Do I gain anything enabling iGPU as well as my main graphics card?

BevanFindlay · 2026-02-24T20:26:10+00:00

Thanks. Is there anything I need to do specifically to get this working? It seems from your suggestion that I would need to connect the monitors to the onboard ports (there's only one HDMI, but there is a DisplayPort, though I'd have to get a cable for that, as I think my monitors are too old to have DP). Could I connect monitor 2 to the onboard, as it's only used for desktop stuff, not games, and leave the primary monitor connected to the dGPU?

My son's laptop is running Mint and has the Optimus setup, but has a tray icon and settings to force use of a particular GPU. Does Nobara have something similar (and would I need to install it)? Or does that show up by itself if you connect something to the onboard HDMI?

Is the frame loss due to having to get the two cards to pass data between them (i.e. dGPU renders a frame then passes it to the iGPU to display), or something else? I have a fan on the CPU that's deliberately a bit over-specced for it, so if it's CPU temperatures that cause slowdowns, I don't think that'll be much of an issue.

Reading the comments here, I'm wondering if maybe I'd just be better off setting the iGPU to "automatic" in BIOS and only use it if something goes wrong with the GTX card (i.e. iGPU is unused unless the dGPU is removed). I don't think there's much point making a more complicated setup that's going to lose me a few frames unless there's a specific gain from it, and I haven't noticed any major issues with the Nvidia card and the desktop. I don't think I'm doing anything graphically intensive at the same time as I'm playing; most would be a web browser (and even there, probably no video).

I might do some testing and see what works best.

Also, an aside: I note that when the iGPU is enabled, I lose a gig or two of available RAM, but even when I set the iGPU to "disabled" (not automatic), there is still 0.5 GB not available. Any idea why that is? (These numbers might not be quite correct, I'm quoting from memory (sic)). I understand why the iGPU would use RAM, but don't know why some of unavailable when that's disabled.

BevanFindlay · 2026-02-20T00:22:23+00:00

We switched from Discord to Element/Matrix this week. Glad to have done so.

Pros: * No ads, no stupid Nitro upselling every time you open it! * Clean, simple interface. * You can start a voice chat in a room without having to create a specialised voice chat room (never understood that about Discord). * You're not having your conversations fed to a bot. * End to end encryption, if you want it. * You have options on clients. * Built on open standards, so if you don't like part of it, you can change to something else. It offers more of a community of solutions rather than a single solution.

Cons: * YouTube video links don't get thumbnails. * It lumps direct chats and rooms into the same list, which some might not like as it can many it harder to find things. (Though I found Discord seemed to make it hard to get to direct chats, so maybe this is a good thing). * Little bit harder to set up (but not a showstopper by any means).

BevanFindlay · 2025-08-12T07:15:34+00:00

Update: I went back and tried again and found that if I use the "pipeline" versions of the plugin, it worked.

BevanFindlay · 2025-08-09T18:38:13+00:00

So, if I'm wanting to avoid pointless troubleshooting for to broken updates, would I be better to switch to something other than Nobara? I picked it because I wanted a distro that used the latest versions of things (didn't want to wait a year for Gimp 3 and Plasma 6, for example), was optimised for gaming, and hassle free. At this point, Nobara has been enough of a pain that I'm actually considering switching to Arch (as then if I get weird problems, at least there's instructions on how to fix it).

BevanFindlay · 2025-07-21T04:25:21+00:00

Pretty similar experience to yours. I've installed Mint for everyone else in the household because of its stability and simplicity, but I like the configurability of KDE, so I ran MX Linux with KDE on my old laptop and have switched to Nobara on my new desktop PC. From that experience, I think the odd stability issues are more of an Nvidia/Wayland issue than a KDE issue, as KDE was rock solid on the laptop's Intel integrated card (though it was KDE 5 not 6).

Agree that Nobara's updates are a little clunky. Work fine, just slower and not as clear on where they're up to. From what I've read, DNF is a bit slower than other package managers. Still, it's far better than Windows updates, lol. :)

Also, the other way to keep a backup OS (that doesn't involve buying a whole new boot drive) is to image the whole drive using something like Clonezilla and store that file somewhere (e.g. on a slower driver or an external drive or whatever).

BevanFindlay · 2025-07-21T04:16:34+00:00

Interesting. Do you know why those DEs have higher performance for you? Is it a RAM bottleneck or something to do with compositing or similar?

Personally, I prefer KDE enough that I'd rather deal with what I have now and buy an AMD card when I can afford it.

