F%&$ing Windows

Operating Systems & Open Source Linux
1

Lately I've been dipping my toes into the whole Linux as the main OS thing and trying out a metric shittonne of different distros to replace the M$ behemoth that controls my precious.

Out of all this I noticed that I've had to have a symbiotic PC to have Windows and Linux side by side in a very precarious "Peace Treaty", where I can get  3/4 of my essentials with Linux (overall PC functionality) but for my Studies and Gaming I've resorted to a very small partition just to have Steam and Horizon View

I could basically wax lyrical how one distro is awesome but falls in one area where another excels in the failed area but fails in another where the original distro excelled,

But I digress, I now currently have Arch nestled alongside Windows 8.1, the symbiotic relationship was wary but it was good. That is until I logged out of Arch to continue my Steam downloads overnight, reboot aaaaannnnnndddddddd "Failure configuring Windows updates. Reverting changes. Do not turn off your computer", this leads to an endless reboot cycle. All the solutions on the M$ site rely on you actually being within Windows itself to troubleshoot/repair.

All my non organic PC problems are all related to Windows, all the while Linux has been solid as a rock, nary a peep.

So to sum up a very angry rambling post. F%&$ You M$

2

Just get rid of Windows. Gaming is moving to Linux anyway.

3

I feel your pain, Linux compatibility for productivity and gaming just inst there yet.

4

Huzzah, problem is now solved which is good, but it should not have occured in the first place.

@ThomR, I did fly Linux only for a while, but the Wine issues coupled with trying to get a functioning VMWare client depending on what distro I was using was driving me insane, I couldn't afford to have too much downtime in regards to my studies. After this latest clusterfuck I am that much closer to a Linux only system.

@ DamienAnton it seems we are in the same boat, 90% of my gaming goodness is not native Linux, and I've been having major dramas with Wine, same with my Schooling, unless you run Ubuntu it seems there is no native Linux VMWare client, yes you can build a client from source but that is time I can use for studying.

 

5

Why exactly do you need VMWare Horizon for studies ? Or do you need some other specialized software ? Run Windows on KVM. If your budget allows for it, get a separate gpu and have it passthrough  to Windows, to play games. 
I've been running arch exclusively and I've yet to encounter problems with software support, then again, I am studying software engineering, so I can do everything I need to do on linux. I could even do with just SSH and tmux to a rented server from a tablet with a wireless keyboard, but that would be pushing it.  

6

@ suns, this is going to sound a little ironic but I'm studying for a diploma of Information Technology Networking so I'v been able to rig up a KVM and have had Windows running through VMM which was awesome sauce for my schooling, but gaming not so much as it was only recognising my primary card (6850) as a generic video adaptor, I enjoy my games with all the bells & whistles I can get so it didnt quite cut the mustard for me. plus studying fulltime and on Austudy (student welfare here in Australia) leaves no budget for upgrades unless I cut back my study hours and get a part time job.

 

VMWare I use for the Ecamnpus that school has set up (basically a remote desktop), being a n00b to linux as well I'm learning more each day reading through all the endless Wikis workarounds and solutions and it's my fault for diving into Arch without a better background in Linux first, but all that I'm absorbing will help me with my career, my housemate for example works at a midrange energy company and he was chatting to the IT guys and telling them of my adventures in the land of Linux andthey said it was an advantage in the field to have some experience with it.

P.S. I just noticed that on the last reboot that BIOS is disabling KVM

 

EDIT: I've enabled KVM, reboot into Arch enable Libvirtd check status, it's working, fire up VMM, no dice I'm receiving errors that Libvirtd isn't enabled and I've followed the ArchWiki to the letter 

7

sudo systemctl enable libvirtd

sudo systemctl start libvirtd

solved

8

@Zoltan, cheers mate will give it a shot tomorrow morning as it's now 1 am here

9

Unfortunately it is "moving", not "moved".

10

Depends on who you ask, really. I haven't had Windows installed for half a year and I didn't need it once for gaming.

Although I see the need to use Windows if you like playing RIGHT NOW whatever is hip nowadays.

If the game is any good it will be supported in a reasonable amount of time by Wine. And by then the prices will have dropped too, most of the games are too expensive anyway (in my opinion, of course).

11

Wish you luck, let us know how it works out for ya.

12

Hmmmmm, I received this in Guake:

no servers found in /etc/resolv.conf, will retry.

Yet in Terminal I receive:

● libvirtd.service - Virtualization daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/libvirtd.service; enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Tue 2014-05-20 15:35:07 EST; 12min ago
     Docs: man:libvirtd(8)
           http://libvirt.org
 Main PID: 1682 (libvirtd)
   CGroup: /system.slice/libvirtd.service
           ├─1682 /usr/bin/libvirtd -p /var/run/libvirtd.pid
           └─1726 /sbin/dnsmasq --conf-file=/var/lib/libvirt/dnsmasq/default....
 
