Desktop Games Pt. II.

In part one of the New Desktop Saga, I described the steps involved in building my new desktop and getting the o/s installed.  The next step was to copy the files I wanted to retain from my old unit.  Just to provide a level of backup protection, I did this the hard way:  by first burning them to a dvd and then copying them to the new unit.

As mentioned, I  installed OpenSuSE 11.4.  It's default window manager is KDE4.  I had grown very fond of KDE3.5, and was looking forward to some bug fixes in KDE and some feature enhancements in Koffice, not to mention being able to use Open Office 3.  I was expecting to have to do some tweaks to get KDE working the way I wanted, but I did not expect what I found.

First of all, the default desktop appearance themes are very Windoze 7 like.  And I hate the Aero look (remember, I have never found a color-blindness test which I could pass).  So, I immediately went to what everyone else calls the 'Start Button' (and KDE used to call 'The Kicker') to open up a settings menu.  Naturally, that has changed.  In fact, KDE no longer calls their Start Button the Kicker.

Looking for help, I launched Firefox.  OpenSUSE 11.4 ships with Firefox 4 Beta.  Not a good sign.

Trying to adjust some things, I instinctively right clicked the mouse, expecting to get a context menu.  what pretended to be a context-menu had many black areas where there should have been options.  Maybe this was KED4's way of greying out options.  The result was unusable.

Then my screen froze.  Again, I started doing everything which might help.  I clicked a lot on the taskbar.  I finally decided that the taskbar was not a taskbar.

The first thing I did (after doing a hard re-boot) was to do a search on 'KDE4 Annoyances'.  The first suggestion (for folks who cannot stand progress) was to right click on what is not the Klicker.  This brought up a menu which included the option 'Switch to Classic Menu Style'.  This helped a lot.

Next, I wanted to get rid of that Aero look.  Under 'Configure Desktop' I clicked 'Workspace Appearance' > Cursor Theme and selected 'KDE Classic'.

Next, I went to 'Common Appearance' > 'Application Appearance' > Style and selected 'Plastique'.  I had used Plastique before, and was quite happy with it (Let the record state that I did NOT select 'Windows 9.x').

After all these years, I have gotten used to calling that screen I seen when I boot up 'The Desktop'  KDE  Does not want people having a desktop.  More specifically, they don't want people exposing the contents of their Desktop directory on this screen.

I agree that the practice of just dropping files all over the desktop should stop.  But I was uncomfortable with the default behavior this gave my screen.   Right clicking the screen brought up a context menu, which allowed me to choose "Folder View",  which gave me everything I missed from the old-fashioned desktop, and none of what I didn't like.

Actually, as my chosen desktop image only fills up 70% of the screen, it gives me space on each side of it for some app shortcut icons, so I have the best of both worlds.

What I really missed was a taskbar.  I have gotten used to switching windows by clicking on the window button on the taskbar, and missed this feature in KDE4. What looks like a taskbar is now a KDE panel, which just happens to be shaped like a taskbar, and can contain various widgets just like a taskbar, but it is not a taskbar.

Fortunately, Google Was My Friend.  After some searching, I found the solution:

   Right click on the panel which looks like a taskbar > Add Widgets > Task Manager > Add Widget

And my panel now acted like a taskbar.

Throughout all of this, my system was hanging up at least once a day.  Sometimes, I was able to limp into a vt400 session and restart, and sometimes I had to do a power on/power off.  I was convinced that KDE4 was to blame.  Looking for proof, I scanned /var/log/messages, expecting to find that all was well (except for the unexpected shutdowns).  Instead, I found this, everywhere I had had a hang:

ERROR* Hangcheck timer elapsed... GPU hung

A quick check of the OpenSUSE bug list revealed that this was a known problem with the kernel used in 11.4, when combined with Sandy Bridge processors on Intel boards using embedded graphics.

The solution was easy:  Go into /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-device.conf  (O.K, sax3 might have been easier) and add the line

  Driver "fbdev"

This makes the monitor driver the basic fbdev instead of the generic Intel driver.  This probably also means that my system will not perform well for games.  However, I have had no problems with it so far, and the hangs are over.

 So, now (after downloading additional software) I had a OpenSUSE 11.4 Desktop which I could use.  What I used it for comes next.

Desktop Games

Here I am, having nothing to say for longer than I want to admit. And, instead of discussing Oracle, I instead am going to present the story of my travails when I set out to build a new desktop computer. I set them forth in the hope that someone might learn from my mistakes.

At the time I started planning this, my home P.C. was about 5 years old. When new, it would have been considered a mainstream model, with a current Pentium 4 cpu, 2G of ram and Intel's mainstream circuit board. In comparison, my wife's box was 8 years old, with a Celeron processor and 256G of ram (later upgraded to 768G). It was starting to overheat when rendering complex graphics, which these days means about 66% of all web content. Rather than try to install a graphics card, I decided to build myself a new unit, and pass my existing box down to her.

[lesson 1: don't wait 8 years to investigate your computing needs]

Historically, I have only considered Intel processor/Intel Mobo pairs. The reason for this is that I no longer get a major thrill out of complicated hardware troubleshooting. I know that an Intel CPU properly mounted in an Intel board will be stable and work out of the box. Whether it is possible to squeeze out a bit more performance for the same cost with different hardware does not matter to me.

Now, 5 years ago, selection was simple. There were Celeron processors, and there were Pentium processors. You picked your price point and it dictated your choice. Once you had your processor, there was one board family which supported the socket the processor used. The main choice was whether or not one planned to use embedded graphics. Once you had your board, you bought whatever RAM it supported, and you were done.

