• Activity
  • Votes
  • Comments
  • New
  • All activity
  • Showing only topics with the tag "linux". Back to normal view
    1. My hands-on experience with the Gun4IR

      Note: This is NOT a sponsored post. I'm just a happy customer. Background When the G'AIM'E Kickstarter was announced, I got the itch to play light gun games again. I grew up playing Time Crisis on...

      Note: This is NOT a sponsored post. I'm just a happy customer.


      Background

      When the G'AIM'E Kickstarter was announced, I got the itch to play light gun games again. I grew up playing Time Crisis on my PSX, stepping on a controller plugged into port 2 which acted as a makeshift pedal so I could mimic the arcade experience. A local pizza place near me had an Area 51 machine that I could play for a quarter, and over time I memorized the enemy layouts for that game so that I could play further and further on one coin.

      There are a variety of modern light gun models available now, though all of them are at the hobbyist/tinkerer level. There isn't one that "just works" smoothly and easily.

      The most well known is the Sinden, which achieves calibration on games by setting up a white border around the game on the screen. This allows the gun to establish its position within that border and "know" where it's shooting.

      Unfortunately, when I looked into the Sinden, it seemed like reviews were very mixed, with many mentioning that the border can be kind of a mess to get working. Apparently it can require a lot of legwork and messing around with settings and external programs and whatnot.

      After searching around for alternatives, I landed upon a different line of modern light gun and decided to, well, pull the trigger.


      Gun4IR Intro

      Gun4IR on its own isn't a standalone product so much as it is a framework for making a modern light gun. You can buy the individual components and put them all together in a gun casing, making a functional light gun of your choosing. For example, see the User Guide which goes into detail about which boards you'll need, pin guides, etc. People have made them in Nerf cases and 3D printed ones.

      Now, if I'm going to ding the Sinden for requiring too much tinkering, surely soldering wires onto PCBs is a step in the wrong direction?

      That's absolutely correct! The good news is that you can sidestep all of this. Gun4IR has some official pre-build sellers, meaning you can buy an already made gun -- no soldering needed! Their site sells builds for the UK, while, RPEG Electronics is their official pre-build seller for the US.

      From RPEG, I picked up a pre-built Gun4IR setup in a Guncon 2 housing.


      Gun4IR Basics

      As is implied by the name, Gun4IR uses 4 different IR clusters for calibration. You can buy a pack of LED sensors that plug into the USB port of your TV. You stick these, facing out, to the midpoint of the top, bottom, left, and right of your TV. The LEDs are black and their light can't be seen with the naked eye but can with a camera (you can check to make sure they're working with your phone).

      The gun comes with calibration software that gives you lines on your TV to show the mount points for the LEDs, check how the gun is seeing the sensors, line up shots, etc.

      I'm happy to report that, once calibrated, my gun is VERY accurate. I was honestly expecting a bit of jank, but it's genuinely spot on. There's a small bit of jitter that's noticeable when you have a crosshair on (some of that also might be coming from my unstable hands), but when you're playing a game without a crosshair, it's not enough to make you miss shots. The shots I've missed have been because I'm, well, bad at videogames.


      Games

      Because I wasn't wanting to tinker, I found a big download pack that promised me a pre-configured set of ROMs and emulators that were turnkey and compatible with Gun4IR. I spent days downloading all the individual parts from one of those sketchy download sites, getting all the parts of a multi-part RAR file.

      And when I started extracting it, wouldn't you know, it was INFESTED with viruses. I uploaded one of the .exes to VirusTotal and I've never seen so much red.

      Shame on me, though. I'm not an internet newbie, and I should know better than to trust random executable files, especially on Windows.

      So, I went seeking an alternate solution.


      Batocera

      Batocera is a Linux distribution focused on retro-gaming. You wouldn't use it as your daily driver, but you would use it if you want to just boot into something so you can play games. Additionally, Batocera has built-in light gun support! Perfect!

      I did my usual "setup emulation" dance that I've done so many times before: looking up worthwhile games to play, locating ripping ROMs, getting the right extracting BIOSes, etc. I also bought an external hard drive and attached it to my Windows TVPC. I can now boot off the hard drive to go into Batocera directly (because I didn't want to try to figure out dual booting with Windows).

      Batocera is like booting into an arcade cabinet, loading right into ES-DE. It doesn't really expose its file system to you by default, but it's got a killer feature that makes setup easy: Batocera automatically sets up a network share for you. This lets you access all of its folders from another device, meaning I could set everything up on my laptop and transfer it over easily to Batocera.

