A report: Adding Neon's repository to 16.04

[GreyGeek]

On July 23rd, following VINNY's example, I added Neon's repository to Muon, and then did
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

384 Neon packages, IIRC, came down the pipe. After I rebooted I was no longer able to bring up the repositories in Muon, so I purged it and installed Synaptic, which worked fine except that it didn't collect history. FireFox had font problems on the file dialog, and so did Dolphin. The MouseWheel doesn't always scroll a page on FireFox. It is a hit and miss situation which began with 16.04, before I installed Neon. Other than that everything worked well. AND FAST! Fastest desktop I've ever run, and I've had a PC since September of 1978. During the last five days several updates came down the pipe, including kernels which required rebooting. Things got smoother and more beautiful, especially yesterday's update. Also, yesterday, I decided to fix the inability to update libkf5screen5 to libkf5creen7, which was being held back because it couldn't replace libkf5screen5. Using Synaptic I deleted libkf5screen5 and immediately libkf5screen7 automatically installed without problems.

Following each reboot the grub boot menu continued to look the same, until a little while ago, when about a dozen package were updated, including a new -34 kernel. After the reboot, for the first time, the Neon grub GRAPHICAL boot menu appeared. Very nice! I reinstalled Muon to test it and I was able to access the repository dialog so I purged Synaptic. The only thing Muon won't let me do is tick the update boxes in the Neon section of the update tab. Something else to play with!

[GreyGeek]

I solved one conflict between the 16.04 repository and the Neon repository by deleting libf5kscreen5 and immediately libf5kscreen7 replaced it. I tried that this evening with libf5kdgnatt2-5 from the 16.04 with the newer -7 version in the Neon repository. Attempting to remove either one gives the following removal notice:

I can force the newer one without it deleting those 20 files but I just might break them if I try. Other than freezing the 16.06 version, any suggestions?

[acheron]

That's another case of problem caused by Neon not building new KDE PIM at the moment.

libf5kdgnatt2 is part of PIM in Xenial, but was moved to it's own module for KDE apps 16.x.

So the new version in Neon breaks the old PIM that comes from Xenial, which if you had installed Neon from their ISO would not have been installed or installable in the first place.

[Tahaan]

There is no libf5*

I'm sure the same typo has been re-iterated several times, and it is libkf5* which is meant above? Oh, yes I see greygeek had it right in the OP.

[acheron]

Yes, just a typo.

[GreyGeek]

Well, in the month since I installed Neon several updates have polished Neon so well that it now ranks as my best Linux OS ever. The only nit I have remaining is with FireFox (both 47 and now 48) which is intermittent in its ability to scroll webpages or frame content by using the mouse wheel.

[dequire]

The only nit I have remaining is with FireFox (both 47 and now 48) which is intermittent in its ability to scroll webpages or frame content by using the mouse wheel.

I still have this issue as well. I wonder if it's limited to KDE installs? My guess would be yes.

[GreyGeek]

I still have this issue as well. I wonder if it's limited to KDE installs? My guess would be yes.

I often use my mouse wheel to scroll file listings (detail mode) in directories. Today, after a 134 package update, and a reboot, Dolphin is slow to appear, and slower to populate the directory and file names. And even after they populate (15-30 seconds) and takes another 15-30 seconds before you can scroll them with the vertical drag bar, and the mouse scrolling remained very slow. So, I pre-pended "dbus-run-session" in front of "dolphin %u" in the KMenu item, like I did for root to get the folder icons and file names to display properly. That made Dolphin snappy again. There are some problems with how dbus is implemented.

[Guest]

I tried something different. Took a fresh install of Neon and then installed kubuntu-desktop on top of that. So far it runs great and I seem to have all the applications. I did not install kubuntu-settings-desktop (which was recommended) but left the neon-settings in place. I had no need to install any public keys etc. Maybe someone could tell me the downsides of this approach.

[oldgeek]

I installed Neon on top of Kubuntu 16.04 and so far it runs fine. I'm using the 'dev' edition and I get lots of updates every day. What I'm curious about--and obviously ignorant about--is just what all these updates are. Security fixes? Bug fixes? Cosmetic changes? Something else? Today I had some 90+ changes and it makes me feel little insecure. I probably shouldn't be, but I've never had so many updates before. Another thing: I know that adding Neon to Kubuntu isn't supported by either Neon or Kubuntu, but so far it works fine. Has anyone else who's done this (e.g. GreyGeek) found anything that would make it advisable to go back to Kubuntu 16.04 without adding the Neon repositories?

