T w e n t y S i d e d
It almost seems like a year has passed since last week; most of it in the past few days. This will be short one, and I mean it this time. The laptop is still running at 100% on Manjaro Linux. The biggest thing I learned this week is, when looking for a program, use the packages available in the AUR archive first. These seem to be more likely to have everything needed for an Arch Linux-based install set up already. It’s not an issue with everything, but I have found a couple of programs that wouldn’t work using the source package but did work using the AUR package.
I was able to get the Razer Nostromo programmed to the point that I am willing to believe that I could get any Razer gameboard programmed for MMORPG use on Linux. As an addendum, World of Warcraft runs really well on the laptop. Better than I was expecting, as it loaded with the graphics cranked all the way up. And this was with Bluemail, Firefox, and Discord all running. I have fixed both hardware issues I mentioned previously. The second set of kernel parameters I tried adding to the boot configuration has solved the random, but regular, freezes. This setting is to modify the power save settings, which were allegedly implemented incorrectly in this particular family of chipsets. The second problem, the buzzing that would begin whenever there was no audio being output through the headphone jack (and this only applies to headphone jack connection) was related. I found a set of instructions to add to the boot configuration that disabled power save on the sound chip. Since I did this the buzzing stopped. This puts the laptop at 100% usable for everything I need it for, and more usable for some things that I couldn’t do easily. The next test is to connect one of my external data drives to the laptop to see how easily it is to read and write to NTFS. I do have one lesser-used drive on which there is nothing irreplaceable.
I finally forced myself to create not one, but *two* characters to play through Wrath of the Lich King. On the Alliance side, I created a Draenei Shadow Priest and started her in Borean Tundra. Right now I’m almost done with the Dragonblight zone, which is the area you are most directly pointed to after Borean Tundra. (You can also pick up a quest pointer to go to Sholozar Basin, but that’s much more of a side-story than other choices.) I also created a Forsaken Blood (tank specification) Death Knight and dragged myself through the starting area to Howling Fjord, the other “starting zone” in Wrath of the Lich King. The Horde starts at Vengeance Landing on the coast. As a Forsaken, you are thrown straight into one of the most significant stories of WotLK; the new blight being developed that will wipe out the living *and* the dead. By “dead” they mean the Lich King’s scourge, but it can also kill Forsaken. The biggest thing I learned from this experiment is that Borean Tundra is a lot better than I remembered, and Howling Fjord, other than in atmosphere, isn’t nearly as enjoyable as I had built it up in my mind. And for the addendum here: I was getting super-frustrated with the questing structure, until I realized I had turned off low-level quest visibility. Which is why I stopped getting quests to help me move on as I leveled up.
Here’s Moiren the Death Knight.
I’ll be largely out-of-town for a big part of this week. Maybe some of this will end up getting talked about. But, I’ve been building up a reasonable story of the Lich King, which by necessity will involve talking about how death works in World of Warcraft. Looking at it through the lens of WotLK will allow me to move some of the “but also” stories to the side, I think.
That’s it for this week, so you soon!
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Wow, congratulations! Am I correct now that it runs better on linux than windows? Given that sound chip now works?
Yeah. I’m guessing the weird volume jumps under Windows were likely due to the same issue, since it’s all connected to (I am told) incorrectly implemented power save settings in the chip architecture. I never found a solution under Windows, but neither was it a big enough problem to be any kind of deal-breaker. As for performance, the laptop runs the same or similar software much better under Linux than it did under Windows 10…at least after Windows 10 started installing weekly updates sometime in the last year or so. When I first bought the laptop, it had no problems with any game I tried on it. Heck, I used it to stream twitch in HD for a while…I had a USB-C docking station/hub with three cameras and an external hard drive connected and never had a problem. It’s nice to have that performance back.
Glad to hear you were able to get the hardware issues fixed!
Glad you found your feet with Linux and that people had already figured out your laptop’s particular implementation of things.
I think a Forsaken Blood-spec DK is funny, seeing as they don’t have a lot of blood.
The last time I played a Death Knight, there was still a talent tree for damage over time that was essentially poison/curse. I think it was called Corruption. This build is now called Unholy and is the same, conceptually, but feels (and looks) very different. I really ought to give it another try now that I have a few extra levels. The Blood build feels quite a bit like just another variation on playing a warrior.
You probably shouldn’t use Manjaro and the AUR both together. There’s a really simple reason; Manjaro pulls packages out of the arch repo, take about 2 weeks or so for testing/stability, and then add the packages to their own personal Manjaro repo which you then use. Packages on the AUR on the other hand assume that you’re at the latest possible version of packages as are in the arch repo. If it’s working for you now then go ahead and keep doing it, but if it breaks down in the future after an update, it’s probably due to this versioning mismatch between the arch repo and Manjaro’s own delayed repo.
Since everything’s working for now don’t go and reinstall, but if it all breaks down in the future and you want to keep going with arch and you’re not just frustrated with the whole thing, consider EndeavourOS. It is similar to Manjaro in that it’s a version of arch that works right out of the box with simple set-up and everything all configured and ready to go. Aside from Manjaro it’s probably the easiest Arch distro to use. The main benefit for you is that it pulls directly from the arch repo, so the AUR would be in line. However it’s lacking some of the tools like the GUI software manager, instead it expects you to install stuff and do system updates through the terminal.
That’s good to know. It explains why the AUR archive wasn’t available in the default software installer from the beginning. You can turn it on pretty easily, but it wasn’t on to start.