lite

After seeing DistroWatch's review of Linux Lite 4.0, I decided to check it out. I downloaded linux-lite-4.0-64bit.iso and used md5sum to check the download:

$ md5sum linux-lite-4.0-64bit.iso
f4ff50524b7fb18fe97a6748db1318ec  linux-lite-4.0-64bit.iso

I wanted to try booting the iso from the hard drive instead of booting from a flash drive like I normally do when I want to take a look at a live session of a distro release. My "test" computer is currently home to BunsenLabs Deuterium; booting into that system, I created the directory /isoimage, then copied the Linux Lite iso into that. Then I edited the /etc/grub.d/40_custom file so that it now looks like this:

#!/bin/sh
exec tail -n +3 $0
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
menuentry "Linux Lite 4.0 (iso on /dev/sda1)" {
  set isofile="/isoimage/linux-lite-4.0-64bit.iso"
  loopback loop (hd0,1)$isofile
  linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=$isofile noprompt noeject
  initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.gz
}

Then I ran sudo update-grub, then rebooted. That gave me a grub menu entry for Linux Lite 4.0. I booted into the live session.

Linux Lite 4.0 is based on Ubuntu 18.04 (LTS), and ships with Xfce 4.12.3. Here's what the system looks like at first boot:

The Welcome screen has a "Help Manual" button (there's also an icon for the manual on the desktop), so I clicked on that. The manual, which is stored in the /usr/share/docs/litemanual directory, opens up in Firefox. It can also be found at https://www.linuxliteos.com/manual/. I haven't spent much time checking it out, but it seems to cover a good number of topics.

Some of the apps included in the release: firefox, gnome-calculator, gimp, hardinfo, inxi, htop, leafpad, libreoffice, xfce-terminal, qpdf, rsync, gparted, shotwell, synaptic, thunderbird, and vlc. Also included are several tools created specifically for Linux Lite that are supposed to make life easier for users. And, much more; Linux Lite 4.0 appears to be fully loaded and ready to use out-of-the-box.

Of course, I wanted to see the repo setup. The repos enabled by default in /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu bionic partner

Also, I found some files in the /etc/apt/sources.list.d directory. Enabled in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/linuxlite.list:

deb http://repo.linuxliteos.com/linuxlite/ diamond main

Enabled in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/otto-kesselgulasch-ubuntu-gimp-xenial.list:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/otto-kesselgulasch/gimp/ubuntu bionic main

Enabled in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teejee2008-ubuntu-ppa-bionic.list:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/teejee2008/ppa/ubuntu bionic main

So, a few PPA things going on, and some stuff from Linux Lite's own repos, and the rest from Bionic (Ubuntu 18.04).

To me, the live session of Linux Lite 4.0 looked about as good as anything else I've seen that ships with Xfce. I haven't quite decided whether I like it better than MX-17, which I keep on a flash drive for the occasional live session; might come down to a coin flip. Excellent job, from where I sit.

more bionic stuff

I copied this shot from the OMG! Ubuntu! website; looks like a live session of Ubuntu 18.04, with Nautilus opened up:

The modified GNOME Shell desktop they're using has a dock along the left side, and that includes an icon at the bottom left for the Apps Menu.

Note the Amazon web launcher on the panel. Bleh.

(See: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/04/ubuntu-18-04-download-release-features)


If I installed Ubuntu 18.04, I'd probably end up running

sudo apt install vanilla-gnome-desktop

and then logging into the vanilla GNOME session, since that's what I'm used to from Debian Stretch.

Also, I'd run:

sudo apt purge ubuntu-web-launchers

That gets rid of the Amazon launcher, and I think it should get rid of these associated files:

/usr/share/applications/com.canonical.launcher.amazon.desktop
/usr/share/applications/ubuntu-amazon-default.desktop
/usr/share/doc/ubuntu-web-launchers/changelog.gz
/usr/share/doc/ubuntu-web-launchers/copyright
/usr/share/icons/hicolor/128x128/apps/amazon-store.png
/usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/amazon-store.png
/usr/share/icons/hicolor/52x52/apps/amazon-store.png
/usr/share/icons/hicolor/64x64/apps/amazon-store.png
/usr/share/ubuntu-web-launchers/amazon-launcher

See:
https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-remove-the-gnome-amazon-launcher-package-from-ubuntu-18-04-bionic-beaver-desktop
https://packages.ubuntu.com/bionic/all/ubuntu-web-launchers/filelist

My understanding is that the ubuntu-web-launchers package is not installed if the Minimal Installation option is chosen. Good to know.

