Linux Mint Installation on the Framework Laptop 16

First, download Linux Mint from Linux Mint's website. Linux Mint has a detailed installation guide that you can follow. We'll go through the steps in this Guide assuming you have a simple installation scenario of a fresh install on a blank drive.

Download balenaEtcher as a tool to create the USB installer from the ISO. balenaEtcher is available for MacOS. Install it.

Launch balenaEtcher. Insert your USB drive (8GB or larger). Click on "Flash from file" and select the Linux-Mint iso that you downloaded. Click on "Select target" and choose your USB drive. Click "Flash" and wait a minute or two for it to complete.

Once the USB drive creation is complete, you can close balenaEtcher and eject the USB drive from your OS.

First, download Linux Mint from Linux Mint's website. Linux Mint has a detailed installation guide that you can follow. We'll go through the steps in this Guide assuming you have a simple installation scenario of a fresh install on a blank drive.

New line.Download Rufus as a tool to create the USB installer from the ISO - select the top download option from the link provided. Rufus is available for Windows. Install it.

Launch Rufus. Insert your USB drive (8GB or larger). Click on "Flash from file" and select the Linux-Mint iso that you downloaded. Click on "SELECT" and choose your USB drive. Click "START" and wait a minute or two for it to complete.

Before we begin the installation process with the Live USB, let's make sure you have your Linux Audio Compatibility set to Linux in the BIOS. Explanation as to what this does can be found here.

Power on the laptop, repeatedly tapping F2 in order to get into the BIOS. Note: If you're having trouble with this, try again, holding down the Fn key while rapidly tapping F2.

In BIOS mode, arrow key over to Setup Utility. Press the enter key. Arrow down to Advanced. Then arrow right, then arrow down to Linux Audio Compatibility. Press enter.

A new box for Linux Audio Compatibility will appear, arrow to Linux, then press enter. Now press F10 key to reboot.

Now we don't have an OS installed yet. So the reboot won't get us to a running operating system and we fully expect to see an error to this point. Simply press the power button to shutdown.

The next step is to install Linux Mint.

Secure Boot is optional: Enabling secure boot is completely optional and not necessary for normal operation, it's a personal choice. Follow this link if you wish to enable it before installing Linux Mint. More about secure boot here.

Insert the USB drive into your powered off Framework Laptop 16, and then power on. If you have an existing OS installed on the Storage drive in your laptop, you'll need to tap F12 as you boot to bring up the Boot Manager screen. You can then select the "Linpus lite" item with your arrow keys and hit Enter.

If you don't have an internal storage drive installed or it is blank, the laptop will boot to the USB drive directly.

Hit Enter again to boot into Linux Mint.

After a few seconds, you're in! If you just want to try Linux Mint out, you can use the live USB version of it without touching the internal storage drive. If you do want to install Linux Mint to the internal storage drive, go on to the next step.

Click on the Install Linux Mint icon on the desktop.

Select the language and keyboard language you'd like to use. On the Multimedia codecs screen, optionally check the "Install multimedia codecs" box and set a Secure Boot password, and click Continue.

If you do select Secure Boot, on the first boot after installation, a blue screen will come up, and you can select Continue.

On the "Installation type" screen, you may have a range of options available if there is already on OS on your internal drive. For the purposes of this guide, we're assuming a clean install with the "Erase disk and install Linux Mint" option. For the other advanced options around dual booting, check Linux Mint's documentation. Click "Install Now".

Follow the on-screen instructions to select your time zone and set up your user account. After installation completes, click Restart Now.

Before updating to the latest firmware, let's make sure we verify which BIOS were running. Please follow this guide.

For Framework Laptop 16 AMD Ryzen 7040 Series, you can check here for the latest firmware.

If you are looking to run Steam games, please follow our guide links below.

You will be using the Ubuntu links below for 1 or 2 NVMe drives to run games on Linux Mint.

One NVMe Drive Guide.

Two NVMe Drives Guide.

If you are unsure if something is using the dGPU, use this AppImage program.

For all other applications, simply run your software with DRI_PRIME=1 cheese (or whatever the application name is).