Posts Tagged ‘KDE’

Ubuntu 10.04 alpha 2 released

2 Comments
Posted 15 Jan 2010 — by Arun
Category Ubuntu

Ubuntu development team has released the 2nd alpha of Ubuntu 10.04, code named Lucid Lynx. It’s still a developmental version, so it’s only for testing purpose. Ubuntu 10.04 contains the following changes:

  • Ubuntu Lucid Alpha 2 includes the latest GNOME desktop environment.
  • Alpha 2 includes the 2.6.32-10.14 kernel based on 2.6.32.
  • Alpha 2 of Kubuntu features the new KDE SC 4.4 RC 1.
  • Lucid Alpha 2 sports full removal of the hal package, making Ubuntu faster to boot and faster to resume from suspend.
  • The likewise-open package, which provides Active Directory authentication and server support for Linux, has been updated to version 5.4.
  • Three different NVIDIA proprietary drivers are currently available: nvidia-current (190.53), nvidia-173, and nvidia-96. It is now possible to install all three of these packages at the same time (although it is only possible to have one configured for use at a time).
  • The Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud installer has been vastly improved in order to support alternative installation topologies. UEC components are now automatically discovered and registered, including for complex topologies. Finally, UEC is now powered by Eucalyptus 1.6.2 codebase.

Here are the known issues in alpha2:

  • The wacom-tools driver cannot be used with Lucid Alpha 2.
  • The notify-osd notification system has “debug mode” turned on to help people find erroneously urgent notifications.
  • On video hardware that supports KMS, the live CD sometimes does not reboot successfully, instead displaying the boot logo indefinitely.
  • On video hardware that does not support KMS, using the “full disk with encryption” installation option will result in a boot failure because the prompt for the passphrase needed for decrypting the disk will not be shown.
  • When running on Ubuntu Server, the plymouth boot splash screen does not exit after the system is booted. To get to a console login after boot, you must press Ctrl-Alt-F1 to switch to VT1.
  • Manual partitioning fails in the graphical installer due to a bug in ubiquity: you can select existing partitions to use as targets for installation, but you can neither create new partitions nor delete existing partitions.
  • jockey (Ubuntu’s restricted driver manager) doesn’t yet support the new alternatives system used by the nvidia driver packages.
  • Because of the new alternatives system, the nvidia installer from NVIDIA’s website currently doesn’t work.
  • The fglrx binary driver for ATI video chipsets does not yet support the X server in Lucid.
  • Attempting to run 32bit applications which make use of 3D acceleration in a 64bit system will result in a failure.
  • Alpha 2 does not include Wubi, the Ubuntu installer for Windows.

You can download alpha2 from here.

Kubuntu 10.04 alpha2 brings KDE SC 4.4. RC1. Here are some of the features that are going to be part of Kubuntu 10.04 that Kubuntu team is working on.

Here are the known issues in Kubuntu 10.04 alpha1:

  • Due to the recent changeover to Plymouth, the boot splash shows the Ubuntu logo instead of Kubuntu’s.
  • You have to log in twice
  • Autologin doesn’t work
  • The wallpaper is missing and the panel geometry is funky to work around

You can download Kubuntu 10.04 alpha2 from here.

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10 minutes experience with Kubuntu 9.10

5 Comments
Posted 30 Oct 2009 — by Arun
Category Ubuntu

I wanted to give Kubuntu a try in my laptop after I gave it a try and was dissatisfied and removed it when Kubuntu 9.04 was released. There were lots of bugs and for a laptop, using the widget for wireless connection was a pain. I have written about it in my blog post here. KDE underwent a lot of bug fixes and new features since then, so I thought I would download and give it a try. I downloaded Kubuntu 9.10 yesterday and installed it my laptop.

The installation was fine though I got some errors when the Live CD booted and shutdown. The new installer looked promising, but it needs some fine tuning. My laptop’s default resolution is 1680*1050 and the installer was using a lower resolution. This resulted in installer text/options etc. overlapping in some cases. One example is, when you create a username and password,  you’ll see 3 or 4 options at the bottom on how you want to login. The 3rd option which encrypts your home directory wasn’t clear.

Once installed, the boot process was very fast. It’s faster than Ubuntu/Kubuntu 9.04. The old network manager is back and auto starts, so that’s good. Though I could click the network manager icon and select create a network and select the wireless network I want, I think it’s not as user friendly as Ubuntu. It would be nice if it could give you the available networks directly rather than going through a set of clicks.

Plasma got lots of widgets including some for social networking like Twitter, Facebook etc. It has more widgets now than the screen allows. It’s getting much better. The other thing I like in KDE is the ease of installing and changing themes and wallpapers. You can just right click the desktop, select desktop settings and you will see an option there to get new themes and wallpapers.

