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We are an online shop willing to sell laptops with Ubuntu installed. We have an order with a distributor of MSI but have not tried Ubuntu on MSI laptops previously.

These are the laptops:

  • MSI GE60 2PC(APACHE)-281XES - "I7-4710MQ/8GB/1TB/VGA 2GB/15.6""/FREEDOS " --nvidia-gtx850m
  • MSI GE60 2PE(APACHE PRO)-213XES - "i5-4200H/4GB/750GB/VGA 2GB/15.6""/FREEDOS" –nvidia-gtx860m
  • MSI GE60 2PL(APACHE)-264XES - "I5-4200H/4GB/500GB/VGA 2GB/15.6""/FREEDOS" –nvidia-gtx850m
  • MSI GE70 2OE-474XES-BB54208G75SX NEGRO - I5-4200/8GB/750GB/VGA 2GB/FREEDOS –nvidia-gtx765m
  • MSI GE70 2PC(Apache)-211XES - "I5-4200H/4GB/750GB/VGA 2GB/17.3""/FREEDOS" –nvidia-gtx850m
  • MSI GT60 2PC(DOMINATOR)-829XES - "i7-4710MQ/8GB/SSD 128GB+1TB/VGA 3GB/15.6""/FREEDOS" –nvidia-gtx870m

Are they 100% compatible with Ubuntu 14.04?

David Foerster
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Jose Manuel Melero Cantos
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5 Answers5

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I can only vouch for the GE60 2PE (Apache Pro), as I own the model, or rather a variant of it... Mine has an i7 4700HQ CPU, 8GB of ram and a Kingston V300 SSD I slammed in there for good measure.

I am running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (since every other version before that has no Ethernet/Wi-Fi). Installation was of no trouble.

It runs very stable (which is to be expected), however I've found that not everything works, most importantly the USB 2.0 ports. They almost always have erratic behaviour, in the sense that if I connect my mouse it is not usable (very jerky movement), and if I connect my Nexus 5 I can't transfer anything over MTP. USB 3.0 works, though.

I think the above issue already makes it a deal breaker, but among other things, sometimes turning the Touchpad off makes it unusable unless you reboot and you cannot take advantage of the RGB backlit keyboard features without some tinkering. Bluetooth doesn't seem to work properly either.

Well, this about sums it up for my experiences. Take all this with a grain of salt, perhaps the USB issue is my fault. You can always give it a try, I can at least guarantee you that you won't blow up the laptops by doing so. ;)

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I have a MSI GE60 Apache, using both debian and ubuntu, I can tell these:

  • wifi works fine on ubuntu, on debian you need to install firmware-iwlwifi from non-free repository
  • bluetooth seems to work fine
  • ethernet works fine
  • touchpad seems to work fine, I dont use it much
  • the RGB backlit needs the workaround "user322799" mentioned, its not hard to make it work.
  • usb 3 ports work fine
  • usb 2 ports have the issue "user322799" mentioned, it may not happen every time and it can be fixed by disabling "Legacy USB Support" from "USB Configuration" in EFI/Bios settings (i.e. your external keyboard wont work on grub afterwards but its not that big a deal) Update: problem still persists
  • for the graphics, you can install bumblebee or bumblebee-nvidia and in most cases it'll work fine. there's also lots of information on debian, ubuntu and arch wiki for bumblebee.
NightW01F
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Graphics (GTX 860M) worked for me with:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-prime nvidia-349 nvidia-settings mesa-utils
sudo nvidia-xconfig
sudo reboot

Also helped with USB jerky movements at USB 2.0 ports.

Jens Erat
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r0m
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I've got an asus g750jm with a gtx860m card in it.

As for the 860m it's very difficult to get it functioning properly. From my own experience: sometimes when I install drivers from edgers they cause Ubuntu 14.04 to crash randomly or not even load at all. I had it working one time, with no problems however I did get it working the same way it crashed other times. Obviously something was different but I haven't figured out what yet.

These are the instructions I wrote for setting it up: Ubuntu and ASUS G750JM, GTX860M / Nvidia problems

ps if anyone sees anything wrong with this do let me know so I can change it maybe it'll work right everytime then

Community
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Daniel
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  • I got it working again, it doesn't pull quite the frame rate that windows does in fact I have to go from Ultra to High in Wow but it works nonetheless. – Daniel Oct 19 '14 at 21:01
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I have an msi apache pro ge60 2pe.

Just referencing the usb jerky movement mentioned by @user322799, i noticed that it happens because the nouveau driver for the nvidia 860m.

If i boot with nouveau.modeset=0 ( disabling nouveau ), usb movement is smooth. :)

AlexJP
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  • Even though this may be considered useful information, this is not an answer. Your post is better as a comment as it does not answer the question, only extend on another answer. – Xweque Feb 22 '15 at 09:58
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    You cannot comment with reputation 1. But I agree that this is a helpful comment. – mikuszefski Nov 17 '15 at 07:38