[-] d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz 106 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Unfortunately you chose the wrong distro for your friend - Linux Mint isn't good for gaming - it uses an outdated kernel/drivers/other packages, which means you'll be missing out on all the performance improvements (and fixes) found in more up-to-date distros. Gaming on Linux is a very fast moving target, the landscape is changing at a rapid pace thanks to the development efforts of Valve and the community. So for gaming, you'd generally want to be on the latest kernel+mesa+wine stack.

Also, as you've experienced, on Mint you'd have to manually install things like Waydroid and other gaming software, which can be a PITA for newbies.

So instead, I'd highly recommend a gaming-oriented distro such as Nobara or Bazzite. Personally, I'm a big fan of Bazzite - it has everything you'd need for gaming out-of-the-box, and you can even get a console/Steam Deck-like experience, if you install the -deck variant. Also, because it's an immutable distro with atomic updates, it has a very low chance of breaking, and in the rare ocassion that an update has some issues - you can just select the previous image from the boot menu. So this would be pretty ideal for someone who's new to Linux, likes to game, and just wants stuff to work.

In saying that, getting games to run in Linux can be tricky sometimes, depending on the game. The general rule of thumb is: try running the game using Proton-GE, and if that fails, check Proton DB for any fixes/tweaks needed for that game - with this, you would never again have to spend hours on troubleshooting, unless you're playing some niche game that no one has tested before.

11
submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz to c/minipcs@lemmy.world

The Beelink SER8, launched last month in China, is now available globally. This mini PC packs the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS, and a starting price of $749, which comes with 32 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage. There's also a barebones version from MiniXPC at $499.99.

The impressive bit is that SER8 supports up to 256 GB(!) of DDR5 RAM running in dual-channel at 5600 MHz. This mini PC also uses a low-noise (32dB) dust-proof design, and can deliver up to 65 watts of performance.

140
submitted 5 months ago by d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

Ventoy is an open source tool to create bootable USB drives for ISO/IMG/VHD(x)/WIM/EFI files. With Ventoy, you don't need to format the disk over and over, you just need to copy the disk images to the USB drive and boot them directly. You can have multiple images on the disk and Ventoy will give you a boot menu to select them.

Changelog for 1.0.98

  1. Updated EFI boot files.
  2. Fix the issue that can not recognize Ext4 filesytem created with latest gparted.
  3. Fix the issue that VTOY_LINUX_REMOUNT=1 cannot take effect in RHEL9/CentOS9. (#2827)
  4. Fix the boot issue for latest archlinux. (#2825 #2824)
  5. Fix the boot issue for latest KAOS.
  6. languages.json updated.
  7. vtoyboot-1.0.35 released. Notes
100
submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz to c/linux_gaming@lemmy.world

Vesktop is a custom Discord App with an aim to give better performance and support on Linux.

v1.5.2 fixes various audio issues related to screensharing and also overhauls video streaming with various fixes/improvements:

  • Fix resolution and framerate selection
  • Fix bug that stops users from changing the streamed window (created by allowing resolution changes)
  • Fix bug where changing windows allows you to lower the fps but not raise it
  • Beautify modal for starting a stream(show preview and content type as a dropdown)
  • Fix issue where stream quality overlay does not update to show the current quality of the running stream
  • Enable contentHint and allow the user to choose between "motion" and "detail"
  • Allow users to start streams while watching another stream
[-] d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz 132 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Because:

The DistroWatch Page Hit Ranking statistics are a light-hearted way of measuring the popularity of Linux distributions and other free operating systems among the visitors of this website. They correlate neither to usage nor to quality and should not be used to measure the market share of distributions. They simply show the number of times a distribution page on DistroWatch was accessed each day, nothing more.

So people see it on the list and click on it wondering "what the heck is this MX Linux thing". And that boosts the ranking. And now that it's at the top, it attracts more curious clicks, thus it continues to remain on top.

186
submitted 6 months ago by d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz to c/linux@lemmy.ml

Sadly, DNF5 and the new Anaconda installer didn't make it to the party, in case you were wondering.

20
submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz to c/minipcs@lemmy.world

The 70W TDP boost is a decent improvement from the UM790 Pro's 35W. It is also expected that the XTX version won't have any of the fan issues that plagued the Pro version, if the 780 XTX is any indicator.

139
submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz to c/technology@lemmy.world

The company rolled out Google One's VPN feature back in 2020, but you could only access it if you're paying for a plan with at least 2TB of storage, which costs at least $10 a month.
...
it's discontinuing the feature because "people simply weren’t using it."

