Ubuntu MATE 18.04 - Progress so far

Hi Kevin - when it was working right I did have a localhost mail server and I used to get log emails daily. I have not setup a mail server on this 17.1 yet. Where would I look for the cron logs?

Hi Pavlos - Iā€™m not sure what you mean by ā€œexampleā€ but my tab is this:

SHELL=/bin/bash

PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
MAILTO=isaiahsellassie
HOME=/home/isaiahsellassie/
# start
0 2 * * * /usr/sbin/rclone copy /home/isaiahsellassie/Pictures Adrive:Pictures > /dev/null
# end

Ok, 0 2 0 0 0 means 2am every day. run this in a term ā€¦ grep -i cron /var/log/syslog There should be entries cron executes at 02:00 every day. As for rclone, it is some utility that copies files to/from aws, google drive. https://rclone.org/

Create a myscript file with contents
/usr/sbin/rclone copy /home/isaiahsellassie/Pictures Adrive:Pictures > /dev/null
and make it executable, chmod u+x myscript

Then your cron entry becomes
0 2 0 0 0 /home/isaiah/myscript

HTH

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The log says the job was started! So I guess rclone is failing to transfer files, which happens from time to time. Iā€™ll install the latest version and diagnose this further.

Thanks for the help!

Im not sure about that - I would look for any line in syslog, kern.log and auth.log that contained the string ā€œcronā€. I used to know how to do that in a terminal but as Iā€™ve become old Iā€™ve become forgetful :wink: You can check easily using the Log Viewer under System Tools. I think Log Viewer has a menu item to filter for whatever string you want to find.

haha! I see Pavlos beat me to it :slight_smile:

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By the way, even after removing the Flash plugin completely I find Firefox hogging huge amounts of CPU to play video. It is not consistent. It starts out fine, but as it keeps playing the CPU usage blows up gradually. The whole browser becomes laggy draggy, mouse clicks take several seconds to register, pages take long to render, etc. This is not a Mate problem probably. I should post this at the Mozilla forum but Iā€™m pretty sure they already know.

Another demonstration of Isaiahā€™s Law ā€” all software during the course of its life tends towards primordial crap soup.

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I am waiting until the official release, and boy, am I looking forward to the newest version of the most awesome distro I have ever used!

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Being an Ubuntu Mate fan and experienced user, not a programmer, I tried 18.04 for the first time. I was very ā€¦sorry guysā€¦ VERY disappointed. This brisk menu does not improve anything. It only makes it more complicated and less user friendly. I use Mate because I think it was the best out of the box distribution. It now feel the same thing when Ubuntu started using the gnome 3 menu and later unity, with the sort of menu. No more option to quickly put a starter on the panelā€¦ where is my direct power off button on the right sideā€¦ why this enormous menu list in stead of making a difference between application and system menuā€¦ where is my direct location link, last used filesā€¦ this change nearly brings tears to my eyes. Why change something that works so goodā€¦ and was nearly perfect. Yes I can change to the old menuā€¦ but for how longā€¦ and this does not change the menu on right side. I have introduced many people to linux with this distributionā€¦ and all were surprised by its user friendliness. Really do not understand thisā€¦

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I guess the good news is that the development team will soon be focusing on fixing bugs and improving user experience (or so I heard) instead of focusing on new features.

The right hand side menu can also be reverted to how it was very easily. lightdm-gtk-greeter can be reinstalled to replace slick-greeter and Mozo can be installed to replace or use alongside Menulibre. Itā€™ll just take a dedicated user to write up a short article on how these can be achieved in one go.

More good news is that a solid MATE experience can be had on many other distributions, with more choice as to what components you yourself add to it.

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thanks, I understand there will be fixes possibleā€¦ but this means tweaking more and not something my father in law of 81 or all of the loads of other simple user new-bees who I introduced to Linux with MATE, will understand. User friendliness = great and comprehensive out of the box experience, simple logic, reliability, speed and predictability. It looks like this is partly lost to a very disappointing urge for change I really do not understand.

