#linux life

[tyraeklouds]

Fucking blows me away that I have a new HP ZBook laptop (Windows 10) that runs like absolute garbage - several minute long boot up time, constant driver updates, absolute trash battery life. Yet I have an old LG Gram laptop (Linux Mint) that boots up in a fraction of a second, has zero, absolutely zero driver issues, and a battery that will last for a week!

Holy fuck when will people realize that Windows blows? This fucking HP struggles like hell to connect to my HP dock (multi monitor) - the Gram literally plug and played with this thing without even the slightest hiccup.

[linuxlife]

Linux Life Episode 87

Hello everyone and welcome to my ongoing piddling about in my corner of the world of Linux. Well this month I have been playing around with Wayland and trying to work out whether I am ready to switch to it.

I admit that I recently switched back to X11 when using KDE Plasma 6.2 as several tools don’t work well in it under Wayland.

When in X11 I use Cairo Dock as a program launcher which does have a version that allegedly works with Wayland but the team of Cairo Dock admit its alpha and is buggy. Indeed it worked for a while then it started messing up shortcuts. Also in X11 I can move the bar up above the main KDE panel so I can still see the icons and switch tasks etc.

In X11 it works fine. In Wayland it is just too basic and the coders of it are in no hurry to create a full version until Wayland setup some standards regarding key bindings etc.

Which I guess is fair enough but annoying.

When it comes to collecting screenshots I normally use Shutter. I have tried others such as Flameshot and others but they seem to have issues when grabbing certain screenshots such as Steam games and Shutter just works.

However under Wayland. Shutter has been hacked to work but will only allow you to grab the desktop only and none of the other options are available.

So I have been using X11 to allow Shutter to continue to work.

Maybe I’m a bit old fashioned but I like to have things that work. Also OBS Studio works with Wayland but apparently has issues when selecting input sources and areas.

In time they may fix this but at this time it doesn’t quite work as it should.

So I admit if I am using KDE Plasma I won’t be using the Wayland version.

Taking a slight side step ...

I have recently decide as I was noodling about in the Wayland compositing wibble I decided to try Hyprland.

Well I must admit at first I really didn’t get on very well with it and to be honest while I could open a few windows and I managed to use ghostty as my terminal.

However after a bit of a play I didn’t know how to close all the open windows and had to faff around just to get the slightest thing open.

So I was about to give up. However I decided to look up the wiki and it gave a few preconfigured options. I admit I downloaded and installed the JaKooLit dot files.

I must admit that it has actual made Hyprland useful and with a bit of playing I finally managed to get most things working and yes it can be fun and it’s pretty fast but I really don’t see me using it regularly.

It has allowed me to capture screenshots using certain keys so Hyprland has solved my requirements and Shutter is not needed using it but until OBS Studio issues in Wayland are sorted I will have to go back to KDE Plasma 6 X11 if I want to capture video.

I really didn’t understand Hyprland when i first started but I admit that the preconfig has made it useable once you get used to the quirkiness. I am even willing to live without a dock.

Hopefully OBS Studio will manage to get around its issues and who knows I might even switch to Hyprland and stop using KDE Plasma.

I’m sure someone will advise me better Hyprland tricks but for now I have it working and it is not bad. In time I could get used to working with Hyprland. Once you get the hang of it, it is quite fast and useable.

Wayland is good but not quite 100% there. Not far its about 95% workable, it just needs the last few things to get working.

Well that’s enough waffle for now ... Until next time ... Take care.

[linuxlife]

Linux Life Episode 51

Hello folks as I have managed to get myself a quiet moment it’s time to check in with the blog.  As I said I will be a bit more sporadic with the posting here this is due to family situations.

So what have I being doing with Linux since the last episode.  Well my Kingston 120GB SSD I was running Linux on decided to have issues and for all of the attempts to save it I had to swap it out and replace it with my Integral 120GB SSD.

