I am REALLY trying

[cyrum]

i built a new PC to leave OS X behind, and I am REALLY REALLY trying to like Kubuntu and make it my new home but there does not seem to be an end to the bugs ...
first i installed 20.10. everything was fine until i noticed that without anything running, about 3-4gb of memory were allocated when the system was fully idle - no programs running. i assumed it's a caveat of self-proclaimed newer less stable version so i downgraded to the 20.04 LTS. memory problem fully resolved! about 600-700 mb with nothing running - i can live with that! then i noticed that i have absolutely no way of modifying the Kwin keyboard shortcuts through the GUI -- i posted and someone told me how to modify them through text based config files - okay, i can live with that! then i noticed that the Standard Shortcuts can't be changed in the GUI -- i mean, they seem to change, but the behaviour of the shortcut key combinations doesn't change whatsoever (specifically I want to disable Alt+Left going Back and Alt+Right going Forward, and instead have them used for Backward Word, and Forward Word respectively. These keyboard shortcuts also do not appear in the same directory as the config file for the globalshortcuts (i.e. ~/.config/kglobalshortcutsrc) so that's a huge bummer but i guess i can live with not being able to change Standard Shortcuts ... Then in the middle of my work session, in one of my Activities, my panel disappeared and the desktop background got reset to nothing (i.e.

just black background).

Like i said, I really want this to work for me but man, this has been an extremely disappointing few days with Kubuntu. is this kind of clunky behavior just business as usual for everybody here or am i just an outlier?

if you're fully satisfied with Kubuntu, I want to hear about it.

[Bings]

Do you restart programs before testing shortcut changes? Are you trying to use them with programs that have their own shortcuts? I tested changing the forward shortcut for use with Dolphin, closed dolphin and restarted and it worked fine.

(Edit: Claydoh posted in the next post a simpler alternative to I typed next)

For problems with plasma crashing, which sometimes happens, you can do the following.

Go to the home directory, right click and create a text file. I call mine "restartplasma"

Open it in a text editor and put the following

#!/bin/bash
kquitapp5 plasmashell 
plasmashell

Save and close.
Right click the file, click properties. Click the permissions tab and check "is executable"

Whenever there is any sort of plasma crash, I press "alt+space" to open krunner, type "restartplasma" and it's there to select and as the name suggests restart it. You can also double click the thing in Dolphin also.

[claydoh]

For problems with plasma crashing, which sometimes happens, you can do the following.

Go to the home directory, right click and create a text file. I call mine "restartplasma"

Also, as there are 29947720.7 ways to do each thing in Linux, use the one-liner, no-script-required, command in krunner:

plasmashell --replace

This is either fairly new, or I just semi-recently discovered it. Probably the latter.


Anyway, as someone who has been overall satisfied with Kubuntu since 2005, I can only offer this:
The Desktop linux we are using here is a DIY desktop on top of a DIY OS, which has been assembled by a crew of volunteers, using other (mostly) DIY software created by other volunteers.

KDE and Plasma, and most all things on the Linux desktop side of things always will have some sort of rough edge exposed to some people.
I feel lost and frustrated every time I venture into Windows, it has taken me more than a couple of days to suss things out there for sure.

[jlittle]

The Kubuntu shortcut handling in 20.04 was fragile, and easily got stuck where changes didn't work.
I've just posted a couple of workarounds in another thread. I don't know if 20.10 is any better, once I've got them right I leave it alone.

[jlittle]

...first i installed 20.10. everything was fine until i noticed that without anything running, about 3-4gb of memory were allocated when the system was fully idle - no programs running.

I suspect strongly you had the chrome browser running. It doesn't exit after you close the last window, and installs to start when you log in. I just checked my 20.10 and after exiting Firefox memory usage was 690 MiB, with postgresql running.

[Bings]

Also, as there are 29947720.7 ways to do each thing in Linux, use the one-liner, no-script-required, command in krunner:

plasmashell --replace

This is either fairly new, or I just semi-recently discovered it. Probably the latter.

Anyway, as someone who has been overall satisfied with Kubuntu since 2005, I can only offer this:
The Desktop linux we are using here is a DIY desktop on top of a DIY OS, which has been assembled by a crew of volunteers, using other (mostly) DIY software created by other volunteers.

KDE and Plasma, and most all things on the Linux desktop side of things always will have some sort of rough edge exposed to some people.
I feel lost and frustrated every time I venture into Windows, it has taken me more than a couple of days to suss things out there for sure.

Oh nice, that's simpler.

Plasma does way more things than other desktops, so it's going to be more likely to crash, I imagine. That said, the only problem I have is sometimes the application bar widget crashes when I don't have the same amount of monitors turned on as last time. It's fixed in seconds though.

[woodsmoke]

Re: the Chrome Browser not exiting after closing the last window.

I have noticed the same behaviour with Kaffeine the multimedia player.

If one does not click the "stop" button ( the square one) when stopping playing something and uses the "X" close box at the top right then Kaffeine continues to run in "processes". One has to use Ksysguard to issue a "kill" command. It can also be done using the terminal.

But, this is another example of something not actually "exiting" which may, or may not, be a problem for the OP if the app was running. Other players do not exhibit this behaviour, at least as far as I have seen.

woodsmoke

[GreyGeek]

@cyrum stated "if you're fully satisfied with Kubuntu, I want to hear about it."

