#keeping up with kde

[lalalaugenbrot]

Tatort Saarbrücken: Die Kälte der Erde, Szenenbilder von Bavaria Fiction, credits to @schildilikes fürs finden!

[dragontummy]

spent the past 3 or so days painstakingly setting up linux on an external drive. its still got problems. but also oh my god the amount of customization on this os is fucking insane

[muffinlance]

While I am by no means an expert in Linux distros (distributions) might I recommend two widely supported and user-friendly ones?

Linux distributions are basically packets of software that envelop the Linux kernel that determine the look, feel and function of the operating system. While there is a multitude of flavours, Debian-based systems such as Ubuntu and Mint are widely supported and have huge communities while being user friendly (i.e. keep the command line usage low/ explained). I managed to squeeze so much processing power out of my old laptop just by switching from Windows 10 to Linux Mint (very lightweight, has a graphic interface very similar to Windows). If you don't have to worry about every every Byte of RAM tho, I'd say Ubuntu is a very good start

Hope this helps <3

Thank you! I'm currently deciding between Mint with the Cinnamon desktop or Fedora with either KDE or Cinnamon. Going to try live USBs to test them out.

For others considering the switch: Mint is the most commonly recommended "easy and stable for new Linux users" version. Fedora is "stable but you're going to need to Google how to do more things until you're used to it." Cinnamon desktop is "things look like Windows", KDE is "not trying to be Windows but similarly intuitive, and you can customize everything", and the third common desktop is GNOME which is "doing it's own thing but looks like Mac, with lots of tiled apps".

Note that these are one-day-of-research impressions. I'll probably try GNOME too, but it looks instinctively ugly to me when I search up images of it.

Most common versions seem to have the option to try them before switching your computer over, so that's my next step.

[emi-maru]

A few weeks ago I switched to Linux and I've got some thoughts

I chose Arch Linux because I had some prior experience with using Ubuntu and Linux Mint on laptops, both for work and for myself.

Gaming is, aside from games that require certain anticheats, extremely easy to set up. Steam just works and I use Heroic as an alternative frontend for the Epic games launch and GOG Galaxy and it runs better than both of them did on windows. I haven't looked into Origin the EA App or Uplay Ubisoft Connect but I know I could play their stuff via Lutris or Bottles.

I locked myself out of my system once because I didn't verify a change I made to my fstab (basically a file where all your drives are listed) and while that's my fault for not verifying, you'd think the os would be able to boot if some drive that's not necessary isn't plugged in. A little help from a mutual helped me fix it.

Gnome is a very meh desktop environment. It's kinda considered the default for Linux and aside from KDE and budgie the only one I'm really familiar with. I had to install a bunch of extensions for it to work the way I wanted and it also comes with a bunch of preinstalled software that I don't need and can't (without fearing I'll break something) get rid of (for example, I use Alacrity but have to keep Gnome Console around).

The theming is so good. I can theme so much stuff it's great. I start up LibreOffice and it picks up the background and accent colour I set, I love it.

I'm getting more comfortable with using the terminal and while I still think that ideally every application should have a GUI, sometimes the terminal is more convenient (like using yay to update my entire system).

When I used Windows I had sporadic crackling sounds that I assumed were the fault of my DAC/AMP but I haven't had them since switching to Linux so I guess this was a Windows issue somehow. I tried so many fixes before that didn't work like checking drivers and firmware, using different usb ports and cables, trying different headphones but to no avail even when I got a completely new pc. Thanks, Windows.

I don't get Flatpak at all. Universal packages are neat but when I installed the Flatpak version of Bottles to run save/mod managers inside the proton prefixes that Steam uses, it suddenly took up almost 5gb. It also for whatever reason couldn't see half the folders even after I gave it access to the entire file system. In the end I went with the AUR version of Bottles which does not have that problem despite being Unofficial™. I just wish that the library/shortcut system worked but I can live with it I guess.

The AUR seemed annoying because it took forever to build packages compared to just installing binaries. The Chaotic AUR is a godsent because it contains a ton of binaries from the AUR. I don't get why people don't recommend it more often.

The only software I really miss from windows is ShareX. Not even because of all the tools like scroll capture, but also for OCR. Watching a vod of a twitch stream and being able to grab links out of the chat on screen is nice. Maybe I'll find an alternative someday, who knows.

I've come to despise a lot of people who think that the way they use Linux is the only good one. A big thing that kept me from switching was that the more I informed myself, the more weird opinionated takes I saw. Being forced to engage with questions such as "Is systemd bloat?", " Is neovim the only good text editor?", "Are tiling window managers universally better?", " Is Canonical literally Satan for having made Snap packages?" and "Is it ok to call this person a slur for using solarized KDE?" makes it so much harder to make a choice you're comfortable with.

I should not have put /home on a different partition or at least made the /root partition bigger. It's fine if I clean the pacman cache regularly but I don't want to look up those commands every few days (I know I can resize the boot partition with a live usb and I will, I'm just lazy rn).

My controller only works correctly when plugged in via usb. If I connect it via Bluetooth, the buttons don't map correctly. This is less of a Linux issue and more of a firmware issue since this is a third party controller that does not support Linux. I'm also aware of Steam having a robust remapping tool so I'll use that if I ever need to.

I have not yet looked into software to map my additional mouse buttons and control my keyboard/mouse rbg. Both of these store their settings on board so there's no need for it right now.

Might add more in the future but these are my thoughts for the first few weeks

[biggestdev]

Unfortunately, I've come to the conclusion that I am too much of a messy bitch for Arch Linux.

I tried to keep my laptop going, I really did, but I figure I just had too many conflicting packages installed, and my routine of monthly (or even longer) updates kept screwing me over.

I should have guessed when I had something like 2,000 packages to update, and a dozen conflicts. I tried my normal MO (remove the conflicting packages & dependant apps, then reinstall after the big upgrade), and another red flag came up when I had to leave it on overnight to compile AUR packages (which should have taken minutes, not hours!)

Eventually it finished. Reboot... Black screen. Couldn't even get a terminal!

Thankfully it didn't scramble the disk, so I didn't loose any data. But at this point I'm too tired to recover my install... Again. I'm giving Kubuntu a try.

Yeah, yeah, sNaPs BaD or whatever, but at this point I need system stability more than anything else.

But at least I got the distro with KDE. GNOME BAD.

[rekishi-aka]

Tatort Saabrücken timeline thoughts (or: DfL was actually time travel)

Okay so this is a mashup of this post with post-KdE musings, because I obviously needed to course correct for KdE.

The whole thing only started making sense when I rewatched everything again before KdE. My hypothesis starts with DfL actually taking place in 2021 (instead of 2020 when it aired).

