Neophyte journey

codezer0 · 2025-09-23T16:24:32+00:00

… Or, can I avoid typing in command lines that require a credit card to answer? So, to recap from the other thread… Bazzite kinda worked, but gave up on it because of its constant griping about secure boot; no matter how many times I entered the password it lists in its support thing, it rejected it every time on an actual install. So, Linux mint. First impressions are… It’s leaner, on the USB at least. Doesn’t gripe about secure boot. But does nag me an awful lot for the admin password to do things. Feels like Vista with UAC all over again, but worse. Couldn’t get online at first; my home network literally has every Ethernet plug occupied. At first tried refusing a Belkin adapter that I gave a Windows XP machine; no dice. It recognized it but refused to talk to it. Had to fish out another adapter that it would like. Seeing it’s app store for the first time, and saw a few familiar entries. Loading up Steam and trying out ut99… At first impression, finding it won’t give a display at all with the opengl renderer. Yet worked with the d3d renderer. Out of any environment where I didn’t expect that behavior, it’d be here. Unfortunately, having to reconfigure it every other day is a peeve. Spot Open RGB being available through said app store; download it, to help me manage lights. And running into another quandary that makes no sense to me and has me going in circles. It downloads and installs, then when I launch the program, it tells me it needs some kind of rules set, and to run it as root. If I right click, I see no such option… I thought being admin was enough? What the hell. I go and download the linked script file it instructs me to, but all that happens when I click on it is it just opens in notepad. Right clicking for context gives me no clue of what the hell to do next to make this work.

Somewhat-Reticent

codezer0 doesn’t explain … youtubers suddenly recommending it.

Vendors want new hardware promoted for $ale$.
…
Finding support for vintage hardware is a very different challenge.

ElQuintron

Somewhat-Reticent Finding support for vintage hardware is a very different challenge.

Rule of thumb on Linux is that older hardware is better supported.

Somewhat-Reticent

ElQuintron Usually, depending on the distro community involved.
Hacking hardware drivers takes time.

codezer0

Also, assuming this can get resolved…

Decided to try installing OBS and see how different it is from the Windows app… Thankfully UI seems to be familiar and in place. However, already noticed that on Linux it refuses to let me enable gpu acceleration for encoding.

Said system has a Radeon VII. Obviously, gpu encode was available and supported in Windows, and Mint’s driver updater insists there are no newer drivers. What gives?

codezer0

Supposedly, a sanity check to confirm that udev rules are in place.

codezer0

On another forum i was trying to ask for help on this matter, said screenshot suggests that the udev rules did install correctly. At this point it might be a case where OpenRGB on linux either can’t detect the rgb controller of the motherboard… which is patently annoying.

Suggests to me, that other than replacing the motherboard, there’s eff all I can do about it. 💀

So, putting a pin in that for now. Next program to solve…

In short, OBS settings wont let me select hardware encoding. System has a Radeon VII gpu in it. While i still had windows, it had no problem accelerating that in the program. However, now, it won’t let me select the option and its own driver manager insists there are no eligible drivers to upgrade to.

Somewhat-Reticent

codezer0 the other thread

From DSLR? Might be hard to find your hardware & preferred games there.

( I read a Reddit comment about Pop!_OS, but that seemed off-target. )

( I also prefer to minimize command-line & often use script or cut-n-paste. )

ElQuintron

Somewhat-Reticent From DSLR? Might be hard to find your hardware & preferred games there.

I think OP’s issue is with RGB hardware was and their soundcard. Gaming on Linux, in the post Steamdeck world is pretty trivia, especially on the Steam, client but other platforms are equally well supported now too.

codezer0

Somewhat-Reticent No, not from there. But the forums on pcpartpicker incidentally had a few users more versed in Linux and were providing some of the commands and stuff to try. Leading to where things presently are.

My one desired use case for the RGB lighting on this board was to use it to change color based on the temperature of the hottest component(s), either being max cpu temp or gpu hot spot temp. With them both being liquid cooled, and because apparently Linux can’t be arsed to just straight up tell me what the temp readings are without yet another program.

The other thing I was hoping to test was how feasible it was to use OBS with it, since I was considering switching to it on Marshadow, my present living room PC. It too uses a Radeon VII gpu. If you must know, I only have two thanks to dumb luck in being able to find a matched pair; just needed some cleaning and replacement fans for the stock cooler For living room duties, the ability to encode efficiently is a must, be it from the capture card or via NDI over the LAN.

And, as I reiterate, Arceus was to be my test platform for how viable Linux would be to stop fighting me and actually be a usable experience. As I’ve said before, and shared here, one of the biggest no-gos was the fact that I couldn’t get audio at all for over two whole decades.

Being perfectly blunt, this whole ordeal could have been better. I still can’t understand why absolutely nothing based on arch will just boot up from the usb drive. It flat out refuses to let me boot any of them with the “you have to load the kernel first” error. Granted, the hostility of that user base didn’t give me high hopes to begin with.

I’m not aspiring to, nor trying to be, some kind of IT pro here. I just want the thing to work properly. And enough youtubers and zealots trying to make people think it’s “easier than windows” when I’m here feeling like I’m being dragged by a truck over sand isn’t helping.

