These instructions are for Ubuntu 11.10 running under VirtualBox 4.1.8r75467 on Windows 7 with SP1.

They should be the same or similar for other version combinations, but I make no guarantee.

These instructions are the same or very similar for many other distros of Linux, however, the VirtualBox Guest Additions don’t work with all distros of Linux. For some Linux distros the installation does not happen automatically, you have to manually start it.

Why Install VirtualBox Guest Additions?

Installing the VirtualBox Guest Additions better integrates Ubuntu Linux with your system and gives you the following benefits (and more):

1. better mouse pointer integration
2. shared folders – useful for sharing data between OSes
3. better video support – more resolutions, hardware acceleration, etc
4. seamless windows (instead of having an Ubuntu desktop and a Windows desktop, the two can be combined together. While neat, it is not quite perfect. I don’t deny it is cool to see a Linux and Windows apps running side-by-side on your Windows desktop)
5. shared clipboard

1) Click on on the Devices menu and then select Install Guest Additions…. If you are running Ubuntu in full screen mode, move your mouse to the very bottom of the screen in the middle – this will pop up the same menu options. Alternatively, you can just hold the right Ctrl key down and press the D key (the default Host key is the right Ctrl key):

2) Click Run on the information dialog:

3) Enter your password and then click on Authenticate:

4) A terminal will pop up and inside will be a message about not being able to find the headers. Don’t worry about it:

5) The guest additions will be compiled. This takes several minutes (how long depends on how fast your machine is, how much memory the virtual machine has, etc). Once it is done, you will see a message instructing you to press Enter to close the terminal:

6) Go to the System Tools icon in the top right corner and select Shut Down:

7) Choose to either Shut Down or Restart the system (it doesn’t matter which):

Once the virtual machine restarts, the guest additions will be installed and integrated.

When Install Guest Additions… Doesn’t Work

On rare occasions, I have found that Ubuntu doesn’t start the install process after step 1) above. One of these two techniques should allow you to get around that.

Trick 1

1) Click on the disk near the bottom of the Unity ribbon – it’s just above the trash can:

2) Click on Open Autorun Prompt and then continue from step 2) above:

Trick 2

1) Click on the Folder icon:

2) Click on File System, then double-click on the media folder:

3) Double-click the VBOXADDITIONS icon:

4) Click on Open Autorun Prompt and then continue from step 2) above:

The post Ubuntu 11.10 – Installing VirtualBox Guest Additions appeared first on Complete, Concrete, Concise.

This article was updated for Ubuntu 12.04. The new article can be found here.

Opening a Terminal using a Keyboard Shortcut

You can access the terminal by using the keyboard shortcut: ctrl + alt + T (while pressing down the ctrl and alt key at the same time, press the T key as if you were going to type the letter T, there is no need to hold it down).

Opening a Terminal from Unity

1) Click on the Dash icon (or use the keyboard shortcut by pressing the Windows key):

2) Type terminal into the entry field:

3) Click on the terminal icon:

Opening a Terminal if You are not Using Unity

Because there are many different types of desktops available for Linux, it is not possible to list all possible ways to start the terminal. However … the general technique is the same:

1) Open the Main Menu or Applications Menu (or whatever the main menu for your environment is called).

2) If you are lucky, there will be a menu entry for a terminal (it might be called Terminal or LXTerminal or something else with terminal in the name.

3) If you are unlucky, then you will have to look for it in a submenu. It is most likely to be found in either the submenu Accessories or System

The post Ubuntu 11.10 – How to get a Command Line, Shell, or Terminal appeared first on Complete, Concrete, Concise.

This tutorial shows how to completely remove or uninstall a package in Ubuntu 11.10. These instructions should work for other versions of Ubuntu, it’s derivatives (Edubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu) and other Debian based Linux distributions – but no guarantee is made.

The Problem

A package is installed using either Ubuntu Software Center or apt-get. Later it is uninstalled, but you discover that not everything has been removed. Usually, this happens when you install and then uninstall one of the alternate Ubuntu desktops (Edubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, or Xubuntu) – the result is a mess.

This happens because a number of Recommended and Extra packages are installed along with the requested package. Unfortunately, many times, these Recommended and Extrapackages are not removed during uninstallation.

Example 1 – an easy to clean up install

Installing the package stellarium causes an extra package called stellarium-data to be installed as well:

richard@richard-VirtualBox:~$ sudo apt-get install stellarium
[sudo] password for richard:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  stellarium-data
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  stellarium stellarium-data
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 100 not upgraded.
Need to get 35.6 MB of archives.
After this operation, 48.2 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? 

