Happy Inspection of Hippo Kubuntu 21.04

[NoWorries]

We are now at the 4 month countdown to the release of Hirsute Hippo.

Given the current Covid-19 pandemic, progress has been amazing and the developers continue to provide an extremely reliable and stable distribution. I have the Pre-release updates activated and these have yet to destabilize Hippo.

Some have had difficulty installing this system, and I hope by now, many have succeeded with the installation and testing of Hippo. To show the progress over the past month, I have entered the System Information on my system for Hippo about the 11th November. The current state is summarized in Hippo's System Information in the table below.

	Last Month	4 Months to go
KDE Plasma Version	5.20.3	5.20.4
KDE Frameworks Version	5.76.0	5.77.0
QT Version	5.15.1	5.15.2
Kernel Version	5.8.0.26-generic	5.8.0-34-generic

This list shows how well Hirsute Hippo is progressing on all major fronts. All KDE Applications have also been updated to the latest versions of Plasma, Frameworks and QT.

In the past, my HP Laptop CPU speed was limited to 800Mhz with the Linux Kernel 5.8. I could only get near to the 2.3GHz of my Intel CPU by using the Linux Kernel 5.7. With all the latest updates for Hippo,
my system now uses the full capability of my CPU with the 5.8.0-34 Kernel.

In all areas that I use frequently, I am very satisfied with Hirsute Hippo and very grateful to the developers for the progress at this early stage of development.

One unfortunate event happened to me, in that my HP Laptop Battery expanded and "popped" the base. It is currently rather unsightly and I am awaiting a replacement battery and will have to work out how to repair part of the plastic base. This is work in progress.

What this means is that I have no option but to use my "Sacrificial" Laptop, that I have the 21.04 System on, for the great majority of my activities and all external presentations.

[Radcliff]

hh defect iso 20201104-20201223

For the first time since Dec.11th, the ISO server was updated on Dec. 23rd. The ISO robot has thrown Dec.11th image since then.

D:Kubuntu\dists\hirsute\release\Date:20201223

The bug remains.

From Ubuntu 21.04, SDC creates two drives, D: and E: and they can't be delete-format-read from Windows Dev: File Explorer crashes.

A quick solution is to boot in the BIOS and delete the Startup Disk Creator content with the Lenovo feature << Wipe Storage 1x >>.

The bug severity is more than critical. The robot needs attention?!?

***
Good to know that your chipset is back to normal, must have to do with your bug report. Two patches are in linux-next for intel_pstate, this is the latest:
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/co...b1b38c2dadb915

Stay safe,

[NoWorries]

Firstly, have a Merry Christmas.

I just used zsync to update my iso and I then created an installation usb using my trusty Startup Disk Creator. The date of the file was the 25th, ie Christmas Day.

All I can say is that it worked perfectly and much, much, faster that my previous experience. The first question was to try Kubuntu which I selected and it gave me the desktop.

[Radcliff]

Ku server defect ISO follow up 20201104 20210111

Is KDE follows the Unity path?

Could someone call the 10 years old bootable stick specialist (Rudra B. Saraswat) to restore a dead cycle. Since the first 21.04 switch, Hirsute Hanimal (like an animal), the Kubuntu Hirsute Hippo daily ISO server has thrown pure garbage.

Jan 11th, 2021 ISO is not an exception, from Mint, Cinnamon 20.1 beta, the process corrupts the USB key and boots in the plasma default wallpaper without nothing. Removing maybe- from the boot line is not a fix, it's a tweak.

Outside Ku, the cycle remains invisible and there seems to be via Zsync only one user capable to do a fresh install. Under this condition, opening an account at Alibabadotcom with a strong title such as KUBUNTU 21.04 Legit ISO appears to be the only solution.

Who knows, at the end of the day you could buy Ku and Qt -as big corporations, close it and hired Chinese coders to do the rest.

After 60 + days, Kubuntu 21.04 is a computer science insult.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonev...h=59636cdc275b

[jlittle]

just zsynced the daily iso... posting from

newly installed.

The last time I tried, perhaps the middle of December, ubiquity's Qt front end was still broken. I had been able to install Kubuntu in November, but to do so, with NoWorries method, I had to apt install various packages to get the GTK front end to go. But that problem is fixed, and the Python "imp deprecated" warning did not appear.

...the process corrupts the USB key and boots in the plasma default wallpaper without nothing...

Maybe a bad download?

Anyway, IMO for testing daily isos "burning" to a USB key is hopelessly slow, tedious, and error prone. Far easier to use iso booting, just copy the iso (using, say, dolphin, or in bash cp) to a USB that's known to boot. Or, what I do when I can, iso boot directly from where the iso is downloaded, no copying required, just the right entry in grub.cfg.

It may be, Radcliff, that the devs agree with me and do not test the whole "burn to bootable USB" process every day, and their more frequent testing is an iso boot, or some more virtualized equivalent. For three months before the release date of a six-monthly release, that would IMO be quite reasonable.

[acheron]

Well, one bug that was preventing the ISO getting to the try/install screen WAS fixed. Sadly this was masking a 2nd bug, which is now the issue.

I have uploaded a possible workaround to test...