      Furthermore, Batocera automatically knows when you've got a light gun attached and will show a gun icon on games that are compatible. In theory, I'm able to navigate the interface just using my light gun, but in practice I also paired a bluetooth controller. (See Caveats section below for more on this.)

      You don't HAVE to use Batocera of course, but it ended up being so easy that it became my preferred setup.


      Gaming

      So, I got the gun calibrated, and I got my games set up in Batocera. It's time to shoot!

      I'm happy to report that the gun works fantastically. Like, seriously good.

      For most games and emulators, it "just works" which is exactly what I wanted. I tested out several different games on several different platforms, and it worked on stuff ranging from the Atari 2600 to Naomi arcade cabinets.

      I played through the first 10 rounds of Duck Hunt on the NES without missing a shot before getting bored and moving to something else. Time Crisis on the PlayStation (my original light gun love) plays wonderfully.

      I had a friend over this weekend who also loves light gun games and has nostalgia for TC (though his is for TC2 and TC3). We traded off rounds playing Time Crisis 2 (which ended up being a good way to do it, as I forgot how my arms and eyes need a rest after 15 minutes of light gun gaming). We beat the full campaign in 2 and almost beat 3.

      I also tried the gun out in some Windows games off of Steam, just to make sure that my Batocera success wasn't a fluke. Sure enough, it worked just fine!

      I now have an accurate, easy-to-use light gun setup that works on my large, modern LCD TV. I have hours of light gun gameplay ahead of me, and I'm thrilled.


      Caveats

      Wow, kfwyre, this sounds great! I can't wait to get one for myself!

      Easy there, cowboy/cowgirl/cowthem! Let me surface some of the rough edges, lest you think that this is too good to be true.

      Price

      The buy-in price was $300 for me: $250 for the gun and $50 for the IR sensors. This is NOT cheap. You have to REALLY like light gun games to make this worthwhile.

      Games

      Most light gun games have short campaigns and can be somewhat player-antagonistic. A lot of them are/were arcade cabinets designed to eat your quarters, so they have a lot of cheap deaths built in.

      You get longevity out of them by playing them over and over and memorizing enemy patterns and levels, but this type of gaming doesn't speak to everyone, so be aware that if you're not ready for that kind of gaming, your very expensive light gun might become a very expensive paperweight sooner rather than later.

      Sensors

      The sensors aren't designed to come on and off of your TV, as you would have to recalibrate each time you moved them. As such, you have to be comfortable with the sensors being on your TV/monitor permanently.

      If I'm being honest though, I thought permanent sensors would bother me more than they actually do. They are noticeable, especially when the TV is off, but they quickly become "invisible" in the same way that you don't notice your TV legs or the company logo. And when the TV is on you're so focused on the content you don't see them at all unless you're looking for them.

      Lack of Portability

      Because of the hardware sensors, you can't really have a portable setup in the way that you could with a Sinden or as promised by the G'AIM'E. I'd love to take a light gun setup with me to friends' houses or when we have our nerd weekend meetups, but this simply isn't built for that sort of thing.

      Stray LEDs

      The gun is susceptible to catching stray LEDs, which can throw off your inputs. It features sensitivity settings you can change in hopes of having it ignore them, but in practice I had to cover up some lights from other sources with electrical tape.

      The most egregious one is that my bottom sensor sits right below the IR input for my TV, which I learned features a blinking LED that was messing up my accuracy. If I cover it up with electrical tape, I lose the ability to use a remote, so I have to take that piece of tape on and off depending on whether I'm shooting or using the TV for something else.

      Windows-only Configuration

      In order to calibrate the Gun4IR hardware, you have to use the included software that comes with the gun. This only runs on Windows (note: you could possibly get it running through WINE or something, but I didn't try this).

      Once you calibrate the gun, you save the configuration to the gun itself, and it'll work in other environments (like Batocera), but at present there's a Windows dependency for this kind of setup.

      Prebuilt Gun Quality

      The US prebuilts use actual Guncon and Guncon 2 casings. These, of course, haven't been produced in a long time, so you're getting an old, used controller.

      My Guncon2 has a spongy d-pad in which inputs sink in and don't return to neutral, making the d-pad unusable. This is likely an issue with my specific build rather than the Gun4IR platform as a whole, but it's worth noting that, if you're getting a pre-built, you might have some inevitable QC issues because they're being built in guns from 20 years ago.

      That said, the actual Gun4IR components are rock solid so far.

