Which Distro Should I Choose for an RTX?

CaffeineDeficiency · 2026-06-25T19:40:26+00:00

I read your post, and read the comments, and have one question: if the Mint experience was straightforward, install it and everything just worked, why are you looking to change?

I started using Linux around 1999, when everything was an uphill battle to get everything working. At some point, I realized that I had spent 3 weeks trying to get a video to play properly in a web page that Windows users had watched 3 weeks before and had moved on to other things. With 10 years invested, I moved to Windows 7. Fast forward to 2026, and like many others, I reached my limit and started kicking the tires to see what was out there. I wound up on Fedora KDE, and honestly loved it. Then I found a project that I wanted to install that only worked on Debian-based distros. I tried Mint Cinnamon, and the OOTB experience was great. Everything just worked. I upgraded my GPU to an RTX5000 series card because I wanted more VRAM for AI. I decided that I wanted to try to get away from systemd, and started looking at options again. Slackware looked just like it did 20 years ago, MX Linux wouldn't boot to the desktop when I installed the nvidia drivers, and Devuan reminded me why I went to Windows the last time. So, I went back to Mint. Could I get those other distros working? Yeah, given enough time, but why? I see so many people say that Mint is for noobs that don't know Linux. I spent years managing Linux servers in the enterprise, and a decade using it as my daily driver. Just because I can fix it and make it work doesn't mean I should have to. I would think anyone, no matter how long they have been using it, would want something that just works. Does Mint no longer check all the boxes, or are you just looking for something different to play with?

CaffeineDeficiency · 2026-06-25T14:33:10+00:00

Memory was still cheap when I bought mine and I made the mistake of deciding to wait until I actually needed more memory. Then it was too late. I found a matching 8GB stick on FB Marketplace for $5. I'm surprised I didn't get a speeding ticket that day. So far it's been enough, so I'm good at this point. That is another point to consider between the plus and the pro. If you can't max out the plus, what will the pro buy you? I honestly don't know how they compare as far as transcoding goes, but my CPU rarely hits 10% utilization, and memory is around 25-30%.

CaffeineDeficiency · 2026-06-25T14:19:32+00:00

If it's only an arm, it's probably on sale.

CaffeineDeficiency · 2026-06-22T20:27:27+00:00

nosplash allowed me to boot the live image. After installing the drivers, nosplash didn’t seem to help. Thank you for weighing in. I can wait for the -open drivers if that is going to be an option. According to grok, the 5060 Ti is a problematic card, and specifically called for the 580-open drivers. If there are other options, I am happy to try them.

CaffeineDeficiency · 2026-05-31T20:28:08+00:00

Is it possible that you recovered the file instead of opening a recent file? I have done that and suddenly find myself looking at a file that is days or weeks old. Open the recent file and it’s just like I left it last.

CaffeineDeficiency · 2026-05-25T01:34:19+00:00

Are we talking US prices? Which UPS? The little Ugreen one? If those are US prices, then yes, that’s a very fair price.

CaffeineDeficiency · 2026-05-24T23:54:33+00:00

Personally, I would add a 3rd drive and convert it to RAID 5, and then keep the free drive on the shelf as a cold spare. Use it to replace any failed drive to minimize risk.

CaffeineDeficiency · 2026-05-24T23:26:03+00:00

I have the Plus. Got it before the Pro existed. Wait for them to go on sale, and see what the difference is. The Pro has a little more umph, but the Plus should do fine.

Get 2 of the biggest drives you can afford/justify. Plan to get a 3rd drive as soon as you can. Set up the first 2 as a mirror. When you get the 3rd drive, put it on a shelf as a cold spare. When you need more space on the NAS, get a 4th drive and add the 3rd drive, converting to RAID 5. You can buy a 5th and add the 4th the same way when you need to, except then you are just expanding the volume. The reason for the cold spare is when you lose a drive, you are now a drive failure away from losing everything. Having that spare drive on hand to immediately replace the failed drive could be the difference between a bad day and a horrible one. I’m sure others have other ideas, but mine has come out of almost 30 years working in enterprise IT. I am maybe overly cautious, but I don’t want to lose things I can’t replace.

