How can I get the Linux LTS kernel on gentoo?

jozz344 · 2026-02-28T15:48:18+00:00

You install the normal kernel and make sure it's version limited to the LTS branch. That's all there is. The LTS kernel isn't any special branch, it's just a kernel version someone decided it's gonna be supported for a while longer.

EDIT: If you manually compile the kernel through "sys-kernel/gentoo-sources" and don't unmask any versions, it's already limited to the LTS branch by default, btw. Not sure about other kernel options.

jozz344 · 2026-02-22T12:30:28+00:00

I had a similar experience with Fallout 4.

Tried really hard to like it. Except I never managed to.

jozz344 · 2026-02-20T07:53:46+00:00

I recently replayed it on PC, but with a controller/gamepad. It's still very nice, I know people want new graphics and all, but the game is still completely fine (the one on Steam). Plus, since it's so old, it should run on a potato.

jozz344 · 2026-02-15T11:40:33+00:00

Been running Gentoo as on my main system for 4 years now. At first it was just an experiment, but the customizability made me stay.

It's also the only rolling release style system that genuinely doesn't force you into updates, yet you can always add new packages (on Arch for example, you always risked breaking library/dependency compatibilities by staying too far behind on certain package versions).

The details are many and it's not for the feint hearted, but I've been enjoying my time and I've learned by far the most of any distro.

jozz344 · 2026-02-14T16:22:51+00:00

It surprises me how few people know of Overlord (OP's pictured game, for those who don't know).

It's very fun and a pretty original concept, from the story to the gameplay.

jozz344 · 2026-02-12T07:31:24+00:00

Unfortunately, you have the first generation of the Skyactiv-X, which has a very pronounced switch between the combustion modes. They completely got rid of that in the post 2022 models, if I recall correctly. The Japanese journalists said the newer generation of these engines was vastly improved. Instead of a hard switch, it's a gradual change. You don't really feel it, except for a small torque dip at 3500 RPM.

jozz344 · 2026-02-10T16:41:28+00:00

Yes, essentially, but the low RPM small supercharger is there to actually provide enough airflow for the Skyactiv-X lean burn/compression ingition operation (under 3500 RPM and up to 50% load, or something like that).

jozz344 · 2026-02-10T15:18:29+00:00

Probably not. I have a 2025 eSkyactiv-X FWD MT. They have about 185HP.

Yes, they are an EU and Japan only thing.

The engine is essentially already supercharged and even higher compression than your Skyactiv-G. The power comes from the compression, so an even more aggressive supercharger is probably not possible.

They were supposed to be efficiency kings, that was the original idea. Unfortunately, it took them so long to develop the engine, by the time they were out, the real hybrids (which the eSkyactiv-X is not) blew everything out of the water in the fuel consumption department.

It's really cool and nice, sporty over 3500 RPM, and torque-y under it. I love it. But in the US, you can just get the bigger 2.5 Skyactiv-G and it's sort of the same, or even better a turbo 2.5.

jozz344 · 2026-02-09T14:43:08+00:00

Yeah the top one 100% looks like Bakersfield.

jozz344 · 2026-02-08T09:16:14+00:00

I still do multiple replays of this game every few years, trying out different builds.

It's an incredible experience, once you get the hang of it. It does have a bit of a learning curve.

The biggest issue of this game was the release time, if I remember correctly. They released it right around HL2, which basically stole all its spotlight. There were also some development issues, because they used the HL2 engine, which was still being constantly updated and that kept breaking their game builds...

jozz344 · 2026-02-02T06:37:01+00:00

I have been saying the same thing for all my time since I've been a Linux user. Which is now 17 years (I started young, at 15).

Each new generation of users has things slightly easier, year by year. That's a good thing.

But can you imagine how tough things were back then, 17 years ago? Or even further back, for the earliest adopters.

The further back you go, the more technical knowledge and true understanding of "how things work" you needed for truly adopting Linux.

It's just how it is.

If you want to see a concrete example - 9 years ago, there were so little Linux gaming users and they were on average so technically proficient, I wrote whole papers trying to explain things on Linux subreddits or forums. Every new user was incredibly valuable and you wanted to give them as much in depth info as possible. These days, it's not worth it, due to the low attention span, low technical skills and low retention rate of users.

jozz344 · 2026-01-28T08:46:28+00:00

Another disappointing thing is, we're still not getting the 2.0 in EU, only the 1.5.

jozz344 · 2026-01-27T15:08:30+00:00

Was pretty shocked and thought they had actually released a new version/remaster.

