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The Narwhals are getting naughty or is it Natty: The Ubuntu 11.04 thread |OT|

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mAcOdIn

Member
Mr_Zombie said:
When I did clean install of 10.10 everything run smooth (but I had the ugly boot screen too); I had problems with ATI drivers when I upgraded from 9.04 to 10.10. Suddenly old drivers stopped working, and when I tried installing new ones (be it proprietary from Ubuntu repository, or the ones from ATI page) they either didn't install at all, or gave me black screen :/.
What card do you have? I have a 4870, from what I understand the Catalysts, FireGL and and shipped ones have varying degrees of performance and compatibility for certain generations, not to mention which seem to be better for which windows manager, it does seem like a giant cluster fuck from my perspective as primarily a Windows user. But with a fresh 10.10 the AMD Catalysts installed super easy, same with the proprietary.

I guess if what you're asking is if the Ubuntu upgrader will do a clean enough job that the installation will go fine after an upgrade to 11.04, that I don't know, I just feel they were super easy on a fresh install, can't speak for an upgraded install.

That said, between the firegl, stock and Catalysts there where slight...differences..between them, stock was of course rather crippled with the desktop effects but videos ran without a hitch, the Firegl ones enabled more desktop effects on my 4870 and video played fine but with both the Firegl and the stock drivers I really hated the damn Display manager, whatever the fuck it's called, for my dual monitor usage which would always fuck up my displays every reboot. The Catalysts ran extremely well and the Catalyst Control Center made setting my dual monitors a breeze and I got the desktop working how I wanted but then there were some video hiccups but they seemed to be limited to just VLC. I would have experimented more but then I broke my sound so bad that I couldn't even get into the GUI anymore that I gave up.
 

Myke Greywolf

Ambassador of Goodwill
I'm now copying my home folder to a separate partition to make upgrades easier.

Presuming I use the username "myke": If I copy my current home folder to /myke on the new partition, and then, during the installation of 11.04, mount that partition on /home and create a user called "myke", will it delete or overwrite my copied folder?
 

itxaka

Defeatist
Flying_Phoenix said:
I did and it opens in Ubuntu Software Center.



Because that's how I like it.


Go to terminal and do a "sudo dpkg -i nameofthepackage.deb"


http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/separatehome

I did this last time around. It was pretty painless and you never have to worry again when do a clean install provided you take care not to over write everything each time.

http://ubuntuforums.org/

This site is invaluable also.

Im not even sure why would you do that. It's easier to manually partition the HDD during the installation and telling ubuntu to use that home partition as /home

No need to move things around or anything.
 

freddy

Banned
itxaka said:
Im not even sure why would you do that. It's easier to manually partition the HDD during the installation and telling ubuntu to use that home partition as /home

No need to move things around or anything.
That article was written for people who had existing data in a home folder they wanted backed up before a fresh install. They have another one here describing how to do what you say.
 

thcsquad

Member
Brettison said:
It's not that sluggish for me, but then again I never tried the netbook version of 10.10 Netbook hardware in general is slowerish so I could see why people would rather have stock gnome.

Since I'm running Ubuntu on my desktop my hardware really isn't an issue and stuff so no major complaints here. There are some little things I'd like shored up, but I know that's what 11.10 will probably be. I said before I figured I'd be okay with 11.04, but really like 11.10 cause it'll sure up all of the 11.04 changes.

