Trisquel 4.5 Beta testing report

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AndrewT

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I have given the Trisquel 4.5 (codename Slaine) beta a fairly thorough test run.

Major issues:

  • The screen goes black and the whole system freezes when the laptop lid is closed. This is easily the worst bug I've discovered in this beta.
  • No boot splash
  • gnome-app-install is missing (and when I try to install it in synaptic, it is unable to retrieve all the necessary dependencies)
  • Multimedia player in 'Preferred Applications' is set to 'rhythmbox' instead of totem or exaile

    Minor issues:

  • Both the Shotwell and gThumb image viewers are installed. One of these apps should be removed.
  • The USB Startup Disk creator's help files do not exist
  • DuckDuckGo is not in the browser's list of search engines (perhaps this should be added to our list of tasks?)
  • There is still no file backup app in the default installation (I suggest Déjà Dup)
  • The list of example feeds in Liferea can be improved by removing some of the Ubuntu-specific, no-longer-active, and non-free software feeds and replacing them with some others (my suggestions: Trisquel's news feed, FSF News, FSF Blogs, Art4Trisquel, Free Software Magazine)
  • OpenOffice.org, GIMP and Exaile splash screens should be rebranded, and gloobus-preview should be added to the repos, as enough money has already been raised to support these crowd funded tasks
  • AndrewT

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    I wonder, has anyone discovered any other issues I haven't listed here?

    akirashinigami

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    I haven't tried out the 4.5 Beta yet, but I do agree that we should have some sort of backup program installed by default.

    Personally, I've been using Back In Time (http://backintime.le-web.org/), and I like it a lot.

    So I'm wondering what it is about Déjà Dup that you think is better than other backup programs?

    AndrewT

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    I like Deja Dup because it's incredibly user friendly. Somebody that knows nothing about backups could just click through that program and hop right on the bandwagon.

    f13ticket
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    I am unable to build Hedgewars dependencies as I was in 4.0. Nor get all the files needed by VLC to do video file type conversions.

    sudo apt-get build-dep hedgewars

    It would seem there are many files missing, at least concerning Hedgewars the game and VLC video conversion.

    Was all of the repository made yet?

    Otherwise, great system so far.

    AndrewT

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    Yeah, perhaps all of the repository hasn't been made yet. Yet another thing I need to ask Ruben about.

    AndrewT

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    If I could add this to the original post, I would:

    Major issues

  • Installer fails when "Download updates during install" is selected.
  • Jose Benito

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    can't add the music library to Exaile ¿anyone else?

    AndrewT

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    Sounds like an odd bug. I'll try adding some music to my library in 4.5 and see if I can reproduce it.

    AndrewT

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    Ok, it's confirmed. When I try to add a directory to the Collection Manager, the whole program freezes up.

    This obviously qualifies as a major bug.

    AndrewT

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    I have another major issue to report: both Suspend and Hibernate fail to work. Actually, this bug has been there since Taranis.

    Veganix70

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    GRUB gets broken when I try to install the beta. The installation goes through, and at the end I get an error message that GRUB is not properly installed, possibly due to a version mismatch. This is regardless of whether I try to install GRUB on MBR or the Trisquel partition. I'm running two systems on the machine, and the second system is picked up by GRUB. There is no initrd or vmlinuz created for Trisquel.

    quiliro@congresolibre.org
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    name at domain">
    > GRUB gets broken when I try to install the beta. The installation goes
    > through, and at the end I get an error message that GRUB is not properly
    > installed, possibly due to a version mismatch. This is regardless of
    > whether
    > I try to install GRUB on MBR or the Trisquel partition. I'm running two
    > systems on the machine, and the second system is picked up by GRUB. There
    > is
    > no initrd or vmlinuz created for Trisquel.
    >

    Try to boot with the CD or flash and chroot to it. Then reconfigure with:
    sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-common

    Never tried it because I boot to hda1 from the BIOS and not GRUB but I
    heard it has this problem for multiboot.
    --
    Saludos.

    Quiliro Ordóñez
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    Quito, Ecuador

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    By the way I was talking about GnewSense 30 and not Trisquel 4.5 but it
    might be the same bug if they come from the same mother distro.
    --
    Saludos.