      Controller "Requirement"

      I had dreams of controlling Batocera using only my gun, but I ended up connecting a controller as well. In part this is because it's simply easier to do things with the controller, but it's also because Gun4IR can't be configured to allow chorded inputs for its buttons, which are necessary for tasks like exiting a game. This makes the setup a little clunkier, but it's not a dealbreaker by any means.

      Recoil

      The gun technically has "recoil" (which, from what I can gather, is just a powerful rumble). It requires an external power supply. I don't have a plug near where I connect my gun to the computer, so I haven't tested this. It's entirely optional though, and I don't feel like I'm losing out on anything by not having it.

      Accuracy

      While I'm impressed with the gun's accuracy, I do lose a little bit of accuracy when I'm deep in the corners of my screen.

      I haven't figured out a way around this, but it's mostly a non-issue. For one, many light gun games don't tend to put targets in the corners anyway, and, even better, most of the games I'm playing are in 4:3 anyway, so they don't even come close to the corners of my 16:9 screen in the first place

      Lenses

      The corner inaccuracy mentioned above might be because I'm using a fisheye lens for the gun. It came with it, though it's optional. The fisheye gives the gun a wider viewing angle, which lets it see the sensors well even when moving around and lets you get closer to the screen without losing accuracy.

      I tried calibrating the gun without using the lens but I would have had to stand so far away from my TV that it would have been comical. The fisheye lens lets me stand at what I would consider the "right" distance for playing.

      Finding Solutions

      Being a niche product, it can be hard to find solutions online when something isn't working. The Sinden, for all the setup it requires, has a LOT of online documentation and discussions about it.

      When looking for Gun4IR help, I inevitably ended up reading through stuff about the Sinden to see if it would help. There isn't a lot out there about Gun4IR specifically, so you're kind of on your own. There is a Gun4IR Discord though that might be helpful. From what I saw, the support on there is less about getting specific things running and more about people needing help with the DIY build processes.

      PCSX2

      While most systems "just worked", PCSX2 didn't. I have no idea if this is because of the gun, the emulator itself, Batocera, or something else entirely. Time Crisis 2 and 3 open with their own Guncon calibration screens, and I would get stuck on them. I could shoot, and the screen would flash and give me the gun sound, but it wouldn't ever calibrate and move forward.

      I initially got around this by disconnecting the gun and loading the game so that it didn't pull up the calibration screen. Then I made a save state past that screen that I could load with the gun already connected. However, when I did this, the accuracy was consistently off.

      I finally learned that you can map a button called "Calibration Shot" in the settings for the emulator. This is, for some reason, different from a regular shot? This now lets me pass the calibration screen and have accurate shooting.

      Also, one time during Time Crisis 3 the gun seemed to get stuck in the upper right quadrant of the screen. It would still shoot, but the shots didn't line up with where we were aiming. We restarted the emulator, and the issue went away and hasn't cropped up again.


      Conclusion

      I am quite fond of my Gun4IR so far. It works better than I hoped it would, and it's unlocked a type of gaming that I thought was extinct. (For some reason, light gun games have a different feel to me than VR shooting gallery games. Maybe it's just nostalgia, but I like them a lot more?)

      I would recommend it ONLY if you're someone who knows they're going to get their money's worth out of it and are also willing to put up with the mostly minimal tinkering required to get it working. I say mostly minimal because, no matter what gun you're using, you're still going to have to set up emulators and ROMs and whatnot. The configuration that is specific to Gun4IR is really just installing the sensors, using the calibration app, and making sure your gun isn't catching other LEDs.

      Compared to the G'AIM'E (which is a bit of a fool's errand at this point because that one's still theoretical while this one's here to kiss you in real life), Gun4IR doesn't offer the "plug and play" promise, but it also is compatible with far more games. If you're in the market for the G'AIM'E, however, it's probably worth waiting out that release to see how it fares (and whether people can get it working with more games besides the included ones).

      On the other hand, if you're like me and need some light gun fun NOW then I give the Gun4IR a pretty strong recommendation, with a secondary recommendation for Batocera. The two of them together are really great, and I'm delighted that I have hours upon hours of shooting games ahead of me.

      If anyone has any additional questions or wants me to test specific games/systems, let me know. I'm happy to report back and help in whatever way I can.

      27 votes
    2. Low-end Linux tablet recommendations

      I love reading but lately I've found myself having to sit in front of my 2k monitor to read PDFs because they're technical documents and render poorly on my Kindle, even with using various tools...

      I love reading but lately I've found myself having to sit in front of my 2k monitor to read PDFs because they're technical documents and render poorly on my Kindle, even with using various tools to optimize.

