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eugenia Eugenia @lemmy.ml

Ex-technologist, now an artist. My art: http://www.eugenialoli.com I'm also on PixelFed: https://mastodon.social/@[email protected]

Posts 57
Comments 339
Printing on Linux
  • As long as your printer is supported, it's not difficult. The problem is that if you need advanced options, like artists need usually, the options aren't there.

  • [SOLVED] Setting up an alarm
  • thanks, I'll try that!

  • [SOLVED] Setting up an alarm
  • It works fine, so I'm ok.

  • [SOLVED] Setting up an alarm
  • Ok, I managed it by myself after a bit of tinkering. This is the bash script:

    #!/bin/bash
    while true
        do 
            battery_level=`cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/capacity`
            battery_status=`cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/status`
            if [ $battery_status = "Discharging" ] && [ $battery_level -lt 21 ];
            then
                /usr/bin/aplay  /home/eugenia/Music/alarm.wav
            fi
           sleep 120
        done
    

    Obviously change the path the .wav audio file to suit yours (I downloaded mine from the internet). Then, save the file (in my case, I named it battery.sh), make the script file executable ( chmod +x battery.sh via the terminal, or via the file manager).

    Then add it to the Startup Applications settings panel on your distro (usually gnome and cinnamon have one). The alarm will sound if the battery reaches below 21%.

  • [SOLVED] Setting up an alarm
  • I'm sure is possible, but I'm actually asking for the exact steps/script, not the general idea. :)

  • Setting up an alarm

    I have installed Linux Mint 22 in a DELL laptop with a buggy ACPI implementation (the kernel complains about it during boot). The laptop hangs if it goes to sleep (I tried various Linux distros/kernel-versions, the result is the same).

    Because of that, I have disabled SLEEP in the firmware (latest version for that laptop btw). So basically, when you close the lid, nothing happens (it just locks the screen).

    However, sometimes you might be in a hurry and you close the lid to do something else, and then you forget about it. The result would be for the battery to run dry, which eventually destroys the battery.

    My question is: what would be the best way to setup an audible alarm if the battery reaches 20%?

    15
    The Dislike to Ubuntu
  • I use sheet paper to be honest on an Epson printer. I do use Gimp to print, although most of my editing is happening on Photopea in the browser (gimp didn't cut it for me as an editor for my paintings, I needed adjustment layers and Secondary Colors). Then, I export a JPEG, and print from Gimp (because the browser doesn't have all the printing options that gimp has). I use the Debian-Testing rolling release.

  • The Dislike to Ubuntu
  • I was talking about memory usage, not the rest of the stuff. Yes, Fedora uses as much RAM as Ubuntu.

  • The Dislike to Ubuntu
  • Yeah, i hear you. I once installed the new version of snap (and later flatpak) of the gnome ide, and it couldn't find the vala compiler, because it was outside the sandboxing. Totally useless.

    And yes, it's bloated. Nothing works with less 1.6 gb of ram. But then again, it's the same on fedora.

  • The Dislike to Ubuntu
  • I don't like snaps (nor flatpaks for that matter, they're too big for my slow internet connection here in my Greek village). But I find it absolutely, 100%, crazy to install gimp and darktable via snaps, and not being able to print (the print option is just not there, because they're snaps and somehow they haven't implemented that for these apps). As an artist who sells prints, this makes the whole distro completely and utterly USELESS to me. Sure, they can be found as deb packages too, but they're older. And Firefox is also sandboxed. And when I installed Chromium from the command line as a deb, it OVERWROTE my wish, and installed Chromium as a snap too.

    So, no ubuntu for me. The only advantage it has is that many third party apps (usually commercial ones) that release binary tarballs or appimages have tested with ubuntu and they usually work well (minus davinci resolve). I don't have a big trouble with appimages as they're generally smaller than the kde/gnome frameworks that flatpaks/snaps use, and they're one file-delete away from getting rid of them completely. They're just more straightforward.

  • Linux middle ground?
  • Debian-Testing (Trixie) is the way to go. It's a rolling release, but it's very stable, because packages end up there after being tested in Sid (their unstable rolling release). Whatever makes it out of Trixie, ends up on the normal Debian. I've been running it since April without any breakages.

