Focal Testing of Kubuntu 20.04 LTS

[GreyGeek]

I added the line you used and it made no difference.

I downloaded today's release of Focal, checked the sums and installed it on my 64GB Sandisk using 50% of the spare space for persistence, the other for storage.

Booting up I discovered that unlike the release on the 22nd, the release today, the 24th, runs like molasses. Calling it slow is a compliment.

It could be a problem with mkusb, which was updated this morning and during the final phases of creating today's LiveUSB seemed to take forever for the last step, the one that finishes with "Work Done". Too many variable to assign causes.

I may play with it a couple more days and then wait until January or February before I pick it up again.

EDIT:
Since rebooting restored the system to what it was before I attempted the update & upgrade commands, I redid those commands, but used "sudo apt upgrade" instead of "update". It produced dependency and overwrite errors but the two cleanup commands worked and I continued with the the upgrade for an additional 87 apps. Then I did the "sudo apt update & sudo apt full-upgrade", which worked without errors. Then I and rebooted. Persistence is back. From boot to a working desktop took 6 min 30 seconds, so speed is missing in action.

Sometimes It takes 20 seconds or longer for the DE to respond to mouse clicks or typing ... For all practical purposes the app being used appears to be hung, so one has to be patient.

I just opened Muon and was able to edit the software sources and remove the cdrom and add proprietary software and have it update correctly. It also appeared to hang and I just let it set in the background and checked occasionally until it gave me a normal display. During boot up the system kept trying to mount the cdrom, which my laptop does not have. That probably added significantly (at least 70 seconds) to the boot up time.

I opened a Konsole to run systemd-analyze and it took 15 seconds for the Konsole to appear. I entered

$ systemd-analyze
Startup finished in 1min 13.776s (kernel) + 2min 48.120s (userspace) = 4min 1.897s
graphical.target reached after 2min 48.110s in userspace

When I highlighted that output to copy it into this post it took the left mouse popup 20 seconds to appear.

I'm using 20.04 right now, posting this msg. I'm not complaining about 20.04. It is about 6 months away from its April release and there is a LOT of work to do on it. Any, and most likely all, problems I run into at this extremely early stage of its development will be history before April comes around. I installed 9.04 at the end of January, two months before its release, and it ran like a rock star during its entire life. That's just the way Kubuntu is.

But, for now, my curiosity has been satisfied.

[GreyGeek]

Super!
On a Live Persistent USB the option to configure software sources just kicks you back to the main display.

I did the install of the nvidia-driver-390 from the CLI and it returned without errors. When I rebooted none of it persisted.
I saw a notification that 44 apps were in the update queue. Here is the result of "sudo apt update; sudo apt full-upgrade" in a Konsole:

Get:46 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/main amd64 python3-simplejson amd64 3.16.0-1ubuntu2 [57.2 kB]
Fetched 119 MB in 33s (3,605 kB/s)
Extracting templates from packages: 100%
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 175173 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../libtext-charwidth-perl_0.04-9build1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libtext-charwidth-perl (0.04-9build1) over (0.04-9) ...
(Reading database ... 175176 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing libnet-dbus-perl (1.1.0-6) ...
Removing libxml-twig-perl (1:3.50-1.1) ...
Removing libxml-parser-perl (2.44-4) ...
Removing ubuntu-minimal (1.440) ...
Removing debconf-i18n (1.5.73) ...
Removing libmailtools-perl (2.21-1) ...
Removing libnet-smtp-ssl-perl (1.04-1) ...
Removing libfile-fcntllock-perl (0.22-3build3) ...
Removing ubiquity (19.10.21) ...
Removing liblwp-protocol-https-perl (6.07-2ubuntu2) ...
Removing libwww-perl (6.39-1) ...
Removing libio-socket-ssl-perl (2.066-0ubuntu4) ...
Removing libnet-ssleay-perl (1.88-0ubuntu1) ...
Removing ubiquity-frontend-kde (19.10.21) ...
dpkg: libhtml-parser-perl: dependency problems, but removing anyway as you requested:
libhtml-tree-perl depends on libhtml-parser-perl.
libhtml-form-perl depends on libhtml-parser-perl.