I quickly learned that things had changed. Intel now sells an incredible number of processors for desktop units alone, and multiple sockets appear to be current. After spending three weeks checking and rechecking and reviewing comments, I made the following choices:

CPU: Intel I3-2100. I decided to go with the Sandy Bridge rather than the Clarkdale processor because it was slightly less expensive and had a larger range of motherboards available. I wanted a current CPU because I wanted to have maximum VM support. And since I was planning on making Linux my primary O/S, I didn't want to get the most current processor; I wanted my distribution to be ready for that CPU.

Mobo: DH67CLB3. I picked this board because (a) it had the LGA-1155 socket my CPU needed, (b) had embedded graphics, (c) had the standard ATX form factor, and (d) was available.

Memory: Four 2Gb DDR3 Dimms. No one this year will ever need more than 4G of RAM.

[Lesson 2: There are other thing to consider than RAM and Socket. Such as, how well it supports everything else you want to attach to the computer]

Case: Antec 300. I hate to pay freight for a box as large and heavy as a mid-tower ATX case, so I have always gone down to my local Best Buy and picked up an Antec Sonata case. The Sonata case was nice and solid and build friendly, and it came with a very good power supply. I was somewhat surprised to discover that the Sonata was not available, and that there were no cases available with an embedded power supply. As I didn't like any of the power supplies available at Best Buy, I went across the street and picked up a 450W Antec unit from Staples.

HDD: 500Gb Seagate Barracuda, on sale with a 5 year warranty. My hope is that the 5 warranty means Seagate's build problems have been resolved.

[Lesson 3;Bit of wisdom I picked up: It is hard to get a handle on Hard Drive problems. Most units these days are built by gamers who build a new unit ever 6 - 9 months. If the drive only has a MTF of 1 year, the failure will never be discovered, as it will not be in service long enough to fail. The warranty is a better gauge of quality. Note that HDD prices had not yet spiked at this time]

So, I sat down and put everything together. For once, I had no problem screwing the motherboard onto the case. The ease of installation of the motherboard was more than compensated by the hassle of mounting the hard drive without the plug-in mounting racks available on the Sonata. Instead of screwing the drive into a rack and then sliding the rack into slots in the case, I had to mount the drive directly onto the case, using some large thumbscrews provide by Antec.

Now, last year I had replaced the dead CD-R/W drive in my wife's box with a new DVD-R/W drive. My plan was to recycle that drive into my new unit. Unfortunately, when I was ready to install it, I was very surprised to discover (1) that it was an IDE drive, and (2) that my DH67CLB3 did not have an IDE connector anywhere.

[Lesson 4: Surprise (1) is understandable (note that there are EIDE DVD drives being sold today (one has to pay a premium to get a SATA drive)). Surprise (2) would not have been a surprise if I had followed Lesson 2.]

So, back to Best Buy to pick up a SATA DVD drive. Found a nice HP unit at a good price, on their clearance rack. Installed it (which was the most difficult part of the entire installation process, as the thumbscrews did not fit the case, and the screws HP provided were very hard to get started.) I did not have enough time left in the weekend to install the o/s, so I paused after a successful smoke test.

[Lesson 5: If there is no smoke after applying power, the build has passed the Smoke Test. And this really should have been done before installing the memory and the drives.]

[Lesson 6: I have noticed that the discussion to this point assumes the reader is familiar with building a desktop P.C. It might be useful to give some background here.

1. First, Remove the case from the box and sort out the supplied screws. Figure out how the case opens and closes. If the case comes with an installed power supply, decide if any of the cables can be dressed at this point, otherwise, leave the power supply on the side for now. At the back of the case is a metal plate on which the output ports from the motherboard mount. It is possible that your motherboard will fit it, but this almost never happens. So, remove this plate, and replace it with the one which comes with the board. Do this when you are alone in the house, so no one can hear your cursing.
2. Examine the circuit board, and set any dip switches or jumpers which are required (I have never had to do this with an Intel board, but with other brands this is a necessity). Install a screw everywhere the case has a screw hole.
3. Mount the CPU on the circuit board. Follow the supplied instructions
4. Mount the memory.
5. Install the Power Supply
6. Attach the wires from the power supply to their matching pins on the motherboard. The motherboard should supply a diagram which explains what is supposed to attach to what.
7. Mount the drives and attach power cables and data cables to them. Attach the data cables to an appropriate socket on the motherboard.
8. Perform the Smoke Test. It is safer (but not as much fun) if you do this before attaching the drives
9. Attach a monitor, insert the Linux Distro of your choice in the optical drive, and follow the instructions on the screen]

Next day, I went to swap in my existing keyboard, mouse, and monitor, and discovered (there is a pattern here) that the keyboard and mouse had PS2 connectors. And my motherboard did not. Nor did it have the VGA connection my monitor required. Back out to the stores. I knew from the last time I needed to buy a mouse that Staples was a better source than Best Buy, and I picked up a nice Logitech wired mouse and keyboard. I was lucky at Best Buy: I was able to get a discounted HP 20" widescreen monitor for $89, which made it O.K. to pay $10 for the what-if-it-dies-and-HP-is-out-of-the-hardware-game insurance.

[Lesson 7: Again, this is what happens when one waits too long to upgrade. I must comment that this badly color-blind scribe prefers screens which show the same image regardless of the angle at which one views it, and would have preferred to keep his CRT]

So, I connected everything, turned on the power, pushed the button on my optical drive, and waited for the drive to pop out so I could feed it my Open SUSE 11.4 ISO.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And pushed buttons and waited and pushed some more and waited.

The problem was those little screws I mentioned earlier. I had tightened them down so far that they were obstructing the exit of the drive tray. Replacing them with shorter screws did the trick. And then I was able to start my Open SUSE installation disk, install the o/s, and see if KDE 4 was as far off the deep end and I'd been led to believe.

It is. But it is to rescue it. But that tale is for Part II.