A home for Science, Technology, and Slackware.
Posted on Mar 04, 2024 by kingbeowulf
A while ago, I had started beating on the ROCm build system to try to get a "simple" set of packages for those of us that only need basic OpenCL runtime support on Slackware64. AMD's ROCm includes that but also includes various tools to build HIP and OpenCL GPU compute programs. My prior efforts were the legacy OpenCL binary Ubuntu packages which wasn't very stable due to being compiled on Ubuntu. I had to take a pause due to a few health issues and only recently started looking into this again.
Posted on Nov 28, 2023 by kingbeowulf
I ran across an article in Ars Technica [1] about nifty project DOS_Deck [2] - a cross platform implementation of old DOS in a web browser. DOS_Deck simplifies the process of getting an old DOS game running. No more fiddling; just click and play.
Personally, I've always enjoyed the hours tweaking my old MSDOS configurations, and later, DOSBox on Linux, to get my games running. Although, I do recognize that some may feel that is an exercise in frustration.
They plan to add more examples from the vintage era of gaming.
Posted on Aug 20, 2023 by kingbeowulf
Now that Apple has moved on to their own "Apple silicon", all Intel CPU based Mac computers are on live support - and Apple ready to pull the plug. No more MacOS updates of any kind, even for recent models, as has already happened for the older Mac models. Recall that this is the same process as when Apple transitioned from PowerPC to Intel CPUs.
Granted, Apple does tend to support their hardware a bit longer than the Windows PC crowd, but it is still a shame to have to toss still perfectly good hardware. This post will describe how to breathe new life into a vintage 2007 iMac.
Posted on Jul 19, 2023 by kingbeowulf
Given the size and weight of discreet GPU cards the past few years, GPU support brackets have become popular to prevent sag (tower cases with GPU mounted side-ways) and thus potential damage to the GPU and motherboard. Most current motherboards, say last 5 years os so, feature at least one reinforced PCI-express x16 slot for these heftier cards. GPU manufacturers also have balanced the card and trimmed the weight a bit as well. However, we often see recommendations to add a GPU support bracket to your new or existing build. Is this support required?
Generally, no. If you do see significant GPU sag, first check the end bracket connection and make sure the card is fully seated in the slot. Some larger cards can be a bit difficult to get snapped in correctly in a tight space.
Case in point: XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC Ultra III
This is a massive card, heavy, and dwarfed my prior 900- and 1000-series Nvidia GPUs. It was a very tight fit in my large full tower Antec P100 case and seemed to wobble a bit. So I used a twist tie to provide a bit of lift.
Posted on Jun 18, 2023 by kingbeowulf
After a recent purchase a few months ago of a MSI Mech Radeon RX 6650 XT ($280 US, newegg.com, now $250), I noticed a peculiar behavior whenever the monitor powered down: The admgpu/drm crashed. The system had to be shutdown and power cycled to restore GPU function. Same issue on both motherboards:
Gigabyte X570 AORUS ELITE AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
Kernel 5.15.94 Mesa-22.2.5 libdrm-2.4.115
Gigabyte 27-in 2560x1440 170 Hz IPS
Gigabyte X570 I AORUS PRO WIFI AMD Ryzen 7 3800X
Kernel 5.15.94 Mesa-21.3.5 libdrm-2.4.109
Samsung 28-in 4K 60 Hz IPS
An example or the errors in /var/log/syslog:
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