    Quiliro Ordóñez
    (593)9-8218696
    Quito, Ecuador

    Veganix70

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    Thanks. With "sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-common" I get an error saying that grub-common is broken or not completely installed.

    robert

    On Sat, 1 Jan 2011 22:58:50 -0500 (ECT)
    name at domain wrote:

    >
    > name at domain">
    > > GRUB gets broken when I try to install the beta. The installation goes
    > > through, and at the end I get an error message that GRUB is not properly
    > > installed, possibly due to a version mismatch. This is regardless of
    > > whether
    > > I try to install GRUB on MBR or the Trisquel partition. I'm running two
    > > systems on the machine, and the second system is picked up by GRUB. There
    > > is
    > > no initrd or vmlinuz created for Trisquel.
    > >
    >
    > Try to boot with the CD or flash and chroot to it. Then reconfigure with:
    > sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-common
    >
    > Never tried it because I boot to hda1 from the BIOS and not GRUB but I
    > heard it has this problem for multiboot.
    > --
    > Saludos.
    >
    > Quiliro Ordóñez
    > (593)9-8218696
    > Quito, Ecuador
    >

    --
    robert <name at domain>

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    Please avoid top-posting http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-posting . My
    comment below.

    > Thanks. With "sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-common" I get an error saying
    > that grub-common is broken or not completely installed.

    sudo dpkg --remove --force-all grub-common"
    --
    Saludos.

    Quiliro Ordóñez
    (593)9-8218696
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    quiliro@congresolibre.org
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    name at domain">
    > Please avoid top-posting http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-posting . My
    > comment below.
    >
    >
    >> Thanks. With "sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-common" I get an error saying
    >> that grub-common is broken or not completely installed.
    >
    > sudo dpkg --remove --force-all grub-common

    Then:

    sudo aptitude install grub-common

    --
    Saludos.

    Quiliro Ordóñez
    (593)9-8218696
    Quito, Ecuador

    AndrewT

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    Another minor issue:

    software-properties-gtk (Software Sources) is missing from the Main Menu.

    akirashinigami

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    If you right-click on a program in the main menu, and select "Add this launcher to panel", the window list disappears. If you remove the launcher, the window list comes back again. This problem also exists in Taranis.

    AndrewT

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    I'm in Taranis and I'm unable to reproduce that bug.

    akirashinigami

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    I took a couple of screenshots to show what I mean. It's really only apparent if you already have windows open, though.

    Window list exists:
    http://imgur.com/yR1zj

    Window list gone:
    http://imgur.com/ilYh8

    Jose Benito

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    the window list don't dissapear, only is blocked by the program added to the panel, you just have to unlock the list and move the program.

    btw theres new beta for test rigth now

    akirashinigami

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    Well, I still think it should be configured by default in such a way that it doesn't cause the window list to visually disappear.

    Jose Benito

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    Except for exaile and other minor issues, the second beta works for me. I put audicious for play my music :)

    My question is: Software Center or Add-Remove Apps?

    akirashinigami

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    Personally, I would prefer Software Center, but I don't think it really makes that much difference.

    AndrewT

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    Software Center seems to take up a lot of disk space. Plus, it may not be worth the trouble to rebrand all the Ubuntu-related stuff.

    Adrian Malacoda

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    Not too keen on the Software Center. It includes facilities to buy proprietary software and uses "free" to mean "no cost" and "open source" to mean "free."

    AndrewT

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    Indeed, the Software Center is where Ubuntu finally crossed the line and became a me-too hyper-commercial OS without any regard to free software ideals. Pass on it.

    AndrewT

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    Ooh, it looks like there is a brand new beta .iso. I will test it and see how many issues from the first beta remain.

    AndrewT

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    I just finished testing the second beta and, much to my disappointment, the bugs I and others have reported in the first beta are exactly the same in the second one.

    I'm curious: what, if anything, has been changed between the first and second beta? I expected to find some difference, but couldn't find any at all.

    Jose Benito

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    well on the firts beta I can't install some packages from synaptic... now I can :)

    AndrewT

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    I was told in IRC that basically the only change was that the bug with the installer is now fixed.

