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**x-shaney-x** · Sep 07, 2011, 08:58 AM

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 Beta 1 - General feedback and questions

Well not long ago I stopped being able to even test it!!
It become more unstable than any beta I have ever used.
I had an install upgraded from natty, a 64-bit install then afterwards a 32-bit install and all 3 were crashing like mad to the point of being unusable in any way.

I went back to it a week or so and upgraded everything and the change is remarkable.
I am currently using it as my main install.

Some annoying bugs remain, hopefully some will be ironed out by release, though there are bugs that have been there for ages that probably STILL won't be dealt with, such as the "add widgets" searchbar blinking but not actually focused.
I also find plasma or kwin or both, crash badly if I logout and login to another user or even the same user.

In fact all my crashes seem related to kwin or plasma, haven't noticed any problems with KDE applications I use.

**SteveRiley** · Sep 07, 2011, 09:07 AM

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 Beta 1 - General feedback and questions

Originally posted by Citan

I finally decided to join the Kubuntu forums to give direct feedback.

Welcome!

Originally posted by Citan

in my memories, out-of-box install had a quickaccess to document in task bar next to KDE button, it has been replaced by Activites. In my opinion, it's a regression because Activities is very hard to understand for non-power users (or even for them ^^), whereas quickaccess gived user a landmark on how to access his home, at the same time giving him a glimpse of interface's powerfulness.

I'm not running 11.10 yet, however I upgraded KDE on my 11.04 box to 4.7. I have a QuickAccess browser button just to the right of my Activities button. Is yours missing?

Originally posted by Citan

When using the kickoff menu and browsing applications, in 11.04 when you entered a category of applications, you had an arrow on the left of the application's list to go back one level higher. It disappeared now, not sure if this is a bug or a feature (feel as a regression to me, because it was intuitive way to go back).

This has been replaced with a breadcrumb-like feature. Look near the upper right corner of the Kickoff menu, just below the search bar. You'll see a breadcrumb list grow as you dive deeper into the menu. This is similar to how Dolphin keeps track of your folder navigation.

**PaulW2U** · Sep 07, 2011, 10:01 AM

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 Beta 1 - General feedback and questions

Originally posted by x-shaney-x

I went back to it a week or so and upgraded everything and the change is remarkable.
I am currently using it as my main install.

Some annoying bugs remain, hopefully some will be ironed out by release, though there are bugs that have been there for ages that probably STILL won't be dealt with, such as the "add widgets" searchbar blinking but not actually focused.
I also find plasma or kwin or both, crash badly if I logout and login to another user or even the same user.

In fact all my crashes seem related to kwin or plasma, haven't noticed any problems with KDE applications I use.

I'm seeing pretty much the same here, Oneiric became much more stable after I deleted my alpha installation and installed beta 1. Every bug or crash that I'm seeing has been reported many times before, usually confirmed but still awaiting a fix by either the Ubuntu/Kubuntu developers or KDE.

I'm also seeing most of the KDE applications being mainly problem free but hoping that I'll find two of the longstanding bugs in kstars will be fixed when KDE 4.71 is released this week***. It's not that I use the program very often but I do like to see confirmed bugs fixed especially when I'm one of the reporters!

*** Apparently KDE 4.71 was released today - http://dot.kde.org/2011/09/07/kde-sh...tember-updates. No doubt the relevant packages will filter through to the Ubuntu/Kubuntu repositories shortly.

**eco2geek** · Sep 07, 2011, 07:47 PM

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 Beta 1 - General feedback and questions

When using the kickoff menu and browsing applications, in 11.04 when you entered a category of applications, you had an arrow on the left of the application's list to go back one level higher. It disappeared now, not sure if this is a bug or a feature (feel as a regression to me, because it was intuitive way to go back).

Now you click on the menu item you want at the top of the kicker menu to go back. For example, if you've navigated to "Games | Card Games", and you want to go back to "Games", click on the word "Games" at the top of the menu. If you want to go back to "All Applications", click "All Applications" at the top of the menu. (You're right, the arrow was more intuitive.)

in my memories, out-of-box install had a quickaccess to document in task bar next to KDE button, it has been replaced by Activites. In my opinion, it's a regression because Activities is very hard to understand for non-power users (or even for them ^^), whereas quickaccess gived user a landmark on how to access his home, at the same time giving him a glimpse of interface's powerfulness.