Luckily because I don’t keep my home directory on the SSD but on a separate 1TB Seagate hard drive no data was really lost.  So I had to re-install Namib Linux onto the new drive.  This was a bit odd but I got it working.

The installation went smooth but upon restart GRUB would start and then pixelate the screen as the video didn’t initialise correctly.  So I went in using mode 3 to just a text prompt but upon signing in this way MATE actually started which was odd but handy.

At first I could not update as Pamac would not download any of the required 538 updates from the base Namib.  So I opened a terminal and tried to use pacman.  First attempt using ‘pacman -Syu’ it just sat there after updating the main repositories as it failed to download just as Pamac had.

In the end the way I managed to get it working was to use the ‘pacman -Syyuu’ which forces the update.  So finally I managed to get the system updated and working.  I also managed to install the Nvidia drivers while I was there and all of the previous programs I was using which luckily was not many as I have been pretty quiet on Linux at the moment.

After installing Grub Customizer from the AUR I was able to put Grub into a mode that I knew would work with my ageing monitor.  I really must get a new one although this works it’s an old Dell 19 inch monitor with a max resolution of 1280x800 so it really is showing its age.  It works fine however and there is no pixel damage so I really can’t complain.

So within an hour I was back up and running and even managed to get my desktop back including my Cairo Dock at the bottom of the screen with all its icons restored and reworking including the Vulkan drivers and DXVK to get games working through Lutris.

However I have not really been playing games lately but it is nice to have that capability should I start using it.  

I have however been messing around with stuff.  I was playing with the Previous emulator.  If you remember I discussed this NeXT emulator before.  Well I managed to get a few programs installed using ISOs of the Peanuts Archive including a few games and a few applications.

I have also been messing around with DosBOX and I decided to have a bit of fun playing with some old programming stuff to see if I can remember any of it.  I honestly can’t but I installed Borland Turbo Pascal 6.0 for DOS and Borland Turbo C 3.0 for DOS and I was playing with them.

I vaguely managed to get a basic “Hello World” type program that cleared the screen and then waited for a key press to exit but it took me far longer than it should have as I have totally forgotten how to program Pascal and C++ and to begin with could not even remember the keywords.

This could be because the last time I actually did any programming in DOS has to be more than 25 years ago.  However I did have fun playing with them and although it won’t lead to anything serious.  Trust me I don’t desire to become a programmer as I just don’t have the patience, it is fun to mess around and do small things with.

I did create their own dosbox.conf files so they auto-start in DosBOX from a launcher and now they sit on my Cairo Dock bar along with everything else.  I’m sure in time I will kill them off but for now it keeps me vaguely amused in this tricky time.

So that’s what has been happening in my little Linux world so until next episode.  Take care.

[linuxlife]

Linux Life Episode 47

Hello once again and welcome back to Linux Life. Well since our last episode I have upgraded the graphics card in the i7 desktop from the GT 630 that was in there to a more modern GTX 1030 although both have 2GB texture memory the 1030 has GDDR5 and many more graphic units the 630 had 64 the 1030 has 512 so a much faster card overall.

The reason I got the GTX 1030 was it was capable of Vulkan as it’s a DX12 compatible card which the GT 630 wasn’t.  So many more games are playable now.  Not that I am a huge games player but I do like to have an odd game or two now and again.

So major graphics upgrade meant I tried a few games obviously I tried a few of the native Steam games and sure enough they work fine.  Things look good in things like Castlevania Lords of Shadow.

OK on to more daring moves.  I used to play Unreal Tournament 2004 a lot in the olden days when I used to play regularly.  I was never good at FPS games but an occasional blast is fun.  So I know Unreal Tournament 4 is free to download but obviously it uses the Epic Launcher which is Windows and Mac only at the moment.

Tried running it with Wine it failed to install.  So off I went looking around the net apparently UT4 has a Linux test application which is 10GB of download.  So I downloaded it read the thread on how to install it and run it.

