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How to play Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Steam version on Linux Mint 20.1

Paul
MSFS2020 on Linux Mint 20.1

Run Microsoft Flight Simulator

I’ve been trying to get this to work the last few days on Linux because of Windows 11 set to come out in the follow months.   However, I was also wondering if this would work on Linux as it should be able to to do.   As you know steam has some great ways to run windows games on it.   The problem that most people have is just to figure out the right way to run it.   I am here to help those who might still be having difficulty in running Msfs2020(Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020) on Linux because it seems to have so many people having issues with running it.   According to ProtonDB, This game should be playable with Gold standards which means it should run perfectly after some tweaks.   I don’t know about the rest of you but It’s more than some tweaks but I digress.

Install wine

The First step you will need to do is check out my other post about installing Wine on Linux Mint.  If you followed those instructions you are half way to getting it to run on Linux.   You’ll however want to install all the Wine DB and API’s that are associated with Wine to get it to work.  That includes but not limited to Q4wine, Playonlinux, Winetricks, All Wine Compatibility layers(Windows-Desktop-files also), Wine-binfmt  and the API layers that is associated with Wine.  I found sometimes they don’t automatically install these but they are necessary for several other games.

Install Graphics Drivers

Go to your driver manager app and make sure you have the GPU driver for your system.   I currently have a NVIDIA 1660 Super and an Intel 10-850 Core.   First I’d try the recommended but we’ll discuss this at the end.   Always download the recommended driver on Linux Mint but if you have a different Linux and want to download the NVIDIA drivers, check out the NVIDIA Unix Drivers for them to work with your system.  If you have an AMD GPU, you can visit the AMD website for your Linux Driver.  Once those are installed, you will probably need to reboot your system to make sure your drivers are active when playing on Steam or other games.   Each time there is an update, it will probably be a good idea to reboot just to make sure the drivers you want are being used by the system.

Install Steam

It seems Linux Mint 20.1 or some earlier version installs the Flathub version of Steam when they install Linux Mint.   Uninstall that version first,  I’ve found that it doesn’t do as a good as a job as the one you can get from the package manager.   I also found that it won’t run some games with Proton.   So that is the reason I say, just go ahead and uninstall it and install the real one.  This is the easy part of the installation.   Once done you are more than halfway there to be able to play your games like you want.

Download and Install Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020

Example of -FastLaunch

Once you have steam, You can now go ahead and download and install MSFS2020 into steam.   This will be a quick process.   Steam however will not allow you to download the game until you enable proton.  Go over to the Gear icon in steam and left click properties and go to Comparability tab.   I’d recommend trying Proton 5.13-6 first because that is what everyone else used to get it to work on their systems according to the ProtonDB. Once you do that, you’ll be able to download MSFS20 and install it.  Once installed, you’ll also want to add ‘-FastLaunch’ to the Launch options.    Once done with that, hit the little “X” button and try clicking the play button and seeing if it will run.

If it doesn’t work

Sometimes each system is a little bit different.   So I’ll talk about ways you can tweak it to get it to work on your system.    Some things to try:

  • Get a New or Older version of the GPU driver
  • Change the Proton version to a New or Older version or try the experimental version.
  • Check your Wine Settings(Although I didn’t have to do much with mine just install and try to run the q4wine once that was ran.   I didn’t do anything else but quit the program.)
  • Check the ProtoDB to see what everyone else has done to get the game to run.

I suggest making one change at a time and seeing if the game will run after the change.   If it is a GPU driver change, I suggest rebooting to make sure you are using the GPU driver you want to try to run with the program.  Also Don’t expect the game to run as smoothly as it does on Windows so be thoughtful when you are playing the game.   Sometimes there will be crashes and other things going on.  You can however try different configurations to see if you can resolve those issues also.  If you like this post please consider buying something from my affiliate list to support my blog and my time in write.

Brainstorming and Blogging!

Paul

Society
Image by ultrakml via Flickr

There’s a storm in that brain!

Whenever I want to write a post, I often am caught pondering what to write about and what my readers may or may not want to read about. I know sometimes it can be hard to sit down and write that blog post, but you never really know how well it will be received until it is posted. That is the one that will always be unique to each and every blog. I’ve always had a problem with managing my time but that might change also. I’ve started to day dream and also brain storm about what some good posts you might want to read about and I will discuss how I do it.

