#Compilation Configuration

[forlinx]

Display and Modification of LVDS Display Interface on AM62x Development Board

1. LVDS Interface Specification

Forlinx Embedded OK6254-C development board provides 2 x 4-lane LVDS display serial interfaces supporting up to 1.19Gbps per lane; the maximum resolution supported by a single LVDS interface is WUXGA (1920 x 1200@60fps, 162MHz pixel clock).

In addition, the interface supports the following three output modes:

(1) Single-channel LVDS output mode: at this time, only 1 x LVDS interface displays output;

(2) 2x single-channel LVDS (copy) output mode: in this mode, 2 x LVDS display and output the same content;

(3) Dual LVDS output mode: 8-lane data and 2-lane clock form the same display output channel.Forlinx Embedded OK6254-C development board is equipped with dual asynchronous channels (8 data, 2 clocks), supporting 1920x1200@60fps. All signals are by default compatible with Forlinx Embedded's 10.1-inch LVDS screen, with a resolution of 1280x800@60fps.

2. Output Mode Setting

(1) Single LVDS output mode:

We need a single LVDS screen cable. The black port of the cable is connected to the embedded OK6254-C development board, and the white port is connected to the embedded 10.1-inch LVDS display screen. Connection method as shown in the figure below:

Note that the red line section corresponds to the triangle position, so don't plug it in wrong.

(2) 2x single LVDS (duplicate) output mode:

This mode uses the same connections as the Single LVDS Output Mode. Two white ports link to two 10.1-inch LVDS screens from Forlinx Embedded, and a black port on the right connects to the OK6254-C board's LVDS interface for dual-screen display.

(3) Dual LVDS output mode:

The maximum resolution supported by a single LVDS interface on the OK6254-C development board is WUXGA (1920 x 1200@60fps). To achieve this high-resolution display output, dual LVDS output mode is required.

It is worth noting that the connection between the development board and the screen in this mode is the same as in [Single LVDS Output Mode], but the LVDS cable's and the screen's specifications have been improved.

3. Screen Resolution Changing Method

OK6254-C development board device tree is easy to modify, we need to open the OK6254-C-lvds.dts (single 8-way configuration) and OK6254-C-lvds-dual.dts (dual 8-way configuration) files.

Open OK6254-C-lvds.dts

Open OK6254-C-lvds-dual.dts

The above figure is the single LVDS and dual LVDS screen resolution information, the default resolution of 1024 * 600, and the maximum resolution support of 1920x1200, you can modify the corresponding parameters according to the Screen User’s Manual.

4. Compilation Configuration

Because we only modified the device tree, we don't need a full compilation. After compiling the kernel, a new Image and multiple device tree files will be generated in the images directory. Here we only need to compile the kernel separately.

(1) Switch directory: cd OK6254-linux-sdk/

(2) Execution environment variables:.. build.sh

(3) Execute the instructions that compile the kernel separately: sudo./build. Sh kernel.

(4) Pack all the device tree files to the development board /boot/ directory and replace them, then sync save and reboot scp images/OK6254-C* root@172.16.0.225:/boot/

We have modified the corresponding file. How should we select the screen after replacing it? At present, there are three kinds of screen switching control methods: kernel device tree designation, Uboot menu dynamic control, Forlinx Desktop interface and Uboot menu application. Today, I will briefly introduce the dynamic control of Uboot menu.

During Uboot, pressing the space bar will take you to the Uboot menu. There are three options in the menu:

Enter 0 to enter the Uboot command line;

Enter 1 to restart Uboot;

Enter 2 to enter the Display Configuration menu.

There are three options in the menu:

Enter 0 to return to the previous menu;

Enter 1 will toggle what option 1 displays to configure Screen 1 LVDS; Note: Screen 1 supports single LVDS, dual LVDS, and off (i.e., LVDS off)

Enter 2 to toggle the display of option 2 to configure the Screen 2 LCD. Note: Screen 2 supports 1024 * 600 resolution LCD screen, 800 * 480 resolution LCD screen and off (i.e. RGB off)

When selecting the LVDS screen, we enter 1 to select single 8-channel LVDS or dual 8-channel LVDS.

After selecting the desired configuration, enter 0 to return to the previous menu level. Restart Uboot or enter the command line to start the system, which can make the screen settings take effect. For other resolution screens, please modify the kernel device tree screen parameters according to the screen parameter requirements.

Originally published at www.forlinx.net.

[nintendont2502]

the tutor for my 3d graphics principles and programming unit is apparently in his first year of teaching and was a student not too long ago and. it is so fucking obvious

we were both trying to figure out some insane batshit error I somehow managed to cause and I fucked something up even more, instinctively went "fuck me", and he started to say something. stopped himself. and then went "I'm gonna be so real my default reaction to anyone saying that is "maybe later", which. probably isn't appropriate now that I'm a teacher" and like yeah. godspeed man I'd do the same thing if I ended up teaching

[nornities]

How to use DXVK with The Sims 3

Have you seen this post about using DXVK by Criisolate? But felt intimidated by the sheer mass of facts and information?