This Amazon crap bugged me enough that I decided to quit using Ubuntu, so I haven't installed the latest release. But I think that overall the LTS releases work out quite nicely, especially after the first point release. The ubuntu-web-launchers package isn't included by default in the 18.04 releases of Ubuntu "flavors" like Kubuntu and Lubuntu; one of those might be better options for users who want to take advantage of the Bionic repos but who don't want to run the main distro.

back to the 'buntu world

I kinda gave up on Ubuntu this past summer, feeling that I'd finally had enough of Canonical's relationship with Amazon, and of having Amazon stuff on my computer. Whatever. Ubuntu, anyway, is a great distro (with great repositories!), and most of the Ubuntu "flavors" or derivatives I've tried (Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Linux Mint, etc.) have been, in some ways, better than the parent. The Ubuntu repos, which (as I understand) draw a lot of packages from the Debian Sid repos, turn out to be great for other distros to use as a base.

With all that in mind, I'd been considering adding one of the 'Buntu derivatives to my lineup. Yesterday, I downloaded Kubuntu 17.10.1 ("Artful Aardvark") and tested out the live session. A couple of shots:

Kubuntu 17,10 ships with KDE Plasma 5.10.5, Firefox 57, LibreOffice, VLC media player, and the great KDE apps and tools we've come to know and love.

Here's a shot of my empty desktop, after a good amount of tweaking:

With the application menu opened up and the cursor highlighting Synaptic on the Favorites bar:

My desktop right-click and left-click menus, respectively:

The Discover Software Center -- the user could get lost for hours digging around in here:

Kubuntu also ships with the Muon Package Manager:

I don't know if Muon is any better than Synaptic, which is available in the repos:

My Compaq Presario CQ56 notebook has kinda weak specs; I've turned off most of KDE Plasma's special effects, and Artful performs well, but with a few minor graphical glitches that I haven't yet figured out how to fix.

I've used Kubuntu off and on over the years; it is never perfect, but it's always something I can work with. After some tweaking, I always seem to end up with a solid, dependable system. As I mentioned above, 17.10 ships with an excellent collection of apps and tools; I added a few more, and I think that the end result gives me a great Plasma setup to work with over the next several months. Looking forward to the LTS release!

moving on

There will be no Unity desktop in Ubuntu 18.04. Mark Shuttleworth announced today that "...we will end our investment in Unity8, the phone and convergence shell. We will shift our default Ubuntu desktop back to GNOME for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS." (See: "Growing Ubuntu for Cloud and IoT, rather than Phone and convergence")

Good decision. I'm not one of those Unity-haters; I came up with a Unity setup that works for me, and I have no problem using it to get things done. That being said, I actually prefer using GNOME Shell instead of Unity, so I always add GNOME to Ubuntu. I'd even been thinking that maybe I'd want to try Ubuntu GNOME next year, instead of going on to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Today's announcement, I'm guessing, spells the end of the Ubuntu GNOME spin...

Anyway, I'll enjoy logging into Unity over the next year or so, then I'll bid it farewell. Unity was never the greatest Linux desktop, but I never thought that it was all that bad.

By the way: Check out the Ubuntu Vibes piece, "Why is Ubuntu Popular? End Users Share their Opinion".

low-cost linux, no commitment

If you want to run Linux on our own computer, without it costing you anything (except perhaps the cost of a flash drive) and without it changing anything on your own system, there are two things you'll have to do first, and both of them will probably require a little research on your part:

1. Get a flash drive, anything 2 GB capacity or higher. Make it into a bootable Linux flash drive, choosing from any of a (very large) number of Linux distributions (maybe have a look at DistroWatch). I use Ubuntu and MX in the examples below, but other distros might be preferable -- Linux Mint, Knoppix, or Puppy Linux, to name a few. You'll want to refer to the specific distro's documentation for instructions on making the bootable flash drive.

2. Adjust the boot order in your computer's BIOS settings so that your computer boots from a flash drive if one's plugged in. You'll have to refer to documentation from your computer's manufacturer for info about accessing and changing BIOS settings.


After that, the rest is cake. Most of the time. Depends.


Anyway,  just turn off your computer, plug in the flash drive, and boot the computer.

If, for example, you chose to boot with a flash drive with Ubuntu on it, and then you clicked on the "Try Ubuntu" button, in a few seconds you'd be running a "live" Ubuntu session:

A distro like Ubuntu should pick up your wifi, or you can use ethernet, whatever. Shouldn't be much trouble to get online. First thing I do, open up Firefox and go to Gmail:

With a live Linux session, you can explore and learn about how things work in Linux.  Here, I've inserted another flash drive (named "ARCH_201311") and I'm viewing its contents with Files, Ubuntu's file manager:

With two tabs open in Files, I can copy the screenshots I'm using for this post to the flash drive ARCH_201311.