  • Distro or Desktop like "classic" macOS
  • It's in the debian repos, i installed it, but it doesn't show up in the xfce applet list. As for the gtk/wm themes linked abov, they're not downloadable apparently from the website they're linked.

  • Distro or Desktop like "classic" macOS
  • But how do you put the menu bar in the panel? I don't see any such xfce plugin anywhere, neither you're mentioning it. That's the stickiest point trying to emulate Mac.

  • Parental controls?
  • There are various tools (2-3 of them) but they're all different ones and don't work with eachother. Usually, a parent needs an easy to use panel to set screentimes, blocked sites, and which apps are allowed or not (and possibly a checkbox to allow the games subcategory every weekend). But all these tools, while exist, are separate and difficult to either install or make work properly.

    I recently did a bug report at Linux Mint to create such an admin panel. While this was a feature request, I presented it as a bug, arguing that because of Mint's unique position as a "home" or "first" distro to new users, its absence is more like a bug. To my surprise, the creator of Mint, while not replying anything additionally, he assigned it a bug status, as if he agreed with the argument. So we might see something like it on Mint, but not for a couple of years yet... By that time you might not need it anymore, but I believe it'll come eventually to Linux too.

  • I'm thinking of building a PC - any advice?
  • For DaVinci Resolve, you will need an nvidia gpu, even their amd support is half-ar3ed, and intel doesn't work at all (they don't support it under linux, while they do on windows). So you need to decide if you're going to use resolve, or kdenlive (that works with everything, since it's not really accelerated -- it's slower (their acceleration is buggy)). However, if you're going with nvidia, you will probably experience problems on the everyday desktop. So I'd suggest an amd gpu and cpu possibly.

    Alternatively, just get a refurbished Dell laptop, or an older Zenbook. These usually work great with Linux.

  • Which Linux distro for beginners (with requirements)
  • Yep, I run these, especially since I have a couple of raspberry pis, that you can't do without these.

  • Which Linux distro for beginners (with requirements)
  • The XFce version of Linux Mint is not the same as the default XFce. It's been modified to look like the default Cinnamon Linux Mint. You can't tell them apart most of the time, so it doesn't look retro. At 600 points of cpu, xfce can run well, and work better than Lubuntu. Lubuntu is great for less than 400 points cpu, but if you have more than that, you are wasting your user experience (the xfce linux mint edition is much better than lubuntu's in user experience).

    I suggest you don't disable flatpaks, you just disable it from the menu so it's not visible to be clicked. But let it in, just in case it's needed. Right click on the cinnamenu (if you install that), open preferences, and then open menu editor. There, you can make the flatpack menu entry invisible.

  • Which Linux distro for beginners (with requirements)
  • I've got a lot of experience in that domain, since I've upgraded/installed by helping 7-8 friends & family to switch to linux in the last year here in Greece.

    So the two most important things here is the speed of the CPU, and the amount of RAM. With 4 GB RAM on both laptops, means you need to aim for XFCe or Cinnamon, not gnome/kde, and not generally heavy distros like ubuntu/fedora. Also, you need to instruct them to not open a gazillion browser tabs, they will hit the swap (and eventually crashes) with 4 GB of ram.

    The Acer laptop scores only 600 points on the Passmark CPU test, which means that it's only good for XFCE. So I'd suggest the Linux Mint XFCE edition.

    The HP laptop has 1400 points, which are plenty to run Cinnamon (the default Linux Mint edition). For comparison, most new laptops sold today have over 12,000 cpu points, some go to 30,000.

    Mint is the easiest to update, and install new software, and it will provide a familiar look to the user. I highly suggest though a few changes done by you before you give them back their laptops (if you're the one making the installation):

    [Cinnamon HP laptop]

    • Install the Cinnamenu panel addon, to provide a more modern look to the main menu (and then modify it to look nice)
    • Install the dconf-editor and disable tap-n-drag. This default behavior can drive mad Windows users.