Uninstalling the package stellarium does not uninstall the extra package.

When using apt-get to remove stellarium (yellow) we are informed that an extra package had been installed (red) and should be removed using apt-get autoremove. The only package being removed by apt-get is the stellarium package (blue):

richard@richard-VirtualBox:~$ sudo apt-get remove stellarium
[sudo] password for richard:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer
required:
  stellarium-data
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  stellarium
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 100 not upgraded.
After this operation, 7,090 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? 

Running the command apt-get autoremove removes certain types of packages. It removes packages that depend on other packages, but those packages no longer exist:

richard@richard-VirtualBox:~$ sudo apt-get autoremove
[sudo] password for richard:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  stellarium-data
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 123 not upgraded.
After this operation, 41.1 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? 

Those two steps of running the apt-get with the commands remove and autoremove can be combined into a single step. In this case, you specify the remove command and the --auto-remove flag / switch (yes, I know, it is spelled differently from the command, I have no idea why). This is how the Ubuntu Software Center runs the command when you use it to remove Remove a package:

richard@richard-VirtualBox:~$ sudo apt-get remove --auto-remove stellarium
[sudo] password for richard:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  stellarium stellarium-data
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 2 to remove and 100 not upgraded.
After this operation, 48.2 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? 

Example 2 – a hard to clean up install

Not all recommended and extra packages that apt-get installs are easy to uninstall.

If you install one of the Ubuntu based desktops, like edubuntu-desktop, kubuntu-desktop, lubuntu-desktop, or xubuntu-desktop, you will find they install many recommended and extra packages. These extra packages might add to the experience of the installed package, but they don’t get removed when you uninstall the package. For example, installing lubuntu-desktop will also install the Abiword word processor, a number of games, the Chromium web browser along with many other packages.

Notice all the extra packages (blue) being installed along with lubuntu-desktop (yellow):