Sure enough I now can play Unreal Tournament 4 on Antergos.  I have yet to play it online but I am sure having fun getting my skills back with the bots.  

With that under my belt I went one step further... As I mentioned earlier this new card has Vulkan capability.  So I downloaded Lutris and decided to try Path of Exile.  I am a sucker for a good Diablo-style game.  I spent hours with Diablo, Diablo II, Torchlight and Torchlight 2.

Now I tried PoE in its early days in Windows and it was quite fun but got sidetracked and never played it again.  It has vastly improved since I last played it.

I also had to install DXVK which is a tool which converts Direct X calls into Vulkan instructions so Linux can run these games.

So I download the script, install the game using it and set it to go.  I wish I had checked the script as it set the desktop on PoE to 1920x1024 and it was off the edge of my screen.

A few tweaks later I have it running full screen at 1280x960 and I can now see all of the screen.  I also turned off the FPS counter as to be honest I don’t really care.

However the mouse on the menu I have to move under the item I want by quite a bit to select it which is odd.  I get the game going and the mouse is fine in game until I open my inventory screen.  Once again the mouse pointer is out of sync regarding objects.

It seemed it was am issue as the game was not running in full screen.  It still has issues but I can at least correct it.  Bit fiddly but it can be done.  Not ideal but playable once it is sorted.

Moving away from games I have been playing with the Hatari emulator.  I admit, I never owned an Atari machine of any era.  Not at all.  I have used many of them due to other people owning them but I myself have never actually had any.

Now Hatari is an ST/TT/Falcon emulator.   So I managed to get the basic ST setup and games running which is pretty standard and easy to do.  However I decided to attempt running a Falcon Demo.

Having never used a Falcon or a TT but a bit of a read through the manual I tried to run a 68060 demo which I did not get manage to get it working.  However I did manage to get a 68030 demo running.

I have an i7 3770K with 24GB of memory and it struggled to run the demo without frame skipping.

What is odd is I can run an Amiga emulator such as FS-UAE, as a 68030 with no major performance hit so why does Hatari struggle.  Especially since I believe both FS-UAE and Hatari use the UAE core base for their 68K series emulation.  So they should be comparative but not the case.

However I do admit I think the major slowdown factor was having to emulate the Falcon DSP sound processing as opposed to the issue of the processor emulation.  Sound emulation is always a headache in any major project involving emulators and is always one of the last things implemented as it takes a lot of work to get right.

So I may be able to forgive Hatari in that respect as in time someone will figure out the DSP stuff to be optimized.

Well I think that’s enough for this episode.  So until next time... Take care.

[linuxlife]

Linux Life Episode 89

Hello everyone and welcome to my ongoing journey in the world of Linux. I admit its been pretty quiet on my laptop. However I have been using Hyprland a lot more than normal. I still fall back to KDE Plasma 6.4 X11 occasionally but I admit to be honest I am living on Hyprland and Wayland.

I managed to add a few things to the configuration files. The first thing I added to the config files was I added a way using Super, Shift and Up or down means I can move programs between virtual desktops.

So I can take a split window to its own desktop if one is free or I can bring a separated one down if I want to combine them both on screen. So it seems I am learning some things. All hope is not lost…

I also managed to auto run Crystal Dock. Now apparently this is not a new program rather than a one that disappeared for many years but now version 2.2 works with Wayland which many others don’t.

So once again I now have a dock. Its odd you have to run a program then pin it to the dock. It’s the only way you can get them to work. However many programs although you can run them many won’t allow you to pin them so some I normally have on the dock can not be done.

They still work under Hyprland you just have to launch them using ROFI (set on Super +D) rather than the dock. However quite a lot of the programs can be pinned so that was why I added it to the the autoexec section of the config files.

As I said Crystal Dock is not perfect it’s Auto hide and Intelligent Autohide gets stuck but to be honest hopefully in time that may get fixed but then again I have no idea as Crystal Dock has only just returned so I have no idea if it going to continue to be worked on now it works for Wayland or if it was patched just to get people off their back.

