Just posting this out there, as a rant/warning/helprequest
Ubuntu is just plain too buggy. There. I said it.
Now, I would still choose Linux over the five minute boot times that come with Windows and the fact that windows simply can’t anti-alias a letter if the world depended on it, though I would hesitate to reccomend Ubuntu. Looks like our options with OS’s are bad and worse.
Here’s the latest issue:
GIMP is broken. I choose to install a few updates, and next thing I know, it’s removed GIMP. It can’t be reinstalled. Naturally, as a 3d artist, GIMP is an important part of my workflow, so this can be quite annoying at the least. So maybe I could brush this off, if it weren’t the newest in a set of problems that keep popping up.
Lemme think.
First, there was this issue where videos would just display a black screen. That was fixed with 11.10(Which was a struggle in it’s own to install), though that unleashed yet more problems. There was also the bug where my printer would spit out endless blank sheets when I tried to print a document. (Also fixed in 11.10). Ocelot brought its own array of problems. Should I start with the sound card not working? Tons of printer issues, like horribly aliased fonts, and problematic character spacing resulting in unreadable text? The uninstallable AMD GPU drivers? The missing lib issues that have become expected with any program downloaded? Strange Blender-system freezes? Software in the Software-center being older than the Earth itself? Horrible taste in UI and icon design*? Removal of User preferences? Now, Windows has many core deficiencies, but at least Windows is tested over and over, and every single bug stamped out. So if you are also getting hit every day from Ubuntu, YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
*Ubuntu designers have this notion that computers must be “human”. In other words, ugly icons, childproof corners, and a horrible brown/orange theme.
Yeah, Linux has its problems, but it’s not a bad operating system either. If you want full control over your linux machine, I strongly recommend learning the terminal.
The missing lib issues that have become expected with any program downloaded?
Besides the lack of software/drivers/games, this is probably the single biggest problem with Ubuntu (and many other distros) today. Unfortunately, Linux is one of the few operating systems that still suffers from dependency hell. Normally, it’s not that bad if you have a package manager (for very popular programs). However, the problem become exponentially worse when downloading individual applications, updating libraries, have a poor/no internet connection, or if you try compiling from source.
Why not try Fedora on something like XFCE or cinnamon? That’s what I’m using and it’s never crashed on me since I got the GPU working (catalyst is still rather buggy though).
Linux mint is also supposed to be very good, never tried it though…
and now nautilus go crazy and gimp continues lacking things (gtk+ 2.24.7 it says now).
Nautilus shows text now with near the same color of background making it unreadable.
I was using Krita yesterday waiting for a fix. Krita is a very good program too.
So today I did a backup of my Home directory data to another disk and did a recover of Ubuntu from a backup I had with Acronis. Now when it asks again for a partial update I answer: NO!
I have again all working thanks to Acronis once again.
So, you installed an experimental application that no one claims is stable, and indeed is not included in the standard install, and now you want to blame someone else because it has broken?
Are you unable to disable the ppa and install 2.6.11 from the repository? Surely a stable release is a much more sensible option for a production environment?
First thing would be save your /home important data to other disk (remember in case ubuntu doesn’t boot you can always boot in a ubuntu LiveCD and read the /Home folder with it).
Then make a backup of the ubuntu partition (I recommend Acronis but others recommend CloneZilla; I use Acronis in Windows (I dual boot)).
Then you can try what I said DON’T DO in my post 4. Perhaps it works in your system. If it destroys your nautilus you can always recover from the backup as you have now the system.
Also I can zip a folder or libraries and send you if you want. I have just now gimp 2.7.4 working (and mattheus repositories deleted so it doesn’t break my gimp again).
In this page
he has a binary 2.7.4 “You can download the binary here” it says and the here is a link to the file. Then he says how to “install” the binary.
Hope it helps.
Are you unable to disable the ppa and install 2.6.11 from the repository? Surely a stable release is a much more sensible option for a production environment?
I don’t know how to disable a ppa, I may have already done it, and it’s not working
2.6 floating window nightmare! Even if I could miraculously install it, it would be a serious regression.
In this page
he has a binary 2.7.4 “You can download the binary here” it says and the here is a link to the file. Then he says how to “install” the binary.
Hope it helps.
Wow, thanks! It’s working great, some nice theme improvements too! (Could do without the dark manilla, though).
he has a binary 2.7.4 “You can download the binary here” it says and the here is a link to the file. Then he says how to “install” the binary.
Hope it helps.
Wow, thanks! It’s working great, some nice theme improvements too! (Could do without the dark manilla, though). [/QUOTE]
Hey, I can’t seem to create a working shortcut, nor can I rightclick an image file and open it in GIMP.
Yes, 2.61 is very bad compared to 2.7.4.
I see he answered you how to edit the sources list in “the geeky way”. I will say you (and others than can be reading) how do it “the windows way” (I always do things the windows way).
Click on the button to Shut down the computer and first entry is “System Settings”. Open it and choose Software Sources. In the tab “Other Software” select the matthaeus entries and remove them. In the Authentication tab do the same with the matheus key.
This way when the computer looks for actualizations will not look at matheus anymore and will not download the bad gimp 2.7.5
Post a screen shot please. Seems different that the matheus one I am using after recovering it from the backup.
Where do you want it, in the desktop or in the dash bar?
In the desktop is this way:
Create a text file with this text:
and rename the file to “createlauncher.sh” and place it in home/documents for example.
Right click on this file, choose Properties and in the Permissions tab check “Allow executing file as program”.
Now double click on it to execute (if a popup window ask you if run in terminal/display/Cancel/Run choose Run (this asking or not is configurable in nautilus options).
So a wizard shows. Enter the name, then click the browse button and select the gimp executable and OK and a link appears on the desktop.
To create the link on the Dash launcher bar look if this works: Launch gimp using the link we created on the desktop and now the icon appears on the dash launcher. Right click and choose Keep in launcher. If it don’t works and you want it there too I can look if I found the instructions to do it that I have somewhere I am sure.
In ubuntu 11.10 there is no option to browse for a program (Add is gray, not clickable and if it is clickable does nothing like with .blend files) so you can’t do that (in 11.04 it worked).
A lot of useful things were made impossible in 11.10. I was so angry that I said in ubuntu forums if they have betatesters of 12 years because normal users can’t do anything now. They gave me 1 advice (with three they ban you). So I can get angry only one more time with ubuntu 12.04 LOL.
Just now I have back working in 11.10 a lot of things but this one of specifying a not installed program to run when I double click a file remains unsolved yet. And they said the betatesters were impressed by Ubuntu 11.10. Well, give me a break…
Terrible Printer Drivers.
I have probably leveled an entire forest trying to troubleshoot/retry issues with character spacing(Some fonts display fine in Libreoffice, and print in an almost unreadable way), aliased-pixel printing(You have to set it to like 2400dpi, and it’s still blocky), etc.
Exporting to PDF in libreoffice and then printing the PDF helps?
I found it solves the character spacing issue, but not the aliased pixels. (BTW, it only happens when an image is included on the page to be printed, then everything, text included gets aliased.)
Of course that’s difficult to remember to do, which is why I often have discarded copies of documents.