Okay let's look at a few facts:

Leo says Adam has been gone for 15 years

They were in 11th grade in 2006 per the yearbook in "Der Herr des Waldes" (= 16/17 years old per starting school at 6 or 7 and G8, both of which would have still been true when they were in school, Saarland only switched to G7 in 2003 and they would likely have been on a G8 track already)

The doorman at the Hofer company says he's born in 1955 (just like his car) and that he will retire in a few months

It's clearly spring (Lida is sowing peas and the next episode takes place two months later when it's obviously summer)

By this logic, their lives would look like this:

1990: Adam and Leo are born [I remember grading papers at uni for my freshmen born in 1990, I thought they were so incredibly young then and now 20 year olds never knew a pre 9/11 world, gosh I feel old 😭]

If we're keeping the actors actual birthdays, a few days apart in July (post-Stichtag babies): 1989

2006:

April: Roland Schürk falls into a coma after his...accident, after meeting Lausch in the woods

July/August: Adam and Leo start 11th grade (Adam was in Lausch's Philosphy class and Lausch only started at their school after the summer)

2007: Adam vanishes. My personal guess is sometime in spring/summer when he couldn't take it anymore...but Adam also isn't stupid enough to run in winter.

+15 years is 2022. Which absolutely doesn't work from a timeline perspective, because that would mean "Das Herz der Schlange" takes place shortly after "Der Herr des Waldes" and the whole team is a) too cozy for that in the restaurant, but also b) Roland is healed up and getting a cut Achilles tendon healed up does not happen in a matter of months, c) Roland had had time to plan his ultimate revenge, and d) they're dressed for early summer throughout the episode. I guess it could be early autumn, but I don't actually think so.

Until now, I always thought the writer had simply messed up the timeline and 15 years sounded better than 13 years. The link above assumes that "Das fleißige Lieschen" takes place in 2020, which was the year it aired.

(This is a non-Covid world, simply because in 2019, when it was shot, they couldn't know. So this is where the Tatort universe diverges, since a few Tatort franchises definitely had Covid, e.g., Berlin.)

However, again, I don't think, because: The doorman says he was born 1955 and that he is going to retire shortly.

Regular retirement age for birth year 1955 was 65 years 9 months (because retirement age rises incrementally until it reaches 67 year). It's spring. 1955+65 years 9 months = 2021

Also, a friend pointed out that Konrad Hofer delivered also the files for 2020 (150 years, 75 years for each of them), but those wouldn't be available in 2020, so this must be 2021.

Which means: "Das fleißige Lieschen" and "Der Herr des Waldes" both take place in 2021 and "Das Herz der Schlange" takes place in April or May 2022 and since Adam looks pretty hale in the promo pictures. Alternately, there could be a two-year jump to 2023, but I actially doubt it.

As for "Die Kälte der Erde":

Boris is still in prison

It's set in Mexico (or at least the dog days of summer)

Adam and Esther are bickering (which is actually nice!) but Adam is also still really mad about the SEK, and attrition would likely have taken care of that. there's a limit to how bitter and grudge-y one can be for prolonged periods of time

Plus, where was Adam living for a whole year? If he'd been with Leo, that would be really shitty to move out again after that long a while, and Leo is in far too good a mood at the beginning for that to be an issue

So it seems likely that KdE actually takes place in August 2022 [or 2023 if HdS is also 2023], which would leave sufficient time for Adam to heal up and rehab his fingers and be back in the field. This, of course, means that they weren't shattered but "only" broken [unlikely considering how it had happened, but! Tatort logic, whatever], but eh. If they want to run with it, fine by me.

This still means that the 15 years Adam is supposed to have been gone are an embellishment, but let's be honest, 15 years sounds better than 14.

I wonder if we'll be stuck in 2022 for the rest of time.

So, this leaves us with the following dates:

1990: Adam and Leo are born

If we're keeping the actors actual birthdays, a few days apart in July: 1989

2006:

April: Roland Schürk falls into a coma after his...accident, after meeting Lausch in the woods

July/August: Adam and Leo start 11th grade (Adam was in Lausch's Philosphy class and Lausch only started at their school after the summer)

2007: Adam vanishes. My personal guess is sometime in spring/summer when he couldn't take it anymore...but Adam also isn't stupid enough to run in winter. (Although my friend is right, he would be stupid enough to run in winter if it got too bad.)

2021

March/April [latest time to sow peas]: "Das fleißige Lieschen", Adam returns, Roland wakes up

May/June [two months later]: "Der Herr des Waldes", Roland gets suspicious

2022:

April/May: "Das Herz der Schlange", Roland seemingly gets his revenge on Adam for not becoming the man he wanted him to be

August-ish: "Die Kälte der Erde"

[violetlypurple]

Linux for FFXIV and more, Extended version

Its been a month since my previous post about FFXIV and general use with Linux. The more time I spend with it, the more I have both refined my setup and and made discoveries that are worth going more in-depth about. This is going to be a long one, so I'm putting it under a cut as a megapost of nerd shit.

Chapter 1 : Discord

First up, and the first thing that might make a new user turn right back around: Discord. Look. If you're an MMO player, chances are you have your social circle of friends that live across country, or across several countries, that you want to hang and share things with. If you're here and you don't use Discord constantly, I have questions about you. Anyway.

Discord screenshare does not work. It virtually never has. Now, full truth is that, sure, you can share your screen. But not audio. Wanna stream games to your friends in chat? Not viable. Wanna group watch something? Not viable. The available workarounds for this are a combination of technical bodgework to make your mic transmit screen audio (which a new or casual user is unlikely to do, or want, since you can't talk while doing it) and potential ToS violations using 3rd party clients. I consider my Discord account too essential to risk a ToS ban.

Surely Discord is working on this righ-

Ah.

Discord's own feedback forum has a thread that is over 4 years old with near 1900 upvotes for a Linux screensharing fix and there has been no traction. It is the most upvoted topic and second place has 500. I'm not holding my breath on this one.

Maybe this isn't important for everyone, but this single feature in this single programme is going to be the thing that keeps Windows reluctantly installed on one of my drives.

Chapter 2: Ways to Play FFXIV (and others ft. Lutris)

I went over, in my last post, how Steam's compatibility features will run FFXIV just fine if you have the Steam version (and the non-steam version if you copy over the game files from a Windows install). The more graceful solution for non-steam accounts, which I explored for the sake of cleanliness, is Lutris. TL;DR - Lutris will run anything you don't have through Steam.

What is it?

Lutris is a programme that installs games and game launchers inside a compatibility framework that mimics a Windows environment, similarly to how Steam does. The Lutris website maintains a library of configurations which allow you to install launcher based games, with the option for Lutris to download the launcher for you, or download the install file yourself and provide Lutris with it to complete the configuration. You could make an account with Lutris if you like, but it is not necessary.

I successfully installed Battle.net (and installed WoW though the Battle.net launcher) and FFXIV fresh with Lutris. So far it has been flawless*. You can do this with other storefronts too, if you have games on the Epic store, EA store, etc.

Lutris will set up a folder for the game and, nested inside, is an entire windows directory and virtual C:\ drive where you can go in and view the install. In theory, tools like shaders that only need be dropped in the game folder should work by dropping them here in the same way, but I have not tested this. You can also add any .exe to Lutris and have it try to run it, though success is not guaranteed.

Chapter 3: Desktop Environment

As far as I am concerned, there are two options here.

KDE and GNOME

Most Linux distros will give you an option to pick. Either when you download the install media or during the install itself. The important thing to remember is that your desktop is not specific to your distro. Ubuntu comes with GNOME but you can download and install KDE later if you want to, and switch between the two at login.

