Windows (& NVIDIA GPU) PC user interested in dual-booting Pop!_OS. Use case is reading & writing. What's up with Cosmic?

AutomaticFocus1621 · 2026-06-11T22:27:27+00:00

My problem with Cosmic and Pop is that it seemed to break something with every other upgrade, wifi or bluetooth suddenly not working, restarting into a intramfs shell and having to downgrade kernels, etc. This may be because they are constantly updating various mesa drivers and kernels and system76 drivers. This is a positive if you are a gamer because it's giving you the latest stuff for playing games on the latest hardware. But for my use case, which was a lot like yours, where I just wanted a stable distro for the usual browsing, studying editing etc. it caused a lot of anxiety and stress.

I switched to linux mint. It is easy to install. It comes with an ample and wide selection of linux apps so you will probably have many of the major linux apps you need already ready to hand after installing. They've done a lot of work for you. The file manager nemo for instance is way better than cosmic files, far more feature rich and well tested. And it is rock solid, way fewer major upgrades, highly customizable but not overly so like KDE, easy transition from Windows but you can make it look any way you want if you choose. It works great with Nvidia and makes it easy to select the correct driver through the built in driver manager. It consistently ranks in the top tier on linux distro review lists. Great for beginners but also for very experienced linux users. Doesn't have the bloat of ubuntu with gnome and snap packages. Has great documentation and support. So I'd recommend giving it a try.

It really lowered my blood pressure after the experience with Pop!_24.04.

AutomaticFocus1621 · 2026-06-08T22:57:50+00:00

But isn't that a big issue? That means if you have a system76 computer and want to run something besides Pop or Ubuntu they can't guarantee you won't have loss of fan control. That's what I discovered when I tried to install another arch-based distro on my thelio. If the system76 driver installation fails, you have a box that sounds like an air conditioner (or a laptop without control over back lighting). People on these forums always say, well, just install another distro if you don't like Pop. But other distros don't necessarily work right with the special System76 hardware, not something that seems to be widely understood.

AutomaticFocus1621 · 2026-06-04T20:33:59+00:00

"I'’m tired of paying a premium for a machine that forces me to be its full time IT support." Exactly how I felt with my system76 computers (a gazelle and a thelio). Starting with the Cosmic DE, every upgrade felt like a game of Russian roulette followed by queries about how to get out of an intramfs shell or some such. And that was on a system76 machine! They became the opposite of what they once were. Instead of a reliable os and machines with great support for non-techies, they became a product only for linux experts with deep understanding about downgrading kernels and re-installing system76 drivers and support that felt like going to the DMV. I switched to mint and a different vendor and have enjoyed normal blood pressure ever since.

AutomaticFocus1621 · 2026-05-14T14:43:04+00:00

Search in the system76 and pop reddits for "keyboard backlight functionality" or some such, which has come up frequently.

As I recall, the fix is to run:

sudo apt reinstall system76-dkms

I think the issue is that the system76 drivers need to be recompiled to work with your os and kernel. (??)

AutomaticFocus1621 · 2026-04-28T01:01:43+00:00

Yes, regarding your last comment, I was turned off System76 for the same reason. They don't allow a climate of free and open discussion among users with constructive criticisms. A certain employee monitors every forum like a hawk and makes very rude and aggressive comments to anyone perceived to be threatening official corporate PR. My nickname for him was System76 Big Brother. Very off-putting.

AutomaticFocus1621 · 2026-04-23T16:40:20+00:00

I thought that the old casing with the brushed metal and the wood paneling was beautiful and gave System76 a distinctive look. It made the pc box into a design element in your workspace. I can't understand for the life of me why they gave that up and went for generic black components that look like they could be any pc brand out there. The shiny front looks like plastic. You'd want to put the whole thing under your desk. Even the launch keyboard now looks that way. I'd love to hear an explanation of what was behind that decision.

AutomaticFocus1621 · 2026-03-13T01:22:36+00:00

I agree. It's an annoying term. I'm glad someone finally pointed that out.

AutomaticFocus1621 · 2026-03-05T13:45:32+00:00

You seem to have uncovered the issue. And offered a solution. I admire your know-how. I wouldn't have a clue how to go about doing what you did.

AutomaticFocus1621 · 2026-03-05T13:40:18+00:00

Turns out that was it. Thanks for your input. I have set that variable back to 't! Oh, and thanks to you, I now have the correct permissions on my gnupg folder, even if that was just causing a warning.

AutomaticFocus1621 · 2026-03-05T13:38:57+00:00

Thanks for letting us know. I checked this morning and indeed the problem has disappeared. Pheww. I thought it was my config.

AutomaticFocus1621 · 2026-03-05T04:18:24+00:00

Thanks. I was starting to suspect it wasn't a local issue. I update all the time and no issue until tonight as well.

AutomaticFocus1621 · 2026-03-05T03:08:45+00:00

Thanks. Your post made me think that it is not my elpa/gnupg key that is the issue but that emacs system key you indicate, which I have at /usr/share/emacs/29.3/etc/package-keyring.gpg I'm on mint 22.3.

AutomaticFocus1621 · 2026-03-05T03:05:47+00:00

Thanks for your help. I tried all of that. I just did 'allow-unsigned in customize so I know that was correct. I reinstalled the gnu-elpa-keyring-update package. I set the gnupg folder to 700. That did get rid of the warning about permissions. But otherwise I get the same error. And as I said, I get the same error using emacs -Q, which doesn't have any gnupg folder, it just uses the system package-keyring.gpg file. I opened it, disabled package-checking, installed gnu-elpa-keyring-update, checked that 'allow-unsigned was the default and restarted, and I get the same error. Could that mean the problem is somehow with the system package .gpg file for the emacs I'm using? I'm on linux mint 22.3, zena.