      I've been considering getting a tablet primarily for this purpose. My main requirement is that I really don't want Android or iOS devices, leaving me with either purpose built Linux tablets or Windows tablets that I can replace with Linux. I really don't need much -

      • Fast enough that there's no significant lag between page turns/scrolls
      • 8"+ screen size
      • Video watching isn't necessary but a nice bonus
      • Wifi isn't absolutely necessary as long as there is an easy way of getting files on the device (USB transfer, SD card, external adapter, etc)
      • SD card storage would be nice but I can also make due with just internal flash
      • Keyboard is also optional - I wouldn't mind being able to run an IDE and connect to my gitlab instance for some simple coding on the fly or SSH into my homelab
      • Cameras are largely unnecessary
      • Decent battery life or the ability to upgrade down the road
      • Looking for something around 500$ CAD (362-ish USD, 312€, 269£)

      I've been eyeing the PineTab2 as it meets most of the requirements but reviews seem to be mixed on its usability. So I thought I would ask here if anybody has had similar requirements and found something that works for them. Or if the PineTab2 software has significantly improved - this reddit post seems to indicate that it is in a decent state now.

      If nothing like this exists, I suppose I could settle for an Android device provided it can easily take a custom ROM and be de-googled. I would just prefer Linux as I know it quite well and I much prefer the freedom of it. I've also used a touch screen monitor with Plasma on my Arch laptop and been pleasantly surprised at the experience - the hardware is just a bit too clunky to reliably read with.

      24 votes
    3. Explain Linux controversies to me

      I'm one of those mythical Linux users who has been using it for years but has little to no idea what's going on behind the scenes or under the hood. In my time using it, I've sort of passively...

      I'm one of those mythical Linux users who has been using it for years but has little to no idea what's going on behind the scenes or under the hood.

      In my time using it, I've sort of passively gleaned that certain things are controversial, but I don't necessarily know why. It's also hard for me to know if these are just general intra-community drama/bikeshedding, or if these are actually big, meaningful issues.

      If you're someone who's in the know, here's your chance to lay out a Linux controversy in a way that's understandable by someone like me, who can't tell you why people always make "GNU/Linux" jokes for some reason whenever people mention "Linux."

      Here are some things that have pinged for me as controversial in my time using Linux:

      • Unity
      • Canonical
      • Deepin
      • systemd
      • Arch
      • GNOME
      • Manjaro
      • Kali
      • Rust in the kernel
      • elementaryOS
      • Linus Torvalds
      • Snaps
      • Wayland
      • Something about a university being banned from contributing to Linux
      • NVIDIA drivers
      • Package managers vs. Snaps/Flatpaks

      There are certainly more -- these are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head.

      Replies don't have to be limited to the above topics. I'm interested in getting the lay of the land about any Linux controversy.


      IMPORTANT

      This topic is intended for learning, not bickering.

      • Please try to explain a controversy as fairly as you can.
      • Please try to not re-ignite a flame war about a specific controversy.

      It's fine to discuss these in good faith, but I do not want this topic to become yet another Linux battleground online. There are plenty of those already!

      89 votes
    4. Layman's escapades with Linux for personal use

      tl;dr After 2 grueling days of mucking about I finally have KDE + Wayland + Nvidia working on Debian 13 (Trixie). I started with Ubuntu 24. It just works, right? To its credit, it does. I didn't...

      tl;dr After 2 grueling days of mucking about I finally have KDE + Wayland + Nvidia working on Debian 13 (Trixie).


      I started with Ubuntu 24. It just works, right? To its credit, it does. I didn't need to do anything to have it work out of the box. Nvidia was magically installed (even with secure boot enabled).


      Gnome woes

      But then Gnome would rename and re-encode images I dragged/dropped to "Dropped Image.png" from Firefox. Wouldn't even do that in Chromium. Can't tell if it's a bug, or "what's the use-case" scenario, but this behavior is a deal-breaker.


      Not Kubuntu

      Why not Kubuntu then? It doesn't do the same magic that Ubuntu does when it comes to Nvidia.


      OpenSUSE almost

      Latest and greatest whilst being supposedly stable. It took a while to get used to YaST and "patterns", but it was easy to install Nvidia drivers (zypper inr). But, naturally, there was an issue. I was able to boot, but into a very tiny resolution (on Wayland). After some thinking, I came to the conclusion that I was booting into my "integrated" GPU (on the CPU). Don't know why. Eventually I ran into prime-select boot nvidia and it worked. But then Steam (flatpak) wouldn't launch a game (loaded for a sec, then stopped). I was tired.