[woodsmoke]

As to not building a KDE PIM I found, and reported, that STARTTLS was not an available option in "sending" in Kmail, for IMAP, however the rest of it seems to be working. A respoder said that it was not a "bug" but something that somebody "judt didn't include", meaning that it "should" be fixed relatively quickly.

woodsmoke

[GreyGeek]

My Xenial+Neon hybrid became so SLOOOOOW, that along with text fragmentation re-appearing, FF & Dolphin scrolling problems, and my attempt to switch to Upstart, which didn't work, I re-installed Xenial WITHOUT Neon and also did a few things on the about:config page of FF that made it absolutely lightening fast and fantastic! Scrolling works well with it and Dolphin. As I add other packages back in, one at a time, I am checking to make sure boot-up, shutdown and desktop speeds do not diminish. I miss KPgp, which Neon supplied but is not in Xenial's repository. Also, I miss the Systemd-ui which was in SystemSettings5 on Neon. The Systemd-gui in Xenial is not nearly as useful.

[vinnywright]

I installed Neon on top of Kubuntu 16.04 and so far it runs fine. I'm using the 'dev' edition and I get lots of updates every day. What I'm curious about--and obviously ignorant about--is just what all these updates are. Security fixes? Bug fixes? Cosmetic changes? Something else? Today I had some 90+ changes and it makes me feel little insecure. I probably shouldn't be, but I've never had so many updates before. Another thing: I know that adding Neon to Kubuntu isn't supported by either Neon or Kubuntu, but so far it works fine. Has anyone else who's done this (e.g. GreyGeek) found anything that would make it advisable to go back to Kubuntu 16.04 without adding the Neon repositories?

I did just this as well ,,,,and it has been working just fine for me .

the constant updates/upgrades is because 1 were on a development repo and so the packages are in constant work and being kept on the cutting edge of KDE development .

in other words ,,,,nothing to worry about and in fact a good thing

VINNY

[oldgeek]

Thanks, that makes me feel more confident. I have not had the slowness that GreyGeek complained about, so as long as the hybrid keeps working properly I'll leave well enough alone.

[GreyGeek]

My Xenial+Neon hybrid became so SLOOOOOW, that along with text fragmentation re-appearing, FF & Dolphin scrolling problems, and my attempt to switch to Upstart, which didn't work, I re-installed Xenial WITHOUT Neon and also did a few things on the about:config page of FF that made it absolutely lightening fast and fantastic! Scrolling works well with it and Dolphin. As I add other packages back in, one at a time, I am checking to make sure boot-up, shutdown and desktop speeds do not diminish. I miss KPgp, which Neon supplied but is not in Xenial's repository. Also, I miss the Systemd-ui which was in SystemSettings5 on Neon. The Systemd-gui in Xenial is not nearly as useful.

That was yesterday. When I installed 16.04.1 and timed it from bootup to a working desktop it was about 30 seconds to the login screen and 1`5-20 seconds to a working desktop. (mouse clicks are acted on immediately).

This morning I timed the bootup to login screen at 58 seconds and from the login to a working desktop at 1m 3s.

Now I noticed that my kernel.log is filled with these messages:

9/12/16 11:44 AM    jerry-Aspire-7739    org.kde.KScreen[1602]    message repeated 135 times: [ kscreen: Primary output changed from KScreen::Output(Id: 66 , Name: "LVDS1" ) ( "LVDS1" ) to KScreen::Output(Id: 66 , Name: "LVDS1" ) ( "LVDS1" )]

and they repeat multiple times a minute. I've filed a bug report.
Systemd-analyse blame reports

34.255s apt-daily.service
11.903s ModemManager.service
11.240s snapd.firstboot.service
10.424s irqbalance.service
7.828s dev-sda1.device
7.519s NetworkManager-wait-online.service
7.256s accounts-daemon.service
6.848s udev-configure-printer@-devices-pci0...\x2d1.6.service
6.729s apparmor.service
6.408s systemd-logind.service
6.192s NetworkManager.service
6.145s lm-sensors.service
5.952s grub-common.service
5.947s apport.service
5.140s networking.service
4.984s thermald.service
4.659s aiccu.service
4.566s gpu-manager.service
4.506s pppd-dns.service
4.497s alsa-restore.service
4.483s avahi-daemon.service
4.480s rsyslog.service

I don't need ModemManager.service because I am not using a dialup, so I will disable and mask it.
The apt-daily.service problem I am going to address using this solution. That should take 40-50 seconds off of the boot time, unless something else decides to pop up and burn cycles.

I am finding the info on this AskUbuntu page to be very helpful, especially for systemd settings.

I also missed the systemd-manager gui in Neon but found this:
https://github.com/mmstick/systemd-m....4.7_amd64.deb
on the info in the AskUbuntu page I linked to. Very sweet!

PS- I noticed that the systemd-manager app has a blame tab. I clicked on it and got the following:

Notice that it claims that the kernel booted in 3 seconds and "user space" in 30 seconds, for a total time of 33 seconds. My wrist watch said power on to working desktop was 1m 10s. "User space" obviously does not mean my account and display startup.