sure :smiley: Hopefully someone else here can confirm?

#16

Hope so too…

#17

Yes, I think so.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PRIME

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#18

This may convince me to take the risk: 2 display outputs.

image
image1327×697 240 KB

#19

Looks very nice @nwg

#20

My new machine is expected to arrive tomorrow. Do you think it’s going to be possible just to uninstall NVIDIA driver (I use proprietary) and Bumblebee stuff, and start Arch from my current ssd on the new hardware?

[edit]: Probably I’ll be installing from scratch on the new M.2 ssd, but I’d like to measure speeds of both drives earlier.

Current lappy:

  • Intel Core i7-4712MQ
  • Intel 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller
  • NVIDIA GM108M [GeForce 930M]

New one:

  • AMD Ryzen 7 3750H
  • AMD Radeon Vega 10
  • AMD Radeon Pro 5500M

Is there anything I should remember before I start?

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