Mental dump

The last days I was quite busy mentally. So here are some thoughts I just need to write down to get them off my head and give you something to read. 😄

Still on vacation, I got the idea that I want to run the Windows 11 VM on my laptop with some better graphics to also be able to watch video streams with DRM that have explicit Linux prevention. There’s this concept of SR-IOV that lets you share physical resources with multiple “virtual functions.” In theory, starting with Intel 11th or 12th Gen. processors, that should allow passing through parts of the integrated graphics card to VMs. That sent me down a rabbit hole, and I ended up buying a new (used) laptop: a Dell Latitude 5430.

Great laptop, and it works generally really fast and nicely, but whatever I tried, I can’t get the Windows 11 VM to work with the GPU passthrough. I always get code 43. However, I found some options that make the VM feel fast, even without access to the GPU. A nice observation: It’s so easy to migrate to another laptop with Linux. I just moved the NVMe from the old laptop to the new one, and it just worked! And regarding the laptop itself: Even if it’s from a similar production date as my old one, you really notice it’s a business-focused device. The BIOS has so many options, Linux support is great, and it has a fingerprint reader that I can use to log in.

And then there popped up another problem: At home, we relied on 5G for the past year. A 5G modem is outside my office window, handing internet connectivity to an OpenWRT router that is connected to a mesh WiFi set. That worked great for the past year; however, now it doesn’t anymore. After a random time span, TCP connections don’t seem to work anymore; some UDP and ICMP continue to work (like ping), but opening websites hangs at the TLS handshake until timeout or DNS already fails. Especially annoying: After I tried every possible configuration change on the router, as I suspected it could be my fault, I found out it’s now also impacting my phones when I use them as a mobile hotspot. Today, I had to turn off and on the mobile data several times to continue my work. I already complained to the provider (at least I can do that via chat with a human, thanks to being a customer of a business provider); let’s see if they find a solution.

Nevertheless, I pulled the trigger and finally ordered fiber to the home. I always thought I could save the 30 euros per month, as the 5G is working great, but that new experience now changed my view. The installation should happen next week; let’s see… Sadly, FTTH means 300 Mbit down and 150 Mbit up for me, so not like in Switzerland, where you can get 10 Gbit up and down for not much more money.

To get my mind free, I did some bike tours the last few days. Just a small round (with heavy headwind) last Thursday, a bigger round (with heavy side wind) on Saturday in a direction I never biked before, and another round today. On Saturday and today I also did a short Freeletics workout in addition to the bike ride. April is going strong so far in terms of fitness. 💪

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