    Sort of pointless to have a whole new beta release if that's the only change, but oh well.

    grvrulz
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    I installed the beta today and noticed that pppd is not installed by default. I need wvdial to connect to my 3g internet as it does not connect through the network manager, and most of the 3g users here in India need that because BSNL connections never work throught the network manager. I think pppd should be installed by default.

    Jose Benito

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    Another minor issues:

    * Pidgin IRC points to the ubuntu one (irc.ubuntu...) needs to be irc.freenode.net

    * About Trisquel, on system menu points to the community page (even the page's direction is http://trisquel.info/en/about) maybe needs to be this: http://trisquel.info/es/wiki

    AndrewT

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    I have tested the latest beta image. See http://trisquel.info/en/issues/3151

    AndrewT

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    I've tested the latest beta .iso as of Jan. 19th and found the following bugs:

    Major issues:

    • Suspend and hibernate (most importantly, the default suspend action when closing the laptop lid) do not work correctly. This is likely dependent on my graphics card, an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400. Who else can duplicate this bug?
    • No boot splash
    • Multimedia player in Preferred Applications is set to 'rhythmbox' instead of 'totem'

    Minor issues:

    • software-properties-gtk (Software Sources) is installed but missing from the Main Menu.
    • "Install Trisquel 4.5" missing slides
    • Startup disk creator icon needs to be rebranded
    • DuckDuckGo is not in the browser's list of search engines
    • No file backup app in the default installation (I suggest Déjà Dup)
    • Pidgin IRC points to the ubuntu one (irc.ubuntu...) needs to be irc.freenode.net
    • gloobus-preview and handbrake should be added to the repos, as enough money has already been pledged for these crowd-funded tasks
    AndrewT

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    Another major issue at least on my hardware running a LiveUSB:

    • Logging out/switching users crashes x.org and does not work.
    AndrewT

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    A few more minor issues, related to branding:

    • The default GDM session is called "Ubuntu Desktop Edition". It used to be "GNOME".
    • When selecting themes, you see Ubuntu symbols for all themes except Mist and the Trisquel themes
    • Evolution includes a .py scipt called "Ubuntu" that contains the simple signature "Sent from Ubuntu". We should have our own .py script, call it "Trisquel", and it should contain the signature "Sent from Trisquel GNU/Linux".
    AndrewT

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    A minor issue:

  • The nonfree Chromium browser shows up in Add/Remove Applications or Synaptic. Attempting to install from it doesn't actually work, though.
  • PaulK

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    I just tested the latest trisquel 4.5 beta iso (20110119). Here is the result :

    • Pidgin shows an icon both on notify-applet and ayatana : maybe you should disable the icon on notify-applet
    • usb-creator-gtk icon has the ubuntu logo. I made a version with the trisquel logo:  http://download.paulk.fr/trisquel/usb-creator-gtk.svg
    • on the gdm graphical interface selection (default is « Ubuntu Desktop Edition ») - this was already mentioned here

    A full version of my report is available at http://www.paulk.fr/trisquel_4.5.php,including lspci and lsusb on 2 different computers I tested Slaine with.

    AndrewT

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    Thanks for the beta test, and the icon!

    Note that XChat was removed because Pidgin already works as an IRC client. XChat is nice, but two working IRC clients is a waste of disk space.

    aloniv

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    Pidgin works as an IRC client, but it requires more configuration than dedicated IRC clients like XChat and ChatZilla (e.g. you need to know the server address rather than selecting the name from a list and you need to open NickServ manually on Pidgin if you don't have a registered user name on freenode).

    AndrewT

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    That's true, but our manual section includes information on how to connect to the #trisquel channel via either client (though I haven't gotten around to completing the section for Pidgin yet), so it shouldn't be a problem as long as users bother to refer to the documentation.

    Magic Banana

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    Are you talking about this (empty) page?

    AndrewT

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    Magic Banana

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    Hmmm... the explanations are missing! :-S

    AndrewT

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    Yes, I haven't gotten around to finishing the section for Pidgin, just like I said in an earlier post.

    For now, you can refer to this: http://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/Protocol%20Specific%20Questions#IRCProtocol