I'm not on a netbook, I'm on a laptop and it's still slow. No one operation takes 10 seconds, but opening up the top-left menu takes a few seconds to load, and then the search function/clicking on a category and waiting for it to load the results takes another 5+. It literally would be faster to open up a terminal and type 'xchat &'

I might take the plunge into 11.04 this weekend in hopes that it improved somewhat between 10.10 -> 11.04
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
thcsquad said:
I'm not on a netbook, I'm on a laptop and it's still slow. No one operation takes 10 seconds, but opening up the top-left menu takes a few seconds to load, and then the search function/clicking on a category and waiting for it to load the results takes another 5+. It literally would be faster to open up a terminal and type 'xchat &'

I might take the plunge into 11.04 this weekend in hopes that it improved somewhat between 10.10 -> 11.04

Not that this is any consolation, but I watched the This Week In Linux video about the release and that dude mentioned Unity 10.10 was slow for him, but 11.04 seemed a lot better (even if he isn't totally sold on unity as a concept yet).
 

theBishop

Banned
I'm sad to say I might jump ship from Ubuntu to Fedora. The main reason I switched from Slackware to Ubuntu back in the day is Slackware stopped shipping Gnome. Now Ubuntu has partially ditching Gnome as well. Coworkers think I'm an Ubuntu fanboy, but I guess after all this time I'm really just a Gnome fanboy.

Still, I'll keep checking in on Unity. As a longtime KDE hater, it's good to see some other meaningful alternatives in popular linux distros
 

Darkkn

Member
Some thoughts from linux dabbler. Last time i got frustrated with linux was when Mandriva was cool. Wow, things have really gotten a lot better in few years. For average user i would say this new Ubuntu is as good as any for-paid OS out there.

I really like the new interface and whole OS is really fast and responsive. Everything looks really nice and polished, it's possibly the nicest looking OS out there. There is some nice integration with email and messaging services and all the basic software seems really usable(Banshee is especially nice).

Everything went great until the 'linux moment of frustration' striked again. This time it was setting up NetBeans development environment with LAMP. Installing stuff was easy enough, but setting the whole thing to work seamlessly is really frustrating with all the file and folder permissions etc. *sigh*. XAMPP is soo much easier to set up on Windows.
 

peakish

Member
Mr_Zombie said:
I can feel your pain :/ After upgrading from 9.04 to 10.10 so many things (ATI drivers included) stopped working for me, that I was forced to clean install Ubuntu 10.10. Thankfully Ubuntu is my secondary OS, but reinstalling everything still sucked.

Anyone tried 11.04 with ATI graphic card? I don't want to relive the horror of constant reinstalling drivers, graphic glitches or having black screen of death on start-up due to ATI drivers problems.
Alright, FWIW I just tried out 11.04 with the Ubuntu provided open source, restricted and downloaded-from-AMD's-website drivers. All of them worked fine (as before the open drivers gave the prettiest boot screen).

Like I said, that notebook runs a HD3200, a mobile chip so YMMV.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
FunkyPajamas said:
Probably a stupid question: does Natty come with Gnome 3? If not, have you guys tried it out yet?
No the big todo about this release is Canonical decided to forgo Gnome 3 and create unity instead.
 
Brettison said:
No the big todo about this release is Canonical decided to forgo Gnome 3 and create unity instead.
Oh, ok. Thanks. I'm not really liking Unity right now so I went back to G2 and was wondering about G3. I'll probably fool around with Unity a bit during the weekend to see if it grows on me.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
FunkyPajamas said:
Oh, ok. Thanks. I'm not really liking Unity right now so I went back to G2 and was wondering about G3. I'll probably fool around with Unity a bit during the weekend to see if it grows on me.

If you want to go the Gnome 3 route you need to look at Fedora which is releasing at the end of NEXT month that is gonna have Gnome 3 stock. If you like G2 you could always run the latest base edition of Debian though G2 isn't really gonna be supported going forward. Your best Ubuntu based alternative not counting the other Ubuntu spins like Xubuntu would be to get one of the Linux Mint variations.
 

Threi

notag
not sure if it's just me or if it's a one time thing...but does unity crash for anyone else whenever they try to leave a window between two workspaces?
 
