HP Envy 17 17" - is "nvidia GT 740M" supported on wayland? (Zorin specifically of course)

Hardware Support
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Hi there,

I'm thinking of buying a second hand 17" laptop for my mum. The plan is for her to switch from Windows 10 to Zorin. My testing on a VM so far has been excellent - i'm confident she'll adapt to Zorin pretty easily. I actually think she'll prefer it.

Anyway, the laptop i've spotted that is (almost) within budget and is available is the HP Envy 17 - 4th gen Intel i5.

I've been using Linux for about 6 years now. I'm reasonably proficient - however in all that time i've never had an Nvidia graphics card. I'm aware of some issues with Nvidia and Linux generally - and i believe (correct me if i'm wrong) that the situation is not great for older Nvidia cards and Wayland.

Note - she does use the suspend!

As i don't yet have the laptop, i'd appreciate any advice. Cheers.

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I don't think so. Why would you run Wayland on Zorin OS 17 with a Nvidia card? Sounds like a very bad idea. Even with rolling release distros there's problem with Wayland.

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When You are afraid of Compatibility Issues You should use Xorg instead of Wayland for Nvidia I think.

There is some Progress for Wayland and Nvidia but that starts now and isn't relevant for Zorin.

The Alternative would be to use a Machine with AMD.

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Limited options. Affordable, available, 17".

It's why i asked before jumping in and buying.

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I'd rather not buy a device she'll keep for many years and restrict to X.org.

What kind of issues are present with Nvidia and Wayland? My mother doesn't need gaming performance, just smooth operation.

AMD is my preference too, as my exclusive use of AMD since using Linux implies :slight_smile: But availability is a problem in her budget.

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And that smooth Performance can be a Problem. On Wayland you could get Screen flickering or Freezing. Or the Desktop isn't show right. It don't have to happen but it can.

Wayland is in Progress because of a new Development called Explicit Sync. But this is only available in the newest Gnome 46.1 Version and KDE Plasma 6.1. And You need the newest Nvidia Driver 555 for it. And then You must have both.

Unfortunately this is not relevant for Zorin. It doesn't have the newest Gnome or Plasma Version because it is an LTS Distro based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

What would be her Budget? I could see if I see here maybe a Model that I could tell You and You look what it cost in Your Country.

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Cheers, but that's ok. We're looking second hand. New 17" - of any type i've seen - are outside her budget.

I've been talking with her. I have a spare monitor and she has a wireless keyboard/mouse. I might see if i can get her some "furniture" to make a usable set up. She has little room where she uses the laptop she currently has. She just needs a bigger screen, really.

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Okay, I understand. Only a little Idea for the space Situation:

When you have a Monitor. There is a PC Case that I know: Silverstone Milo 10. It is a samll Case with a VESA Mount so that you can mount the Case on the Backside of the Monitor. So, you would need to by a cheap itx-Board, an AMD APU a bit RAM and a m.2. Maybe You get some Stuff second hand. But not the m.2; that wouldn't be a good Idea.

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Oh, now that's a very good idea indeed! Thank you, i'll keep an eye out for something like that.

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