This is mainly a rant post.

I have to use Zscaler on my work PC. I use Sway (Moved from Gnome -> i3 -> sway).

Whenever Zscaler is launched, I used to get a weird error "proxy server not found" but it continued to work otherwise. Now at my company, we used a proxy at one time but we shifted to a no-proxy connection recently.

So I checked all my environment variables, output of set command. Everything was fine. People said it could be because of some weird compliance issue, or kernel etc etc. After a week or so, I gave up on debugging it because most of my work was fine with the 50% functional Zscaler.

One day, I opened Gnome instead of Sway to check something else, and saw that my proxy was on. This is the proxy set in Gnome Settings, not environment file.

I initially dismissed this finding because I thought Gnome is not active during sway so it should not affect it. But then i remembered it's possible to access the gnome settings using gsettings from any distro.

I switched to Sway, and sure enough, when I ran gsettings get org.gnome.system.proxy.http host, I could see the proxy IP. I set it to null and behold! Zscaler was working perfectly.

I'm like "Who the hell designs software like this? The application should read the environment variables, not Gnome variables!"

Anyway, this was just a reminder to software makers to kindly follow the norms. Don't design your software for one Distro. Follow the guidelines as mentioned in freedesktop.

Hello fellow lemmings

I am a long-time i3 user and have decided to switch to Sway. I have encountered a weird error which has left me utterly bamboozled.

I am using Ubuntu 24.04 which has gone from 20.04 -> 22.04 -> 24.04. It has Ubuntu-Gnome, i3 and Sway currently installed.

The issue

The error that I'm facing is when I'm using Sway, I simply don't have sudo access.

This is what the error looks like

$ sudo visudo
[sudo] password for xavier666:
Sorry, user xavier666 is not allowed to execute '/usr/sbin/visudo' as root on <HOSTNAME>.

When I switch back to i3, my permissions are fine for the same user. I have not done any crazy modifications to the sudoer's file as far as I can remember.

PS: I have added a command to no-sudo xavier666 ALL = NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/brightnessctl

The "fix"

I temporarily solved it by adding xavier666 ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL to the sudoer's file.

IMO, I think this should not be required. I don't remember ever adding the default user to the file for all the installations that I have done. (But this is the first time I've installed Sway)

Logs/Outputs

Running sudo -l without the fix (on Sway)

Matching Defaults entries for xavier666 on <HOSTNAME>:
    env_reset, mail_badpass,
    secure_path=/usr/local/sbin\:/usr/local/bin\:/usr/sbin\:/usr/bin\:/sbin\:/bin\:/snap/bin,
    use_pty

User xavier666 may run the following commands on <HOSTNAME>:
    (root) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/brightnessctl

When I run the same command on i3, i get this (ALL : ALL) ALL extra line in the output. And when I run sudo -l with my fix on Sway, (ALL : ALL) ALL is present and the permission issue is fixed.

What is causing Sway to remove the root permission for the user?

Note: I'm just asking for the standard sudo behaviour. I'm not trying to run GUI applications as root.

Edit:

The issue was caused by swhkd. It was installed as a setuid binary (as instructed by the developer of the project). Once I switched back to sway's default keybinds and disabled swhkd, the permissions were back to normal. I removed my previous "fix" in the sudoers list and I still have sudo access.

Thanks a lot everyone and specially @gnuhaut@lemmy.ml for pointing me in the right direction.

Basically the title.

I have seen the EU-OS/Suse discussions for some months now. However, Ubuntu/Arch/Fedora are extremely mature projects. So competing against them will be hard.

I want to know how realistic the scenario (described by the question) is.

I am using an RoG Ally and was using Bazzite. I'm currently back on Windows (for warranty purpose. I literally can't stand the Windows experience on handhelds). Once I get my device back, I have to decide between SteamOS and Bazzite.

I saw the latest SteamOS release works quite well, except for voltage control (I know you can control it using SimpleTDPcontrol).

If I want to tinker, I can always go back to Bazzite. But Bazzite has some very minor issues (screenshot does not work OOTB/gyro support is slightly cumbersome as you need to switch controller type/no fingerprint support). I have used it for 6 months and the experience for gaming has been fantastic. The Bazzite devs have all my support.

So my question is will we ever get a proper signal from Valve saying "Yup, it's now fully compatible with the RoG Ally". Right now, i'm getting the message "We are slowly adding support for the Ally. Only features x,y and z are not working".

Are any of you Bazzite users thinking of jumping ship?

Hello everyone, this is my second giveaway.

I have decided to hoard games no more. I want to give away those games which I'm pretty sure I won't play due to my ever increasing library size. I always wanted to give something back to the Linux Lemmy community, so this is it.

Rules

I won't do a first come first serve this time. I'll wait till the weekend is over and do a lucky draw.