Sit back and Relax!

Something that you may never of tried is to just relax. Nothing in the world is that big that you really can’t just sit back and relax for a few minutes to a few hours. That is where people will often times go wrong, they think if they aren’t doing anything that you will not get their work done whether it be personal or job related. So I am going to give you a few tips on how you can also relax and maybe let those creative juices flow:

  • Take a Soothing bath and just sit there.
  • Listen to your favorite music in bed
  • Take a long walk in the woods
  • Being exhausted doesn’t help so Get some Sleep.
There are many reasons why you want to brainstorm. You however have to be well rested and relax to be able to do it just right. That is what encourages you to brainstorm and get as many ideas as possible.
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Dealing with the Distance on the hardest of days.

Paul
Picture by Damon Nofar on Pixabay

Long Distance and The Pandemic

If you are in a long distance and you had your life turned upside down because of the pandemic year of Hell, Then you are not alone. There are couples all around the world who haven’t seen their partner or fiance, or even wife or husband.  There is nothing that makes people like me so depressed.  I am sure I am not the only one who has had those ups and down days this past year.  Most borders haven’t fully opened up and the ones that do probably only have seen their Long Distance partner once or twice the whole.  I’ve heard rumors about how it could take up to 8 hours to get through the whole arrival process of immigration or other things that might take even more time to travel.

The Struggles are Real

It can be so hard for couples around the world.   Even sexually it can be so frustrating for even the most modest.  We’ve all had those days where the need to feel their touch from our partners and that can be the hardest part of this pandemic.   We don’t know when those international borders will open and I am hopeful and watching the Philippines that it will open in November or December.

Handling the distance

We all have our ways to handle the distance but I thought it would be a good idea to talk about some of the things that I’ve learned over the years.   Even the idea of buying Airplane tickets can be hard for someone to save up the money to be able to see their partners internationally.  Some things to keep in mind while you are waiting:

  • Faithfulness — Try to keep true to your partner and try to not make any mistakes with your partner.   This has definitely been real hard for most to do.   I’ve heard about how hard it is and I can totally relate.
  • Patience — Seeing all what is going on with borders, we can have those days where we will have little or no patiences with Governments or even with your Partner.   You’ll need to walk carefully on how you deal with disappoint.   We’ve seen governments that have really disappointed us all.
  • Determination — After all you’ve been through this past few months to years.  You’ll have to keep your determination and keep reminding yourself why you are in an LDR.  Try to have fun and remember those really special times with your partner, that has helped me tremendously.
  • Understanding — This is also something you must do while you are waiting for the borders to open up.  We have to remember to keep understanding our partners and listen to their needs and wants.

Strategize the meeting

Finally, when the borders finally open up for your partner and you.   You should already have plans in place for the next meeting.   This can be so helpful to see there is going to be a time together.  This will help you see the light at the end of the tunnel.   I am already doing this and we are planning for the time when we are finally together.   This has helped me so much and kept us rooted in what really matters.   We are also talking about closing the distance.   If you can close the distance this will help you keep grounded and knowing that there is more at the end of the tunnel.   These are just small tips to help you survive the distance and even the pandemic.

 

 

 

Writing for writing sake, is that doable?

Paul
Photo by: StockSnap on Pixabay

Blogging for Fun

I love to teach. I am not sure if that is related to blogging but I have found the last few weeks while at school, I think that is where blogging has been my way to teach in my own way.   I am currently blogging in my english comp classes.   I don’t know why but I think my creative juices are better when I am allow myself to write this really informative and great essays for my classmates.   That’s one thing that I’ve recently started to do in my college board.   They have this board where you can discuss anything and everything you want.   I’ve been blogging/discussing the tips and tricks to almost everything under the sun from writing a good essay outline to the fundamentals of writing an essay.

My Blog

Lately as you can tell, I’ve dragged over my essays and such to this blog because I wanted to share with you what I’ve learned or talked about.   I really do love to share my knowledge and maybe show people that they can do the things like I am doing.   You just have to step out of your comfort zone.   I love to write and it just seems to be getting better and better with every time I blog.  Lately I’ve seen how my blog has become more useful for others and even me.   I’ve wrote some really good information about the IATA Travel Pass.  There have been post in that are quite long but I think are really needed in the way they are using the app.   I started putting what I wrote in my academic area onto my blog to see what people think.  I started this almost 2 months ago, kept adding more and more each day every other day.