Gee, I wonder why... 🙄

122
submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz to c/linux@lemmy.ml

The main issue is the handling of security updates within the Nixpkgs ecosystem, which relies on Nix's CI system, Hydra, to test and build packages. Due to the extensive number of packages in the Nixpkgs repository, the process can be slow, causing delays in the release of updates. As an example, the updated xz 5.4.6 package took nearly 5 days to become available in the unstable branch!

Fundamentally, there needs to be a change in how security fixes are handled in Hydra. As stated in the article, Nix was lucky to be unaffected, but multiple days to push out a security patch of this severity is concerning, even if there was no reason for concern.

61
submitted 7 months ago by d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

Winlator is an Android application that lets you run Windows (x86_64) games and applications using Wine and Box86/Box64.

Version 6.0 Changelog:

  • Added Magnifier
  • Added option to add Wallpaper
  • Improved UI
  • Fixed Container startup error that occurred on some devices
  • Improved XInput compatibility
  • Improved Input Controls and Cursor sensitivity
  • Added support for external mouse
  • Updated Wine, Box86/Box64, Turnip and DXVK
  • Added "Bring to Front" on Task Manager
  • Added 7-Zip on context menu
  • Removed the option to install OBB image (now it's all in one apk)
  • Performance improvements and other fixes
4
submitted 7 months ago by d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz to c/support@lemmy.nz

Can we get some icons for c/support and c/wellington please?

This is triggering my OCD:

Thanks!

17
submitted 7 months ago by d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz to c/sbcgaming@retrolemmy.com

Miyoo has showcased its Game Boy Advance SP-inspired retro gaming handheld. Launching later this year after the Miyoo A30, the Miyoo Mini Flip will feature a flip-up display, two joysticks and enough power to emulate up to PlayStation 1 games.

39
submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz to c/linux_gaming@lemmy.ml

#Edit: This has been resolved now.


For those of you who've been using the Steam Deck variant of Bazzite on desktops/HTPCs with AMD GPUs - beware that currently there's a bug affecting (some?) users, where the GPU's TDP is capped to just 15W!

You can check your settings by running a tool like LACT (ujust install-lact):

As you can see, LACT shows the current limit is 15W, but it can actually go upto 280W on my card.

A bug report for this was opened last year, but it was closed as fixed, but at least one other user (besides me) has been experiencing it - so check your wattage, you might be affected too!

At the moment there are no actual fixes - but you can try the workaround posted in the original bug report. Also, using tools like LACT or corectrl isn't a fix unfortunately, because as soon as you go into game mode (or reboot), the limit resets back to 15W. I'm currently troubleshooting this with a couple of the developers, and hopefully we may get to bottom of this soon.

As for the performance impact - here's a screenshot of Last Epoch running at a glorious 4 FPS, thanks to the caps:

75
submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz to c/linux@lemmy.ml

Wayfire is a 3D Wayland compositor, inspired by Compiz and based on wlroots. It aims to create a customizable, extendable and lightweight environment without sacrificing its appearance.

v0.8.1 is a bug-fix release with a few new features. Notable changes:

  • Compatible with wlroots 0.17.x releases and wf-config 0.8.x

  • Support for multiple new protocols:

    • shortcuts-inhibit-v1 (shotcuts-inhibit plugin, #1969)
    • fractional-scale-v1
    • wlr_drm_lease_v1 for non-desktop outputs
    • input-method-v1 for better fcitx5 support (#2172).
  • Wayfire's IPC has been extended with many new signals and commands:

    • Has methods to get view, output and workspace (and workspace-set) information
    • Signals for view-mapped, unmapped, plugin-activation-state-changed and several others.
    • More plugins can be activated via the IPC, check the full commit log for details.
  • Wayfire supports SIGINT, SIGTERM for graceful shutdown (#2056, #2197)

  • Oswitch has binding to switch in the other direction (#2072)

  • Many crashes and bugs were fixed, including regressions in the 0.8.0 release.

[-] d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz 116 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

This is my my phone running Debian with XFCE:

[-] d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz 150 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I'm a Flatpak user myself, but a lot of those arguments against AppImage are outdated or invalid. Here are my counterpoints:

Usability issues

GearLever solves all the problems mentioned.

Updates

There are AppImages out there that self-update , but GearLever also solves the update issue. And if you don't want to use GearLever, there are other updaters like AppImageUpdate.

The lack of repositories
Appimages don't even have a central place where you can find them, not to mention download them.

This is blatantly wrong - AppImageHub exists for this very reason. There are also GUI frontends like AppImagePool which makes it easy to discover/download/install them.