Pick based on how you like the look. GNOME has a MacOS look and feel and simple menus. KDE is more Windows-like with more customization of colours, themes, and extended system menus that may be more familiar to Windows users and easier to get to things like detailed networking options. KDE also has HDR support, if that's a thing you have.

Each comes with an array of software which can be installed independent of the desktop environment you use. For example, I use KDE but have GNOME's Disks utility downloaded as my go-to for disk management. When I use GNOME, I still use KDE's Spectacle for a snipping tool and KDE's Krita as a screenshot editor.

Chapter 4: *Caveats and I am an Optimization and Temperature Control Freak

You're still here! Awesome! Now I am going to go over some things that have more to do with the fact that I am a freak about my PC hardware. If you are a laptop user, and/or are the type to just use one SSD and touch nothing about your PC, this might be safe for you to skip.

4a: Storage

SSDs and HDDs that are not your primary install drive for Linux will often be mounted in the system as removable media. This means that they have the potential to be reassigned to different mount points on each boot. You might see how this might be a problem if your Steam or Lutris libraries are not on the same SSD as your Linux install. This turned my Lutris install of WoW upside down several times.

This is something that I would love to be able to provide a new-user friendly solution for, but it isn't a friendly process if I'm being honest. How you do this will likely vary depending on your comfort with the command line and the distro and desktop environment you use. The solution I came to was to have drives mount by their UUID in GNOME's Disks utility. Disks is pretty friendly and makes this not terribly technical.

Finding the UUID if you don't use Disks is something for a more detailed guide, but if you haven't run off yet you're either invested enough to look that up or already know how to do it.

4b: Controlling Fans and GPU (all of this is going to require command line, editing config files, and more knowledge or strong googling.)

I am very particular about two things with my PC. Operating temperatures and fan noise. If you build your own PCs, chances are you're like this too. Fan control on Linux is a mixed bag, since we don't have access to the excellent Rem0o FanControl. Generally, if you connect all your fans to normal fan headers, you can set up your fan curves in BIOS and let that take care of everything. Alternatively, modern distros have lm-sensors and fan control, both of which require command line to configure and use. There is a gui app for fan control, but in my case, downloading it through my package manager always returns a version that uses Fahrenheit instead of Celsius and I couldn't abide it or be bothered installing it from GitHub. I have Lian Li Uni Fans, AL120 v2. These come with a USB controller normally run by Lian Li's software, which has to be told to pass control over to the motherboard connector. On the off chance that you have these too, here is a utility that allows you to set this in Linux. In the end, I let my BIOS take care of all my fans for simplicity's sake, after setting up that UniFan utility.

For advanced GPU and CPU control there is corectrl. For the most part corectrl is great and straightforward, but for some GPUs you need to edit specific boot options outlined in their install guide (this ended up being the case for my 6900XT, which I run an undervolt on. If you want it to run without requiring a password every time, that needs to be tweaked as well.

After all that, I have my temps and noise balanced just as well as I did in Windows! Yay!

Chapter 5: Boy Howdy Do I Hate Flatpaks and Snaps

For those of you who are not yet Linux users and somehow got this far, an explanation is on order.

The traditional way of installing applications on Linux is though the command line terminal, using a package manager. If I wish to install Steam on Ubuntu, I will open up my terminal and use the apt package manager with "apt-get install steam", or in Arch i'll use pacman with "pacman -S steam". This prompts the package manager to download and install the application and its dependencies from a repository managed by the organization that maintains the distro. This looks a little intimidating to new users, but is the one "true" way to install things.

Distros and desktop environments will almost always come with an app or software center that allows you to install applications through an easy graphical interface. These applications are packaged in Flatpak or Snap packages.

In KDE this is Discover.

Unfortunately these things suck.

When you properly install an application, it has access to everything it could need with regards to hardware and software dependencies. Steam, for example, needs access to your hardware to add secondary drives to your library. OBS needs access to webcams or capture cards, etc.

Flatpaks and Snaps are self-contained. They run in their own sandbox, isolated from the rest of the system. Ergo, Steam installed this way cannot access additional drives to add for additional library storage. OBS installed this way cannot access said capture cards or other devices.

This makes me very angry, since these user friendly packages could be doing so much to make Linux easier to use for newcomers, but they are hamstrung in functionality compared to a command line install.

Chapter 6: RGB GaMeRRRr

Install OpenRGB.

...ok, OpenRGB is a bit much if you're used to something like iQue or Synapse. In my experience, I needed to determine how many LEDs were in my fans and RGB strip. That info is generally available online. Once I did that math and told OpenRGB how many LEDs were connected, it was fairly easy to use after that. I generally just do solid colours, but OpenRGB and its plugins are another rabbit hole to get into.

OpenRGB also supports a long list of keyboards and mice... which mine aren't on (the Razer Naga X is such a lost and forgotten lil mouse), but that's ok, most people will be covered by this.

Chapter 7: A Point About Drivers

With Windows, we're used to having to install drivers for most things. Desktop Linux is different with the way drivers are handled. Which is to say, you don't have to do anything. Drivers are part of the kernel that makes up Linux. If you are using a rolling release (Arch-based) distro, you are getting all the drivers everywhere all at once every time you update. For other distros, the long term support version may be behind on drivers for things released after the LTS distro, but more current (often deceptively named 'unstable') releases are generally good about updates. This leads in to a much larger discussion about distros, but without getting into that, the TL;DR is: You're fine, just get your Nvidia drivers and everything else is already there.

I think that's it for now okbye

[furfcozy]

linux community sucks sometimes lol

just hearing all the shit that people like linus tech tips had to deal with in their linux daily driver challenge last year makes me sad

like, linux can be great. i put linuxmint on my laptop because windows is dogass slow despite it being the natively installed OS on this laptop. all my work is done in software that also runs on linux natively (blender, krita, etc.)

but man, hearing people giving beginners and newbies shitty comments and/or the worst advice for starting with linux just sucks hard

no, not every distro is the same you freaks. look me in the eye and tell me installing archlinux is the same experience as installing linuxmint. it's not, like at all. stop giving people non-answers and just tell them to install linuxmint as a steppingstone towards trying linux at all for the first time. get them hooked on the familiar stuff FIRST then show them the more advanced stuff as an option.

some people want a barebones OS to build upon, but most beginners just want an alternative to windows or macOS. the fact is that most linux users and gurus only keep the advanced user in mind: the command line junkies who want so badly to run everything in a black textbox. the riced up juiceboxes that run kde plasma with ultra-customized themeing on a computer the size of a large altoids tin. the weebs with too much time on their hands and not enough striped stockings in their dresser drawers.

remember the newbies, people.

[tap-tap-tap-im-in]

A friend of mine asked me recently to detail my Linux setup, and after thinking about it for a bit, I realized that this is essentially a personality quiz for the Linux users I thought I would detail it here as well.

I no longer have a desktop computer at all. I have two older generation "gaming" laptops and three Raspberry Pis. I'm going to go through in the order I got them:

Laptop #1:

[Purchased New in 2016] Acer ROG 7th Gen i7, 16GB Ram, nVidia 1050Ti Mobile, Internal 1TB HDD, external 2TB HDD

This was originally a windows laptop when I got it back in 2016, but in 2021 I was tired of the long windows boot times on the the HDD and was much more familiar with Linux due to several years experience doing webserver admin work.

