T w e n t y S i d e d

I was on vacation all week; more on that later. But more importantly I came home to a broken PC. Well, it was fine when I got home. Here’s the process. Last Monday, after a day of travel and arriving at the destination I got my laptop up and running. My laptop has Manjaro Linux installed just like my PC. Manjaro updates regularly, but I was a bit surprised there was a large suite of upgrades available when I booted up the computer. I put them off at first because I didn’t want to stress the internet connection where we were staying, but it became clear after a few days this vacation house likely had better and faster internet than I do at home. Knowing that, I applied all the updates without incident and went on about my week. Under my current schedule I usually first access my computer in the late afternoon and I mostly kept to that practice while away. After arriving home, of course; my PC showed the same updates available. I’m sure there were some differences in software but I wasn’t expecting a problem. However, the updates wouldn’t run on the PC. I kept getting an error message that updating a library would break a dependency and a recommendation that I remove a particular listing and try again. Except removing that entry would break *another* dependency, and so on and so forth. I tried doing updates one listing a time, which worked right up until it didn’t. I would occasionally get a prompt to restart the system (normally I get one prompt to restart after all updates are complete) but after one of these…nothing *I was used to using* would work. Most things wouldn’t launch. Efforts attempted through the terminal would result in an error message reporting broken dependencies. I had managed to break the fundamental links in the system to a couple of important libraries. Checking online I came across mostly some things I had read before: that the frequent update process on Manjaro is essentially its biggest weakness. I won’t get into all the reasons why, and I have no idea (only a suspicion) why something that worked a few days ago on my laptop *did not* work on my PC…this is actually a problem I’ve had before but was able to deal with. Instead, because of how I have everything installed, I decided to just do a new install of something different.

I had a handful of Live/Install USB sticks made from a few weeks ago when I helped one of the kids install Linux on a laptop. I wasn’t sure what was currently available but I figured something usable to try was on one of the sticks. Bazzite, as that was the system eventually used on the new laptop, seemed like a good choice; but on booting the Live USB the install choices reminded me we had burned a stick designed for Nvidia graphics card installs. I use AMD. I wasn’t interested in Drauger or Endeavor which left a couple of options I didn’t remember based on the letters I had labeled the sticks with. The first option turned out to be Kubuntu, a distribution I had been quite interested in back when I was trying Linux on my own computers.

It looked great. The Kubuntu distribution I had downloaded used KDE Plasma, so the interface would be identical to what I have been using since last summer. Unfortunately, right at the end of the installation I got an error saying that Grub was unable to modify the boot table. Worried that something had been damaged, I just canceled out and shut down to try a different install rather than research the error. The next option turned out to be Linux Mint with the Cinnamon desktop environment, an option that has been quite popular. Cinnamon looks and works very similarly to Plasma and of course Mint is one of the most recommended and popular distributions. Plus, the install worked flawlessly. A couple of hours after deciding I should just try installing something new, I had Steam installed and was ready to reinstall at least Star Wars The Old Republic since I am currently doing dailies for Galactic Seasons. I was expecting all Steam installs to go flawlessly, but after the Steam client install and update I decided to see if I could get Steam to see my existing Steam library on my Apps and Games drive. I have done this before on Windows several times but knowing there were some differences in how different distributions operated I wasn’t 100% sure this would work. Mint for example is based on Ubuntu, which itself is a derivative of Debian Linux. Manjaro is a distribution of Arch Linux. Arch differs at the kernel level from Debian, despite both being based on the same Linux kernel (as all Linux distributions are.) That is to say, while all Linux is Linux, Mint and Ubuntu are more like each other than either is like any Arch-based distribution.

But it worked first try! I did learn the hard way after a reboot that the INSTALL drive wasn’t set to auto-mount despite every external USB-connected drive doing so. So when I rebooted and launched Steam it defaulted to a local, blank directory instead of the currently-populated one, but this was addressed quickly. I installed both of my currently active MMO’s and logged in without much effort. I have not tried installing GOG through Lutris. Every game I ever installed through the GOG connection in the Lutris launcher worked previously. I also had a few games installed directly through WINE including the abandoned-but-still-technically-operational MMO 9 Lives and not-abandoned-but-not-exactly-popular-anymore MMO Guild Wars. I don’t like the file manager included with Cinnamon as much as KDE Plasma’s Dolphin, but I was able to install Dolphin separately. I’m sure there’s a way to make it the default graphical file manager but I haven’t explored that option yet. Same for screenshots; Cinnamon’s default tool is basic and serviceable but I did just install KDE’s Spectacle which is more customizable. I have *not* tried installing World of Warcraft, despite spending the hours of drive-time on vacation listening to the Burning Crusade soundtrack. This has created the usual itch which I am trying to avoid.

