Thank you for the detailed response. It will be good to have this information available if the need ever arises to necessitate updating the firmware for a more critical issue or feature. That said, I think I will accept the cautions and hold off on taking this action for now.

I don’t “need” to really…just noticed that there is a newer version with added functionality and was curious about the process since I had never done it before. I have been using basic keyboards like membrane and chichlet styles but I have been interested in getting a mechanical model for a long time. Finally decided to go for it after having to reset my 13 year old MS curve for the 3rd time this week in order to log into my computer.

So this also purges one more element of the despicable microslop ecosystem from my life and gives me what is shaping up to be a better typing experience as well. Based on the feedback, it looks like I should just hold off on making any changes until something more groundbreaking or critical needs to be done to my keeb.

You bring up another important positive for the instant pot: when I wash the rice, I tend to scrub hand-fulls between my fingers under running water and swirl it around as the bowl fills. Since the inner pot is stainless steel, I am not worried about damaging a non-stick coating like you tend to see on other rice cookers. Additionally, once the cooking cycle is complete, I have learned that letting the pressure drop over a period of about 10 mins before venting helps release the rice from the bottom of the inner bowl so sticking isn’t really a problem and I never get any burnt rice either.

The one thing I am not sure about is how well the rice would keep if it is left on warm all day like you describe for households that make a large batch for multiple meals. I typically make just enough for the meal at hand and some leftovers for fried rice later so I suppose the instant pot serves it purpose well but it may not be the solution for everyone.

This is really interesting regarding the extra water and I suppose it makes sense with the more basic models that have a vent hole. I have been using an Instant Pot for a bunch of years now and have a custom pressure cooking setting that gives me fluffy and perfect brown rice using water at a 1:1 ratio. I believe the cook time must be slightly longer than the white rice setting(default button). 21 mins and about 10 mins to cooldown before venting gets perfect results 100% of the time.
I have been tempted to invest in a more traditional cooker like a Zojirushi thanks in large part to “Uncle Roger” but paid $45 for the Instant Pot and I don’t really use it for anything else.

Slight correction may be in order here…the target of your ire should probably be the conservative fundamentalists (aka Y’all-Qaeda) in the US; the Satanic Temple folks are generally atheists and seem pretty chill to an outsider like me.

The title of this post caught my attention since I was wondering if I was missing something…I have a learned distrust of sleep mode due to peripherals occasionally not wanting to “wake up”, resulting in me having to reboot the device anyways. Granted, I haven’t been using Linux for very long so most of my computing experience is with MicroSlop OS machines; but after using them for 30+ years I have never heard a good argument for not shutting down if it isn’t a critical system like a server. It should also be noted that I have lived in places were AC mains power being on 24/7 wasn’t always a sure thing, so that probably plays a role in my thinking as well. Is there anything other than anecdotal evidence that suggests full power cycles are truly harmful and/or reduce service life? Truly curious now since I have no desire to buy new parts anytime soon given the current price hikes and availability issues.

Just as an update to this, I noticed that there was a new version of gnome control center (49.4-2.fc43) in the latest update push for Fedora so I took a chance and did the upgrade hoping it would include a fix to this issue. Based on initial testing on my two machines at home which were affected and needed to be downgraded to 49.1-1.fc43, it looks like this new version resolves the line-out audio problem. Thanks again for your efforts to raise awareness of this and your suggested workaround.

I checked it last night and it looks like Lutris switched the game to Proton-GE in the runner options so I am guessing that requires a bit more time to spool up in the background. Switched it back to a version of Wine and it was back to loading immediately. I am all for updates that fix things or add features but it is a bit annoying when settings get changed like that and it sets off the need to troubleshoot to figure out what happened. That said, I am trying to get my wife’s Win11 machine working like it did under Win10 and I hate every minute of it and will take these kinds of things as the price of FOSS.

Of course I read your response in more detail as I am posting my own inquiry about this. I will take a look at the Lutris game-config settings and see what they are now. I wish I knew for sure what it was configured as prior to this update. Could you please elaborate on what you had to change from and what you changed it back to? Cheers.

I have only been running one of my GOG.com games via Lutris and it has been working like a charm till this weekend. I was initially concerned/confused when I clicked to launch that game from the link on my dock and it just didn’t do anything. Eventually, the game loaded and seemed OK with no data loss but I was still rather confused about what had changed (I regularly update my Fedora 43 Workstation system, daily or every other day). Can anyone elaborate on the recent changes to how Lutris handles games? I was running Disco Elysium via Wine (I think) and while I can accept the 10-15 second delay in the game startup now that I know something is going on in the background, I would like to have a better understanding of what, if anything, I could change to restore the former configuration.

NieR: Automata. This game was definitely not something that I would normally pick up but it kept showing up on “must-play” lists so I figured I would give it a shot when it was marked down like 70%. The initial impression from the intro/tutorial was pretty underwhelming due in large part to the confusing change in gameplay from top down shooter to side-view to normal 3rd person but once I got through that I found the setting and presentation of the game really compelling. I was even reading about the lead developer and searching for other projects to potentially pick up once I finished this one. That lasted for about 10 hours or so…spoiler ahead but I figured out how to hide the text if you haven’t played this and are considering it.

Obviously this is a bit of an unpopular opinion based on the super high scores it gets and others stuck it out for multiple replays to see the “good” endings but I just couldn’t convince myself to even finish it the first time. YMMV.

