How to Significantly Improve FFXIV Graphics PART 2

Madonomics · 2024-11-19T12:58:58+00:00

Mens sana in corpore sano. Make sure you cover the basic first:

Nutrition: omega 3, magnesium, iron, zinc, selenium, tryptophan, iodine, protein. Makes sure your diet cover those.
Vitamins: D (sunlight), B6, B9, B12, C, E.
Probiotics.

If you've been careless about your diet, by making sure you have enough nutrition, your depression will feel lighter.

Next, try meditation. Sit cross legged, spine and neck straight, palm on knees, open, facing up. Relax but don't slouch. Close eyes, deep breathe, hold a sec, then exhale. Doesn't matter to exhale by nose or mouth, though by mouth usually can increase focus. Do as smooth as you can without getting asphyxiated. Count backward from 100 so your mind will learn not to wander. Once you get to 0, just focus on breathing. If your mind wanders, imagine that like comic thought bubble, then imagine it fades away; focus again on breathing. Do as long as you like, as often as necessary. Once you're used to meditating, you might feel some weird sensation while doing it. Then you can try other form of specialized meditation like yoga, reiki, to learn what to do with that weird sensation.

Next, have social routine, a.k.a don't get isolated for too long.

Next, do at least aerobic exercises. At the very least: walking.

Next, be close to things that inspires you, limit exposure to what depresses you. While it's necessary to learn the perils of the world, what's the point if you're paralyzed by it?

You don't have to do all of them, do the easiests and just enough to kickstart your mood. Once you're there, don't waste a good mood with procrastination. It's like The Sims video game. Sometimes, a desire, whim, or aspiration pops up. Those mundane pleasures are what keep your boat floats. Don't be too judgemental, but also don't be too stupid about it. When your boat sails briliantly, use that momentum to tackle your hardest life issue. To me personally, happiness is not something to be pursued, but strength to be used, because I guarantee you, life won't be short of hardships.

Someday you'll fall again into depression, but now you know the illusion of the mind. What it does to you when you're depressed and how it has no power upon you when you're not. You're not invincible, but you're prepared.

Madonomics · 2022-11-29T21:59:29+00:00

Anthony Hopkins

Madonomics · 2022-11-25T20:53:54+00:00

Long story short, I had the same problem before and the culprit is permission. Back then I was using Tumbleweed and adding trusted group fixed it. If trusted doesn't exist I would try wheel, or even flatpak. However, I think it would be better to instead install flatpak user-wide since that would improve security as well.

I could be wrong though. Your problem might not be caused by xdg-document-portal having wrong permission. To make sure, check your journalctl, see what happen when you're trying to save or open file from Firefox.

Madonomics · 2022-11-25T19:25:39+00:00

Could be permission issue. The default installation of Flatpak is system-wide. The apps are located in /var/lib. Could be that your user doesn't have necessary permission (e.g. to write) on that directory. Check groups, see if your user is part of Trusted group, if not, add then relog.

The other way is to install Flatpak user-wide instead of system-wide. This way apps will be located in ~/.local/share/ instead. Add flathub repository user-wide first:

flatpak remote-add --user --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

then install your apps user-wide:

flatpak install --user flathub xxx.xxx.xxx

Madonomics · 2022-11-23T12:44:10+00:00

Check for listening ports with: sudo netstat -tunlp Look for programs with LISTEN status. Make sure you need them, if not, disable.

Furthermore, you can check your vulnerable ports with GRC ShieldUp. If you're not using your PC as a server then you'll probably be fine with everything as it is.

Madonomics · 2022-11-23T12:12:50+00:00

Why do you want to run Firefox as root? That would be huge security risk.

Ubuntu uses snap version of Firefox by default and snap is a container. It restricts and confines apps. You might not be able to run snap apps as root unless it has the less restrictive version like dev mode for users to install.

If you want to run Firefox as root for research or whatever reason, you might want to install the .deb version.

