MentalEdge

Audio devices can have multiple modes or “profiles” that determine what they do.

For my headset I have:

For my internal sound card I have:

If I set my headset to one of the options that doesn’t have “+ Mono Input” the mic stops working and doesn’t even show up in settings and apps anymore. Same if I use the “Stereo Output” mode on my internal sound card. They must be set to a mode with both output and input enabled to work.

I can see this from “Sound” in my KDE settings, but you can also configure this in the “Configuration” tab of pavucontrol.

Tekken 3 is a PS one game, not PS2.

It has no PC version. Any such thing is just the PS one version with an emulation wrapper.

You definitely seem to have what looks to be the right audio device getting detected.

The device that is “unplugged” should be the 3.5mm jack on your laptop (if you have one) not the internal mic.

My first guess is that your audio device is in the wrong mode. If it is currently set to something like “stereo output” change it to “stereo output+mono input” or “stereo duplex” from pavucontrol or audio settings.

intel-undervolt/amdctl for cpu, lact for amd gpu, gwe for nvidia gpu (although voltage control on linux with nvidia is not possible, you can get a similar result by overclocking+limiting power)

Undervolting is great on gaming laptops. Usually nets you a performance boost simply by reducing thermal throttling.

Even just a few mV has made a difference for me.

That’s unfortunate. It has been working really well together with Audiobookshelf.

They mean other platforms like GOG or Epic, not stuff like consoles.

Steam games mostly work, with some exceptions. You can check out ProtonDB to see more precisely what games work, which ones straight up don’t, and which ones need a fix. ProtonDB will usually also tell you what that fix is, which is handy.

But most of the time, you can just hit play and not worry about it.

A note on dualbooting. Linux uses different filesystems from windows. It can access windows NTFS partitions, but it’s not a smooth experience.

A common pitfall is trying use your game library while it is still on a windows filesystem, from linux. Since you can see the folders, and even add them in steam, it’ll seem like it should work. But you’ll run into issues actually running the games. It’s technically possible, but not worth the hassle.

Generally you really want to either format your storage and redownload your games, or if you have the space, copy them over to a fully supported file system.

Not allowing Miku Miku Beams is reasonable tbh. Firing one of those can level cities.

One is integrated into the system and the other is not?

What system? The DE?

A linux desktop install is a system of systems. Almost none of which are essential, all of which are interchangeable with other versions and options.

The nextcloud desktop client honestly integrates with “the filesystem” much more closely than the Online Account functionality of KDE. Is it part of “the distro”?

Steam is not integrated. At all.

Really? Even on Bazzite, the distro that can replace SteamOS and all its handheld console functionality?

Steam is basically an entire DE in gaming mode.

Steam does not integrate into the calendar, contacts, filesystem, etc.

And the software providing the calendar and contacts features can be uninstalled in the very same way steam can be. In fact the entire DE can be. What’s the distinction you’re making?

But it’s not, because it’s not limited to KDE. They pretty much all do.

Ok, so say most DEs have the feature. It doesn’t make nextcloud any more centrally integrated than steam is.

KDE is part of the distro.

Sure. But a “distro” is a preset collection of software packages. Very nearly all of which are optional. What’s “integrated” doesn’t really tell anyone anything. The list of software can be anything. By this logic Steam is “integrated into the distro” on distros like Bazzite that have it pre-installed.

In comparison, it’s much more useful to tell people “KDE provides integration with this thing” because that allows people to instantly tell whether they can make use of that feature, based on whether they are running KDE, regardless of what distro they started off installing.

To enable the functionality, I installed the kaccounts-provider package just now. Trying it out, it seems to allow you to view the contents of your nextcloud account in the network section of Dolphin (though this doesn’t seem to actually work, likely due to my use of two factor auth on my instance). It also syncs contacts?

To access additional functionality, the desktop client is still required (though it too integrates nicely with Dolphin to the point you might not have realized it is separate software, if you had it pre-installed). It’s possible that the login process for it is even automated if you already have your account added in KDE settings.

