In January I finally followed through on my threat/promise to install Linux on my desktop. I wanted to see how far I could go using a Linux PC as my main computer without doing too much research beforehand or troubleshooting later. Since then I’ve booted into Windows exactly twice: once to scan a multipage document that wasn’t scanning correctly in Linux, and once to print a photo for my kids’ school on extremely short notice. There’s a reason it’s taken me three months to write the next installment in my Linux diary: nothing has gone horribly wrong.
It didn’t take long for my Linux install to stop feeling new and exciting and start feeling like my computer. it Absolutely Like a less annoying version of Windows, although it’s less annoying than Windows, but it’s a much easier transition than I thought it would be. Finding and installing apps sometimes takes a few extra steps – usually easier than Windows, and sometimes harder. And there are some apps that I still haven’t been able to replicate in Linux. I’ve had some fun bugs and some really frustrating moments, but the overall experience is much more cool and robust than I expected. Even troubleshooting is (mostly) satisfying in a weird way.
Luckily, everything that’s gone wrong is over now Little Wrong, like a gaming mouse that only works in games, and most of it is very funny, like a gaming mouse that only works in games. Some of this has to do with the specific hardware I’m using or specific options I Made. (Bringing to mind my nemesis, the HP OfficeJet 8720 printer, for one.) Some of this has to do with the fact that I intentionally chose a relatively new rolling distribution based on Arch Linux rather than a more mainstream distribution with a predictable release cycle like Ubuntu.
Here’s my favorite solution so far. CacheOS comes with Snapper, a built-in imaging service that stores snapshots of the OS before installing or updating programs, so you can roll back if something goes wrong. It saves 50 snapshots by default, which are stored in the boot partition. When I installed CacheOS, I went with the recommended size for that partition, which was 2GB. It filled up very quickly, and after a few weeks Snapper started warning me that it had run out of space and wouldn’t take any more snapshots (by default it’s 50, but it doesn’t have room to store 50 snapshots). CacheOS has since changed its installer to have a 4GB partition by default, but it was too late to help me. There was only one thing to do: boot back into the live image, shrink my rightmost partition to 2GB, and slide each volume on disk To make room for expanding the boot partition, move 2GB to the right side of the boot partition, one by one. It’s silly that I had to do that, but it was easy enough, and quite satisfying in a tactile way.
In January, I noticed that after waking from sleep until I connected to Wi-Fi for the first time, I couldn’t get an IP address from my router on my Ethernet connection. it brought me up badly Wall. Luckily, I was able to continue using the computer while troubleshooting because I have both Wi-Fi and Ethernet, but I prefer Ethernet, so I had to fix it. I discovered that the default driver the Linux kernel uses for my particular Ethernet card doesn’t always work well, so I installed a new driver. I turned off IPv6, then turned it on again. I made sure that my wired and wireless connections were recognized as separate devices by the router, though that didn’t help. I have set a static IP on both the router and computer side. I have extended my DHCP lease period. Finally I found the real culprit.
Several years ago, in an effort to get my multigenerational Sonos speakers to play nicely with my Unifi router (that’s a whole other thing), I followed some advice on a forum and enabled STP — an old port-scanning protocol — on my networking switch. This was fine for my Windows PC, but in Linux it took so long each time to get an IP address from the router that the Ethernet card stopped working. Disabling it fixed my desktop problem And Finally the Era 100 in my kitchen is showing up consistently in the Sonos app. I used it for a few weeks to figure out how to solve a problem on one OS, but suddenly it solved the problem I was trying to solve. apart Had the problem a few years ago on a different OS. We learn by doing!
My current problem is that the mic of my Logitech Brio webcam does not always transmit sound. Sometimes no one can hear me from the beginning; Sometimes it stops working between one meeting and the next, and lately it’s been cutting off mid-sentence. This is probably because I installed EasyEffects, but I’m not sure yet. I have another microphone – and other computers too if really necessary. If I didn’t do this, I probably would have been more angry. Probably too worried to fix it.
