Debian 13 (trixie) on the Samsung Galaxy Book6 Pro 16

Trixie ships kernel 6.12. The Book6 Pro (Panther Lake, Arc B390 / Xe3) needs kernel 6.18+, Mesa 25.3+ and current firmware. All of it comes from trixie-backports.

Before installing

1. Update the BIOS from Windows. Samsung ships firmware only through Windows Update.
2. Have wired network ready (USB-C Ethernet or phone USB tethering). Wi-Fi will not work in the installer.

1. Install trixie

Install from the standard netinst or DVD image. Keep non-free-firmware enabled. The desktop will run on software rendering until step 4.

2. Enable backports

Create /etc/apt/sources.list.d/backports.sources:

Types: deb
URIs: http://deb.debian.org/debian
Suites: trixie-backports
Components: main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/debian-archive-keyring.gpg

sudo apt update

3. Kernel and firmware

sudo apt install -t trixie-backports \
    linux-image-amd64 \
    firmware-linux-nonfree \
    firmware-intel-graphics \
    firmware-iwlwifi \
    firmware-sof-signed

Check the kernel version is 6.18 or newer before rebooting:

apt policy linux-image-amd64

Reboot, then verify:

uname -r
lspci -k | grep -A3 -E "VGA|Display"   # Kernel driver in use: xe

Secure Boot keeps working; backports kernels are signed.

4. Mesa

sudo apt install -t trixie-backports \
    mesa-vulkan-drivers libgl1-mesa-dri libegl-mesa0 \
    libglx-mesa0 libgbm1 mesa-va-drivers
sudo apt install mesa-utils vulkan-tools

Verify:

vulkaninfo --summary | grep -E "deviceName|driverName"

llvmpipe means you are still on software rendering. Check apt policy mesa-vulkan-drivers; if backports is below 25.3, wait for the update or move to Debian testing (forky).

5. Samsung platform driver

Included in the backports kernel (samsung-galaxybook, 6.15+).

lsmod | grep samsung_galaxybook
cat /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile_choices
ls /sys/class/power_supply/        # battery name, e.g. BAT1

Other firmware options are under /sys/class/firmware-attributes/samsung-galaxybook/attributes/.

6. Swap Alt and Super

The Fn key cannot be remapped. Swap Alt and Super so Alt sits next to Fn.

Do it in udev hwdb, not in xkb. GNOME on Wayland applies altwin:swap_alt_win to every keyboard, so external keyboards and docks get swapped too. A hwdb remap changes scancodes for the built-in keyboard only.

Create /etc/udev/hwdb.d/61-keyboard-builtin-altwin.hwdb:

evdev:atkbd:dmi:bvn*:bvr*:bd*:svnSamsung:pnGalaxyBook6Pro-PAMB:*
 KEYBOARD_KEY_38=leftmeta
 KEYBOARD_KEY_db=leftalt

• atkbd matches only the internal i8042 keyboard, and only on this Samsung model.
• 0x38 is Left Alt, which now sends Super.
• 0xdb is Left Super (e0 5b), which now sends Alt.
• Right Alt is unchanged.

Apply it without a reboot:

sudo systemd-hwdb update
sudo udevadm trigger --subsystem-match=input --action=change

On another laptop, take the vendor and product from /sys/class/dmi/id/sys_vendor and /sys/class/dmi/id/product_name, remove the spaces, and put them in the svn and pn fields. If the keys do not swap, check the scancodes with sudo evtest or sudo showkey -s.

Fn + F12 toggles Fn Lock. It resets on reboot.

7. Check the rest