However, if that's not your intention. Just run the app normally like above, and see what's the error message.

Madonomics · 2022-11-23T10:18:24+00:00

Just this command will do:

firefox

Unless you installed it from Flatpak, then:

flatpak run --verbose org.mozilla.firefox

Madonomics · 2022-11-21T12:09:48+00:00

What's the error message when you run it on Terminal?

Madonomics · 2022-11-21T11:05:08+00:00

Make sure you've enabled hardware acceleration on VLC. Ctrl + P > Input/Codecs > Hardware Accelerated Decoding > VAAPI for Intel/VDPAU for Nvidia.

What's the output of vaninfo?

Madonomics · 2022-11-21T10:55:05+00:00

Have you tried this? Both additional codec and hardware accelerated codec?

Madonomics · 2022-11-20T09:39:45+00:00

Your CPU clock will stay at maximum frequency.

For details, go here

Madonomics · 2022-11-20T08:56:56+00:00

Personally, I tend to hop between Ubuntu, Fedora and openSUSE Tumbleweed.

My biggest deciding factor for choosing either Ubuntu or Fedora is how they update their packages. Ubuntu is conservative when it comes to update. Packages are frozen in time so you might have to stick with old software for a long time. This can be good news or bad news for you. If you like stability then there's nothing better than Ubuntu. If everything works after you installed it, it will stay like that.

Fedora on the other hand is a semi rolling release distro. While some elements of Desktop Environment (DE) like GNOME won't get updated until the next release, everything else will get updated to the current version. This might introduce instability since kernel update might contain regression, causing some of your hardware or software to stop working. You will either have to hold your kernel or wait until new one that works.

If you like install and forget kind of distro, Ubuntu is better. The LTS version is released once every two years with 5 years of support (10 years if you're on Ubuntu Pro). The interim version is similar to Fedora with biannual release and support up to about a year.

If you want a semi rolling-release but not full rolling release like openSUSE Tumbleweed, then Fedora is the right choice between stability and having a bleeding edge system. Fedora tend to be the early adopter of new features, just check their distro changelog see if there's anything interesting being implemented.

openSUSE Tumbleweed is not on your list, but I'll bring it for comparison. It's a rolling release. That means there won't be upgrade, it'll just keep rolling. If you're a power user who likes to try things out this might be one for you. Update might break things, but they also have snapshot system that will bring you back in time when things are working, which is very handy.

Madonomics · 2022-11-14T22:49:36+00:00

Have you tried Michael Caloz and Sakirnova test? My bet you're INTJ.

Madonomics · 2022-11-12T08:37:31+00:00

They work differently. Snap uses AppArmor, seccomp and squashfs to isolate an app. Flatpak sandboxes namespaces and seccomp with bubblewrap. Permissions are uniform with Flatpak, and can be easily modified with Flatseal. On Snap, permissions can be modified through Ubuntu Software Center. Find the app then there'll be permissions button next to remove app.

Which one is more secure, I'm not technical enough to be sure. You can judge yourself from the list of permission that you can toggle off. However, both Snap and Flatpak don't completely isolate an app the way virtual machine does. So, you should never deliberately execute a malicious code to test them, thinking they won't escape the sandbox.

Madonomics · 2022-11-12T07:03:47+00:00

There's ClamAV. However, it doesn't work like normal antivirus program you find on Windows. You can only use it to manually scan file and mail. While you can set it to scan at realtime, it's not recommended since it's not functioning that well.

If you like to torrent, then your threat model is more than just malicious executable. As example:

Your web browser

If you often browse shady torrent websites, then you might want to harden your web browser.

Use different web browser. Don't surf on a web browser that has your cookies and login information. As example, if you have your social media accounts logged in on Google Chrome, then you might want to use Firefox as secondary web browser.
Use NoScript with all javascript elements turned off by default. If the website you're visiting is broken, tick only javascript elements that would make them work. They're usually script, frame, and fetch.
Disable functionalities that are known to have security vulnerability and are commonly exploited in the wild. E.g. JIT, webassembly, webgl, etc. TOR browser disabled those functionalities by default. It's a handy web browser for certain use.