richard@richard-VirtualBox:~$ sudo apt-get install lubuntu-desktop
[sudo] password for richard:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  abiword abiword-common abiword-plugin-grammar
  abiword-plugin-mathview ace-of-penguins audacious
  audacious-plugins chromium-browser chromium-browser-l10n
  chromium-codecs-ffmpeg elementary-icon-theme
  esound-common galculator gdebi gdebi-core giblib1
  gnome-icon-theme-full gnome-mplayer gnome-time-admin
  gnumeric gnumeric-common gnumeric-doc gpicview guvcview
  hardinfo indicator-status-provider-pidgin leafpad libabiword-2.8
  libaiksaurus-1.2-0c2a libaiksaurus-1.2-data
  libaiksaurusgtk-1.2-0c2a libaudclient2 libaudcore1 libaudiofile0
  libbinio1ldbl libcddb2 libcompfaceg1 libcue1 libdiscid0 libesd0
  libexo-1-0 libexo-common libfluidsynth1 libfm-data libfm-gtk-data
  libfm-gtk1 libfm1 libgdome2-0 libgdome2-cpp-smart0c2a
  libgoffice-0.8-8 libgoffice-0.8-8-common libgringotts2
  libgsf-1-114 libgsf-1-common libgtkmathview0c2a libimlib2
  libjpeg-progs liblink-grammar4 libloudmouth1-0 libmcrypt4 libmcs1
  libmenu-cache1 libmowgli2 libmusicbrainz3-6 libobrender27 libobt0
  libonig2 libopenal1 libopts25 libots0 libpisock9
  libresid-builder0c2a libsidplay2 libsvga1 libtar0 libuniconf4.6
  libvdpau1 libwebcam0 libwv-1.2-3 libwvstreams4.6-base
  libwvstreams4.6-extras libxfce4ui-1-0 libxfce4util-bin
  libxfce4util-common libxfce4util4 libxfcegui4-4 libxfconf-0-2
  libxvidcore4 link-grammar-dictionaries-en lm-sensors
  lubuntu-artwork lubuntu-core lubuntu-default-settings
  lubuntu-icon-theme lxappearance lxappearance-obconf lxde-common
  lxde-core lxdm lxinput lxkeymap lxlauncher lxmenu-data lxpanel
  lxpanel-indicator-applet-plugin lxrandr lxsession lxsession-edit
  lxshortcut lxtask lxterminal mplayer mtpaint ntp obconf openbox
  openbox-themes osmo pcmanfm pidgin pidgin-data pidgin-libnotify
  pidgin-microblog plymouth-theme-lubuntu-logo
  plymouth-theme-lubuntu-text python-xklavier scrot sylpheed
  sylpheed-doc sylpheed-i18n sylpheed-plugins transmission ttf-lyx
  uvcdynctrl uvcdynctrl-data wvdial xfburn xfce-keyboard-shortcuts
  xfce4-power-manager xfce4-power-manager-data xfconf xfonts-100dpi
  xpad xscreensaver
Suggested packages:
  gecko-mediaplayer gnumeric-plugins-extra epiphany-browser
  docbook-xsl mesa-utils evince-gtk libmcrypt-dev mcrypt
  libmcs-backend-gconf libmcs-utils jpilot pilot-link kpilot
  gnome-pilot claws-mail nvidia-vdpau-driver vdpau-driver fancontrol
  sensord read-edid i2c-tools indicator-application-gtk2
  indicator-messages-gtk2 indicator-sound-gtk2 mplayer-doc netselect
  fping ntp-doc menu ttf-dejavu libxml2-dev gnome-panel
  kdebase-workspace-bin docker claws-mail-tools bsfilter
  xfce4-power-manager-plugins xfs xserver xfishtank xdaliclock
  fortune qcam streamer gdm3 kdm-gdmcompat
Recommended packages:
  amixer locales-all
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  abiword abiword-common abiword-plugin-grammar
  abiword-plugin-mathview ace-of-penguins audacious
  audacious-plugins chromium-browser chromium-browser-l10n
  chromium-codecs-ffmpeg elementary-icon-theme esound-common
  galculator gdebi gdebi-core giblib1 gnome-icon-theme-full
  gnome-mplayer gnome-time-admin gnumeric gnumeric-common
  gnumeric-doc gpicview guvcview hardinfo
  indicator-status-provider-pidgin leafpad libabiword-2.8
  libaiksaurus-1.2-0c2a libaiksaurus-1.2-data
  libaiksaurusgtk-1.2-0c2a libaudclient2 libaudcore1 libaudiofile0
  libbinio1ldbl libcddb2 libcompfaceg1 libcue1 libdiscid0 libesd0
  libexo-1-0 libexo-common libfluidsynth1 libfm-data libfm-gtk-data
  libfm-gtk1 libfm1 libgdome2-0 libgdome2-cpp-smart0c2a
  libgoffice-0.8-8 libgoffice-0.8-8-common libgringotts2
  libgsf-1-114 libgsf-1-common libgtkmathview0c2a libimlib2
  libjpeg-progs liblink-grammar4 libloudmouth1-0 libmcrypt4 libmcs1
  libmenu-cache1 libmowgli2 libmusicbrainz3-6 libobrender27 libobt0
  libonig2 libopenal1 libopts25 libots0 libpisock9
  libresid-builder0c2a libsidplay2 libsvga1 libtar0 libuniconf4.6
  libvdpau1 libwebcam0 libwv-1.2-3 libwvstreams4.6-base
  libwvstreams4.6-extras libxfce4ui-1-0 libxfce4util-bin
  libxfce4util-common libxfce4util4 libxfcegui4-4 libxfconf-0-2
  libxvidcore4 link-grammar-dictionaries-en lm-sensors
  lubuntu-artwork lubuntu-core lubuntu-default-settings
  lubuntu-desktop lubuntu-icon-theme lxappearance
  lxappearance-obconf lxde-common lxde-core lxdm lxinput
  lxkeymap lxlauncher lxmenu-data lxpanel
  lxpanel-indicator-applet-plugin lxrandr lxsession lxsession-edit
  lxshortcut lxtask lxterminal mplayer mtpaint ntp obconf openbox
  openbox-themes osmo pcmanfm pidgin pidgin-data pidgin-libnotify
  pidgin-microblog plymouth-theme-lubuntu-logo
  plymouth-theme-lubuntu-text python-xklavier scrot sylpheed
  sylpheed-doc sylpheed-i18n sylpheed-plugins transmission ttf-lyx
  uvcdynctrl uvcdynctrl-data wvdial xfburn xfce-keyboard-shortcuts
  xfce4-power-manager xfce4-power-manager-data xfconf xfonts-100dpi
  xpad xscreensaver
0 upgraded, 145 newly installed, 0 to remove and 19 not upgraded.
Need to get 86.9 MB of archives.
After this operation, 315 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? 

