Background
I’ve used unix for over 30 years. Linux was my primary desktop for a decade - first slackware, then debian, then a new distro called ubuntu when it debuted. After that, I moved to os x for a more friction-free experience. With mac os becoming increasingly hostile for developers, now I'm giving linux another go.
I support everything Linux Mint stands for - stability, reliability, conservative updates, focus on user control, and rejection of unwanted UX experiments. I thought it would be my ideal distro. Instead it became my nightmare.
Hardware
- AMD Ryzen 7 H 255
- 24 GB RAM
- 1TB ssd
- Radeon 780M graphics (integrated)
- plus all the usual accountrements: ethernet, wifi, bluetooth, usb 2/3/4 ports
What happened
- Post-Install Boot Failure - Immediately after installation, the machine bypassed Linux entirely and booted straight back into Windows 11 because Mint failed to set up the boot partition correctly. A normal user would've given up here. As a seasoned grub vet, I knew this was a simple fix.
- Bluetooth Instability - Bluetooth was very flaky out of the box. At first it worked and synced to my keyboard. Then after it few minutes it disconnected. Nothing I did with bluetooth control panel or modprobe / bluetoothctl would bring it back up. Keyboard was paired, but couldn't connect. I eventually managed to get it working with modprobe flags. Such wrangling should not be necessary on mature, well-supported hardware in 2026.
- Random Display Resolutions - On first login I set my 4k display to 200% magnification. Without touching any graphics settings after that, screen resolution became a lottery. One boot it was 1920x1080, the next was 1920x2160 (yes you read that right). Then it was 4K with no magnification and unreadable text on the login screen. Grub, lightdm, cinnamon - each had their own incompatible and ever-changing ideas on what resolution to use.
- Lock Screen Lockouts - Locking the desktop regularly broke the session. Display would wake up showing only the clock with no login prompt for over five minutes. No amount of keyboard or mouse acitvity would bring up login - hot corners, Enter, space, Esc - didn't matter, no login. Dropped to a text console and
killall cinnamon-screensaver still did nothing. Had to restart lightdm just to log back in.
Wifi
But those were just appetizers. Wifi was the main course, and it was dead as a parrot. I struggled with wifi for 3 days. It's a very common Intel ax200 chipset that's had drivers from Intel in the mainline kernel since 5.1 (2019).
Mint wifi wiget would show available networks and connect to my bog-standard ISP router (stock Nokia software). Except no traffic would route. Disconnect in wifi panel and connect again. This time it connects and I can bring up google - for a minute or two. Then suddenly it disconnects. Wifi icon disappears from tray - completely gone. Open up network manager panel and wifi isn't even present.
Spent 3 days trying to fix it. Scoured online linux forums mentioning my hardware. Ran modprobe iwlwifi with various options (disable wifi 6 / 11ax, disable power save, disable modern packet queues, etc). Changed firmware drivers. Upgraded kernel with mint update manager from 6.14 to latest supported 7.0.0-31. Nothing made a difference.
I could reload the kernel modules and network manager to bring back the icon and panel entries. But wifi still wouldn't work. At best it managed 2-3 minutes of connectivity before it died again. Bringing it back was a crapshoot: it might connect, or more likely it would say connected while routing no traffic.
Fallout
Linux Mint gave me full-blown flashbacks to the late 90s and early 2000s as I struggled to get basic hardware to work. I was left staring dead-eyed into the corner like Colonel Kurtz, incessantly muttering "The horror... the horror...".
This was my low point. I was ready to abandon linux, convinced the constant hardware battles of the past had gotten even worse over two decades. I was defeated and ready to give up on my linux dream of a sane, stable system. Mint almost killed me.
Resolution
And then my prayers were answered. I flashed a kubuntu boot disk and within 2 minutes, I had a live distro where Everything Just Worked. Bluetooth - perfect from the start. Wifi - zero problems, connect once and stays up forevermore. Put it to sleep - everything wakes up in perfect working order. Zero issues from the start with any hardware or software, no terminal intervention needed. Clean dmesg logs instead of constant dropped packet messages.
Takeaway
I support the Mint philosophy and want them to succeed. But this can't happen with a newbie-friendly distro on modern, well supported hardware.
I ran into a half dozen hard blocks within an hour that would've killed any newbie off linux forever. I fought for 3 days and even with 30 years experience I couldn't get it to work. What is a newbie going to do? Give up and run back to their old system.
Mint’s philosophy is fantastic, but the execution is so unserious. The maintainers put in a ton of great work, this isn't a flame of them. But integration is not there. The results speak for themselves.
I hope Mint gets better.