#linux archman

Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Linux Life, my ongoing quest regarding my many foibles in the world of Linux.  Well since last episode I have had a major issue with the i7 desktop.  Very much of my own doing nothing to do with Linux itself.

I was trying to install Cawbird which is a Twitter client basically its an updated version of Corebird.  Now it installed fine however when you were reading through the tweets the emojis were missing.  So I decided to play with the various emoji fonts.

First I installed the Twitter-color-svginot font but rather than the emojis being colour as it states Cawbird seemed to show them in black and white.  So I uninstalled that and installed the twemoji font.  Sure enough the emojis showed in colour but were absolutely huge.  So I installed the fontconfig-emoji package hoping to find a way to make the emojis smaller but to be honest, even though I changed the options in the conf file it seemed not to make any difference.

I was probably putting it in the wrong conf file but it seemed no matter what I changed the emojis were still massive.  Tried setting font size, setting them to scalable but nothing seemed to work.  Uninstalled twemoji font and installed the noto-fonts-emoji font.  once again the emojis were there but massive.

Getting frustrated I saw that this noto-font-emoji set was listed as version 1.1 but there was a version 1.2 on GitHub.  So I downloaded that to run it you had to run install.sh from terminal.  That’s when things went very wrong.

The screen font was suddenly missing numbers and various characters and no matter what I did trying to rebuild the font cache including forcing it and making sure the fonts directory link was pointing to the right directory.  It seemed no matter what I did I could not get the screen fonts back to the way it should be.

In the control centre of Mate all the system fonts were just seen as blocks so my screen was very unreadable.  I tried deleting all the font caches to see if they would rebuild but upon restart I still had a very scrambled screen font setup.

So I had to totally reinstall Linux so now the i7 desktop has changed from Archman Mate up to EndeavourOS Mate.  The only problem was I had to totally format my /home directory as the .config files would probably mess up the system as I knew it’s font caches were incorrectly set.

Luckily I back up regularly so I have not lost anything but a couple of minor zip files which I had not backed and can get again.  Bit annoying, but not the end of the world.  So now both the i7 desktop and the i7 potato are running EndeavourOS.  I must admit I like the new Calamares online installer just make sure you have the latest version before you run it, which i forgot to do the first time and it froze at 29% as i think the arch-keyring had updated so it was throwing it off.

Second time around I noticed the welcome script had an update installer button which once I ran that I had no problems installing EndeavourOS.  I do like that EndeavourOS does give you an option to do an online or offline installation.  Not every version of Linux does that especially when installing Arch.

Still got a few things to install to get everything back in order but it is definitely running fine with EndeavourOS. I’m sure I probably could have saved the Archman Linux setup but every time I tried to adjusted a setting I just seemed to be making it worse rather than better.

So we live and learn.  The ironic factor is I don’t really use Twitter that much and was only installing it so I could see how well / or lack thereof a Twitter client was on Linux.  I guess I should have left well alone.

Well I am going to quit this episode there today.  There is shed loads of Linux distros been released lately such as the 20.04 LTS Ubuntu range, Fedora 32 and probably lots more but it seems that when I write about that sort of stuff very few people are actually interested in it.

I will leave the news to the likes of This Week In Linux and others who are much better at explaining the new features than I ever will.

Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to my ongoing quest regards Linux.  Well I did say I was getting frustrated with the slowness of Manjaro well due to having to fight with it virtually every time when I built something from the AUR.  I eventually had enough.  So now the i7 desktop is now running Archman Mate.

The problem with Manjaro as I said was it seemed to be sluggish to load, respond and generally work.  It did work but for some reason everything took far longer than it should.  Also building anything would be problematic.

I will explain what I mean.  Now Arch has a tendency to build from source which is not a problem.  However most Arch versions with the exception of Manjaro if they script is in the wrong order it will normally correct so it will be able to build the program.Manjaro will just stop dead make you find a series of libraries which itself could have made.  It's counter productive.  Now I know sometimes AUR scripts are not perfect but just installing say Fuse the spectrum Emulator.

It uses libspectrum now every other Arch distro I have used discovers this and build this first and then Fuse.  Manjaro just stalls, informs  libspectrum is needed and stops.  So now I have to go back to pamac install libspectrum first and now I can install Fuse.  I'm sure someone seems to think this is a good idea as you see what you need before building the program in question.

