Subj : Bluetooth To Ethernet To : Ky Moffet From : Barry Martin Date : Wed Apr 29 2026 08:14:00 Hi Ky! > KM> When I get a 4K monitor, first thing is to set scaling at 200%, > KM> so the tiny stuff will be the same size it was on 1920x1080. > KM> Where it is already scaled up because it's already tiny! > I'll have to check that out some time (too many need-to-do-now-or- > shortly) projects). Last time I fiddled everything was too big, but > then I was using a 1920x1080 monitor, so probably video card sending out > 1920x1080 and the increased scaling was hitting the max. KM> No, no, no. Scaling is when you change the size of displayed KM> elements, not the display resolution. So instead of suffering KM> with tiny print, change the scaling so you have large enough KM> print. And current Gnome can scale just the text. (Not sure when KM> that was added, but recently) Right: I think I have the concept, just phrased it wrong. Should come out something like if configure the computer's video card outputting to a 4K monitor and use 100% scaling then the text wil be tiny. (Man is it!!) Use 200% scaling and it should double the height. > KM> I've seen cases where 60Hz was clearer than 75Hz (which was > KM> faintly grainy). Is the cheap no-name KVM in that loop to blame? > KM> Dunno. > I could guess if the switch was maxed at 60 Hz then 75 Hz could do > something to the signal like flat-topping. KM> Yeah. So check if the individual PC is asking for 75Hz or KM> whatever the KVM can't do. Yes, I'll have to do a lot of spec-checking. 'Cause I'm frugal I will use older video cards, especially almost-antique ones in something designed to be essentially headless. KM> 30Hz at 4K is probably 60Hz at the next lower resolution. Probably. Running at 4K the circuit is operating at its maximum and so cut the oscillation to keep from killing it. Something. > > > then back as I came across two pictures, one rainbowed and screened. KM> he > > > other clear. ...Doesn't explain the source-switching.) > > KM> Gremlins. > > Don't feed after midnight -- but which time zone?! > KM> ALL OF THEM! > They're going to be really hungry! KM> Hunt over bait. Fisherman after bad day of fishing: "Anyone hungry for spaghetti?!" > (FWIW the KVM switch has been behaving, or at least as far as I know: no > random switching while I've been in here the past several days.) KM> So it's probably a something-you-did, not a something-failing. Probably! I'm the worst random factor! KM> Are you sure all the cables are tight in the ports? bump a loose KM> one, and... Pretty sure on the cables. What I will do on the re-install is unplug all the cables -- I don't think there is a need to re-route them but will consider that mechanical step at the time: might keep other cables from tangling. I guess then check one-by-one: monitor attached, video card, etc. > KM> I hear all these people yammering about how X is so great and > KM> Wayland is halfbaked junk, and I know NONE of them remember X at > KM> the same age... it was buggy, slow, awful in every way. I do > KM> remember, mainly because X was so much better than its parent > KM> XFree86, and that wasn't saying much. > Humans tend to remember the real good stuff or the real bad stuff -- > which is also why I tend to ignore the super-glowing reviews or the > absolute horrible ones. Tons of bad: take warning! KM> Yep. Start with the one-star reviews, every time. And as I mentioned some time before, make sure the review is about the device in question. Seems a lot of times reviews sometimes get lumped together so I'm interested in buying a coffee maker but the review is about a toaster. Also some of the long reviews are worth scanning through: insert this end of the cable first -- manual is vague. This product is great but for $5 more could have had x-feature. > Anyway, back to X11 and Wayland. Around here I'm going with Wayland > where I can. Why? Admittedly I'm following the leader: the Ubuntu, > Raspberyy Pi people, etc., have determined it's the way to go. Are they > right? I have no idea other than they have a lot more knowledge in this > stuff than I ever will so I'll coattail on their learnings. KM> The WHY became obvious to me after watching one of the devs (of KM> BOTH X and Wayland) talk about why X sucks and had become a KM> development dead end incapable of dealing with newer tech. And I KM> was like.... THAT is why linux was so freakin' SLOW on older KM> hardware. That too. LIS, I think part of the push-back is Wayland is a new way of doing what X11 does, but much better. The problem is Wayland and X11 didn't (at least originally) play well so essentially was one or the other. I have applications here which require X11. I also know those applications will eventually have to be updated. KM> Also, X is inherently insecure; everything it handles can be KM> intercepted. That too. KM> Applications need to be recompiled for Wayland, and some can't or KM> won't. Right, like I mentioned a couple of paragraphs up. Kaffeine -- TV and A/V utility -- is (IMO) a nice simple utility. Only runs on X11; I've read some time back there have been attempts to update it to run under Wayland. So far nope. So the only way to keep Kaffeine alive is either use old OS (which can be a problem on it's own) or Wayland has some sort of add-on to emulate X11. In the meantime I've played around with TVHeadend -- not as easy to set up and not nearly as pretty to operate. KM> And X's features need to be reimplemented on Wayland, and it's KM> not yet 100% (and there may be shims that simply don't KM> translate). Right. I'm thinking like WINE -- some stuff works great, some mostly, the one I want doesn't at all. KM> A few have warranted concerns because their workflow depends on KM> some X feature not yet in Wayland, but most of the screeching KM> comes from the same people for whom being anti-systemd is a KM> religious choice, not a technical choice. And now being KM> anti-Wayland is a religious choice, not a technical choice. Yeah, KM> in its early days, Wayland sucked. X at that age