Missing dependencies of Welcome in 18.04b1

Development Discussion
1

All the following might have something to do with “minimal install” being ticked:

Getting Started > Updates and Extras > Additional Themes has a Remove button although nothing was installed;

Getting Started > Optional Tasks > Firewall has no effect because gufw is not installed;

Getting Started > Optional Tasks > Backups has no effect because deja-dup is not installed;

Getting Started > System Specifications > Detailed fails because inxi is not installed;

Getting Started > System Specifications > Storage also shows nothing, but it is not clear what is causing that.

Edit: And (Gnome) Disks is described as “pre-installed”, but “minimal install” omits it.

3 Likes
2

Thanks for flagging these up, I'll look at adding an Install button for the programs that are missing from a minimal install.

For the Additional Themes, these packages are installed:

  • arc-theme
  • greybird-gtk-theme
  • mate-icon-theme-faenza
  • numix-gtk-theme
  • numix-icon-theme
  • breeze-cursor-theme
  • breeze-icon-theme

It determines the install/remove button by detecting a "main" package - in this case it was breeze-cursor-theme, but this is now pre-installed AFAIK, so I'll change this to check a different package from that list.

3

Heya @lah7, Could that be why my minimal install VM has a blank Welcome? I’m sure it worked first boot (first Beta 1 ISO).

But snaps shouldn’t need dependents so I figured something else in setup, like startup trimmed way down. Snaps and dependents are a bit fuzzy.

4

Breeze Cursors are no longer seeded, but given they were for part of the 18.04 cycle we should change the package that is used to determine the additional themes are installed. breeze-icon-theme is probably the best candidate.

5

Is the arc-theme which is installed the one usually found (which has been abandoned) or the fork? The fork has significant improvements and is the one I use just now via its PPA.

6

That's likely a different issue -- I think 3D acceleration in VirtualBox causes blank screens.

Running from the terminal should confirm, but it's because the application (outside the snap) it was trying to launch is not present.

Updated!

It's the one provided in the Ubuntu repositories at the moment.

7

Bingo! A very strange correlation.

8

Yes, disabling 3D acceleration in my VirtualBox VM (18.04 Minimal Install) allowed Welcome to work properly

9

All points have been addressed (in development). Except:

  • Blank Welcome -- this is a more complicated bug with WebKit2, which renders the application.
  • And this one:

Terminal output would be useful to see exception details please, but it has been working here. Generally, "Storage" might not populate properly if the disk has lots of partitions / is complicated. It needs a re-write really (in the future).

ubuntu-mate-welcome -d
10

Log appended. “Storage” not being populated is the same on:

  • Bare metal build of 18.04b1, patched until now;
  • VM of 18.04b1, unpatched;
  • VM of 18.04b1, patched until now;

with a minimal install in each case.

From the output it looked as though hardinfo, gparted and/or gnome-disk-utility are the culprits. However, I installed all three, as well as inxi, and there was no difference:

[i18n] Locale Not Available: null (using en_US instead) 
[i18n] Locale Not Available: null (using en_US instead) 
[i18n] All translated i18n pages found. 
[i18n] Using locale for gettext: null Looks
[i18n] Using path for gettext: /snap/ubuntu-mate-welcome/18/usr/share/ubuntu-mate-welcome/locale/ 
[i18n] Translation found for gettext. 
[Config]  Read "autostart" => "True" 
[Specs] Detecting graphics vendor...  
[Network Test] Establishing a connection test to "http://archive.ubuntu.com/" 
[Welcome] Font DPI is: 96 
[Specs] Detected: Red Hat, Inc. QXL paravirtual graphic card (rev 04) 
[Welcome] Setting zoom level to: 1.0 
[Apps] Reading index... 
[Apps] Successfully loaded index. 
[Config]  Read "hide_non_free" => "False" 
[Welcome] Snap detected. Using __VERSION__ 
[Welcome] Version: 17.10.16 
[Pre-Install] System is running Ubuntu 18.04 (bionic) 
[Welcome] Application Ready. 
[Welcome] Successfully pinged: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ 
[Welcome] Page: splash.html
      file:///snap/ubuntu-mate-welcome/18/usr/share/ubuntu-mate-welcome/splash.html 
[Welcome] Page: index.html
      file:///snap/ubuntu-mate-welcome/18/usr/share/ubuntu-mate-welcome/index.html 
[Welcome] Page: gettingstarted.html
      file:///snap/ubuntu-mate-welcome/18/usr/share/ubuntu-mate-welcome/gettingstarted.html 
[Apt] Package "hardinfo" is not installed. 
[Apt] Package "gparted" is not installed. 
[Apt] Package "gnome-disk-utility" is not installed. 
[Apt] Package "mate-utils" is present. 
[Apt] Package "mate-system-monitor" is present. 
[Apt] Package "psensor" is not installed. 
[Apt] Package "boot-repair" not available. Considered not installed. 
[Apt] Package "libavcodec-extra" is not installed. 
[Apt] Package "firmware-b43-installer" is not installed. 
[Apt] Package "hplip-gui" is not installed. 
[Apt] Package "solaar" is not installed. 
[Apt] Package "fcitx-sunpinyin" is not installed. 
[Apt] Package "fcitx-mozc" is not installed. 
[Apt] Package "fcitx-hangul" is not installed. 
[Apt] Package "caja-share" is not installed. 
[Apt] Package "libdvdcss2" not available. Considered not installed. 
[Apt] Package "xscreensaver-gl" is not installed. 
[Apt] Package "breeze-cursor-theme" is present. 
[Apt] Package "ubuntu-mate-wallpapers-complete" is not installed. 
[Apt] Package "polychromatic" not available. Considered not installed. 
[Apt] Package "openrazer-meta" not available. Considered not installed. 
[Welcome] Command: init-system-info 
[Specs] Gathering system specifications... 
[Specs] Gathering advanced system information with "inxi"... 
[Specs] Gathering Data: Distribution 
[Specs] Failed to execute collect advanced information. Is "inxi" no longer installed? 
[Specs] Failed to append advanced system information or communicate with "inxi" process. 
[Specs] Gathering Data: Kernel 
[Specs] Gathering Data: Motherboard 
cat: /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/board_name: No such file or directory
[Specs] Gathering Data: CPU 
[Specs] Gathering Data: Storage 
[Specs] Ubuntu MATE is installed on disk: /dev/mapper/ubuntu--mate--vg-roo 
[Specs] Failed to gather data: Storage 
[Specs] Gathering Data: RAM (Memory) 
[Welcome] Command: init-system-info 
[Specs] Gathering system specifications... 
[Specs] Gathering advanced system information with "inxi"... 
[Specs] Gathering Data: Distribution 
[Specs] Failed to execute collect advanced information. Is "inxi" no longer installed? 
[Specs] Failed to append advanced system information or communicate with "inxi" process. 
[Specs] Gathering Data: Kernel 
[Specs] Gathering Data: Motherboard 
cat: /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/board_name: No such file or directory
[Specs] Gathering Data: CPU 
[Specs] Gathering Data: Storage 
[Specs] Ubuntu MATE is installed on disk: /dev/mapper/ubuntu--mate--vg-roo 
[Specs] Failed to gather data: Storage 
[Specs] Gathering Data: RAM (Memory)