@bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

bigmclargehuge

@bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. View on remote instance

bigmclargehuge ,
@bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

Ventoy is hit and miss in my experience. Verify the MD5Sum and flash the iso directly to the drive.

bigmclargehuge ,
@bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

Debian might at least be worth a look. It's been around for ages and is incredibly stable. No, it's not bleeding edge, but there's always Debian Sid (unstable).

I just finished setting up Linux Mint for an old buddy of mine on his old dog of a laptop, rendering it useful once again! ( i.imgur.com )

Edit 2: to everyone suggesting an SDD: i know. Look, if this guy had enough $$$ for an SSD, he could buy a used lappy less than half the age of this one that has an ssd and 2-3x the memory....

bigmclargehuge ,
@bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

Warms my crusty heard seeing tech saved from a landfill. Good job

bigmclargehuge ,
@bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

99% positive. Wayland works flawlessly. HDR didn't cause issues (all AMD hardware).

The only issues I have off the top of my head are

1: Some icons in the system tray and system settings menu (the 'Clipboard' icon on the dock and the 'Touchscreen' tab in settings, and a couple others) display as a blank rectangle sometimes. Other times, they display as they should. Haven't even bothered looking for a solution as it doesn't effect usability in the slightest.

2: Certain pop up menus for dock applets, ie the Bluetooth applet, display incorrectly. I actually saw a post of another user having this issue, where the window only shows as a small square, and can require a re-log to actually make it work.

Other than these minor glitches, nothing has given me any issues.

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

  • Loading...
  • bigmclargehuge ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    My go-to for a workaround to networking issues is to use USB Tethering from my phone. Most Android phones from the past decade or so should support it, not sure about Apple. It's super handy because all the configuration is done via the phone, so the computer needs no drivers or settings. Just plug n play until you get things set up on the computer.

    bigmclargehuge ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    Yeah as an Arch user I disagree. Imo a handheld meant to be a plug and play system would hugely benefit from a stable OS with a laid back update schedule. You don't see PlayStation pushing constant updates the second BSD packages get new versions.

    As others have said, Valve has their own immutable release system, so it doesn't really matter. In this case, the rolling release has even less to do with it. They likely chose Arch due to the up to date packages which benefit gaming.

    bigmclargehuge ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    I got into linux right before all the snap drama really blew up (it did exist but didn't seem to be quite as hot of a topic). I really liked my experience with Ubuntu, but seeing where Canonical has taken it, I'd never recommend it to anyone. I'd honestly advise newbies to use Debian. It's incredibly stable, has a fantastic and well established community, and has everything an average user would want without adding layers of confusion with things like snap.

    bigmclargehuge ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    This was my fathers approach when I was growing up. I was basically allowed to do whatever I wanted offline. But, outside of a small handful of websites (a couple gaming websites maybe), everything online needed his permission. This gave me a really solid understanding of how things worked, troubleshooting, etc, while also not letting me see anything too heinous.

    bigmclargehuge ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    Hehe well my dirty secret is that I was a Windows XP and MacOS X kid😅 I still have a real soft spot for those systems, especially XP. If I were ever to have kids though, I'd take this approach and introduce them to Linux young.

    bigmclargehuge ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    Yeah but here's the thing. The linux community actually has measurable and immediate impact on the OS they choose to involve themselves in.

    Have an issue with MacOS or Windows? The absolute best case scenario is that you complain to the devs and they might fix it in a future update.

    Have an issue on Linux? Luckily the community you are a part of is also the development team, so you can work together to directly make changes. If those changes aren't to your satisfaction, you can even find some like-minded people and start your own distro.

    bigmclargehuge OP ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    I'd be willing to use flatpak if all else fails. I've had lots of wierd issues with flatpak that overall have me leaning away from using them if at all possible. I generally prefer using native programs unless there is literally no other option.

    bigmclargehuge , (edited )
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    I use jstest-gtk. Really light handy tool for testing and calibration. Antimicrox also works great for rebinding controllers.

    bigmclargehuge ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    If you reset all theming options to default (icons, window decorations, colors, etc), and backup your config files, there should be no issues upgrading to KDE6. Keep in mind though, most themes for KDE5 don't work for 6 unless the author updated, or you're willing to manually modify a couple files. Most icon packs should be available though.

    bigmclargehuge ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    I'm personally not a fan of any universal packaging solution. I've tried flatpaks, appimages, and snaps, and ran into weird, annoying issued that I just never have when I install via package manager, build from source or even just run a portable build of an app.

    I see the appeal of a universal package, but imo a bigger emphasis on portable native builds would solve a lot of the issues these packaging solutions are aiming for, while not introducing many of the downsides

    What're some of the dumbest things you've done to yourself in Linux?