@desiree-uk and I compiled a guide and the configuration file to make your life easier. It focuses on players not using the EA App, but it might work for those just the same. It’s definitely worth a try.

Adding this to your game installation will result in a better RAM usage. So your game is less likely to give you Error 12 or crash due to RAM issues. It does NOT give a huge performance boost, but more stability and allows for higher graphics settings in game.

The full guide behind the cut. Let me know if you also would like it as PDF.

Happy simming!

Disclaimer and Credits

Desiree and I are no tech experts and just wrote down how we did this. Our ability to help if you run into trouble is limited. So use at your own risk and back up your files!

We both are on Windows 10 and start the game via TS3W.exe, not the EA App. So your experience may differ.

This guide is based on our own experiments and of course criisolate’s post on tumblr:  https://www.tumblr.com/criisolate/749374223346286592/ill-explain-what-i-did-below-before-making-any

This guide is brought to you by Desiree-UK and Norn.

Compatibility

Note: This will conflict with other programs that “inject” functionality into your game so they may stop working. Notably

Reshade

GShade

Nvidia Experience/Nvidia Inspector/Nvidia Shaders

RivaTuner Statistics Server

It does work seamlessly with LazyDuchess’ Smooth Patch.

LazyDuchess’ Launcher: unknown

Alder Lake patch: does conflict. One user got it working by starting the game by launching TS3.exe (also with admin rights) instead of TS3W.exe. This seemed to create the cache file for DXVK. After that, the game could be started from TS3W.exe again. That might not work for everyone though.

A word on FPS and V-Sync

With such an old game it’s crucial to cap framerate (FPS). This is done in the DXVK.conf file. Same with V-Sync.

You need

a text editor (easiest to use is Windows Notepad)

to download DXVK, version 2.3.1 from here: https://github.com/doitsujin/DXVK/releases/tag/v2.3.1 Extract the archive, you are going to need the file d3d9.dll from the x32 folder

the configuration file DXVK.conf from here: https://github.com/doitsujin/DXVK/blob/master/DXVK.conf. Optional: download the edited version with the required changes here.

administrator rights on your PC

to know your game’s installation path (bin folder) and where to find the user folder

a tiny bit of patience :)

First Step: Backup

Backup your original Bin folder in your Sims 3 installation path! The DXVK file may overwrite some files! The path should be something like this (for retail): \Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin (This is the folder where also GraphicsRule.sgr and the TS3W.exe and TS3.exe are located.)

Backup your options.ini in your game’s user folder! Making the game use the DXVK file will count as a change in GPU driver, so the options.ini will reset once you start your game after installation. The path should be something like this: \Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 (This is the folder where your Mods folder is located).

Preparations

Make sure you run the game as administrator. You can check that by right-clicking on the icon that starts your game. Go to Properties > Advanced and check the box “Run as administrator”. Note: This will result in a prompt each time you start your game, if you want to allow this application to make modifications to your system. Click “Yes” and the game will load.

2. Make sure you have the DEP settings from Windows applied to your game.

Open the Windows Control Panel.

Click System and Security > System > Advanced System Settings.

On the Advanced tab, next to the Performance heading, click Settings.

Click the Data Execution Prevention tab.

Select 'Turn on DEP for all programs and services except these”:

Click the Add button, a window to the file explorer opens. Navigate to your Sims 3 installation folder (the bin folder once again) and add TS3W.exe and TS3.exe.

Click OK. Then you can close all those dialog windows again.

Setting up the DXVK.conf file

Open the file with a text editor and delete everything in it. Then add these values:

d3d9.textureMemory = 1

d3d9.presentInterval = 1

d3d9.maxFrameRate = 60

d3d9.presentInterval enables V-Sync,d3d9.maxFrameRate sets the FrameRate. You can edit those values, but never change the first line (d3d9.textureMemory)!

The original DXVK.conf contains many more options in case you would like to add more settings.

A. no Reshade/GShade

Setting up DXVK

Copy the two files d3d9.dll and DXVK.conf into the Bin folder in your Sims 3 installation path. This is the folder where also GraphicsRule.sgr and the TS3W.exe and TS3.exe are located. If you are prompted to overwrite files, please choose yes (you DID backup your folder, right?)

And that’s basically all that is required to install.

Start your game now and let it run for a short while. Click around, open Buy mode or CAS, move the camera.

Now quit without saving. Once the game is closed fully, open your bin folder again and double check if a file “TS3W.DXVK-cache” was generated. If so – congrats! All done!

Things to note

Heads up, the game options will reset! So it will give you a “vanilla” start screen and options.

Don’t worry if the game seems to be frozen during loading. It may take a few minutes longer to load but it will load eventually.

