My Experiences with Kubuntu 14.04 [Trusty]

[NoWorries]

One week ago I took the Bull-by-the-Horns and decided to install Trusty on a desktop that I often refer to as my "Sacrificial Desktop". When I booted from the usb created from the 1Gbyte iso image, I could not get the Try Kubuntu option to work. It just gave a black screen with my mouse cursor still working. I then tried the Install option and that worked.

As the install was proceeding, I suddenly realized that if the UEFI boot did not work I would not be able to fix it with boot-repair which requires the Kubuntu Desktop. After the installation was complete and I rebooted, the UEFI problem had been fixed and I got the login screen.

I have now installed all the applications that I have on previous versions and there are many updated versions as well. From my testing, everything is working very well and nothing has frozen or crashed at this stage. I must say that the Kernel Version 3.12 is fast - particularly with shut-down which seems to be less than 2s.

Considering that Trusty has not even reached alpha stage, I must say that I am VERY IMPRESSED with it and I enjoy getting all the updates and watching the progress so far. I eagerly look forward to the release of Trusty. I have added a graphic that shows the System at this stage.

[Jimmy.P]

Downloading it now...should be fun to try it!

[SteveRiley]

Remember this?

https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...l=1#post335579

You should be able to reduce your /etc/apt/sources.list to:

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ devel main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ devel main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ devel-proposed main restricted universe multiverse 
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ devel-proposed main restricted universe multiverse

and keep that machine running perpetually on the edge of the edge. You can comment the lines for devel-proposed to reduce the edginess by one degree.

[NoWorries]

Good to hear from you again Steve. As I am not using Trusty for a production system I am taking risks with the packages that I have. For over a week now, all has been going very well and I realize that this is a rather short time in the development period which is over four months.

This time I am making sure that I use:

apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

and make absolutely certain that when I accept an upgrade that it is not going to remove significant parts of my system. I encountered this problem with Saucy to my regret.

You will probably be horrified at the sources.list that I have, which is:

# See [URL]http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes[/URL] for how to upgrade to
# newer versions of the distribution.
deb [URL]http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/[/URL] trusty main restricted
deb-src [URL]http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/[/URL] trusty main restricted

## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
## distribution.
deb [URL]http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/[/URL] trusty-updates main restricted
deb-src [URL]http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/[/URL] trusty-updates main restricted

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team. Also, please note that software in universe WILL NOT receive any
## review or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb [URL]http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/[/URL] trusty universe
deb-src [URL]http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/[/URL] trusty universe
deb [URL]http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/[/URL] trusty-updates universe
deb-src [URL]http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/[/URL] trusty-updates universe

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu 
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to 
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in 
## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
## security team.
deb [URL]http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/[/URL] trusty multiverse
deb-src [URL]http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/[/URL] trusty multiverse
deb [URL]http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/[/URL] trusty-updates multiverse
deb-src [URL]http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/[/URL] trusty-updates multiverse

## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes
## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.
## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb [URL]http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/[/URL] trusty-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src [URL]http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/[/URL] trusty-backports main restricted universe multiverse

deb [URL]http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/[/URL] trusty-security main restricted
deb-src [URL]http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/[/URL] trusty-security main restricted
deb [URL]http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/[/URL] trusty-security universe
deb-src [URL]http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/[/URL] trusty-security universe
deb [URL]http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/[/URL] trusty-security multiverse
deb-src [URL]http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/[/URL] trusty-security multiverse

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's
## 'partner' repository.
## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by Canonical and the
## respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu users.
deb [URL]http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu[/URL] trusty partner
# deb-src [URL]http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu[/URL] trusty partner

## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by third-party
## developers who want to ship their latest software.
deb [URL]http://extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu[/URL] trusty main
deb [URL]http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/[/URL] trusty-proposed restricted main multiverse universe
deb-src [URL]http://extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu[/URL] trusty main

The http addresses are for the Australian mirror site that I am using as it is, for me, over 10 times faster than the main site. I have confirmed that it is getting the latest updates. The Muon Package manager settings that produced my sources.list file are:

[SteveRiley]

You will probably be horrified at the sources.list that I have

Actually, that is a perfectly normal sources.list file for a standard *buntu install.

The http addresses are for the Australian mirror site that I am using as it is, for me, over 10 times faster than the main site.

And guess what...it is also mirroring the devel pockets:



Therefore, why not go ahead and set up the following minimal sources.list:

deb http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/ devel main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src  http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/ devel main restricted universe multiverse

deb  http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/ devel-proposed main restricted universe multiverse 
deb-src  http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/ devel-proposed main restricted universe multiverse

If you do this now and then run apt-get update, it will simply rebase your local package index files to the devel pockets (which I'd wager are nothing more than symlinks to the trusty pockets at the repository servers). As you dist-upgrade, you'll continue to pull in updates to Trusty. Furthermore, once Trusty releases, devel will be remapped to "U-series," and you can just keep on upgrading without ever having to reinstall or edit your sources.list again.

[woodsmoke]

Hi
well, I've dist upgraded before, I added SRs sources and also these ppas, but when i do Saucy to Trusty upgrade and dist-upgrade nada. anything I have left out?

https://launchpad.net/~kubuntu-ppa/+archive/beta

woodsmoke

[woodsmoke]

I keep getting this in terminal:

W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/gwibber-dai...source/Sources 404 Not Found

W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/gwibber-dai...-i386/Packages

woodsmoke

[woodsmoke]

Soooo...

