summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/.md/tutorials
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to '.md/tutorials')
-rw-r--r--.md/tutorials/hardware/.description1
-rw-r--r--.md/tutorials/hardware/common-gfx-card-installation-woes.md117
-rw-r--r--.md/tutorials/www/how-to-use-the-internet.md78
3 files changed, 196 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.md/tutorials/hardware/.description b/.md/tutorials/hardware/.description
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..94cba0e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.md/tutorials/hardware/.description
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Tips and tricks related to hardware
diff --git a/.md/tutorials/hardware/common-gfx-card-installation-woes.md b/.md/tutorials/hardware/common-gfx-card-installation-woes.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f551896
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.md/tutorials/hardware/common-gfx-card-installation-woes.md
@@ -0,0 +1,117 @@
+I recently upgraded by PC from an Nvidia 1050 Ti card to a new 3060 Ti
+card. I've been updating the drivers for this card since before there
+was a Debian package, so I've been through the installation quite a few
+times and run into my share of weird issues. This last upgrade was no
+exception, so I figured I'd document the process in case anyone out
+there is as bad at installing these as me!
+
+## Step 1: The Replacement
+
+The best part of installing a new graphics card is getting to open up
+the guts of your computer (it's also the scariest part, since this is
+also the best opportunity to knock out a hard drive or a RAM stick).
+Fortunately this is pretty easy, first make sure you hit the little lever
+(switch?) on the PCI slot to pop out the old card. Then just slide the
+new guy in. Note though to people getting a card from the RTX 30 line
+(or higher) -- these cards run pretty big, so make sure you have enough
+space in you case. You can see I barely made it myself!
+
+A second note to RTX users: most if not all these cards come with an
+extra power supply input (two 8-pin connectors). If your power supply is
+short on outputs, you can get a splitter cable like the one you see in
+the picture to match the inputs. I personally am running a 600 W supply
+for everything right now, which seems to be running fine. You should
+check some other power guides though if you're concerned your power
+supply won't drive the card
+
+## Step 2: Re-installing the drivers
+
+At first I tried to just naively update and see what happened, but I
+received a "broken packages" error for nvidia-driver and other related
+packages after running this.
+
+```bash
+$ sudo apt update
+$ sudo apt upgrade
+```
+
+This turned out to be a two-part error, one was the driver itself, two
+was an update in Debian sid.
+
+### Part one: Fix Broken Packages
+
+Whenever I see broken packages, I tend to to assume that the name of a
+package got updated. In this case, there was a
+[note](https://www.debian.org/releases/bookworm/amd64/release-notes/ch-information.en.html#non-free-split)
+on the apt list changes that mentioned a separate "non-free-firmware"
+branch had been made, which had some of the components I needed. I
+just added "non-free-firmware" to my /etc/apt/sources.list:
+
+```
+deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ sid main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
+```
+
+Note: you may not need "non-free" here anymore, I simply had that since
+that was where the package used to be.
+
+### Part two: Re-install nvidia-driver
+
+I tried to update again at this point, but encountered the same error.
+At this point I figured the best thing to do was to just try to
+reinstall all nvidia related software again:
+
+```bash
+$ sudo apt purge nvidia-*
+$ sudo apt update
+$ sudo apt upgrade
+```
+
+Ok no errors on the update this time, let's try again:
+
+```bash
+$ sudo apt install nvidia-driver
+```
+
+### Part negative three: Just in case
+
+In the dark days before the Debian team had an Nvidia package, you had
+to install drivers manually. I haven't had to do this in years, but I
+like having the option. You can download the latest drivers on their
+website:
+
+https://developer.nvidia.com/vulkan-driver
+
+The file will have a really long name like
+"NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-525.89.02.run," so I suggest renaming it first to
+something like "driver.run"
+
+In order to run this file, you need to stop your graphics environment.
+Press CTRL + ALT + F1 to log out and open a terminal-only session.
