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My Frustrations with Artix Linux (and sometimes Linux) on Laptops!

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share some frustrations I’ve encountered with Artix Linux and Linux in general on my laptop. I occasionally use Bash and write console applications in C, which makes Linux a natural choice for my development work. Currently, I run Windows as my host OS and have several Linux virtual machines on my laptop (I have disabled Hyper-V and WSL2 on Windows because annoyingly enabling them prevents using VT-x in VirtualBox!). My intention was to reverse this setup, using Linux as my host OS and Windows on QEMU/KVM. I only use FOSS software packages and don’t play games or use any important software package that depend on Windows. Unfortunately, despite my efforts to fully embrace free and open-source software and shift away from proprietary applications, I’m facing several issues that are preventing me from using Linux as my primary operating system.

Since 2019, I’ve accumulated a ton of Linux ISOs on my HDD and have been actively testing various Linux distros in virtual machines or on old spare hardware that I have. I’ve recently decided to take a step further and test some live Linux USBs on my laptop, which is basically my main machine now. Here’s a rundown of the challenges I’ve encountered:

1. Sound Quality: The built-in speaker on my laptop produces weaker sound on Linux compared to Windows. Even though the Cinnamon DE (I like Cinnamon, BTW) and other GUI and CLI tools provide options to increase volume beyond 100%, doing so only results in amplified noise and distortion, rather than a clear increase in volume.

2. Touchpad Sensitivity: The Synaptics touchpad was excessively sensitive in the Live environment of every Linux distro that I tested (I have tested Linux Mint, Fedora, Manjaro, Artix Linux, Devuan, and Kali Linux). Also, I found no easy method to adjust the touch activation threshold using libinput (I mean the minimum pressure that is required to activate the touchpad), which makes it difficult to use the touchpad comfortably. Maybe a bare metal installation of Artix Linux or other distros fixes this issue but for now I can’t test that due to the fact that I don’t have a spare SSD around to install Artix Linux and I can’t nuke my current OS without ensuring that everything works seamlessly on Linux.

3. Software Availability: Many popular open-source applications I use on a daily basis, such as QGIS, are not available in the Artix Linux repositories despite not depending on Systemd. While these applications are present in the Arch repositories, the version discrepancies between the dependency packages in Arch and Artix repositories can lead to broken packages and a potentially unstable system if you mix them. It is easy for me to compile all packages locally and link them to the dependencies that are available on Artix Linux. However, this is still an annoying problem to have.
For context, I previously reported this issue on GitHub: QGIS Issue #58077

4. Font Rendering: Fonts appear significantly blurrier on Linux compared to Windows, which impacts readability and overall user experience. I use my computer for extended periods of times and while I can use Windows for hours without having an eye strain, on Linux I get an eye strain due to blurry fonts.

5. Fractional Scaling: Fractional scaling on Linux is still an experimental feature and does not perform well, and this leads to less-than-ideal display scaling options. Some applications on Linux simply don’t play well when I change the Fractional scaling to 125%. I can simply upgrade my laptop’s monitor from 1366×768 to a 1080p IPS display. However, the problems of Fractional scaling on Linux are preventing me to do so.

6. Hybrid GPU Issues: I’m experiencing problems with the hybrid GPU setup on my laptop. I only had this issue on the live Artix Linux Cinnamon environment. For more details, see my post on the Artix Linux forum: .
[BUG]: Display Issues with artix-cinnamon-openrc ISO on laptops

In the end I want to say that I’ve invested a considerable amount of time adapting my workflow to rely solely on free and open-source software packages, and I’m disappointed that the mentioned issues are limiting my ability to fully transition to Linux. I had less problems on Linux distros that use Systemd as their init system. However, I’m red-pilled by Systemd-free distros and I rather not use distros that use Systemd.
 
I’d greatly appreciate it If anyone has suggestions or solutions for problems that I mentioned.
Thanks for reading and for any help you can provide!
Most people don't use Linux because they find it difficult to use. I find Linux easy to use but don't daily drive it because my favorite distro doesn't work well on my existing hardware. :-(

Re: My Frustrations with Artix Linux (and sometimes Linux) on Laptops!

Reply #1
It's not difficult to use Arch packages even with the occasional version mismatches once you become familiar with upgrading, downgrading and "IgnorePkg" 'ing. If upgrading x breaks y then downgrade x and don't upgrade it until y is upgraded to match.

