• 0 Posts
  • 14 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
Cake day: November 25th, 2024
  • MouldyCat@feddit.uktoLinux@lemmy.ml•Why is mpv able to access video but not audio over ssh?
    4·
    6 days ago

    I first thought you were trying to stream over SSH, which funnily enough was exactly what I was trying to do at the time.

    But you’re trying to start it up to play on the remote machine, aren’t you. This makes sense if you’re accessing the laptop from your phone while sat on the couch! If the default is pipewire or pulseaudio, it might be unable to find it without an active user session - trying forcing alsa with --ao=alsa

  • MouldyCat@feddit.uktoMicroblog Memes@lemmy.world•GenerationsEnglish
    3·
    20 days ago

    Similarly: we all come from an unbroken line of people who had children.

    indeed we come from an unbroken line of animals who had offspring. you can hop back one generation at a time til you get to our early ape ancestors, then those shrew-like things, reptiles, fish, then single cell organisms, in the end you’ll reach the very first cell to ever exist, one single cell from which every living thing evolved.

  • MouldyCat@feddit.uktoLinux@lemmy.ml•This Week in Plasma: Finishing Touches on 6.8
    7·
    1 month ago

    That blog post is *really* light on details. Maybe they assume readers will already know what to expect?

    This page appears to be the official list of everything that’s coming with 6.8 next week: https://community.kde.org/Plasma/Plasma_6

    Things that stood out to me include removal of X11 as a default option at login, triple buffering enabled for Nvidia, Remote Desktop improvements including 2-way clipboard, improvements to screen recording including recording audio and better screen casting performance.

    And finally “Shadows and rounded corners for Steam”. Steam has always been visually quirky to say the least, so I’m intrigued to find out if this will be an improvement or not.

  • MouldyCat@feddit.uktoLinux@programming.dev•Why does Linux have such a terrible sleep?
    111·
    1 month ago

    suspend to RAM (aka sleep) means the computer stays powered on in a very low-power state. Everything in memory is kept as-is, and it consequently draws a little power to keep the RAM active. This makes it very quick to enter this state and to wake up from it.

    suspend to disk (aka hibernate) dumps the RAM to disk, and then powers down fully. It takes a little while to dump all RAM to disk and also to restore it.

    So “the better one” depends on what works best for your particular circumstances. If you don’t know and want a big corporate entity to make those decisions for you, stick with Microsoft and Apple products. If you would rather take the time to find out what’s best for you, then go FOSS.

  • MouldyCat@feddit.uktoSelfhosted@lemmy.world•Part 3: They said a phone can’t run without a battery. Unfortunately, Pettyl didn’t get the memo.English
    4·
    2 months ago

    AFAIK it depends on the device. I believe it’s simpler to have a battery management system which keeps the battery charged when power is attached, and then a second separate system which powers the phone from the battery. That does lead to more wear on the battery though, so the better solution is to have a power management system which monitors the battery and keeps it within a set charge range, and additionally can supply the voltage needed to run the phone. Only when power is not connected does the battery power the phone.

    From a quick google though, it seems that’s only part of the picture. High-end modern phones will often require a battery present, as they use it to smooth out the power coming from the adapter, even though most of the power for the phone when the charger is attached comes from a direct power path.

  • MouldyCat@feddit.uktoLinux@lemmy.ml•Looking for a durable and repairable Linux laptop for business use
    7·
    2 months ago

    What do you mean durable? As long as you are careful, and don’t use it as a frisbee, any laptop can last for 10 years. If you travel about with it, get a proper laptop shoulder bag that fits it well and has a soft padded interior. Then keep the laptop in that when you travel, and don’t squash it into a bag or suitcase.

    Beyond that, simply look for the laptop that you like best. The Thinkpad is a meme laptop IMO. I had one for work, and yes it worked fine with Linux, but so did both the laptops I bought for myself, neither of which were Thinkpads. If you like the look of the Thinkpad, then go for it. Personally I don’t really dig that clunky 90s aesthetic, I prefer laptops with a sleek minimalist aluminium look.

    My advice is to make a checklist of everything you need and/or want in your laptop. How long do you want it to run on battery? What size screen do you want? What connectivity does it need - USB-C ports, a couple of USB-A as well? Do you want it to use a USB-C charger (this is very convenient when travelling)? What kind of touchpad, keyboard layout, how much RAM, what speed WiFi etc etc

    Then simply start looking, and build a shortlist of laptops that appeal. Create a spreadsheet, with a column for each of the features you identified as being important in the last step.

    Regarding Linux support, the best thing you can do is check reviews. Even if you buy elsewhere, Amazon reviews are great for this - you can search reviews for keywords, so when you see a laptop you like the look of, search for reviews that mention Linux, and check that everyone’s happy and not complaining about unsupported devices. This is not the lucky dip that it used to be, but there are still problematic components like network adapters that may not work out of the box.

    I have only had two laptops, the first of which I bought in 2018. It was an Asus, very midrange at £600. I prepared a live USB, booted on to it and checked everything worked OK, which it did, and then without further ado I installed Linux. The sensible thing to do would be to have left the “Windows rescue partition” intact for a couple of weeks until I was sure I was happy with the machine, but I just wanted all trace of Microshit purged from my shiny new machine, so I deleted it and set the entire disk as my single Linux partition (plus of course a small boot partition), and I never looked back.

    The computer worked great, did everything I needed from it and was still going strong last year when I finally got a replacement. The laptop I have now is a Lenovo IdeaPad 5. It was also £600, and its performance is way better than expected, being way faster and more pleasant to use than my old Asus. it has an integrated Intel Arc graphics card, which is surprisingly capable. While my old laptop could only run vintage games, such as KOTOR, this new one is able to run current games on medium-low settings. I’ve currently got addicted to ARC Raiders, and it runs perfectly acceptably. Nothing like as smooth and pretty as it runs on my desktop PC at home, but perfectly good enough for me.