Removing libhtml-parser-perl (3.72-3build2) ...
dpkg: libtext-iconv-perl: dependency problems, but removing anyway as you requested:
dictionaries-common depends on libtext-iconv-perl.

Removing libtext-iconv-perl (1.7-6) ...
dpkg: console-setup: dependency problems, but removing anyway as you requested:
kbd depends on console-setup | console-setup-mini; however:
Package console-setup is to be removed.
Package console-setup-mini is not installed.

Removing console-setup (1.191ubuntu3) ...
dpkg: keyboard-configuration: dependency problems, but removing anyway as you requested:
xserver-xorg-core depends on keyboard-configuration.
console-setup-linux depends on keyboard-configuration (= 1.191ubuntu3).

Removing keyboard-configuration (1.191ubuntu3) ...
Removing liblocale-gettext-perl (1.07-3build3) ...
(Reading database ... 173838 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../perl_5.30.0-7_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking perl (5.30.0-7) over (5.28.1-6build1) ...
Replacing files in old package perl-base (5.28.1-6build1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package perl-modules-5.30.
Preparing to unpack .../perl-modules-5.30_5.30.0-7_all.deb ...
Unpacking perl-modules-5.30 (5.30.0-7) ...
Selecting previously unselected package libperl5.30:amd64.
Preparing to unpack .../libperl5.30_5.30.0-7_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libperl5.30:amd64 (5.30.0-7) ...
Preparing to unpack .../perl-base_5.30.0-7_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking perl-base (5.30.0-7) over (5.28.1-6build1) ...
Setting up perl-base (5.30.0-7) ...
(Reading database ... 175740 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing aspell-en (2018.04.16-0-1) ...
Can't locate Text/Iconv.pm in @INC (you may need to install the Text::Iconv module) (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl/5.30.0 /usr/local/share/perl/5.30.0 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl5/5.30 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl/5.30 /usr/share/perl/5.30 /usr/local/lib/site_perl /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl-base) at /usr/share/perl5/Debian/DictionariesCommon.pm line 7.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/perl5/Debian/DictionariesCommon.pm line 7.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/sbin/update-dictcommon-aspell line 4.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/sbin/update-dictcommon-aspell line 4.
dpkg: error processing package aspell-en (--remove):
installed aspell-en package post-removal script subprocess returned error exit status 2
dpkg: too many errors, stopping
Errors were encountered while processing:
aspell-en
Processing was halted because there were too many errors.
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)


Package management was broken and none of the usual repairs made a difference. So, I rebooted and it was like nothing had happened.
I also notice that none of my previous settings held: konsole configuration, network login, settings in Settings, etc.
So, perhaps:
1) Many features are blocked in LiveUSB installations a/o
2) the mksub persistent installation is not persistent, a/o
3) I do not understand the meaning of "persistent".

I am going to add the line you used to my sources.list and see if it "persists".

[NoWorries]

I have just added the line to my /etc/apt/sources.list file that downloads the proposed files, ie

deb http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-proposed universe restricted main multiverse

The result was that Muon now works after over 70 updates. I can also add repositories using the command line. So I am now very pleased to overcome the current limitations.

[NoWorries]

I miss wrote my post above. I am on the alpha release.

I am running a persistent Live USB. While I can add or remove apps in the repository it does not allow me to add or remove sources in either Muon of Discover. I haven't tried adding them manually to sources.list yet, and considering what may be missing that I am not aware of I don't think I will try that until the development process is farther along.

I understand that you accidentally mention Beta. I don't even think that Kubuntu now mention the Alpha release.

I should have asked a simpler question regarding Muon. I find that when I go to Settings > Configure Software Sources it asks for a password and then goes into an update. On my Eoan system it gives the following option window.



I don't get this window on my Focal system and I am wondering if you get this window on your Focal System?

[GreyGeek]

I miss wrote my post above. I am on the alpha release.

I am running a persistent Live USB. While I can add or remove apps in the repository it does not allow me to add or remove sources in either Muon of Discover. I haven't tried adding them manually to sources.list yet, and considering what may be missing that I am not aware of I don't think I will try that until the development process is farther along.

The Grub menu has the option to run the Persistent Live USB in RAM. I am going to try that and see how it goes.