Comment or reply to the game you want and mention any fond memory of gaming you have (1-2 lines).

One day old accounts are not allowed

Game List

• ~~[Random] Saints Row: The Third Remastered~~
• ~~[Locked] Mafia II: Definitive Edition~~
• ~~[Locked] Yes, Your Grace~~
• Colt Canyon
• ~~[Random] The Talos Principle: Gold Edition~~
• The Smurfs 2 - The Prisoner of the Green Stone
• Dark Sky
• Grip
• ~~[Locked] Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (PC)~~ (I might not give this away as an IRL friend has requested. If they don't take it, i'll give it away)
• Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (Xbox)

Edit 1:

• Only one game per user
• While this rule can't be enforced, please request for games if you intend to play them. I don't want them to lie idle in the hoarder's graveyard (like my games).

Edit 2:

• Have locked certain games for some users. Will send the codes once I return home.
• Keeping the giveaway open for another 6 hours

Hello gamers,

I have some games which I want to give away after I finally understood that I'm more of a hoarder than a gamer. I wish I realized it earler then I could give away some cooler games.

The games are

• The Coma: Recut
• Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition
• Riot: Civil Unrest
• Coromon

Ping me if you want them and I'll DM you. Once you have added the key, post in the group that you've used the key.

Merry Christmas everyone ⛄

Hello there, gamers!

Ever since the handheld boom since 2022, I wanted to use one because of the concept; play any game anywhere and without the annoyances of a PC. I bought a Steam Deck OLED earlier this year, but because of personal reasons I am now using an ROG Ally (Got it at a huge discount) . This is my experience of using the device for over 3 weeks now.

Disclaimer: I am a Linux user (Left Windows in 2016) and I don't play games which require anti-cheats, so this post might seem biased. However, I'll try to be as much factual as possible. I'll list the pros and cons of both the OSs as per my personal experience.

The Windows experience

There is nothing new to say, everyone knows the first bootup process. Enter your mandatory Microsoft account to access the device. I know there are workarounds for a local account but I didn't want to jinx it. You get greeted with Armory Crate which shows how to manage your device.

Positives with Windows on the ROG Ally

• Launch any game with no restrictions. It's just a Windows PC.
• Nearly everything works out of the box (Not everything though)
• Asus's Armory Crate (AC) is decent at what it does
• Asus's BIOS is very well made
• AMD's software center offers lots of options regarding graphical fidelity

Annoyances with Windows on the ROG Ally

• [major] The OS is not controller-centric at all, this is probably my main gripe about the device.
  • A user buys a handheld and expects it to behave like a handheld.
  • Steam's big picture mode helps but it's severely restricted in terms of capabilities.
• [major] Certain games (usually older) do not install smoothly on the device.
  • You have to manually tinker to get it working.
  • Tinkering on a touch-screen device is not a fun experience.
• [major] Game launchers other than Steam do not support a controller OOTB.
  • GOG Galaxy/Amazon Games does not support
  • I did not try Epic, but the last I heard it also does not support a controller.
• [major] No central hub to control all system/graphical settings.
  • You have to switch between multiple applications. You need to update Windows/AC drivers/MyAsus separately.
• [major] The Windows onscreen keyboard interferes with the Steam onscreen keyboard.
  • This happens most of the time.
  • I can't configure the Windows keyboard
  • We have AI baked into Windows and it can't even detect if there is an existing onscreen keyboard.
• [minor] There is no cohesive design among the different components of the system.
  • I remember hearing about Microsoft's Fluent design framework several years back but it seems like app developers have not adhered to it.
  • It's quite jarring to switch from the Windows interface to AC, MyAsus center, AMD Software Center
  • Other than AC, none of the core system components support controllers.
• [minor] Because of how application windows and AC appear on top of each other, the game window or AC sometimes lose focus and it feels like the interface has frozen.
  • When this keeps on occurring multiple times it becomes quite annoying.
  • You need to manually tap on the window to get the focus back on the window you want.
• [minor] People recommend using Playnite to manage games from different launchers.
  • The idea seems good in theory, until you find out it requires you to install all the launchers anyway.
  • The only serious advantage is that you can launch the game using a controller.
• [very minor] You can't turn off the RGB permanently which is persistent across a reboot.
  • Note: It's possible that I'm dumb and did not fiddle with the settings enough.
  • I fixed it (hacky fix) by setting the RGB color to black.

Overall, the ROG Ally with Windows is not a pickup-and-play device. I felt like I just bought a Windows PC with a touch-screen instead of a handheld. Let me iterate; I'm not 'anti-touch screen' but it should not be a core requirement of the UX. Using the touch-screen once a while is fine. If you are forcing the user to use the touchscreen for non-gaming/non-essential reasons, you have failed. Some of the annoyances vanish if I'm using a keyboard/mouse, but then it just becomes a PC (PSA: This is supposed to be a handheld, not a PC. If I wanted a portable gaming PC, I would have got a laptop).