+Login with your credentials. Then stop the X-server
+
+```bash
+$ sudo service lightdm stop
+```
+
+If you use a different X manager you might need to replace "lightdm"
+with "gdm" or "kdm" (Gnome and KDE). Now we can run the driver install:
+
+```bash
+$ sudo chmod +x driver.run
+$ sudo ./driver.run
+```
+
+Accept all the prompts and you'll have the factory made driver software.
+Note, you have to manually update this way though. So try to figure out
+the nvidia-driver package before resorting to this method!
+
+## Step three: Reboot and test
+
+Reboot and then check the Nvidia X server setting panel
+(nvidia-settings) to make sure your card is detected correctly
+
+
+But the ultimate test right now is Kerbal Space Program 2 (still in
+early access)
+
+
diff --git a/.md/tutorials/www/how-to-use-the-internet.md b/.md/tutorials/www/how-to-use-the-internet.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..925f367
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.md/tutorials/www/how-to-use-the-internet.md
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+## Why?
+
+Changing times and a forgetful youth have forced me to write this guide.
+
+I am increasingly disturbed by the amount of people I meet (young and
+old) that navigate their lives at least in part online, but are unable
+to use the internet for it's intended purpose: finding infomation.
+Writing to someone or posting a picture of your cat seems to be second
+nature for most people, but converting a picture from a PDF or looking
+up a study (or even a word!) you saw in an article is something else
+entirely.
+
+For the most part, it is not anyone's fault or laziness. It's
+the fault of what the internet *has become*. For one, there's just so
+much more *stuff* now; it's hard to know exactly where to start and who
+to trust. And so much of that stuff is now *garbage*, either in the way
+it's presented--with disruptive ads that don't close correctly--or in
+the way it's written--vague, misleading, or straight incorrect. But for
+seconds: no one really teaches you how to use this thing do they? There
+are no courses on "How to use a search engine" or "How to find good
+posts on a forum," yet these are the kinds of skills you really need if
+you want to navigate the modern world without getting constantly
+distracted, misled, or totally lost.
+
+There are of course, countless guides on "netiquette" geared towards
+every possible internet subculture you can find. While many of them have
+influenced this document and give many helpful tips on writing good
+informative posts, none of them really go over what I think is
+most important: what to do with the information you're reading.
+
+This will probably be an evolving document as new services and websites
+become available (or go down), but much of this material in the
+beginning should be pretty generally applicable no matter what services
+are available.
+
+## How to use a web browser
+
+## How to use a search engine
+
+As for which search engine to use: you should use all of them, until you
+get the results you need. In my experience, none of the major search
+engines are particularly good and I get inconsistent searches on all of
+them depending on what I'm searching. There is much preaching these days
+about privacy concerns, but to be honest I don't believe any service is
+more "private" than another. These are all privacy nightmares, your best
+bet is to just search often and as varied as you can.
+
+## How to read and find scholarly articles
+
+### How to use Wikipedia
+
+A common complaint lodged at me whenever I recommend Wikipedia is that
+it's not a source of truth since they found X mistake somewhere, or made
+Y edit when they were a teenager that's still there. No one has ever (or
+should ever) claim Wikipedia is reliable. Frankly, you should not
+consider *any* source to be reliable, but that's a separate issue. If
+you know how to use Wikipedia you can use it to get closer to a true
+understanding of whatever you're studying.
+
+For starters, as a general rule, you should not trust anything you read
+on a topic that is less than 20 years old. We're still living through
+the history at this point and new things can come to light.
+
+### How to find articles with Google Scholar
+
+## Advanced Topics
+
+### How to use tor to browse anonymously
+
+Many in the advertising world will boast about using a VPN for
+anonymity, or using a VPN in conjuction with Tor to "increase privacy."
+This is simply a misunderstanding of terms. A VPN provides *privacy* of
+the user's connection since it provides encryption--only the VPN
+provider can "see" what is searched. The goal of Tor is *anonymity* not
+privacy. Anonymity means "no one knows who you are" not "no one knows
+what you're doing." Technically, traffic is encrypted between nodes of
+the Tor service, so some level of privacy is provided as well, but this
+is most effective when using hidden services, not using Tor in general.