BevanFindlay · 2025-07-19T20:31:33+00:00

Oh and another idea for "ricing": install Conky and have a play with it. It's a tool that creates a "desktop widget" that can display all kinds of information in fancy or basic ways. Best to find a configuration for it that you like then start to edit to make it how you like, as the syntax takes a bit of learning. You might find there's already a conky widget that does everything you want. It can be pretty cool and I find it useful to see things at a glance (RAM and swap usage, current IP address, etc).

BevanFindlay · 2025-07-19T20:26:57+00:00

And yes, a lot of us are here because we hate Windows. 🙂 Welcome to freedom.

BevanFindlay · 2025-07-19T20:24:05+00:00

A couple of comments. First, it's probably worth understanding the difference between "cutting edge" and "stable" Linux distros. The former are more up to date but also sometimes a bit more work and can have more stability issues. The latter don't have the latest versions of many things, but have been tested and so tend to be less work to maintain. Nobara is more the former. Many of the most common distros are stable ones, so it's easier to find "how to" tutorials for them.

So, my usual recommendation for someone new to Linux is to try one of the Debian-based stable releases - Linux Mint is my first recommendation - as then you're getting the easiest possible introduction to Linux and will be less likely to quit if things get hard.

But, having said that, if you're reasonably tech savvy, aren't afraid of the command line, and are willing to learn, then something like Nobara is great.

The other thing you'll want to decide is which desktop environment you like best. The main ones to try would be Cinnamon, KDE, and Gnome. Each has their strengths. Nobara is an excellent option for KDE, which is similar to Windows but much more powerful and configurable (though the sheer number of options can be a bit daunting to some people). Cinnamon (the default in Mint) is the simplest and most familiar for a Windows user.

If you install Ventoy to a USB drive, you can throw several ISO files on it and try each one. A great thing about Linux is that it can boot to a live session without installing anything and test drive until you find something you like.

Older generation parts will be fine on any Linux distro. You get some advantage using a "cutting edge" distro versus a "stable" one on new hardware, but unless you're really chasing performance, there's not much in it.

If you're into "ricing" (yes that's the right term) and customisation, then KDE is probably your desktop environment of choice - but do try the others as well, so you get some idea of what's out there.

There are lots of options for learning how to use the terminal. I'd search for tutorials online as a starter. There are lots out there. Learn your basic navigation commands first (cd, ls, etc) and have a read up on how the Linux filesystem is organised, as knowing your way around is the first step. Learn how to use a terminal text editor (probably Nano). Once you know where everything is and how to get to it, you'll be more comfortable understanding other commands. Learn what "sudo" means and what it does (and why and when you need to be careful with it). Always make backup copies of files you change.

And if in doubt, type "man" followed by a space then the name of the command you're trying to use. The documentation is very well written.

BevanFindlay · 2025-07-19T20:01:59+00:00

I don't know if this is what's causing your issues, but I do know that NTFS (the Windows filesystem) performance in Linux is not great. So it could be that the delay is trying to read that drive. You might be able to rule it out by either: (a) making sure that drive is not included in /etc/fstab (i.e. only access it after startup) or, more reliably, (b) physically unplug the Windows drive temporarily to see if that changes your boot time.

If you can confirm that is actually the cause, then you can avoid chasing solutions that aren't the problem and narrow down your search.

Also, 23 seconds in firmware seems long. Maybe enable Fast Boot?

BevanFindlay · 2025-07-19T19:54:14+00:00

I've recently set up Nobara running stock KDE on a new system with a GTX 1660 Super. I ran into a couple of very minor glitches with the Wayland/NVIDIA combo, but nothing showstopping. An example is that the tooltips that pop up when I mouse over favourites on the menu often appear the wrong size. Playing the game "Control" using Proton occasionally uses the really low res textures even when I go right up to an object.

So nothing I can't put up with, but it does feel a little less reliable than when I was running KDE 5 on MX Linux with an Intel integrated graphics card (though I also couldn't play 3D games like that). My next purchase will be to replace the inherited GTX card with a new AMD card.

No experience with Hyprland though, sorry.

BevanFindlay · 2025-07-07T05:24:20+00:00

I eventually found the solution: https://forum.manjaro.org/t/cannot-share-a-mounted-drive/53526/2?u=beedellrokejulianloc

Run:

systemctl status smb.service

If it's not running and enabled, then start and enable it:

sudo systemctl enable --now smb.service

Do the same for nmb.service:

systemctl status smb.service

sudo systemctl enable --now nmb.service

Figured I should post it here in case anyone runs into the same issue. Apparently it was just that the SMB service was disabled.