The TS3W.DXVK-cache file is the actual cache DXVK is using. So don’t delete this! Just ignore it and leave it alone. When someone tells to clear cache files – this is not one of them!

Update Options.ini

Go to your user folder and open the options.ini file with a text editor like Notepad.

Find the line “lastdevice = “. It will have several values, separated by semicolons. Copy the last one, after the last semicolon, the digits only. Close the file.

Now go to your backup version of the Options.ini file, open it and find that line “lastdevice” again. Replace the last value with the one you just copied. Make sure to only replace those digits!

Save and close the file.

Copy this version of the file into your user folder, replacing the one that is there.

Things to note:

If your GPU driver is updated, you might have to do these steps again as it might reset your device ID again. Though it seems that the DXVK ID overrides the GPU ID, so it might not happen.

How do I know it’s working?

Open the task manager and look at RAM usage. Remember the game can only use 4 GB of RAM at maximum and starts crashing when usage goes up to somewhere between 3.2 – 3.8 GB (it’s a bit different for everybody).

So if you see values like 2.1456 for RAM usage in a large world and an ongoing save, it’s working. Generally the lower the value, the better for stability.

Also, DXVK will have generated its cache file called TS3W.DXVK-cache in the bin folder. The file size will grow with time as DXVK is adding stuff to it, e.g. from different worlds or savegames. Initially it might be something like 46 KB or 58 KB, so it’s really small.

Optional: changing MemCacheBudgetValue

MemCacheBudgetValue determines the size of the game's VRAM Cache. You can edit those values but the difference might not be noticeable in game. It also depends on your computer’s hardware how much you can allow here.

The two lines of seti MemCacheBudgetValue correspond to the high RAM level and low RAM level situations. Therefore, theoretically, the first line MemCacheBudgetValue should be set to a larger value, while the second line should be set to a value less than or equal to the first line.

The original values represent 200MB (209715200) and 160MB (167772160) respectively. They are calculated as 200x1024x1024=209175200 and 160x1024x1024=167772160.

Back up your GraphicsRules.sgr file! If you make a mistake here, your game won’t work anymore.

Go to your bin folder and open your GraphicsRules.sgr with a text editor.

Search and find two lines that set the variables for MemCacheBudgetValue.

Modify these two values to larger numbers. Make sure the value in the first line is higher or equals the value in the second line. Examples for values: 1073741824, which means 1GB 2147483648 which means 2 GB. -1 (minus 1) means no limit (but is highly experimental, use at own risk)

Save and close the file. It might prompt you to save the file to a different place and not allow you to save in the Bin folder. Just save it someplace else in this case and copy/paste it to the Bin folder afterwards. If asked to overwrite the existing file, click yes.

Now start your game and see if it makes a difference in smoothness or texture loading. Make sure to check RAM and VRAM usage to see how it works.

You might need to change the values back and forth to find the “sweet spot” for your game. Mine seems to work best with setting the first value to 2147483648 and the second to 1073741824.

Uninstallation

Delete these files from your bin folder (installation path):

d3d9.dll

DXVK.conf

TS3W.DXVK-cache

And if you have it, also TS3W_d3d9.log

if you changed the values in your GraphicsRule.sgr file, too, don’t forget to change them back or to replace the file with your backed up version.

OR

delete the bin folder and add it from your backup again.

B. with Reshade/GShade

Follow the steps from part A. no Reshade/Gshade to set up DXVK.

If you are already using Reshade (RS) or GShade (GS), you will be prompted to overwrite files, so choose YES. RS and GS may stop working, so you will need to reinstall them.

Whatever version you are using, the interface shows similar options of which API you can choose from (these screenshots are from the latest versions of RS and GS).

Please note: 

Each time you install and uninstall DXVK, switching the game between Vulkan and d3d9, is essentially changing the graphics card ID again, which results in the settings in your options.ini file being repeatedly reset.

ReShade interface

Choose – Vulcan

Click next and choose your preferred shaders.

Hopefully this install method works and it won't install its own d3d9.dll file.

If it doesn't work, then choose DirectX9 in RS, but you must make sure to replace the d3d9.dll file with DXVK's d3d9.dll (the one from its 32bit folder, checking its size is 3.86mb.)

GShade interface

Choose –           

Executable Architecture: 32bit

Graphics API: DXVK

Hooking: Normal Mode

GShade is very problematic, it won't work straight out of the box and the overlay doesn't show up, which defeats the purpose of using it if you can't add or edit the shaders you want to use.

Check the game's bin folder, making sure the d3d9.dll is still there and its size is 3.86mb - that is DXVK's dll file.

If installing using the DXVK method doesn't work, you can choose the DirectX method, but there is no guarantee it works either.

The game will not run with these files in the folder:

d3d10core.dll

d3d11.dll

dxgi.dll

If you delete them, the game will start but you can't access GShade! It might be better to use ReShade.

