An opinionated, battle-tested Kubuntu 24.04 LTS setup and developer environment guide for an automotive-to-marine-robotics engineer. Tuned specifically for:
- Hardware: ASUS TUF Gaming A17 (AMD Ryzen 7 4800H, NVIDIA RTX 3050 Mobile, 16 GB, 2x 512 GB NVMe)
- Dual-boot: Windows 11 on a dedicated SSD, Linux on a dedicated SSD
- Workload: Automotive HW/SW integration, ROV/AUV robotics transition, M.Tech in AI, KiCad PCB design, STM32 embedded, Next.js blog
- Toolchain: Podman/Distrobox, ROS 2 Jazzy, CUDA 13, KiCad 9, STM32CubeIDE, PlatformIO,
uv,fnm
Factual note: Kubuntu 24.04 LTS ships KDE Plasma 5.27 LTS, not Plasma 6 (Plasma 6 arrived in Kubuntu 24.10). This guide compares what you can actually install today on a supported LTS. See the Verdict for the full reasoning.
Read sequentially for a full build-from-scratch, or jump directly to the section you need. Every page has top and bottom navigation bars with previous / next / home links so you can move through the guide without returning here.
| You want to... | Start here |
|---|---|
| Understand why Kubuntu over Ubuntu (2024 analysis) | Part 1 — The Verdict (v1) |
| Review the 2026 landscape verdict | Part 1 (v2) — 2026 Re-verdict |
| Compare Fedora vs EndeavourOS vs Kubuntu, evaluate Ubuntu 26.04 | /best — 2026 Distro Research |
| Install Linux right now | Part 2 — Setup Guide |
| Set up the dev environment on an existing install | Part 3 — Dev Environment |
| Find an app for a specific task | Part 4 — Application Stack |
| Run a scripted one-shot install | Appendix A — Provisioning Script |
| Fix a broken system | Appendix B — Troubleshooting |
| Just see the 10-step TL;DR | Executive Summary |
The verdict in one paragraph, plus a 10-step quickstart.
Deep technical comparison across six axes (resource management, Wayland + NVIDIA, multitasking workflow, Snap/telemetry, DX vs UX) with a definitive recommendation pinned to your profile. Superseded by Part 1 (v2) as of 2026-04-18; retained for historical record.
Dated 2026-04-18. Consolidated conclusion after the 2026 landscape review: stay on Kubuntu 24.04 LTS today, upgrade to Kubuntu 26.04.1 LTS in ~August 2026. Includes the revised non-negotiable technical positions table.
Two deep-research documents that feed the v2 verdict.
- Fedora KDE vs EndeavourOS vs Kubuntu — 2026 Deep Research — 8-axis comparison (release cadence, ROS 2 via Distrobox, NVIDIA, PREEMPT_RT, TUF enablement, dual-boot, package ecosystem, switching cost).
- Ubuntu 26.04 LTS "Resolute Raccoon" Evaluation — what changes (kernel 7.0, Plasma 6.6, sudo-rs, Wayland-default, native CUDA/ROCm), the
.0release risk, and the August 2026 upgrade timeline.
Scratch-to-powerhouse installation and tuning.
- Pre-install: Windows 11 prep
- BIOS / UEFI configuration for ASUS TUF A17
- Installation & partitioning (BTRFS subvolumes, systemd-boot)
- First-boot debloat (snap removal, Flatpak, KDE PIM pruning)
- Kernel & boot optimization (zram, sysctl, service masking)
- ASUS TUF A17 hardware enablement (asusctl, supergfxctl)
- UI/UX tweaks for engineers (KWin tiling, Activities, Konsole profiles)
Reproducible developer toolchain.
- Containerization: Podman (rootless) + Distrobox
- Embedded & hardware toolchain (KiCad, STM32, PlatformIO)
- AI/ML: NVIDIA 580 + CUDA 13.2 + cuDNN 9.21 + PyTorch via
uv - Next.js blog workflow (
fnm,pnpm, Vercel CLI) - Learning roadmap for subsea robotics
100+ recommended applications across 10 categories (browsers, terminal, IDEs, robotics/EDA, AI/ML, productivity, communication, media, system, virtualization) with install channel (APT / Flatpak / upstream repo / binary / container).
Copy-paste bash script that chains the post-install steps for a reproducible rebuild.
TUF A17 + NVIDIA hybrid-GPU pitfalls and fixes (suspend-wake black screens, MT7921 Wi-Fi drops, D3cold battery drain, SDDM login loops, Gazebo GL failures, BTRFS metadata exhaustion, dual-ESP boot-order drift, etc.).
Exec Summary → Verdict → Setup (all 7 steps in order) → Dev Env (all 5 topics in order) → App Stack
Estimated time: 3-4 hours for the install phase, 2-3 hours for dev env setup. Or run the Appendix A script after a manual install to compress post-install into ~30 minutes of unattended time.
Skip to Dev Env. Skim the debloat and kernel pages in Part 2 for anything you may have missed.
Read Executive Summary + Verdict. ~15 minutes.
c:\Code\linux-system\
├── README.md (this file — landing page + TOC)
└── docs/
├── 00-executive-summary.md (TL;DR verdict + 10-step quickstart)
├── 01-verdict.md (Part 1 v1 — Kubuntu vs Ubuntu 24.04)
├── 01-verdict_v2.md (Part 1 v2 — 2026 Re-verdict; supersedes v1)
├── best/ (2026 distro landscape research)
│ ├── README.md (section landing page)
│ ├── 01-distro-deep-research.md (Fedora KDE vs EndeavourOS vs Kubuntu)
│ └── 02-ubuntu-26.04-evaluation.md (Resolute Raccoon upgrade analysis)
├── 02-setup/ (Part 2 — Installation & tuning)
│ ├── README.md (section landing page)
│ ├── 01-windows-prep.md
│ ├── 02-bios-uefi.md
│ ├── 03-install-partitioning.md
│ ├── 04-debloat.md
│ ├── 05-kernel-boot.md
│ ├── 06-asus-hardware.md
│ └── 07-ui-ux.md
├── 03-dev-environment/ (Part 3 — Developer blueprint)
│ ├── README.md (section landing page)
│ ├── 01-containers.md
│ ├── 02-embedded.md
│ ├── 03-ai-ml.md
│ ├── 04-web.md
│ └── 05-learning-roadmap.md
├── 04-applications.md (Part 4 — Curated app stack)
├── appendix-a-provisioning.md (one-shot provisioning script)
└── appendix-b-troubleshooting.md (TUF A17 + NVIDIA fixes)
- Keep this repo on the Linux SSD and commit changes as your workflow matures. Everything here is a starting baseline, not dogma.
- Snapshot before you experiment.
sudo timeshift --create --comments "pre-<thing>"costs 10 seconds and saves hours. See Part 2.5. - The marine-robotics transition is not an OS problem; it is a skills-stack problem. This setup removes OS friction so the only variable is how much you learn per week. Items 1–5 of the learning roadmap, practiced daily in the
ros2-jazzy+ros2-humblecontainers with a real Pixhawk / BlueRobotics test rig, is enough to be credible in six months.
Next: Executive Summary →