Can you elaborate? That “usually” is doing a lot of heavy lifting, I’ve never heard of this.

What is integrated? How do sync folders work? Does it support calendar syncing? Contacts? How do you browse the stuff stored on nextcloud after logging in?

I use the desktop client to sync files, and Merkuro via caldav to sync calendar events. For everything else I open nextcloud in firefox.

Edit: There is an Online Accounts section in my KDE settings. There is only an option for OpenDesktop.

I assume this can be expanded with additional software packages. Anyway, this is a KDE feature. Not “integrated into the distro”.

Nextcloud works well, and has a desktop client that integrates well with linux DEs (at least gnome and KDE).

Self-hosting is obviously what a lot of people do, me included, but it is not the only option. Nextcloud accounts are available through several hosting providers.

More info on the nextcloud website.

What I do, is have a minimize keybind.

When I want to quickly do something with a window below the one on top, I hit that minimize keybind, do my thing, then alt-tab.

Unless I interacted with a third window, the one I minimized comes right back.

Or are you looking for something more like picture in picture? A pinned window you never interact with, only look at?

Edit: what if you flip this the other way around?

Make the windows you want to be interacting with transparent, and keep them on top. You’ll always see the window you want to see, through them.

Some of it, yeah.

All a distro is, really, is a preset. It comes with some package manager or other, along with a collection of pre-installed packages.

The reason one chooses one distro over another, is because it’s closer to what you need. I could install arch, and spend a day setting it up exactly the way I like. Or, I could start with Endeavour, and get to essentially the same state in an hour.

I’m familiar enough with linux that I could strong-arm any install into doing whatever I need, but at times, to get from preset A to preset B, it’s faster to just start over from a known preset that’s closest to what I want.

Rolling releases typically mean the software available is recent, but that’s only one aspect of what your starting point could look like.

“Gaming” distros are going to be a preset that contains a bunch of configurations, defaults and software, that gamers typically care about. That steam is usually already installed, is an example of one such thing. The same way my mention of GPU and CPU support is only an example.

Maybe instead of “They tend to make sure stuff that gamers care about are up to date and working” I should have phrased it “They tend to make sure things that gamers care about are easy to set up and supported, if not even ready to go, out of the box”.

This looks fine.

I have a massive library of various games, and three years in I haven’t really come across any cases where I want to tear my hair out.

If ProtonDB says a game doesn’t work, you’re not gonna tweak your way to having it run. If it says it does, and it didn’t run right away with no problems, you can usually just apply the fixes other users have found, and be off playing your game.

In fact things are often simpler than on windows, because all the fixes have been gathered on protondb. While on windows you have to google-fu your way to finding someone on reddit or the steam forums who has the exact same problem, and also figured out and posted the fix.

Sometimes.

They tend to make sure stuff that gamers care about are up to date and working.

You’ll likely need the newest kernels and software packages if you’re running the latest gen of GPU and/or CPU, to get the most out of them, or even get them to work at all.

My first one to switch did so recently. Gave him an open offer to help get going if he ever got interested, then proceeded to just go about using my linux system for our multiplayer gaming and couch gaming hangouts.

It took a little less than three years from when I first switched for him to follow.

My sister is also on linux, has been since she took my gaming laptop as her own, and she never felt a need to switch it back to windows.

You can use VLC if you get the stream url via a web browser, first. MPV can do the same.

The problem is VLC/MPV don’t have a built-in way to browse and pick what you want to play.

It’s not permanent. At least it wasn’t for me.

Ripping youtube or ytm will cause them to ratelimit your ip and/or account (media not available error).

For me, access was restored after 48h.

It was really inconvenient, so I found other ways. A mix of buying whats available on bandcamp, and ripping qobuz using a trial account (which btw is so much faster, ytm was taking days to rip just a couple artists).

I use Symfonium with Jellyfin for music now, if you tag everything with Picard, the “smart” playlist capabilities are competent.

Still pop into ytm to discover new stuff, tho.