Or you can just open a web browser and handle your biz.

A shot of the MX-15 live session in action:

With Firefox, I can access Google Drive and other Google Apps, of course.

Here, I created a spreadsheet in Google Sheets, then saved a copy of the spreadsheet into the live session itself:

Whatever, once you shut down the system and remove the flash drive, you'll be able to boot your computer as normal.


(Also: Many distros have live sessions that are great for system maintenance, data recovery, drive partitioning, etc., but that's another topic.)

purge-old-kernels

My normal approach to cleaning up old kernels and headers in Ubuntu: In Synaptic, search linux-image, mark all but the two most recent linux-image packages for complete removal, search linux-header, mark all but the two most recent linux-headers packages for complete removal, apply the changes, reboot. This isn't something that normally needs to be done in Debian, but Ubuntu receives a lot more kernel updates and accumulates a lot more old kernels than you'll ever see in Debian Stable.

For the first time, I tried another approach: the purge-old-kernels command.

For info about using the purge-old-kernels command in Ubuntu, see http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2016/06/purge-old-kernels.html and http://www.webupd8.org/2016/07/how-to-safely-remove-old-linux-kernels.html.

And, of course, don't forget to take a look at man purge-old-kernels.

Dustin Kirkland wrote, "You'll already have the purge-old-kernels command in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (and later), as part of the byobu package." Here, turned out I had to install byobu in 16.04.

Then, I ran the following:

$ sudo purge-old-kernels
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  libpango1.0-0 linux-headers-4.4.0-31 python3-feedparser unity-scopes-runner
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  linux-headers-4.4.0-31-generic* linux-image-4.4.0-31-generic* linux-image-extra-4.4.0-31-generic*
  linux-signed-image-4.4.0-31-generic*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 4 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 225 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]


I let that that operation proceed and then went back and ran the following as recommended by the output above:

$ sudo apt autoremove libpango1.0-0 linux-headers-4.4.0-31 python3-feedparser unity-scopes-runner
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  libpango1.0-0 linux-headers-4.4.0-31 python3-feedparser unity-scopes-runner
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 4 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 70.8 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]


Again, I let the operation proceed. Seems to have worked out fine here, but as always, be careful when using that autoremove option! Perhaps take a look at the "autoremove" section in man apt:

autoremove (apt-get(8))
           autoremove is used to remove packages that were automatically installed to satisfy dependencies for other
           packages and are now no longer needed as dependencies changed or the package(s) needing them were removed
           in the meantime.

           You should check that the list does not include applications you have grown to like even though they were
           once installed just as a dependency of another package. You can mark such a package as manually installed
           by using apt-mark(8). Packages which you have installed explicitly via install are also never proposed for
           automatic removal.

gnome shell in 16.04

Not everyone likes GNOME Shell, but it's one of my favorites. I like GNOME 3 a lot better than the old GNOME 2.

I added GNOME Shell (version 3.18) to Ubuntu 16.04 by adding the gnome-shell package. A few shots and a little info:

I like GNOME Shell without any extensions, but I downloaded the gnome-shell-extensions package from the Ubuntu Xenial repos. That gave me these extensions (as viewed from GNOME Tweak Tool):

I tried the Workspace indicator extension. It works fine; it sits on the top panel, and with the cursor hovering over the icon, the user can switch workspaces with the mouse scroll wheel. Alternatively, clicking on the icon brings up a workspace list:

I decided that I don't need Workspace indicator because I'm used to quickly switching between workspaces from the Activities overview:

Applications menu is another extension that looks useful; it replaces the Activities button with an Applications button on the top panel:

One that wasn't included with the gnome-shell-extensions package, but that's found at the GNOME Shell Extensions site: Dash to Dock, one of the extensions mentioned in the OMG! Ubuntu! article, "5 Best GNOME Shell Extensions for Ubuntu".

I'm good with GNOME Shell's many default options for launching apps. Of course, one can always launch apps from gnome-terminal, or by bringing up the Run dialog box with the Alt+F2 key combo:

Or there's the Dash dock in the Activities overview:

Currently running apps are indicated by a blue line under the icon in the Dash.

