Around 2020, I got the aforementioned laptop. At that time, I was using Windows, and generally, my IT knowledge was quite poor. Then I had a break from using it due to issues with computer overuse, and after returning from treatment (2021), I started using other laptops. This one ended up in a closet. Around 2023 I got a my beloved ThinkPad T470.
After some time, I dug this laptop out of the closet and wanted to install Linux on it. I managed to do it, but I couldn’t install the drivers for the dedicated graphics card. Because of that, I didn’t have HDMI or the dedicated card itself functioning. I was installing proprietary drivers, which generally caused issues with the kernel. So, the laptop just sat there for a long time.
At a certain point, towards the end of 2025, I realized that I actually needed a more powerful machine than the ThinkPad T470. So I dug out this old laptop, and at the urging of the LLM I use daily, I tried to put it together. With its help, I finally managed to set up those drivers because it turned out that my previous failure to install them was simply because I hadn’t enabled the ‘contrib’ repository.
It was a success! What’s more, it’s quite a beast now. I threw in a 1 TB SSD, 16 GB of RAM, bought a 200W power supply, and raised the TDP to 45W in UMAF. I must say I am proud of this computer, and I also tweaked a lot of things within the system itself. This laptop has also taught me a lot; before this, I briefly had a PC with an Athlon, which introduced me to playing around with motherboard settings.
What is the purpose of my post? To give hope to people with Nvidia GPUs or laptops with dedicated cards that it is indeed possible to set them up :)"
See the screenshot for the full specifications; I recommend taking a look
There has been a lot of advances even with Nvidia in recent years. Assuming the GPU in the laptop is semi-modern (not sure if it's 10xx or 20xx and newer, but one of those), you should be able to just install any modern distro and it should just work. This is especially true for gaming focused distros (like CachyOS), which doesn't have to be used for gaming btw. They will auto-detect just fine in the installer and there is zero effort or tinkering required.
I know that. I just wanted to install the drivers strictly on Debian because I love Debian, and it’s the only distro I use. I’d been jumping around between different distros, but after falling in love with LMDE’s stability, I fell in love with Debian, and then I just switched straight to a clean install of pure debian