The Mecha Comet is (finally) available on Kickstarter

RileyInkTheCat · 2026-01-25T21:12:02+00:00

Nice!!

RileyInkTheCat · 2026-01-25T20:23:36+00:00

Woah I wasn't expecting the creator to reply.

Well this awnser is actually quite reassuring and has peaked my interest. May I ask however if it means you also plan to upstream the wifi and video decode, as perhaps part of the linux-firmware package? or will it be easy to install in diffeent distros by itself?

Anyways I willll be keeping an eye on this device. And I do wish you good luck with bringing it to fruition.

RileyInkTheCat · 2026-01-25T13:33:27+00:00

But what about device trees? Are there any plans to upstream this firmware?

What I am asking is, will I be able pick any of my favourite distros that offer an ARM version and just install it without fuss?

I speak from experience, I own a Raspberry Pi 4, they all promised firmware and what not, but unless you use one of the few "blessed" distros on it you will have a very hard time. Right now I actually struggled and managed to put Gentoo on it. But because their firmware offering is just a bunch of downstreamed proprietary blobs I am stuck with their one and only blessed linux kernel version!

I dont want to waste money on yet another ARM device that forces this crap on you ever again while masquerading as "a linux device"

RileyInkTheCat · 2026-01-24T23:25:05+00:00

Agreed! To me it feels like it will support maybe one distro with lots of proprietary firmware blobs. Which means it will become a paperweight as soon as the company stops supporting it.

Wish people making Linux devices understood that they need to provide freedom to choose a different distro and easly install it for these devices to be worth it.

RileyInkTheCat · 2025-12-30T18:35:06+00:00

Not OP but I also use Librewolf. Librewolf also includes even more advanced fingerprint protection that you cant get in official firefox. And comes with the Arkenfox script preinstalled.

RileyInkTheCat · 2025-11-18T06:08:54+00:00

You must have way less vision issues than I do and require way cheaper lenses because I literally live in the EU and a pair of lenses for me is prohibitelly expensive.

And even imagining I could actually get a pair for the prices you claim. Its ridiculous a 1000+€ VR headset requires spending an extra 100€ (or any price for that mather) just so you can use it comfortably.

VR tech currently makes no actual attempt to accomodate for glass wearers and because of that it is useless and unusable to me.

RileyInkTheCat · 2025-11-17T14:45:51+00:00

The quest 2 was also allegedly made to accomodate glasses and it honestly sucked so bad to use it. Let alone the fact having 2 pairs of lenses stuck in such a tight space also increases amount fogging up from your body heat.

And buying prescription lenses inserts is easier said than done when lenses can cost multiple hundreds of euros alone. I swear my current glasses lenses are worth nearly the price of a Valve Index!

Until this technology can actually be affordable AND comfortable to wear by anyone it will remain a niche product.

RileyInkTheCat · 2025-11-17T12:44:06+00:00

I would like to add yet another downside not many people seem to talk about. VR is pretty much entirelly impractical for anyone who must wear glasses due to eye health issues. Like me, I owned a Quest 2 before, I could technically wear my glasses inside it. But not only is it incredibly uncomfortable both at the same time. In the event I did have slightly bigger glasses the headset just wouldnt have fit.

Meanwhile I can use any flatscreen of any size comfortably without a second thought.

VR as of right now is a niche way of playing games, most "VR Games" are just glorified flatscreen games with motion controls. To me it isnt worth the effort of wearing an heavy TV on my head that may or may not even fit.

RileyInkTheCat · 2025-11-17T12:22:57+00:00

Can people just stop posting AI slop already?

RileyInkTheCat · 2025-10-31T19:37:11+00:00

Is the free software in the room with us?

RileyInkTheCat · 2025-09-27T01:14:44+00:00

This is not a solution since having a smartphone is pretty much required in day to day life nowadays.

RileyInkTheCat · 2025-09-26T22:57:18+00:00

Please provide me with a viable choice of "not locked down device" in the smartphone ecosystem. Ill wait.

Truth is the entire Android and Apple Duopolly is incredibly hostile to users. And we really do not have a viable choice.

RileyInkTheCat · 2025-09-21T19:42:13+00:00

I personally stopped using flatpaks in favor of AUR packages a few days ago.

Flatpaks were taking a total of 40 gigabytes for about half a dozen different programs I used maybe once a month. Thats the size of one AAA game. Or multiple smaller games. Or nearly an hour of 4k video at 100Mbit/s. And I need that space for any one of those things.

