Spontaneous switch

I already reported that I spontaneously switched my notebook to Manjaro Linux with Gnome as GUI. As a testbalon for my "real" PC. What can I say, after one evening the test was finished.

But well, I have reinstalled Windows one or two times a year so far. So a test run with Linux on a gaming PC is not a huge effort. Especially since I would have otherwise gone back from Windows 11 to Windows 10.

Twelve hours after the installation on the notebook I sat at the PC and started the installation of Manjaro. Unsurprisingly, this worked without a hitch after I disabled SecureBoot. More exciting were the issues which are needed on the gaming PC but not on the notebook.

Graphics card, Razer and Stream Deck

Of course, first there are the games. To these there will be in a separate contribution. But I also have special peripherals on the PC. A Razer mouse and keyboard, the Stream Deck and of course an Nvidia RTX 3080, all of which had to be made to run cleanly.

With the graphics card, it was specifically about noise. A few months ago, I had mentioned in a post how I tamed the RTX 3080 and thus got it quieter. However, there is no MSI Afterburner under Linux. Unfortunately, there is also no tool with which I can limit the voltage. Instead, the maximum current consumption and the fan curve, which came quite close to the goal in the end - also quasi without performance loss. First hurdle passed.

Next hurdle: The Razer hardware. Sure, it worked. But it just glowed in all rainbow colors, since that is the default setting without software. Here I found two tools, both did not work. After some searching on the internet I found a solution: a configuration file had to be adjusted. Ambilight unfortunately doesn't work anymore, but I was able to change the rainbow to a fixed color and I'm happy.

The Stream Deck... a great piece of hardware. I use it far too little. Handy for streaming when I would. Otherwise, I use it to control music, volume, and mute my microphone. Shot at sparrows with a shotgun, so to speak. Nevertheless, it should run. And it does - streamdeck-ui is the name of the tool. A bit more complicated to set, especially global key combinations. Also missing are all the plugins that the official software offers under Windows. I can live with that. But what I miss in any case: Toggle buttons. Under Windows I can display buttons depending on the status "on/off". That's not possible under Linux - although I'm currently thinking about whether I can't do that by changing the actual screen. Tomorrow I'll test it.

What causes problems?

But not all that glitters is gold. As you can see, there is almost everything, but most of it only with limitations. I miss my Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer. In addition, I have since learned to love the removal of background noise on the microphone via the RTX. Unfortunately, currently Windows exkusiv. I haven't found a good replacement yet. And Nvidia is not known for readily supporting Linux.

In summary, though, I'm happy and will stay on Linux. Yes, not everything works right off the bat. Yes, you have to do it manually now and then if you have more than the default. On the notebook I didn't have to adjust anything so far, on the PC I've spent a few hours looking for solutions in the meantime. But that's kind of fun in the end.

Stay fluffy!