I use Ubuntu LTS as my base. It's easy, it's well supported, it's well documented, and the official repos have just about everything I could need. The only thing I've really had to add myself is the repo for i3, but we'll get to that in a bit. I also chose Ubuntu because I already had my first two Raspberry pis, and both were running Raspbian, so using a debian based kernal meant that it wouldn't be much of a change when ssh'ing into them.

That said, I've never really liked the default Ubuntu desktop. Gnome3 is slow and full of too many effects that don't look especially nice but are still heavy to execute. Instead I loaded up KDE plasma. You can download Kubuntu and have them to the setup for you, but I did it the hard way because I found out about Plasma after installing Ubuntu and didn't want to start from scratch.

My plasma desktop looks like this:

Of my two laptops, this one is in the best shape. It's the one that I usually take with me on trips. With the dedicated GPU it can do some light gaming (it did heavier gaming on windows, but due to emulation layers the performance is just a little worse these days, Linux gaming isn't perfect), the screen hinge has never been an issue, and it's on the lighter side of gaming laptops (which is not to say that it's light). For that reason, I often find myself actually using it on my lap, in airports, at people's houses, on my own couch typing this up.

For this reason, I started looking into ways to better keep my hands on the keyboard, rather than having to drift down to the track pad, which is my least favorite part of this laptop. During that research I discovered i3. If you're not familiar i3 is a Linux Desktop Environment that is entirely keyboard driven. https://i3wm.org/

To be fair, it's less of a desktop environment and more of a keyboard driven window manager, as it doesn't have a "desktop" per se. Instead when you log into it, you simply get a black status bar at the bottom of the screen. It doesn't even black out the login screen, so if you don't know what to look for, you might think the whole thing has hung. But, the big benefit of this is that the whole thing is lighting fast for a DE. It doesn't waste any resources on effects or really anything that you don't need. But it's really nice for window tiling and task switching without having to get the mouse involved. This is great for productivity (if you're into that), but it's also just convenient for working on a gaming laptop, which might be balanced such that if you take your hands off of it, it might topple off your lap.

This laptop is my primary project computer. It has all my git repos and scripts for doing things like renewing my website's ssl certs. I also run game servers on it for Minecraft. I'm probably going to spin up a Valheim server on it in the near future too. Especially now that the process has improved somewhat.

Raspberry Pi #1:

[Gifted New in 2016] Raspberry Pi 3b, 4GB RAM, 32GB SD card

This one is my oldest RPi. It's had a lot of roles through the years, including an early version of the vogon media server during initial development in 2020. It's run headless Raspbian for a good three or four years now. Currently it's configured as a web server/php scripted web crawler and a pi-hole DNS server. My router currently refuses to use it as a DNS server without bringing the whole network down, but I will on occasion manually switch devices to it when I'm running especially ad-ridden applications.

There's not too much to say about this one. It's stable, I almost never have problems with it. I frequently use it for things that I want running in the background because they'll take too long and I don't want them blocking up one of my other computers.

Laptop #2

[Gifted Used in 2020] Asus Predator 7th Gen i7, 16GB Ram, nVidia 1080 Mobile, 2 internal 256GB SSDs, External 2TB HDD

This one runs windows 10 still. I use this primarily for gaming. The screen hinge is an absolute joke, and replacing it involves replacing the entire screen bezel assembly, which I can absolutely do, but is such a pain that I haven't gotten around to it in the 3 years I've owned this laptop.

There's nothing really special about this one, other than that when both laptops are at my desk, I use a KVM switch to swap my external monitor, keyboard, and trackball between the two computers.

Raspberry Pi #2:

[Gifted New in 2020/21] Raspberry Pi 4b, 4GB Ram, 16GB SD card, 2 120GB USB Sticks, External 2TB HDD

This is my media server. I got it for Christmas 2020 (or 2021, I don't actually remember which because 2020 was a hard hard year). It runs Rasbian, the full OS, with the desktop environment disabled from booting via the command line. It runs PHP 8.2, MariaDB, Apache2, and MiniDLNA to serve the content via my Vogon Media Server.

If you can't tell from the above storage, I'm running the USB ports well past the power delivery they are rated for. The webserver and OS are on the internal storage, so functionally this just means that sometimes the media disappears. I need to build a migration script to put the contents of the two USB sticks on the external storage, as there is more than enough room, and if I can put the HDD in an enclosure with dedicated power, that will solve the issue. But that's at least a hundred dollars of expense, and since the server only has 1, maybe two users at a time, we've been limping along like this for a few years now.

Raspberry Pi #3:

[Purchased New in 2023] Raspberry Pi 4b, 8GB Ram, 16GB SD card

This is the newest Pi. Work gave me a gift card as a bonus for a project recently, so after weighing the pros and cons of getting a VR headset, I settled on setting up a retro gaming tv box. Currently it's running Batocero Linux and loaded up with classic game roms up through the PSX. Though, I would really like to use it as a tv client for the media server. I've upgraded the devices in the living room recently, and there's no longer a dedicated web browser we can use without hooking up one of our laptops. I've got a spare 128GB SD card in the office, so I'm strongly considering getting a wireless mouse and keyboard and setting it up to dual boot between Batocero (which is convenient because it can be navigated with just a controller), and Raspbian. I think I'd set Batocero as the default in Grub, and then if I want to use Raspbian I'd need to have the keyboard handy anyway.

Maybe I'll get one of those half-sized keyboards with the trackpad built in.

Speaking of controllers. I use an 8BitDo Pro 2 controller, and I've been super happy with it since purchase: https://www.8bitdo.com/pro2/

So that's the setup. I have entirely too many computers for any one person, but I included the dates when I got them to show that a number of these have been around for a long time, and that part of the reason I have so many now is that I've put a lot of time into ongoing maintenance and repurposing.

If you've read this far, I'd love to hear about your setups. You don't have to reblog this, but please tag me if you detail yours.

[wanna-say]

I found this in my notes and I still feel guilty about it, what should I doooooo🥺

Ufffff, today was a today for real... Let me start with this

I am learning driving.. And till today I was proud of myself that such a good learner I am.. But now it has turned all upside down. Today is teej(Another Indian festival) and mum Aryan and I went for lunch to mamaji's (maternal uncle) house.... And yesterday when we went there I was quite upset why mom didn't let me drive... And today after the fuwarha chauk (roundabout ) Aryan gave the responsibility to me... Responsibility of driving the car and responsibility of our lives... Most importantly someone else's life.. Then with a deep breath I started driving and as you know what an ill- mannered person I am and how easy it is to provoke me then on the turn in front of gate no. 4, Hau, I got angry for some really silly reason( ma said something)and then in that narrow... Really narrow road Aryan said:

"Aine gusso na dilao aa kde hi thauk degi"(don't make her angry else she will bump into something)

But even at that very narrow passage I got the car outside in a tip top condition but but but in the next street just few houses away from my destination I screwed up... A car came from front and one was parked in my left.....so that I can give way to the car coming from front I asumed that there is lots of space and can get out even though I was suspicious I took the risk and... There you go.. I bumped into the car and that is not the end I just didn't stopped to say sorry or something I just went away from there and then this was not enough that I also touched a rediwaala (cart) lthough he faced no injury but it displays my alertness and then I parked the car safely ( am I even allowed to use this word now? ).

