Progress report as we approach 18.04 Beta 2

Development Discussion
#21

Was there a recently fixed bug where the Indicators were patched?

I mentioned some issues with the applets on my panel before and was about to try to make s short video of the issue in action but after an update that issue seems to have gone away!

For historical purposes, the issue was when changing the layouts, from one to a saved layout the applets would crash or disappear when reverting back to the saved layout and present with missing applets. Was just chalking it up to development in the backgroundā€“weā€™re still in beta after allā€“when it occurred to me it could be a Mate-Tweak bug so I wanted to report it.

Seems to be gone now though, so hooray! :slight_smile:

EDIT: Also, a minor papercut and a possible bit of ignorance on my part. Is there any way to show a blinking cursor on the new login screen? As it is now thereā€™s no indication that the keyboard is already on where it needs to be to type in the password.

Secondly and somewhat related, I am a single user most of the time so I was wondering how does the new login screen work with more than one user? If I wanted to add a user would their name just show up on the login screen or would a new menu become exposed to allow shifting from one user to another? In the old login screen the listbox made it obvious that you would click here to get a new user or to change a user. How does this work with our new login screen?

#22

I have some problems with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS MATE.

Visual group of problems:

  1. I installed human-theme package on it, and it has gray/silver color (#a5a5a2), not standard Ubuntu's orange (#cf8a31). Problem exists since Ubuntu 17.10 and was reported to launchpad as bug 1721955.
  2. Text selection in dialog windows have low contrast.
    Here "A terminal emulator for the MATE desktop" is selected with Ctrl+A, but visually its difficult to determine that it is selected. I did not reported this as bug yet. And here too:
    mate-welcome.png927Ɨ167 13.3 KB
  3. Keyboard LED indicator have low contrast on light themes (see bug 1728715)
  4. mate-welcome has low contrast on Radiant-MATE theme: (it is bug 1762024)

And other problems:

  1. I tried to get fixed the well known bug 1720364 with keyboard layout switching (two layouts, switched by Ctrl+Shift) by creating my own PPA.
  2. Problems with Pluma plugins - see bug 1723259, bug 1743132, bug 1743133, bug 1743134, bug 1743136.

@Wimpy, please ensure than text-styled keyboard layout indicator will have enough contrast (not as in bug 1728711).

Ubuntu MATE 19.04 Beta is out!
#23

Installed Beta 2 today. I couldnā€™t add anything to the panel on top. I could only pin them to favourites or desktop. The option to add to panel is not there. Iā€™m going back to beta 1 18.04 LTS

#24

You have to click on the right spot to modify the panel. I found this very tricky when you have items in the panel that expand to occupy all the free space. Try clicking on the left side of the panel and then move the new added item.
In the Mutinity layout, for example, I had to remove the dock from the panel to be able to reduce the panel size just to get smaller icons.

1 Like
18.04 beta 2 -- Mutiny problems
#25

Thereā€™s a known bug with the mate-dock-applet where it takes up more room than needed, leading to this particular issue. Worth addressing this before final release.

3 Likes
#26

I'm loving the way it's turned out. A big thanks to Team Wimpy :slight_smile:

1804.jpg1504Ɨ780 196 KB

3 Likes
#27

Iā€™m alive again(6 months without electricity and 4 without water)! Installed Ubuntu Mate 18.04 Beta 2 on a computer a friend has so we could test it out on those new parts. Some thoughts:

  • Did a minimal install. No stray apps from what I see

  • Noticed that the indicator applets have a lot of spacing between them, so we decided to change it to the old ones by adding the Notification Area applet. Now, only the volume icon appears. Its missing the wifi and bluetooth icons but we donā€™t know how to put them there. Any tips?

  • Talking about indicators, I keep removing them from Startup applications but they still appear with a check mark once I restart/power on again. Think is related to my previous findings?

Gonna keep playing around and see what I can find.

2 Likes
#28

I can confirm that, they will just regenerate. I used synaptic to remove them, they are listed under ā€œindicatorā€ in synaptic.

#29

Just curious, has anyone compared the memory use of indicators versus notifications?