Brettison said:
If you want to go the Gnome 3 route you need to look at Fedora which is releasing at the end of NEXT month that is gonna have Gnome 3 stock. If you like G2 you could always run the latest base edition of Debian though G2 isn't really gonna be supported going forward. Your best Ubuntu based alternative not counting the other Ubuntu spins like Xubuntu would be to get one of the Linux Mint variations.
Got it, thanks again. I'm probably going to force myself to like Unity this weekend so that I can make up my mind between it and G3. I like the Fedora recommendation though, so I'll keep my eyes peeled for that. Thanks again!
 

Ferrio

Banned
Oh holy hell, they've turned my laptop into OSX.... what trash.

Edit: Anyway to actually configure that damn side bar.. or even move it for that matter? Icons that big are horrible.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
I guess I'm crazy but the launcher seems waaayyy more Windows 7 than OSX to me.


Threi said:
not sure if it's just me or if it's a one time thing...but does unity crash for anyone else whenever they try to leave a window between two workspaces?

Just got home and tested this. No crashes here for me. IDK what to tell you? :/
 
Okay Ubuntu, you win, Unity is good. Yet another "fear of change" from users.

Threi said:
not sure if it's just me or if it's a one time thing...but does unity crash for anyone else whenever they try to leave a window between two workspaces?

Not here.

Ferrio said:
Oh holy hell, they've turned my laptop into OSX.... what trash.

Edit: Anyway to actually configure that damn side bar.. or even move it for that matter? Icons that big are horrible.

This isn't like Snow Leopard at all...

Especially when you compare it to 10.10 enabled with Docky which is like 90% of Ubuntu users set-up.

Brettison said:
I guess I'm crazy but the launcher seems waaayyy more Windows 7 than OSX to me.

Its its own thing if anything.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
It does feel like it's own thing, but IDK I've heard other people on the net mention the W7 comparison in videos and articles as well. They even are creating jump lists for the pinned programs.

On a side not holy shiat there are a ton of mofos in the official #Ubuntu IRC channel found @ freenode
 
Brettison said:
It does feel like it's own thing, but IDK I've heard other people on the net mention the W7 comparison in videos and articles as well. They even are creating jump lists for the pinned programs.

Its not like Windows 7 at all. You can make any dock seem like another dock if you dig far enough.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Flying_Phoenix said:
Its not like Windows 7 at all. You can make any dock seem like another dock if you dig far enough.

True, but this isn't a dock. It's more of an actual built in taskbar verses a dock like gnome do or docky. That's just me though.

I do find it interesting that you don't hate it though. Especially since I got the sense you were on board with the rest of Linux GAF in the dislike. :p
 

hateradio

The Most Dangerous Yes Man
Alright. I decided to do an upgrade instead of a clean install because I didn't want to install/configure/manipulate a particular app. Almost everything is fine except for the WM. I'm using a VM to run Ubuntu so Unity is not an option. Since the upgrade, GNOME has been strange. It devolves into a retro state. Any idea why?

 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
It's suppose to work that way. Has to do with the way the VM functions with Ubuntu and Unity's need for 3d support. You have to check the "Enable 3D Acceleration" box to get Unity to work. :p
 

thcsquad

Member
Alright, I'm doing it. Upgrading tonight. Armed with knowledge of the Super button to bring up the search bar and the testimony that 11.04 Unity is faster than 10.10 Unity, I'm doing it.
 
Brettison said:
True, but this isn't a dock. It's more of an actual built in taskbar verses a dock like gnome do or docky. That's just me though.

How is docky not a dock? :p

But yeah it isn't that much like a taskbar. A taskbar is something that contains a menu bar, the time, and other things as well. Maybe if they combined it with the menu bar then yeah.

Brettison said:
I do find it interesting that you don't hate it though. Especially since I got the sense you were on board with the rest of Linux GAF in the dislike. :p

The more I use it, the more I love it.

How do I get 3D Unity to work though?
 

hateradio

The Most Dangerous Yes Man
Brettison said:
It's suppose to work that way. Has to do with the way the VM functions with Ubuntu and Unity's need for 3d support. You have to check the "Enable 3D Acceleration" box to get Unity to work. :p
It seems to work now, I actually disabled 3D Acceleration. GNOME is normal now.