When we moved for the mamaji's house from the point where we parked where we parked the car Aryan said:" Tune 3 baar thoki"(you bumped 3 times) one extra because there was a scooty as well as with the car but that was just merely touched... And after that for a long time I was in a bad mood.. Although it was my mistake I still didn't wanted to admit it and the fact that I harmed someone else's car.

And then when I went to buy mahendi(heena) keep to shop I planned to see the harm I have done and then near the shop I spotted the car and 2 ladies were standing beside it and one of them was mentioning it to other "dekh koi khadi khadi n hi thauk gyo" ( someone bumped into it even if it was just standing only) and my heart sank at it.. After returning to home I felt sorry for sometime and in between somewhere I told Koshika and Jaggu about it and both of them tried to console me in their own way that it was okay but even I knew it is not... But 😞

After a while I had some really delicious food( cholle puri and halwa) and when mamaji woke up and when I started applying mahendi..in all this hustle bustle I forgot everything ..but deep down I know I did something really wrong today.

Ps : I never tried driving after this incident... It's been 6 months

Ignore typos it was written in heat of the moment

[p-loq]

The first hurdle: file sharing

I would not have thought this to be such a hassle. On *ppl*, there's a thing that allows you to share a file, or a link, with another device nearby. The connection – to the best of my knowledge – is local, and when it works* it's pretty fast and convenient. *It does not always work. Sometimes it refuses to see the other device, and sometimes it hangs halfway through the handshake, either before or after the transfer. But it ends up working more often than not, and so it has become a missable convenience. Besides, when setting up a new device, transferring files around is kind of required practice.

So how do we fare on Android? Why hello anarchy, old friend, how have you been? It's the wild, wild west.

G**gl* offers an alternative, but it is very much dependent on their spyware services, and of course does not offer cross-platform compatibility. Other major vendors roll their own alternatives, which can exists alongside G**gl*'s own, but offer even more limited interoperability: only among their brand. Understandably, who would want to maintain their own software on other people's products?!

But in that respect they're all as bad as *ppl*'s offering, in that they do not play nice with the other kids on the playground. This kind of "segregation" is one of the nasty tactics employed by vendors to "lock in" the user base: they kind of take you hostage. You get the shiny device X from brand Y, and then a friend gets it too, and ooooh: now you can use all these cool features among each other, but if either of you decides to switch to a different brand, all the Y-branded stuff will be gone, including said cool features like the simple act of sharing data. And this in the 21st century, the age of the internet.

Unsurprisingly, I am looking at breaking free from all this nonsense, and thus I am looking for something that will work across as many platforms as possible. This is where anarchy bites. While there is no draconic overlord to dictate "the only way" (see *ppl*), there is also no cohesion or unity of effort. Just because everyone can roll their own approach, does not necessarily mean they should. Mind you: I'm not advocating against the diversity here. Different approaches can suit different people, and some healthy competition can keep people on their toes. Heck, in an ideal world, someone implementing a cool new feature might spark a whole slew of similar updates among comparable projects, spreading the new feature around.

But we don't live in an ideal world, and as per usual, capitalism is here to wreck the show. Under the guise of their "walled gardens", the tech wanna-be-monopolies try to leash their users to their platforms, and so the concept of interoperability becomes synonymous to heresy. So we have dozens of approaches, each different at the very least in name (i.e. branding), and none actually worth more than the cross-section between their user base and an individual's needs. And sadly, right now, my needs cross the boundaries of plenty of platforms, dramatically shrinking the number of viable candidates.

At present, I found one that kind-of works: KDE Connect. The apps for Android and the other mobile platform work pretty much out of the box, the laptop took a little more work. I tried a build from the official website, and it would not allow me to configure anything, complaining about a missing plugin.

Some digging around led me to instructions on how to build from source, and after a lot of compiling, the process failed: some library was built for x86 platform, while I was compiling on ARM. So I trashed the whole folder and tried again: let’s just build an x86 version and rely on the compatibility layers currently in place. Surely by the time those get deprecated, we’ll get a native version.

Well, no luck there, either, because the whole convoluted (and a bit opaque) compilation setup failed off the bat, being unable to cross-compile.

Back to almost square one, I resorted to look for other sources of a built binary, and found someone linking to a github repository dating back a few years, but lo and behold: it worked! The user interface is atrocious, but it would appear to integrate well with the OS. Of course, this is all very early days. We shall see how far we get with this option, or whether we will need to keep looking.

You’d just think this kind of problem had been solved by now, but I guess it just goes to show how little the greater good can compete with corporate greed.

[lalalaugenbrot]

[enigmaincrimson-personal]

Internet rebooted just when I finished that post... Scared me for a bit.

To be honest, transitional periods are always messy, even if you somehow preempt them.

Like... It turns out that you have to replace the battery in a phone every 18 to 24 months, but unless you have the proper tools or a repair shop is a available in the area, there's no way to just pop the thing open and put in a new one as they're basically sealed containers.

Most android phones have an 18 month support lifespan with Samsung's 5 year and Google's 7 year being the exception...

Sure, you can do some weird hacky stuff to install Windows 11 on an unsupported old laptop, but even Microsoft admits that is basically a ticking time bomb. Win 10 has only a little over a year left to live at this point as well... And the cost of extended support exceeds the cost of the machine.

Providing the thing doesn't start to come apart on its own before then. Old rubber seams tend to give way and crumble with age after all.

And there's even weirder forms of support lost... While Open Source drivers are technically forever, it just takes some very poor timing to make life miserable for years.

You see... This particular laptop is a dual GPU model... With an Intel HD 4600 running most of the time and an Nvidia GTX 950M that can take over if needed.

First, the Intel GPU is one hardware revision short of proper vulkan support, so running Proton for Windows gaming on Linux on it is... Some what questionable. It isn't what I'd call fast either.

The Nvidia GPU has full Vulkan support, but... You have two main issues... The drivers and getting applications to utilize the GPU when needed.

By default, they use the Noveau drivers, which does technically work, but runs like a car stuck on first gear... And I'm not sure if the switchover works at all. It will catch up eventually, but it could be years.

The proprietary GeForce drivers are fully functional, but unless something changes in later drivers, I'm stuck with the older Proprietary Kernel hooks... Which makes addressing the GPU more complicated than it should be. And while there are official Open Source Kernel hooks now, they only work for newer Nvidia GPUs.

The proprietary kernel hooks cause all sort of problems... Like it makes updating more complicated, the system isn't as fine tuned or integrated together as it should, and more. That also leads into the other annoyance... Optimus support.

As I can't address the secondary GPU directly, I have to use a supplied tool known as prime to get it to work... And as simple as Prime-run application-name might sound, it can be a hit or a miss.

Oh and I can't just run an up to date version of Ubuntu or Linux Mint either... Since the kernel version they use doesn't like my wifi adapter... And even more frustrating is that it's like one version number off from being compatible.