I am going to hope that they have returned and Crystal dock will be fixed to work correctly. I admit if you flick between the two on startup it does get over minor issues of sticking, but it’s annoying that I have to do that.

Obviously in time I hope they address how to add programs and manage to add ways I can add certain emulators and stuff but the fact I even have a dock at all in Wayland I really admit is impressive as I was about to think finding one would be impossible.

I have been over the issues i had with the Cairo Dock version that works with Wayland as it has its own issues. Primarily it sometimes adds duplicates or after a while just resets its own config and buggered its self up but the guys behind Cairo dock admit they have made it basic and don’t intend to go any further until they are forced to do so. Which is entirely their prerogative.

I admit I have returned to using Firefox after quite a while using Brave. I did like Brave as it continued to block ads on YouTube when Firefox had its fail moment for a while. However Brave kept signing me out YouTube every other day and it was getting bloody annoying keep having to 2 step authenticate which requires opening my phone and getting to Gmail just to say yes it’s me.

Firefox is supposedly now keeping data on people and selling it off to the highest bidder which did give me some objection but I figured well if Google who are running my email have not sold my info I guess the remainder can be split up between the various social media and Firefox. If anyone truly believes they have any form of privacy or that your data isn’t been given willy nilly to anyone who is willing to pay then you are deluding yourself beyond belief.

Admittedly under Linux its not as evasive as say Apple or Microsoft but people still ask for telemetry data and people opt in to help.

KDE admitted that 78% of its users are on Wayland now thats from the telemetry opt in people have given them. Audacity has an opt in to give info back to the Muse group who now own it.

Data is worth a lot of money. If you think only the Muse Group or only KDE will see the telemetry you opted into then you need to be much more aware of how the corporate business world works.

Even Free Open Source Software isn’t talking about price… its talking about free as in the freedom to be modified its not proprietary and going to charge you for licensing. Many get this confused and are thrown how Linux companies can charge for service contracts.

As it happens most Distros don’t charge so the free as in monetary does apply but things like RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) and SuSE Linux and there is more that charge fees for customer support on a monthly basis. It’s supporting businesses who need someone to phone if the server goes down at 3am.

Can’t imagine Red Hat will help you much if you call up asking how to run Monkey Pants Solitaire 3 on Steam using Proton even if you have paid for RHEL. They might but i don’t think it’s one of their common issues. I could be wrong…

I can’t remember if I opted into or out of the KDE study. I more than likely if given a choice will have opted out but honestly I can’t remember.

To be honest why I still bounce back to KDE is normally when something goes awry. For example I once in a blue moon play Extreme Tux Racer and it’s only one track I play.

For some reason it stopped working with SFML version 2 and the only way to get it working was to build it using a patched one from GitHub that allowed it to use SFML 3 so now it works which it had stopped doing for a while.

This is sometimes where Arch can be pain when programs you don’t use regularly suddenly stop and don’t inform you and then you have to figure how to get around that luckily it doesn’t happen that often.

For all people say Arch breaks things regularly, that’s not true. OK, it breaks the odd time or two. However normally someone fixes it or suggests a fix virtually immediately.

So very rarely are you completely stuck without a program. I’m sure someone is going to give me an example of something in the AUR that no one maintains anymore and has gone completely tits up which I don’t use just to prove a damned point.

I’m sure there is lots of dead ends with various programs in the AUR luckily they just tend not to be the ones I happen to be using.

Anyway that’s enough waffling from me for this episode… So until next time take care...

[linuxlife]

Linux Life Episode 88

Hello people and welcome to my ongoing waffle about my ongoing journey in the world of Linux.

Is 2025 the Year of the Linux Desktop?

Many will argue this is definitely a much higher chance than it ever has been. Reason being people are getting tired of been spied on by Windows 11 and Microsoft are ending support for Windows 10. Many find Apple too expensive and stuck in a walled garden environment.