 

thcsquad

Member
I upgraded and upon restart I just get plopped into the grub command line. Not sure of the syntax for booting from the grub command line. I've asked the question on the Ubuntu forums. Can you beat the Ubuntu forums, GAF?

edit: I fixed it from a thread on the Ubuntu forums, adapted for my HD being at hd0,1 instead of hd0,5

set prefix=(hd0,1)/boot/grub
set root=(hd0,1)
insmod (hd0,1)/boot/grub/linux.mod
linux (hd0,1)/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1 ro
initrd (hd0,1)/initrd.img
boot

And here we are!

And yes, this is about five times faster than the 10.10 Unity and there are some other usability fixes. Color me impressed (two minutes after booting into it, anyway).
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Flying_Phoenix said:
How is docky not a dock? :p

But yeah it isn't that much like a taskbar. A taskbar is something that contains a menu bar, the time, and other things as well. Maybe if they combined it with the menu bar then yeah.



The more I use it, the more I love it.

How do I get 3D Unity to work though?

I meant docky was a dock, but that I find Unity more of a taskbar type thing.

Anyways standard Unity is 3d unity for you.
 

Schlep

Member
So far so good, except some of the disabled Compiz features cause the top bar to not redraw when they're enabled. Hopefully some fixes by the time I'm back in town next week.
 
D

Deleted member 1235

Unconfirmed Member
if I'm running 10.10 and upgrade, does it then use unity by default or I must switch it?
 

Cindres

Vied for a tag related to cocks, so here it is.
Seriously is there anything good for power management on this? I like using it but it runs all my hardware at max performance, killing the battery life compared to when i boot into windows on power saver.
 

freddy

Banned
I used Powertop on my mothers laptop and it seems to work. I don't know if it's in the Software Center on 11.04. I remember I had to check few options before installing for the extra tools.
 

itxaka

Defeatist
Flying_Phoenix said:
Okay Ubuntu, you win, Unity is good. Yet another "fear of change" from users.



Not here.



This isn't like Snow Leopard at all...

Especially when you compare it to 10.10 enabled with Docky which is like 90% of Ubuntu users set-up.



Its its own thing if anything.


It's a mix of windows 7 and MacOS:

Ignore the "This is bullshit" comment, it's from a butthurt user but is the best image I could find :D

zQP0Xl.jpg



Seriously is there anything good for power management on this? I like using it but it runs all my hardware at max performance, killing the battery life compared to when i boot into windows on power saver.

Kernel 2.6.38.x has some serious regressions regarding battery life. You can always install a 2.6.36.x kernel from 10.10 or wait for a patch. It sucks :(
 

Cindres

Vied for a tag related to cocks, so here it is.
itxaka said:
It's a mix of windows 7 and MacOS:

Ignore the "This is bullshit" comment, it's from a butthurt user but is the best image I could find :D

zQP0Xl.jpg





Kernel 2.6.38.x has some serious regressions regarding battery life. You can always install a 2.6.36.x kernel from 10.10 or wait for a patch. It sucks :(

That picture does remind me of the "The Fuck?" Black bars picture we see so often around GAF. But what's funny is that is almost EXACTLY what the new Ubuntu dock thing is xD

Ergh, so there's no software or anything i can get a hold of that will allow me to tune-down?
I'm never gonna need my laptop's full capacity when it's running Ubuntu, the only time it's on full performance is when I'm using it for games on Windows.
 
Still loving this OS.

itxaka said:
It's a mix of windows 7 and MacOS:

Ignore the "This is bullshit" comment, it's from a butthurt user but is the best image I could find :D

Its nothing like that, except the menu bar.

Unity is a bit OSX combined with an original folder management UI.

There is no start menu, no way to scroll throw the open windows (except in snow leopard style), trash can can't be put on the taskbar in Windows 7, etc.

People are just cherry picking.

