Nicely Nitpick Noble 24.04 LTS

[oshunluvr]

Well, according to this documentation last update June 2023, BOOT-BIOS partitions need only be 30KB or larger. So that's probably not the cause of the failure of GRUB installation.

[Schwarzer Kater]

Some news regarding the current Kubuntu 24.04 LTS development branch/Beta :

• Qt has been updated from version 5.15.12 to 5.15.13.
• In case the "Minimal Installation" option still does not install snapd or any Snaps after the final release of 24.04, the get rid of Snap script now takes this into account and offers the possibility to block the future installation of snapd and Snaps by APT pinning even if no snapd or Snaps are installed.
  This may also come in handy for other Kubuntu installations/versions…

[jlittle]

I am using GRUB legacy to boot - no EFI at all...

I'm not sure this would be feasible for you, but let me float an idea...

Can your hardware do a UEFI boot to a USB device? (USB 3 wouldn't be too slow, especially from an SSD.) If so, you could boot in UEFI mode and just not set a device for /boot/efi, and so get no boot loader at all. After booting to the new install you'd want to install the correct grub package if you wanted to use it.

[Schwarzer Kater]

Something I noticed (again) when installing Kubuntu 24.04 LTS development branch/Beta on an ext4 file system today:

In /etc/fstab the options for ext4 file systems are set to "discard" instead of e.g. "defaults".
-> This makes no sense, because the systemd timer fstrim.timer is already running… ^**
So at the moment I would most certainly replace "discard" with "defaults" in those /etc/fstab lines for any Kubuntu 24.04 LTS installation that uses ext4.
I would also add "noatime" for ext4 - but this is another story and far less relevant…

-> As this will effect nearly every installation of Kubuntu 24.04 LTS (because the default is to install on an ext4 file system…) I would consider the "discard" setting in /etc/fstab for ext4 an important issue - what do you think?

PS:
"Normal Installation" still installs the Thunderbird Snap despite not being selected, by the way.

^** = Addition:
From an older post on StackExchange: "[…], you could achieve better performance and data health by Periodic trimming instead of a continuous trimming on your fstab. There is even a in-kernel device blacklist for continuous trimming since it can cause data corruption due to non-queued operations."

[NoWorries]

I also did a new installation using an ISO date 8 April on my HP Laptop. I did this installation as I usually do where I define my partitions with the root being formatted Ext4, and my home kept in its btrfs format. To my surprise, a default home was installed and my home directory was given a new name and stored under @home at the location shown in the graphic below.


To get my system back in a way I wanted, I had to cut files out of @home/aurora and past them into aurora. I did not have sufficient disk space to do it in one step but had to do it piece by piece. I have my system back as I want it and the directory @home/aurora is now empty. I have now removed @home/aurora and @home.

I must say that I am puzzled why the system did this and I am wondering if the other odd behaviour cited above is related.

[Schwarzer Kater]

News regarding the Kubuntu 24.04 LTS development branch/Beta :

• Mesa has been updated from 24.0.3 to the current 24.0.5 (!)
• the default settings include a new wallpaper now

So here is today's overview (similar to the ones NoWorries has already provided us with all the time - thanks for keeping track of the details for every new Kubuntu release by the way!):

KDE Plasma	5.27.11
KDE Frameworks	5.115.0
KDE Gear**	23.08.5
Qt	5.15.13
Mesa	24.0.5
Kernel	6.8.0-22

^** = Over 180 individual programs plus dozens of programmer libraries and feature plugins are released simultaneously as part of KDE Gear.
Applications like the Dolphin file manager, the Kate text editor or the screenshot utility Spectacle belong to them.
KDE Gear is not the same as the KDE Applications but a subset and part of them.