Some Vulcan and DirectX information, if you’re interested:

Vulcan is for rather high end graphic cards but is backward compatible with some older cards. Try this method with ReShade or GShade first.

DirectX is more stable and works best with older cards and systems. Try this method if Vulcan doesn't work with ReShade/GShade in your game – remember to replace the d3d9.dll with DXVK's d3d9.dll.

For more information on the difference between Vulcan and DirectX, see this article:

https://www.howtogeek.com/884042/vulkan-vs-DirectX-12/

[aethon-recs]

This Week in Tomarrymort (7 – 15 August 2024)

Testing out a new format for recs! Trying this out as I don’t always have time to put together detailed themed rec lists, and there’s always SO MUCH good fic getting published every day on AO3. So these are all either ongoing Tomarrymort fics that I’m subscribed to or new one shots that I found while browsing that were updated in the last week. 

My goal is to compile these lists on Fridays, so that everyone has lots of juicy fic to read going into the weekend 🤍 I find myself missing updates all the time, so I hope this will be a helpful compilation of updates of must-read ongoing fic that you may have missed! Happy reading. 

Also, I didn't even realize so much Tomarrymort fic gets updated every week until I sat down and started doing this. Like, this is why I don't have a life, because I spend all my time reading AO3 (and I'm sure many of you feel the same way 😅) The incredible range of talent and insane output in this ship is absolutely awe-inspiring and breathtaking.

*

Tomarrymort One Shots and Completed Fics

One Shot | Heartbeats by @cyandenial

One Shot | yours forever, harry by i_am_a_tree

One Shot | Quid Pro Quo by anonymous

One Shot | Expelliarmus Red by @poljupci

One Shot | Black Fire by sparrowshellcat

One Shot | Let's never wake up (Stay With Me) by @blackseatwenty

One Shot | And all the devils are here by @i-dream-of-libraries

Chapter 9 (complete) of Fourth: The Ritual's Consequence by @ramabear

Chapter 2 (complete) of Tom Riddle's DIY Disaster by @sri-verse

Chapter 9 (complete) of Still Into You by @moontearpensfic

*

Tomarrymort Ongoing Fics

Chapter 7 and 8 of Sits the wind in that quarter by @mosiva

Chapter 5 of Ills of Murder by @shadow-of-the-eclipse

Chapter 23 of would that i'd loved (long ago) by @sprst1tion

Chapter 21 of Paved With the Best Intentions by @perhaps-sunlight

Chapter 17 of A Simple Request by @shyinsunlight

Chapter 2 of Cane Sugar by @blogalinda @cindle-writes @reggieblk @telectronique

Chapter 9 of Catching up by lemonchase

Chapter 9 of Shattered by Flipdarkchill

Chapters 1 and 2 of Saint Harry by @alenablack @chaos-bear

Chapter 3 of Anytime, Anywhere, Always by @moontearpensfic 

Chapter 9 of a touch of fate by @virgil-anon 

Chapter 1 of Atonement [Tomarry Edition] by @just-a-whorecrux

Chapter 3 of the scar remains by @noctelier

Chapters 5 and 6 of we made universes out of bitten lips and broken hands by @boyneptunee

Chapter 14 of When time and reasons fail by citrumade

Chapter 7 of Every Trick in the Book by tomrddle

Chapter 17 of Occultation by TimaeusKosmou

Chapter 2 of the vault by @milkandmoon-ao3

Chapter 16 of Pledged by @moontearpensfic 

Chapter 7 of A Snake in the Grass by @teaandsweaters9

Chapter 11 of Outrunning the Villain in You by @zenyteehee

Chapter 3 of Moon Rite by @isalisewrites

Chapter 2 of These Fragments We've Shored by @rowena-rain

Chapter 110 of Liquida Tenebris (Remastered) by @dymis

Chapter 36 of Revolution of Configured Stars by @tollingreminiscentbells

Chapter 28 of Part One - The Solitude of Suffering by @iseliljathedreamer

Chapters 11 and 12 of Learning to love by @l-archiduchesse

Chapter 9 of sandpaper kisses, paper cut bliss by @xodahafez

Chapter 5 of Do It Over by @marrythemonstersao3

Chapter 1 of Dark Water by Dariahn

Chapter 17 of What In Me Is Dark, Illumine by @telelli-writes

*

[visceralcoma]

Something to be said about how the veilguard party banter compilation video is 5 hours and 47 minutes for 7 companions (source)

inquisition was 5 hours and 35 minutes for 9 companions. (source)

Da2 was 2 hours and 3 minutes for 8 total companions. (source)

DAO (INCLUDING AWAKENING) was 3 hours and 42 minutes (source)

DAO, DA2, and DAI had three companions per party so you THINK there should be more party banter because of more varied party configurations.

Almost like reducing the potential varied configuration allowed the writers to write more banter per party configuration. Or more meaningful banter. Or more story-choice reflective banter.

but noo the fandom likes to shit on veilguard's writing.