"OMG both have squares!!!"
 

peakish

Member
Didn't apps docking in their launchers-behavior come from OSX anyway? I agree that the appearance is more like Win7. Unity does have the lenses and defaults to the LHS instead of bottom (handy on laptops, but given modern widescreen monitors I feel more cramped vertically than horizontally so it's not as if it doesn't fit on desktops as well), which sets it apart somewhat. Regardless, being inspired by good design implementations is not in any way bullshit.

One feature I really like in Unity right now is Win+0-9 to switch between and launch applications in the dash. Super-duper convenient. I hope they add the option to customise personal shortcuts in the future using this feature.

Workspace management is not handled as well as in Gnome 3/GS right now, for instance it sometimes switches which app was highlighted on one when changing to another (or I've been fucking something up a few times). Maybe the migration to Gnome 3 packages will fix some of this in 11.10?
 

itxaka

Defeatist
Flying_Phoenix said:
Still loving this OS.

Its nothing like that, except the menu bar.

Unity is a bit OSX combined with an original folder management UI.

There is no start menu, no way to scroll throw the open windows (except in snow leopard style), trash can can't be put on the taskbar in Windows 7, etc.

People are just cherry picking.

"OMG both have squares!!!"

where is the original folder management? I didn't understand that part of your post.

Unity features are nothing new. There have been available for a long time, especially in linux.

The way they have put everything together IS new. Before you needed a lot of tinkering to make it behave like unity, now it's consolidated in one piece of software that runs much better than all the other ones sticked together.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Only current problem I have is that there is a bug that's known that makes it so Chrome/ium can't stay as your default browser. You can try and set it as default, but it won't stick. That's my only real big current bug that annoys the shit out of me.

They also fixed whatever the fuck bug I had that made me get that weird message on boot in 10.10. I was part of the thread/e-mail chain in launchpad for that one, and I still don't think anyone figured out WTF was going on. It just sort fixed itself. LOL
 

itxaka

Defeatist
Brettison said:
Only current problem I have is that there is a bug that's known that makes it so Chrome/ium can't stay as your default browser. You can try and set it as default, but it won't stick. That's my only real big current bug that annoys the shit out of me.

They also fixed whatever the fuck bug I had that made me get that weird message on boot in 10.10. I was part of the thread/e-mail chain in launchpad for that one, and I still don't think anyone figured out WTF was going on. It just sort fixed itself. LOL



Have you tried this?

gconftool-2 --type string -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/http/command "chromium-browser %s"

I reported a bug during alpha as apport-gtk used gnome-open instead of x-www-browser and that was the fix for it.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
itxaka said:
Have you tried this?

gconftool-2 --type string -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/http/command "chromium-browser %s"

I reported a bug during alpha as apport-gtk used gnome-open instead of x-www-browser and that was the fix for it.

I have not! I'm in Win 7 right now playing PSO, but when I boot back to Ubuntu later I'll try it as priority #1!

BTW Mark Shuttleworth updated his blog with a new post...

11.04, a leap forward
Friday, April 29th, 2011
Users first, on free software. That has always been our mission: we set out to bring the joys and freedoms and innovation and performance and security that have always been part of the Linux platform, to a consumer audience. And yesterday marked the biggest leap forward in that mission that Ubuntu has ever taken, because in addition to the work we always do to make sure that the world’s best free software is polished and integrated, we brought something new to the very core of the user experience of the free platform: Unity.

We put user’s first because we committed to test and iterate Unity’s design with real users, and evolve it based on those findings. We’ve documented the process we’re following in that regard, so that other free software projects can decide for themselves if they also want to bring professional design into their process. I very much hope that this will become standard practice across all of free software, because in my view the future of free software is no longer just about inner beauty (architecture, performance, efficiency) it’s also about usability and style.