[Schwarzer Kater]

One more week until the official release date:

• The slideshow during the installation now shows Kubuntu images instead of the Lubuntu ones.
  .
• Kubuntu and Lubuntu are the only (!) official Ubuntu flavours I know of that allow you to install them without snapd and Snaps, namely by using the "Minimal Installation" option.
  -> Installing the "fake" Firefox .deb in the "Minimal Installation" installs snapd and the Snap, though (!) - the "fake" Thunderbird .deb doesn't do this and installs just a script that tells you to install the Thunderbird Snap.
  So if you don't want to use Snaps it would also be wise to block snapd (and therefore Snaps) entirely and install the "traditional" Firefox and Thunderbird instead (e.g. with the available scripts for that).
  The "Minimal Installation" is really quite minimal, though… Personally I would use the "Normal Installation", run the get rid of Snap script afterwards and then install the "traditional" Firefox and Thunderbird…
  .
• The "Normal Installation" option still additionally installs the Thunderbird Snap despite being not selected…
  .
• The option for a ext4 file systems is still discard in /etc/fstab - despite a systemd timer for fstrim is running by default !
  -> To correct this, please copy and paste the following two commands one by one into Konsole with "[Ctrl] [c]" and "[Ctrl] [Shift] [v]" before entering them to avoid typing errors:

-> sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.orig
-> sudo sed -i '/ext4/ s/discard/defaults/g' /etc/fstab
I would even suggest to also additionally use the noatime option, if you don't need the time information when you have accessed (e.g. just opened) a file or folder, because this makes using old HDDs a tiny little bit faster and reduces write actions (and therefore wear) on SSDs, so instead of the second command then you can
-> sudo sed -i '/ext4/ s/discard/defaults,noatime/g' /etc/fstab

Of course you can instead simply use the Kate text editor to open /etc/fstab (I advise to make a backup of the file first, though) and replace the discard option with the defaults (or defaults,noatime) option this way!


PS: another positive thing about Kubuntu 24.04 LTS (dev & Beta)

• systemd-oomd is not installed by default.

[Schwarzer Kater]

This late afternoon there was a second Daily Build (the good things but also the issues listed above are still there):

• The Plymouth splash screen when booting (the slowly "blinking" Kubuntu logo) uses the new font and colours and seems to "blink" a little faster now.
  .
• There is another new default wallpaper now.
  .
• The option to install third-party software/drivers has gone in this Daily Build !

[Schwarzer Kater]

Nothing has changed in today's Daily Build regarding all the points I mentioned in the three posts above.
There have been dozens of updated libraries et al. during the last days, though.

[Schwarzer Kater]

Daily Build 2024-04-20 07:58 / today's status so far:

• Kernel updated from 6.8.0-22 to 6.8.0-28.
  .
• In the Calamares installer the Additional Options to "install third-party software for graphics and Wi-Fi hardware and additional media formats" is still gone.
  (It was also gone in yesterday's Lubuntu Daily Build installer.)
  I wonder why that is…
  .
• In the Calamares installer Thunderbird is completely removed from Install additional third-party packages now and cannot be selected/deselected in the "Normal Installation" option anymore.
  Both in the "Full Installation" and in the "Normal Installation" options the Thunderbird Snap is installed by default now.
  (In yesterday's Lubuntu Daily Build installer the Thunderbird Snap was not installed when deselected in the "Normal Installation" option - I have not checked today, though.
  I wonder why this doesn't seem to be possible for Kubuntu and the option for Thunderbird was completely removed instead…)
  .
• The option for ext4 file systems after installation is still discard in /etc/fstab - despite the systemd fstrim.service being loaded and the systemd timer for fstrim is running…
  And I still think this is a bad idea and should be defaults instead - until somebody explains to me otherwise!

[Schwarzer Kater]

Nothing new (and neither positive nor negative changes) to report from today's Daily Build (2024-04-21 07:59).

[jlittle]

Installing to an existing btrfs, I still get the crash if the @swap/swapfile exists. If I remove it before running calamares the problem is avoided.

After installing before logging in I get

Configuration file "/var/lib/sddm/.config/sddm-greetrc" not writable.
Please contact your system administrator.