On the other hand, sometimes problems resolve themselves if you wait. I wanted to find a way to add text extraction to the screenshot utility in KDE Plasma – a feature I couldn’t find from other operating systems. The solution was to wait a week until Cache was updated to Plasma 6.6, which included that feature. Earn another point for laziness.
When I last wrote about my experience with CacheOS, I was saddened by the absence of the Arch browser. Several readers pointed me towards Xen, which is basically Arch but open-source and built on Firefox, and it’s actually quite nice. Thank you, readers. I also grabbed a Spotify client from the Arch User Repository. I setup git and finally recompiled the ZMK firmware for my number pad. I also got ZMK Studio – a GUI keymap editor – working. In place of Photoshop, I’m using the Photopea web app. It probably wouldn’t be load bearing if I had to edit a lot of photos, but I haven’t had to do that yet.
I didn’t end up installing Howdy for webcam facial-recognition unlocking because it doesn’t seem as secure as Windows Hello. Windows Hello uses infrared 3D face mapping; By the developer’s own admission, Howdy can apparently be fooled by a photo. I don’t have to worry about my kids printing out my photos so they can run sudo commands on my computer, but right now I’m typing my password every time. Microsoft and Apple have invested a lot of money in biometric authentication, and the Linux approach of “expecting a volunteer to build it” actually puts the ecosystem at a disadvantage. Fingerprint authentication seems to work fine, but my desktop doesn’t have a fingerprint reader.
Cache is working fine for gaming, with the caveat that I’m still not playing competitive multiplayer games or anything that requires anti-cheat — or anything that’s really pushing my RTX 4070 Super. i got it Minecraft: Bedrock Edition Working with MCPE Launcher; I just had to enable remote login and disable live views. my kids kind of fell minecraft But we had a good few weeks there. I also played a little Hardspace: Shipbreaker, mysterious descent (Great game), Caves of Qud (Live and drink), and baldur’s gate 3 (Just a little bit). They are all doing well. I hardspace Through the Heroic Games Launcher, and the rest through Steam.
Last time, I mentioned a weird bug where my ancient gaming mouse only worked In Games, and not outside them. This is apparently fixable, but I still replaced it with the Keychron M5 vertical mouse, which has been great both in and out of games and I was surprised by how massively it replaced my trackball.
Current regret level: still zero
You may ask: Why would I keep a computer that I worked so hard to get? wired Ethernet is working, which sometimes completely forgets about the mic on my webcam, which refuses to sleep for unknown reasons at unpredictable intervals? This is because they are outliers. It mostly works, and it’s fun figuring out how to fix the things that don’t work.
I was happy on Windows until I was happy. I liked Windows! I’ve been using it since I was a kid, and I’ve been building my own desktops for almost 20 years. I wasn’t the one who decided to ruin the Start menu by searching in Bing instead of its files; I didn’t break the index; I didn’t change the name of the app that launches Office documents, so at times the computer forgot how to open a Word document. I didn’t choose any of these options. My The alternatives didn’t make Windows worse. Fixing Windows when it’s broken is no fun because Microsoft is sending its org chart.
But if my browser in Linux can’t find my webcam mic because I installed EasyEffects without bothering to read the docs, then brother, that’s on me. Likewise, if half of my operating system is suddenly in French, it’s because I added it. I chose this situation; This was not imposed on me. It’s the difference between running because you want to run and running because you’re late for the train.
Linux is built on the Unix philosophy: it’s made up of lots of little pieces of modular software that each do one thing well, not huge monolithic programs that try to do everything for everyone. It’s more like a box of Legos than an action figure. I’m having a great time with metaphors today. The skills I develop by figuring out how to install a spellchecker, or change a driver, or add a software repository, or configure Git, can be transferred to the rest of the OS and a lot of software too. I think that’s neat.
I haven’t moved away from Windows completely. My laptop still runs Windows, and I have to hand it to Microsoft: the Surface Pro is a great tablet computer. Of course, it would be even better if Windows were less annoying, but Microsoft knows that. And I need to stay up to date with Windows for my work. But it turns out I don’t need to run Windows on my desktop, and I’m having more fun with Linux, so I’ll keep it going.
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