I'm like the energizer bunny hopping from one distro to another. :)
I really enjoyed my time with the Fedora KDE Spin. I would heartily recommend it, it was solid, I ran into no update issues even with Nvidia drivers (Fedora updates kernel fairly frequently), and I was able to configure it to look like I wanted it to look.
Despite the fact that KDE was more memory efficient, performed well, and gave me few headaches, I am just not a huge KDE fan. Don't get me wrong... I *liked* it, I am just do not prefer it over gtk-based UIs.
When I started shifting back to linux a couple of years ago, I believe it was Solus that I started with. I enjoyed it, but it felt a little restrictive in some ways back then... and it helped trigger my distro hopping. Since the "shake up" that occurred last year the Solus team has been working like crazy to improve Solus. I'd say their work has paid off and this was a very smooth install, and performance has been quite good. I immediately installed Nvidia drivers through their utility, installed Wine and related apps, installed my favorite games and so far the game performance seems even better than with Fedora. Subjective I guess, but it could also be recent updates to the game that made IT more efficient as well.
Anywho... this is where I am at right now.
Friday, March 6, 2020
Sunday, February 23, 2020
Still using Fedora with KDE
It has been running very smoothly for the most part. I have not encountered any "update woes" as I have in the past with Fedora. So far so good. Able to play Starstable and Diablo 3 very nicely. And many Steam titles work as well with Photon turned on.
I still want to poke around and try other things. I will give it a short rest though. Can't constantly reconfigure my system. :) But I do keep all documents, music, video, pictures and some other items on shared drives which I simply mount the way I want them whenever I spin up a new distro.
Anyway, just a quick update.
I still want to poke around and try other things. I will give it a short rest though. Can't constantly reconfigure my system. :) But I do keep all documents, music, video, pictures and some other items on shared drives which I simply mount the way I want them whenever I spin up a new distro.
Anyway, just a quick update.
Sunday, February 16, 2020
KDE adventure
Ages ago, back between 2005 and 2011, I had switched from Macs to an All-in-one IBM pc. What I ended up installing on it was PC-BSD because the networking that came with it out of the box worked very well with my company's firewall/network security.
It came with a KDE interface. I used it for a year until I switched back to a mac and purchased a product that I was able to log into work with... But while I have not been a KDE fan in recent times, mostly GTK/Gnome, I did have fond memories of that year.
A week or so ago I began hunting around for a good KDE distro. The caveat was that I did want to be able to install WINE and PLAYONLINUX so I could play a couple of my favorite games. I tried Neon, KaOS, OpenSUSE, Kubuntu and Fedora.
KaOS is, without a doubt, the best looking KDE distro (of course that is subjective). But it was limiting when it came to getting gaming software set up. OpenSUSE was OK but the actual installation did not end well for me. Neon is the KDE kitchen sink and worked alright, but I did run into one or two struggles with Ubuntu software. Kubuntu was loaded to the hilt, and it worked well, but I felt there were some KDE performance issues. Finally I installed the KDE spin of Fedora 31. I always have a love/not-love-so-much relationship with Fedora as I always end up breaking something in some update. But so far it has been very nice. KDE performs very well, and Fedora performs well in general.
There is also a KDE version of Solus that I might try...
Anyway, just an update of my computing adventures.
It came with a KDE interface. I used it for a year until I switched back to a mac and purchased a product that I was able to log into work with... But while I have not been a KDE fan in recent times, mostly GTK/Gnome, I did have fond memories of that year.
A week or so ago I began hunting around for a good KDE distro. The caveat was that I did want to be able to install WINE and PLAYONLINUX so I could play a couple of my favorite games. I tried Neon, KaOS, OpenSUSE, Kubuntu and Fedora.
KaOS is, without a doubt, the best looking KDE distro (of course that is subjective). But it was limiting when it came to getting gaming software set up. OpenSUSE was OK but the actual installation did not end well for me. Neon is the KDE kitchen sink and worked alright, but I did run into one or two struggles with Ubuntu software. Kubuntu was loaded to the hilt, and it worked well, but I felt there were some KDE performance issues. Finally I installed the KDE spin of Fedora 31. I always have a love/not-love-so-much relationship with Fedora as I always end up breaking something in some update. But so far it has been very nice. KDE performs very well, and Fedora performs well in general.
There is also a KDE version of Solus that I might try...
Anyway, just an update of my computing adventures.