Also since the launch of the Steam Deck many Windows users can play literally thousands of Windows Games due to Valve working with CodeWeavers to create Proton which works in conjunction with Wine and projects such as DXVK.

This admittedly has put the overall desktop uptake to 4% of the worldwide market share. I know that doesn’t sound much but when you find out Apple only has 15-20% of the market share it puts things into perspective.

We have had recent adoptees such as Pewdiepie and others in the YouTube community.

While I can’t imagine the percentage getting about 5-6% at best which would be significant. I still can’t imagine it getting much more than that.

Reasons are numerous but I shall go through the most obvious ones...

Windows 10 is at the end of life in October 2025...

This is indeed true for most Windows 10 the updates end but I’m sure if you are a major Enterprise Contractor who still uses Windows 10 as long as you continue to pay appropriately for support it will continue.

Also if you are still on Windows 10 rather than 11 its obvious there is something about the system you like. Most likely you are fully aware of the quirks and know what will or won’t cause harm.

If this is the case then I doubt you have any reason to move anywhere, especially something which is unknown like Linux. You will most likely continue to live with Windows 10 regardless of security issues unless it gets to the point is dangerous to do so and then you will reluctantly upgrade to Windows 11 if you must.

(Insert Adobe Product here) doesn’t have a Linux version...

Yes this is one of the most common reasons why many won’t make the switch. Obviously Adobe is the industry standard and they have a big commanding grip on the creative industry.

However people are getting fed up of the subscription costs and the gotchas of early leaving of the yearly contract surcharge.

Linux does has alternatives to most Adobe products and most of them are free. However relearning an entire new workflow and how to be efficient takes a large amount of time. Time is money and many just don’t have the time or the inclination to learn software which may not have all the features you want or need.

Linux software is forever updating so if you are missing certain features, someone may implement them. However equally they may never do so and you have to figure how to do it their way.

Sadly Adobe has too large of a foothold upon the commercial and creative scene, many would probably switch to Mac OS as Adobe support them.

Adobe has asked the community if they would like a Linux version of their products. However they admit the number of people who would is such a small number of individuals it really isn’t worth the effort.

Modern game X doesn’t work due to Anti Cheat...

Well several new games rely on things like Punkbuster which is a kernel level cheat monitor but the issue is Linux really tries to avoid running at kernel or superuser level for too long as it is very risky to long term security.

That’s not to say that all anti-cheat systems can not be implemented indeed several have been and this is how the likes of the Steam Deck has increased in followers in the last few years.

Valve and CodeWeavers working together on Proton has allowed several thousand games to fully playable via Linux. However the heavy hitters such as Call of Duty and it’s ilk which have a large base and hence a lot of potential aimbots etc. They have heavy cheat security and this is where the issue lies.

I’m sure there is a way that can implement kernel level anti cheat but on the basis of it being proprietary, several Linux users will complain or refuse to do so.

Unfortunately I am not a major game player and I have sat and played Path of Exile, Terraria, Starbound and a few others. Yes some have Linux native binaries but several have not.

So I am probably not the right person to comment on this. Some tests have found Proton will sometimes run games faster on Linux than Windows but these I believe are rare.

If you are a hardcore gamer who has a £1000 graphics card and have a gaming mouse and keyboard. You couldn’t give a flying fig about Linux as you need to get another 2FPS out our system by overclocking and pwning another noob.

PewdiePie now runs Linux, he made a video...

If I had a pound for every video that was titled I tried Linux for 30 days or something along those lines. I would have a pretty decent chunk of change.

They all start the same... I loaded Mint on Day 1, it worked. Day 7 I uninstalled Mint and moved to Arch Linux because I’m a masochist. Fought with it for over a week but eventually got it running. Day 17 chose to use Hyprland and then complain you don’t know what you are doing. Day 20 quit in frustration and return to Windows.