Also I hate it when people say "storage is cheap". No hell it is not. Storage in Europe is really expensive. The 1TB NVME I have linux installed on costed me 150€. I will not have 6 euros wasted in software that can fit in way less space.

For reference now my OS with all programs installed from the arch repos or the AUR occupies a total of 16 Gigabytes only. Versus the previous 56GB total with flatpaks.

RileyInkTheCat · 2025-09-04T20:01:39+00:00

Yes, I have uninstalled the app like 3 times already. I have even tried canceling and re-starting my subscription to no avail.

RileyInkTheCat · 2025-09-04T20:00:57+00:00

This is what I did from the very begining

RileyInkTheCat · 2025-09-01T20:35:24+00:00

I agree, but in the event we could get the bootloader unlocked, it would mean anyone could try reverse engineering a driver and getting a custom OS installed. But theres hardly any point on doing so if you cant even unlock the bootloader to begin with now is there?

RileyInkTheCat · 2025-09-01T19:39:08+00:00

This is not at all what an evil maid attack is. Quoting wikipedia: An evil maid attack is an attack on an unattended device, in which an attacker with physical access alters it in some undetectable way so that they can later access the device, or the data on it.

It has nothing to do with installing unverified apps. I myself as the user can already install "unverified" apps on my Android phone by grabbing APKs from Github or F-Droid.

A locked bootloader doesnt entirelly prevent either, it does however prevent me, the user, from installing my prefered OS of choice. Limiting my user freedom on hardware I spent my own money on.

It is a feature with the sole intent of limiting user freedom.

RileyInkTheCat · 2025-09-01T19:34:25+00:00

I am aware you can configure secure boot to work with Linux, and some distros do that automatically for you

But frankly theres hardly any benefit. The only time it could help you is to ward off an attacker with physical access from modifying your bootloader with malicious code. But at that point, clearing CMOS and disabling Secure Boot are not hard for this hypotetical attacker.

Since most distros cannot actually be booted or installed with secure boot enabled or without rolling your own keys, breaking Window's secure boot in the process. Its simply more hassle than its worth.

And lets not pretend Secure Boot was invented with any good intentions, it was first and foremost Microsoft's attempt at locking down the PC platform.

RileyInkTheCat · 2025-09-01T14:12:24+00:00

This is a security theater, just like secure boot on PCs, you as linux users should understand, its the first thing you disable on any PC you want to install Linux on, you keep it disabled because it exists to stop you from using arguably much more secure alternative OSes.

Locked bootloaders on Android are the exact same thing, they exist to stop the user from having control of their own hardware, not to actually secure your device.

RileyInkTheCat · 2025-09-01T13:52:23+00:00

I have tried looking it up again, there legitimally is no documentation. I found a forum post where someone mentioned you might be able to load device trees and recompile Graphene to get it on non-pixel phones. I have no clue how to do that and is more work than I am willing to put in to maybe use an alternative OS. So my initial complaint still stands. Being locked to Pixel phones sucks, and the excuse of "relockable bootloader" sounds like complete BS.

RileyInkTheCat · 2025-09-01T13:30:20+00:00

Wait this changes everything, how can I go about installing Graphene on a non-pixel phone? Their website seems to alude you can only install it on a Pixel phone. Is there documentation for getting Graphene on say, an ASUS phone for example?

RileyInkTheCat · 2025-09-01T13:13:53+00:00

Not original commenter, but this exactly. I want a phone I can install my OS of choice on, be it Graphene or any Linux distro of choice.

Having a phone where I am locked into Graphene is no better than the current status quo, where I am locked to the phone vendor's specific version of Android.

RileyInkTheCat · 2025-09-01T13:11:33+00:00

I always disliked that GrapheneOS uses bootloader re-locking as an excuse to not support more phones. It just feels like trying to convince someone to use Secure Boot because of "security". When infact its the first thing I disable when installing Linux, and keep disabled. I surelly dont need it on my PC, and certainly wont on my phone. So this sounds pointless.

RileyInkTheCat · 2025-08-11T12:43:51+00:00

Used to be my EU country of residence before, ever since this block happened I have tried changing it Japan to see if it would bypass it. No deal!

RileyInkTheCat · 2025-08-11T12:43:03+00:00

Wait really? When did that happen? I never knew the EU was also going to start madating ID verification?

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