On my Dell M4500 the standard touchpad settings in libinput are so sensitive I could move the pointer with a finger hovering above it, almost unusably bad. This fixed it though:
Code: [Select]
$ cat /etc/libinput/local-overrides.quirks
[Touchpad pressure override]
MatchUdevType=touchpad
MatchName=*AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad
MatchDMIModalias=dmi:*svnDellInc.:*pnPrecisionM4500*
AttrPressureRange=95:88

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Libinput
I also needed to study the libinput docs linked in that article, and I'd agree doing this isn't simple or easy, it takes a while to get the right pressure numbers. The problem seems to be virtually every touchpad in the entire world needs custom settings and the Linux world doesn't  have resources to make that happen. The widespread adoption of libinput postdates some older hardware so probably manufacturers had ended support for their older products by then.

Hopefully some others on here might be able to address some of your other concerns! 

Re: My Frustrations with Artix Linux (and sometimes Linux) on Laptops!

Reply #2
Added qgis to galaxy.

Re: My Frustrations with Artix Linux (and sometimes Linux) on Laptops!

Reply #3
Some suggestions:

> 1. sound quality
Try pactl and pipewire.

> 4. font rendering
Fontconfig does render fonts better than cleartype from windows. You can try to change different fonts, play with config files etc. Archwiki is very helpful here.

Re: My Frustrations with Artix Linux (and sometimes Linux) on Laptops!

Reply #4
Thank you. You are doing an excellent job by maintaining a large number of applications for Artix.
I saw that FreeCAD and GNU Octave are also not available in Artix repos. Both are great FOSS applications and are available in Arch's extra repo. I appreciate it if you take a look at them.

https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/octave
https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/freecad
Most people don't use Linux because they find it difficult to use. I find Linux easy to use but don't daily drive it because my favorite distro doesn't work well on my existing hardware. :-(

Re: My Frustrations with Artix Linux (and sometimes Linux) on Laptops!

Reply #5
It's not difficult to use Arch packages even with the occasional version mismatches once you become familiar with upgrading, downgrading and "IgnorePkg" 'ing. If upgrading x breaks y then downgrade x and don't upgrade it until y is upgraded to match.
I am already familiar with "Pacman" and "IgnorePkg." The issue I encountered when installing QGIS from Arch's extra repository was that the version of "spatialindex," which is a dependency for QGIS, in Artix Linux's world repository was 1.9.3-1, which was outdated compared to the version available in Arch Linux's Extra repository, which was 2.0.0-1. At that time, I manually downloaded and installed spatialindex-2.0.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst from the Arch Linux repository to resolve the issue. While such problems are easy to fix for advanced users, imagine less tech-savvy users who might accidentally break their installation by installing incorrect dependencies! See https://forum.artixlinux.org/index.php/topic,7280.0.html
On my Dell M4500 the standard touchpad settings in libinput are so sensitive I could move the pointer with a finger hovering above it, almost unusably bad. This fixed it though:
Code: [Select]
$ cat /etc/libinput/local-overrides.quirks
[Touchpad pressure override]
MatchUdevType=touchpad
MatchName=*AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad
MatchDMIModalias=dmi:*svnDellInc.:*pnPrecisionM4500*
AttrPressureRange=95:88

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Libinput
I also needed to study the libinput docs linked in that article, and I'd agree doing this isn't simple or easy, it takes a while to get the right pressure numbers. The problem seems to be virtually every touchpad in the entire world needs custom settings and the Linux world doesn't  have resources to make that happen. The widespread adoption of libinput postdates some older hardware so probably manufacturers had ended support for their older products by then.
I am experiencing the same issue with the Synaptics touchpad on my HP ProBook 450 G2 and it is basically killing me! On Windows, I can adjust the touch activation threshold using a slider, but on Linux, I haven’t been able to find the magic numbers or thresholds to make my touchpad usable. I had better luck with "xf86-input-synaptics," but unfortunately, it is now deprecated, and I can't invest more time learning how to use it. What astonishes me is that there are many "just works" Debian-based distros with bloated GUIs and desktop environments, yet the developers of none of them seem to have spent time developing a proper GUI application to make life easier for touchpad users! I suppose the issue is that most Linux users and developers seem to be using desktops, which is why there’s less focus on resolving the issues of Linux distros on laptops.
Most people don't use Linux because they find it difficult to use. I find Linux easy to use but don't daily drive it because my favorite distro doesn't work well on my existing hardware. :-(

Re: My Frustrations with Artix Linux (and sometimes Linux) on Laptops!