Which is the equivalent of learning to drive starting with an Automatic Ford Fiesta, next week driving an Automatic Audi TT and then moving to a Manual Bugatti Veyron in the span of a month.

Yes it’s possible but it’s not the optimal way to learn.

Now Pewdiepie has indeed made quite a competent video regarding Linux and he has obviously sat and read various manuals and forums because he has managed to achieve quite a technical ability in Linux. Learning how Hyprland works and optimizing it or ricing it as it is known is not the easiest in the world.

Even some regular Linux users don’t go that far down the rabbit hole. Some never will.

As noble as that is and it is encouraging that some are willing to dive slightly deeper than the initial surface and learn to do things properly rather than jump stages. He is a minority.

Also PewdiePie (Felix) isn’t as relevant as he used to be ten years ago. He may still have a large sub count but his heyday is well behind him.

I’m sure in this world of attention deficit people on Tik Tok haven’t got the first clue who the hell Felix even is at this point.

Toxicity in the Linux community...

All communities have some level of toxicity no matter which OS or any hardware/ software you use so I don’t believe it’s exclusive. Sure some Linux users can be abrupt but the majority of user forums will have a large number that are willing to help, a small number of elitists and a smattering of trolls.

That’s just the internet folks.

If this is your only excuse then try distro specific forums rather than major Linux places like StackExchange where they may be more hostile.

That's Enough for now....so until next time take care.

[linuxlife]

Linux Life Episode 86

Hello everyone back to my Linux Life blog. I admit it has been a while since I wrote anything here . I have continued to use EndeavourOS on my Ryzen 7 Dell laptop. If I any major incidents had came up I would have made an entry.

However nothing really exciting has transpired. I update daily and OK have had a few minor issues but nothing that couldn't be sorted easily so not worth typing up a full blog just for running a yay command which sorted things out.

However given it's March, which some You-tubers and content creators have been running with the hashtag of #Marchintosh in which they look at old Mac stuff.

So I decided to run some older versions of Mac OS using VMWare Workstation which is now free for Windows, Mac and Linux.

For those not up with the technology of Virtual Machines basically the computer creates a sandbox container which pretends to be a certain machine so you can run things like Linux and MacOS using a software created environment.

VMWare Workstation and Oracle Virtualbox are Type 2 Hypervisors as they are known which create the whole environment using software machines which you can configure. All drivers are software based.

Microsoft Hyper-V, Xen and others such as QEMU are Type 1 Hypervisors which as well as having the various environments have software drivers some can use what they call "bare metal" which means it can see and use your actual GPU meaning you can take advantage of video acceleration. It also can give bare metal access to keyboards and mice. These take a lot more setup but work slightly quicker than Type 2 once they are done.

Type 1 systems like Qemu and Bochs may also allow access to different CPU types such as SPARC, PowerPC so you can run alternative OS like Solaris, IRIX and others.

Right now i have explained that back to the #Marchintosh project I was using VMWare Workstation and I decided to install 2 versions of Mac OS.

First I installed Mac OS Catalina (Mac OS X 10.15) now luckily a lot of the leg work had been taken out for me as someone had already created a VMDK file (aka virtual Hard drive) of Catalina with AMD drivers to download. Google is your friend I am not putting up links.

So first you have to unlock VMWare as by default the Windows and Linux versions don't list Mac OS. You do this by downloading a WMWare unlocker and then running it. It will make patch various files to allow it to now run MacOS.

So upon creating the VM and selecting Mac OS 10.15 from options you have to first setup to install the OS later and then when it asks to use a HD point it towards the Catalina AMD VDMK previously downloaded (keep existing format). Set CPUs to 2 and Cores to 4 as I can. Memory set to 8GB, Set networking to NAT and everything else as standard. Selecting Finish.