You can, of course, add that "Quick Access" plasma widget back to the taskbar. But I'd guess the reason the KDE devs put an Activity Manager icon there was to draw attention to it. You essentially get as many totally new workspaces as you have memory for, and you can customize and save them.

**Citan** · Sep 08, 2011, 02:44 AM

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 Beta 1 - General feedback and questions

Hi all, thanks for your welcome and replies

About the Application bbrowsing in Kickoff menu, I should have precised that I saw the breadcrumb-like bar. Thing is, I find it less visible, and less intuitive, that the arrow on the left. Although as a trade-off, it should be clearer where you are when you're browsing deeper in menus.
Well, it's maybe just my habit, although didn't use much of the menu. I'll be interested in feedback from other users.
Maybe just increasing the police size by 1 should be enough.
In fact, I thought that final objective was to have both new breadcrumb and original back arrow at the same time, hence my comment. (EDIT: bolded to emphasize my final point, after seeing last reply where x-shaney-x agrees on the "lack of visibility" part: why not combine both and satisfy 100% users?

)

About the Quickaccess button, yes it disappeared, on the left of bottom menubar, I have KDE button, activites button, desktop switch button, taskbar, then usual set of notification buttons on right.

As for stability, apart from things that I mentioned, and occasional crashes of reKonq, I'm globally very impressed with stability.
(especially no crashes on Nepomuk - ah, it's because indexation is disabled out-of-the-box I suppose lol).

Ah, still a thing, I NEVER managed to record my desktop and playback it correctly: RecordItNow doesn't record (files always fast-played so useless, I tried to change settings but same result), Gnome-based solutions are meant to be integrated with Gnome top-menubar so when recording no menu to stop...)
I really want to be able to do it to showcase KDE's assets to Windowsers's friends...
EDIT: Ah well, I searched on Google, but didn't think about forums ^^ I'll see if any solution there, and maybe open a thread if needed. So as not to get off-topic on this one^^

**x-shaney-x** · Sep 08, 2011, 02:57 AM

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 Beta 1 - General feedback and questions

The breadcrumbs in the menu are a major plus as far as I'm concerned.
I always hated the old back arrow and the first few times I used kickoff, I couldn't work out how to go back and ended up closing and reopening the menu.
Even when I did get used to it, it never felt "right".

However, I don't think the breadcrumbs are as good as they could be and would be easily missed.
The text needs to be bigger and/or bold.

The text is quite faded and in most cases, in any OS, faded looking text usually indicates something is inactive so it hardly shouts "click me".

As far as screen recording goes, last time I tried it in KDE, I used XVIDCAP, which as far as I can remember worked perfectly.

**Citan** · Sep 08, 2011, 03:00 AM

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 Beta 1 - General feedback and questions

Originally posted by eco2geek

You can, of course, add that "Quick Access" plasma widget back to the taskbar. But I'd guess the reason the KDE devs put an Activity Manager icon there was to draw attention to it. You essentially get as many totally new workspaces as you have memory for, and you can customize and save them.

I understand well the intention of KDE team was to bring attention to this feature.
My point however, being myself accustomed to Activities configuration and usefulness, was:
1) Quickaccess button is instantly useful, for all users whatever their "level"
2) Newcomers (= first-try Linux users) trying Activities will only get lost by it, and won't bother spending 2 hours looking for tutorials, understand how it works and configure everything. I mean, even long Linux users around me didn't bother, already satisfied with desktops, and it took me a bit of perseverance to understand and assess the potential beyond complexity.
3) For 90% users, being able to change background and widgets for each desktop, and directly link applications to it, will be more than enough (and for some, complex enough).
4) Advanced/experienced users will be curious enough, like me, to look for it, and test it until they grasp the concept.

If KDE team truly want to push adoption of Activites, imo, they need to:
1) Give an option to limit Activities to a desktop (so you can truly make a set of Activities dedicated to desktop)
2) Allow Activities to be placed on Desktop like a shorcut (maybe useless idea, but could maybe ease the adoption)
2) Propose in major distribution, a default set of Activities showcasing the concept in a already efficient way. >>> Needs consequent work together with community, hard to realize but would be great.

**Citan** · Sep 08, 2011, 03:45 AM

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 Beta 1 - General feedback and questions

Originally posted by x-shaney-x

The breadcrumbs in the menu are a major plus as far as I'm concerned.
I always hated the old back arrow and the first few times I used kickoff, I couldn't work out how to go back and ended up closing and reopening the menu.
Even when I did get used to it, it never felt "right".