I eat a lot of blueberries and purchase them year round and I definitely have experienced exactly what you are referring to with BBs from Peru. They tend to be larger and look good in the package but have almost zero taste and the texture tends to be soft. The ones from Chile aren’t much better so I suppose the logistics in getting them all the way to grocery stores in the US means they get picked early and have a fair bit of time in transit to dry out and soften up. I am always really happy to see containers that indicate the blueberries are picked in Canada or Michigan since those seem to have the best taste and texture. Unfortunately it will be a little while before that harvest is ready and if you ever have a chance, definitely try and locate an orchard in your area and pick them yourself; if you like blueberries even a little bit, that experience is worth the drive.

I was thinking the same thing about Fedora since I have installed it on two purpose built gaming PCs using new or last gen hardware and a very old Dell Inspiron laptop and the experience has been very good outside of a couple minor issues like installing the WiFi driver on the Dell.

One of the best things I have found with Linux is the live-disk distro testing option since you can test how much you like the interface and execution of each OS+DE and how well they behave with your hardware situation without having to reformat anything first. Personally, since my goal was to move as far from the windows experience as possible, I opted for Fedora Workstation since I also tested the KDE version and I just didn’t like it at all. GNOME seems to have its detractors (and for valid reasons) but after using Apple computers and Ubuntu a long time ago, I just preferred the intuitive layout and clean desktop experience. Using Windows11 at work is horrendous and I look forward to being back on my own machine every evening.

Another thing to consider is X11 vs Wayland since that ended up being what made me give up on Mint when my new hardware refused to run without persistent and horrendous screen tearing in 3D games. X11 just didn’t work for me and everything I tried to tweak was either not helpful or would leave me in an un-bootable condition that required recovery via rollbacks or terminal commands using the live-USB.

Did I mention that I also got my kid on the Linux train? He is using Fedora Workstation and loves it compared to his old Win10 laptop and the POS Chromebook the school district gave him. In any case, as a Microsoft refugee I think Linux is a wonderful and viable alternative and while there may be some bumps along the way, the community is very helpful and you can often find solutions or you can just ask.

Hey I tested the downgrade script and it fixed my issue just like you suggested. But of course now my OS wants to update the files back to the version I rolled back from. It doesn’t seem to be a forced update and I updated and upgraded everything before I tried this but I was wondering if the issue will immediately return once I allow the system to go back to version 49.4-1.fc43.

Doesn’t look like there is any way to skip those file updates so I suppose I just need to do the downgrade again if the sound problem returns? Hoping the next revision of gnome-control-center resolves it.

Thank you again for your efforts and information sharing. This is what I love about the Linux community and it is making the transition from commercial slop-ware so much easier.

Thank you for working through this and sharing your findings. I will try this out tonight.

I am seeing the exact same issue on a PC I just put together and loaded Fedora 43 Workstation on. If I hook the 3.5mm jack for the speakers (older Creative Pebbles) to the green port on the back panel it shows up just like OP’s when I try to test; however, if I plug the jack into the headphones port on the case (which is connected to the motherboard audio pins) it detects and works properly. I was also seeing some Dummy Output options with the line out connection in use, and not knowing what it meant, I selected one and this kicked me back to the login screen and gave me an unhelpful kernel alert.

In contrast, the speakers on my other PC, which is also running Fedora 43 Workstation, works fine off of the back panel. Both motherboards are using Realtek audio chips but it may not be the same version since one board is a B650 and one is a B550.

Curious to see what the solution ends up being but I also recently installed pavucontrol on the newer PC so I will try and set the speakers up using the line-out that way. If that doesn’t work I will migrate to bluetooth speakers or just leave things as is.

Good call. I think this post has definitely been worth the effort since you guys are giving me some ideas I wouldn’t have thought of otherwise. Thank you!

That is really interesting and I wouldn’t have considered doing that since I already replaced both of them with a fresh set. I guess only concern with the long term benefit of going down to a single stick would be giving up 16GB of RAM (since this is a 32 GB kit) and then I might get higher speed but I would also get lower bandwidth overall since I lose the dual channel benefit. Weighing that option vs running the dual mode with 32GB at a slightly lower speed makes for an interesting conundrum. I will test this option if I can’t get stable and error free performance from adjusting the SOC setting down. Thank you again.

Thanks for the feedback. I haven’t tried pulling one stick but I did replace them both so I figured that eliminated them from suspicion. I also tried manually adjusting all of the primary timings and the speed to see if the XMP defaults were just being applied wrong. I think the voltage settings are my most likely culprit in this case so at least I have another thing I can try which doesn’t involve a complete tear down and waiting another week for yet another part to get to me.

Thanks Shadow. I had never considered something like this and all of the other suggested fixes I found via forum posts pointed to the physical hardware being the most likely causes. I will try and manually set the SOC voltage tonight to a fixed value (since I am 100% it is set to Auto) and do some more testing.

Just out of curiosity, what voltage ended up working for your setup? From what I am reading in the linked post and a post which is linked within it, I could go lower (0.9200-0.9600; leaning towards 0.925 VDC) or higher to something like 1.1VDC, but one comment mentioned higher voltage can actually increase instability…ugh. Anyways, thank you for the reply and suggestion!