Wednesday, February 5, 2020
The difference between an everyday use monitor and a gaming monitor...
So I went 1440p awhile back. I purchased an inexpensive Samsung monitor that supposedly had 5ms gtg. Sounded pretty good to me.
When I hopped into one of my staple games, I immediately noticed the "skippiness" of the game play. Hiccups, stutters, etc. I assumed it was the fact that I was playing 1440p not 1080p that was causing the issue, that my graphics card just could not handle it.
WOW.
I had been thinking about it for awhile but everywhere I read said that my previous (and my very new) graphics card can handle 1440p flawlessly if not effortlessly.
Last week I pulled the trigger on a new 1440p monitor, an HP 27xq, which was rated as a decent gaming monitor. 1ms gtg, freesync, etc.
Got it today, plugged it in and even though I have not yet figured out how to get it to > 60 refresh rate, when I play my "staple" game mentioned at the beginning of this post, it was FLAWLESSLY SMOOTH!! I have been torturing myself for over a year for no good reason.
Listen, if you are thinking of buying a 1440p monitor, please do not skimp. Go for a gaming monitor if you game. It was literally night and day.
Now I just need to find a happy medium with its settings. The blacks are black but the whites are nigh on blinding me. Even so, small price to play for getting back the fun in gaming with no stuttering and skipping.
That is all.
When I hopped into one of my staple games, I immediately noticed the "skippiness" of the game play. Hiccups, stutters, etc. I assumed it was the fact that I was playing 1440p not 1080p that was causing the issue, that my graphics card just could not handle it.
WOW.
I had been thinking about it for awhile but everywhere I read said that my previous (and my very new) graphics card can handle 1440p flawlessly if not effortlessly.
Last week I pulled the trigger on a new 1440p monitor, an HP 27xq, which was rated as a decent gaming monitor. 1ms gtg, freesync, etc.
Got it today, plugged it in and even though I have not yet figured out how to get it to > 60 refresh rate, when I play my "staple" game mentioned at the beginning of this post, it was FLAWLESSLY SMOOTH!! I have been torturing myself for over a year for no good reason.
Listen, if you are thinking of buying a 1440p monitor, please do not skimp. Go for a gaming monitor if you game. It was literally night and day.
Now I just need to find a happy medium with its settings. The blacks are black but the whites are nigh on blinding me. Even so, small price to play for getting back the fun in gaming with no stuttering and skipping.
That is all.
Saturday, January 18, 2020
2020 PC Build...
Done deal. All the parts arrived by today, and I went ahead and built out my latest PC. Parts of it are modern, parts are one or two generations old. But I am hoping it will amaze me. So far so good, the build went well and I am using it to write this post. Without further ado...
In case you cannot read it, I installed elementary OS 5.1 Hera. I also updated the kernel to use liquorix (an optimized kernel)... but that's all the fluff. The hardware is as follows:
Thermaltake core V21 case.
Corsair RM850x Gold Power Supply.
32 GB of G.Skill DDR4 RAM.
ASRock Motherboard (TR4).
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920x (12 cores, 24 threads @ 3.50)
NVidia RTX 2060 SUPER.
That's the gist of it... couple of SSDs and some old-fashioned mechanical drives as well.
So far so good! I could not, however, get Windows to install. Installer hung. I think it is because I am using one of the very first released CDs of Windows 10. I will probably have to download and burn a Windows image and try that.
I do want Windows as Linux always performs well, but I am anxious to see how my games perform with this new build. Granted, threadrippers are not meant to be "gaming" CPUs per se... but they have good single core performance and of course any games that can use multi core will flourish. What am anxious to see is how my 2060 SUPER performs. Supposed to be at least 10% faster than my 1080 GTX I had. We shall see...
In case you cannot read it, I installed elementary OS 5.1 Hera. I also updated the kernel to use liquorix (an optimized kernel)... but that's all the fluff. The hardware is as follows:
Thermaltake core V21 case.
Corsair RM850x Gold Power Supply.
32 GB of G.Skill DDR4 RAM.
ASRock Motherboard (TR4).
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920x (12 cores, 24 threads @ 3.50)
NVidia RTX 2060 SUPER.
That's the gist of it... couple of SSDs and some old-fashioned mechanical drives as well.
So far so good! I could not, however, get Windows to install. Installer hung. I think it is because I am using one of the very first released CDs of Windows 10. I will probably have to download and burn a Windows image and try that.