sucked way KM> worse. New stuff usually does. The bugs need to be worked out. Where's the tagline about avoiding versions ending in point-zero?! > I think part of the big whinings of Wayland is it isn't backwards > compatible with X11 (as I understand it some updates have made some > compatibility). KM> There exists a bridge, XWayland. I may have to try Kaffeine with XWayland. ...That's a low-level project right now. KM> ...I've run into the lack of compatibility: Kaffeine > (older TV/audio/video utility) doesn't work with Wayland, so I run it on > older versions on Raspberry Pi's. TVHeadend - one of the current > utilities -- does run great on Wayland. The author of Kaffeine quit > updating and support years before I started using so it's not going to > be coverted. KM> https://apps.kde.org/kaffeine/ KM> Yep. The problem is Kaffeine was abandoned in 2019, and unless KM> someone steps up to maintain it and do the fixes to adapt it to KM> Wayland, there it sits. KM> Interest shifted over to "modern" apps, so a lot of these KM> more-practical older apps withered away. For what I needed at the time Kaffeine was pretty much perfect. Even when I statred using it Kaffeine had been abandoned for a number of years. At the time I had played a bit with TVHeadend and it was colplicated -- Keffeine may have given me some training o I could figure out TVH. > > ..Doesn't really explain why all of a sudden it will chirp/switch > > channels, other than a Gremlin got fed at the wrong time. > KM> Hmm. Are you sure they didn't get the key to the snack cabinet? > There's a key? KM> I hope not! Midnight!!! KM> One of the problems I had to work out when writing about my KM> nonhumans, who have varying degrees of "mental powers" (usually KM> telepathy, at the high end some variable degree of telekinesis) KM> is ... how do you handle security when someone can just reach KM> into a lock and trigger it open? Well at least it keeps those pesky humans out! KM> A: as part of the lock mechanism, counterweights that are heavier KM> than most can "lift". They're developing an app for that! > > > My KVM Switch specs states it supports EDID. > > KM> Sufficiently newfangled, then. > > Seems so. So the problem might be the computers. Don't think the > > monitor as I have had probably four different ones connected --> not a > > problem with the monitors, just stuff like the monitor could work better > > in another location. > KM> Well, if all else fails maybe they have tech support.... > They do, they were somewhat helpful but it sort of fizzled because the > whole thing would work for a while (like I said up there somewhere it > has been behaving for probably a week if not two weeks). KM> Next time.... LIS the problem had been it will play nice for a while (random) and the start up "on it's own". AFAIK nothing changed, not even touching potentially loose cables. ...Would be 'funny' if was a RF issue and all I needed was to put a foil cap over unused feeds! > > Get caught up (ha!) I'll have to play with the KVM switch again: right > > now I don't know which cable is connected and which is not. Good news: > KM> LOL, I look at the rat's nest behind the PCs and I'm afraid to > KM> touch it. Why are there six network cables back there? Which ones > KM> are connected? Where is there a USB cable laced through my chair > KM> seat? What does it belong to? What do these four wall warts > KM> power? > Yup! Years ago I gingerly removed the wires and cables between the desk > and the wall. Knew a few were disconnected (like a VGA cable!), just > intertwined so couldn't just simply pull them out. KM> How do they manage that? Even if you cable-tie them, they get KM> tangled up. Gingerly!! > > > KM> I've never seen that, and my 27" from 2013 has been plugged nt > > > KM> some very old (as in 16bit) video cards. Of course that card > > > KM> outputs 320x200 resolution, but the monitor doesn't care. > > > As long as the monitor goes down that far! > > KM> It will just display things huge, and a bit stretched side to > > KM> side. > > So who needs reading glasses!! > KM> DOS has its virtues. > I'm glad to have started with DOS (2.11): using the command line trained > me to think out to get the desired action as opposed to simply clicking > a small cartoon. Admittedly clicking the cartoon is easier than all > that typing: I've got a cartoon I click on to remotely reset a device on > another computer. (I haven't figured out what the real problem is yet.) KM> LOL. We live in a cartoon, now we know for sure. Which for some reaons reminded me of the cartoon panel of a scientist peering through a microscope to amobae and the amobae peering up through their telescope to the scientist. > > KM> That would be my little Craftsman riding mower... if you disable > > KM> the governor, those things will do 60mph!! > > The Craftsman stuff used to be built pretty good; I don't know about now > > as the brandname has been sold. > KM> Some are still pretty good, but not like they were. My oldest > KM> Craftsman walk-behind mower survived years of abuse, and it's to > KM> where there is literally air visible through the drive wheels and > KM> the self propel won't turn off, and it's missing parts > KM> underneath, but it still runs. > It takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'! ...Wait: wrong company! KM> It runs over you and gives you a lickin'! It slices! It dices! It make Julian cry! > > > > Or what's known as "Ky's Rule": "sometimes". > > > KM> LOL. We make it happen! > > > Just because the specs say something..... > > KM> Random gibberish. > > Under perfect operating conditions.... > KM> ...perfect gibberish. > We intended for this to happen - good luck! KM> SEE?? Hear! Hear!! ¯ ® ¯ BarryMartin3@MyMetronet.NET ® ¯ ® .... To whoever stole my antidepressants, I hope you're happy! --- MultiMail/Win32 v0.47 þ wcECHO 4.2 ÷ ILink: The Safe BBS þ Bettendorf, IA þ RNET 2.10U: ILink: Techware BBS þ Hollywood, Ca þ www.techware2k.com --- QScan/PCB v1.20a / 01-0462 * Origin: ILink: CFBBS | cfbbs.no-ip.com (454:1/1) .