      Debian & Nvidia driver woes

      I always liked Debian. I use 12 at work for development and as a container base image. Seeing that 13 (Trixie) is on the horizon, I decided to give it a go for personal use. Surely the packages it ships with have been written in the last decade.


      I followed their docs for Nvidia drivers. But I couldn't boot (no login screen) after installing. Apparently there's a bug with the driver and my GPU (3080) that Nvidia isn't going to fix. So I went and used Nvidia's installer instead to get the latest version. It worked without a hitch. The next kernel update will be interesting I imagine.


      Final thoughts

      Honestly, Linux feels like it's always a decade away for things to be stable enough to not require any tinkering for your average layman. I'm not the kind of person to muck with custom configs/etc.
      I want things as vanilla as possible because I know it's a matter of when it breaks, not if.


      Ubuntu feels the closest to the "it just works" experience IMO. I would've stuck with it if not for Gnome.

      23 votes
    5. What is the current state of Linux on phones?

      I use Android and I don't like and I suspect I would like ios about that much. The sw practices and manufacturer behavior is not what I would call exemplary. Compared to the desktop the mobile os...

      I use Android and I don't like and I suspect I would like ios about that much. The sw practices and manufacturer behavior is not what I would call exemplary. Compared to the desktop the mobile os landscape is locked down without much choice.

      I have personal experience only with Pinephone released around 2020 which I used for about a year with postmarketOS for most of that time. I finally replaced it due it low battery endurance and call reliability with sleep due to inflexible requirements on that front but I actually liked it more that the Samsung I use now.

      Other than that I only know about Librem 5 released around that time. Are there any recent examples of phone hardware that is meant to run a linux distro and what do you think about the future of that?

      31 votes
    6. I dont want Windows 11, how easy is it to use Linux?

      Im just kind of done with Windows and 10 has been stable, but 11 seems to be even more intrusive and I find all the AI 'assistance' to be incredibly annoying. Im just kind of done with MS and...

      Im just kind of done with Windows and 10 has been stable, but 11 seems to be even more intrusive and I find all the AI 'assistance' to be incredibly annoying. Im just kind of done with MS and Office and I want to try something else.

      I dont have many needs. I run LibreOffice spreadsheet and word processor and the only other software I need to work is CORELdraw and CORELpaint as I still do a fair bit of design work on them and Ive been using them for 30 years so I dont want to switch. Other than that its just browsing (Firefox), email (Thunderbird) and TurboTax.

      My question is how do I know whats going to work until I try it? And which version of Linux is easiest and most stable? I dont want to have to keep upgrading, I just want a stable usable fairly easy to learn OS that works with what Ive got as Im unlikely to be changing much. Suggestions?

      68 votes
    7. Audio is the weakest link of the linux desktop experience

      In the spirit of all the recent Linux posts, I feel like sharing my thoughts too. I've been using Fedora on my laptop for about ~1.5 years, and I've just began using Arch about 5 days ago. I moved...

      In the spirit of all the recent Linux posts, I feel like sharing my thoughts too. I've been using Fedora on my laptop for about ~1.5 years, and I've just began using Arch about 5 days ago. I moved to Arch because of all the Windows 11 shenanigans, and I really enjoyed the workflow of i3 on my laptop - the only thing I was unsure of was gaming. But I decided to take the dive anyway.

      I installed Arch using the wiki, and it truly felt awesome being able to choose what exactly you want in your system and what you don't. After following the guide, I installed a tiling manger (hyprland), waybar, and a launcher (wofi). It was much easier than I expected (granted I had experience with Linux), after hearing all the Arch boogeyman stories. Though I did accidentally break my system by foolishly doing a `sudo pacman -Rcns ....'. But my configs were still all there and I just had to install everything back, which did not take long at all.

      Everything just worked after installing, except for audio. My audio experience was bad, it was crackling and popping all the time. The Arch wiki didn't really have info on this problem, so I took to other avenues. I found a guide that said to change the 'quantums' for pipewire, to some values that I didn't really understand (nor want to tbh). But that fixed it for the most part!