    I'm working on a some materials for a class wherein I'll be teaching some young, wide-eyed Windows nerds about Linux and we're including a section we're calling "foot guns". Basically it's ways you might shoot yourself in the foot while meddling with your newfound Linux powers....

    bigmclargehuge , (edited )
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    My biggest thing when switching to Linux was understanding why I didn't have permission to alter half of my file structure. I was trying to take ownership of my /usr directory as a user and had to have multiple people explain why that was a bad idea (and why simply making any changes as a super user via terminal was more than adequate for the results I wanted).

    My mindset was a result of so many user files being spread across dozens of branches of the Windows file structure. Some very close to the root of the drive, some a few directories deeper. I didn't really understand the benefit of having all my stuff in /home (and am now a full convert. Just thinking about navigating a Windows drive makes my skin crawl now).

    bigmclargehuge ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    Gotta say, yours ain't bad either my friend

    bigmclargehuge ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    As a few others have said, most distributions are good for gaming. Arch, being a distribution that requires lots of manual configuration, requires some setup for the best performance.

    Read these two articles throughly and use the tweaks that apply to your system/needs.

    Straight from the Arch Wiki:

    Improving Performance

    Gaming (section 7 and section 9 are especially useful).

    bigmclargehuge ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    When l go to upgrade my system and my skin crawls.

    Seriously though, generally I justwantt only what I actually use. I recently reinstalled because I had a bunch if useless junk that was eating space for zero gain.

    bigmclargehuge , (edited )
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    Have it on GOG and play via heroic. I get 80+ FPS at high settings @1440p (balanced FSR), AMD R7 5800x, RX 7600XT. This is on Arch.

    I had to use winetricks to install some DLLs to the prefix in order for the game to work properly with mods, but beyond that I've had no issues.

    Edit, I just reinstalled the game yesterday. Installed via heroic, set my wine version to Proton experimental. Set my launch executable to Cyberpunk2077.exe, rather than the launcher (launcher was just a black box for me). Opened winecfg from heroics settings for the game, went to the Libraries tab, and added version to my list of installed libraries. That can be typed in manually, or picked from the drop down. After that, the game works as expected, and most mods I tried work (unfortunately, a resource called Codeware that a lot of mods rely on seems to crash my game. However, I only have a handful of mods, and none of the ones I use need it).

    bigmclargehuge , (edited )
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    Some Android phones can already be dual booted with (in theory) any other UEFI compatible OS. There's a whole guide on the PostmarketOS about setting up a dual boot environment.

    I briefly tested PostmarketOS on a OnePlus 6T. The core functions seemed fine but overall it lacked functionality, so my plan was to dual boot with LineageOS (a degoogled android project) for the bits that really just want a true android environment to function properly, and PmOS for everything else I could manage. In the end I just wasn't up for the process of setting up a dual boot, and went with just LineageOS. Been really happy with it so far, and will probably revisit dual booting when PmOS is more feature complete.

    Edit, I suppose this doesn't touch on the idea of running two separate OS's on separate chips, and it does require a reboot to get the functionality of one OS or another, but besides that hiccup you'd get mostly the same functionality out of less complex hardware.

    bigmclargehuge ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    I have a rule about acronyms: if the spelling makes sense to be said as a word, I follow the English grammatical rules. A word that's spelled s-u-s-e would be pronounced "soos", so that's what I say.

    This is why I don't pronounce GNU as "ga-noo", it doesn't make sense as a word. In those cases, I just spell them out.

    bigmclargehuge ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    No. I've never seen an english word resembling this type of spelling, so I just say each letter.

    To each their own, imo my way reduces the risk of confusion. There's no way to misinterpret what I mean when I say G-N-U rather than g'nue

    bigmclargehuge ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    Well thats the thing, generally if I see an acronym and have to ask myself how it would be pronounced as a word, by my rule I just spell it out.

    For a great example of this (unrelated to FOSS), look at LGBTQIA+. Even though it's a mouthful to say each letter individually, no one wrestles it into "Leguhbuht'kwia plus", it just doesn't make sense and saying it that way would probably ellicit a dead stare from whoever heard it. Unless it's painfully simple to morph into a word or single syllable, I don't bother.

    I'm not trying to say this is the right way, mind you. It's just the way that makes the most sense to me.

    bigmclargehuge ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    Well I'll be, I humbly stand corrected. I will don the dunce cap for this one

    bigmclargehuge ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    How to actually get games running:

    Download steam, make an account, log in. Go to the settings, find "Steam Play" and enable for unsupported titles. This enables Proton, which is a customized version of Wine, a Windows-Linux translation layer, plus some extra tweaks specifically for gaming. This lets you play the vast majority of all Windows games on Steam on your Linux machine.

