Pre-Install and questions

Goose

I am planning to install SolusOS KDE Plasma Edition, I have an nvidia laptop gpu ( rtx 3050), Lenovo Ideapad gaming 3 specifically. I've a few questions I wanna ask before I install this distro.

I am aware of budgie 10.10 shifting from x11 to wayland, is it better to wait and try it out once it's released? (I've only used KDE plasma)

How easy is it to download nvidia drivers? Are they up to date? Does it default to production or new feature branch? And will I get hit with the black screen of death when using multi monitors? (For context the production branch has 580.126.09 while new feature has 590.48.01)

Do WM (Niri mostly since I use it alot) work well in Solus?

Screensharing (like in zoom , google meet etc) and recording (like in OBS-studio), do they perform well on wayland in Solus?

Do codecs come pre-installed? (Speaking from fedora experience where I have to manually download and replace the default for better compatibility and audios/video players)

I apologize if there are alot of questions asked since I don't wanna make the same mistake like I did with opensuse TW, since I tested it in a virtual machine like this one but reality it was a nightmare.
I'd appreciate any answers and maybe lmk if there is any tip I should consider after installing Solus OS!

Staudey

Goose Are they up to date? Does it default to production or new feature branch?

The default NVIDIA driver packages (nvidia-glx-driver[-current]) are following the production branch. The nvidia-beta-driver[-current] packages currently follow the new feature branch because it's further ahead than the last beta release, but as soon as a new beta version is out they'll switch to that again. There's also the nvidia-developer-driver[-current] packages which follow the Vulkan Developer Beta Driver (https://developer.nvidia.com/vulkan-driver)

Goose I am aware of budgie 10.10 shifting from x11 to wayland, is it better to wait and try it out once it's released? (I've only used KDE plasma)

Depends on what is "better" means to you. Better than what? If you want to try Budgie you can already try the X11 version, which will be a similar experience to the eventual 10.10 release.

Goose Do codecs come pre-installed? (Speaking from fedora experience where I have to manually download and replace the default for better compatibility and audios/video players)

Yeah, non-free codecs are enabled by default. Unless you have some very special codecs in mind.

reon

Hiyo! I'll leave the answers to more expert users, but I'll share my experience as well since I'm new.

I am aware of budgie 10.10 shifting from x11 to wayland, is it better to wait and try it out once it's released? (I've only used KDE plasma)

I'd wait to be honest.

How easy is it to download nvidia drivers? Are they up to date? Does it default to production or new feature branch? And will I get hit with the black screen of death when using multi monitors? (For context the production branch has 580.126.09 while new feature has 590.48.01)

That's a good question. The default is 580 while 590 is beta for Solus (so, does Solus defaults to New Feature Branch or does it put it as Beta forever?)
Anyways, for Plasma and Budgie is pretty easy to install the drivers as Discover behaves correctly. Just click the driver section and install the correct drivers. There's also an option to install the 32-bit libraries if needed. For drivers in general, just be careful because, as for TW, Solus provide with kernel-current (default) and kernel LTS: https://help.getsol.us/docs/user/quick-start/kernel-management/add-new-kernels/ (this page will show you the differences with the name of the packages)

For GNOME instead, GNOME Software is a bit "meh" and unclear in my opinion, but I managed to proceed.

Do WM (Niri mostly since I use it alot) work well in Solus?

No idea, sorry.

Screensharing (like in zoom , google meet etc) and recording (like in OBS-studio), do they perform well on wayland in Solus?

As good as the other OSs, as far as I could test.

Do codecs come pre-installed?

Everything is working by default (video, music, hardware acceleration in Firefox), so I guess that they are pre-installed!

I apologize if there are alot of questions asked since I don't wanna make the same mistake like I did with opensuse TW

I'm an old TW user as well! I'm feeling better with Solus, hope you'll do as well!

The only thing that is missing for laptop users like me and you (MSI with RTX 4080 mobile here): switcheroo isn't enabled by default, and it controls the hybrid GPUs so it's kind of important. So, install Solus, update, reboot, install Nvidia, reboot, use this: https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:NVIDIA_Switcheroo_Control (yes, it's for openSUSE, but works here as well; just install switcheroo and enable it; done).

As far as I can remember, it should be pre-installed, so this command should suffice: sudo systemctl enable --now switcheroo-control.service , only once and forever.

Goose

Rgib Yes, you can use some WM in solus. The easiest way is to keep one of the main desktop (Budgie, Gnome or Plasma) and add your favourite WM.

All right good to hear. Thanks!

Staudey Depends on what is "better" means to you. Better than what? If you want to try Budgie you can already try the X11 version, which will be a similar experience to the eventual 10.10 release.