In the design of Unity we chose to be both humble and bold. Humble, because we have borrowed consciously from the work of other successful platforms, like Windows and MacOS. We borrowed what worked best, but then we took advantage of the fact that we are unconstrained by legacy and can innovate faster than they can, and took some bold leaps forward. In category indicators, the dash, overlay scrollbars and other innovations we are pioneering desktop experiences that I am sure will be emulated elsewhere, in both the free and proprietary platforms. This is the public “1.0″, there are rough points which will affect some users more than others, but we will iterate and polish them up one by one. Our goal should be to continue to set the pace and push free software to the forefront of usability and experience, growing the awesome Ubuntu and Unity community that shares those values and is excited by those ideas.

Ubuntu’s killer feature remains that community. The spirit of Ubuntu is about understanding that the measure of our own lives is in the way we improve the lives of others. Ubuntu has both economic and human dimensions: it is unique in bringing those together in a way which enables them to support one another. The fact that so many people recognise that their time, energy and expertise can have the biggest possible impact when expressed through Ubuntu is what makes their individual contributions so much more valuable. By recognising that it’s not just about bits, or licenses, or artwork, or documentation, or advocacy, or support, or assurance, or services, but that it’s about the whole of those in synthesis, we make something different to what the world has ever seen before. So to everyone who has helped bring Ubuntu 11.04 to fruition: thank you, and well done.

Of course, Ubuntu is far bigger than Unity. And the needs of the Ubuntu community, and users of Ubuntu, are far more diverse than simply Unity could address. So I’m proud of the fact that the Ubuntu community publishes the whole expression of software freedom across its archives. Kubuntu continues to improve and set a very high standard for the KDE experience. Lubuntu, the LXDE based expression of Ubuntu, is moving towards being 100% integrated. There is unique work being done in Ubuntu for users of the cloud and other server-oriented configurations. While we can be proud of what’s been achieved in Unity, we are equally proud of the efforts that go into ensuring that the full range of experiences is accommodated, to the extent possible with the effort put in by our huge community, under the Ubuntu umbrella.

We’re committed to keeping that the case. By welcoming all participants, and finding ways to accommodate and celebrate their differences rather than using them as grounds for divisiveness, we make something that is bigger than all our individual dreams.
 

Error

Jealous of the Glory that is Johnny Depp
dunno if you'll find this useful, but I found it pretty neat.

echo "[Desktop Entry]

Name=Home Folder
Comment=Open your personal folder
TryExec=nautilus
Exec=nautilus --no-desktop
Icon=user-home
Terminal=false
StartupNotify=true
Type=Application
Categories=GNOME;GTK;Core;
OnlyShowIn=GNOME;Unity;
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=GNOME
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Product=nautilus
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Component=general
X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=nautilus

X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=Videos;Documents;Music;Pictures;Downloads
[Videos Shortcut Group]
Name=Videos
Exec=nautilus Videos
TargetEnvironment=Unity


[Documents Shortcut Group]
Name=Documents
Exec=nautilus Documents
TargetEnvironment=Unity

[Music Shortcut Group]
Name=Music
Exec=nautilus Music
TargetEnvironment=Unity

[Pictures Shortcut Group]
Name=Pictures
Exec=nautilus Pictures
TargetEnvironment=Unity

[Downloads Shortcut Group]
Name=Downloads
Exec=nautilus Downloads
TargetEnvironment=Unity" | sudo tee /usr/share/applications/nautilus-home.desktop
copy that, paste it in your terminal to get this...

home-Unity.png
 
^^^ Why wasn't this part of Unity in the first place?


itxaka said:
where is the original folder management? I didn't understand that part of your post.

Unity features are nothing new. There have been available for a long time, especially in linux.

The way they have put everything together IS new. Before you needed a lot of tinkering to make it behave like unity, now it's consolidated in one piece of software that runs much better than all the other ones sticked together.

Unique folder management when searching for apps and files. The button on the bottom right.

And true none of this stuff is technically new, its just how its presented. But in reality you can say that for 99% of computer updates and features, including the dock.
 
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