Now before powering on the VM as I have an AMD Ryzen system I had to edit the VM's VMX file using a text editor.

cpuid.0.eax = “0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:1011” cpuid.0.ebx = “0111:0101:0110:1110:0110:0101:0100:0111” cpuid.0.ecx = “0110:1100:0110:0101:0111:0100:0110:1110” cpuid.0.edx = “0100:1001:0110:0101:0110:1110:0110:1001” cpuid.1.eax = “0000:0000:0000:0001:0000:0110:0111:0001” cpuid.1.ebx = “0000:0010:0000:0001:0000:1000:0000:0000” cpuid.1.ecx = “1000:0010:1001:1000:0010:0010:0000:0011” cpuid.1.edx = “0000:0111:1000:1011:1111:1011:1111:1111” smbios.reflectHost = "TRUE" hw.model = "iMac19,1" board-id = "Mac-AA95B1DDAB278B95"

This is to stop the VM from locking up as it will try and run an Intel CPU setup and freeze. This is the prevention of this happening by making it think its a iMac 19,1 in this case.

Now you need to create a harddrive in the VM settings to install the OS on by editing the settings in VMWare and adding a hard drive in my case 100GB set as one file. Make sure it is set to SATA 0:2 using the Advanced button.

Now power on the VM and it will boot to a menu with four options. Select Disk Utility and format the VMware drive to APFS. Exit Disk Utility and now select Restore OS and it will install. Select newly formatted drive and Agree to license.

It will install and restart more than once but eventually it will succeed. Setup language, Don't import Mac, skip location services, skip Apple ID, create account and setup icon and password. don't send Metrics, skip accessibility.

Eventually you will get a main screen with a dock. Now you can install anything that doesn't use video acceleration. So no games or Final Cut Pro but can be used a media player for Youtube and Logic Pro and Word processing.

There is a way of getting iCloud and Apple ID working but as I don't use it I never did bother. Updates to the system are at your own risk as it can wreck the VM.

Once installed you can power down VM using the Apple menu and remove the Catalina VMDK hard drive from the settings. It provide all the fixed kexts so keyboards, mice and sound should work.

If you want video resolution you can install VMware Tools and the tools to select are the ones from the unlocker tools.

Quite a lot huh? Intel has a similar setup but you can use the ISOs and only need to set SMC.version="0" in the VMX.

For Sonoma (Mac OS 14) you need to download OpenCore which is a very complicated bootloader created by very smart indivials normally used to create Hackintosh setups.

It's incredibly complex and has various guides the most comprehensive being the Dortania Opencore guide which is extensive and extremely long.

Explore so at your own risk. As Sonoma is newer version the only way to get it running on AMD laptops or Desktops in VMWare is to use Opencore. Intel can do fixes to the VMX to get it work.

This one is similar to the previous I had to download an ISO of Sonoma. Google is your friend but here is a good one on github somewhere (hint hint). In my case I downloaded Sonoma version 14.7_21H124 (catchy I know).

I also had to download a VDMK of Opencore that allowed 4 cores to be used. I found this on AMD-OSX as can you.

The reason I chose this ISO as you can download Sequioa one. I tried Sequioa but could not get sound working.

So for this one create VM , Select Mac OS 14, install operating system later. Existing OS select Opencore VDMK (keep existing format), set CPU to 1 and cores to 4. Set Netwoking as Bridged everything else as normal. Finish

Now edit settings on VM. On CD-Rom change to image and point to downloaded Sonoma ISO. Add Second hard drive to write to once again I selected 100GB one file. Make sure it is set to SATA 0:2 using the Advanced button. Make sure Opencore is set to SATA 0:0 also using same button.

Now Power the VM. It will boot to a menu with four options. Select Disk Utility and format the VMware drive to APFS. Exit Disk Utility and now select Install OS and it will install. Select newly formatted drive and Agree to license.

The System will install and may restart several times if you get a halt then Restart Guest using the VMware buttons. It will continue until installed.

Setup as done in Catalina turning off all services and creating account. Upon starting of Mac you will have a white background.

Go to System Settings and Screen Saver and turn off Show as Wallpaper.