Or, two or three letters of an app name typed into the Applications overview's search box quickly brings up what you're looking for:

Finally, it's really no big deal to simply click on the Dash's "Show Applications" button:

From here, you can view frequently used apps, or all apps. Under "All", I've got only three "pages" of apps, all in alphabetical order. Not at all difficult to find any particular app. You can use the scroll wheel to see more apps on the other "pages":

One thing I don't understand is why dconf-editor and gnome-tweak-tool are not included by default. GNOME's System Settings is nice, but sadly incomplete:

gnome-tweak-tool and dconf-editor provide many additional tools:

One last note: I like the Variety wallpaper changer for handling my desktop backgrounds. Once installed and set up, Variety parks an icon in the hidden tray at the hotspot at the lower-left corner of the desktop screen. Clicking on that icon brings up the Variety menu:

Variety's quite simple to set up, and works great with GNOME Shell:

GNOME Shell is excellent for me, even without any GNOME Shell extensions in use. The GNOME Shell paradigm agrees with me. They mostly keep things simple, which is nice at times. I have no problem getting around the desktop and getting work done. Not everybody's cup of tea, but as they say, "Linux is about Choice." Enjoy!

quicklist in 15.10

I found that I was able to set up a quicklist for the Unity launcher in Ubuntu 15.10 using the same type of approach that I've used in the past in Ubuntu 11.04 (see "unity quicklists"), Ubuntu 12.04 (see "shaping up") and Ubuntu 14.04 (see "trusty screenshots").

First, I created ~/.local/share/applications/utilities.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Exec=
Name=Utilities
Icon=/usr/share/icons/Humanity/categories/48/applications-other.svg
X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=Chromium;Nautilus;GNOMECalculator;Characters;Screenshot;Geeqie;Mirage;UnityTweak;SystemSettings;Synaptic;

[Chromium Shortcut Group]
Name=chromium
Exec=chromium
TargetEnvironment=Unity

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

[GNOMECalculator Shortcut Group]
Name=gnome-calculator
Exec=gnome-calculator
TargetEnvironment=Unity

[Characters Shortcut Group]
Name=gucharmap
Exec=gucharmap
TargetEnvironment=Unity

[Screenshot Shortcut Group]
Name=gnome-screenshot
Exec=gnome-screenshot -i
TargetEnvironment=Unity

[Geeqie Shortcut Group]
Name=geeqie
Exec=geeqie
TargetEnvironment=Unity

[Mirage Shortcut Group]
Name=mirage
Exec=mirage
TargetEnvironment=Unity

[UnityTweak Shortcut Group]
Name=unity-tweak-tool
Exec=unity-tweak-tool
TargetEnvironment=Unity

[SystemSettings Shortcut Group]
Name=unity-control-center
Exec=unity-control-center
TargetEnvironment=Unity

[Synaptic Shortcut Group]
Name=synaptic
Exec=synaptic-pkexec
TargetEnvironment=Unity

Then I found the Utilities icon in the Dash and dragged it to the Unity launcher. Changes to the utilities.desktop file take effect immediately upon saving the file. Screenshot:

making the smart move

Sensible decision by Canonical. Will Cooke, the Ubuntu Desktop engineering manager, writes that "we’ve taken the decision to gracefully retire some aspects of the Unity 7 online search features."

Here's what Cooke says is changing (see "Online searches in the dash to be off by default."):

First of all online search will be off by default.  This means that out-of-the-box none of your search terms will leave your computer.  You can toggle this back on through the Security & Privacy option in System Settings.  Additionally, if you do toggle this back on then results from Amazon & Skimlinks will remain off by default.  You can toggle them back on if you wish.  Further, the following scopes will be retired from the default install and moved to the Universe repository for 16.04 LTS onwards:

Audacious
Clementine
gmusicbrowser
Gourmet
Guayadeque
Musique

The Music Store will be removed completely for 16.04 LTS onwards.


I've griped a few times before about the Unity Online Search being on by default -- see "shopping crap", and see "canonical: make it opt-in!", where I wrote, "I find it hard to believe that Canonical can't see the sense in reversing course on this issue. Keep complaining, people."

Canonical could have spared itself a lot of criticism if, from the beginning, they'd left it up to the user to turn on the online search stuff. Water under the bridge; good news.

ubuntu 15.10; fvwm-crystal in debian

Installed the new Ubuntu 15.10 release yesterday; first time I've tried a non-LTS release in a while. They've made some nice improvements here and there. Installation took only about 15 minutes even with choosing to download updates during the install; Ubuntu's still great for getting up and running quickly. Spent a few hours after that adding apps and tweaking things to my tastes, though.