Otherwise, it just shuts off after a few minutes... Gotta be 5.9 or greater, but they use 5.8 by default.

To make it even more annoying, the new Wayland window manager requires the Nvidia drivers to be set to 550 or higher... And those use 530ish by default.

I mean, the Noveau drivers do have Wayland support, but as I said... Stuck on first gear.

KDE on Wayland feels very comfortable to me, but... I have no idea how to address the secondary GPU reliably...

No idea if the backlight on the keyboard is gone because it's old or some sort of Asus firmware shenanigans.

I mean, it's ten years old at this point... And keeping this thing running is all I can afford unless some miracle happens.

[44dagainagain]

Steam Deck OLED 1TB

I bought a Steam Deck OLED so I can play gachas while I'm away on vacation.

Why I went with the Steam Deck and not the competition (Lenovo Legion Go or Asus ROG Ally):

Steam Deck seems to be the most stable and reliable. Apparently there are software and hardware issues with the others.

That does mean sacrificing on-paper tech specs considering the competition offers higher resolutions and display refresh rates. However, I'm not looking for a desktop replacement; this is an airport fidget. The increase resolution and refresh rate would eat into battery life for honestly not a whole lot of gain.

I also sacrifice Windows (yes you can install Windows but it doesn't seem to work great) but I'm comfortable with Linux and Proton seems to work well. I prefer an OS that I can hack in a pinch...

Unorganized thoughts:

It defaults into "Native Big Picture" but can be swapped into Desktop Mode. This works with USB-C hubs! Having a keyboard and mouse really helps getting non-Steam games working.

Desktop Mode is Arch running KDE. Time to play pacman. I'm a GNOME guy but KDE is very polished, powerful, and approachable.

I call it "Native Big Picture" because it offers more than Desktop Mode running Big Picture. Primarily, the Steam Deck overlay only works in "Native Big Picture" but not Desktop Mode running Big Picture. This seems important for optimizing battery life. Also, the input remapping only seems to work in "Native Big Picture".

"Native Big Picture" does run a basic window manager, it just lacks decoration and shows up centered.

I got the 90hz model. I notice it occasionally but 60hz is fine for me. Anything above that is gravy. I worry about the battery life that this eats up...

Notes for getting games:

Want Minecraft? Use PrismLauncher. This makes it slightly easier to add as a non-steam game. I still had to convert their .desktop to .sh so it can be added as a non-Steam game...

Use Epic? Install Heroic from the app store, then add them to Steam as non-steam Games.

Play Genshin? Sounds like HoyoPlay works but I used Heroic. I think that I needed to change the install drive from Z: to C:. Then I added the Unity binary as the non-Steam game. Then, in Steam, I needed to turn on compatibility with Proton. This game does not work in Desktop Mode since input remapping doesn't work in that mode. You'll want to log in with a physical mouse and keyboard.

The above applies for ZZZ as well.

Palia? I installed though Heroic then added PaliaClient.exe as a non-Steam game. It was complaining about the C++ Runtime but Reddit to the rescue. I installed protontricks and used that to get vcrun2022. I found this easiest to log in when not docked, otherwise the game resolution got really messed up and input didn't work well. You need to log in every time so I recommend having a password manager like 1password (which you can install from the app store)

Current pain points and annoyances:

While it basically runs any Windows game, every non-Steam game I've downloaded requires non-zero time investment to add it to Steam. Typically I need to drop into Desktop Mode, install the game, find the binary on disk, launch it once or twice to make sure it works, maybe write a wrapper script, then go into Steam and hope it can be added. Then hope Proton works. I've had trouble importing .desktop files (which is annoying...) but those are trivial to convert into a .sh

You need to keep the screen on to download games. Burn-in isn't a problem with the OLED under normal use though so this is more a LOL than anything else.

Steam+X is the soft keyboard. This is not easy to discover and necessary for Desktop Mode. It also doesn't work as well as a physical keyboard

[umichenginabroad]

Week 2: Wieners in Wien

Čau všichni! (Hello everyone!)

This week was filled with a ton of new adventure and exploration!

Morning runs

I love to run at home, so I decided to go on some morning runs this week to explore new areas of town and start my day off with some good energy. The weather was pretty mild this week, which called for a light jacket. I also brought a fanny pack to hold my phone in while I ran which was convenient, but I had to look up directions a couple times because I got lost. Nothing Google Maps couldn’t fix! I’ve included pictures of the view from the National Memorial on Vítkov Hill that I pleasantly stumbled across on my first run :)

Classes & Workload

Classes started up this week. Fortunately, besides the time I spent in class, I didn’t have to do much work for them. Most of my classes have weekly readings paired with quizzes, discussion posts, or short writing assignments. My architecture class also features walking tours before lecture to visualize the styles or periods we will be learning about that day. Database Management Systems counts as an upper level CS class, and I expect it to be more project and presentation based. We spent the first day setting up MongoDB, a document-oriented non-relational database system, as well as PostgreSQL, a relational database system. We will use these open source database management systems throughout the semester for SQL and noSQL (not only SQL) projects. 

The leadership class is also project based, and we’re split up into teams to work with local companies and integrate new ideas into their current practices. My group’s focus is Search Engine Optimization (SEO), working with the local Business Leaders Forum to improve their site’s visibility and traffic through advertising and content management. There haven’t been too many expectations established for this project yet, but I’m looking forward to getting a sense for what the company culture and work-life balance is here in Prague. 

Symphony

Grocery Runs & Cooking

Monday was my first time getting a full set of groceries for the week. I was intimidated at first, as I’d walked into multiple markets and noticed that very few things were written in English. So, the night before I prepared a grocery list and translated each item to Czech along with common phrases such as:

Máte…? (Do you have…?)

Kde je/jsou…? (Where is/are the…?)

můžete mi prosím pomoci? (Can you please help me?)

This turned out to be extremely helpful and necessary for me to find everything I needed (which I did!). I keep the list in my notes app so that I can access it with ease anytime I enter a store, even if I don’t have wifi or cellular. 

Czech grocery stores also have self checkout stations that you can interact with in a couple different languages, including English. However, like those in America, these self checkout stations tend to freak out when the scale mistakes you for incorrectly “placing/removing an item in the bagging area”. I had to call over a worker about 5 times before completing my checkout and she did not speak English, which made the process pretty frustrating. 

Budgeting

Creating a budget is one of the most difficult, but important, things to do while abroad. Being in the center of Europe, we all want to take advantage of Prague and explore everywhere, but travel is expensive and life within Europe is also expensive. Everyone has different financial circumstances and creating a budget helps me visualize where I stand in terms of my spending and financial goals. Fortunately, everyone has been respectful of the boundaries I have set up for myself, and of those by others, due to such varying circumstances. 

I began general expectations for my spending prior to arriving in Prague, but I waited to complete my spreadsheet once I knew realistically what my weekly expenses would be. I recommend this process because it gets you thinking about finances early, so you’re not in a bad spot later on in the trip, and it also adds flexibility to avoid setting an unrealistic budget in the beginning and feeling like a failure.