[Radcliff]

Ubuntu HH has no bug. ISO production was stopped a day (Jan 7th/21.0.3/amd64) before the patch Ubiquity 21.0.4 made for Ku.

There is no distro/flavor without an ISO to boot from. Hirsute has no candidate: Try Kubuntu or Install Kubuntu is not seen, the window must be restored.

Booting in Try Ubuntu is a known-documented bug.

[NoWorries]

Well, one bug that was preventing the ISO getting to the try/install screen WAS fixed. Sadly this was masking a 2nd bug, which is now the issue.

I have uploaded a possible workaround to test...

Thanks very much for what you are doing.

I have just used zsync to update my iso version and I then recreated an installation usb. I am pleased to report that the installation proceeded to the "Try Kubuntu" screen within about 2 minutes. This compares very favourably with approximate 2 hours that was previously taken to get to this screen on my system.

So it is now possible for those wanting to try Kubuntu 21.04 to have a go and not be frustrated by long delays or crashing.

I have found this system to be extremely stable and useable. I now use it all the time as I have put it at the top in my list of boot options generated by Grub Customizer.

[Radcliff]

Ubuntu Hirsute 20210107 Ubiquity dot 3

-Booting a command list / check skipped

As seen in the amd64 manifest for Jan. 7th, Ubiquity was not replaced with the dot 4 inadequate fix. When removing maybe -, the process boots in Try Ubuntu (Live Session). Default, it boots into the install widow: Try or install.

-The bug

I've been downloading more than 40 ISOs from WIndows, Arch, Mint Cinnamon, Mint beta and Ubuntu 21.04. One thing that Hirsute has done all over the place since day one: It suppresses the BIOS beep when entering the boot menu.

For Lenovo, there (F12) or entering the BIOS (F1), or in the BIOS, no BIOS beep is an indication of a bug, a faulty UEFI installer-installation for all operating systems.

Corruption of the bootable stick starts right there, when clicking F12 to boot into the installer. On our AMD ThinkPad, there is no black screen, the installer boots in a dead wallpaper. Magic keys resume desktop.

Edit: Dot 4 removes this condition and requires a cold shutdown.

[acheron]

I have just used zsync to update my iso version and I then recreated an installation usb. I am pleased to report that the installation proceeded to the "Try Kubuntu" screen within about 2 minutes. This compares very favourably with approximate 2 hours that was previously taken to get to this screen on my system.

That smaller delay needs fixing in Ubiquity. I have a lead on what to do. It is actually in my tests no longer to get to the screen than a groovy ISO and it existed then, but it is now more obvious as it occurs when the wallpaper has popped up, instead of during the black screen of the final part of the plymouth load.

[NoWorries]

I take the approach that "If it ain't Broke, Don't Fix it". For this reason I have always used the Startup Disk Creator rather than add options to use Grub for the installation of the Kubuntu 21.04 iso file.

Today I got the latest iso file, created the usb install and then started it on my 2012 ASUS R501VM. I took a video on the installation and used Kdenlive to measure the time for each major event in the installation. After 1 min 8 secs the wallpaper screen appeared and then after 22 secs the Try Kubuntu was displayed. The Kubuntu 21.04 desktop was displayed 16 secs later. Thus it took a total of 1 min 46 secs to be ready to install Kubuntu 21.04.

Well done acheron for solving this problem! So for all those who don't mind taking time to create the usb and install Kubuntu 21.04, you will be well rewarded with a superb desktop to try out and hopefully enjoy.

[verndog]

That smaller delay needs fixing in Ubiquity. I have a lead on what to do. It is actually in my tests no longer to get to the screen than a groovy ISO and it existed then, but it is now more obvious as it occurs when the wallpaper has popped up, instead of during the black screen of the final part of the plymouth load.

I noticed that it took several seconds(minute) to bring up the choice. Thanks for confirming that. Wasn't sure if it was bug-report worthy or not. Now I know.

[Radcliff]

ThinkPad 20210118 iso

The bug is now fixed!

Bootable stick was made in Mint 19.3 installer with secure boot enabled. Today's build boots normally and restores Lenovo security, BIOS beep.

One bug only, time zone not available. It takes 30 seconds for the try/install window to be shown. Keyboard stays warm up to finish, slow as usual.

Kernel 5.10.0-12 is in Proposed with not so many packages.

dpkg --list | grep linux-image
ii  linux-image-5.10.0-12-generic                 5.10.0-12.13                                                         amd64        Signed kernel image generic
ii  linux-image-5.8.0-36-generic                  5.8.0-36.40+21.04.1                                                  amd64        Signed kernel image generic
ii  linux-image-generic                           5.10.0.12.14                                                         amd64        Generic Linux kernel image
ii  linux-image-unsigned-5.11.0-051100rc4-generic 5.11.0-051100rc4.202101180234                                        amd64        Linux kernel image for version 5.11.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP

Testing MOK utility:

mokutil --sb
SecureBoot enabled
SecureBoot validation is disabled in shim

[acheron]

Plasma 5.21 BETA is coming...

See ---> https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/5/20.90/

[verndog]

Will 5.21 find its way into Kubuntu 21.04? I'm excited about this new Plasma!