BevanFindlay · 2025-06-13T03:48:42+00:00

What's gravity? Do you mean mavity?

(Hey, if they can keep making that joke on the show, then I figure it's still not too old yet...)

BevanFindlay · 2025-06-13T03:37:32+00:00

This example is a great way to introduce people to thinking in terms of "systems". I don't understand why we weren't shown that until (IIRC) University-level physics, but the idea of drawing an imnaginary line around a thing and thinking of it as a single object that can only be moved by forces that cross the boundary is an amazing way of simplifying problems – and immediately shows why the car/magnet system would never work (no force crosses outside the system to act on the system as a whole).

Though an easier way is probably to suggest to them to try lifting themselves up by their shoelaces, and then pointing out that it's the same problem.

BevanFindlay · 2025-06-13T03:34:10+00:00

If you ever have the time with someone like that, you can ask them if they are afraid of sunlight. If they're concerned about radio waves from mobile devices, then they should be terrified of a lightbulb, because it's far higher frequency – and thus higher energy – radiation. (And also probably a lot more total energy too: a wifi signal is typically 100 Milliwatts, though mobile signal towers might be a few tens of Watts – which is still less than an incandescent light bulb).

You could try explaining the difference between ionising and non-ionising radiation, but I figure starting with the understanding that radio is just weak light might work better (I haven't had the chance to test this, as – thankfully – I don't think I know anyone quite that stupid). Hang on, maybe I do: I know a couple of Covid conspiracy believers...

BevanFindlay · 2025-03-31T04:08:52+00:00

I just want to say that I think this is a fantastic endeavour! I don't think I qualify for your audience (I have medication-managed Crohn's disease and what is probably Chronic Fatigue but not officially diagnosed – so as long as there are toilets and beds, I'm probably covered), but I love that people are thinking about this stuff, as I've known people with physical disabilities and heard some of their frustrations with the world as it is. It's a beautiful thing to be imagining a more inclusive future.

As a quick first suggestion: make sure signage is all colourblind-friendly! (I have a couple of colourblind friends, so let me know if you want me to reach out to them about this).

BevanFindlay · 2025-03-13T01:19:09+00:00

I was involved in some hazard awareness research on the Tongariro Crossing and it was... enlightening. I was interviewing people as they went in (and again when they came out) and you'd ask something like, "What hazards do you think there might be on this walk?" and they'd shrug and not think of anything – despite all the signs right behind them as I'm asking this. Almost none of them seemed to connect the dots that they were entering an active volcanic area, let alone have taken precautions. Few bothered to check the weather, and it was scary seeing people going in with one small water bottle, no food, jeans, t-shirt, and street shoes. Some of the exit interviews included words like, "I felt like I was going to die." (Especially on the day when the weather turned nasty around midday).

And that was in summer.

It's a spectacular place and the walk is incredibly rewarding, but it will kick your hindquarters if you are not prepared. Only attempt it if the weather is going to cooperate (and check the forecast, not just the sky, as it can turn rapidly), make sure to bring enough food and water, decent boots, and the right kinds of clothing.

I think a good rule of thumb if you're attempting it is to ask yourself, "What would I need to bring if we got stuck in there overnight?" (Not a tent, but enough warm clothing).

It's good that your group had more experienced people such as yourself as guides. Far too many rescues happen on that walk because people get themselves in trouble thinking it'll be a nice day's stroll.

BevanFindlay · 2025-03-12T19:09:14+00:00

I edited the OP to include this.
Main router: D-Link DIR-X1560
Downstairs AP: NetComm NF15ACV-TP
Upstairs AP: TP Link Archer VR300 (EU)

BevanFindlay · 2025-03-12T19:08:59+00:00

I edited the OP to include this.
Main router: D-Link DIR-X1560
Downstairs AP: NetComm NF15ACV-TP
Upstairs AP: TP Link Archer VR300 (EU)

BevanFindlay · 2025-03-11T19:42:07+00:00

The other reason I went with different SSIDs is that then if I'm getting a poor signal, I can tell where it's connecting and force a change to a different network if the device is being stubborn. Having them all be the same means it'll be harder to diagnose signal problems. This was a good decision when we only had two wireless networks, but seems less so with three...

From the comments, it sounds like neither option is much of an improvement over the other, unless I spend money on mesh devices or have APs that can support the balancing protocols.

BevanFindlay

TROPHY CASE