Hello folks and welcome back to the world of Linux Life. Hope you had an amazing time over the holidays and here is hoping that 2019 brings you everything you desire and more.
I would love to say I had an amazing time but I would be lying. Sadly I was ill over the holiday period and spent many days in bed. However when I was able to spare some time I have been installing Antergos on to Xeon.
It had ArcoLinux A on it which is based in XFCE. However it had been so long since it had been updated that it kept throwing out GPG keyrings and it corrupted the database for the installation so I had to install Antergos instead.
Now I must admit the Xeon does not have a Wi-Fi card installed so I had to actually use my Android phone in a tethered way in order to get Internet access. At first I was dubious this would actually work but it worked exceptionally well.
It just uses the phone as a bridge and accessed the Wi-Fi network using it so no real issues at all. I honestly don’t know if that’s a credit to Android for making it so easy or Linux for not having any issues doing it that way.
Obviously the Xeon only has 8GB of RAM and I have been using the i7 desktop which has 24GB of RAM. So the transitions are slightly slower. Also the i7 has an SSD in it for a boot drive so loading is obviously much slower on the Xeon.
I will have the i7 back soon I just before I went ill was staying at a family location other than home and took it with me and have yet to bring it back. Hopefully I should be able to do that soon.
I don’t know why but I spent quite a while playing with emulators on the Xeon.
On the i7 I have been experimenting with videos. I have captured various game footage clips using OBS and a few emulators. The results were were then imported into Kdenlive.
I was thinking of using Davinci Resolve but I thought I would start with something a bit lighter first then move to Davinci if I manage to get a degree of competence.
So far I have managed to edit the footage down to sufficient and even add minor title clips. I am yet to record the audio to go with the video footage then I get the marvellous fun of trying to mix the audio tracks together without causing issues.
I admit this is not where my expertise lies but I will do my best to try and do this. I also need to work out how to make a beginning and end sequence to my videos something I have equally never ever done before.
Apparently Natron is supposed to be quite good for doing that as it’s a node based editor whatever the hell that is. So I will play around with that see if I can figure something out.
I have also managed to setup on the i7 desktop FS-UAE the Amiga emulator working with Amiga Workbench 3.9 via hard drive using an RTG card setup using Picasso96 drivers. WHDLoad is installed and a few games are working just need to setup the other roms to get things like AGA working with it.
It took a couple of attempts to get the RTG setup working as you had to put the card ROM in a specific directory. The first couple of times I got it completely in the wrong section and nothing was happening. That’s however due to the FS-UAE sets things up slightly different to WinUAE which I am normally used to using. Got there in the end though.
One thing I do like about FS-UAE is the Disc Switcher list. Got a major set of floppies to install. Add them to the Switcher list then all you need to do is select the appropriate one from the list using F12. Handy...
Next I want to install Scala on the Amiga setup (it’s 14 floppies folks) and really see if I can get it to do something interesting. It was always something I wanted to play with and never really got around to doing when I had my actual A1200 Amiga.
I had Scala installed on the A1200 but never really got around to using it as I was busy doing other things with the machine at the time. Anyway that’s a different story for a different blog.
So although I have been ill I have managed to get quite a bit done with my Linux machines. What I think is more scary is that on the 5th January 2019 this blog will actually be 1 year old. That’s right I will have spent one year playing in Linux.
It’s kind of strange as I now very rarely use Windows unless it’s helping the kids do something with their laptops. None of my current machines with the exception of the i7 laptop has windows. The only reason it has Windows is I am loaning it out while another machine is being repaired.
When I first started this project I was highly resistant to Linux and over time it has slowly managed to persuade me it is worth the journey. Sure it has had its ups and downs and I have switched versions of Linux a lot.
This project is far from over and hopefully I can continue it for as long as I have content. If you have been here with me for this complete journey or even if this is the first entry you have ever read of me. Thank you for coming along for the ride and hopefully I can continue to entertain you.
Well I think that’s enough waffle from me for this episode. So until next time... Take care.