Lack of Sandboxing

That is a fair point, however, AppImage never claimed to be a sandboxing solution, and for some use-cases this can even be seen as an advantage (any Flatpak user would've at some point run into annoying sandboxing limitations - such as password manager and browser integration, or themeing woes). But there are other sandboxing options out there, such as using containers, and IMO, using a proper container is a better option for sandboxing. Or even better, use a VM if you're actually running an untrusted app.

Random location
[..] A necessary step would be mounting the entire /home non-executable. This is no problem for system apps, or Flatpaks, but where do you put Appimages now?

There would need to be a standard directory to put such files in, which is normally the PATH. But this is also the easiest attack goal for malware, so PATH would be non-executable as well.

I completely disagree with making the entirety of /home as non-executable, when $HOME/.local/bin is recommended by the XDG standard as a place to store executables. As long as $HOME/.local/bin is in the XDG spec, I'll continue storing my executables there. If you disagree, go argue with the XDG guys.

Duplicated libraries

This is a fair point but "they include all the libraries they need" is the entire point of AppImage - so mentioning this is pointless.

If users would really install every Software as Appimages, they would waste insane amounts of storage space.

Then it's a good thing that they don't right? What's the point of making hypothetical arguments? Also, this is 2024, storage is cheap and dedicating space for your applications isn't really a big deal for most folks. And if storage space is really a that much of a concern, then you wouldn't be using Flatpak either - so this argument is moot and only really valid for a hypothetical / rare use-cases where storage is a premium. And again, in such a use case, that user wouldn't be using Flatpaks either.


Finally, some distros like Bazzite already have the above integrations built-in (GearLever/AppImagePool), so you don't even need to do anything special to get AppImages integrated nicely in your system, and there's nothing stopping other distros adding these packages as optional dependencies - but it's kinda moot at this point I guess since Flatpak has already won the war.

Personally, I'm pro-choice. If AppImage doesn't work for you, then don't use it, as simple as that. Stop dictating user choice. If AppImage is really as bad as you claim, then it'll die a natural death and you don't have to worry about it. What you really need to worry about is Snap, which has the backing of Canonical, and some dev houses new to the Linux ecosystem seem to think packing stuff as Snap is an acceptable solution...

[-] d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz 272 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

matching other programs and platforms

Actually, Ctrl+C is the interrupt hotkey for pretty much every CLI app/terminal on every platform. Try it within the Command Prompt/PowerShell/Windows Terminal, or the macOS terminal - they'll all behave the same.

The use of Ctrl+C as an interrupt/termination signal has a very long history even predating the old UNIX days and DEC - it goes back to the days of early telecommunications, where control characters were used for controlling the follow of data through telecommunication lines. These control characters, along with regular characters, were transmitted by being encoded in binary, and this encoding scheme was defined by ASCII (American Stanard Code for Information Interchange), published in 1963.

In ASCII, the control character ETX (meaning end-of-text; represented by the hex code 0x03) was used to indicate "this segment of input is over", or "stop the current processing".

Now what does all this have to do with with Ctrl+C you ask?

For that, you'll need to go back to the days of early keyboards. Keyboards back then generated ASCII codes directly, and when a modifier key (Ctrl/Shift/Meta) on a keyboard was pressed in combination with another key, it modified the signal sent by the keyboard to produce a control character.

Specifically, pressing Ctrl with a letter key made the keyboard clear (set to zero) the upper three bits of the binary code of the letter, thus effectively mapping the letter keys to control characters (0x00 - 0x1F: the first 32 characters on the ASCII table).

  • The ASCII code for 'C' is 0x43 (binary 01000011).
  • Pressing Ctrl+C clears the upper three bits, resulting in 00000011, which is 0x03 in hex.

And would you look at that, 0x03 is the code which represents the control character ETX.

The use of ETX to interrupt a program in digital computers was first adopted by the TOPS-10 OS, which ran on DEC's PDP-10 computer, back in the late 60s. It's successor, TOPS-20 also included it, followed by the RSX-11 (on the PDP-11), and VMS (on the VAX-11).

RSX-11 was a very influential OS, created by a team that included David Cutler. It influenced the design of several OSes that followed, such as VMS and Windows NT. Cutler later moved to Microsoft and became the father of Windows NT. Early NT did not include a GUI, so it was natural to adopt existing terminal operation standards, including the use of ETX. In fact, NT's internals were so similar to VMS that a lawsuit was in the works, but instead, MS agreed to pay off DEC millions of $$$.

Also, when UNIX first came out (1969), it ran on DEC hardware, and so they followed the tradition of using the ETX signal to stop programs. This convention flowed to BSD (1978) which was based on UNIX, and NeXTSTEP (1989), which was based on BSD. NeXTSTEP was developed by NeXT Computers, which was founded by Steve Jobs... and the rest is history.