Konqueror is getting better, but I don’t feel comfortable with it as much as Firefox. Kubuntu prompted me to install additional plugins for Konqueror to play video and other stuff, which is good. I thought I would give Arora a try since it was the default browser in the alpha stages of Kubuntu 9.10 before they went back to Konqueror. Arora starts pretty fast, but I’m not sure if it loads pages faster than Firefox or not. It also lacks the amount of extensions that Firefox offers including security related ones. For Firefox fans, there is an option in the internet menu that will install Firefox if you need.

I used it only for 10 minutes and it impressed me. I would like to use it little more and see if I’m comfortable continuing it. I believe KDE team and Kubuntu team are making a good progress compared to the amount of support they get.

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Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 6 released

1 Comment
Posted 18 Sep 2009 — by Arun
Category Ubuntu

Ubuntu team has released their 6th alpha version of Ubuntu 9.10 code named Karmic Koala. This alpha brings in some new changes since alpha 5 release. There are some serious bugs exist in alpha 6, so if you are planning to install alph6, read the known issues part in this post. Here are the changes/improvements in alpha 6:

  • As part of boot performance work, Ubuntu has now transitioned to Upstart.
  • Ubuntu Karmic Alpha 6 includes the Ubuntu Software Store. It’s supposed to be a replacement for multiple software installation options currently available in Ubuntu. It is temporarily located under System, with a plan to replace Add\Remove in the Beta release.
  • Ubuntu Karmic Alpha 6 includes the latest GNOME 2.27.91 development release.
  • Alpha 6 includes the 2.6.31-9.29 kernel based on 2.6.31-rc8.
  • As stated previously, ext4 and GRUB 2 are default for new installations.
  • A lot of work went into AppArmor for Karmic. The parser has been improved to use cache files, greatly speeding up AppArmor initialisation on boot. AppArmor also now supports ‘pux’ which, when specified, means a process can transition to an existing profile if one exists or simply run unconfined if one does not. Improved support for globbing has also been added, most notably when using wildcard matching for the binary of a profile. Significantly, the AppArmor patch for Ubuntu has been heavily reworked.
  • In addition to the above changes to AppArmor itself, several profiles were added. Enforcing profiles for ntpd, the GNOME document viewer (evince), and libvirt are enabled by default.
  • Libvirt now contains AppArmor integration when using KVM or QEMU.
  • The Uncomplicated Firewall now has support for filtering by interface and egress filtering when using the ufw command.

Here are the known issues in alpha 6:

  • When installing Ubuntu from Alpha 6 in a dual-boot configuration with another operating system, such as Windows Vista, the grub2 configuration will not present an option to boot to the other OS. Investigation of this issue is ongoing.
  • Installing a UEC cluster controller under Ubuntu Server will hang on reboot due to a bug in the eucalyptus init scripts.
  • Installation of a eucalyptus node will not properly configure the bridge network setup in Alpha 6.
  • The OEM installer end-user setup will fail to start in Alpha 6.
  • Installing using Wubi will run to completion, but after reboot the newly-installed system will fail to boot with the error message “Could not find a bootloader configuration”.
  • In some configurations, users will be unable to use the auto-resize option due to a timestamp problem during ext3/4 filesystem check.
  • Some users with Intel video chipsets will experience a black screen on reboot after install because the fbcon module is not being loaded.
  • Encrypted partitions other than the root filesystem will not be mounted in Alpha 6 due to a bug in the cryptsetup package.

You can download Ubuntu 9.10 alpha 6 from here.

Kubuntu team has also released their 6th alpha of Kubuntu 9.10. Alpha 6 includes lots of bug fixing and improvements including the ones below.

  • Netbook edition is taking shape with continued improvements in the Plasma Netbook shell.
  • UserConfig 0.9 – user management tool from the KDE3 days has been resurrected for Kubuntu 9.10.
  • The NetworkManager applet offers a more robust networking experience than it did in Kubuntu 9.04.
  • OpenOffice 3.1.1 introduces KDE integration. This means that all OpenOffice applications will look at home with the default “Oxygen” KDE theme and use the KDE file dialog for opening and saving documents.

You can download Kubuntu 9.10 alpha 6 here.


Source: Ubuntu.

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Ubuntu and Kubuntu 9.04 beta upgrade pain

6 Comments
Posted 07 Apr 2009 — by Arun
Category Ubuntu

You might have read my earlier post about Ubuntu 9.04 boot issue. I used the older kernel, booted into the system, disabled the Bluetooth service from the startup. Again, the boot process was painfully slow when it comes to checking for hardware, but the system booted fine without any error. Everything else worked fine, but when it came to shutting down, it started erroring out when it was trying to shutdown the Bluetooth service. I’m not sure why it was trying to shutdown the Bluetooth service when it was not started at all. I had to reset and do a cold shutdown each time. I hope this problem gets fixed soon.