[ptr1chr]

Linux from scratch

Finally making my own post for once!!!

decided I would get a bit silly and over the last two days installed linux from scratch, and it was quite an experience. here we are though!!

security? strong passwords?? user access controls??? what are those /s

my install was pretty boring probably except for having to do a few more things to use the nvme drive that my laptop has and configuring uefi instead of mbr, both of which became problems later down the line unexpectedly, i feel like i learnt a lot from doing this and i hope ill never have to compile gcc again

(i got neofetch to run on it :3)

@lfs-official haii idk if you want to see this but im tagging you anyway

[pathologickinkmeme]

5 Year Anniversary Stats Post!

Can you believe that the Pathologic Kink Meme has lasted 5 whole years now? It's true! We got started on April 28th 2020 and we're still going. To honor this achievement, I thought it might be interesting to compile some current stats from the meme and compare it with the original 2021 post and see how the fandom has changed since the beginning. Let's start with the most popular characters and ships! Disclaimer: We are not professional statisticians and this was mostly for fun, so while we did our best to catalogue exhaustively and calculate accurately, we cannot guarantee 100% perfect accuracy. We also tried to avoid assessing for values that would require more than a brief skim of the fills to ascertain.  Most Popular Characters

Fig 1.1 (2025)

Fig 1.2 (2021)

Artemy and Daniil still taking the top spots as the characters who feature in the most fics on the kink meme, but there's a notable trend here that we'll be seeing more of in other charts and that's the measurable explosion of Stamatin content in the fandom since 2021. Andrey and Peter were in about 4x as many fills as they were in 2021 while everyone else is only in around 2x as many. Stamatin Nation rise up! Most Popular Ships Fig 2.1 (2025)

Fig 2.2 (2021)

The kink meme has always been a rarepair haven and it looks like we've largely stayed that way, though a few ships have really taken off since 2021. Daniil/Peter and Daniil/Rubin have breached the 2% threshold to appear on the chart and Artemy and General Block are now vying for Lara's heart. Burakhovsky and Artemy/Rubin have remained remarkably stable, but Stamatincest has risen from a taboo niche to the second most popular ship on the kink meme (i'm so proud of us).

In case anyone is curious, last I checked, the Burakhovsky percentage on AO3 was at around 36%, so while we are certainly love the juggernaut on the kink meme, there's a lot more appreciation for everything else, too!

More charts under the readmore! --->

Biggest Fandom Bicycles

Fig 3.1 (2025)

Fig 3.2 (2021)

So we've already looked at the most popular ships, but another stat I think is interesting is one I call 'Fandom Bicycles' which is characters who... spread the love, so to speak. What these charts measure is how many other characters each character is shipped with across our catalogue of fills. For example, even though Artemy and Daniil are most often shipped with each other, each of them has been shipped with 25 and 18 other characters respectively. So who's your favorite town slut?

Ship Demographics

Fig 4.1 (2025)

Fig 4.2 (2021)

Some interesting trends here! M/M is still pretty dominant on the kink meme (like most of fandom), but our F/F proportions have marginally improved! For clarity, Other (bi) refers to polyamory, threesomes, and orgies where there are characters of multiple genders involved. Other (multi) is for fills where there are multiple ships of different gender configurations (e.g. A fic featuring Artemy/Daniil and Lara/Rubin where each couple is a separate unit). We don't have many of these on the meme, as I suspect that they're more typical of multi-chapter longfic, but there is some! Other (weird) is, well... the weird stuff. Ships between characters and non-human creatures, gods, concepts, architecture! Such classics as Artemy/Wonderbull and Daniil/Polyhedron are typical of this category. We also added a new category, Unclear, for fics where there is romantic or sexual content, nothing super weird is going on, but the gender of one or more participants is unclear (e.g. A sexy painting of General Block between an anonymous pair of legs, or Vlad Jr. visiting a gloryhole).

Explicit Content

Fig 5.1 (2025)

Fig 5.2 (2021)

Given that this is a kink meme, you'd expect the vast majority of fics to be sexually explicit and you wouldn't be wrong, but a whole quarter of our fill catalogue is SFW, whether that be genfic or non-explicit shipfic and I just think that's nice. <3

Trans Content

Fig 6.1 (2025)

Fig 6.2 (2021)

Trans headcanons are really popular in the Patho fandom and they are on the kink meme, too! We thought it might be fun to take stock of all of the explicitly trans content on the meme, though it’s hard to tell how this compares to AO3 due to people tagging for it in different ways. To avoid treating cis as the default, we chose to represent this in terms of content where one or more characters are explicitly trans (most of the time, it goes unstated) and we went about collecting this data using A/Ns, prompt descriptions, as well as skimming all of the fics for trans themes. Almost a 5% increase since the last stats post, which is really cool! Daniil is, by far, the most popular character to headcanon as trans, but there are lots of others, too!