However I just need a program to work and find all these unnecessary install steps annoying.  If it needs such then like every other version out there install the library first and then build.  However it will stop warn and not install.

This is very much like the old issue I used to have with Debian when it will inform you of the dependencies but not where they are.  So you end up installing one library, then another, then another and still may not be close to being able to install the program you want.

It's inconvenient.  I really don't understand how Manjaro is listed and praised so highly.  I really don't.  I have found it slow, obnoxious and obstructive.  But for some reason people like it.  Well let's just say I don't.

If you like Manjaro that's your prerogative.  To be honest I admit I think I am pretty fussy about things.  This is why I have shifted many times and through many versions of Linux.

Don't get me wrong now I will at least attempt to see if their is a fix if there is an issue which previously I wouldn't.  Well I would but I have learned several things over time about symbol links going missing and how to sort them and that amending one or two files may be enough to save you having to totally reinstall the distribution.

As I have said before the reason why I use an Arch system over a Debian/Ubuntu/Fedora system is the applications are in a much more central location on Arch.  On the others you normally need to keep adding PPAs and pointing the distros to file servers you have no idea whether they are safe or not.

Admittedly several scripts at the AUR may not work so I'm not saying it's perfect but nine times out of ten I can get the programs I want either from the central repositories of  the distribution I'm using or the AUR.

Do they move their mirrors and files.  They probably do but that is sent with the updates normally so I don't have to manually enter the movements.

Obviously I understand that if I was running a server I would want a machine that I set up once and  then hopefully only have to do occasional updates the likes of Debian/Fedora are commonly used and I respect that.  If I was to setup a central server then I would be looking at them but I don't have a server need.

As a desktop user I like to install programs try them, love them or hate them, keep them or remove them so I need a pretty dynamic setup.  Hence why the Arch system suits me.

However I have discovered once I find something I like I will tend to stick with it.  For example my usage of Shutter to grab screenshots.  Sure there is Flameshot and Greenshot and probably others but they don't always manage to grab game shots very well which I normally can get Shutter to do.

Shutter hasn't been updated in a long time and getting it to build on various distros can be a long trek but Archman for example made sure it built without stopping by building the libraries in the right order which Manjaro could not do.

Maybe it's because Archman is using Mate where as when I was running Manjaro it was KDE.  Given Shutter is primarily based in Gnome and Perl maybe Mate just knows how to deal with it better as it's based on the Gnome system.  I don't know you see for all I am quite technically minded.

When it comes to complex programming my brain has decided it just doesn't want to get involved.  I tried programming many years ago and discovered it was not for me.  I just don't have the patience to find a missing semicolon or symbol in a several thousand lines of code program.  

As much as I like to investigate programs I really don't have the patience to sit and learn programs that are incredibly complex either.  I know Blender is an incredible tool and as well as being a 3D modelling software is capable of  producing animation and some even use it for video production.

I have sat and rendered a model from example files and sat and waited for several hours for what turns out to be a two minute animation.  Yes it's impressive but to be honest I know in my heart I would not sit and do such.

I love Emulation.  It fascinates me seeing a machine running on my PC which was never meant to.  Being able to try out programs and games I never could.

For example MAME includes MESS so it can run several computer systems as well as arcade games so I was able to play with Irix as there is now SGI Emulation in there.  It's far from perfect and obviously not a huge amount of stuff is widely available to download for it.

However I have always wanted to see the Irix system in action and unless I was willing to pay the silly amounts asked on eBay for machines such the Octane and the Indigo.  This is the only way I will get to try out such.

Hence why I now have Previous on most of my setups.  It's an Emulation of  the Next Systems so I can play with NextStep.  Once again software is pretty limited and getting some of the stuff to work is a bit of a challenge.  However seeing it and how you can see Mac OS X has integrated many of its features and improved makes it fascinating to me.

It never ceases to amaze me how the emulator programmers keep getting things working.  I wouldn't know where the hell to start.  Seeing them get things like Yusu, Xenia and Citra which are running emulation of Switch, Xbox 360 and 3DS games respectively.  OK they are not perfect but the fact they have done so just proves how incredibly dedicated these people are.