      My next problem was discord not picking up on audio for certain applications at all - I narrowed it down to apps that were using ALSA as the backend. So, some apps like Plexamp and Firefox wouldn't get picked up by discord. I changed the backend of Firefox to ALSA due to a longstanding bug which resets the per-app volume level of Firefox every now and then. Setting the backend to ALSA is a workaround, but I didn't know it'd prevent discord from picking up audio. I can't find a solution except to revert to the normal backend - if anyone knows a fix the tech support would be welcome haha

      Also the different backends for audio (pipewire/pulseaudio/alsa) make it confusing at times. To me, this is a big hurdle to overcome before the "year of the linux desktop" ever becomes reality - I've had so many issues, even on my laptop. Other than that, the experience is really quite fantastic, the modularity and customization is nuts. I've had quite a bunch of fun tailoring my experience and creating scripts to make the system do exactly what I want.

      39 votes
    8. Anyone on Tildes tried Bazzite or similar Fedora Atomic distros?

      I have been planning to make the switch to Linux as a daily driver for a while and have researched many different distros. I have seen a lot of discussion online about Bazzite and other similar...

      I have been planning to make the switch to Linux as a daily driver for a while and have researched many different distros. I have seen a lot of discussion online about Bazzite and other similar distros based on Fedora Atomic. It sounds like it would be more stable, and less likely for you to accidentally break something, but installing software other than Flatpaks requires running it in some kind of container such as Distrobox. Some people say it's annoying, others say it's good since you mess up the container rather than your system.

      I have used SteamOS on Steam Deck, and notice that things have "just worked" more than what I have personally seen with "normal" distros on laptops or desktops. For example, I've never really had any issues installing things and running software on SteamOS, but someone I know using Mint has seen seemingly minor things cause massive glitches on their system, or they've run into strange difficulty just installing certain programs like Steam. Would one of these types of distros, especially Bazzite which specifically is trying to be like SteamOS, be closer to that Steam Deck experience?

      Has anyone here tried one of these distros and had any thoughts? Anything you loved, or was anything a deal breaker?

      13 votes
    9. [RESOLVED] Tech support request: my game stream is lagging every five minutes

      The Issue I'm streaming games from a desktop PC hardwired into my router (running Sunshine) to a laptop wirelessly (using Moonlight). It works beautifully. Except, every five minutes, the stream...

      The Issue

      I'm streaming games from a desktop PC hardwired into my router (running Sunshine) to a laptop wirelessly (using Moonlight). It works beautifully.

      Except, every five minutes, the stream chugs: my framerate drops precipitously, and Moonlight gives me a warning telling me I should lower my bitrate. This happens for only a few seconds, before it resolves and goes back to normal.

      I timed the interval between the chugs several times and got approximately 5:07 between each slowdown. It is remarkably consistent.

      Because it's so consistent, I assume there's some scheduled task or something running every five minutes that's causing it to chug. Dropping the bitrate makes the chugging less noticeable, but it still happens.


      Ruling Things Out

      I think it's safe to rule out the idea that it's my router or the host PC.

      I have a smaller 13" laptop that I used to stream to, and I just recently bought a 17" to replace it. The five-minute issue only happens on the 17", even with identical stream settings (same resolution, FPS, and bitrate).

      The computers are obviously different hardware, but they're also running two different linux distros.

      The 13" Laptop is running MX Linux 23.5 (KDE). This is the one that works.

      inxi -Fxz
      System:
        Kernel: 6.1.0-32-amd64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
          Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.27.5 Distro: MX-23.5_KDE_x64 Libretto September 15
          2024 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
      Machine:
        Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Latitude 7370 v: N/A
          serial: <superuser required>
        Mobo: Dell model: 0XFY7T v: A00 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Dell
          v: 1.28.3 date: 02/07/2022
      Battery:
        ID-1: BAT0 charge: 12.6 Wh (62.1%) condition: 20.3/34.0 Wh (59.6%)
          volts: 8.1 min: 7.6 model: SMP DELL WY7CG58 status: charging
      CPU:
        Info: dual core model: Intel Core m5-6Y57 bits: 64 type: MT MCP
          arch: Skylake rev: 3 cache: L1: 128 KiB L2: 512 KiB L3: 4 MiB
        Speed (MHz): avg: 2496 high: 2758 min/max: 400/2800 cores: 1: 2400 2: 2758
          3: 2400 4: 2429 bogomips: 11999
        Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
      Graphics:
        Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 515 vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel
          arch: Gen-9 bus-ID: 00:02.0
        Device-2: Realtek Integrated_Webcam_HD type: USB driver: uvcvideo
          bus-ID: 1-9:5
        Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.9 driver: X:
          loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: iris gpu: i915
          resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
        API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 24.2.8-1mx23ahs renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics
          515 (SKL GT2) direct-render: Yes
      Audio:
        Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel
          v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1f.3
        API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-32-amd64 status: kernel-api
        Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active
      Network:
        Device-1: Intel Wireless 8260 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel bus-ID: 6c:00.0
        IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
      Bluetooth:
        Device-1: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
          bus-ID: 1-2:2
        Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 2.1
          lmp-v: 4.2
      RAID:
        Hardware-1: Intel 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] driver: ahci
          v: 3.0 bus-ID: 00:17.0
      Drives:
        Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 31.99 GiB (13.4%)
        ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Toshiba model: KSG60ZMV256G M.2 2280 256GB
          size: 238.47 GiB
      Partition:
        ID-1: / size: 232.43 GiB used: 31.47 GiB (13.5%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-0
          mapped: luks-a8eaaa90-b4ba-4943-8c1d-ddace5892f40
        ID-2: /boot size: 973.4 MiB used: 524.1 MiB (53.8%) fs: ext4
          dev: /dev/sda2
        ID-3: /boot/efi size: 252 MiB used: 274 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1
      Swap:
        ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 3 GiB used: 3.8 MiB (0.1%) file: /swap/swap
      Sensors:
        System Temperatures: cpu: 80.0 C pch: 68.0 C mobo: 48.0 C
        Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
      Info:
        Processes: 251 Uptime: 33m Memory: 7.65 GiB used: 3.56 GiB (46.6%)
        Init: SysVinit runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 Packages: 2789 Shell: Bash
        v: 5.2.15 inxi: 3.3.26
      
