Xamine and Xperience - Xenial Kubuntu 16.04

[claydoh]

use mkusb, or dd, the flashing tools often don't work on recent *buntu versions. Mkusb and dd have never failed for me.

[MoonRise]

Since the first beta is due for release on Thursday, I decided to download an try the 23 Feb 2016 build. I used usb-creator-kde to make the boot usb and it worked without a hitch.

Thankfully, No more hoops to jump through using the dd command and the sed command.

Congratulations to the developers on a job well done. After a bit more testing I plan to install it on my main production system as I am becoming increasingly impatient with "features" in Wily.

Edit:
I forgot to mention, as an insignificant side-note, there was a Thank You for choosing Kubuntu 15.10 in the installation process. A minor oversight. BTW, I have now installed Xenial on my main production system and all is well.

Based on your glowing report here I decided to download current image and make a boot USB.

I agree, this is unlike any Beta I've tested to date.

Great going guys!!!! Really Impressive.

[NoWorries]

Since the first beta is due for release on Thursday, I decided to download an try the 23 Feb 2016 build. I used usb-creator-kde to make the boot usb and it worked without a hitch.

Thankfully, No more hoops to jump through using the dd command and the sed command.

Congratulations to the developers on a job well done. After a bit more testing I plan to install it on my main production system as I am becoming increasingly impatient with "features" in Wily.

Edit:
I forgot to mention, as an insignificant side-note, there was a Thank You for choosing Kubuntu 15.10 in the installation process. A minor oversight. BTW, I have now installed Xenial on my main production system and all is well.

[NoWorries]

Well, finally got it to install. Using the 01-28-2016 daily ISO, I found this solution on launchpad and sightly modified it. Grab the 01-28 ISO if you want to try it out.Boot to the Live Image, then before launching the installer, open a terminal and enter this one one-liner:

sudo sed -i '344 s/^/#/; 347 s/^/#/; 348 s/^/#/' /usr/lib/ubiquity/plugins/ubi-prepare.py

This fixes a secure boot key error when trying to install to a Vbox machine. I don't know if you need it for a bare metal install.

I tried this on an installation over an existing Xenial system. This time there was no crash with ubiquity. However it did not give partition options nor internet connection options. It continued though to the installation step and stopped, ie it did not proceed to install.

Edit:

Had another go. This time I copied the above line into Kate and stored it on a usb stick and thus before starting the installation of Xenial, I launched Konsole and copied the command into it. Looks like I made a typo in my first attempt as this time it worked.

So to do an installation with the current ISO's, one has to use the dd command to get the installation system up and then open a terminal and enter the above sed command before starting the installation.

[oshunluvr]

@NoWorries: Scroll up to my post on this thread and try that edit. I haven't tried it with the newer ISO, but it worked a week ago.

[NoWorries]

After all the comments regarding failure to install the latest iso images, I decided to have a go as it is over three months since I have done this. I downloaded the iso file for the 11-Feb-2016 and created a boot usb using the command:

:~$ sudo dd if=xenial-desktop-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=16M
[sudo] password: 
86+1 records in
86+1 records out
1445363712 bytes (1.4 GB) copied, 413.052 s, 3.5 MB/s

The system booted to present the Install Xenial option. At the first screen is gives the options for network connections etc, but when I click OK the install crashes with the error message which I photographed and is shown below.



So it looks like it is currently impossible to try Xenial until this is fixed. A very sad state of affairs.

[drmaria]

Since you brought it up, it's very clear that Xenial is development release. It's not intended nor should it be expected to be stable, usable, or even easily installed. The intention of a developmental release is to allow those of us (the linux world) who want to participate in bug hunting or just want a preview of what's coming. There's no way I would install an alpha or beta release of anything and expect much from it.

Yes, I realized it later; as I told you I am new here on this forum; but not really new to kubuntu. I was using since 13.xx or so; every year downloading the latest version; just install from start, format and then install etc. Never had any issue. I did not realize this is still under development, just did not bother to read info on download pages.

Another option might be using VirtualBox to test out the beta release in a virtual machine without damaging your stable install.

- this is a very useful suggestion. I do have a working Oracle VMbox installed. and on top of that win10. Now I will try with the distro I want to try. - Thanks

I really should have joined this forum a few years back. But really I never had problem with kubuntu; switched to linux around 2009 and then to kubuntu since last 3 yrs or so. I just keep using it, do not experiment with the system itself.

What is your view on 'updates' - I am fed up with updates on windows and that is why I switched to linux. Now kubuntu also doing the same thing - daily one or two messages pop up saying security updates etc. What should we do? OS footprint will be getting bigger and bigger? Of course, I have no problems with space etc; I use a very latest laptop - i7 skylake; 16gb ram; 512gb ssd - Dell Inspiron 17 7000. But concerned with these daily updates.

BTW - I just re-installed my old distro 15.10 back. It just took 20 minutes - I used systemback; tada! everything including data, user settings, preferences - all back to normal.