That's all we've got for now, but we're excited to see how these stats change once Pathologic 3 comes out! Feel free to ask if you'd like to see a more detailed breakdown on any of these or if you have suggestions for other stats to collect in the future!

[codingquill]

What happens when you start your computer ? ( Booting a computer )

We studied this in the lecture today, and it was quite interesting. What makes something a hundred times simpler than it is? Creating a story about it. That's why I made this super fun dialog that will help you understand it all.

I've set up a drive to compile everything I create related to the Linux operating system. Feel free to explore it for more details on the topics discussed in the conversation below. Check it out here.

Have a fun read, my dear coders!

In the digital expanse of the computer, Pixel, the inquisitive parasite, is on a microventure with Binary, a wise digital guide. Together, they delve into the electronic wonders, uncovering the secrets hidden in the machine's core.

Pixel: (zooming around) Hey there! Pixel here, on a mission to demystify the tech wonders . There's a creature named Binary who knows all the ins and outs. Let's find them!

Binary: (appearing with a flicker of pixels) Pixel, greetings! Ready to explore what happens inside here?

Pixel: Absolutely! I want the full scoop. How does this thing come alive when the human outside clicks on "start"?

Binary: (with a digital chuckle) Ah, the magic of user interaction. Follow me, and I'll reveal the secrets.

(They traverse through the circuits, arriving at a glowing portal.)

Pixel: (inquiring) What's the deal with this glowing door?

Binary: (hovering) Pixel, behold the BIOS - our machine's awakening. When the human clicks "start," the BIOS kicks in, checking if our components are ready for action.

(They proceed to observe a tiny program in action.)

Pixel: (curious) Look at that little messenger running around. What's it up to?

Binary: (explaining) That, Pixel, is the bootloader. It plays courier between the BIOS and the operating system, bringing it to life.

Pixel: (excitedly buzzing) Okay! How does the computer know where to find the operating system?

Binary: Ah, Pixel, that's a tale that takes us deep into the heart of the hard disk. Follow me.

(They weave through the digital pathways, arriving at the hard disk.)

Pixel: (curious) Huh? Tell me everything!

Binary: Within this hard disk lies the treasure chest of the operating system. Let's start with the Master Boot Record (MBR).

(They approach the MBR, Binary pointing to its intricate code.)

Binary: The MBR is like the keeper of the keys. It holds crucial information about our partitions and how to find the operating system.

Pixel: (wide-eyed) What's inside?

Binary: (pointing) Take a look. This is the primary boot loader, the first spark that ignites the OS journey.

(They travel into the MBR, where lines of code reveal the primary boot loader.)

Pixel: (in awe) This tiny thing sets the whole show in motion?

Binary: (explaining) Indeed. It knows how to find the kernel of the operating system, which is the core of its existence.

(They proceed to the first partition, where the Linux kernel resides.)

Pixel: (peering into the files) This is where the OS lives, right?

Binary: (nodding) Correct, Pixel. Here lies the Linux kernel. Notice those configuration files? They're like the OS's guidebook, all written in text.

(They venture to another partition, finding it empty.)

Pixel: (confused) What's the story with this empty space?

Binary: (smirking) Sometimes, Pixel, there are barren lands on the hard disk, waiting for a purpose. It's a canvas yet to be painted.

Pixel: (reflecting) Wow! It's like a whole universe in here. I had no idea the operating system had its roots in the hard disk.

(They continue their microventure, navigating the binary landscapes of the computer's inner world.Pixel gazes at the screen where choices appear.)

Pixel: What's happening here?

Binary: (revealing) This is where the user picks the operating system. The computer patiently waits for a decision. If none comes, it follows the default path.

(They delve deeper into the digital code, where applications start blooming.)

Pixel: (amazed) It's like a digital garden of applications! What's the enchantment behind this?

Binary: (sharing) Here, Pixel, is where the applications sprout to life. The operating system nurtures them, and they blossom into the programs you see on the screen.

Pixel: (excited) But how does the machine know when the human clicks "start"?

Binary: It's the BIOS that senses this initiation. When the human triggers "start," the BIOS awakens, and we embark on this mesmerizing journey.

[daemonhxckergrrl]

turns out i got bad ram. my baby, his memory's failing 😭 poor guy. it keeps making pacman do weird shit so ig project seedbox is on hold until i can buy some ddr2. assuming it's not the north bridge/memory controller giving out.

debian was headache after headache:

round 1: system hanged on writing random data to the disk (LUKS/LVM prep)

round 2 (skipped the prep): installer errored out on software installation

round 3 (disabled network, local install only): installer errored out on grub installation/configuration

bonus round !!!: i got grub installed via chroot from a live image but (my bad) think i corrupted my LVM through a bad unmount (/dev was busy, had to force unmount, lvchange thought that filesystem was still open due to the force)

i could reinstall again and go through that whole ordeal, or i could pick something else. we're doing artix. sometimes rolling release is just as (if not more) stable. weird how that works xD picked over void for the repo maturity

[forlinx]

🖥️ Learn how to enable virtual networking on Linux 4.1.15 with Forlinx's FETMX6ULL-C platform! Follow the detailed configuration methods for a seamless setup.