When considered that with the fact that the option to disable the touch pad is not present I am wondering if these lacks are by design or just not in the queue at the present.

EDIT: I booted the Persistent Live USB using the boot to RAM option. It took at least 3X as long to get to the desktop. I am currently using 3.08G of 15.5G of RAM. Most of my eight cores are running less than 1% and a 3 or 4 go to 2 or 3% as I am typing I am currently using 73 threads on FireFox and it is snappy, but the thread count is always changing. FireFox is currently using 149.8Mb and Plasma is using 113,8Mb of memory.
So is Ksysguard and Kate, which are also running.

I think I will install the NVIDIA driver tomorrow and see how it goes.

All in all, I am very pleased with Focal. My plan is to switch to it when 20.04.1 comes out, unless 20.04 turns out to be rock solid stable. My first Kubuntu install was 9.04 and that release was rock sold stable for me. Focal, using BTRFS, should carry me through until this laptop dies (it is 7 yrs old) or I stop using a computer. Probably somewhere around 2025.

[NoWorries]

I also downloaded the beta of Focal and installed it as a persistent live USB.

Good to hear from you GG and to know that you are giving Focal a go at this early stage.

I am wondering if you are experiencing the problem that I have with adding repositories using either Muon or the command line. I am not sure if my problem is self inflicted by the way I installed Focal.

A second opinion would be greatly appreciated.

[claydoh]

Moved to a different subforum, as Testimonials is not a good fit for this.

[GreyGeek]

I also downloaded the beta of Focal and installed it as a persistent live USB.

The DE is very snappy even with out my NVIDA driver loaded. I'll do a glxgears test later.

My first nit is that the option to disable the touch pad IF a mouse is plugged in has been removed.

[Don B. Cilly]

Apologies, it was just a silly quip.

Still, of course it is not a 4 letter swearing word, it's a five-letter one, which combined with the other five-letter one makes it... fit the brief ;·)
Honestly, focal fossa, from a romance-language point of view, sounds suspiciously like "septic tank"...

And the scriptwriters of "Meet the Fockers" would probably love it ;·)

[NoWorries]

I used Focal in the title because it is an adjective relating to, being, or having a focus. So I felt the first word of the name for Kubuntu 20.04 was useful and I followed it by Testing, ie focus on testing this new distribution!!!

Hence it is not a 4 letter swearing word

[Don B. Cilly]

Focal Fossa?
Let me guess. The brief was: we can't use four-letter words beginning with F, but five-letters are OK as long as you make it equally - or preferably more - annoying?
And I thought Eoan Ermine was bad...

[NoWorries]

While the download from the location:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/daily-live/current/

was only available for a few days, I could not resist the temptation to give it a go and track its development. I was away interstate for 5 days when I first noticed the name Focal Fossa and the download being available.

After returning home from the University Reunion and visit to family and friends, I copied all the files from my 19.10 system onto another networked Laptop before doing the install.

The install went well with the 2.1 GB focal-desktop-amd64.iso, however the Laptop I had, had Windows 7 installed which had been removed. I overlooked deleting the 100 MB Dos partition. The end result was that Focal booted to the Grub prompt. The quickest solution was to do the install again and delete the Dos partition.

Because it is soon after the release of Eoan, one can expect some teething problems. One problem that I have not been able to resolve is that: Muon > Settings > Configure Software Sources, only does an update of the software sources. It does not give options to change preferences or add other repositories.

If I use the command line to add a repository, I get the following:

NoWorries@sybil:~$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:canonical-kernel-team/unstable
[sudo] password for NoWorries: 
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/add-apt-repository", line 107, in <module>
sp = SoftwareProperties(options=options)
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/SoftwareProperties.py", line 118, in __init__
self.reload_sourceslist()
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/SoftwareProperties.py", line 613, in reload_sourceslist
self.distro.get_sources(self.sourceslist)    
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/aptsources/distro.py", line 93, in get_sources
(self.id, self.codename))
aptsources.distro.NoDistroTemplateException: Error: could not find a distribution template for Ubuntu/focal
NoWorries@sybil:~$

At this stage the Info Centre is similar to what I have for Eoan with the exception of the Kernel Version. So I eagerly look forward to the progress by the developers over the coming months.