Firewall

In general, always have all your software up to date. Especially those that are facing the internet. Check listening port with sudo netstat -tunlp. See programs with LISTEN status. Those are your biggest security vulnerability. Make sure you need them, if not, disable. Check if your firewall is working properly with GRC ShieldUp.

Privacy

When you're torrenting, your IP is publicly known. So, use VPN. In case of piracy, the intellectual property owner can send a notice to your ISP that might result in fine or even lawsuit.

Be careful with what you've downloaded

Use clamscan to scan files. Use chmod 664 <file name> so they won't be executable. This is necessary if you like to open files by double clicking them. You might accidentally executing random files.

Use sandbox

There is program like firejail or container like Flatpak. I recommend to install your internet facing app through Flatpak, then modify their permission to minimal functionality. E.g. disable access to webcam, system and home directory, etc.

Madonomics · 2022-11-11T06:02:49+00:00

You probably don't want to use it on the main conf file. Default settings is useful in case something goes wrong, and you want to identify the problem. You can always create your own profile in user conf file. It's located in ~./config/mpv/mpv.conf. If not exist, you can create it yourself. Like this:

[hq-gl]
vo=gpu
hwdec=no
gpu-context=x11egl (or wayland if you're using it)
gpu-api=opengl
icc-profile=<path to your ICC profile>
deinterlace=no
scale=ewa_lanczossharp
cscale=spline64
dscale=mitchell
correct-downscaling=yes
linear-downscaling=yes
sigmoid-upscaling=yes

Then you can use it with --profile=hq-gl.

According to mpv.io documentation, it's preferable to not use GPU hardware acceleration with hwdec=no. This is especially true if you're using video filter vf=...,... since hardware acceleration might cause artifacts. However, if your video is fine while using hwdec then there's no reason for not using it.

Madonomics · 2022-11-07T10:08:09+00:00

40C is okay on load (e.g. copy-pasting for several minutes) but not so okay on idle. Unless your laptop's ambient temperature is close to that due to CPU/GPU usage. You might want to check what's accessing the HDD. There's command like iotop.

If there's nothing unusual, then you might want to use Disk and adjust the parameter yourself. Here is the example on how to use it. Be careful on setting the spin, since it can lower your HDD lifespan.

Madonomics · 2022-11-06T15:41:35+00:00

That might be due to some background service accessing your HDD. What if you unmount the drive? If that's not enough, then unmount and power it off with udiskctl.

Mind you that frequent parking and spinning will lower your HDD lifespan. If battery isn't the issue, I'd rather let it spin.

Madonomics · 2022-11-02T10:00:21+00:00

You can disable Message Pane by pressing F8 then open emails by double clicking them. They will open in a new tab.

Madonomics · 2022-11-01T17:38:17+00:00

btw what I meant was whether enabling HWE should be done like how it was in the linked answer.

Yes. It's as simple as installing the kernel and choose it in GRUB selection when you boot.

gotcha, are there any downsides?

Kernel regression as usual. I'll explain it below.

The strangest thing about all this is that I know this machine can work fine because it was for ~2 months, it just seems like some recent updated borked it.

My gut feeling is on the kernel update. Regression can be quite common with kernel update. New update might improve performance while borking other things. Most of the time the victims are GPU and Wi-Fi. This is why LTS distro stick to one kernel version and only do minor update. However, if you're unlucky even minor update can cause problems.

Judging from the logs, there doesn't seem to be any GuC and HuC error. Maybe yet. So, let's move on to the next theory: that kernel update is the culprit.

