HP Victus 15 (Ryzen 5600H + RTX 3050) — Pop!_OS Linux-only: issues & tips?

Find Me a Distro
,
1

Post

Hi everyone,

I’m planning to completely switch from Windows to Linux on my HP Victus 15-fb0xxx laptop and would really appreciate advice from people who have used Linux on HP Victus / OMEN laptops, especially with AMD + NVIDIA hybrid graphics.

Laptop specs

  • AMD Ryzen 5 5600H

  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 (MUX-less Optimus)

  • MediaTek MT7921 Wi-Fi

  • Bang & Olufsen audio

  • HP OMEN firmware / Embedded Controller

Post

Hi everyone,

I’m planning to completely switch from Windows to Linux on my HP Victus 15-fb0xxx laptop and would really appreciate advice from people who have used Linux on HP Victus / OMEN laptops, especially with AMD + NVIDIA hybrid graphics.

Laptop specs

  • AMD Ryzen 5 5600H

  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 (MUX-less Optimus)

  • MediaTek MT7921 Wi-Fi

  • Bang & Olufsen audio

  • HP OMEN firmware / Embedded Controller

What I already understand / accept

  • OMEN Gaming Hub doesn’t exist on Linux, so no official fan curves or performance profiles.

  • Windows NVIDIA Control Panel / NVIDIA App are replaced by Linux tools (nvidia-smi, nvidia-settings, Pop!_OS GPU modes).

  • Bang & Olufsen audio tuning is Windows-only; Linux audio works but needs manual tuning.

What I’m looking for help with

1. Fan control & thermals

  • How does the Victus behave on Linux under sustained CPU/GPU load?

  • Has anyone successfully used NBFC or similar fan-control tools on this model?

2. Brightness / ACPI issues

  • Any brightness problems on this laptop with Linux?

  • Did you need kernel parameters like acpi_backlight=vendor?

3. Suspend / resume & Wi-Fi

  • Any sleep/resume issues (especially with MediaTek MT7921 or hybrid graphics)?

4. Keyboard backlight

  • Does the keyboard backlight work reliably on Linux?

  • Do the Fn keys and brightness levels work out of the box?

  • Any issues after suspend or reboot?

5. Backup & data migration (before wiping Windows)

  • What backup method worked best for you? (external SSD/HDD, NAS, cloud, etc.)

  • Recommended filesystem for cross-platform restore (exFAT, NTFS, others)?

  • Any clean workflow you’d suggest for restoring data after installation?

6. General Victus / OMEN Linux experience

  • Anything you wish you knew before installing Linux on this laptop?

  • Any firmware or power-management quirks to watch out for?

Final note

While I’m currently leaning toward Pop!_OS, I’m open to suggestions for other Linux distributions if you believe they handle HP Victus / AMD + NVIDIA hybrid laptops better for productivity workloads. Practical, experience-based recommendations are welcome.

Thanks in advance to anyone who shares their experience.

3 Likes
2

Hi and welcome to our site. Thanks for your question.

I am not able to answer all of your questions as some items I have no expérience on.

For me, i would create a boot usb of linux mint debian edition and then test each part of your question seperate without installing or replacing your existing system. Then make a backup of any important files you need to transfer to your new system.

Now to answer some of your questions based on lmde.

AMD Ryzen 5 5600H, no problem with linux

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 supported on linux

MediaTek MT7921 Wi-Fi again no problem

But based on your desire to go with a different linux version, will not continue to advise.

3 Likes
3

That is a fine choice,
Any of Mint, LMDE, MX are suitable
Maybe CachyOS if you are interested in gaming

Your hardware is unusual. I doubt if you will find anyone who has experience with that exact laptop.
There is this

and on brightness

https://www.linux.org/threads/problem-with-screen-brightness-control-on-hp-victus-gaming-laptop-with-amd-ryzen-5-5600h-and-nvidia-3050-gpu-victus-by-hp-gaming-laptop-15-fb0xxx.52482/

5 Likes
4

Interesting about its note at:

Virtual Machines
It is not recommended to install CachyOS on a virtual machine. VMs can have issues with incorrect configuration or can be broken entirely. It is recommended to install CachyOS on bare metal.

How popular is that distribution?

1 Like
5

It has been No1 on distrowatch for most of this year.
It is Arch based and is optimised for speed
i hesitated because noone seems to know how easy it is for a beginner

2 Likes
6

Thanks for the feedback … because I don’t play years ago I didn’t know about this distro…

1 Like
7

Read this from Hacker News

It seems they did a lot of work on kernel parameters

2 Likes
8

As usual thanks for your valuable and polite feedback :clinking_beer_mugs:

2 Likes
9

And thanks to you. You always come back and complete a topic.

3 Likes
10

Welcome to the forum @geooru.
I was impressed with the thoughtfulness and detail of your posting.
I too, do not have any experience with your hardware. I asked Co-pilot about your question and it agree with your choice of Pop_OS. It said 2nd choice of Fedora, and 3rd Ubuntu 24.04.

For Windows backup, I found Macrium Reflect to be an excellent choice. No longer maintain, but excellent software none the less. You can find the free version of it on the web.
For Linux backup, I use Clonezilla all the time.
But please note, I use these 2 programs to backup the system area and a different approach for backing up the data areas.

4 Likes