Education is Good

Not even me expected to love the academic of college life.   I must say this has been a real pleasure to blog about this stuff and see what types of responses I get.   I am sure I’ve lost people or I have gained people.   I don’t know who is reading my blog or even saying much at all.   I think that’s where it can be hard as a blogger to see the impact of your blog on your readers.   It can be very difficult to know if people are coming back or if they are just searching for one thing and leaving.  I am really curious as to know what people think or are they coming back to my blog.

Comments welcomed

I am curious to hear what people think about me posting my essays or my discussion on my blog.   I have even more discussions I can share with you and others if people are really curious to see what teachers are trying to teach in this day and age.   Why not leave a comment and tell me what you think?  Do you like it or hate it?  Do you want more or want more meat?   As a writer I want to know what my readers are thinking and also what they want more of.   So please leave a comment and tell me what you think.

How to Protect your privacy online

Paul

Privacy - Privacy Online

Online Data

52 percent of respondents shared personally identifying information through social media sites.  — Dan Raffer

Do you know how much of your personal data is out there? There are many people who will not know just how much data is available on the internet. You could literally find information about a person where they live, their phone number and even their email address if you really know where to go to search for this information. No I am not joking, it is really not hard to find this information and that is what most people just don’t realize.   As you might think, most people are leaking their information in many ways from their hair color to their favorite food on social media sites and this just as dangerous as you might not realize.

Hearing what I just told you, how do you feel about it?

“Most browsers — including Chrome, Firefox and Safari — offer some sort of private browsing window.” Christian Stewart

You can protect your privacy somewhat by using this private browser such as Chrome’s Incognito window but this is only the first step to protect your privacy online. You should also disable third party cookies and also use a good privacy focused search engines such as duckduckgo (duckduckgo.com), or Wolframalpha (wolframalpha.com) to help keep people from tracking you. These are all good and will help you not be tracked as much on the internet and keep your privacy safe.

Be skeptical

More than 99 percent of threats observed required human interaction to execute. – Gamelearn

Did you know that it could be as simple as being very skeptical of any links you have been sent or browsing on the web. Not every link on the internet is safe for us to click. So How do you know if it is safe to click? These are good questions that need to really be thought out before you click any link you want. Some of the common questions I ask myself are:

  • Did I receive this link without being told?

  • Was it a popup message or something like that?

  • Do I know the person who sent it?

  • Is the URL link hidden from my site?

  • Was it sent on a Social Media site?

If you answered yes to at least one of these questions you should be very cautious to click the link. Most of the time if you received a message saying your system is infected you would be quick to click that link but that would be the wrong. Most virus authors will pray on your emotions and social engineer the attacks that will get them the most results.

Stop with the easy passwords

This is the most valuable tip I can give you, everyone who’s anyone will not create complex passwords because we aren’t complex. Humans especially when it comes to passwords will not create a really hard password because it will be hard for them to remember it. Definitely don’t write down your passwords for others to see. You’ve seen shows or movies like Ready Player One. If you seen the movie Ready Player One, in the movie Sorrento leaves his password on the rig and well you know the rest but it makes a great point that there are better ways to keep your passwords safe. I recommend using a password vault or a password manager that will do the job. I currently use Lastpass for all my needs but I am sure there are other free password managers that will create, encrypt, and even save those passwords for the next time you visit a website. Any good password manager is really going to be better at create a unique password than you would.

Use 2 factor authentication

It’s time to use 2 factor authentication. It is something you have and not something you know, you should make it extremely hard for any key-logger or other such methods from controlling your account. This is where 2 factor authentication comes into play, they might know your password but they will also need to know or have a way to authenticate in other ways. So it is best to have this turned on even if you are using your cell phone, it will provide another layer of protection and will keep your accounts safe.

When it comes to privacy, it can be a big struggle just to keep your information safe. There are several ways you can keep it from those big baddies that want to use your information for piracy and identity theft. We can never really understand why but we can at least work hard at making sure our information isn’t in the wrong hands.