Old Computer Hardware Revival Saga: Desktop 1 still crashes Kwin using a newer Live USB

Sigh...  this evening, I finally got to test a newer KDE Live USB on Desktop 1 (which had issues with Kubuntu 25.10)

Salient part of the initial coredump - Looks like it's in libgallium *again*...  (i.e. likely the same place as last time too), when doing a framebuffer blit in Kwin

 

Unfortunately, I am still getting crashes with this new version:
* Can now confirm it happens when trying to bring up any window

* Can also confirm that Kwin now pops up a very handy "Crash Handler" that can show the relevant coredump.

* The problem though, was that, after the first crash (from trying to open System Settings), the next dozen in quick succession (when trying to open the "Start" menu after waiting a few minutes) were happening so frequently, that I couldn't inspect if they were all crashing on the same thing.

Linux Migration Experiments - First Attempt with Desktop 1, and Hardware Upgrade Roadmap Thoughts

Having previously tried with Desktop 2, and on the back of recent success with CodeQuest Laptop, I finally decided to try and brave testing Linux on Desktop 1 for the first time ever, to see how it would fare. 

After all, as soon as I am forced to take it off Windows 10 (if something sufficiently bad comes along that means that all old machines absolutely need to be taken off the internet immediately - and even then, I can buy some more time by just disconnecting its USB wifi dongle (more on that in a moment), then it'd be good to know that I can safely do this with that machine.

Of course, there's a LOT of water to pass under the bridge with this one first... As in - tons of hardware upgrades + tweaks first (which may be somewhat familiar from prior posts in this series). 

This update covers two things:

* 1) The immediate future hardware-upgrade needs of this system, which are still up in the air somewhat

* 2) Tonight's "failed" first experiment running it under Linux 

Audio Hardware Rant - HDMI Monitor Sound Playback (with no speakers to speak of) + Headphone Woes

 It's quickly turning into one of *those* nights I think:

* 1) Spent ages trying to debug why Firefox was not playing any audio (but MuseScore) was:  Turns out, the stupid HDMI switcher has again caused computer to forget that I've previously hell-banned audio from being sent to play on my monitor via HDMI, but it had suddenly decided again that that is the default location it should go!  

ARGH!

Does anyone sell HDMI cables where the audio pins are purposefully knocked out, and this fact is communicated to the PC at the other end, so it never pulls this trick again?!


* 2) It seems I also need to hurry up the search for 2 pairs of headphones:  My main pair (that I've brought over with me) have in recent weeks developed a very disturbing habit of suddenly and randomly / explosively *LEAPING* from my head and collapsing into a crumpled/folded bundle that lands with a loud thud either on my keyboard, on on the floor!


My main requirements for headphones are:
 a) Ear cups do NOT use PU leather, or equivalents that will flake in 6 months tops
 b) They are better than the crappy el-cheapo Panasonic ones I once got that leaked sound AND had to be turned up to 90% to hear anything
 c) No sound leakage
 d) They don't clamp hard with horrid nutcracker squeezing force (like all those I encountered as a kid)
 e) It has a cable, mounted on the right side only, which is ideally more than 2m long (and/or can be detached, to allow switching out if too short)
 f) Ideally has some degree of noise cancellation / muffling, to block out any annoying environmental noise that may be an issue

Computer Hardware Adventures - Resurrecting Desktop Workstation #1

For the past year, I've been forced to use my "secondary" (+ newer) workstation, as I woke up one morning to my former primary workstation (from 2018) having a severe bout of hardware-related instability. 

Granted, this secondary workstation has actually been a vastly better machine in most regards, as it has actually been more of the setup that I'd originally been going for in 2018 (see details below).  And also, this switch has helped postpone having to address a several "storage crunch" I'd been experiencing on the primary machine  (i.e. I'd gotten to the point where my Photos/Media drive had actually *run out of space*, and I had to quickly offload as much "non-critical" stuff as I could to a mix of "other drives on the machine, for "more important" stuff, and only a secondary drive for all the "not very important" stuff)

Anyway, for "reasons", I've come to finally get around to trying to resurrect this machine now at last!  (I'd actually mean to do it by this time last year... but then procrastination over finding "the right" replacement PSU and/or trying to fit that in against work/holiday schedules has meant that this has only happened now...)

This rambling post will be about the journey of trying to get this working again, and also the upcoming challenges of figuring out how this step now fits into my grand scheme for rejigging how I run all my computing setup (i.e. both the "Linux migration" project, but also the "two workstations / two locations, one big stash of data that needs backing up and syncing")