    Check out protondb to find out how compatible your chosen game is. You'll see a rating, as well as user experiences on how well it worked, what issues they experienced, and the tweaks they made to mitigate them (take note that there is a section on each games page that is specific to the Steamdeck, Valves handheld. Not all info in this section is relevant to general PC users, so make sure you follow the more generic section).

    If you look around and find a specific game that isn't on Steam, Heroic Launcher and Lutris are your friends.

    Heroic is a very nicely polished launcher for Epic Games, Amazon and GOG. It allows you to pool all three into a single library. You can use tools like winetweaks directly in the launcher, pick different Wine/proton versions per-game, etc. I'd use this as a secondary option to Steam.

    Lutris also allows you to pool your games from multiple storefronts into one (Steam, Epic, EA, Ubisoft, GOG, and manually installed). Lutris can be a little complex compared to Steam and Heroic. It's very powerful, but somewhat spartan and can also be a bit buggy in some specific instances. It's very well suited for older games that aren't on major storefronts, emulators, or old CD games, mainly thanks to its option to set games up via standard windows installers or add existing games by pointing lutris to their installation path.

    TL;DR, Start with steam, try some cheaper/free games. A great starting point would be Valves own games, as they're cheap and heaps of fun (Portal, Half-Life, etc). They also usually have a Linux native version so you don't need proton (although, counterintuitively, I find Linux Native games often don't work as well as Windows games+proton). After you get your toes wet, go for some other storefronts and library apps. Have fun and good luck, don't be afraid to ask for help.

    Easily find program name from context menu/without terminal?

    I occasionally need to know the names of programs. I asked here about "Run as Administrator" being added to the context menu (like in Windows), and the response was basically "can't be easily done". an example is if I wish to edit a config file it cannot be done without accessing the terminal. Knowing the name "gedit" is the...

    bigmclargehuge ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    https://xyproblem.info/

    People want to know because you're asking how to do something that (whether you like it or not) is unorthodox and can cause issues. People want to know if the ROOT of your issue is solvable via orthodox means that won't cause issues.

    Even in your other post, you were asking how to run a program with sudo via a context menu, but you didn't say why you needed to. You aren't giving us info on the root of your problem OR end goal, only the means you want to use to get there. There could easily be a simple way to achieve your goal, but via different means. People want to help but it can be difficult for them to give directions when they don't have a point of origin or a destination.

    Not trying to be an ass, just trying to give some insight as to why you may not be getting the answers you hoped for, and why some people might seem like they're actively avoiding giving them to you.

    bigmclargehuge , (edited )
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    Find the .desktop file for the desired program (should be in /usr/share/applications) Right click, properties, then somewhere in that window, it should show the exact command that the .desktop file invokes when launched. In that command should be the actual program name (ie, /usr/bin/firefox-esr, firefox-esr is your program name).

    Alternatively, right click, "Open With", choose a text editor, then you'll see a couple lines of information. One of those lines of info should be that command as well.

    Edit, to be fair, I'm also not a fan of Gnome's obfuscation of program names. It may make sense for very new users, but I also found it counterproductive in certain use cases

    bigmclargehuge ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    If you like LibreTube check out Grayjay. It similarly lets you privately browse and watch YT content, while also being able to subscribe and make playlists, but it's killer feature is pooling all your subscriptions across different platforms into one feed. Ie having your Patreon, YouTube, Twitch, etc all in one app.

    bigmclargehuge ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    The beauty of Linux is that you have choices. You can easily start with something very light (I'd recommend XFCE), then install any number of other desktops.

    As others have said tho, use a VM or WSL first. Test things out with different DEs, see which you like, then install those on a live system (just to avoid having numerous DE's on your final install).

    What distro should I use on my potato?

    I have an HP Stream 11 that I want to use for word processing and some light web browsing - I'm a writer and it's a lightweight laptop to bring to the library or coffee shop to write on. Right now it's got Windows and it's unusable due to lack of hard drive space for updates. Someone had luck with Xubuntu, but it's been a few...

    bigmclargehuge , (edited )
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    This is probably the way to go. Relatively minimal install with a pretty lightweight DE. Rock-solid-stable too, so even if you update obsessively, you're very unlikely to ever need to downgrade anything.

    I actually went with this setup on a Dell M4500 and it works a treat, really gave the ol gal a second lease on life.

    bigmclargehuge ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    Just something to note, LXDE is no longer officially maintained by the original devs (there are some community maintainers). LXQt is the new project from those devs and still seems to be going strong.