Reply #6
GUI apps are actually very difficult to create and when a new version of GTK is released a lot usually has to be rewritten. The limitations of GTK are also related to the scaling problems I think. From a users perspective you need to accept it is what it is, and find ways to make it work for you - I don't know of any other way to adjust touchpad sensitivity in libinput for example, you just have to study the docs until you can make it work. Another simple way is sell your problem laptop to trade it for one that does work better with Linux, while this might seem excessive, if someone went into a computer shop wanting a laptop for running Windows, then why would they buy a Chrome book or Mac book? There are no rules when it comes to solving these problems, you can go round them as well as straight through. There's also no harm in saying what you would like to see improved either of course.
It might also help to note if you have a high res screen you can simply select a lower resolution in the desktop settings which will make everything bigger, you don't have to stick with the maximum native resolution if you can't tweak the font sizes and so on to meet your requirements.

Re: My Frustrations with Artix Linux (and sometimes Linux) on Laptops!

Reply #7
from a users perspective you need to accept it is what it is, and find ways to make it work for you.
I will eventually figure out the correct libinput settings for my touchpad, but it's sad that having digital privacy with Linux often means sacrificing functionality and ease of use.
Another simple way is sell your problem laptop to trade it for one that does work better with Linux.
When I bought my laptop, Windows 7 was still supported and was my main OS. By the time Windows 10 was released, I began investing heavily in learning Linux to migrate to a Linux distro. The issue with buying a new laptop now is that most companies produce ultra-thin, non-repairable, and non-upgradable models, some without even an RJ45 port. Since I don't have access to Linux-friendly laptops like those from System76, I'm sticking with my old laptop. Perhaps in the future, I’ll consider an old Librebooted ThinkPad, but that's not feasible right now. Thanks for reading and for your help. I hope a developer will address these issues soon.
if someone went into a computer shop wanting a laptop for running Windows, then why would they buy a Chrome book or Mac book?
PS: This is why many people frustrated with Windows are opting for Macs instead of installing Linux. One reason Windows dominates the desktop market is its compatibility with a wide range of hardware. While some of the issue lies with greedy hardware manufacturers making Linux support challenging, the quality of Linux software and drivers needs to improve to make it a viable choice for more users.
Most people don't use Linux because they find it difficult to use. I find Linux easy to use but don't daily drive it because my favorite distro doesn't work well on my existing hardware. :-(

Re: My Frustrations with Artix Linux (and sometimes Linux) on Laptops!

Reply #8
What I was getting at was Windows only works well on the machines it was sold with because the manufacturer made sure it did, and it won't work on incompatible equipment either. Newer versions of Windows often won't run well on older machines too. Hardware compatibility isn't a Linux specific issue. When I get a laptop I search about on forums and online  to see if the models I was thinking of have any major problems on Linux. A lot of Dell's have been sold for many years with Linux as an original OS option, doubtless this is true of other manufacturers but those are what I tend to get - mainly because ex-business surplus cheap used ones are in plentiful supply. I'm not saying get a brand new laptop running Linux, and first try and find solutions in the settings and config, but if you have insoluble problems it might be an easy non-technical option to trade it for a similar era used one that is known to work well. I had one laptop that simply wouldn't run Linux at all, it was an old 32 bit one with a weird shared RAM graphics setup that had NEVER been supported on Linux and there's no likelihood of it ever getting a new Linux graphics driver now!  ;D  Should I have spent the next few years writing my own driver? No, I sold it, even putting a note in the description about that, and it still went OK to someone who wanted it to use with the original but obsolete Windows XP.

Re: My Frustrations with Artix Linux (and sometimes Linux) on Laptops!

Reply #9
4. Font Rendering: Fonts appear significantly blurrier on Linux compared to Windows, which impacts readability and overall user experience. I use my computer for extended periods of times and while I can use Windows for hours without having an eye strain, on Linux I get an eye strain due to blurry fonts.