#30

Iā€™m having some issues with the dock (v0.85 from beta2+today updates) when trying to tweak the Mutiny layout to my taste (not sure if something is related to this bug):

  • the dock doesnā€™t activate another running program when draging a file from caja over the program icon
  • The Panel Options dialog donā€™t show the Dock size options the first time is opened (you have to close and reopen it)
  • The Panel Options dialog is not shown (sometimes) in the dock and if you minimize it, it disappears and never shows again (the dialog is not modal)

EDIT:
These issues seems to be working fine now:

  • when using the Indicator type = Subway, the dock moves over the icon of the mate menu
  • the System Monitor applet forces the width of the panel as the height of the monitor when used in a vertical panel
  • the order of the applets in the panel changes after reset (the dock moves after the trash bin)

EDIT2:

2 Likes
18.04 beta 2 -- Mutiny problems
#31

Iā€™m loving the current results.!
Only issue is iā€™m having Crashes with Applets and ā€œLayoutsā€ . Somehow they just crash while customizing them ( like moving the applet / deleting from taskbar)

2 Likes
#32

Iā€™ve been encountering this off and on myself. Youā€™re not alone.

2 Likes
#33

Still around I guess, but I have not encountered any crashes since the new default layout, which I have customized. Which panel layout did you customize?

2 Likes
#34

It was stable in Beta 1
In Beta 2 , whenever i ā€œcustomizeā€ (like moving the applet / deleting from taskbar) It crashes.
And Even if i click ā€œReset this panelā€ it wonā€™t work , itā€™s needed a reboot.
The same happens randomly when i Switch to another Layout.
Perhaps adding the option to Restart Window Manager when this happen might be a good idea

1 Like
#35

And Even if i click ā€œReset this panelā€ it wonā€™t work , itā€™s needed a reboot.

Open a terminal

Ctrl + Alt + t

and enter

killall mate-panel

2 Likes
#36

Iā€™ve noticed these also. Can you submit bug reports? For Ubuntu (or use ubuntu-bug mate-dock-applet) and upstream.

Iā€™ve come across a cosmetic issue with the Dock where an appā€™s icon stays highlighted if last window closed is a pinned app when desktop icons are disabled (Ubuntu bug, upstream bug).

1 Like
#37

Menu - > Welcome -> Traditional -> remove an applet

Screenshot at 2018-04-11 20-38-12.png1280Ɨ1024 82.8 KB

It crashes
PS: I'm using Radeon Graphics , don't know if this matters
After clicking "Reset this panel"
Screenshot at 2018-04-11 20-39-24.png1280Ɨ1024 149 KB

1 Like
#38

I submitted the bug upstream: https://github.com/robint99/mate-dock-applet/issues/131
and to Launchpad: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mate-dock-applet/+bug/1763342

4 Likes
#39

I upgraded from 16.04 to 18.04 on April 7. First reboot was scary, because the system froze before the Plymouth Mate logo appeared. After one or two reboots in recovery mode, whatever issue there was seemed to resolve itself.

There also were problems with the mouse cursor movements being noticeably choppier than in 16.04, but they also seem to have resolved on their own, or with subsequent updates.

In addition, I was a bit surprised to find that mate-welcome no longer functioned after the upgrade . After a bit of sleuthing, I noticed that version ā€œ18.10ā€ of mate-welcome was installed, but did not appear in any menus. Upon executing the binary, a dialog popped up asking me to install the snap version. So I did, and now I have a working mate-welcome. Maybe this process could be smoothed out for those upgrading to the final 18.04 release.

Other than the occasional crash, the only bug I have encountered so far is a problem with the system monitor applet not saving width and update interval options. Iā€™ve reported the bug here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/mate-desktop/+bug/1763232. It also seems to have been reported in mate-desktop in November by someone else here: https://github.com/mate-desktop/mate-applets/issues/291.

If there is anything I can do to help troubleshoot the bug please let me know. Overall a great step forward from 16.04 (which itself was a fantastic release)!

1 Like
#40

That explains why your having trouble and I am not. I do not use the Welcome App. Not that I think its a bad thing, I just never bothered to install it on my core install. To remove a applet I either use terminal or synaptic or if possible r-click and remove.

This sounds like a candidate for a bug report. Could use some more input on this. @lah7 where are you :slight_smile:

1 Like