[sweetmage]

Accessible BG3 Mods For The Visually Impaired!

As someone with a vision disability, I have a hard time reading small text, distinguishing menu options, and so on. So of course I stay on the look out for accessibility mods. I'm gonna link some of the mods I use (and some that might just be useful) for other PC users that are struggling with vision issues with this game. Be sure to check the mod pages for specific installation instructions for each mod as well as any dependencies or compatibility issues with other mods. Do note that these mods were compiled based on my own experiences with low vision, eye strain, and trouble distinguishing small objects/words so they may not be useful for everyone. If you have any suggestions for things to add to the list or if any links are broken, please let me know!

Also please show some love to these modders if their mods helped you 😄

Better Maps All In One

Link Here

With this mod you can remove the grid overlay on the map which reduces visual clutter. There is also an option to make the minimap larger and a recent update says that colorblind support has been added for NPC markers!

Bigger Mouse Cursors

Link Here

Does what it says on the tin, makes all mouse cursors larger.

Darker Paper

Link Here

Providers a darker background for all readable items (books, notes, etc.) which may reduce eye strain for some.

Comic Sans (Font Replacer)

Link Here

Can be useful for those with dyslexia or vision impairments.

Better Context Menu

Link Here

Adds related icons to all context menu options and (optionally) makes the context menu larger.

Increased Font Size

Link Here

Does what it says on the tin, increases font size with options ranging from 10% to 55% increases. Note: If using in conjunction with the Comic Sans mod, the author of this mod recommends starting with the 10% size and increasing if needed as the Comic Sans mod already starts larger by default.

Less Annoying Magic Effects

Link Here

Disables VFX for many spells, status effects, etc. (see mod page for list). Useful for reducing eye strain, visual clutter, or headache inducing effects. There is an optional configurable version so you can remove only certain effects, though I haven't tried that myself.

Bigger Customize Dice Button

Link Here

Does what it says on the tin, makes the button to customize your dice larger.

[relto]

"yu sanga would have stopped her, of course" excuse me? who gave the 11 year old the dagger? if anyone is encouraging her to fight its sanga.

[layover-linux-official]

Pinned Post*

Layover Linux is my hobby project, where I'm building a packaging ecosystem from first principles and making a distro out of it. It's going slow thanks to a full time job (and... other reasons), but the design is solid, so I suppose if I plug away at this long enough, I'll eventually have something I can dogfood in my own life, for everything from gaming to web services to low-power "Linux but no package manager" devices.

Layover is the package manager at the heart of Layover Linux. It's designed around hermetic builds, atomically replacing the running system, cross compilation, and swearing at the Rust compiler. It's happy to run entirely in single-user mode on other distros, and is based around configuration, not mutation.

We all deserve reproducible builds. We all deserve configuration-based operating systems. We all deserve the simple safety of atomic updates. And gosh darn it, we deserve those things to be easy. I'm making the OS that I want to use, and I hope you'll want to use it too.

*if you want to get pinned and live in the PNW, I'm accepting DMs but have limited availability. Thanks 😊💜

Thanks to @docker-official for persuading me to pull the trigger on making an official blog. Much love to @jennihurtz, the supreme and shining jewel in my life and the heart beating in twin with mine. I also owe @k-simplex thanks for her support, which has carried me a few times in the last couple years.

[adafruit]

🎄💾🗓️ Day 5: Retrocomputing Advent Calendar - Compaq DeskPro 1 🎄💾🗓️

The Compaq Deskpro Model 1, introduced in 1984, featured an 8 MHz Intel 8086 CPU, which had better performance than the IBM PC's 4.77 MHz 8088 processor. It combined Color Graphics Adapter (CGA) graphics with high-resolution Monochrome Display Adapter (MDA) text, delivering enhanced text display. This improved speed and better text clarity over IBM PCs equipped with standard graphics. The Deskpro's architecture allowed for various disk configurations and was an influence for many personal computers.

Check out The Centre for Computing History's Compaq DeskPro 1 page (and other resources there!)

And here's a somewhat "first computer" story from Adafruit team member Anne!

"In my first year of EE (junior) we were limited to larger computers. My senior year we could check out Compaq Portables (really luggables) which allowed us to run C compilers and compile cross assemblers onto a machine for ease of use.

When I graduated, I needed a computer and went to a PC store. They contrasted the IBM PC/XT 8088 with the newly released Compaq DeskPro 1. With an 8086 processor running at 7.16 MHz, it was faster. It came with monochrome graphics (green or yellow) with both CGA and text mode video. I bought the dual 5.25" floppy version to start, to have enough money for an IBM ProPrinter for output.