      /etc/crontab
      17 *    * * *   root    cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly
      25 6    * * *   root    test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || { cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily; }
      47 6    * * 7   root    test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || { cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.weekly; }
      52 6    1 * *   root    test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || { cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.monthly; }
      

      The 17" Laptop is running Linux Mint 22.1 (Cinnamon). This is the one that has the five minute chugs.

      inxi -Fxz
      System:
        Kernel: 6.8.0-58-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.3.0
        Desktop: Cinnamon v: 6.4.8 Distro: Linux Mint 22.1 Xia
          base: Ubuntu 24.04 noble
      Machine:
        Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Inspiron 7773 v: N/A
          serial: <superuser required>
        Mobo: Dell model: 0R58C3 v: A00 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Dell
          v: 1.19.0 date: 12/15/2021
      Battery:
        ID-1: BAT0 charge: 34.9 Wh (97.5%) condition: 35.8/56.0 Wh (63.9%)
          volts: 16.0 min: 15.2 model: Samsung SDI DELL W7NKD7B status: discharging
      CPU:
        Info: quad core model: Intel Core i7-8550U bits: 64 type: MT MCP
          arch: Coffee Lake rev: A cache: L1: 256 KiB L2: 1024 KiB L3: 8 MiB
        Speed (MHz): avg: 658 high: 867 min/max: 400/4000 cores: 1: 400 2: 800
          3: 400 4: 400 5: 800 6: 800 7: 867 8: 800 bogomips: 31999
        Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
      Graphics:
        Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics 620 vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel
          arch: Gen-9.5 bus-ID: 00:02.0
        Device-2: NVIDIA GP108M [GeForce MX150] vendor: Dell driver: nvidia
          v: 550.120 arch: Maxwell bus-ID: 01:00.0
        Device-3: Realtek Integrated_Webcam_HD driver: uvcvideo type: USB
          bus-ID: 1-5:2
        Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 driver: X:
          loaded: modesetting,nvidia unloaded: fbdev,nouveau,vesa dri: iris gpu: i915
          resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
        API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: iris,nvidia,swrast platforms:
          active: gbm,x11,surfaceless,device inactive: wayland,device-2
        API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: intel mesa
          v: 24.2.8-1ubuntu1~24.04.1 glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: Mesa
          Intel UHD Graphics 620 (KBL GT2)
      Audio:
        Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel
          v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1f.3
        API: ALSA v: k6.8.0-58-generic status: kernel-api
        Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.5 status: active
      Network:
        Device-1: Intel Wireless 3165 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel bus-ID: 02:00.0
        IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
      Bluetooth:
        Device-1: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB
          bus-ID: 1-7:3
        Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 4 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 4.2
          lmp-v: 8
      Drives:
        Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 36.5 GiB (15.3%)
        ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: MZVLB256HBHQ-000H1
          size: 238.47 GiB temp: 25.9 C
      Partition:
        ID-1: / size: 229.63 GiB used: 36.21 GiB (15.8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-1
          mapped: vgmint-root
        ID-2: /boot size: 1.61 GiB used: 291.7 MiB (17.7%) fs: ext4
          dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
        ID-3: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat
          dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
      Swap:
        ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 1.91 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
          dev: /dev/dm-2 mapped: vgmint-swap_1
      Sensors:
        System Temperatures: cpu: 30.0 C pch: 32.5 C mobo: N/A
        Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
      Info:
        Memory: total: 16 GiB available: 15.36 GiB used: 1.82 GiB (11.9%)
        Processes: 338 Uptime: 2h 38m Init: systemd target: graphical (5)
        Packages: 1996 Compilers: gcc: 13.3.0 Shell: Bash v: 5.2.21 inxi: 3.3.34
      
