20.04 GOG-Galaxy comments...

[Kris_M]

just for data backup i use Areca (in Linux and Windows).

for whole disk backup there is also Rescuezilla which uses parted. you can backup entire disk or portions. it's easy to browse iso images in any file browser.

Thanks.
I had a catastrophic last night and had to restore the entire SSD using a recovery program on a bootable USB stick. Can Areca do that?

I'll look at rescuezilla. edit - not ready for prime time yet but I'll keep it in mind.

[Kris_M]

cleaned things up a bit...

[Kris_M]

More on GOG Galaxy: I found that though it says it can't install something and throws an E2 error, it has indeed installed the app.
For example, If I go to
/home/kris/snap/gog-galaxy-wine/common/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/GOG Galaxy/Games/ArxFatalis , open a terminal and do
wine arx
it plays just fine.

[oldrocker99]

Bear in mind that Steam has over 3000 native Linux games, and, with Steam Play with Proton, over a thousand more Windows games are 100% playable.

Gaming in Linux used to be the main reason people stayed with Windows or dual-booted. Gaming in Linux 2020 is in the Totally Awesome range.

And, speaking of which, OpenMW is a far better game engine than the original Morrowind engine, and is HIGHLY recommended for Elder Scrolls fans who hate the scaling of monsters in Oblivion and Skyrim, and want to find out why a lot of Elder Scrolls gamers consider Morrowind to be the best.

[Kris_M]

Bear in mind that Steam has over 3000 native Linux games, and, with Steam Play with Proton, over a thousand more Windows games are 100% playable.

Gaming in Linux used to be the main reason people stayed with Windows or dual-booted. Gaming in Linux 2020 is in the Totally Awesome range.

And, speaking of which, OpenMW is a far better game engine than the original Morrowind engine, and is HIGHLY recommended for Elder Scrolls fans who hate the scaling of monsters in Oblivion and Skyrim, and want to find out why a lot of Elder Scrolls gamers consider Morrowind to be the best.

Thanks.

Not sure here but I think you are telling me to abandon GOG and go with steam?
MW engine? I think the Arx engine came from that - it certainly is a big advance from the Ultima UW engine in terms of resolution but I haven't learned how to whack, yet, so still am getting killed regularly at the goblin dinner table lv2 just after going up lv3 to lv2 portal. The whack controls don't seem intuitive.

[mastablasta]

More on GOG Galaxy: I found that though it says it can't install something and throws an E2 error, it has indeed installed the app.
For example, If I go to
/home/kris/snap/gog-galaxy-wine/common/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/GOG Galaxy/Games/ArxFatalis , open a terminal and do
wine arx
it plays just fine.

yup. just create shortcut/launcher to the game and you are done.

Thanks.
I had a catastrophic last night and had to restore the entire SSD using a recovery program on a bootable USB stick. Can Areca do that?

I'll look at rescuezilla. edit - not ready for prime time yet but I'll keep it in mind.

areca is good for incremental backups. in linux you need to backup your file and settings. you can also add a script to backup a list of programs for a possible OS reinstall. then if things go bad, reinstall takes about 20 minutes on my single core CPU and old HDD, then i restore applications, the settings, and i am done. the point is that you get the last version of the files and a bit older versions as well (just in case the last ones were corrupted.

once i had dead USB drive (i used it for serve OS) and i could restore only settings and keys. while for the rest i did a new install and was done and back in business in about 10 minutes. server is a much smaller image. so having regular backups is more important than images.

Thanks.

Not sure here but I think you are telling me to abandon GOG and go with steam?
MW engine? I think the Arx engine came from that - it certainly is a big advance from the Ultima UW engine in terms of resolution but I haven't learned how to whack, yet, so still am getting killed regularly at the goblin dinner table lv2 just after going up lv3 to lv2 portal. The whack controls don't seem intuitive.

GOG games can be installed on (added to) Steam using Proton.

as i remember you wait for it to go green, release, then quickly move backwards. i think in Ultima UW it is similar tactics. try to avoid goblins if you can or take one at a time. they are relatively strong for lev 1, 2 character. the fun part about Arx is that you can later kill all character and still finish the game but some are really tough. also avoid the poisonous spiders later on (at least until you aquire some antivenom). bah now you made me want to replace the game.

also a tip - make sure you put some points into archery. it is really good to be able to shoot at some bosses in the end.

[Kris_M]

Why do you think you need any of those?
There are several native tools that do exactly what Rufus does, and do it faster.
Sure, it's nice to have an intuitive GUI like Macrium has but really? There are better and FREE alternatives in Linux.

iyho which is the best linux replacement for Rufus that will do UEFI sticks? Thanks.

[CelticWarrior]

iyho which is the best linux replacement for Rufus that will do UEFI sticks? Thanks.

All of them!

Rufus, as a matter of fact, is the odd one out because by default it doesn't do a bit-by-bit copy of the image (it does with the DD method, available but not default). The Ubuntu ISOs have everything that's needed both for BIOS/MBR or UEFI/GPT booting therefore a perfect image copy produces an USB that boots anywhere. Rufus, by default, extracts the ISO and makes its own bootable media with different boot sectors for BIOS only (default) or UEFI only. It does the exact same every other tool does if the DD method is selected instead of the defaults, of course.

I use MKUSB most of the times because I like it but the standard tool included in any Ubuntu and derivatives works fine, it happens that I like the additional features MKUSB offers. Balena Etcher, a third-party multi-platform tool is also an excelent option with a very modern GUI simplified to the max: Select ISO - select destination - burn.

[Kris_M]

Okay, thanks. I'll give them a look.

[mastablasta]

Balena Etcher and Yumi (for multiboot)