Uninstalling lubuntu-desktop using sudo apt-get remove lubuntu-desktop only removes the lubuntu-desktop package (yellow) but none of the other packages that were installed installed with it:

richard@richard-VirtualBox:~$ sudo apt-get remove --auto-remove lubuntu-desktop
[sudo] password for richard:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  lubuntu-desktop
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 123 not upgraded.
After this operation, 32.8 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? 

This is because none of those packages depend on lubuntu-desktop to function. They are recommended and installed because they contribute to the overall “Lubuntu experience”. They all have to be removed separately.

The post Ubuntu 11.10 – How to Completely Remove a Package appeared first on Complete, Concrete, Concise.

This tutorial is for Ubuntu 11.10, however, it should be the same for other versions of Ubuntu (and derivatives, like edubuntu, kubuntu, lubuntu, and xubuntu) and other Linux distributions based on Debian.

However, no guarantee is made.

What makes Ubuntu very easy to use is the Ubuntu Software Center which allows users an easy way to select and install or remove packages (usually programs).

However, when you search the web looking for help with Ubuntu, often times you see something to the effect of:

While this is clear for those who know what it means, I believe the majority of Ubuntu users are those who want a simple to install and use Linux OS – they are not interested in lower level details of managing their system.

Advantages of using apt-get

When you use the Ubuntu Software Manager, all the details of the installation are hidden from you – you don’t know if you are installing just one package or twelve.

Using apt-get, you can see which packages are going to be installed. This also makes it easier to know which packages to uninstall if you uninstall later.

Another advantage of using apt-get instead of the Ubuntu Software Center is that apt-get allows you to install multiple packages with a single command. With the Ubuntu Software Center you need to install each package separately.

For example, if I want to install the astronomy packages Stellarium and Celestia GNOME using the Ubuntu Software Center, I need to install each separately. Using apt-get, I can install both from the same command by separating them with a space:

sudo apt-get install stellarium celestia-gnome

What it is

The command is really two commands:

1. sudo – a command to grant super user access to the system. Ubuntu is configured to prevent administrative (or system level) changes to the operating system. This is a security measure. sudo allows a user to temporarily override this behaviour.
2. apt-get – the Advanced Packaging Tool which allows users to install, remove, and update packages on their system.

Using apt-get

1) Type the command and press Enter (in this case, I am installing the package stellarium):

2) Type your password and press Enter. Note: as a security measure, your keystrokes are not echoed back to you. You will be typing, but see no feedback on the screen. While weird, this is normal.

3) Examine the install information (if you like):

The install information shows you the following:

• Any extra packages that will be installed along with the selected package (yellow)
• The list of packages to be installed this includes the package you are installing along with any extra packages needed (green)
• A summary of (1) number of packages being upgraded, (2) number of new packages being installed, (3) number of packages being removed, (4) number of packages that are unaffected (red)
• How large the download will be (blue)
• How much disk space will be used by the installation (grey)

4) If you want to go ahead with the installation, press Enter. If you changed your mind, type n (upper or lower case – it doesn’t matter) and press Enter,

5) Wait for the installation to finish. During installation, you will see downloading information and installation information:

The post Ubuntu 11.10 – Understanding sudo apt-get install … appeared first on Complete, Concrete, Concise.

This article was updated for Ubuntu 12.04. It can be found here.

A basic Unity tutorial can be found here. NOTE: Unity in Ubuntu 12.04 is more complete and useful than Unity in Ubuntu 11.10 – the main advantage being the HUD interface.

Ubuntu 11.10 comes with the Unity interface. Either the full blown Unity or Unity 2D for systems that don’t support 3D acceleration. If the install / upgrade went well, this is the only interface available to you.

Unfortunately, many people hate the interface. The interface itself is not that bad – it is a new way of doing things and anything new is usually met with a lot of resistance because users are comfortable with the old way of doing things. Unity changes the way we interact with the computer from icons and menus to a browser like interface (called Dash) where the user types in what application they want to run.

A more serious problem with Unity is that it is sluggish. Very sluggish. It takes two seconds from pressing the Window key to getting the Dash interface. It is no faster pressing the Dash icon.

There are alternatives to Unity, but it is not obvious what they might be.

I spent 3 days installing and testing 22 different window managers and desktop environments available via the Ubuntu Software Center.

Setup

Ubuntu 11.10 was installed in a VirtualBox (version 4.1.2r73507) virtual machine. The virtual machine was configured to have 1 cpu, 512Mb memory, 12Mb video memory, 8Gb hard disk.