First things first: Why use 20.10? It's EOL is just 9 months from its release. Use 20.04 instead.
Also, after you downloaded the ISO did you checksum it? After you burned it to an USB stick did you checksum that too? Also, did you do the default install? Failing to do any of those, as a first time user, will lead to problems, such as what you are experiencing.

My satisfaction with Kubuntu:
Distrowatch lists about 100 of the 300 or so distros out in Linux land. I've used, perhaps, 30+ of them since I began with RedHat 5.0 in May of 1998. In Feb of 2009 I moved to Kubuntu 9.04 Alpha and I've been running Kubuntu every since, except for about six months when I tried KDE NEON. I purchased this laptop in 2012, and did significant upgrades about 3 years ago to the number and types of drives, and changing the RAM to 16GB. Around 2015 I switched from EXT4 to BTRFS. I've never had any problems not of my own making with Kubuntu on this machine. This laptop got hit by a lightening surge about two years ago and for a short time the eth0 port refused to work, but it has healed itself.

I have tried about every feature that KDE and Plasma have offered, and other features as well, like Conky or Marble, but in the long run I've opted to do simple DEFAULT installs of the LTS releases, except that I switch the desktop setting from Folder View to Desktop. I populate the panel at the BOTTOM with a task view and pin my most used apps to it. I've added the Thermal Monitor widget and set it to display the temperature of my CPU, GPU, SDD1 and SDD2. That's it. I take snapshots (@yyyymmdd) every evening before I shut down, and before I do something I think could break my setup (@_rw). I've broken Plasma many times experimenting, but it takes only seconds to restore from @_rw or @yyyymmdd. A few days ago I decided that I haven't seen any other distros I would want to test so I uninstalled Virt-Manager and reclaimed my NODATA folders where the images were stored.

I have WINE installed and run several Windows applications under WINE. I've purchased several Steam apps which run beautifully on Kubuntu (Kerbal Space, Castle Story, Universal Sandbox, SpaceEngine-0.98.exe, heart monitoring software)...


As far as day to day use, Kubuntu 20.04.2 with BTRFS has been and is rock solid stable, as have been all previous LTS releases that I've used in the past, and those previous to the LTS releases. THAT'S why I stay with Kubuntu.

[DoYouKubuntu]

if you're fully satisfied with Kubuntu, I want to hear about it.

Me! Me! *waves at you*

I've used Kubuntu since its inception, so, yes, I'd say I'm fully satisfied with it. Even now, with random problems on my new laptop--because I don't blame Kubuntu for them.

Over the years, I've tried other distros, just to see what else is out there, but I always stick with Kubuntu as my default, and only, OS. It's allowed me to do everything I've ever needed, from heavy-duty image/graphic editing to everyday tasks, it's all I use and I love it.

And I financially support the folks who produce it, to show my appreciation for this amazing product I've relied on daily for 16 years.

I'm sorry you're having problems, but I really don't think Kubuntu is the cause/source. You might try doing a fresh, clean install, and starting over. It's not clear whether you started fresh after downgrading. Even if you did, trying again may be all you need.

[chimak111]

I suspect strongly you had the chrome browser running. It doesn't exit after you close the last window, and installs to start when you log in. I just checked my 20.10 and after exiting Firefox memory usage was 690 MiB, with postgresql running.

chrome://settings/system

has an option to turn off "Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed".

[cyrum]

claydoh: i love the "plasmashell --replace: trick. thanks!

jlittle: this was off a fresh install with only the default programs (i.e. no chrome)

Thank you for all your responses. I am a noob and I was frustrated. I have switched to Debian (with KDE) and am finding more comfort here, but a large part of the reason is probably the extensive Linux/KDE experience I've gained in the past week fiddling with Kubuntu and Debian. in any case, i will be keeping my Kubuntu LTS usb stick in the same stash as all my other important usb sticks cheers

[cyrum]

claydoh: i love the "plasmashell --replace: trick. thanks!

jlittle: this was off a fresh install with only the default programs (i.e. no chrome)

Thank you for all your responses. I am a noob and I was frustrated. I have switched to Debian (with KDE) and am finding more comfort here, but a large part of the reason is probably the extensive Linux/KDE experience I've gained in the past week fiddling with Kubuntu and Debian. in any case, i will be keeping my Kubuntu LTS usb stick in the same stash as all my other important usb sticks cheers

[kenj70]

I just did an in-place upgrade to Kubuntu 20.04 and have had no problems. I tried upgrading last fall but the printer support was not complete. Printing and scanning now work perfectly - no glitches. I run Chromium which is only available as a SNAP. Since 18.04 LTS support ended this April I finally upgraded March 31st. As GG recommends I stay with only the LTS versions. These days I fly on the "trailing edge of technology" since I don't need the drama.

[GreyGeek]

Yup! It's a LOT more fun learning Anaconda + Python + Jupyter than it is rolling back after a disaster. Running on the "bleeding edge" used to be fun but I'm only four months away from my 80th so sailing the gentle seas of the "trailing edge" suites me just fine.

[dequire]

I suspect strongly you had the chrome browser running. It doesn't exit after you close the last window, and installs to start when you log in. I just checked my 20.10 and after exiting Firefox memory usage was 690 MiB, with postgresql running.

Likely...yes. There is an option under settings to disable this ... ahem ... 'feature'. However it is set to 'on' by default.