Now Sonoma is a lot more miserable about installing programs from the Internet and you will spend a lot of time in the System setting Privacy and Security to allow things.

I installed OpenCore Auxilary Tools and managed to install it after the security nonsense. I then turned on Hard Drives in Finder by selecting Settings.

Now open OPENCORE and open EFI folder then OC folder. Start OCAT and drag config.plist from folder to it. In my case to get sound I had to use VoodooHDA but yours may vary.

The VoodooHDA was in the Kernel tab of OCAT I enabled it and disabled AppleALC. Save and exit. Reboot VM and et voila I had sound.

Your mileage may vary and you may need different kexts depending on soundcard or MAC OS version.

Install VMTools to get better Screen resolution. Set Wallpaper to static rather than dynamic to get better speed.

Close VM edit settings and remove CD iso by unticking connected unless you have a CD drive I don't. DO NOT remove Opencore as it needs that to boot.

And we are done. What a nightmare but fascinating to me. If you got this far you deserve a medal. So ends my #Marchintosh entry.

Until next time good luck and take care

[linuxlife]

Linux Life Episode 85

Hello everyone and welcome back to Linux Life, my ever ongoing muddling journey with Linux.

So since we last spoke I have installed Proton and Path of Exile is working fine.

Once again it used to have problems with KDE 5 Wayland but works quite happily with KDE 6 Wayland version. Which is a good thing I even tested it with the new league Necropolis expansion and it works incredibly well.

I admit I am not a huge player of games so I will eventually get around to trying other games but for now I am happy that it works.

I have however found an issue with the Cairo Dock Wayland test. The only way to add shortcuts now is to create a desktop shortcut and drag it to the dock. Previously you could drag from the KDE menu but that stopped working with the new plug-ins update.

It still can not offset the dock like the X11 version but in time I am sure they will crack it.

Screen capture can now be done using the KDE Spectacle app for the moment. Shutter has been got working with Wayland for Ubuntu but is only available a Deb file. Unfortunately he hasn’t got it working with Arch or I would go back to Shutter which is my preferred tool.

I did try a DebTap conversion but it failed to convert got stuck in a script loop. I have no idea if he intends to make an Arch version.

Also managed to get OpenRCT 2.0 working using the GOG version of Rollercoaster Tycoon 2. It’s not a game I play a lot but it is works after installation of a tool called innoextract. Not my position to question why but it worked.

I have also been playing with a few emulators. I am now running the latest version of VICE to emulate a C64. Installed and works fine had to make a few tweaks to setup to get joysticks emulated correctly but it works.

I just wish I knew more C64 games worth playing. Tried Kikstart 2, Uridium, Uridium Plus and BoulderDash. I have documented my life of upset with Commodore 64s in my other blogs and won’t make you suffer having to read about them again.

Also playing with Atari800 emulator. Once again my knowledge of good games is limited I have tried Boulder Dash and Jet Boot Jack but they were the only two games I ever tried. I did try some demos from the Atari 8-bit Tosec with varying levels of success. However I do have the Tosec from archive.org so I will obviously test more games in time.

I have installed OpenMSX and fMSX and the Tosecs but to be honest I am yet to try anything running as BIOS roms need putting in specific locations which sounds like a lot of work.

If anyone has any gaming recommendations on the above emulators or PC games then drop a comment in the Facebook group.

I am now working with an iPhone to connect Linux to the internet. Took a bit of a fight but it’s working. KDE can even mount the iPhone to allow file transfer.

I copied some MP3s across and can be accessed on the iPhone using VLC

If I can do things like that then I can probably copy videos made using the iPhone camera back to the Dell and edit them using KDEnlive. As of yet that’s a future project but could be an interesting idea.

Also want to install Ardour to see if it works with Pipewire and see if podcasting is possible. May even try and see if I can get some VSTs working.

So have plenty of things to attempt when we next speak. Hopefully it will be successful but may equally may break things horrifically.

We shall see.. until next time. Take care...