I think I've seen that error reported somewhere before, but google doesn't think so. The problem is caused by the ownership of the directory, which is saned, and I presume it should be sddm; saned is a daemon for reading from scanners. If the directory is changed so that sddm can write to it fixes it.

[Schwarzer Kater]

Kubuntu Daily Build 2024-04-22 08:01:

• Kernel updated from 6.8.0-28 to 6.8.0-31.
  The Ubuntu Kernel Team seems to have been quite busy: this is the second kernel update within two days.
  .
• Nothing has changed regarding the installation as far as I can tell,
  IMHO the most positive being that
  - the "Minimal Installation" option still does not install any Snaps or snapd at all (beware of the "backdoors" by e.g. "fake" Firefox, Chromium and Thunderbird packages, though, that will install both snapd and the Snap if you don't block snapd by APT pinning first! Or simply also use the get rid of Snap script for that - which I have tested dozens of times with 24.04 by now. )
  And the most negative being that
  - there still is the "discard" option in /etc/fstab for ext4 file systems instead of "defaults" (why?!?).

Oh yes, and in Kubuntu 24.04 LTS Wayland is not fully installed by default (to be precise: only kwin-wayland^** is, plasma-workspace-wayland is not) and therefore the default session type is X11, of course.
I personally think that is a good thing as I consider Wayland to be still in Beta stage and certainly not suitable for an LTS release…

And don't forget to vote before the end of the month : Poll - (when) will you install Kubuntu 24.04 LTS?


^**= "This package provides the wayland version, which is still a work in progress project, and is available as a PREVIEW release. Don't expect the same stability as with the x11 version."

[Schwarzer Kater]

Kubuntu 24.04 Daily Build 2024-04-23 00:07
All Quiet on the Western Front: nothing has changed, neither the installer nor major system components.

But: /etc/os-release now says "Ubuntu 24.04 LTS" - without "development branch". So this could already be the release version.

What about Btrfs ?

[Schwarzer Kater]

Kubuntu 24.04 LTS Daily Build 2024-04-24 04:13

On the surface I could not spot any differences compared to yesterday's Daily Build.

• there still is the "discard" option in /etc/fstab for ext4 instead of "defaults"- despite the systemd fstrim.service being loaded and the systemd timer for fstrim is running…

If you have installed Kubuntu 24.04 LTS Daily Build on an ext4 file system,
please correct this installer bug for ext4 file systems in /etc/fstab first (= replace the "discard" option, because a systemd timer for fstrim is already running)!
To not do both is recommended by e.g. Red Hat and the ArchWiki (and Fedora, Debian or Ubuntu's main distribution also do not do it)!
Furthermore Red Hat and SUSE (openSUSE) also recommend in general to use a timer/fstrim instead of the "discard" option (and Fedora, Debian or Ubuntu's main distribution also use fstrim.timer instead) - except for special cases.
If you are unlucky, using the "discard" option in /etc/fstab may decrease the SSD's lifetime and can lead to performance degradation and if you are really unlucky, using it with certain older SSDs could in very rare cases even lead to data corruption and loss.

If you don't know whether you chose the ext4 file system during installation the chance you did is quite high as it is the default for Kubuntu 24.04 LTS.
And if you didn't choose ext4 the following two commands won't do anything (except making a backup of your /etc/fstab).
Please copy and paste the following two commands one by one into Konsole with "[Ctrl] [c]" and "[Ctrl] [Shift] [v]" before entering them to avoid typing errors.
-> sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.orig
-> sudo sed -i '/ext4/ s/discard/defaults/g' /etc/fstab

I would even suggest to also additionally use the noatime option, if you don't need the information about when you have accessed (= opened or read) a file or folder, because this makes using old HDDs a tiny little bit faster and reduces write actions (and therefore wear) on SSDs.
So instead of the last command then you can
-> sudo sed -i '/ext4/ s/discard/defaults,noatime/g' /etc/fstab