Migrated to a Framework 13

I've got a new main computer

About every ten years, when my old computer falls apart or its ebay-supplied clones feel severely outdated[1], I'm getting myself a new notebook computer to go everywhere I go. Last Wednesday such a historic event took place: I switched the hardware my venerable file system run on to a Framework 13[2] with an Intel “Core Ultra 5 125 H” (gasp) CPU.

I thought I'd get a Framework because I finally wanted a metal case, and the promise of a certain modularity and of realistically available spare parts appealed to me. The downside of the Framework's some-assembly-required approach is that when the package had arrived[3], I ended up with lots of little branded boxes on my table. At least much of it is cardboard:

That almost everything is snapped together with magnets feels a little odd; let's see how I'll like that. I wouldn't have minded screws, I must say.

But then the biggest annoyance was Intel. Yes, I have asked for it and I could have picked the AMD version. But I was so impressed with the silicon in the X240 that got a lot of computation and graphics done while drawing only about 2 Watts.

You will need the Ubuntu Kernel and Xorg

Against that, the Ultraultra thing in this (“13th gen”, I think) Framework was really annoying because I could not, for the life of me, get its graphics part to work with Debian Trixie (and I reckon it is drawing at least 4 Watts – whatever happened to progress?). „Not getting” included hand-building a current kernel and fetching whatever firmware Intel distribute on github.

It just didn't work. I could get X11 with nomodeset, but since I really need to operate projectors and external monitors, that is no actual option. As soon as the kernel or X11 touched the graphics chip's registers, the best I could hope for was a frozen display; usually, I would just have a black screen. No error messages, except perhaps for the occasional “unknown chipset” in Xorg.0.log, just brokenness and blind guessing.

In particular this lack of any sort of diagnotics was really frustrating, which made me look for hints on Linux with this architecture online and even with Framework itself (which kernel should work, which Xorg version?). While that did not help much, it made me realise that in stark contrast to all my previous computers, Framework have commercially supported Linuxes. Why don't I look what they do?

Sure enough, Ubuntu Noble Numbat booted up smoothly (tackily, even including a vendor logo on the boot splash) and ran X11 without a hitch. What? And that on a 6.14 kernel where my 6.16 showed nothing but a black screen?

Well, under whatever logic it was a working configuration. Even better, the the Ubuntu kernel and Xorg packages install on a Debian Trixie without ruining the whole system. So, that's what I did, and that's the main point of this post: If you'd like to run Debian Trixie on a Framework 13 with <gasp> Intel “Core Ultra 5 125 H” (who invents these stupid names?), drop the following into a (presumably new) file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntu.sources:

Types: deb
URIs: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/
Suites: noble noble-updates noble-backports
Components: main
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/ubuntu-archive-keyring.gpg

Then do an apt update and install linux-image-unsigned-6.14.0-1006-oem (or something similar) and xserver-xorg-video-intel.

To avoid contaminating your system with more Ubuntu packages, once you have done this, immediately move ubuntu.sources out of sources.list.d again and apt update once more for good measure. Shame on you, Intel, for failing to build your software and hardware such that functionality degrades gracefully for at least a few generations.

Do I Like My New Framework?

“And what do you think of the box?”, you ask? Ah well. I think I like it that I can apparently program the embedded controller. The metal case feels good. The USB-based expansion pods seem like a good idea now that USB3 should be fast enough for everyone and everything™. I like screen aspect ratio: 16:9 may be good for watching videos, but that's not what I got the computer for. For most other things, the 3:2 ratio feels good, although it is somewhat at odds with the conventional 4:3 that has worked for me for many years, too. More on this in a later post.

Against that, there's a clickpad. Yikes. On the X240, the clickpad was borderline bearable because the box had a trackpoint and I could turn the clickpad into three tactile buttons with duct tape; On the Framework… ah well.

The box has far too few LEDs; indicating network activity, disk activity and being in a critical section (e.g., having an encrypted filesystem mounted) is in effect already too much; the power button feels a bit flimsy; the function keys are not grouped, which makes finding the right one without peeking harder than it would need to be.

Most importantly, the display has a far too high resolution, at least when you want to drive it from a machine that also has to drive normal, 90 dpi, monitors. About my current mitigations I will report in the next post under the framework tag.

Summing up: Well, I think I'll learn to like the box.

[1]

My previous machine, a Lenovo X240, didn't really feel terribly outdated and was basically fast enough for everything and had enough RAM, too. But even the replacement hardware I got from ebay did fall apart (damn the plastic), and I have to say that Lenovo's stupid whitelisting finally fell on my feet and I felt a moral urge to migrate away from Lenovo.

[2]

This is apparently becoming a popular choice. I'm typing this in a regional train to Frankfurt, and across the aisle there's another person with a Framework 13. How unnerving. Nachtrag (2025-11-30) On the return trip, approaching Würzburg, again a person with a Framework 13. Scary, actually. It seems I'm succumbing to a trend.

[3]

Shockingly, Framework had the thing shipped to me air mail from Taiwan. I, for one, could have waited two weeks for a ship, which would have yielded noticeable savings in the transaction's CO₂ footprint. But then electronics certainly is in the class of goods that have an intrinsic footprint that is so large that air freight doesn't really register.