I upgraded my laptop last week to Kubuntu 9.04 from Kubuntu 8.10. When I started the upgrade process, I got a warning that my ATI video card was not compatible with the latest Xorg. I selected the cotinue button. After the upgrade process was completed, I restarted the system. When I restarted, the grub showed only the old Kubuntu 8.10 kernels. It didn’t show the new Kubuntu 9.04 kernels. I booted through the Kubuntu 8.10 kernel. I then updated the grub using update-grub command. The update process listed the new Kubuntu 9.04 kernel and said it updated the grub.I rebooted the system and again got the same old kernels. I tried couple of time updating the grub and each time the update process said it updated, but it never got updated. I finally uninstalled the old kernels through adept, updated the grub again and rebooted the system. This time the grub showed the right kernels. Unlike my Ubuntu 9.04 upgrade, my Kubuntu 9.04 booted pretty fast and even the shutdown was pretty fast. I have been using it for the last one week and it’s pretty stable.

The other issue I found with Kubuntu 9.04 was the Wifi manager. Kubuntu 9.04 now supports the plasma-widget-network-manager, so it didn’t install knetwork manager. That’s fine, but the problem is, it doesn’t start the plasma widget automatically. For an end user, it would be a pain to understand and add it. I added the plasma widget network manager to the taskbar by right clicking the taskbar, unlocked the widget, clicked on the add widget and added that widget. It detected my wifi fine and after I entered the information, I was asked to save the information using the KDE Wallet. I said yes. The problem now is, each time I boot the system, KDE wallet will wait for my authorization before it starts the wifi manager. If I’m not around my desk, it would sit without connecting to my wifi until I come back and authorize. I don’t have any complaints otherswise. I have found out that both Ubuntu 9.04 and Kubuntu 9.04’s wifi network connect and work pretty faster than Vista.

ps: This is nothing compared to the pain of upgrading XP to Vista.

kubuntu904

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Amarok 2.0.2 released

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Posted 05 Mar 2009 — by Arun
Category Linux

The Amarok team has released Amarok 2.0.2 which includes couple of changes and lots of bug fixes. The changes include

  • Show a statusbar message when playing a lastfm track.
  • Show error message when Wikipedia information cannot be retrieved.

Here are some of the bugs that were fixed:

  • Fix showing of book information from the LibriVox service.
  • Don’t crash if a script has uncaught exceptions.
  • Open ogg files in Amarok when using Dolphin and other file managers.
  • Fix podcast episodes not ordered right because of incorrect parsing of pubdate.
  • Fix crash in tagdialog when editing tracks without an artist.
  • Statistics were not calculated properly in all instances.
  • Compilation fixes on Open Solaris.
  • Trim URL before adding a new podcast.
  • Add Ok button to the podcast configuration dialog to improve usability.
  • Add tooltips to now playing widget icons.
  • Fix not possible to download episodes from newly added podcast channel.

Source: Amarok.

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Ubuntu, Kubuntu 8.10 beta pain

4 Comments
Posted 23 Oct 2008 — by Arun
Category Ubuntu

I upgraded Ubuntu/Kubuntu 8.04 to Ubuntu 8.10 in my laptop when Ubuntu 8.10 alpha 5 was released. Everything worked fine except for couple of issues mentioned in the post. Network manager worked fine. There were lots of updates that came in from the time I installed alpha 5 including the updates that came with the beta version. After those updates, my ethernet connection was not working and same with my wireless connection. I tried different things and it still didn’t work. I then downloaded Kubuntu 8.10 beta yesterday and did a fresh install, after formatting the partitions. I then restarted my router. After I restarted the router and fresh install of beta, the wireless connection with WEP encryption worked, WPA didn’t. Kubuntu was still not showing my ethernet port. I then updated Kubuntu with the latest updates through the wireless connection and rebooted the system. Once rebooted, Kubuntu recognized my ethernet port and showed it as an option in the network manager. Wireless connection was also much better and faster after the updates.

There are still few issues I encoutered as of yesterday.

1. WPA encrption didn’t work eventhough wpa supplicant was installed. I couldn’t connect to my router if I set the encryption to WPA personal.

2. I installed the necessary codecs, but still neither the default Dragon player nor Kaffeeine played the mpeg file. I tried VLC and it crashed. The audio part was working fine, but the video part was blank.

3. The built in logitech webcam is still not working. Skype, AMSN etc showed it as USB webcam, but no videos. Ubuntu 8.04 recognizes it as Logitech quickcam and the video worked fine. The webcam video doesn’t work with Ubuntu and Kubuntu 8.10. I hope they fix it before the final release.

