If I were to come?

[Edward78]

I have GIGABYTE B550I AORUS PRO AX (AM4 AMD/B550/Mini-Itx/Dual M.2/SATA 6Gb/s/USB 3.2 Gen 1/WiFi 6/2.5 GbE LAN/PCIe4.0/Realtek ALC1220-Vb/DisplayPort 1.4/2xHDMI 2.0B/RGB Fusion 2.0/DDR4/Gaming Motherboard)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 8-core, 16-Thread Unlocked 4.7 GHz
TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z DDR4 32GB (2 x 16GB) 3200MHz (PC4 25600) Ram
EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti XC Gaming, 08G-P5-3663-KL, 8GB GDDR6, Metal Backplate, LHR.

Will that be ok? I ask because I installed Mint & it didn't boot. I have heard Nvidia & Linux don't mix.

[skyfishgoo]

linux and nvidia get along just fine for everyday use (GUI, office work, etc) as long as you only rely on the free drivers that come with the linux kernel.

if you want to do more graphically intense things like gaming, CAD or video editing then it would be worth the effort to upgrade to the proprietary drivers.

proprietary nvidia driver install and maintenance can be tedious at times but kubuntu makes it about as painless as it can get for a linux distro.

but first i would recommend installing without any proprietary drivers just to get the desktop up and working, so you have a base of operation.

then from a terminal you can run

ubuntu-drivers devices​

to see which driver is recommended for you GPU

then go to settings > driver manager > additional drivers and pick that driver from the list.

restart the system and you should be using the nvidia drivers with noticeably better performance.

[Edward78]

I indtalled Mint, it didn't boot. The live boot came up fine though. If I install, can I always update to the next release through the package updater?

[skyfishgoo]

kubuntu LTS includes an upgrade system that will move you to the next LTS when it becomes available.

it's mostly works but there can be issues if you have installed any 3rd party repos or if you try to upgrade without updating everything first.

[Edward78]

So, no issues with the Nvidia drivers? I had Manjaro & update it broke (KDE broke, Gnome was fine) even with the open source Nvidia driver).

[skyfishgoo]

an upgrade moves all of your installed system files from one repository to another ... there should be 1:1 correspondence between what is on your pre-upgraded machine with what can be found in the new repository.

if there is any mismatch, then problems can occur... the point updating first is that it should bring your system to parody with what will be found on the new repository, but mistakes have been made in the past and will likely be made in the future, so there is no guarantee.

also the new repository is often recompiled new versions of what you had so they may be regressions within each of those even if the process goes smoothly from the upgrade pov.

if the nvidia drives you have installed are from the kubuntu repositories (and not some random .deb you downloaded) then it should go smoothly and the new driver will be what it is (flaws and all).

if you want to be extra safe then, back out the proprietary drivers and fall back to the kernel drivers before you upgrade just to rule out one more point of failure.

[Edward78]

I get a white screen on live boot.