Ubuntu 12.04 Desktop Issues

People are getting prompted to install 12.0.4.1, doing it and then either it breaks or they are totally lost.

Resolution

Broken packages

If its completely broken: it rarely is. More likely the process got interrupted and there are lots of packages in a broken state. It is both possible and desirable to fix this rather than blindly re-installing.

Boot into recovery mode(see below)

run:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

normally this will tell you what command you need to run. Normally dpkg --reconfigure -a and/orapt-get -f install. If after running these commands you get a message saying Could not perform immediate configuration on [package].Please see man 5 apt.conf under APT::Immediate-Configure for details., try running

apt-get -f install -o APT::Immediate-Configure=0

These might need to be repeated. When done run

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

then

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

before proceeding.

Rinse, lather and repeat as necessary.

On a possibly related note:

Networking Can Not Start on Boot

Sometimes networking is broken, characterized by a message that appears on boot:

Waiting for up to 60 more seconds for network configuration...

Network interfaces are defined in /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules. The system thinks it has eth0, but the network card is named eth1. You can safely rename this file and it will be recreated on boot, otherwise edit it so that network card present is name correctly. This file uses mac address to identify cards. Use ifconfig -a to identify them.

sudo dhclient eth1 will bring up networking in the mean time(and is a good test to identify this issue).

Something else to try is to edit /etc/network/interfaces. In the file, delete everything below "iface lo inet loopback" and restart the computer. Interfaces information is stored elsewhere in 12.04 and can conflict with the ones in this file.

Network Manager Does Not Start

In addition it might be necessary to move/delete /var/lib/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.state in order to get network manager to start correctly.

Dealing with Unity Interface Issues

otherwise: (Not technically broken but might as well be for the effect on users not geared up, or prepared, or warned that they will have to deal with a whole new interface). install Mate and Gnome Classic the new Free Geek desktop (based on Xubuntu but modelled to be close to the 10.04 experience) as this is what our next distro will be based on. You should inform the user that this is what we intend to do and explain the following.

"We will install a custom Free Geek desktop based on (X)Ubuntu 12.04 as this is what the next Free Geek distro will be based upon, and it will ensure you continue receiving updates into the future. As you are among the first users of the new system we will extend the software support on your system so that you know that we will continue to support it. With your permission we would like to contact you in future to see what your experience with the new system has been".

If they agree to this please send a note with their name, contact info and system id to paulm@freegeek.

Recovery Mode in 12.04

The recovery mode in 12.04 is a little bit different. By default it mounts the root (/) filesystem as READ ONLY. This means you will not be able to back up the password, edit files, etc.

To fix just make sure that you select the networking option from the recovery menu. This will set everything up for you.

There is a command that will remount / as "rw" (read-write):

mount -o remount,rw /

Running the upgrade script for 12.04

Boot into recovery mode into networking

do:

 wget bruno/upgrade-ubuntu.sh

The script will prompt multiple times asking for permission to install certain things. Enter "yes" for all of these EXCEPT for when it asks to restart.

When it asks to restart, do

 N

And enter

 x

to exit.

Then, run the script one more time to install a few more things that will complete the upgrade.

Installing Xubuntu/Freegeek Desktop in a Ubuntu 12.04 system

We now have our own desktop design based on Xubuntu.

Note: to open a terminal in Unity, press the windows key, or click on the Ubuntu symbol top left ("dash home"), then type term and click on terminal when it appears below.

To root a box: press shift as normal, select networking, then root shell. You will then be able to run the following commands. Type 'exit' and chose resume to login as the users.

in a terminal create a file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/freegeek-extras.list and add the following line

deb http://apt.freegeek.org/ubuntu precise main

Now, make sure Unity is gone, get rid of all unity and libunity packages Need input here on the names of libunity and other problem packages:

 apt-get purge unity* 

Use dpkg -l | grep unity to find other packages, and PURGE them!

Then do:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop freegeek-default-settings

cp /etc/shadow /etc/shadow.bak 

Resume normal boot. Set each users session to Free Geek session and login. It will remember this setting for future instances.

Don't forget to cp /etc/shadow.bak /etc/shadow at the end.

This will install the Xfce4/Xubunutu environment with Xubuntu & Free Geek tweaks.

LightDM Wierdness

LightDM is the Display Manager "of the future..." basically its a fancy login screen that can make use of HTML (however that works). Anyway there a few things you need to do to get it working after a Lucid to Precise upgrade.

Uninstall:

sudo apt-get purge lightdm

Move this folder to the home directory or something if it exists:

sudo mv /etc/lightdm/ /root/

Install the necessary packages:

sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop xubuntu-default-settings lightdm-gtk-greeter lightdm

In case of problems

If you do these things an end up a a partially working system, i.e. lightdm is behaving strangely / not working, run these three commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

and reboot!

Selecting the Default Session

You switch between sessions on the log in screen by clicking on the Ubuntu logo/circle next to the username. This is non-obvious. Once you have selected a session once it will remember your choice.

Don't forget to do this for every user.

You will need to backup the password file (cp /etc/shadow /etc/shadow.bak) so you can change the password when doing this in Tech Support. Don't forget to copy the password file back over. (You don't need to do this if you have the password).

See notes in #Recovery Mode in 12.04.

Antelope in Tech Support (on the left) has a 12.04 virtual machine with Xubuntu on it.

Using the Unity Desktop

There is a basic tutorial on how to use Unity here, if you are interested:

http://complete-concrete-concise.com/ubuntu-2/ubuntu-12-04/ubuntu-12-04-basic-unity-interface-desktop-tutorial

Installing Mate and Gnome Classic

Mate

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://packages.mate-desktop.org/repo/ubuntu precise main"
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mate-archive-keyring
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mate-core mate-desktop-environment

http://mate-desktop.org/install/#ubuntu

Make sure you put a shutdown button (and a logout button), on the top panel.

On Mate make sure you put a shutdown (and optionally a logout button), on the top panel, on gnome classic put a link to firefox (and evolution) there.

Gnome Classic

sudo apt-get install gnome-session-fallback Then put a link to firefox (and evolution) on the top panel. IIRC you need to press alt + right click to add things to the panel in Gnome Classic.

Tweaking

sudo apt-get install mate-indicator-applet mate-notification-daemon This will allow you to add the notification icon (i.e. the envelope in 10.04) on the panel and enable popup ballon notifications in Mate.

sudo apt-get install gnome-themes-extras community-themes shimmer-themes gtk-clearlooks-gperfection2-theme mate-icon-theme-faenza

This brings in extra themes. Faenza is a well regarded square icon theme. There are lots more

aptitude search theme

System -> Preferences -> Appearance allows the user to tweak the theme, selcting custom allows you to change the icons, controls window border, fonts as well.