Ubuntu 11.10 was installed as an upgrade to a fresh Ubuntu 11.04 install.

Guest Additions were not installed.

Each replacement environment was tested on a fresh Ubuntu 11.10. This was to avoid any possible interactions / conflicts / dependencies between installed environments.

Testing

Basically, I tested it for usability:

1. Did it work?
2. Was it easy to navigate?
3. Could I find what I was looking for?

I also (crudely) tested performance:

1. How long it took from login to the desktop? This was tested from a freshly booted machine.
2. How long did it take to launch FireFox? Only the first launch time is recorded since subsequent launches were faster.
3. How long did it take to launch LibreOffice Writer? Only the first launch time is recorded since subsequent launches are faster.

A number of factors can affect launch and startup times, so take them with a generous pinch of salt – especially since I was not terribly rigorous about it. I found that the few seconds difference in time to launch is not that important compared to the responsiveness of the environment.

Notable Absence

KDE, the rival to GNOME, is absent from this list because Ubuntu Software Center fails to run correctly under it – it will launch, but you cannot install or remove any packages using it.

KDE provides its own software center called Muon Software Center, but it doesn’t work either. You can click the Install or Remove button and it will start doing something, but after a few seconds it will pop up the error message: This operation cannot continue since proper authorization was not provided. (this bug was reported on 16-Oct-2011). This happens because Ubuntu requires administrator priviledges (that’s why you’re asked for a password) when installing or removing software. If you are running as root thn this would not be a problem.

You could always use the Synaptic Package Manager or apt-get from the command line, but I think most Ubuntu user’s want to use the easy and familiar way.

Caveat

My comments aren’t full fledged reviews. They reflect my impressions and observations to help guide you in picking a replacement for Unity.

Any one of these environments is a good replacement for the Unity Desktop.

If I said something negative about an environment, well, it was something I noticed and considered negative. It may be something you don’t notice or care about.

GNOME Shell

The Good

If you like the classic Ubuntu interface and want to go back to it, then installing GNOME will give you most of that. But there are differences (listed in The Bad)

The Bad

• You only get two menu entries on the desktop instead of three.
• There is no quick launch icon for FireFox
• The menus are slightly different from the classic interface
• The interface is sluggish, but not as sluggish as Unity.
• There are no options available for configuring the look of the interface (you need to download additional packages Advanced Settings, extra themes for the GNOME desktop, and GNOME Color Chooser. Even then, you don’t have as many configuration options as LXDE or XFCE.

The Timings

• From Login to Desktop: 35-45 seconds
• Launch FireFox: 11-19 seconds
• Launch LibreOffice Writer: 25 seconds

Installing GNOME Shell

1) Launch the Ubuntu Software Center by clicking on the icon:

2) Enter gnome shell into the search field. This will bring up a number of related entries. Click on the entry GNOME Shell – this will highlight it in orange:

4) Click on Install:

5) Enter your password and click on Authenticate:

6) After the install is finished, Logout of Ubuntu.

7) Click on the icon in the top right of the Login box and select one of the first 3 GNOME entries. I saw difference in the behaviour or performance of the different versions of GNOME. If you are worried about performance, select GNOME classic (No effects). I selected GNOME:

8) Enter your password and login.

This is the default desktop:

As you see, the environment looks very similar to the original Ubuntu classic desktop: there is a status and navigation bar at the top (green); menus look familiar (red); and applications look the same (blue):

LXDE

The Good

• The lightest weight desktop
• Many configuration options.
• Snappy and responsive.

The Bad

• While the LXDE logo is pretty cool, I don’t like it as my Start Menu launcher (ok, so that is a small gripe and is probably customizable somewhere).
• I found too many applications were put into the Other menu option (XFCE did a slightly better job at grouping menu items, but XFCE placed some applications in multiple menus, LDXE did not duplicate applications across menus).
• The are two (apparently conflicting) look and feel configuration managers: LXAppearance and Openbox Configuration Manager.

The Timings

• From Login to Desktop: 11 seconds
• Launch FireFox: 3 seconds
• Launch LibreOffice Writer: 19 seconds

Installing LXDE

1) Launch the Ubuntu Software Center by clicking on the icon:

2) Enter lxde into the search field. This will bring up a number of related entries. Click on the entry LXDE (The Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment) – this will highlight it in orange:

4) Click on Install:

5) Enter your password and click on Authenticate:

6) After the install is finished, Logout of Ubuntu.