However, I don't think the breadcrumbs are as good as they could be and would be easily missed.
The text needs to be bigger and/or bold.

The text is quite faded and in most cases, in any OS, faded looking text usually indicates something is inactive so it hardly shouts "click me".

As far as screen recording goes, last time I tried it in KDE, I used XVIDCAP, which as far as I can remember worked perfectly.

I agree with you on lack of visibility.
Thanks for tip on XvidCap, works perfectly indeed to capture video. However don't know how tu put voice in. It says it'll capture /dev/dsp (device sound processor?) but nothing capture. In Audacity, I checked that mic was working, it's the peripheral Pulse: Internal Mic:0. How could I "link" both informations?
SOrry for the HS, but since I'm close now to success...

**sithlord48** · Sep 08, 2011, 11:54 AM

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 Beta 1 - General feedback and questions

Originally posted by Citan

- Didn't check with open source drivers, but with proprietary drivers, normal startup will end on black screen (although system behind seems up and running, no way to do anything). Same problems if I deactivate desktop kwin effects.
However, starting as "repair mode" (don't remember exact name, it's alternative option to normal boot) then select "resume" in the text menu, login and type "startx" command allows a clean boot.

your card does not like KMS .. boot with a nomodeset option. (this depends on your driver and card for the exact option)

**budr** · Sep 08, 2011, 05:57 PM

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 Beta 1 - General feedback and questions

Damn. Beta 1 has been out for a week or so, and I've just about worked up the nerve to give it a try. Then KDE goes and releases 4.7.1 yesterday. Anyone have an idea about when or if 4.7.1 will make it into Oneriic?

**sixthwheel** · Sep 08, 2011, 06:20 PM

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 Beta 1 - General feedback and questions

Originally posted by budr

Damn. Beta 1 has been out for a week or so, and I've just about worked up the nerve to give it a try. Then KDE goes and releases 4.7.1 yesterday. Anyone have an idea about when or if 4.7.1 will make it into Oneriic?

I'm running it now.

**budr** · Sep 08, 2011, 06:40 PM

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 Beta 1 - General feedback and questions

I'm running it now.

Sweet. Is it on the installation disk, or did you have to go to a PPA?

**vinnywright** · Sep 08, 2011, 07:11 PM

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 Beta 1 - General feedback and questions

Originally posted by Citan

Originally posted by x-shaney-x

The breadcrumbs in the menu are a major plus as far as I'm concerned.
I always hated the old back arrow and the first few times I used kickoff, I couldn't work out how to go back and ended up closing and reopening the menu.
Even when I did get used to it, it never felt "right".

However, I don't think the breadcrumbs are as good as they could be and would be easily missed.
The text needs to be bigger and/or bold.

The text is quite faded and in most cases, in any OS, faded looking text usually indicates something is inactive so it hardly shouts "click me".

As far as screen recording goes, last time I tried it in KDE, I used XVIDCAP, which as far as I can remember worked perfectly.

I agree with you on lack of visibility.
Thanks for tip on XvidCap, works perfectly indeed to capture video. However don't know how tu put voice in. It says it'll capture /dev/dsp (device sound processor?) but nothing capture. In Audacity, I checked that mic was working, it's the peripheral Pulse: Internal Mic:0. How could I "link" both informations?
SOrry for the HS, but since I'm close now to success...

this works well for me for recording a desktop with sound through pulse

Code:

ffmpeg -r 30 -s 1366x768 -f x11grab -i :0.0 -vcodec msmpeg4v2 -qscale 2 -f alsa -ac 2 -i pulse -acodec pcm_s16le filename.avi

the -s 1366x768 can be changed to the resolution of your screen.
you will of coarse knead ffmpeg and since your getting that you may as well get winff 2

VINNY

**vinnywright** · Sep 08, 2011, 08:32 PM

Re: Kubuntu 11.10 Beta 1 - General feedback and questions

Ok so hears an example of ffmpeg rolling off a screen capture with sound on Kubuntu-11.10

for some reason when I'm running the 2 displays it defaults to the external (it's a laptop) HDMI display and is what you see in the capture.

http://youtu.be/HYlSKZ6596g

O I cant resist .............hears 1 more

http://youtu.be/o3UJgVeX8dE

VINNY

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Kubuntu 11.10 Beta 1 - General feedback and questions

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