So, at present I have two issues standing out with Mint on Arceus:

OpenRGB refuses to talk to the motherboard, full stop. This was NEVER a problem in Windows. It’s frustrating because the Hardware Sync Plugin that is critical to my desired usability of the program, is able to detect many more readings from the system, which would have gotten it to perform ideally, if the base program would just TALK TO THE MOTHERBOARD AND OPERATE THE LIGHTING ON IT AND THE FANS! ❌
OBS studio on Linux will not allow me to enable GPU acceleration whatsoever. The menu just acts like no such method even exists. And Mint also insists there are no updated drivers I can resort to.

In the meantime, just been focusing on other hardware projects just to feel like I can make some progress whereas in Linux I just feel like I’m tread-milling backwards for as nonsensical as this is to me.

ugly95

codezer0 I’m not aspiring to, nor trying to be, some kind of IT pro here. I just want the thing to work properly. And enough youtubers and zealots trying to make people think it’s “easier than windows” when I’m here feeling like I’m being dragged by a truck over sand isn’t helping.

I do think there’s a problem with that messaging.

On one hand, for a Windows user that is comfortable installing their own hardware and installing their own OS, getting Linux installed and doing generally basic stuff is pretty easy now.

But for the average Windows user, even that can be a monumental task.

And, then for the more experienced that can handily install their own OS, those are the types that often have more exacting standards. And, unless they are eager to change, expect to have a similar experience to what they had on Linux. And that tends to be where all the issues pile up. Some bit of hardware incompatibility, some obscure setting that needs to be edited, etc.

Somewhat-Reticent

Indeed. Documentation Maintenance falls far short of complete for all versions.
Back in the Day, similar frustration led to finding
“radeon” meant use a kernel boot parameter ‘nomodeset’,
which corrected assuming non-radeon ( newer ) GPU.
Still had some hair left after that.
Like this from 6 years ago, only mine was decades ago.
No idea if this is relevant, but I recall similar pain.

Somewhat-Reticent

ugly95 “easier than windows” … a problem with that messaging.

Linux marketing always had that problem; for that matter, Marketing in general.

ugly95

Somewhat-Reticent Linux marketing always had that problem; for that matter, Marketing in general.

True, Linux doesn’t really have any marketing. Maybe a few advocate foundations.

Any marketing ends up being through word of mouth. People who do that are going to be familiar with Linux. The things is, most things are easy when you’re familiar with it. And often, the more familiar a person is with something, the more difficult it is for them to explain things to a beginner.

Somewhat-Reticent

Noticed a related MX Linux forum inquiry - relayed just in case.

codezer0

Somewhat-Reticent So, having a look at that…

Why the fuck does linux not enable i2c? If I could figure out how to enable that and it turns out to be the solution, I’m going to be righteously ticked off.

With that in mind, not at home yet to try as of this writing, but how would I enable the i2c thing in Mint?

Somewhat-Reticent

codezer0 Caution - dangerous waters ( no vendor support? ).
Rumor has it there’s an OpenRGB discord .

( I’m not familiar with Linux_Mint nor Ububu; i2c-tools is a standard deb. )
( Might want to review Arch documentation. )

ugly95

Somewhat-Reticent Rumor has it there’s an OpenRGB discord .

I hate that a lot of support has been moved behind Discord instead of having information readily available for everyone to read and search like on good old message boards.

codezer0

ugly95 It is annoying, because it’s entirely possible to catch someone on the wrong day or something still gets misread or misinterpreted, and now everyone’s unhappier for it.

Finally had to break down and join said discord to make the request for help my first post. ’twas some back and forth as I had to explain that 🇦 I’m already on Mint on this platform, and 🇧 the issue presumably, is that on Linux, the base program is refusing to even detect the motherboard, let alone work with it.

Another chimed in, thinking it was a usb thing rather than i2c, whatever that means. Moving on… thankfully, another user there was willing to be patient enough to help me through some commands to figure out what was missing. Which, shockingly, lead to a need to update the kernel to one that included the necessary modules. About to reboot the system as I type this, to see if it takes effect.

Wish me luck… 🤞

… And the system is insta dead. Won’t let me boot at all.

codezer0

codezer0 So that was at least solved by turning off secure boot, for the time being. Some more troubleshooting commands later, and… where I’m at at present.

So, it was supposed to be there for current OpenRGB but was taken out? 🤦

codezer0

codezer0 Looks like for now, the workaround I’m experiencing is presently… uninstall current version, install (thankfully provided) earlier build that retained the supporting code, and incidentally run it as root. Running it normally just ignores the motherboard again. Running as root, it pops up correctly. Moreover, the plugins still work as desired.

Seems for now, I need to figure out a way to basically run OpenRGB as a root service in order to have things operating correctly.

ugly95

codezer0 Seems for now, I need to figure out a way to basically run OpenRGB as a root service in order to have things operating correctly.

I think you should be able to use a systemd service to run something as root on startup.

It’s been a while since I’ve made a service file for systemd, so I don’t want to lead you down the wrong path. But I think services in /etc/systemd/system are run as root.

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