[sf-lug] meeting notes from 9/7/25

[Ken Shaffer]

Robert, Ken, and Michael discussed some ways to run Windows programs --
either using wine or in a virtual machine.  I use kvm (qemu) these days,
after trying vmplayer (a few years), and virtbox (just to run it once).
Performance was pretty good since the native instruction set is used -- as
good as some of my older laptops.  Terminal setup is pretty trivial:
Create a virtual disk (myvirt.img) of 19GB size:
qemu-img create myvirt.img -f qcow2 19G
Install an ISO there:
kvm -m 4096 -cdrom /usr/local/vm/lucid/lucid-desktop.iso -boot d myvirt.img
Run the vm:
kvm -m 4096 myvirt.img
Or more realistically:
kvm -smp cores=4,threads=2 -cpu host -m 4096 -vga virtio -usb myvirt.img
Michael posted a general script for VM creation, which covers many more
possible situations.

I do use virt-manger to list/run my vms for the most part.

I use Rufus to create the Windows ISO, skipping the checks that prevent the
install from working on older machines.  That ISO actually worked on older
machines (Win 11 24h2) directly as well as in a VM.

wine is pretty good these days for running old Windows programs, but check
at winehq.org for reports of how a specific program runs.  All my Steam
windows games actually run on Ubuntu's steam beta client with the
Proton-experimental (wine) compatibility option enabled. Well, all except
the aircraft simulator, DCS World, which I never got running under Windows
either.  I discovered a whole maze of steam installs, with every missing
library actually present somewhere, so maybe a clean steam install will be
in my future.

I'm still trying to get my laptop with a broken screen to at least display
the login to the external monitor.  Seems like it works on another machine,
but not on the laptop with the broken screen. ;^(  Simply copying the
(properly set up in settings/display)  ~/.config/monitors.xml file to
~gdm/.config should be all it takes, but for some reason, looks like I have
another (blank) screen (to left of desired one) showing on the external
monitor (does have the cursor).  Typing the login sequence does get me in,
so it's just annoying at this point.

Ken



On Thu, Sep 11, 2025 at 10:52 AM Bobbie Sellers <
bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com> wrote:

> I left about 1220 because I was tired and hungry.
>
> I can add nothing to the brief summary by Aaron.
>
> But if you want a desktop that looks like the MacOS then
>
> you might try Emmasbuntu. It used to have a look-a-like
>
> desktop but I don't remembe on what it was based.
>
>     Good luck.
>
>     Bobbie
> On 9/11/25 07:53, aaronco36 at sdf.org wrote:
>
> I didn't see meeting notes from last sunday.  Did I miss them or were
> they never sent?
> Thanks
> John
> Sent from my iPad
>
>
> Hi John,
>
> As has unfortunately seemed to be fairly typical over at least the last
> year, again arrived at the online meeting a bit late, so missed the
> initial discussion :-\ .
>
> Robert, Ken S., Michael P., and maybe another person were already online
> and discussing things -- don't recall what they were.
>
> Ken?
>
> Bobbie S. joined up later and presented this....
> Quoting Bobbie :
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Subject:         [Linux Magazine Preview] Issue 299 / October 2025
> Date:         Fri, 5 Sep 2025 17:00:21 +0000
> From:         Linux Magazine Preview <info at linux-magazine.com> <info at linux-magazine.com>
> Reply-To:         Linux Magazine Preview <info at linux-magazine.com> <info at linux-magazine.com>
> To:         bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com
>
> View in browser
> (https://mailchi.mp/linux-magazine.com/linux-magazine-preview-issue-299-october-2025?e=b51ecaac22)
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> Perhaps Bobbie could better fill us in on other discussion that didn't
> take notes on?
>
> Own project was to "mimic the native MacOS X 11.6 El Capitan installed on
> an old Apple MacBook Air laptop for an amd64-based Dell laptop" as perhttp://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/sf-lug/2025q3/016146.html
> Between Pop!_OS with its COSMIC desktop vs. elementary OS with its
> Pantheon desktop, was much more impressed with the MacOS X look-and-feel
> of elementary OS.  Seems too that elementary OS with its base of Ubuntu
> 24.04.3 LTS (Noble Numbat) is more recent than Pop!_OS with its base of
> Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish).
> Current mini-project follow-thru is to attempt as much as possible to
> mimic MacOS X's look-and-feel using the XFCE desktop on various
> non-Ubuntu-based distros.
>
>
> Hope that helps.
>
> -Aaron
> --
>
>
>
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