This past week of vacation time I’ve been with my aged parents in Ruidoso, New Mexico. Spellcheck doesn’t have “Ruidoso,” which seems to be an oversight. Last summer Ruidoso was actually evacuated due to a couple of huge forest fires that ended up killing two people and doing millions of dollars in damage. Over 25,000 acres burned. I’ve tried to find out what percentage of the area burned was located in the Lincoln National Forest but have not been able to find a reliable number. The area is once again very low on moisture and suffering extreme drought conditions. Fire Danger signs in the region were set to “Extreme Risk.” Outdoor fires of any kind are completely prohibited. Considering National Forest staff have recently been cut, this may very well be a “last chance to see” for quite a while.

My parents were primarily motivated to eat out three meals a day unless circumstances prohibited, which we did run into on Wednesday morning when it seemed nothing was open for breakfast. That day started at Denny’s. We had pizza delivered from Pizza Hut the night before, so I guess it was fitting we had those two meals back-to-back. The pizza was better than our local Pizza Hut, too. That ended up being fairly common on the trip: the food was mostly quite tasty and better quality than we have received anywhere locally or even on trips the last several years. The Log Cabin Restaurant has been open for decades and at least in my experience is always good for breakfast. Our AirBnB was actually quite near Alto, north of Ruidoso; and we found an even better option in the morning at the Alto Cafe. The Bonito Biscuit is a hamburger-sized breakfast biscuit sandwich covered in cream gravy. I tried their breakfast BLT which is a standard BLT on toast that adds a fried egg and cheese. Very good. More standard fair was well-prepared and fast; although the cafe is small and fills up quickly. The Hall Of Flame burgers downtown were excellent; in my opinion the best deluxe burger option in the area. Anaheim Jack’s/Tanner’s Axe-hole (don’t ask) also had an extensive burger menu and was tasty, but didn’t quite stack up despite a larger selection. We got one meal in at Michael J’s, a long-lasting but occasionally-closed Italian restaurant that is now in it’s second or third location that I’m aware of. I last ate there decades ago. The restaurant is known for relatively-high prices and high quality. Our experience this time was on par. They seem to want to project an image of exclusivity, but honestly you’re going to get Olive Garden-quality at best, and with higher prices to boot. It is probably, mostly, still the best Italian Food you will get in the region; but also probably not worth the money.

We went the Museum of Space History in Alamogordo on Wednesday and found similar prices at Lescombes Winery Bistro. We enjoyed the food immensely although the service was friendly but extremely slow. Our server would disappear for fifteen to twenty minutes at a time. We had meatballs covered in pesto sauce for an appetizer and I ate the restaurant special meatloaf for my entree. The meatballs were excellent; the meatloaf good but not great. The restaurant wasn’t busy despite having an excellent reputation and a location right in the middle of a shopping and eating area. I suspect the slow service and small crowd was mostly a result of Lescombe’s intention of selling you a bottle of wine or two with your meal. The slow service could be a result of the patrons being meant to enjoy their wine of choice and having a two hour dining experience. I don’t know how well this works when you’re neighbors to a Popeye’s Chicken and a Taco Bell and trying to catch the Wal*Mart traffic at noon. If you’re eating at Lescombes you have to *want* to eat there…everyone else is in a hurry.

The highlight of the trip, surprisingly; was the Smokey Bear Museum in Capitan (spellcheck doesn’t have Capitan, either. Does it have Paris? New York? Chicago? Yes, it does; all three. That’s a problem, spellcheck), New Mexico. I had been before, long ago. They have remodeled extensively thanks, I am told, to a wealthy donor. The current iteration of the museum has detailed exhibits showing how forest fires work, and also explains the current best understanding of forest management. The outdoor area is a shady, cool and calm retreat. The grave-site of the original live “Smokey Bear” is still featured in one corner. The Billy the Kid museum down the road in Lincoln, New Mexico has likewise been updated to a more accurate and complete retelling the Lincoln County War. I won’t get into the whole thing, especially as anyone can go to YouTube and watch Joseph Hall-Patton/Cynical Historian’s coverage of the events. We returned to Capitan and had lunch at the Smokey Bear Restaurant down from the museum. This place served fairly standard home-cooking for the southwest. I had a southwestern chicken-fried steak, which is just a standard chicken-fried steak with either chili sauce or enchilada sauce instead of cream gravy. Also, usually served with rice and re-fried or pinto beans instead of mashed potatoes and green beans. The best thing I can say, and this is serious, is that the flank steak was a homemade cut, not frozen. You know how rare that is now-a-days?

So that was my whole week. Unless I remember something else that I am completely glossing over. I may write about Linux Mint more in the future. The few hiccups I’ve had so far I’m not willing to say are inherent to Mint and not a by-product of installing and configuring software or some other random influence.

So that’s it for now; see you next week!

Paige Francis He/him