[oshunluvr]

Hi Newbee here. I found two issues after upgrading to xenial.
1. clock is showing random times after reboot. Adjusting the time or adjusting the time-zones did not yield any result.
2. I have 12GB ram; but 'KInfocenter' is showing only 3.8GB RAM on the first screen. When I click the 'Memory' tab, it is showing correctly as 12 GB.

I found rolling back the updates is very complicated and always not accurate. So tomorrow, I will format my machine and re-install 15.10 stable.

My suggestion: for distros under development [like xenial] there should be one button somewhere, to revert back to previously installed, working version.
My 2c
Thanks.

Since you brought it up, it's very clear that Xenial is development release. It's not intended nor should it be expected to be stable, usable, or even easily installed. The intention of a developmental release is to allow those of us (the linux world) who want to participate in bug hunting or just want a preview of what's coming. There's no way I would install an alpha or beta release of anything and expect much from it.

However, since you're using Linux, why not partition your hard drive and install the beta version along side your favorite stable release? Then you can boot to the stable install when you want to use your computer but boot to the developmental release when you're in the mood to play. Best of both worlds. If you're really ready to rock, format your drive with BTRFS instead of the ancient EXT_ format and install as many *buntu flavors as you like to the same partition.

Another option might be using VirtualBox to test out the beta release in a virtual machine without damaging your stable install.

BTW, with BTRFS you can also take snapshots as often as you like along the install/update cycle and revert to a previous version whenever you need to.

My method is to first test out a new release in VirtualBox. Once it installs there and seems stable enough for bare metal, I do a parallel install of the new release to the same BTRFS partition as my current one. Once the new install is ready for "prime time" (usually a couple months after leaving beta when most of the obvious bugs have been hammered out), I move it up to default boot status and leave the older version intact. This way I have a backup in case I bork my main install. But, since I use BTRFS I try to make snapshots as I update or install anything major to avoid having to return to the lower version. As I add new versions, I delete the oldest one leaving three installs all the time: Historical (for backup), Current, and Future.

You can always use the dist-upgrade feature to move to the next version once it's released, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're also using snapshots. Just my personal preference.

[drmaria]

Hi Newbee here. I found two issues after upgrading to xenial.
1. clock is showing random times after reboot. Adjusting the time or adjusting the time-zones did not yield any result.
2. I have 12GB ram; but 'KInfocenter' is showing only 3.8GB RAM on the first screen. When I click the 'Memory' tab, it is showing correctly as 12 GB.

I found rolling back the updates is very complicated and always not accurate. So tomorrow, I will format my machine and re-install 15.10 stable.

My suggestion: for distros under development [like xenial] there should be one button somewhere, to revert back to previously installed, working version.
My 2c
Thanks.

[claydoh]

To update the iso, use zsync to save on download times. Also, there often is an option available to update the installer at the beginnig of the installation process, if there is one available.


Also, there is a workaround:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...y/+bug/1529450
Specifically oshunluvr's here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...50/comments/15
It works on the latest isos as far as I can tell.

I have downloaded 16.04 daily build so many times is not fun,latest was today 02/10/2016 I am using the dd method to write to my usb, I can use the distro as a live mode but there is no way it will install, Installer Crashed all the time, any ideas?

[claydoh]

Enjoy your trip. . . redheads and drop-bears are in short supply down here.

Lol, well I was smart lucky and requested a redhead ahead of time had one redhead select me.

[NoWorries]

As an OT side note, NoWorries, I am invading your nation the 19th of march, so hide your redheads and guard your drop-bears

Enjoy your trip. . . redheads and drop-bears are in short supply down here.

[claydoh]

Just note that the KDE stuff in neon is for the moment only providing the daily git stuff, and not actual release material, just like the kubuntu-ci stuff so there will be warts. Once things get settled and probably closer to or just after 16.04 is released, neon will use the Ubuntu LTS base and offer normal official KDE release stuff as well as the developer crack.


As an OT side note, NoWorries, I am invading your nation the 19th of march, so hide your redheads and guard your drop-bears

[NoWorries]

For some time now I have been surprised how Wily had KDE Plasma 5.5.3 but Xenial had the previous version. Then there was the announcement by Jonathan Riddell about the KDE Neon project and its development. Currently it is only available for testing on Wily so I assume some of the effort on Xenial is directed towards getting KDE neon developed for it.

The guide for install KDE neon on Wily is found here. So I decided to see how how well it worked on Xenial. I followed the Wily installation procedure, and then used Muon Package Manager to change the software source for KDE Neon from Xenial to Wily.

After doing 236 package updates and 4 new installations, the system booted with KDE Plasma Version 5.5.90.

After using this system for a couple of days, the problems that I have had to deal with are:

1. Libreoffice Calc wouldn't launch from the menu and I had to make a new entry for it to work.
2. Whenever I do sudo apt update; sudo apt full-upgrade, the plasma desktop crashes partway through the process, but recovers quickly.
3. Every time I boot, Kate is launched.

Considering that I only have to deal with these problems, I am glad that I did not break Xenial by doing the above changes. I hope that it is not long before KDE Neon is ported to Xenial and I now check every now and then to see if it is available by changing the software source for http://archive.neon.kde.org.uk/unstable from Wily to Xenial.