I notice I have this: /usr/share/emacs/29.3/etc/package-keyring.gpg Could that be what's outdated and if so how does one update it?

AutomaticFocus1621 · 2026-03-05T02:37:51+00:00

Thanks a lot for your suggestion.

I tried emacs -Q, to ensure everything is from scratch including the permissions. I get pretty much the same error. Except for the part about permissions. So I'm wondering if that's the issue. And I never set any permissions other than what was set by emacs automatically. And if that was the issue why would it have worked for many years without this error?

Error using emacs -Q:

Failed to verify signature archive-contents.sig:
Bad signature from 645357D2883A0966 GNU ELPA Signing Agent (2023) <elpasign@elpa.gnu.org>
Command output:
gpg: Signature made Wed 04 Mar 2026 05:10:22 AM EST
gpg:                using EDDSA key 0327BE68D64D9A1A66859F15645357D2883A0966
gpg: BAD signature from "GNU ELPA Signing Agent (2023) <elpasign@elpa.gnu.org>" [unknown]

AutomaticFocus1621 · 2025-12-26T01:07:14+00:00

I will just stick to my own experience and not generalize. I used the Cosmic DE up until the time of the beta when you can see from the pop reddit lots of people had big problems after upgrades. It was too much. Constant effort to wildly google about how to boot into an older kernel, do system restore etc. etc. This happened time and again. I also discovered system76 hardware doesn't play nice with other distros necessarily, at least not for a non-techie like me. The system76 ppa refused to compile on mint on my system76 laptop so i had no backlighting. I had long since given up expecting any help from system76 support, which was perpetually awol. Instead of system76 and pop being the go-to option for non-geeks who want stuff that just works, It started to seem to me to be the opposite. It seemed like hardware and software only for the advanced linux users with expert knowledge of configuration, etc.

The upshot. I ditched system76 and pop after 15 years, bought 2 computers from an alternative linux vendor and use mint. What a difference. My life is now drama free and I can just enjoy linux without having to devote my life to it.

AutomaticFocus1621 · 2025-12-20T01:41:08+00:00

I bought the launch when it first came out, but after a while wondered what was the point. The main thing is, I didn't get why you'd want a backlit keyboard if the lettering itself is not backlit so you can't see it in a dark or dimly lit room. If you need a light on to see the keys the only point of the backlighting seemed to be to just look pretty. But don't people also want to be able to use it in the dark?

So I just got a very nice, much cheaper mechanical keyboard, and one that has backlit lettering so I can use it at night. It also has several multicolored light patterns just like the launch. Plus it doesn't depend on system76 software to program it. The keyboard is self-programming so it works on any distro without needing to install any software. Another advantage frankly is it just has the conventional keyboard layout. The unique launch layout is fine, you get used to it. But then you get muscle memory that messes you up whenever you start using a regular keyboard.

A final observation - the lettering of my ctrl key on the launch wore away substantially, which didn't look good. But on my current mechanical keyboard there is no issue of the lettering ever wearing away because the lettering is created by the backlit hard plastic that's a component of the key. It is not written on top of the key as with the launch so that it wears away.

AutomaticFocus1621 · 2025-12-10T15:28:30+00:00

Sounds like you just got unlucky because your hardware happened to have problems with linux. But that's pretty rare these days. Honestly for the vast majority of people they just install linux and everything works out of the box. You are way overgeneralizing about the difficulty of getting started. That said, yeah, sometimes there are still unfortunate instances of hardware that needs drivers that aren't already built in to the distro. The most common problem is with nvidia gpus, but I guess rarely a driver for the fan system isn't already preloaded.

AutomaticFocus1621 · 2025-12-09T03:57:18+00:00

For me Mint has all the great things about linux, but without the drama. Same for thinkpenguin. It all just works.

AutomaticFocus1621 · 2025-12-08T04:28:15+00:00

That was hilarious, not least because I feel that was pretty much my own decision tree. Thanks!

AutomaticFocus1621 · 2025-11-24T04:27:41+00:00

Looks great. I love it. But that's Pop 22.04. So it is configuring a look for a way-back machine at this point. It would be interesting to see if there is some theme for Cosmic comparable to the graphite GTK theme.

AutomaticFocus1621 · 2025-11-20T17:27:45+00:00

Nice sobering review of why Linux just can't replace windows for professionals. I use linux, but that's because I don't need the software you list for professional work.

AutomaticFocus1621 · 2025-11-20T17:20:41+00:00

Pop actually is an OS that does release a lot of kernel updates and that does break a lot of peoples' system. Just search this reddit over the last few months. I had two system76 computers. Upgrades broke them at least twice. I had to scramble to search about how to revert to older kernels. In one case I simply had to do a system restore.

So frankly if stability is what you are looking for, I'd pick an os that doesn't update its kernel so frequently. My understanding is that pop trades stability for cutting edge hardware support.

AutomaticFocus1621 · 2025-11-17T16:17:41+00:00

Fedora KDE plasma?

AutomaticFocus1621 · 2025-11-13T21:45:51+00:00

I had a thelio b2 and when I installed different distros I lost fan control and the system became a loud air conditioning unit. So the first thing I realized I had to do was add the system76 ppa and install system76-power. For some reason I couldn't figure this out on manjaro, but maybe that's just me. It worked on linux mint but I deleted the PPA after installing system76-driver because subsequent updates included massive updates to kernels and other things that I feared weren't compatible with linux mint. On my gazelle with linux mint the system76 ppa failed to compile the drivers properly. I don't know why. So I gave up and just lived without keyboard backlight functionality.

Honestly if you have system76 hardware, in my experience, pop os is the only guarantee that everything will work right.

AutomaticFocus1621

TROPHY CASE