The machine was great and I spent many hours on programming, databases, word processing and more. It was upgraded eventually to a 30MB RLL hard disk and an added 720k 3.5" floppy."

It got through the '286 era and was supplanted by a '386 machine. I still have the DeskPro and I intend to resurrect it in the not too distant future.

Have first computer memories? Post’em up in the comments, or post yours on socialz’ and tag them #firstcomputer #retrocomputing – See you back here tomorrow!

[cerulity]

There are three projects that I consider some of the hardest in computer science:

Compiler - Requires tons of text parsing, type system configuration, and code generation. A conglomerate of data flow.

Operating system - Build everything from the ground up. You don't even start with an allocator. Implement. Everything.

Browser - So many standards need to be implemented, it's a feat of graphics programming. Just the SVG specification is 900 pages.

If I'm missing anything on that same level of difficulty, let me know.

Some things people have mentioned:

X11 Standard: Not 100% sure why, but I'd assume an entire windowing/desktop environment interface would be crazy. From light research, I found that there seems to be a lot of backwards compatibility, and that Wayland is just more straightforward.

Emulators: Simpler consoles like the NES would already be substantial to emulate, let alone something like the Switch or PS5.

Physics engines: So much math. Raycasting, collisions, islands, and much more. And if you don't get it right, everything literally just explodes.

[dandelionsresilience]

Dandelion News - October 15-21

Like these weekly compilations? Tip me at $kaybarr1735 or check out my Dandelion Doodles on Patreon!

1. EV owners volunteer to drive voters to the polls in 11 states (and you can too)

“ChargeTheVote.org is a nonpartisan voter education and engagement initiative to enhance voter turnout in the 2024 election by providing zero-emission transportation in electric vehicles (EVs) to local polling locations. ChargeTheVote will also host a webinar for those who are interested in participating this coming Tuesday, October 22 at 7pm Eastern time.”

2. Kenya moves 50 elephants to a larger park, says it’s a sign poaching is low

“The elephant population in the […”Mwea National Reserve”…] has flourished from its capacity of 50 to a whopping 156 […] requiring the relocation of about 100 of [them…. The] overpopulation in Mwea highlighted the success of conservation efforts over the last three decades.”

3. Australian start-up secures $9m for mine-based gravity energy storage technology

““We expect to configure the gravitational storage technology [which the company “hopes to deploy in disused mines”] for mid-duration storage applications of 4 to 24 hours, deliver 80% energy efficiency and to enable reuse of critical grid infrastructure.“”

4. Africa’s little-known golden cat gets a conservation boost, with community help

“[H]unting households were given a pregnant sow [… so that they] had access to meat without needing to trap it in the wild. […] To address income needs, Embaka started […] a savings and loan co-op[… and an] incentive for the locals to give up hunting in exchange for regular dental care.”

5. 4.8M borrowers — including 1M in public service — have had student debt forgiven

“That brings the total amount of student debt relief under the administration to $175 billion[….] The Education Department said that before Biden's presidency, only 7,000 public servants had ever received student debt relief through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. […] "That’s an increase of more than 14,000% in less than four years.””

6. Puerto Rico closes $861M DOE loan guarantee for huge solar, battery project

“The solar plants combined will have 200 megawatts of solar capacity — enough to power 43,000 homes — while the battery systems are expected to provide up to 285 megawatts of storage capacity. [… O]ver the next 10 years, more than 90 percent of solar capacity in Puerto Rico will come from distributed resources like rooftop solar.”

7. Tim Walz Defends Queer And Trans Youth At Length In Interview With Glennon Doyle

“Walz discussed positive legislative actions, such as codifying hate crime laws and increasing education[.… “We] need to appoint judges who uphold the right to marriage, uphold the right to be who you are [… and] to get the medical care that you need.””

8. Next-Generation Geothermal Development Important Tool for Clean Energy Economy

““The newest forms of geothermal energy hold the promise of generating electricity 24 hours a day using an endlessly renewable, pollution-free resource[… that] causes less disturbance to public lands and wildlife habitat […] than many other forms of energy development[….]”

9. Sarah McBride hopes bid to be first transgender congresswoman encourages ’empathy’ for trans people

““Folks know I am personally invested in equality as an LGBTQ person. But my priorities are going to be affordable child care, paid family and medical leave, housing, health care, reproductive freedom. […] We know throughout history that the power of proximity has opened even the most-closed of hearts and minds.”“

10. At Mexico’s school for jaguars, big cats learn skills to return to the wild

“[A team of scientists] have successfully released two jaguars, and are currently working to reintroduce two other jaguars and three pumas (Puma concolor). [… “Wildlife simulation”] “keeps the jaguars active and reduces the impact of captivity and a sedentary lifestyle[….]””

October 8-14 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)