I have had horrible experiences when it comes to x11 across multiple distro's, when I heard budgie was shifting to wayland only I wanted to give it a chance but it seems like I can't find any sites indicating solus updated their budgie to 10.10 so I was wondering if I could give it a shot without getting slapped by x11.

Staudey Yeah, non-free codecs are enabled by default. Unless you have some very special codecs in mind.
That's good to know 🙂 , only complaint with fedora for me were the codecs but glad to see I dont have to deal with it

reon The only thing that is missing for laptop users like me and you (MSI with RTX 4080 mobile here): switcheroo isn't enabled by default, and it controls the hybrid GPUs so it's kind of important. So, install Solus, update, reboot, install Nvidia, reboot, use this: https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:NVIDIA_Switcheroo_Control (yes, it's for openSUSE, but works here as well; just install switcheroo and enable it; done).

As far as I can remember, it should be pre-installed, so this command should suffice: sudo systemctl enable --now switcheroo-control.service , only once and forever.

So just to clatify the process:
-update and reboot
-download nvidia through discover then reboot
-Enable the switcheroo then finished?

Also when I first tried it in VM, I had noticed there were two option booting in live iso and wanting to install the distro , the regular version and nvidia compatibility, wouldnt it be better if I go through solusOS nvidia compatibility mode then it would download the drivers for me automatically? or am I getting this wrong and it's better to just go normal version and install it manually via discover?

Goose

reon As far as I can remember, it should be pre-installed, so this command should suffice: sudo systemctl enable --now switcheroo-control.service , only once and forever.

Took that advice, installed the distro and got everything working to my liking, pretty neat so far

Rgib

Do WM (Niri mostly since I use it alot) work well in Solus?

Yes, you can use some WM in solus. The easiest way is to keep one of the main desktop (Budgie, Gnome or Plasma) and add your favourite WM. You will have the choice when you log in. I use i3wm without problems and some users in the forum use Niri : https://discuss.getsol.us/d/11822-my-first-few-days-with-niri

reon

Staudey so the only way to follow the New Feature Branch is to install the beta packages in Solus that will eventually use Nvidia Beta? 🤔

Staudey

reon Yes. In the past the main driver package sometimes followed the New Feature Branch but in recent times it has been way too buggy for general use (with even the stable branch releases at times performing less than stellar in this regard).

It you want a relatively recent, relatively issue-free driver, use the main nvidia-glx-driver[-current] ("NVIDIA Binary Driver"). If you absolutely have to use the newest features and don't care as much about stability, use nvidia-beta-driver (NVIDIA Beta Binary Driver). If you need the newest Vulkan extensions the nvidia-developer-driver ("NVIDIA Developer Binary Driver") is also an option.

Oh yeah, and with the main driver you'll also have the choice to use the open source kernel modules via nvidia-open[-current]. In fact it's recommended by NVIDIA to use those for all GPUs that support it, of which your GPU model is one.

Staudey

Goose Also when I first tried it in VM, I had noticed there were two option booting in live iso and wanting to install the distro , the regular version and nvidia compatibility, wouldnt it be better if I go through solusOS nvidia compatibility mode then it would download the drivers for me automatically? or am I getting this wrong and it's better to just go normal version and install it manually via discover?

The nvidia compatibility option just has some additional boot parameters for NVIDIA systems in case the regular boot option doesn't work. The install process is completely unaffected and it won't install additional packages or drivers for you.

EbonJaeger

Goose I have had horrible experiences when it comes to x11 across multiple distro's, when I heard budgie was shifting to wayland only I wanted to give it a chance but it seems like I can't find any sites indicating solus updated their budgie to 10.10 so I was wondering if I could give it a shot without getting slapped by x11.

We're holding off a bit on the Budgie 10.10 series. There are some issues that I would like to see resolved before rolling that update out to all of our users.

Goose

I forgot to ask this in my question but is it better to format the drive with ext4 or btrfs? I just need to confirm this then I'll proceed to install Solus and will share my experience with yall

EDIT: I chose ext4 and everything great so far

reon

Goose sorry, I only managed to enter the forum right now.

ext4, btrfs and f2fs are all solid enough on Solus. I'm using f2fs but of course it's unusual, btrfs doesn't have automatic snapshots like TW (though Snapper is available), so I'd generally recommend ext4 as you've done.

Glad to know that the system is working! To be honest, it's blazing fast on my laptop. Ubuntu, Fedora and openSUSE take at least 20 minutes to install, while Solus is ready in 5 minutes. The installation of packages is very fast too.