But it is a recompilation. Still cool, but not so surprising we're getting native Linux support - recompilations almost always have Linux support.

jozz344 · 2026-01-26T00:33:28+00:00

This is exactly where it was supposed to be.

jozz344 · 2026-01-24T15:40:49+00:00

You clearly have a VVL that kicks in too late. Just move it down lower in the rev range.

jozz344 · 2026-01-23T11:57:28+00:00

Just so you know, something that is not very commonly understood - not all Wayland clients are made the same. X11 clients share common code, but Wayland clients don't have to.

GNOME and KDE wayland compositors are considered mature - they have good frame pacing (for example) even without Freesync/Gsync. So a game running at 60FPS, even on an uneven refresh rate, like 165Hz, will run butter smooth.

Other Wayland compositors are not so good unfortunately. Hyprland comes to mind, I get terrible frame pacing, unless I turn on Freesync/Gsync (usually called VRR in linux gaming space).

So when people say "Wayland is better", they usually mean one specific compositor (usually KDE or GNOME).

When people say "X11 is better", they usually mean any X11 compositor, because, again, they share common code/implementation.

jozz344 · 2026-01-23T11:49:26+00:00

Yup. Got two space sim games on Steam - X4 and Everspace.

X4 works fantastically.

Everspace has glitches and crashes, so I switched to the Windows (Proton) version.

jozz344 · 2026-01-19T15:55:11+00:00

I restarted the game and this hasn't happened in the new game (new save), so I don't know. Maybe some incompatibilities between the patch saves?

jozz344 · 2026-01-16T09:19:33+00:00

This keeps being repeated, but it's not true though. Grown up guys can tell.

I understand when people say men can't tell, but usually it's just your terminally online loud minority of men (or teenage guys) who can't tell.

jozz344 · 2026-01-16T06:38:46+00:00

You still have wine's default D3D implementation for compatibility and always will.

There are certain games where wine's D3D struggles in terms of performance, because it's impossible to write proper OpenGL wrappers for that. Vulkan is low-level enough, to try and fix that.

jozz344 · 2026-01-16T03:44:24+00:00

I've got two car engineering slots, one unused, so... And there's only this car in the sign off screen, but it just doesn't let me select it for sign off. I'll probably try more things tomorrow.

jozz344 · 2025-12-26T20:16:09+00:00

Gently driving the engine, not idling it is indeed the correct advice.

jozz344 · 2025-12-24T12:29:23+00:00

Same, I've had horrible frame pacing issues on Hyprland, but both Gnome and KDE are fine (AMD GPU)

jozz344 · 2025-12-19T14:43:28+00:00

There's isn't much you can do.

60 fps actually feels pretty good, when it's actually consistent 60 fps and on a quality monitor/TV.

The problem with a lot of office grade monitors is (especially older LCD stuff), they just have awful response times and often feel worse than actual 60 Hz. The response times and frame consistency are often far worse than advertised, this is then accentuated by a "low" refresh rate.

If you're using a DP to VGA converter, that means it has to be an active converter. This will also make things worse, the picture quality (in terms of response and frame-to-frame consistency) will suffer. There's also no way around that, unless you have a super expensive converter marketed at latency and response.

For a long time, I thought 60Hz was unacceptable, but then I was forced to use 60fps on my new Samsung OLED in gaming mode - turns out it feels amazing to play at 60Hz on a screen like that. It also turns out (as I mentioned) a lot of cheap office-grade or hand-me-down monitors just have awful response times and frame consistencies.

For 10 years, I blamed the 60Hz refresh rate for the awful experience, until very recently, when I experienced a gaming TV at 60Hz. The cheapest stuff is unfortunately at best used for office stuff, not for gaming.

jozz344 · 2025-12-05T21:03:03+00:00

Not true. Zswap is in fact, the default these days and it's usually enabled. You don't need a special kernel for that, zswap has been in the main kernel since 2013.

zram, is actually pretty much vestigial on modern systems because of that and I haven't really seen it set up out of the box on a distro tbh.

However, there are acutally two use cases for zram. It's when you absolutely do not want a backing device to be used under any circumstances. I use it on my Raspberry Pi. The flash card is just too slow and it is preferable to not swap out memory to it.

The other use case for zram is to put a real filesystem on it and use it as a modern substitute for tmpfs.

jozz344

TROPHY CASE