7) Click on the icon in the top right of the Login box and select Lxde. Note: there will also be entries for GNOME / Openbox and Openbox. Selecting GNOME/ Openbox will get you the Unity desktop; selecting Openbox will get you a very barebones environment (just a grey screen) you can right click on the desktop to get a menu):

8) Enter your password and login.

This is the default desktop:

As you see, it is a fairly standard windowing type desktop. You can configure the look and feel through either the LXAppearance application or the Openbox Configuration Manager. Unfortunately, they both overlap and Openbox Configuration Manager seems to override LXAppearance in many cases. I found it a little confusing to have two configuration utilities that do pretty much the same thing (and conflict with one another):

Where Things Are

Ubuntu Software Center, Update Manager, and Ubuntu One can be found in the Preferences menu entry.

XFCE

The Good

• Coolest looking desktop (ok, your preference might be different)
• Many configuration look and feel configurations options available (the most of the three packages).
• Snappy and responsive.
• It is my favourite (again, that is purely subjective)

The Bad

• It’s the largest of the packages (but not a behemoth).
• Multiple applications are used for configuring the look and feel (but unlike LXDE, their functionality does not overlap)
• A lot of applications end up in the Settings menu. There is also some duplication of entries between the Accessories, Settings and System menu (depending on your point of view, this may not be a problem if you feel an application fits in multiple categories).

The Timings

• From Login to Desktop: 20 seconds
• Launch FireFox: 6 seconds
• Launch LibreOffice Writer: 27 seconds

Installing XFCE

1) Launch the Ubuntu Software Center by clicking on the icon:

2) Enter xfce4 into the search field. This will bring up a number of related entries. Click on the entry Meta-package for the Xfce Lightweight Desktop Environment – this will highlight it in orange:

4) Click on Install:

5) Enter your password and click on Authenticate:

6) After the install is finished, Logout of Ubuntu.

7) Click on the icon in the top right of the Login box and select Xfce Session.

8) Enter your password and login.

9) The first time you start XFCE, it will prompt you use the default configuration or to create an empty panel. Select Use default config:

This is the default desktop:

As you see, a fairly standard windowing environment. The Desktop application allows you to change the background The Window Manager application allows you to change the look of the windows. The Windows Manager Tweaks application allows you to configure the behaviour of your windows and desktop:

Conclusion

Aside from being a lot of work to test, this experience has shown me is that Ubuntu has done a fantastic job in packaging and laying out a Linux distribution for the masses.

Unfortunately, in trying to differentiate itself and trying to set a direction, Ubuntu is alienating a lot of users who would normally be drawn to this (formerly) user friendly distro.

Unity is a tablet style interface for Linux. It might be good, but it should be an option for users – not enforced on them.

As well, Unity and, it seems, GNOME 3 (and KDE Plasma) demand a lot of graphics horsepower. Their performance on my system is pretty much unacceptable.

The post Ubuntu 11.10 – Replacing the Unity Interface appeared first on Complete, Concrete, Concise.

I’ve played with Linux for almost 20 years. My first experience was trying to compile it, in the early 90s, from sources (gotten off a CUG CD?), but Turbo C wasn’t able to compile it.

By the mid-90s, I was playing with compiled distributables. While they were interesting and often had some neat features, I never considered them ready for the desktop.

Ubuntu 11.04 was the first Linux distro I thought could be deemed ready for the desktop. Sadly, 11.10 takes a step backwards and once again shows Linux as “not quite there”.

The Setup

I tested the upgrade of 11.04 to 11.10.

I installed 11.04 in a VirtualBox (4.1.2r73507) system. The virtual machine was configured to have 1 cpu, 1024Mb memory, 12Mb video memory, 8Gb hard drive.

This is the same configuration I run my “real” setup of Ubuntu 11.04 in.

I did not run the 11.04 software updates. I figured there was no need since I would be upgrading to 11.10 and any necessary updates would handled that way.

I did not install the VirtualBox Guest Additions.

I did accept to download updates and install third party software during install of 11.04.

The Upgrade

After installing 11.04, I went to the update manager and selected to upgrade my system to 11.10.

This is where the first thing went wrong. I ended up with two upgrade screens. Ok, minor glitch, closed one and proceeded with the other.

Ubuntu informed me the download was going to take just over an hour, so I went out and ran some errands. When I checked on it about 3 hours later, Ubuntu was just finishing the last of the updates (estimated 6 minutes remaining) – everything was going well.