    [XFce Acer laptop]

    • Modify the looks of the window manager to not have too many buttons, make it more windows-like.
    • Unfortunately, tap-n-drag is not possible to be disabled on XFce

    [for both laptops]

    • Download Chrome. While Firefox is the preferred browser, Chrome is actually faster (particularly on youtube), and it consumes less RAM (tick its checkbox to consume less ram in the settings). This is seen as an anathema here, but the truth is, in lower end spec PCs, the speed difference between the two browsers is apparent.
    • Setup their youtube to play at 480p by default, and disable autoplay. Anything else will be very taxing to the cpu.
    • Install games from the repos for them, so they don't waste all their space with flatpaks later. Simple games like: sudo apt install aisleriot ltris gweled xye lbreakhouthd frozen-bubble gnome-mahjongg gnome-chess stockfish
    • Second keyboard language if they require it
    • Set up the power options to make sense
    • Create a webapp launcher for Photopea (using the chrome option, as it's twice faster on photopea than firefox), so they have a photoshop clone easily accessible (gimp won't cut it).
    • Set up the distro to be able to run appimages (test it with the new version of kdenlive for example from their website)
    • Install OnlyOffice appimage and set it up in the menus. Onlyoffice provides better msoffice file compatibility than libreoffice.
    • Install ublock origin or lite on the browsers, to avoid most ads and speed up the experience.
  • Proton 9.0-3 released
  • Proton is well developed for games, but not for apps. But Wine itself is not as well taken cared for. Without tricks, patches and prayers, most complex apps don't run on it. Or if they load, they crash quickly afterwards.

    Which CAD app are you trying to run? If it's 2D, have you tried QCad/Cam?

  • What can I do with my super old laptop?
  • You can install Haiku, the BeOS clone. That one runs well on less than 1 GB of RAM, and it had a new beta recently. Linux requires a minimum of 2 GB RAM these days to load 1 tab on a browser of a middle-complexity website, before it starts swapping. To really use Linux more comfortably, you'd need 4 GB, I'd say. And if you want to do 1080p video editing as well, then 8 GB. So, try Haiku.

  • Natural History Museum by me (Eugenia Loli), 2014

    10

    My mainland area in Greece is currently full of vacationists... so I painted the experience

    4

    I've been gorging on figs lately, so I had to paint about it

    Painted with Caran D'Ache gouache cakes

    5

    At the staircase with friends

    Watercolor and gouache.

    0

    English countryside

    0

    With the horse

    1

    Sweet desire and soft thoughts... return to me...

    Painted with gouache and some watercolors, colored pencils.

    0

    Rural slow living

    0
    Watercolor / Watercolour / Aquarelle Painting @lemmy.ml Eugenia @lemmy.ml

    Forest Witch Dance

    0
    Watercolor / Watercolour / Aquarelle Painting @lemmy.ml Eugenia @lemmy.ml

    Woman with Cat (Schmincke watercolors)

    1
    Watercolor / Watercolour / Aquarelle Painting @lemmy.ml Eugenia @lemmy.ml

    The princess and the pea

    Watercolors and colored pencils

    1

    Fruits of Life

    4
    Watercolor / Watercolour / Aquarelle Painting @lemmy.ml Eugenia @lemmy.ml

    The Greenhouse

    Daler Rowney watercolor

    0

    The Kitty Rider

    Using watercolors and gouache

    0
    Watercolor / Watercolour / Aquarelle Painting @lemmy.ml Eugenia @lemmy.ml

    The Tarot Reader

    Using Daler Rowney watercolors, on a small sketchbook.

    3
    Watercolor / Watercolour / Aquarelle Painting @lemmy.ml Eugenia @lemmy.ml

    Watercolor folk art bird

    3
    Watercolor / Watercolour / Aquarelle Painting @lemmy.ml Eugenia @lemmy.ml

    Fresh eggs from the backyard chickens

    Painted with Daler Rowney watercolors.

    3

    Snow in the yard

    Painted with LeFranc Bourgeois gouache paints.

    0
    lemmy.ml meta @lemmy.ml Eugenia @lemmy.ml

    Posting takes too long?

    Starting today, I noticed that posting a comment takes upwards of 2-3 minutes until it's committed (the "reply" button is turning round and round for a long time). Is there something wrong with the servers or some sort of moderation? Not sure what's going on or why.

    3