May 20 15:35:09 locutus dnsmasq[1726]: compile time options: IPv6 GNU-getop...EC
May 20 15:35:09 locutus dnsmasq-dhcp[1726]: DHCP, IP range 192.168.122.2 -- ...h
May 20 15:35:09 locutus dnsmasq-dhcp[1726]: DHCP, sockets bound exclusively ...0
May 20 15:35:09 locutus dnsmasq[1726]: reading /etc/resolv.conf
May 20 15:35:09 locutus dnsmasq[1726]: using nameserver 209.222.18.222#53
May 20 15:35:09 locutus dnsmasq[1726]: using nameserver 209.222.18.218#53
May 20 15:35:09 locutus dnsmasq[1726]: using nameserver 192.168.0.1#53
May 20 15:35:09 locutus dnsmasq[1726]: read /etc/hosts - 2 addresses
May 20 15:35:09 locutus dnsmasq[1726]: read /var/lib/libvirt/dnsmasq/defaul...es
May 20 15:35:09 locutus dnsmasq-dhcp[1726]: read /var/lib/libvirt/dnsmasq/de...e
Hint: Some lines were ellipsized, use -l to show in full
 
 
 
When I try to start VMM
 
Unable to connect to libvirt.
 
unable to connect to server at 'locutus:16509': Connection refused
 
Verify that the 'libvirtd' daemon is running
on the remote host.
 
Libvirt URI is: qemu+tcp://p5ych00n5@locutus/system
 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/virt-manager/virtManager/connection.py", line 1020, in openthread
    self.backend.open(self.do_creds_password)
  File "/usr/share/virt-manager/virtinst/connection.py", line 158, in open
    open_flags)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/libvirt.py", line 105, in openAuth
    if ret is None:raise libvirtError('virConnectOpenAuth() failed')
libvirtError: unable to connect to server at 'locutus:16509': Connection refused
 
I ran Zoltans directiions and received identical results, I'm obviously missing something I just don't know what any help is much appreciated
 
 
13

Yes you can move to Linux for gaming but currently, The range of games you can play and said quality of those games are so poor at the moment (Not saying it wont get better) that your better off buying a console. With microsofts heasitent moves to support the linux community along side nvidia I would say but will be a good option in the near future. I just hope that both are strong options for atleast for some time untill one becomes the be all and end all of OS's. I personally dont want to have to continue running 2 OS's in dual boot and switch between them for different programs and games. If there was more of a push for vurtualization then I would be happy.

14

I personally run periodic incremental backups to be sure that I can quickly recover from those kinds of issues, because in windows they are a fact of life. 

This is actually what I dislike about windows the most.

15

[..] The range of games you can play and said quality of those games are so poor at the moment [..]

Are you serious?

I think we have a different opinion about what is a "poor" game, because all my favorite Windows games, dating as far back as 1996 and as new as Dishonored, work perfectly fine in Wine.

And linux native games are great, The Dark Mod being my favorite.

 

16

+1

Graphics quality aside, the best iterations of many popular games were the older ones, especially those from the 90's: games were more challenging and offered a lot more hours of entertainment.

Many of these games simply don't work on post-Vista Windows versions any more, because Windows - even though it's still basically the same early 90's OS/2 and has hardly technically evolved - is deliberately fragmented to pieces, so that a lot of compatibility with hardware and software is broken every two to five years, to keep people spending on "new" software that is anything but new, and to keep raising the impression that the software is evolving beyond the design of the GUI desktop... which is not really the case though.

Linux + wine doesn't do that. You can simply continue to play those great early Need for Speed games, those early twitch shooters, etc...

17

If Riot Made a League of Legends port to Linux I would definitely move since it was the only game I played a lot of and Borderlands 2. Still the games are not there for me yet still I may move to it again in a few years and Wine was a pain in the arse for me and went 'I'm moving back to Windows and Playing games' 

18

Probably VT-x is not working on your system. Did you enable VT-x/AMD-V extensions in your BIOS and is your CPU VT-x (or AMD-V) capable?

Oh and on some Asus boards, you have to use beta BIOS to get correct rendition in BIOS of what's "on" and "off" in terms of virtualization extensions. It's just one of these inexplicable Asus trolls, that on the official BIOS, if it shows "off" it's actually "on" and when it says "on" it's actually "off".

19

use windows 7 if your going to dual boot. trust me, windows 8.1 is just annoying sometimes. hell even bill gates called windows 8 terrible 

20

Thanks heaps for all the suggestions guys

I've finally got Wine playing nice plus I've managed to get Openview client good to go as well, so with those last two checkmarks Windows is now off mah rig