You won't get the same rendering as on Windows, you can forget it. Mimicking that with Windows fonts + 9pt won't work, you'll be hit with questionable kerning, glyphs that are not properly sized, in wrong places, or just plainly badly rendered. I found out what works for me to get pretty much the same font **feel** as on Windows. I'm using Lato font as a main UI font + Cascadia Code as monospaced one. My fontconfig conf:
Code: [Select]
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
    <match target="font">
        <edit name="antialias" mode="assign">
            <bool>true</bool>
        </edit>
        <edit name="hinting" mode="assign">
            <bool>false</bool>
        </edit>
        <edit name="hintstyle" mode="assign">
            <const>hintnone</const>
        </edit>
        <edit name="rgba" mode="assign">
            <const>rgb</const>
        </edit>
        <edit name="autohint" mode="assign">
            <bool>false</bool>
        </edit>
        <edit name="lcdfilter" mode="assign">
            <const>lcddefault</const>
        </edit>
        <edit name="dpi" mode="assign">
            <double>96</double>
        </edit>
    </match> <-- All of this crap? I left it as my Loonix system was installed. Changing any of these made fonts look considerably worse. -->
    <match target="font">
        <test name="weight" compare="more">
            <const>medium</const>
        </test>
        <edit name="hintstyle" mode="assign">
            <const>hintnone</const>
        </edit>
    </match>
    <match target="font">
        <test name="size" compare="less_eq"><int>15</int></test>
        <edit name="embolden" mode="assign"><bool>true</bool></edit> <-- This is where most of the magic lies. Emboldening the font significantly improves its appearance, especially on Linux, where fonts smaller than 11pt typically don't render well at all. -->
    </match>
    <match target="font">
        <test name="family" qual="any">
            <string>Cascadia Code</string>
            <!-- other fonts here .... -->
        </test>
        <test name="size" compare="less_eq"><int>10</int></test>
        <edit name="embolden" mode="assign"><bool>true</bool></edit>
    </match>
    <match target="font">
        <test name="family" qual="any">
            <string>Cascadia Code</string>
            <!-- other fonts here .... -->
        </test>
        <test name="size" compare="more_eq"><int>11</int></test>
        <edit name="embolden" mode="assign"><bool>false</bool></edit>
    </match>
        <match target="font">
        <test name="family" compare="eq" ignore-blanks="true">
            <string>Lato</string>
        </test>
        <edit name="fontfeatures" mode="append">
            <string>liga off</string>
            <string>dlig off</string>
        </edit>
    </match>
    <match target="font">
        <edit name="embeddedbitmap"><bool>false</bool></edit>
    </match>
    <!-- Reject bitmap fonts in favour of Truetype, Postscript, etc. -->
    <selectfont>
        <rejectfont>
        <pattern>
            <patelt name="scalable">
            <bool>false</bool>
            </patelt>
        </pattern>
        </rejectfont>
    </selectfont>
    <!-- Roboto is fucked up. -->
    <selectfont>
        <rejectfont>
            <pattern>
                <patelt name="family"><string>Roboto Lt</string></patelt>
                <patelt name="weight"><int>100</int></patelt>
            </pattern>
            <pattern>
                <patelt name="family"><string>Roboto Bk</string></patelt>
            </pattern>
        </rejectfont>
    </selectfont>
    <!-- Set preferred serif, sans serif, and monospace fonts. -->
    <alias>
        <family>serif</family>
        <prefer><family>Lato</family></prefer>
    </alias>
    <alias>
        <family>sans-serif</family>
        <prefer><family>Lato</family></prefer>
    </alias>
    <alias>
        <family>sans</family>
        <prefer><family>Lato</family></prefer>
    </alias>
    <alias>
        <family>monospace</family>
        <prefer><family>Cascadia Code</family></prefer>
    </alias>
</fontconfig>

Result:
https://imgur.com/a/CClAqv1
I still miss windows font rendering and the ease of just clicking through cleartype to choose your sharp and nicely visible font. But here in freetardland, yeah, no, you'll have shitshow like this: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/-/issues/3787#note_1104303

 

Re: My Frustrations with Artix Linux (and sometimes Linux) on Laptops!

Reply #10

Since 2019, I’ve accumulated a ton of Linux ISOs on my HDD and have been actively testing various Linux distros in virtual machines or on old spare hardware that I have. I’ve recently decided to take a step further and test some live Linux USBs on my laptop, which is basically my main machine now. Here’s a rundown of the challenges I’ve encountered:

1. Sound Quality:
2. Touchpad Sensitivity:
3. Software Availability:
4. Font Rendering:
5. Fractional Scaling:
6. Hybrid GPU Issues:

It is stupid to always do the same thing and expect a different result.

If you persist in refusing to learn to think like a system admin, you will regularly fail at every triviality.
"Wer alles kann, macht nichts richtig"

Artix USE="runit openrc slim openbox lxde gtk2 qt4 qt5 qt6 conky
-gtk3 -gtk4 -adwaita{cursors,themes,icons} -gnome3 -kde -plasma -wayland "