      /etc/crontab
      17 *	* * *	root	cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly
      25 6	* * *	root	test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || { cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily; }
      47 6	* * 7	root	test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || { cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.weekly; }
      52 6	1 * *	root	test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || { cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.monthly; }
      

      Help Request

      Anyone have any ideas for tracking down what might be causing this? I was going to just wipe the machine and replace Linux Mint with MX Linux to rule that out, but I figured I'd ask here before doing that, especially because it could be the hardware and not the distro that's causing the issue.

      20 votes
    10. Trying to fully ditch Windows for streaming. So close, but this audio issue is breaking me.

      Okay, I’ve been grinding through the process of replacing Windows 10 in my Twitch streaming setup with Pop!_OS. I’ve got OBS dialed in, my old NVIDIA card is holding it together surprisingly well,...

      Okay, I’ve been grinding through the process of replacing Windows 10 in my Twitch streaming setup with Pop!_OS. I’ve got OBS dialed in, my old NVIDIA card is holding it together surprisingly well, and video performance is right where I need it.

      But the audio. Is. Destroying. Me.

      It’s this horrible crunchy, crushed mess when I stream from Linux. Same exact hardware, same OBS scene setup. On Windows 10 it’s crystal clear. I’m pulling audio from my mixer and theres no “Line In” I can see. Something in the Linux chain is mangling it.

      Here’s a side-by-side if you want to hear the pain:

      Pop!_OS (crushed audio): https://youtu.be/wQUVlufAQs8?si=RlGH8Z90dK0X9KhA

      Windows 10 (clean audio): https://youtu.be/hbJzIHzg_ek?si=ThiZpbBgTk89qL2p

      Sample rates seem to match, nothing obvious is clipping. I’m out of ideas and running on pure stubbornness at this point.

      Would love to hear from anyone who’s made Linux work in a similar setup. Tips, gotchas, weird fixes. Whatever you've got. I'm so close to fully escaping Windows here. Grrr.

      For reference, here’s how I got my Pop!_OS setup working so far (OBS + NVIDIA NVENC + GTX 960):
      https://doubledropdown.com/abdoanmes/2025/ditching-windows-setting-up-obs-with-nvidia-nvenc-on-linux-pop_os-gtx-960/

      29 votes
    11. Artificial incompatibility - a rant (Dell notebook)

      As per title this is inspired by my recent problems with a Latitude 7320 notebook. I can't use my desktop right now and so wanted some cheaper nb for normal usage and eventually settled on this...

      As per title this is inspired by my recent problems with a Latitude 7320 notebook.

      I can't use my desktop right now and so wanted some cheaper nb for normal usage and eventually settled on this model due to being able to get it at an acceptable ratio of price to age and seeing it as compatible on Ubuntu, not noticing the disclaimer until later.

      The problems started right after installing Fedora KDE - the nb was running at absolutely abysmal performance and this problem affects several models.

      Running passmark I've got above 2000 on cpu, on Windows I had 11000. The cpu was throttling to 1500Mhz and lower for no reason. Switching a BIOS setting of power management to "ultra performance" got me to twice the score.

      Eventually using throttled from github for various Lenovo and Dell models and thermald I was able to get to twice that again, still a fifth less than on Windows. Also the repo has potential of security concerns due to how it works, also potential to just stop working due to them later.

      Mainly I'm posting this to just say that there is zero legitimate technical reason why this should happen, it works on Windows and on Dell tampered Ubuntu images. The hw is fine but for some reason someone somewhere decided to artificially limit the hw for whatever reason.

      Right now I am still indecided if I should write off the several hours I've spent on this and return the machine to play the dice with some other model.

      Edit 5.4.: it turns out I was not using the throttled package correctly and now have roughly equivalent performace in Linux as in Windows up from the 4/5 or so after all the other workarounds. All of the points still apply though. I also heartily recommend s-tui as a nice utility for cpu monitoring and stress test.

      14 votes