I have always said my ideal desktop operating system which would never be possible.  Is a machine where I can run Linux, Windows, Mac, Amiga, Next, BeOS and more from one desktop with one simple double click.  Integrated Emulation at desktop level.  Integration between clipboards and software.  It's very idyllic and would never happen as the companies responsible for said technology would vehemently prevent such.  But hey a man can dream.  Either that or I'm just lazy and want everything under one roof to save me leg work.

Hello ladies and gentlemen to my ongoing quest in the world of Linux.  Well since we last were here I have changed the i7 potato from Manjaro to Archman Linux.  Reason being I was trying to get Manjaro to build Vectr as I used to regularly use Xara Studio on Windows so I thought I would look at it.

However it was having an issue with Pango.  So I went to use the git version.  Which was more in line with the requirements but when it removed the main Pango program it then removed half of the main programs of the OS and broke itself rather than making me aware of such it just removed like half of the programs it uses.

So word of warning do not play about with Pango on Manjaro or you will totally wreck your system without any immediate warning of what damage it can do.

I have installed Archman Linux Mate for now on the i7 potato and for now decided against installing Vectr from the AUR.  The i7 desktop still has Manjaro running on it but to be honest I don't know how long that will last.

I'm sure people are thinking I should just find a distro and stick to it rather than playing around and breaking stuff.  Well nine times out of ten I end up breaking something on the account of trying to find new items to look at.  If I didn't find things of interest then this blog would be very short.

So it's swings and roundabouts I guess.  In order to try new software sometimes you risk buggering up your entire system.  However what's the fun in having a big standard setup with no risks.  It's all part of the game.

I'm sure I should set up something like Time Machine or whatever the equivalent is called.  I know Mint created one for the Linux community but I have yet to use it.  I really should so I have a backup of a working system in case things keel over but sadly I don't have enough hard drives with large capacity available to me to do such.

However that would mean I have a long term plan which nine times out of ten I don't.  Most of the time I just see something of interest, attempt to install it, break something, then have to spend time sorting out my system to put it right.

Well that's when things go wrong but most times things install without issue.  I guess I'm not as organised as I probably should be.  Anyway I'm waffling so moving onto the next item.

So this time I have decided to look at two platformer type of games for some amusement.  The first is Secret Maryo Chronicles.

As you can see from the screenshot is a Mario type clone but it has its own little character instead of the titular plumber.  If you have played a 2D Mario game then there is no real surprises here.

It's a good little time waster and includes plenty of levels to keep you amused.  It's available at secretmaryo.org or maybe it will be in your software repository.

I had to download the git version from the AUR which is a Version 2 build as I could not get the original 1.9 to build due to source issues.  But you may have more luck with that one than I did but worth a look in any case.

Next up is Retux...

Have you ever played SuperTux?  Want more levels and new challenges then Retux is the game for you.

Basically you play Tux and the Snow King has imposed a Fish Tax on the world.  This is also a 2D Mario style platformer just with lots of ice and snow.

Retux has taken the existing SGE Engine used by SuperTux and with added python scripts has managed to add in a variety of extra features such as hazards and power-ups.

If you have played SuperTux it is nice to see someone extending it adding 41 new levels.  If you haven't not a huge issue as it's more than playable without knowing the previous story.

You now have a health bar as opposed to the usual one or two hit kill of the previous one.  There are a few new power-ups and more things to probably either intrigue you or drive you insane.  Also secret areas are more prevalent so be on the look out

Also I'd you are feeling creative you can create new levels using the Tiled map editor.  So Retux breathes a new life into the SuperTux world.

If you want to check it out you can download it from retux.nongnu.org

Hello and welcome back to the world of Linux Life.  Sorry for the delay between episodes but I’m afraid family life has been pretty hectic and I have not really had time to sit down and do much.  I was intending doing something special like a podcast or a Youtube video but I never got time.

When I have had free time I have had I have been pushing through playing Path of Exile but I finally got to a point I can’t progress without totally rehashing my character as I didn’t go for a particular build.  So I’m screwed.  Proving that as much as I like Path of Exile it’s skill tree system is broken.

