General Linux

All general Linux posts.

  • Well, Ok Then

    So, I’m typing this in the Block editor after fighting to get my site to look like this. Take a look around. Basic as basic can get, right?

    This look is slightly not what I was aiming for. I did plan to have an image at the top there, but the Block I was using fucked with the colour of the font in the navigation drop down so you couldn’t actually see the links. I mean, whatever. For now this is ok.

    Edit: Fixed this, obviously. I will warn you that as I poke more, there may be more changes but I’m going to try keeping it minimal.

    Anyway, I have been picking away at Linux and I’m still here. For those that really want to see what’s happening, I’ve started a journal that you can navigate to via the fancy new Linux > Linux Journal link in the navigation. I didn’t want to clutter up the main page with my prattling, so you can find it there.

    One thing I’ll update here is I noticed some issues with the Scarlett 2i2 in Mixbus, namely shaky playback and the inputs would drop out depending on how it was set in either System settings or in the Mixbus audio engine settings. Well goddamn, after some digging around I came across this video on YouTube that all but fixed me up.

    If you have a Focusrite, Scarlett 2i2 Gen 3, keep this handy:

    $ echo options snd_usb_audio vid=0x1235 pid=0x8210 device_setup=1 > /etc/modprobe.d/snd_usb_audio.conf

    There’s more info in the video, of course, and it’s all great.


  • And That’s That.

    Fedora was was real fun but, in the end, after a year, I gave up and moved on.

    A couple of things happened:

    A few weeks ago, I was installing Linux updates on this here laptop and on a restart things started acting weird. My audio interface was nowhere to be found. My mouse started acting real janky. And apps (mostly DAW) were just crashing randomly.

    JFC

    I didn’t have time to dive in and look so I booted over to my Windows partition and made a note to look into whatever was going on sometime later.

    This week, I had decided to trade laptops with my eldest as hers was just not handling the workload anymore. It’s an old, refurbished Dell Latitude that was purchased just before the shutdown in 2020. With it’s fifth gen i5 CPU and 4GB of memory, it was simply no longer up for the tasks she needs it for. I’d backup all the stuff off the HP laptop, (at this point only used as a Plex server) format it, install Windows 10 and then she would have something very workable. Then I’d install Fedora on her old laptop and use it to run Plex.

    Getting her setup was a breeze. There were zero hiccups getting the HP back to factory and getting Win10 running and she’s now happily doing schoolwork, playing games, and chatting with friends.

    As for the Latitude, Fedora installed easily. Past that, I wouldn’t do the one single thing I wanted it to: run a Plex server.

    I simply do not understand why. Plex installed. The Plex service was running. But Plex would not see the mounted external drive nor did it see any folder on the local drive. All the permissions were correct. Everything was showing up in the file manager. I spent hours searching the net for solutions. I tired every command line “fix” that was posted, and there were a lot of potential fixes. I even tried starting fresh by reinstalling Fedora only to wind up in the exact same spot.

    I finally just said, “fuck it”.

    I formatted that little laptop back to factory (Windows 10). Then I installed Plex, pointed it to a folder and …

    It worked.

    I went upstairs and tested it on the TV and …

    It worked.

    So simply I made the decision to flatten this computer back to factory and just move on with Windows.

    I just don’t want to fight to use a computer anymore. Windows 11 is actually, surprisingly, really good. It’s stable and you can uninstall and disable all the bloatware and advertising bullshit with a few clicks and it just hums along doing its thing.

    I still support Open Source and Independents. While I’m running Windows now, I still run and fully support the applications listed on my “Things I Use” sidebar.

    Sadly, Linux just turned out to be a no go for me. I will say that it is absolutely better than it was even a decade ago and I was able to use it as a my primary desktop for nearly a year (and I got to start and finish a song in it!). For me though,  it’s still not 100%. So here we are.

  • Linux Almost Six Months In

    Almost half a year into the Great Linux Experiment and I’m still here.

    HP Linux Whoo!!

    The last time I tired running Linux as a desktop OS was back around 2001. It went so horribly sideways that I lasted maybe two days. Then again this was 2001 and while I could get Linux (Mandrake) installed, couldn’t get the damned thing online. So it was essentially a weekend of yelling and screaming to myself because I had no Internet to yell and scream into.

    Now I can scream all I want, anytime I want. Here are a few things I’ve discovered:

    (more…)

  • KDE Plasma Virtual Desktops

    Setup Virtual Desktops in KDE Plasma

    Update 01/15/2025

    Seems there have been a few changes between Fedora 38/KDE 5.x and Fedora 41 with KDE Plasma 6.2.5. In the newer versions, Virtual Desktop and their shortcuts can be found here:

    Virtual Desktops: System Settings > Window Management  > Virtual Desktops

    Customize Switching Desktops: System Settings > Keyboard > KWin > Switch One Desktop to the Left (or Right).

    If you’re still in KDE 5.25 then here is the magic:

    System Settings > Workspace Behavior > Virtual Desktops

    Customize Switching Desktops

    System Settings > Shortcuts > KWin

  • Spaces In Terminal

    Just gonna put this here because I’m a n00b.

    In short, for folders:

    $ command “Folder Name”

    or

    $ command Folder\ Name/

    … for files

    $ command “file name with spaces”

    or

    $ command file\ name\ with\ spaces
  • Linux Tip #1: Max Amount of Locked Memory

    This is primarily for Mixbus and Mixbus32c running on Linux. It also applies to Ardour, which Mixbus is based on. The distro I’m using is Fedora Jam, however this most likely applies to whatever distro you’re using.

    Issue

    Mixbus 32c shows the following message when launched:

    WARNING: Your system has a limit for maximum amount of locked memory.
    This might cause Mixbus32C to run out of memory before your system runs
    out of memory.
    You can view the memory limit with ‘ulimit -l’, and it is normally controlled by /etc/security/limits.conf
    Solution

    Open a Terminal window and check the memory limit by typing ulimit -l . You may see something like this:

    $ ulimit -l
    8192

    This means that Mixbus is limited to 8GB of memory. To open this limit up, in Terminal, edit limits.conf:

    $ sudo vi /etc/security/limits.conf

    Add the following lines (or if they already exist with a # in front of it remove the # and change the number value of memlock to unlimited):

    @audio – rtprio  95
    @audio – memlock unlimited

    Save the file and check the ulimit again. You should see this:

    $ ulimit -l
    $ unlimited

    If you don’t see this, then restart. You can try logging out and back in, but I found this didn’t work. A full restart, for whatever reason did.

    Launch Mixbus. If you see the same warning message, check your group in Terminal:

    $ groups yourusername

    If you don’t see the audio group listed, for example:

    username : username wheel pkg-build

    add your user to the audio group:

    $ sudo usermod -a -G audio yourusername

    Check groups again. You should see audio listed:

    $ groups yourusername
    username : username wheel audio pkg-build

    Launch Mixbus and the message should be gone.