Fix missing dependency for TuxGuitar under Debain
October 25, 2023 - Reading time: ~1 minute
If TuxGuitar refuses to load GuitarPro files (.gp) with the error message "org/apache/commons/compress/archivers/zip/ZipArchiveInputStream", a dependency is is missing.
To install the missing dependency, execute the following command:
sudo apt install libcommons-compress-java
A bug report has been submitted already: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1043253
Bludit posting to Mastodon
March 30, 2023 - Reading time: 26 minutes
My blog can posts new content to my Mastodon account using the Bludit Mastodon Plugin now.
Running "Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams" on a Windows 10 System with Integrated Graphics
January 24, 2023 - Reading time: 2 minutes
Several years ago I bought "Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams". It ran fine on Windows 8.1, but it crashed after I upgraded to Windows 10. I contacted the support of Black Forest Games. The person answering my email told me that the game does not run very well with the integrated graphics of my system (Intel 4600). He advised me to try some different graphics settings which fixed the issue. I basically switched from DX10 to DX9 and turned down the graphics quality.
Restarting I2C when touchpad is not working
January 11, 2022 - Reading time: ~1 minute
After I replaced the Clickpad of my Lenovo L440 with a touchpad (see https://mastodon.xyz/@nause_marc/107111989617471186) the Touchpad would not work occasionally under Debian when returning from suspend. I created a small script called restarti2c.sh with the following content:
sudo /sbin/rmmod i2c_i801 && sudo /sbin/modprobe i2c_i801
This restarts the I2C bus kernel module, which makes the touchpad work again. I run it whenever necessary.
The Benefit of Upgrading the Super Snapshot V5 to 32kB RAM
January 4, 2022 - Reading time: 8 minutes
After upgrading the RAM of my Super Snapshot V5 from 8kB RAM to 32kB, I was hoping for considerably better performance when copying disks with the built-in Disk Copier program. I was quite disappointed when I found out that copying a regular 35-track disk with a single disk drive only improved from requiring 4 read/write cycles (7 disk swaps) to 3 read/write cycles (5 disk swaps).
I did not put any further energy into looking more closely at how the memory of the C64 and Super Snapshot V5 is used when copying disks until I noticed that VICE is able to emulate the Super Snapshot V5 with both 8kB and 32kB cartridge RAM.
German Operating Manual of the Super Snapshot V5
January 3, 2022 - Reading time: 2 minutes
The Super Snapshot has never been hugely popular in Germany, as far as I know. I ordered my cartridge from a company called GSK Import en Export from the Netherlands in 1990. GSK could have taken the easy route and just shipped the cartridges with an English manual, but they translated the text into German for what was probably a rather limited market. Kudos to GSK!
After more than 30 years I finally got around to scanning the manual and provide it for download as a PDF file.
Unfortunately the cover of the manual was lost at some point in the past 30 years, but I think it was identical with the cover of the English version anyway.