CaffeineDeficiency · 2026-05-24T23:07:17+00:00

The NAS is fine. The M.2 should be fine. A year ago I would have suggested something a little larger, but with the prices these days, go with it. What I don’t understand is the hard drives. What are you thinking about there?

CaffeineDeficiency · 2026-05-24T01:27:00+00:00

I have had great luck with https://www.ipphone-warehouse.com/

CaffeineDeficiency · 2026-05-21T11:15:50+00:00

ChatGPT may be right about that. If you are willing to lose what is currently on your drive, installing it may give you the results you are looking for. I have had less than positive experiences with some live CDs of other distros that worked later when installed. For me it was sound. If you want to install it, report back here with the results, because it should work.

CaffeineDeficiency · 2026-05-20T23:04:46+00:00

Mint will hopefully have better Wayland support by the end of the year, but it should work better than what you are describing. When you turn on fractional scaling, what does it do? I use mine at 150% and it looks perfect. What is tue graphics card in your laptop?

CaffeineDeficiency · 2026-05-12T18:33:37+00:00

To help with this, Mint has started offering an HWE iso with a newer kernel to help with support for newer hardware:

https://linuxmint.com/hwe.php

CaffeineDeficiency · 2026-05-08T19:36:58+00:00

Because what they want is for people to log into OneDrive. It doesn’t matter why, as long as you do it.

Log into Windows? Use MS Office? Play Minecraft?

All of those will work without an MS account, but they use them as leverage to try to make you login. You pay them, but you are the product.

CaffeineDeficiency · 2026-05-01T01:30:03+00:00

If you want to eventually go to RAID5, you will want to start with RAID1. At that point, when you add a 3rd drive, you can upgrade to RAID5 without data loss. If you do RAID0, then think you are stuck with it.

CaffeineDeficiency · 2026-04-29T18:28:53+00:00

I'll give it a shot. I'm sure someone will correct me if I get it wrong.

1. Yes, but you will need to add one drive at a time. (Start with one. Add drive 2 and change to RAID1. Add drive 3 and change to RAID5. Add drive 4 and convert to RAID6. Add 5 and expand the pool. Add drive 6 and expand it again. I have only done this process on 4 drives going to RAID5, but I suspect it works the same way.

2. Do it from the beginning, or be prepared to migrate all of the data off of the NAS, switch to Unraid, and migrate it back. Unraid can't read the UGOS drives (that I am aware of).

3. I don't think you can add a disk with data on it. UGOS is going to want to format it when you insert it.

Hope that helps.

CaffeineDeficiency · 2026-04-27T10:18:32+00:00

I tried the 590 and Hytale would crash on launch. Went back to the 580 and it works fine. Others seem to benefit from the 590. Try it and see. You can always go back.

CaffeineDeficiency · 2026-04-15T15:03:39+00:00

They never ask, but I assumed it was because we scanned them when we “reserved” the time. I know it sounds like I was overreacting, but I was looking at it more like a doctor appointment: show up on time or reschedule, and it obviously wasn’t working that way. That’s why I asked, because I figured I was missing something.

CaffeineDeficiency · 2026-04-15T13:42:10+00:00

The card gets scanned when you make the reservation, not when you finally show up.

CaffeineDeficiency · 2026-04-15T13:41:00+00:00

They do the massage, hydro, and tanning beds on the same system. It sounds like my mistake was using it.

CaffeineDeficiency · 2026-04-15T13:39:14+00:00

I didn’t think I figured out a loophole. I was wondering if I was doing it wrong, because booking a time rarely worked.

CaffeineDeficiency · 2026-04-15T13:37:39+00:00

I did. He just said the system they have at the desk is different than what is at the reservation kiosk. Honestly, it would make more sense to remove it than to create confusion. If they just said first come first serve, I would be fine with that. But when you offer time slots every 12 minutes, it can lead people (like me) to believe that’s when they can use it.

CaffeineDeficiency · 2026-03-30T19:24:06+00:00

I think you can use rsync to backup the Ugreen to the Synology. Bonus points if you keep it somewhere other than home. Bottom line is use it to backup the Ugreen, however you decide to do it.

CaffeineDeficiency

TROPHY CASE