Well folks Iā€™m one of those who happen to like the brisk menu. But if I didnā€™t, the other menus are just a couple of clicks away. If I donā€™t like the panel, panel themes are a couple clicks away. Same goes for desktop themes. Its all there for the user to choose, I really donā€™t see any big deal about all this. And I really donā€™t think any distro has 81 year olds in mind when they build there product.

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Great for you. I do NOT have superusers or computer nerds in mind who love to fiddle around with their system and tweak whatever they want to tweak. I am only a normal experienced user myself. And I do have the regular normal computer user in mind. They are the ones I normally support with making the step to Linux . And very successfully so. And yes they are elderly, very common regular users, handicapped and digital morons. They just want their system to work out of the box.
If the Linux community only has nerds in mind while upgrading the system, I would be even more disappointing.

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I didnnā€™t realize it took a superuser to figure out how to click a mouse. Your rants are a waste of bandwidth. And the system does work out of the box, its just not to your liking. Maybe you could suggest a better distro to use; do you know of one?

Rant on my friend, that will surely make things better.

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@m1804 did you try to browse network (Places | Network | Windows Network) Mine comes empty (command shown smb:///) Saying the system works out of the box is a tall order. I like all the new features but I remain Traditional.

A little bit more respectful would be nice. If this is ā€œRantingā€, criticism is probably not valued for what it isā€¦ trying to get a point of view across, but regarded as a waste of bandwidth. than yesā€¦ I might have to look for an other distro. And maybe I will just take it as it is and live with it. I personally feel the old menu is far superior than the mess in the brisk menu. And I donā€™t understand the need for a second settings menu on the right side. And I know I can add an on/off button and change the location of the recycle bin (like I always do). Soā€¦ agree or donā€™t agree. I am giving an opinion that I feel strongly about. If thats Rantingā€¦ so be it.

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So you have one problem and that makes it tall order out of the box. Nice :slight_smile:

I just see a difference between constructive criticism and ranting.

And Iā€™m not sure what you refer to as a second settings menu. Is thats the one with user switching, also has a shudown button among other things; its part of the indicator-applet. If this is what you refer to then it can be removed from the indicator applet.

sudo apt remove indicator-session

This does not require superuser skills, just got to ask.

If constructive criticism means I can NOT give my opinion that a major change in the out of box user interface is a step back, in stead of a step forward, than lets just all hail the Great Leader. I will not. My point is sincere and respectful. You can disagree.
And if you think putting the most important switch on an operating switch IN a menuā€¦ fineā€¦ I think it is not. If you like the Brisk Menuā€¦ fine. I think it is very messy and a step back and user unfriendly.
And I understand Linux is all about tweakingā€¦ simple ones and difficult ones. The people I support, do not tweakā€¦not even simple ones. They call me when they have a problem. If you do not want them on Ubuntu Mate. Fineā€¦ I do. I think I made my point clear.

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And both can be so easily changed. No you have missed the point.

This has turned into a perpetual conversation and worth no further effort on my part.

Goodbye Leo; may you find peace and happiest somewhere in life.

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For you. For you they are easily changed. Not so much for others.

If we are really seeking to target new users and want to be their desktop, one of our strengths was being able to say that it doesnā€™t change (other than minor improvements) it stays the same and you only need to learn it once. Weā€™re talking about the userā€™s desktop. The thing they use to do the thing that they really care about. Users donā€™t expect that to change and when it does or stuff is out of place it bothers them.

For those people it used to be easy to install Ubuntu-Mate and tell them where to find the applications they wanted to use the computer for and walk away. They knew where to find everything and after a bit of initial strangeness learning a new operating system they were good to go. Now theyā€™re going to encounter stuff that looks different and that shuts their brain down.

Now if you have the time and are able to go to each and every person whose computer you installed Ubuntu-Mate on and walk them through the changes (or simply revert those changes back to how they were before) thatā€™s great. Some of us have set these things up for friends and relatives who are in other states. Weā€™re not going to be able to fix this stuff by phone.

Itā€™s easy enough for you. Not them.

And you may as well get used to these kinds of posts because I guarantee you will be seeing more of them once release day arrives as more and more people upgrade their computers and suddenly donā€™t know how to find stuff again.

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