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From: =?utf-8?Q?Bj=C3=B8rn_Mork?= <bjorn@mork.no>
Newsgroups: linux.debian.maint.boot
Subject: Horrible user experience with fresh trixie install on a Thinkpad  X11 Carbon Gen12
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2026 13:30:01 +0200
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Xref: csiph.com linux.debian.maint.boot:77343

Tried something new today:  A fresh install of trixie on a "modern"
(2 year old) laptop.

First boot, after what I perceived as a successful install, resulted in
a black screen with a frozen cursor on top left.  No response to any key
press.  Hard power off was the only way out.

Booting in recovery mode and installing firmware-intel-graphics fixed
the problem.

But how many new users will know how to

 - boot into recovery mode,
 - configure networking manually,
 - guess that a firmware is missing,
 - know which package to look for, and
 - how to install it from the command line?


My guess is that approximately 100% of users facing such issues will
simply try another distro, until they find one that works out of the
box.

This is NOT a question about non-free firmware blobs.  I'm fine with
asking users to explictly install those.  The problem is that there was
no such question, and the system was so broken without the firmware that
most users are unable to make that choice even if they knew about it.



Bj=C3=B8rn