The main categories I have in my budget are Groceries, Restaurants, Entertainment, Local Transport, Flights and Trains, Lodging, and Shopping. All of which have independent expectations for spending, which factor into my overall budget.

By far the most expensive thing for me has been “Flights and Trains”. Prague being in the dead center of Europe is helpful because we can take an express train to neighboring countries like Austria, Germany, and Poland. However, cheap flights/trains, paired with housing accommodations and other essentials like meals, local transportation, and excursions, add up across multiple trips. I’ve always found the experiences to be worth it, but it’s important to carefully plan these trips before booking, to have clarity in what you’re about to spend. 

Unlike most of the people in my program, I booked a lot of my trips prior to arriving in Prague. The reasoning behind this is a combination of boredom in January and wanting something to look forward to, as well as coordinating with my friends at school/home to meet up in certain countries while abroad. The bright side is that I got pretty good deals for flights, but I have some fomo due to not traveling so often with the friends I’ve grown close with here.

Plzeň (Pilsen) Day Trip

The Institute for Study Abroad (IFSA) has coordinated a couple of day trips and one overnight trip within Czechia that are included in our program fee. Our first day trip was Friday to Plzeň, a city famous for its Pilsner beer. We toured the Pilsner Urquell Brewery, the largest brewery in the Czech Republic, and learned about their fermentation, brewing, and malting processes. What makes their beer so special is the local Plzeň soft water and Czech grown barley malt, two of the four ingredients that make up the golden beer we tried at the end of the tour! Personally, I dislike most beer and I wish I could say Pilsner was an exception but I cannot. Most people loved it though so it was not hard for me to find someone to finish my glass!

We also went on a scavenger hunt throughout the city center, learning more about its history and significance in historical Bohemia and WWII. At each location, we had to solve a riddle which would give us a 3 digit code used to unlock the next clue which guided us to the next landmark. Our group ended up winning so we got a cute little bottle of sparkling wine! The coolest things we saw on this tour were the highest tower in Plzen, which stood atop St Bartholomew's Cathedral with views of the whole city, and the Old Synagogue which was of Neo-Romanesque style built in the 19th century. Pictures throughout the hunt are included below!

Vienna Weekend Trip

This weekend three of my friends and I headed to Vienna, which is only a 4 hour train ride from Prague! We were advised by some kids in our program to buy tickets at the station the day of because they would be cheaper, and we listened, but they ended up being more than double the price of the tickets my friend purchased online for the same trip… rip. Now we know to buy train tickets in advance at the station or through a reputable site like Trainline or Omio. These have a small service charge, but tend to be much cheaper when bought in advance than tickets bought at the station. 

When we arrived in Vienna Saturday at 1pm, we headed straight to brunch. We find most of our restaurants by peering into cafes and seeing where the locals are at, and this method hasn’t missed yet. The food was amazing, with homemade pita, toast, hummus, and falafel. Throughout the trip we actually realized that Middle Eastern cuisine has a huge presence in Vienna. See some of our eats below!

We then headed to our AirBnB, right outside of the city center. We had to go into a sketchy gas station to get the key but the workers were super nice and explained how they knew the owners of the property we were staying at. Our next stop was St. Charles’s Church, which was incredibly beautiful from the outside, inside, and rooftop! I ended up getting a super bad bloody nose (the first of many…) and had to be escorted behind the altar to a private bathroom where I proceeded to clean myself up, oops. We then headed to Hofburg Palace, which had incredible gardens and views (see pictures below). Afterwards, we were hungry again and decided to stop by the Naschmarkt where we found the best Turkish Kebap I’ve ever had. A kebap is the same thing as a kabob, roasted meat that they put into a pita-like bread with cabbage, tomatoes, and sauces. We stopped for dessert by another local place and headed back to our AirBnB to chill. As soon as we got back I got another nosebleed, but I rallied and got ready to go out. One of my friends recommended the Bermudadreieck (Bermuda Triangle) area for bars; an extremely lively scene located in the historic center of Vienna next to the Jewish Synagogue! 

We woke up pretty early Sunday to start our day, and headed to the Viennese Holocaust memorial in the Jewish Quarter. Afterwards, we saw a cool church from afar and decided to check it out. We accidentally walked into the coolest Sunday Mass I’ve ever seen in my life at Stephen's Cathedral. Sounds from more than 12,000 pipes filled the church which only added to the beautiful aesthetic inside. We then headed to Palmenhaus for brunch, a former tropical house turned restaurant that overlooked one of the Habsburg Palaces. The food was great and rejuvenated me from all the lightheadedness caused by my nosebleeds. After lunch we left the city center and visited Schönbrunn Palace. Schönbrunn means “beautiful spring” and the HUGE property definitely lived up to its name. Around the palace lay gardens, pools, fountains, a labyrinth, a summer guesthouse, greenhouses, and statues (that we mimicked, see pictures lol). Finally, we finished off the tourism by going to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which combined history and art in an amazing way. On the first floor were archaeological artifacts from Greece, Egypt, and Bohemia, and on the second were paintings from many astounding artists like Velázquez, Rubens, and Raphael. Definitely worth our time spent there, and they even had free lockers so we didn’t have to lug our stuff around the museum! 

Now for a couple of ins (things that are working) and outs (things that have caused me some trouble) for this past week.

Ins:

Bolt: Bolt is a cheap EU version of Uber, and it’s incredibly reliable. Both times we took the train this week (to Plzen and Vienna), I was running late and Bolt got us to the train station in 5 minutes for $3. It would’ve been a 15 minute commute otherwise… we love bolt.

Engaging professors: I really struggle with attendance at UM because I prefer to teach myself concepts and cannot focus in most large classroom settings, but attendance is mandatory here. Fortunately, all of my professors have been super fun, flexible, and engaging, particularly for architecture, essential Czech, and tech comm. It really makes all the difference.

Wien: The Germans and Austrians say “Wien” instead of “Vienna” because it is the German name for the city, and German is the primary language in Austria. This is similar to how “Prague” is called “Praha” in the EU, different languages have their own names for cities. A Wiener is a male who comes from Vienna, but it’s also where the word “wiener” comes from when referring to a hot dog.

Outs: 

Paying full price for museum entry: A lot of museums in the EU have a special student discount, or even offer free entry for those under 18. Fortunately, they accept photo IDs for proof of age. Do with that information what you will :)

Unexpected Friday obligations: IFSA had originally told us that Fridays are designated travel days, and we aren’t expected to be in Prague those days. However, they failed to communicate a couple key dates with mandatory events for some of our classes. This resulted in me not being able to miss any classes now for my Leadership class, simply because I booked a flight during one of the mandatory Fridays in March when my dad is coming up… I’m annoyed if you couldn't tell.

Bloody noses: This one explains itself… I get bloody noses a lot due to dryness and low iron problems, but nothing ever as frequent or severe as the ones on this trip. Let’s just say my parents and I were pretty concerned, but I seem to be doing okay now. 

See you all next week!

Čau čau,

Reese Liebman

Computer Science and Engineering

Institute for Study Abroad (IFSA) CS Tech Career Accelerator in Prague, Czechia

[rekishi-aka]

Between a rock and a hard place: Adam had no choice, because Leo didn't leave him any

Probably not exactly a hot take, and actually a copy from my DW post the other day. Also, the original post has pictures, but because tumblr doesn't support any proper HTML, I had to skip the majority of them. Which is annoying me.