If you notice carefully, I didn't even talk about Windows telemetry, Copilot, Recall, mandatory Microsoft account, ads baked into Windows, nagging by Edge, and other issues because an average gamer doesn't care about it. I just wanted to focus upon how Windows performs as an OS for handheld gaming.

Moving over to Bazzite

I used Windows for a week but I grew tired of it. I don't want to sound dramatic but gaming sessions had me go like "here we go tinkering again". I do testing and tinkering at work already, I don't want to do it at home again. So I decided to just format everything and install Bazzite on it. I saw that Bazzite has a growing community and Valve has no update on when they will release SteamOS for the ROG Ally. Bazzite it not perfect, but it does a way better job compared to Windows.

Annoyances with Bazzite

• [major] Some SteamOS features not yet available OOTB (Finer TDP/fan controls)
• [major] Big picture mode does not support remote viewing/streaming (It was crashing for me)
• [minor] Loss of focus between webpage and the game, but this happens very rarely.
• [minor] Bazzite offers Xbox, Steam and PS5 controller. However, it's not clear (in Handheld daemon) which controller should one use for the best experience. I understood that PS5 needs to be used in order to use gyro.
• [minor] No support for AMD's fluid motion frames.
• [minor] No support for the fingerprint sensor
• [minor] The installation process requires a physical keyboard to be connected to the Ally if secure boot is enabled. Either it was not mentioned in the installation guide or I'm too dumb to understand instructions.
• [very minor] The installation wizard requires interaction with a touch screen and the buttons are very tiny.
• [very minor] Slight interface lag when using the quick access shortcuts (75 ms instead of 25 ms)
• [very minor] Bootup process is slightly slower compared to SteamOS
• [very minor] Buying games through Heroic still needs touchscreen (Launching does not require the touchscreen)
• [very minor] There is no mention of how to view the Bazzite shortcuts (It can be viewed but requires minor tinkering).
• [very minor] Bazzite does not support the screenshot shortcut OOTB. I had to adjust some settings to get it working (No, I did not use the terminal). The only time I had to use the terminal was for installing SimpleDeckyTDP which was just a single command.

However, most of the cons mentioned above are explicitly stated by the Bazzite team in the FAQ. It's because of a device limitation or a functionality tied to the firmware which is not yet available on Linux, so I can't really blame them. On the other hand, all the major annoyances that I had with Windows are fixed in Bazzite.

Major positives of Bazzite

• Right after the installation, it offers a simple welcome screen which recommends some helpful applications.
• Bazzite recommends using the Heroic launcher. I'm using Epic/GOG/Amazon games through Heroic and never once did I see any of those launchers during gameplay. This is a core requirement for a handheld device. I don't want to tap at unnecessary screens to start the game.
• Decky Loader plugin manager => manage your system and increase the functionality of your system using the controller. I believe Decky Loader is missing on Windows
• Proton => All the tinkering required to get a game working is done in the background by Valve. The user doesn't have to tinker. I am a bit shocked that I have to tinker less in Linux compared to Windows to get games working. Old-school Linux users know this was not the case a decade back.

By the way, Bazzite has a fully fledged desktop interface but it needs to be switched on manually. This separation is essential in making the user feel like they are now exiting gaming mode. On Windows, you are always in desktop-mode. I have to admit, I was spoiled by SteamOS because of which the above mentioned points affect me so much compared to an average Windows gamer. Also, the SteamOS experience is even more polished than Bazzite.

Conclusion

Listen, I am not trying to say "Window bad". I want the Windows folks to know what they are missing from a gaming UX perspective. You should really put the pressure on Microsoft to fix these issues. Windows users should try the SteamOS/Bazzite interface (Not Steam Big Picture mode. It's not the same) once to understand what a modern day gaming interface should look and feel like.

Image source: TechDweeb

Edit: Improved formatting.

From the article

Microsoft has officially announced its intent to move security measures out of the kernel, following the Crowdstrike disaster a few short months ago. The removal of kernel access for security solutions would likely revolutionise running Windows games on the Steam Deck and other Linux systems.

I have a question(s) regarding the various types of game controllers.

I need a wireless controller which supports PC (Steam Linux mainly and maybe Windows someday). While searching online, I see various types

1. xbox/ps5/switch controllers : These are for their respective consoles
2. Mobile/PC controllers : These usually connect via wire/bluetooth/2.4 GHz

Source: https://www.gamesir.hk

However, I see in the product specifications page of the console controllers that they also support PC. And the PC controllers sometimes support some of the consoles. The only real difference between controllers, from a technology perspective, is that is some of them support bluetooth/2.4 GHz.