I manually commented from saucy to trusty and am presently in the process of upgrade and dist-upgrade, hope it doesn't break! lol



sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

woodhopefulsmoke

[woodsmoke]

LOL
ummmmm it worked! lol

and ummmm.... there still is not a "regular" network button in the panel.

But, it all woiked! lol

woodsmoke

[woodsmoke]

Calligra has some SIGNIFICANT changes

The right panel of Calligra words now has "tabs": "text editing", references, page layout, review, shape handling, connect shapes, create path.

I have reviewed Calligra when it was Kwords, about it's being much more ergonomic in terms of a "right sweep" instead of having to move the mouse upward, and this makes things even more convenient.

If for no other reason, a move to Trusty is justified by this.

Amarok does not seem to be changed in any way, there are still no "themes/skins".

The "cashew" tab for "desktop" and such, now is "transparent" until moused over and the little cashew then takes on a gold colour(on my machine).

There does not seem to be any major change to Kontact, although to do list may now work, it will need testing.

all in all, pretty good!

woodsmoke

[NoWorries]

Therefore, why not go ahead and set up the following minimal sources.list:

deb http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/ devel main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src  http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/ devel main restricted universe multiverse

deb  http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/ devel-proposed main restricted universe multiverse 
deb-src  http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/ubuntu/ devel-proposed main restricted universe multiverse

Thanks for the advice as I have now compared your recommended sources.list with the one I was using. I have done four comparisons and there is, to my surprise, absolutely no difference in the packages to be installed and upgraded. With your list, after the apt-get update, I get the following at the end:

Reading package lists... Done
W: Conflicting distribution: http://mirror.internode.on.net devel Release (expected devel but got trusty)
W: Conflicting distribution: http://mirror.internode.on.net devel-proposed Release (expected devel-proposed but got trusty)

As one would expect, Muon shows completely different screens for Configure Software Sources. There are no buttons activated for "Downloadable from the Internet" and the "Kubuntu updates" are also greyed out. There seems to be no pre-release or unsupported updates for 14.04.

This list is certainly much shorter and I am wondering if there is a move to rationalize the repositories. Looks like I can now safely continue to live on the edge.

[NoWorries]

Hi
well, I've dist upgraded before, I added SRs sources and also these ppas, but when i do Saucy to Trusty upgrade and dist-upgrade nada. anything I have left out?

https://launchpad.net/~kubuntu-ppa/+archive/beta

woodsmoke

You are certainly a VERY BRAVE MAN to consider doing a dist upgrade for trusty which has not even reached beta and let alone alpha status. On all my systems I have separate root and home partitions and always do a fresh install into the root partition and leave the home partition unchanged. For trusty, I got the iso file from here.

Glad to know that you got your system upgraded and I hope that you enjoy living on the edge.

[SteveRiley]

Thanks for the advice as I have now compared your recommended sources.list with the one I was using. I have done four comparisons and there is, to my surprise, absolutely no difference in the packages to be installed and upgraded.

That's because the devel pockets are simply symlinked to the trusty pockets on the repository servers.

With your list, after the apt-get update, I get the following at the end ... "W: Conflicting distribution (expected devel but got trusty)..."

That's because the devel pockets are simply symlinked to the trusty pockets on the repository servers.



Let's examine a bit more. Debian-based repositories have a defined layout of files and directories. Of interest here is the Release File located at dists/RELEASE/Release (where RELEASE is precise, quantal, raring, trusty, etc.). Here are the first few lines of Trusty's Release File, from http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/trusty/Release:

Origin: Ubuntu
Label: Ubuntu
Suite: trusty
Version: 14.04
Codename: trusty
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2013  6:02:15 UTC
Architectures: amd64 arm64 armhf i386 powerpc
Components: main restricted universe multiverse
Description: Ubuntu Trusty 14.04

Here is the same snippet of "devel"'s Release File, from http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/devel/Release:

Origin: Ubuntu
Label: Ubuntu
Suite: trusty
Version: 14.04
Codename: trusty
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2013  6:02:15 UTC
Architectures: amd64 arm64 armhf i386 powerpc
Components: main restricted universe multiverse
Description: Ubuntu Trusty 14.04

It's the same as Trusty's! Yep, devel is just a symlink. Thus, APT will throw a warning message, but is fully capable of handling the situation.

As one would expect, Muon shows completely different screens for Configure Software Sources. There are no buttons activated for "Downloadable from the Internet" and the "Kubuntu updates" are also greyed out. There seems to be no pre-release or unsupported updates for 14.04.

That's because Trusty is under active development. Super-fresh packages are initially placed into trusty-proposed; after some testing they migrate to trusty. There is no need for a separate "update" type pocket because releases under development are continually updated during the cycle.

This list is certainly much shorter and I am wondering if there is a move to rationalize the repositories.

Nope. Once a development on a release finishes and it "goes gold" and into maintenance mode, the sources.list file will be the longer usual format. This is because of the need to maintain distinctions between the final release files and subsequent updates. The appearance of the devel symlinks in the repositories is relatively recent addition, and allows one to build a *buntu system that always and forever tracks the latest development streams and will (should?) never need reinstalling again.

Looks like I can now safely continue to live on the edge.

Depending on your definition of "safe," sure

[NoWorries]

Thanks for the VERY COMPREHENSIVE reply - hope you got a good nights sleep after doing it. I am sure it will be of use to many who are trying out trusty.

I feel safe living on the edge as the PC that I am using is one of three and therefore does not matter if it "breaks". I would be more concerned if I had it on my main Laptop which I sometimes need for presentations.