I do want Windows as Linux always performs well, but I am anxious to see how my games perform with this new build. Granted, threadrippers are not meant to be "gaming" CPUs per se... but they have good single core performance and of course any games that can use multi core will flourish. What am anxious to see is how my 2060 SUPER performs. Supposed to be at least 10% faster than my 1080 GTX I had. We shall see...
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
My 2020 Build
I had originally planned on a new build mid-2019, but due to vacations, and other things that seemed like a very bad idea, money-wise.
Every couple of years I build out a new PC. Usually that PC has all-new, better hardware but this year I am backing off that just a little because, well, I've always wanted a thread ripper and the Gen 1 thread rippers are are dirt cheap now.
I plan on dual booting Windows 10 and Linux, probably going to stick with Elementary OS for now. I've gotten used to it and learned a few tricks to configure the things you want, even if they are not available in the store.
By the weekend all of the components will have arrived and I should be able to begin building. It is possible one component may not arrive until Monday, so I may have to postpone it a little.
Without further ado:
...and that is it. I will also carry over my other 2 hard drives since they already have all my data on them, no sense in copying when I can just pull the drives. I will leave the current system and m.2 drives in the old PC, it will still be 100% usable.
Every couple of years I build out a new PC. Usually that PC has all-new, better hardware but this year I am backing off that just a little because, well, I've always wanted a thread ripper and the Gen 1 thread rippers are are dirt cheap now.
I plan on dual booting Windows 10 and Linux, probably going to stick with Elementary OS for now. I've gotten used to it and learned a few tricks to configure the things you want, even if they are not available in the store.
By the weekend all of the components will have arrived and I should be able to begin building. It is possible one component may not arrive until Monday, so I may have to postpone it a little.
Without further ado:
Item What it is------------------------------- -----------------
Thermaltake V21 Cube Computer caseCorsair RM850x Power SupplyASRock X399M Taichi Socket TR4 MotherboardAMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920X 12 Core/24 Thread CPUG.Skill Ripjaw V, 32GB RAM (Memory)Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 Super Graphics CardIntel 660P 1 TB M.2 SSDCrucial MX500 2 TB SATA SSDNoctua NS-U14S CPU CoolerNoctua 140MM Fan Extra Case FanSeagate Barracude 2 TB Hard drive
...and that is it. I will also carry over my other 2 hard drives since they already have all my data on them, no sense in copying when I can just pull the drives. I will leave the current system and m.2 drives in the old PC, it will still be 100% usable.
Sunday, January 5, 2020
Distro Hop - Back to Elementary OS...
Seems like I just can't sit still when it comes to Linux. :) I had thought to give KaOS or perhaps Manjaro KDE another shot... but even the lastest versions just do not seem as smooth or as polished as gtk3 based distros do, especially in the font rendering department.
So... I wanted something different and thought I would give Elementary another shot. The latest version is decent... looks great, of course, better than screenshots show. Not sure why that is but it looks better right in front of you than in a screenshot.
The install went VERY smoothly, even configuring it to run BTRFS on the system drive. When it came time to format the disk I simply selected the old Pop!_OS device and told it to format as btrfs, then let the installer take it the rest of the way. Worked perfectly first try. It also installed Nvidia drivers for me, and the entire system worked very well.
I then proceeded to make a few adjustments, like increasing the DPI, and installing the Liquorix kernel (https://liquorix.net/, follow the instructions for ubuntu). The kernel installation did not fully succeed and, while I got the new kernel, my graphics drivers were broken. So then I simply snagged the Nvidia 340.64 driver and performed a manual install. To do that you simply turn off the graphical interface (systemctl set-default multi-user.target), reboot and as root run the Nvidia installer. Once that completes you restore graphical mode (systemctl set-default graphical.target), reboot again and *boom*, graphics fixed.
The thing about Elementary is its controlled simplicity. Like KaOS, the devs don't really want you messing around too much with your system. There is a nice store to install the apps you MUST HAVE, but beyond that you have to sort of fend for yourself. But, the one thing about it is, this is an Ubuntu-based distro. That means you really DO have a ton of possibilities at your fingertips. You just don't want to muck around too much with the desktop environment, but under the hood you can do a lot, and just about any application you might really need is available. If not, you will probably be able to find a debian package for it somewhere, OR you can install and use flatpak or AppImage or whatever other application isolation subsystem floats your boat.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)