    Not saying to avoid LXDE, just that updates may be few and far between.

    bigmclargehuge ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    I'll stick with alsa almost purely for the mixer. Such a handy and slick little tool.

    bigmclargehuge OP ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    I'm glad too. Not gonna lie I still love XP, I feel like it was the peak of Windows in may ways.

    bigmclargehuge OP ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    Trial and error, lots of reading ProtonDB, wikis, etc. I only just recently got a decent handle on how to properly use wine prefixes to get mods and things working.

    In general, use Steam when you can, then use Heroic for non Steam games. Lutris is very powerful and super useful for games that aren't installed from a larger distributor, ie from a CD or direct from the devs, but I find the UI can be a bit spartan. Steam and Heroic have fewer features but are way more user friendly.

    Good luck. It can definitely be frustrating but remember that you have access to tons of resources and an excellent community if you encounter issues.

    bigmclargehuge OP ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    Oversteer should be what you need. Just take note that you need an extra driver module for the T300RS.

    bigmclargehuge OP ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    Yeah, it's definitely not ideal at the moment, loads better than it used to be though.

    I've heard that Valve has a linux native version of the Steam Link VR app in the pipeline, hopefully it comes within the next year or so.

    bigmclargehuge OP ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    AMD is generally a much better experience overall, but a handful of things are worse than NVidia (off the top of my head, Ray Tracing, AI, and Emulators. AMD cards tend to have graphical glitches in emulators even on Windows. They can be mitigated, and aren't universal but they are an issue).

    In my experience, AMD is the way to go. My old GTX 1080 was a beast and put in great work, but just had too many naggling stability issues that constantly got in the way of enjoying it. Been really happy with my AMD.

    bigmclargehuge OP ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    My jam was always turning off flight assist and just tossing a small ship through an asteroid belt. Haven't played much since Odyssey but I recently got the itch again

    bigmclargehuge OP ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    Linux audio is really under appreciated. I'm one of the nutjobs that still uses a PCI sound card and I've never had to install a third party driver. I can manually adjust the output and EQ for every port, disable or enable them on the fly, etc. The only thing I'm missing is hardware EAX support for older games but I've kind of accepted that's just a dragon I'll always be chasing.

    bigmclargehuge OP ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    Honestly I'd still use XP if more programs supported it. As i said to another user here, it was Windows at its peak. It created the basic layout and feature set that modern Windows still uses, but lacks all the bloat and ads.

    bigmclargehuge OP ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    I'm in the same boat. I'm actually on the verge of going full open source and building my own direct drive with OpenFFBoard.

    bigmclargehuge OP ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    I left most things default. When I first set it up I played with all the settings and made everything worse lol.

    I can tell you that I set the resolution to the highest setting, the refresh rate to 120hz and the bitrate to the quality settings. Everything else, I left default. I found that this resulted in the best clarity while not really making the artifacting/lag any worse. I'm still playing with it though.

    If you have the option in SteamVR's game specific settings to enable "Legacy motion smoothing", apparently that improves things noticably. For some reason motion smoothing is completely unavailable to me though so I can't personally attest.

    I've heard audio was an issue, but in my case (Arch plus KDE6), it was as simple as picking my audio output in the system tray dropdown. I could stream it to my headset or send it out of my headphones I have plugged in.

    Edit: I'm gonna link this becaust I found it while looking into why motion smoothing was unavailable. Apparently disabling async reprojection via a config file can give a noticable performance boost. I've yet to try it but I'll add another edit when I'm back at my rig long enough to test it out.

    bigmclargehuge OP ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    I was considering sourcing my own parts as I haven't come across a full kit that seemed to have everything I wanted.

    Also thats super cool, although I'm currently pretty happy with the rest of my setup atm. May look into the shifter at some point tho

    bigmclargehuge OP ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    Adding a little update. Recently reinstalled my system as things were getting cluttered. For some reason, I was unable to install ALVR (or the git version) from the AUR. When building the AUR package manually, I'd get to 99% and the terminal would just close, yay resulted in the same error.

    However, the portable .tar release of the latest version works perfectly. Performance is even better, I've had fewer bugs/connectivity issues, and once I followed the official Settings Tutorial and this article on how to disable SteamVR Async Reprojection things have been working 99% as well as they were on Windows. I have noticed occasional quality degradation, but it was never detrimental to the experience overall. And, it's worth noting that ALVR can function over USB with a link cable, so that should eliminate any issues caused by wireless streaming.

    Just thought I'd report my experience and hopefully give some folks a push to try it out. This is a huge step for the overall Linux experience IMO, as it's very quickly opening up an entire aspect of gaming/computing in general really that, until a few months ago, was effectively not viable outside of Windows.

    bigmclargehuge OP ,
    @bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world avatar

    Yeah im not sure about audio. I'm using pipewire and it seems to work fine OOTB with both the built in Quest 2 speakers, and my sound card audio

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • random
  • All magazines