At least until it got to the cleanup part of the install – everything froze (the mouse cursor still moved around, but nothing else was responding. I figured it might be busy, went and prepared dinner, fed my family, came back 2 hours later and it was in the same frozen state.

I tried sending the shutdown signal (twice) via VirtualBox, but that didn’t work, so I powered down the virtual machine.

Restarting the Ubuntu 11.10 Install

The 11.10 machine seemed to be booting much slower than my 11.04 install. Ubuntu 11.10 seems to be having (or thinks it is having) network connection problems (as far as I know, my network connection is fine). Nevertheless, every time it boots up, it keeps insisting I don’t have a full network connection. Ubuntu 11.04 never had this problem (or, at least, never reported it):

My 11.04 Ubuntu install never waited for a network connection.

Ubuntu 11.10 is going to try for just 60 more seconds …

As far as I know, I have full network connectivity. So I wonder what Ubuntu is having problems with?

Changing Desktop Environments

Ubuntu 11.10 runs Unity 2D as the default (and only) interface. Finding Unity confusing, I installed LXDE as the desktop environment. Instructions for changing your Ubuntu desktop can be found here

It is not at all obvious how to change your desktop environment at login. That little asterisk / star in the upper right corner looks a lot like the symbol Ubuntu uses for shutdown – it does not say, “Click me to change your desktop environment.”

After trying out LXDE, I wasn’t sold on it. Seeing that a number of other interfaces were available, I tried them out (except recovery console).They all give me the Unity 2D environment, except for Openbox, it left me with an unusable blank screen – necessitating sending Ubuntu the Shutdown signal. Even after rebooting, all I would get is a blank screen. Bad. I did one more reboot cycle and then decided to change my hardware settings. I hoped giving more RAM and video memory might sort out the problem. I upped the virtual machine’s hardware settings to give 1536Mb of RAM and 32Mb of video memory. This got me out of the blank screen of nothingness problem. I selected the Unity 2D interface.

The mysterious blank screen of nothingness. (And, yes, I did spell Ubuntu wrong when when I entered the name for the virtual machine.)

More Hang-ups

I did a little customization, selected a new background.

Then I selected System Settings –> Software Settings to try and find a faster download centre. It got part way through the process and then stopped. I left it running overnight (just in case it was because the servers it was testing were slow), but, some 8+ hours later, the progress indicator hadn’t moved:

Closed the dialog and got this error message:

Then I tried closing the Software Source console – it wasn’t responding. At all. It was a though it was just part of the background.

I popped up the system monitor and noticed 11 software-properties-gtk threads were sleeping waiting on a futex_wait_queue_me flag / mutex / semaphore / whatever. Selected them and killed them, this got rid of the Software Source console.

A Quick Overview of Unity

I installed two applications: Code::Blocks (a programming IDE) and GNAT GPS (a programming IDE for Ada). Both installed fine (once again showing, as far as I can see, no network problem).

Code::Blocks installs a menu entry to allow launching of the application. Since Unity 2D (and I presume Unity too) don’t have a launch menu, there is nowhere to click to launch it.

If you go to the Dash interface (click on the topmost icon or press the Windows key on your keyboard):

you can type type in the name of the application and it will show up:

The Unity interface works very much like searching with Google. As you type your query, the number of matches decreases until you find what you want. Unlike searching with Google, Unity does not: (1) auto-correct typos, nor (2) try to infer what you are looking for – the match has to be quite precise. I presume there are additional tags or keywords that can be associated with an application to help Unity find it.

Searching on game and games bring up different results. Neither of them suggests the installed Sudoku game (which used to be found in the Games menu of the classic interface). If you want to play Sudoku, then you have type in Sudoku, unfortunately, misspelling it as sodoku, soduko, sodoko (and others) is possible and you will get no results; searching on puzzle will locate it:

Just not Working

GNAT GPS does not install a menu item for launching. You are instructed to launch the IDE from the command line by typing in gnat-gps – that is so quaintly early 1990s. While I do use the command line for some tasks, in general, if I am running a windowing environment, I expect to access my applications from that environment and not have to drop to a terminal to do so. NOTE: this is a shortcoming of the GPS install, not Ubuntu, Linux, or the desktop.

In 11.04, I was able to manually create a menu entry for GNAT GPS. I can’t do this in 11.10 because the Main Menu application doesn’t work. Period.