I think the whole mess is not Adam's fault alone, I actually think Leo has a significant part in it as well. I can't actually blame him, because he's so obviously in love and thought he was so close to getting what he wanted that he probably steamrolled Adam a bit. But Leo, for all that I get him and love him, is very much not blameless here.

Adam has one major raison d'être: Protect Leo. This is his one "this, you protect" thing ever. That was true in the school yard and this is also now true in adulthood with the whole money disaster. Adam wants to keep Leo out of the business with Boris and the money, because this is the best way to protect Leo. That's not exactly a news, this has been true since "Das fleißige Lieschen".

When Leo says, "I sleep better when I know nothing will happen to you", then Adam could have simply said that the same was true for him. He didn't, because Adam represses with the best of them (as you do).

(Rest under the cut, warning it's long an convoluted)

Anyway, between DfL and HdW, Leo didn't really have opportunity to catch some air. There was always something, first Adam comes back out of the blue with exactly no warning that he's still alive or about to become Leo's new partner (which he must have known), then he learns Adam's father has woken up again and the whole angst spiral starts over again. My guess is also that Adam wasn't exactly a happy guy in those two months between the episodes, because he was keeping secrets and had to deal with the emotional fallout of Roland being awake again.

I'm mostly willing to cut Adam slack about that, because he is protective of Leo and had the misguided notion of wanting to fix it himself, but Leo must have been confused. First Adam comes back and downright smoulders at him…and then he probably ran cold, suddenly. Leo is willing to forgive that for the most part because he has Adam back and looking that gift horse in the mouth will probably end with tears. So he doesn't. He should but he doesn't.

After HdW, however, that secret is very well out of the way and they obviously have some time to get used to each other again. The team gels better - probably because with Adam there, who will always have his back, Leo finally has some time to think about what he wants and how he wants to do it and Pia is willing to give the whole thing a go, so Esther is as well. They're so happy and relaxed at the beginning of HdS, flirting like they're about to go home with each other (they might have, had things not happened), it's a joy to see! It's a very bitter moment of what was and what could have been.

After HdS, Adam has more secrets, but all of Leo's secrets and guilt and tragedy has been aired out and gotten out of the way. Yes, he did put Roland in a coma, but he also did that to protect Adam. Really tragic is, I always thought that they could have just said what happened…but after KdE we also know that no one would have believed them. Leo should probably have paid more attention at uni when that topic was on the table, but he probably never thought that was about him - because that's the kind of guy Leo is.

But Leo has no more secrets. And he doesn't want any more secrets. Since DfL, he's always been in some kind of bind and all of that is just gone. And Leo can finally allow himself to actually love Adam the way he wants to.

And I think Leo just said fuck it and doesn't stop to think what that does to Adam. I don't think there was an actual love confession that used the words "I love you" or a variation thereof, but I that whole "I would go to the end of the world with you" wasn't new to Adam. Leo has said that before, in that way or in similar guise and sure, and he's very clearly loved on Adam. Maybe a bit awkwardly, because I don't think Leo is the super expert in relationships either, but I don't think he's been hiding his feelings anymore. He's way too expressive in KdE, he opens the door for Adam way too often, he wants he wants he wants.

Adam, on the other hand, doesn't do emotions - not in the Robert Karow school of thought though; Adam is very aware that they exist and that he has them but he hates it. At best he's rusty at them, at worst he's scared of feeling more than shallowly - scratching a sexual itch isn't the same as feeling something for anyone - because it makes him vulnerable. I don't believe Adam has any kind of relationship experience despite picking up strays and his experience with being loved by anyone (except Leo) is to be hurt. So he panics. And shuts down.

And Leo, who knows enough about Boris and the money and Roland to draw conclusions but not enough to see the whole picture, thinks if he just shows it enough, if he just keeps going and shows Adam how much he loves him, Adam will see it and accept it. Steter Tropfen höhlt den Stein. But he gets restless the more Adam fudges and lies and won't open his mouth, because Leo thinks if he can just fix this problem, he can fix Adam and then they will be happy. Unfortunately, that's not how life works and the whole things leads to the mess at the hospital. Because Leo goes after him again and again and is being shut down until finally, he leaves.

Adam, who knows everything and also knows that Leo loves him, finally has the opportunity to protect Leo from himself and from Adam's whole mess. Because the cut-off finger's of his attacker scared him shitless. So did the realization that, apparently, he's the heir to a crime family, but the fingers really showed him how this ripples out. He knows he's too deep into this mess, and finally when Leo steps up to him and says, "I would go to the end of the world with you but not this way", he knows the way to make Leo go away for good and protect him is to walk that path alone (single-plank bridge, anyone?). Because better Leo emotionally hurt than Leo dead for his association with Adam. Because Adam is a self-sacrificing idiot, but he also wants to save Leo from his own choices; he inserted himself way too deeply into the shitshow that is Adam's life (the couch crashing, going to see Boris, trying to get it out of Adam, etc). He doesn't want to, it hurts him a lot, but he needs to get Leo off this track. He knows Leo well and he very deliberately pushes him over the edge; he sticks in the knife and twists it, basically.

Look at it (static pics at the DW post):

And with Leo also physically shoving him (big, big no go with Adam, srsly Leo have you learned nothing), he finally has the momentum to shoot back.

He isn't enjoying hurting Leo, but he finally manages, because this is Leo after Adam leaves:

(It's lucky Vladimir is a good actor, they both are, or this could have ended up being ridiculous)

This is Adam's last ditch effort. After he pushes Leo so far away that he can't even be sure they'll even still be able to work together, he makes a last ditch effort to get rid of the money by threatening Manuela with 'finding' it at the Heimatschänke. But that goes sideways and Adam learns too much about a past he never wanted and…well.

And still Leo isn't really done with him, because we have this image from the last scene:

This is not a man who is done with his friend. And well, neither is Adam, really (because all things being equal, he will forgive Leo most things which...is a whole different can of warm I don't want to go into here).

Leo, meanwhile, knew Adam had the money. He also knew it was in the gym bag, because he tries to get into Adam's locked desk for confirmation. If Leo had gotten that then or at any other point, this would have been salvageable. But the confirmation after the fight with Alina was just too much for him to take.

And the thing is, this was more or less inevitable. Both of them assume too much about the other and talk too little about their own shit. carmenta and I discussed back in summer or early fall already that the only way they could make it work was if they learned to talk. However, that was unlikely enough that the only way it might work was if they got together, crashed and burned the relationship, and then there was some sort of tearful kissing in the rain in the middle of the night. (With a boom box preferably, but I'm old fashioned.)

I'm actually more surprised that they managed to do that before they even have a relationship, that has to be some sort of record. But ideally they'll get this out of the way and then can start again. Dramaturgically, this is really well done, I approve even if it hurts me in my feels.

Bottom line: Adam (thought he) had no choice, because Leo didn't leave him any. This doesn't make anyone the villain in this scenario, but it also doesn't mean anyone is blameless here.

Also, they both need a hug.