So I have two questions:

1. If they are already cross-compatible, why even bother having different types?
2. How should I decide which type of controller I should buy? It should support PC, console-support is not essential.

Note: I am a novice in game controllers but aware of different network stacks.

Edit: Thanks for the amazing response! These are my key takeaways from all the comments

1. Hall-effect sensors are a must
2. Default console controllers usually have stick drift
3. If you need trackpad, take PS5
4. 8bitdo is a reliable brand, as per multiple responses
5. Most controllers have good support on Linux. But haptic feedback can be a hit/miss as it can be platform/game dependent
6. There are various connectivity wireless standards. Dongles are the most reliable but you lose a USB port.
7. Keep track of handsize/comfort and button layout
8. PS controllers have excellent support on Linux/Steam

This is a post I wish I never had to make. Forgive my grammar and spelling as I am a bit emotional.

My Steam Deck was stolen and I just had it for less than 2 months.

It has been more than 2 weeks since it happened but it still hurts the same. I wanted to make this post because it was a very costly mistake from my side and I don't want it to happen to anyone else.

<story>

It happened when I was shifting from one house to another house and there were lots of maintenance workers at the destination house. After I kept my luggage inside the house, I left to buy some essentials. My mom was the only person left who was watching over the stuff. By the time I came back, the workers had left. I thought I have some free time so decided to pull the Steam Deck out but it was missing.

<vent>

I was absolutely devastated; I can't even begin to explain in words what it felt like. I asked, through the person who hired the workers, if they took it. But all the workers refused. I was just crushed; I could feel my heart dropping into my stomach. Even now, as I am typing this story, that emotion is replaying.

</vent>

After this happened, I removed all payment methods from my Steam account (Steam Guard 2FA was already active). I saw after 5 days that the Steam Deck was online for a brief period of time, via Steam Guard. I purposefully didn't sign out of the device because I wanted the thieves to make the mistake of signing in and giving me some clue about their location; the Steam Deck was still inside my city. I took the IPs and submitted it to the police and asked them if they could track it. They said they will try their best since getting the customer details from an IP is a "lengthy and time-consuming process". But at this point, I can't do anything; it's not possible for me to visit all the worker's home individually and check as I don't have the authority. I gave up and convinced myself to move on.

</story>

This taught me a lot of things and I wanted to share with the community, now that I have slightly recovered mentally.

Secure your luggage when moving

When you are moving, you usually have a million thoughts in your head. This can cause you to neglect your luggage's safety. If you are going to unload your luggage temporarily, KEEP IT IN A SECURE MANNER FIRST and then do everything else.

A secure manner could mean

• Under someone's watch
• Putting it far away from the exit
• Putting a lock on the luggage
• Putting it inside a cabinet and locking it

Don't just unload the luggage and start doing something mentally involving.

Be wary of outsiders

Sometimes, there will be outside people in your home. It's crucial to keep the Steam Deck out of reach of everyone. Not everyone is a thief but different people have different moral standards. Don't create a tempting scenario for others. Keep it secure when there are guests/workers at your place.

Put some form of tracking on the device

The Steam Deck is like a traditional laptop; it has no SIM or GPS. Once it's lost, it's really hard to get it back. There are methods by which you can track the Steam Deck (Steam Guard) but it involves IP and it's not enough to get an exact location. Other than law-enforcement, no one can find the customer details associated with an IP address.

An alternate approach, which can be slight pricey, is to put a Tile tracker on the device. There are tutorials on how it can be attached to the device.

Note: I'm not associated with Tile in any way.

Get the official Serial Number and MAC ID of the device

It will help you to uniquely identify the device IF it gets stolen. You may find the serial number on

• The bill of purchase
• Inside the Steam Deck settings section
• On the Steam Deck package
• You can ask Steam support for the serial number once it's associated with your account The MAC ID is present on the Steam Deck settings page (and also on your access point logs if it has connected even once).

I hope this post is educational and makes you wary of the physical dangers around us. Please keep your handhelds or any valuables safe

<vent>

What hurts even more is that the Steam Deck, which was the 1 TB OLED model, was a gift from a very special person and I feel like I have betrayed that person by losing it. I had lots of plans with the device, like making a couch plug-and-play setup, a retro gaming setup, a productivity device by using desktop mode, etc. But all my plans were shattered in an instance. I'm now convincing myself to move on to something else.

</vent>

Edit: As of 20th August, I can see via Steam Guard that the device was logged into a few hours ago (2 weeks post the burglary). I know the risks involved in keeping my device signed in. I'm counting on the person's stupidity. Any proper thief would have formatted the device.