When Code::Blocks installed itself, it created a Main Menu entry – I can see it in the interface. What I cannot do is edit the menu entries. I can’t Add, Delete, or modify them in any way. The New Menu and New Item keys don’t work – you can click on them, but they do nothing:

Clicking on Help is of no use either, I get the following error:

Conclusion

I find Ubuntu 11.10 an extremely disappointing step backwards – it goes back to the tired tradition of Linux being not quite ready for prime time.

On the other hand, Ubuntu 11.04 (using the classic interface) was the first Linux I’ve played with that I felt was ready for the desktop because it worked. There were no mysterious crashes or hang-ups or glitches (ok, Nepomuk Backup didn’t work – a serious fault to install software and not install or configure it to work, but aside from that, 11.04 worked).

I continue to use 11.04 on a laptop and under a virtual machine on my desktop. I hope 12.04 will fix these problems and make me feel that it is ready for the desktop.

Post Mortem

I am not sure why 11.10 acted up on my system while 11.04 did not. Maybe I should have installed all the updates to 11.04 before upgrading to 11.10. Maybe I should have just downloaded 11.10 and installed from that. Maybe the fact that the upgrade crashed during cleanup left my install in some funky state. Maybe my installation of LXDE (despite my deciding not to use it) is responsible for my problems? Maybe it is the new Unity 2D interface?

I don’t know. I am not going to bother reinstalling 11.10. I am not going to bother troubleshooting 11.10 (since it takes several hours to go through the install). I am just going to ignore it, continue to use 11.04 and hope that 12.04 is better.

Update – 21 October 2011

I downloaded and installed the latest updates from Ubuntu and this has resolved two of the three issues I had:

1. The Main Menu Manager now works. I was able to add GNAT GPS to it and can now access it from the Unity Dash interface.
2. The (imaginary?) network problems that were slowing down and being reported during boot up are now gone. Ubuntu 11.10 now boots faster since it is not waiting for some (imagined?) network connection.

I still have the same issues described above in More Hang-ups:

1. Select Best Server stops about half way though (mind you, I stopped it after about an hour since it seemed to be going no where just like the overnight attempt I ran a few days ago)
2. the error message about not being able to find a suitable server is still there. I am not sure if this is because a real error occurred or if it’s because I terminated the Testing download servers dialog and this is just a poorly worded message which should really read something like: “A suitable download server was not found because testing was terminated by the user.”
3. the Software Sources dialog does not respond to the Close button click. The only improvement, if it’s an improvement, is I can grab and move the dialog around the screen (previously, it was completely unresponsive). Still, the only way to close it is to kill all the threads associated with the process.

If you are having some functionality issues and your network connection is working (Even if Ubuntu 11.10 says it has problems), then I strongly recommend downloading the latest updates. I imagine these updates will be automatically installed when you do an upgrade from 11.04, but I make no guarantee.

Update – 24 October 2011

Despite my earlier statement that I would ignore Ubuntu 11.10, I haven’t. I spent some time on the weekend looking to replace the desktop environment and uninstalling the Unity interface. I must have uninstalled too much because I trashed the entire install – it would no longer boot to a login screen. So I deleted that install and reinstalled Ubuntu 11.10 in a new virtual machine. The settings and process were the same as before, except that I only gavfe the machine 512Mb of memory.

This time the install went smoothly. There was no hang-up at the cleanup step.

When 11.10 rebooted, I got no network warnings – that’s good.

The login interface doesn’t have all the options that were present before. This probably means when the install failed the first time, it did not completely clean up the old desktop interfaces:

While I had no network issues, I find the Main Menu application doesn’t work – just like before. When I checked, there were no updates to install – meaning that upgrading from 11.04 to 11.10 includes any relevant updates.

As well, trying to find a faster download centre results in the same hang part way through the process – as before.

It’s getting better, but still needs work.

Addendum – 19 October 2011

I was surprised how quickly and how popular this article became. On the day it was published it was the second most popular article on my site. And #1 on the next two days. Today (19-Oct-2011) it has dropped to fourth place – but the day is only half over.

Judging from the search terms landing people here, it is obvious a lot of people are having issues with it (click for larger image):

The image displays 133 search queries landing people on this page – it is not all the queries, just what I could reasonably fit into a single landscape page and then screen capture. Why an image instead of a table of queries? Listing the queries as text would skew search results – I only want people showing up because they want to read about my impressions, not because they think they can find answers to their problems (never mind a lot of visitors are showing up looking for solutions to problems).

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