Steam announces a Linux powered handheld that can double as a desktop, PipeWire brings back volume controls for ALSA, Nvidia makes Blender less blinky on Wayland, and a $26 smartwatch that you might actually want.
Special thanks:
Alex (new patreon)
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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
03:43 Linux tag on Twitch
06:13 Ubuntu 21.10 progress
09:08 Freeing the PineCone
13:58 Expressive Animator
17:38 A pure-Rust Tor implementation
21:33 Edge overtakes Firefox
28:58 A looks at Microsoft’s Linux distro
33:38 Gameboy remote play with Pi
Steamy Decks
https://www.steamdeck.com/en/software
- We are finally getting our Steam Machine! Valve’s Steam Deck handheld portable gaming machine was just announced last week, and will bring Linux to the masses!
- And you can bring your Steam Library with you, just by logging in to Steam.
- No other portable game device allows for thousands of games out of the box.
- And the new home screen looks nicer than the Big Picture mode we have on our current computers.
- I got my reservation for the 256 GB NVMe Steam Deck!
- Valve is performing magic:
- “For Deck, we’re vastly improving Proton’s game compatibility and support for anti-cheat solutions by working directly with the vendors.”
- And you can hook up a monitor, keyboard and mouse to your Steam Deck, because as Valve says, “Use your Deck as a PC. Because it is one.”
- And for those of us idiots who went out of our way to build ourselves our own SteamBox, are we getting the fancy new big picture mode?
- Where can I download me some new SteamOS?
- Steam Deck is a PC so you can install third party software and operating systems.
- I haven’t had a handheld since my TurboExpress and this does nothing to change that.
- Not to be confused with the Streamdeck.
- This announcement wrecked a gang of potential Switch sales.
- Going to make the hardware survey interesting, aint it.
- It’s running Linux with KDE.
- Using Proton (WINE) to play the Windows games.
- EAC is claimed to work.
- Quad channel RAM 16 GB
- Zen 2 4c8t + 8 RDNA2 CU’s
- 1280 x 800px (16:10 aspect ratio) 7”
- 669 grams / 1.47 freedom units.
- For those of you who bought it planning to slap Windows on it, you’re in for an adventure.
- No small amount of custom bits on this that will require drivers.
- Watch LGC 465 for a full rundown.
Nvidia drivers
https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/177145/en-us
- Blender fixes.
- Xwayland fixes.
- Nvidia Display Driver 470.57.02 is out with several important bug fixes for Linux.
- Fixed a Doom Eternal bug which would enable G-SYNC.
- Added support for the unicorn GPUs
- You wanna talk about paper launches, the 3070Ti and 3080Ti pretty much fit the bill.
DLSS on ARM
https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2021/07/19/geforce-rtx-arm-gdc/
- Having a 3060 running on ARM will enable a heck of a lot more than gaming when the price eventually comes down.
- This is huge news, especially in the world of power efficient gaming and rendering.
- Imagine being able to play AAA games on your Raspberry Pi!
Sealed Pine
https://pine64.com/product/pinetime-smartwatch-sealed/
- Comes with InfiniTime preloaded, which is based on FreeRT.
- I ordered one
- Should be here in about 3 weeks, as usual.
- $26 but you can’t crack it open.
- Well, you can, once.
- Can’t come up with a reason to buy one, I’ve tried.
- I am interested in the PPG Heart Rate Sensor.
- And the Step Counting feature with Accelerometer.
- Looks like they have plans for accessories, as there is a PineTime Accessories webpage, but nothing listed yet.
PipeWire 0.3.32
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/-/releases#0.3.32
- JACK can now use rtkit to manage real time priorities on threads.
- Real-time priority is dropped when entering freewheel.
- Volume controls are back for the ALSA plugin.
- Fixed the latency reporting issue with Ardour.
- Memory leaks, deadlocks, and other assorted crashes have been fixed.
- Everyone knows I’m a huge proponent of PipeWire but it’s not allowed in the studio for good reasons, yet.
MOTU MKIII on Linux
https://linuxgamecast.com/2021/07/interfacing-linux-motu-828-mk3/
- What started out as another “let’s take one for the team and see if it works” project ended up with a twist.
- I didn’t expect Tak to sort the clock recovery issue with MOTU and Digi interfaces halfway through the review.
- Traditionally with Firewire interfaces you load the FFADO drivers and hope for the best.
- Why? Because the ALSA drivers would output sound (sometimes) but would get up to all types of mischief when you attempted to record.
- Don’t get too excited just yet because you will have to wait for Kernel 5.14 or build the firewire stack yourself.
Adobe Blends
https://www.blender.org/press/adobe-joins-blender-development-fund/
- Wow, this is huge news! Guess who is joining the Blender Foundation’s Development Fund?
- Adobe is!
- They are joining as a corporate Gold member to directly support core Blender development.
- And making sure that Blender’s integration with the Adobe Creative Cloud suite remains top notch.
- Nothing like buying some good will.
- Why bother having Creative Cloud on Linux when you can just buy yourself some good will.
- It’s the same tactic Epic used by spending some pocket change on Lutris.
Slice of Pi
Sour Pi
https://hi-hi-hi.com/food/projects/2021/06/18/jar.html
- Check your yeast with a Pi.
- It reports CO2 levels, humidity, temperature, and precipitation height of the contents.
- I joke but this is effectively a weather station for the inside of a yeast jar with an e-ink screen.
Pi Server
https://www.the-diy-life.com/mini-raspberry-pi-server-with-built-in-ups/
- You make one of these out of an 8GB Pi4 and you have a very good “workstation” Pi.
- My first thought: OMG, how cute! I love the enclosure.
- The transparent side panels scream “We need rainbow vomit”!
- And it is topped off with an RGB fan.
- One and a half hours of battery life for the onboard UPS is great.