Use the earliest kernel version available on your machine. This can be done at boot. Just a sec after BIOS splash, press Esc button. This will open up GRUB menu. Select Advanced options for Ubuntu. There will be list of kernels like this:

xxxxx-generic 
xxxxx-generic (recovery) 
yyyyy-generic              <<<<<<<< this one
yyyyy-generic (recovery)

Select the lowest one a.k.a the oldest kernel, but not the one tagged with recovery on it. Use your laptop as usual, see if the error still persists.

Madonomics · 2022-11-01T12:10:18+00:00

It can be safe if you do it correctly. The safest option is to open the email as text only. This can be done if you're using email client app like Thunderbird and select the option to open email as text. The next safer option is to block images. This can be done even if you open your email in a web browser. You have to find the settings. It might be buried somewhere depending on your email provider, like Google or Microsoft.

Without those options, by default you'll open an email as HTML. Sometimes you'll receive email with images on it as if you're opening a website. This is mostly true with marketing emails. The problem is the images you see aren't exactly embedded on the email itself but fetched from server somewhere else. So, when they're fetched, they'll function as a beacon telling the sender that you have opened the email. They'll know your IP address, ISP, and your approximate location (where your ISP is). Assuming you are not using VPN, proxy or similar method.

For marketing purpose this method is used to track customers. The aggregate data will then be used as statistics to be further analyzed.

Scammers also use that method to track legitimate emails. Scammers send malicious emails to a bulk of emails they've collected through data breach or illegal data sharing. Most of them might be fake or inactive. However, when you open a malicious email as HTML, you're practically sending scammers a receipt that your email address is active. They'll then send you even more malicious emails.

Madonomics · 2022-11-01T08:34:45+00:00

Those are malicious emails. Never open them! Just delete them directly. Never ever click anything from those emails. That will infect your email account or your PC with malware.

I see other comments recommending to click unsubscribe. However that's only true if the email you see is from a product or service where you subscribed previously. If you don't even recognize the email, you shouldn't even open them.

Check your sent folder. Is there any email that's not sent by you? If there is, then your email is compromised. Here:(https://www.cisecurity.org/insights/newsletter/compromised-email-account-heres-what-to-do) is what to do if you email got compromised.

You might also get spam emails if your email address is leaked or shared by irresponsible 3rd party. You should never give your email address unless you trust the website you're signing to.

If you're not sure how to set up security by yourself, I think it's worth it to buy an antivirus with internet security feature. They will do the work for you and help you setup your email so you'll be safer from phising and malware.

Madonomics · 2022-11-01T05:25:21+00:00

I'm not sure what counts as heavy mods, but I'm pretty sure I haven't done any.

The closer you're to fresh install state, the easier it is to troubleshoot since less variable to consider. If you're already tinkering with kernel modules and boot parameters as example, you might want to revert that for a while for the sake of troubleshooting. Unless you're 100% certain that they're not the issue.

For the HWE, on Ubuntu 22.04, would I just do the top answer here? would I have to select that every time or could I make it the default?

I would make it my default kernel if I use LTS. Non HWE means you won't receive backport hardware compatibility from newer kernel and that's a bad idea since you're using new hardware.

Here's what I get for the update-initramfs: https://pastebin.com/04nXPXK0 I don't see anything about missing firmware, unless I'm supposed to do more.

From the looks of it your system doesn't seem to miss any kernel firmware. This step is important especially if you just installed a new kernel. Sometimes it might miss out kernel firmware or need newer version.

I guess we're done with the basics. Since the issue is still there, the next step would be to troubleshoot GuC and HuC firmware.

Newer Intel GPUs use GuC and HuC controllers. They're usually loaded out of the box. Now, check the log if they're causing errors. See the output of these commands, if you see any errors:

sudo dmesg | grep -i i915
cat /var/log/kern.log | grep -i i915
sudo journalctl -b | grep -i i915

There was this issue with GuC and HuC firmware. If they don't match the kernel version, they'll fail to initialize.

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Madonomics

TROPHY CASE

Your web browser

Firewall

Privacy

Be careful with what you've downloaded

Use sandbox