So lets get something out there straight away Antergos Linux has been closed.  The forums and updates will continue for the next three months but the project is now declared as over.

So not happy as it was the Linux I have reliably used for a long time.  Sure the community claims they will continue it in the form of the Endeavour project.  However that’s going to take a long time to put together and get organised so Antergos is off the cards.

So I went on a spree of trying to find a version of Arch Linux that was comparative and worked with no issues.  Hence I had a three day search which lead me even at one point to install Linux Mint 19 (I was getting desperate OK).

First I tried installing CondresOS which installed the main system and dependencies fine, but refused to start if I used the Nvidia drivers.  It would only work with Nouveau which meant I could not use Lutris to play Path of Exile as I needed DXVK to get the game to work.

If you even installed the Nvidia driver it refused to start up and would not let me get back into GRUB to get into text console mode.

OK so next I moved on to Manjaro MATE version.  Now it installed fine but for all it would load the Nvidia drivers.  For some reason would not allow my GTX 1030 to use Vulkan so once again DXVK was not possible for some reason even after installing the Vulkan libraries and tools.

So another distro down I next took on Netrunner Rolling 1905.2 which was just released OK now it did use KDE but once again upon installation would only use Nouveau and refused to work with the NVIDIA driver.  Regardless of how I installed it using Octopi, Pamac, Pacman or Yaourt using the text terminal from GRUB.

OK onto now my fifth distribution of Arch in the form of Archman Linux this went all the way through the installer then upon restart refused to do anything as graphics would corrupt on start.  I even tried going via text mode and regardless of what I did it would not get beyond the initial kernel and file check.  At this point I was totally fed up and was running out of Arch distros to try.

I tried BlueStar Linux and once again installs fine but refuses to run if using the Nvidia driver.  I am sure many can get by using just Nouveau but I am not one of them.  It was at this point I was about to give up for the day so I went for a system I knew would install and downloaded Linux Mint 19.2 MATE edition.

Sure enough it worked and I gave up for the night feeling rather annoyed but I knew I had a working Linux system.

So I attempted to use Mint first I could not find the PPA for Nvidia which took 3 attempts to find the right one.  Reason I needed the latest PPA because the one listed in Driver Manager wont work with DXVK. However it did find it eventually.  OK it works now for Lutris you equally need Wine guess what the one in Mint is too old so I have to find a PPA.  I  could go on but to be honest I got so sick of searching for PPAs in the end I went back to Distrowatch and back to the Arch Linux section.

So BlackArch and MorpheousArch are backup/security penetration versions of Arch so not designed to be used as a daily driver as that is not their purpose.

So that left me a small list many use Openbox or XFCE which are more than capable but not my thing.  Finally I came to Namib Linux which is a Canadian distro I had never heard of but I was at a point where I would try it as it was one of the few that allowed MATE to run from install.

Trust me I have installed a different Display Environment (KDE) then tried to install MATE before and the issues it causes is unreal.  So if i can get an installer that can run MATE from the start all good.

Well Namib Linux uses MATE as it standard desktop so all good.  Installed it and first boot I get a graphical corruption and I am thinking oh not this again, but I restart it and this time it works fine.  I manage to install the Nvidia drivers and it works fine.

In fact everything works fine so I have now for the last few days been running Namib Linux and everything is back to the way it was before I changed from Antergos.  I am now happy and everything I was using I have managed to reinstall and because the data was in my home directory which is on a separate partition, no data was lost.

Also to add insult to injury during this time my 3TB external hard drive had issues and the SATA to USB bridge failed.  I had to move it internal and after 18 hours of running TestDisk it found the partition that had gone AWOL but then refused to boot it. Then when I managed to restore the boot header the file table was corrupted.

So I lost over a terabyte of backup files.  Also it corrupted one third of the drive as now it only lists as a 2TB drive not 3 so either it can’t see the rest or it’s damaged beyond use.

The drive is back working, but is no longer external or 3TB in capacity.

Although I have not been doing much in the way of apps in Linux.  I still have been spending a lot of time messing about trying to get Linux to work.

Anyway this is already too long and if you managed to get this far.  Thanks for putting up with me this far.  I appreciate those who have read this nonsense no matter whether you came in at Episode 1 or this very episode.