4. Kubuntu 8.10 showed the hardware driver window with ATI’s proprietary FGLRX driver. It said the driver was not being used. When I clicked the button to use it, nothing happened. I tried it couple of times and it didn’t work. I rebooted the system and tried it again, but it still didn’t work.

5. There were couple of times when KDE hung and I had to force shutdown.

6. Sound by default was low. I had to click the Mixer option in the Volume icon and increase PCIM and other options to get the maximum sound. It would be nice if those were defaults.

7. I included medibuntu repositories to install 3rd party softwares. I couldn’t install Google Earth 4.2 or 4.3 with medibuntu’s intrepid repository. I was getting errors during installation. Medibuntu’s hardy repository worked earlier.

I hope they fix 1,3 & 4 before the release candidate.

Update: #4 worked. I have found another issue. If I insert an audio CD, Kubuntu does nothing. Nothing pops up to play. Even the players don’t recognize the CD except VLC.

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New KDE forum launched

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Posted 13 Oct 2008 — by Arun
Category Announcement

If you are a KDE user and need help, you can check the new KDE forum.

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Amarok 2 beta 2 released

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Posted 08 Oct 2008 — by Arun
Category Announcement

The Amarok team has released the second beta of Amarok 2.0. The most significant change in this release is the switch from SQLite to MySQL-embedded as the database backend. Here are some new features in beta 2.

  • Automatically check for collection changes on startup if monitoring is enabled.
  • Files can be moved into collections from the Filebrowser.
  • Clicking on the volume icon in the toolbar toggles mute.
  • Arrows to switch between containments directly.
  • Scripted services can now show source info in the statusbar like most other services.
  • Scripts now able to access web via KDE-wide proxy.
  • Middle click on playlist will append URLs from the clipboard.
  • Numerous under-the-hood improvements to improve the stability of Amarok.
  • Incremental collection scanning support.
  • Playlists found during a collection scan are automatically added to Amarok’s Playlist Browser.
  • Lyricwiki support.
  • Chinese lyrics support from mp3.sogou.com
  • Sidebars can be toggled with the keyboard
  • Now remembers visible/invisible state of browsers.
  • Add ability to play tracks directly off of MTP device.
  • Add option to enable/disable automatic cover fetching.

When I went to Amarok’s site, McAfee SiteAdvisor flagged it yellow. Here is the reason.

Amaroksiteadv 300x163

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Amarok 2.0 Beta released

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Posted 22 Aug 2008 — by Arun
Category Announcement

Amarok team has released their first beta version of Amarok 2.0, code named Nerrivik. Amarok is a very good music player for Linux with a very nice GUI and lots of features. I love Amarok and though I use Ubuntu (GNOME), I use Amarok to play my music. Amarok 2.0 beta 1 has the following new features/changes:

Features

  • Inline editing of tracks in the Collection is now possible.
  • Album moves can be undone
  • Grouped albums can be moved in the playlist by draggin the album header
  • Track moves in the playlist can now be undone
  • Gapless playback.
  • New “fuzzy” bias type, which matches values loosely.
  • Collection Setup automatically expands to show selected directories.
  • Tag editing and file deletion for MTP devices
  • Add toolbox to context view
  • Allow selecting multiple playlist items.
  • Implement “Move to collection” functionality in file browser.
  • Saving/loading of biased playlists.
  • Improved script console
  • Set items in directory selector to partially checked when relevant.
    patch by Sebastian Trueg
  • Album is now added to the playlist when clicked in Albums applet.
  • Trigger play/pause when middle-clicking systray icon.
  • New start flag –multipleinstances allows to run multiple instances of Amarok.
  • Full cover support for Nepomuk collection
  • Search local collection for albums to show in the album applet when playing non local content
  • Context view state is saved on exit and restored on start up.
  • New functions available to the scripting interface, under Amarok.Info.

Changes

  • New filename scheme widget in the Organize Collection dialog.
  • New laylout of the main toolbar using the new graphics.
  • Greatly reduced memory usage when using dynamic playlists.
  • Reworked layout and more intuitive interface in the Guess Tags from Filenames dialog.
  • New artwork by Nuno Pinheiro and Wade Olson
  • Better zooming animation in the context view
  • Better usage of the available space in the context view.
  • Show url in the playlist if track has no name. patch by Edward Hades

You can download Amarok 2.0 beta 1 here.

Source: Amarok.

2786894696 0fbc205dcd

(Photo: nightrose)

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KDE Utilities website

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Posted 28 Jul 2008 — by Arun
Category General

KDE has created a website KDE Utilities with a compilation of various desktop utilities that work under KDE. It currently has very few utilities listed (13 at the time of writing), but I hope it would a be a single point entry to get all KDE related apps.

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