Therefore, Ctrl+C is something that's deeply rooted in history. You don't just simply change something like that. Sure, you may be able to remap the keybindings, but it's actually hardcoded into many programs so you'll run into inconsistencies - that is, if you used the standard remapping tools built into GNOME/KDE etc.

If you want to truly remap Ctrl+C, you'll want to do so at a lower level (evdev layer) so that it's not intercepted by other programs, eg using tools like evremap or keyd. But even then, it's not guaranteed to work everywhere, for instance, if you're inside a VM or using a different OS, or in a remote session. So it's best to remap the keys at the keyboard layer itself, which is possible on many popular mechanical keyboards using customisable firmware like QMK/VIA.

[-] d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz 166 points 9 months ago

If you were looking for answers to such questions 10 years ago, your best resource for finding a thorough, expert-informed response likely would have been one of the most interesting and longest-lasting corners of the internet: Quora.

I disagree, the best place for such answers used to be Reddit, and Stack Exchange for the techy stuff. Quora always felt like cancer for some reason and I never really used it.

[-] d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz 146 points 9 months ago

Just so you're aware, Gitea was taken over by a for-profit company. Which is why it was forked and Forgejo was formed. If you don't use Github as a matter of principle, then you should switch to Forgejo instead.

[-] d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz 134 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

private

If it's on the public facing internet, it's not private.

[-] d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz 161 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Why don't laptops have proper low power states

Actually, they do, it's called the "S0" low power state, and it's part of the ACPI standard. Microsoft calls this "Modern Standby" in Windows (and "suspend to idle" in Linux) , and it's pitched to do exactly what you've described.

The only problem is, the implementation sucks. Most users actually hate the S0 state because it consumes so much power - on some laptops, even the fans may continue to run on S0, and your laptop may overheat if you've closed the lid and chucked it in a bag, and it's in the S0 state.

Also, because Microsoft and Intel have been pushing this so much, the "standby" mode now defaults to S0 instead of S3 (which is full suspend-to-RAM). So many users actually actively seek to disable S0 and go back to proper S3 standby, via registry hacks etc.

So why is S0 so bad? Part of this is due to the limitations, long history and the variable nature of the x86 platform. All the power-saving stuff was implemented as an after-thought - both at the hardware and software levels. Whereas ARM, at least the modern ARM ecosystem, was developed with mobile usage and power saving from ground up. An x86 PC is also made up of components from disjointed manufacturers, and we need all those components to implement the same standards so that it all works well as expected. So for instance, if a particular component isn't capable of entering a low-power or active standby state, then it won't - and you can't do much about that, unless you're Apple and have a tight control over the ecosystem.

The second half of the problem comes with the software. All applications must be modern standby / S0 aware, if not, one of two things will happen: that app will keep the system awake, or the app will get suspended by the Desktop Activity Moderator (DAM). Either way, the app must be capable of running in the DRIPS phase (deepest idle runtime platform state), which rules out most Win32 apps (basically almost every app that's not on the Microsoft Store).

Finally, the reality is that most PC users don't care about modern standby regardless - and why should they, when they've all got smartphones, which handles notifications well? Also, hardly anyone does large file downloads these days, and the people who do still download, wouldn't care about doing it while on battery (and if they do, they can take manual actions to lower the power consumption, such as switching to a power saving plan and turning off the display etc).

Ultimately, most people would expect a laptop to go into a fully suspended state when the lid so closed and they're on battery, because if they're on battery the #1 concern for them would be the battery life. So most people actively seek to disable S0 and see it as a hindrance.

[-] d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz 125 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Not exactly a story, but a picture thread on Reddit where a guy posts a photo of his tattoos on his arms, and someone goes "how did you take this picture", so he posts a selfie showing him balancing a phone on his shoulder, and someone replies "wait how did you take that picture" and then he posts a photo of him taking a photo of him taking a photo... and this continues until he reveals multiple complex camera setups. Such a legendary thread.

Edit: here it is: https://imgur.com/gallery/JThDN

[-] d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz 173 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Over-reliance on proprietary, closed-source products and services from megacorporations.

For instance, it's really absurd that people in many parts of the world cannot function without WhatsApp, they can't even imagine a life without it. It seems absurd that Meta literally has them by the balls, and these people can't do anything about it.

Also the people who base their entire careers on say Adobe or Microsoft products, they're literally having their lives dictated by one giant corporation, which is very depressing and dystopian.

[-] d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz 118 points 1 year ago

That's actually a good thing IMO, Microsoft is giving people more reasons to switch to Linux. How kind of them!

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d3Xt3r

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