A shot of the default Ubuntu 15.10 desktop:

And, after a bit of tweaking:

My only complaints so far:

- Couldn't find an option in the installer for not installing grub rather than installing it to the MBR or to the / partition.

- Still had to go through and turn off the Unity online stuff -- any of that should be opt-in rather than opt-out. This is the price you pay for using Ubuntu -- you have to know to go into the Settings to turn that crap off.

- Speaking of price, when you download Ubuntu from their web site, they try to get you to donate money right before the download begins. Two shots here show the top of the page and the bottom of the page:

You can say "Not now" and the download proceeds. I guess there's really nothing wrong with any of that, but I don't like it.

- History in Synaptic (had to add Synaptic since Ubuntu doesn't include it by default anymore) is broken. If you bring up Synaptic's History, the window is blank, no text at all in there.  Here's what it looks like:

That's messed up! Yeah, there are bug reports on this. Plus, an older bug is still present -- the left part of the window isn't showing like it's supposed to, unless you use the cursor to drag the bar over to the right:

Anyway, everything that's supposed to show up in that window can be found in the files in the /root/.synaptic/log/ directory, so this isn't quite a deal-breaker.


Even with those few complaints, I ended up with what looks like another great Ubuntu installation. I still have Ubuntu 14.04 installed on another computer, for the moment. 15.10 is supported for only nine months, but by then the next LTS release will be out, and I'll certainly be moving on to that.

...

On separate note, I installed the window manager fvwm-crystal in Jessie Xfce. Here's a shot of the desktop (default, for the most part):

Took me some time to (kinda) get a feel for how things work. Given more time, I might warm up to fvwm-crystal, but at the moment I don't like it very much and I'm wondering, "Why bother with all that when there's Openbox?" To which the next guy might reply, "Why bother with Openbox when there's Xfce?" :)

still not happening

Here's the deal: Back when I installed Ubuntu 14.04 last year, I also added GNOME Shell to it. Sometimes I log into Unity, other times I go with GNOME Shell.

In the GNOME Shell session, under System Settings > Brightness & Lock, I have "Dim screen to save power" checked, and "Turn screen off when inactive for:" is set to "10 minutes."

Yet, the screen never turns off. There's no problem in the Unity session -- the screen turns off after the time interval that I've set. But I can't get it to work under GNOME Shell. I've resorted to running the following commands:

$ xset +dpms
$ xset dpms 600

That'll make the screen turn off after 600 seconds (10 minutes) of inactivity. But I have to do that every time I start a new GNOME Shell session.

I haven't seen this issue with GNOME Shell in other distros, only in Ubuntu. I'm not sure if it has something to do with having GNOME Shell installed along with Unity, or if some other settings are messing things up, or if it's just a bug from Ubuntu.

I've actually given up on trying to find a fix. Next year when 16.04 comes out, I'll install GNOME Shell and see if the same thing happens.

lubuntu 14.04

I run Ubuntu, but I mostly stay away from Ubuntu spin-offs/derivatives, although I do like Kubuntu. I thought that Lubuntu might be a good choice for one of my spare computers, so I downloaded lubuntu-14.04.1-desktop-i386.iso (Lubuntu 14.04.2 is available for download as of February 22). Here's what the default desktop looks like from the live session, from a flash drive created with Unetbootin:

Lubuntu 14.04 is a Long Term Support (LTS) release. That means a 3-year support window, unlike Ubuntu 14.04 and (I think) Kubuntu 14.04, which will be supported for five years after being released. So my Lubuntu installation should be good for a couple more years.

Lubuntu ships with the Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment (more commonly known as LXDE), which runs on top of the Openbox window manager. They include a nice selection of apps: Firefox, PCManFM, Abiword, Gnumeric, Leafpad, Audacious, GNOME MPlayer, and more. Lubuntu uses the Ubuntu repos, of course, so all of that software is available as well.

Installation was so easy that for once I didn't even bother to type up installation notes. I added a handful of my favorite apps, including Chromium, SpaceFM, and Geany.

The default menu set-up was good, but I tweaked things to give myself an Openbox desktop right-click menu for quick access to a few frequently used apps. The panel, called LXPanel, seems easy enough to work with. One nice touch is that LXDE allows for different wallpapers on different desktops.

Overall, Lubuntu provides a simple, light-weight, "traditional" environment to operate in. LXDE has developed into a nice alternative to Xfce. Here are a couple more screenshots, taken after I got things installed and set up:

For more info, see: http://lubuntu.net/

LXDE fans might also want to take a look at LXLE, which some folks say is better than Lubuntu (LXLE is, however, based on Lubuntu): http://lxle.net/