Ubuntu MATE 19.04 Beta is out!

[Wimpy]

We are preparing Ubuntu MATE 19.04 (Disco Dingo) for distribution on April 18th, 2018 With this Beta pre-release, you can see what we are trying out in preparation for our next (stable) version.

What changed since the Ubuntu MATE 18.10 final release?

Those of you who follow the desktop Linux news will know that upstream MATE Desktop recently released version 1.22.

Let’s rip that band-aid off and get this over quickly. Ubuntu MATE 19.04 is shipping with MATE Desktop 1.20. Albeit, the latest maintaince release of MATE Desktop 1.20 with some of the bug fixes and new features from MATE Desktop 1.22 included. In fact, the version of MATE Desktop being shipped in 19.04 is derived from the same MATE packages that will feature in the upcoming Debian 10 (Buster) release.

You may be wondering why we’re not shipping MATE Desktop 1.22? The answer, stability. MATE Desktop 1.22 introduces some underlying API changes in core components and while all first party MATE Desktop applications are compatible with the changes and completely stable, some third party applications are not. Some third-party applications are big crashers now and we’ve not been able to fix them in time.

So, we are playing it safe and sticking with MATE Desktop 1.20 and working with upstreams so we can land MATE Desktop 1.22 early in the Ubuntu MATE 19.10 development cycle.

MATE Dock Applet

MATE Dock Applet has been updated to 0.88 which introduces some new visual options, both based on the look of the Unity desktop. As can be seen in the screenshot above these can be used to make the Mutiny layout more closely mimic Unity 7.

Remote Desktop Awareness

Our MATE Desktop 1.20 packages ship with patches to support Remote Desktop Awareness (RDA). RDA makes MATE Desktop more aware of its execution context so that it behaves differently when run inside a remote desktop session compared to when running on local hardware. Different remote technology solutions support different features and they can now be queried from within MATE components. The inclusion of RDA offers the option to suspend your remote connection, supports folder sharing in Caja, MIME type bindings for SSHFS shares and allows session suspension via the MATE screensaver.

Learn more and get the downloads from the release notes:

• https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-disco-beta/

[Norbert_X]

I'll recheck bugs from my previous post.

Tried Ubuntu MATE 19.04 beta on VirtualBox 5.1.

Very good overall. Looks nice and traditional

Minimal install problems:

1. It is strange that Minimal installation adds LibreOffice icon to the menu, but it does not function. It also does not start from terminal. I reported this previosly to launchpad as bug 1813538 .
2. MATE Welcome → Getting Started → Optional tasks: unable to install Deja Dup - reported this previously as bug 1813549 .

Full and minimal install problems:

1. MATE Welcome → Software: boutique does not show applications with “Sorry, Welcome could not feature any software fot this category that is compatible on this system.” message. But it is expected, as 19.04 is not released yet.
2. MATE Welcome → Getting Started → Updates & Extras: it is impossible to install Blu-Ray and DVD Playback Support - shows errors about Release file on VLC's site: it "is not signed". Maybe temporarily issue.
3. MATE Welcome → Getting Started → Drivers, Printers: HPLIP is listed here, but does not show its menu in tray (reported previously as bug 1810745 ).
4. MATE Welcome → Browser Selection: the Brave Browser does not install, but it is expected.
5. As before keyboard LED indicator have low contrast on light themes.
6. As before Caja does not show previews of text files on Bionic and newer versions.
7. As before Human, Human-Clearlooks and other themes have incorrect gray window title color .

[Apollonius]

@Norbert_X

indicator

Has the "indicator applet icon scaling issue" been solved as mentioned here? There's been an upstream report about it though; I've tested and found out that on vanilla MATE desktop like on Fedora MATE spin and Debian MATE this inconsistency doesn't happen...

I intend to give the beta a spin later this day...

[Norbert_X]

Forgot to mention serious visual problem

@Norbert_X

Text selection in dialog windows have low contrast.

It persists since 18.04 LTS.

[Bernie]

I booted it live real quick last night the new mate dock styles are nice, when I move to 20.04 from 18.04 i may have to switch my layout

[Norbert_X]

Today I opened Pluma on Ubuntu MATE 19.04 VM and made right mouse click on text. The context menu looks ugly:

Is it normal behavior?

Compare with Ubuntu MATE 16.04 LTS:

I mean that monospaced font is not expected here.

[Wimpy]

@Norbert_X

Today I opened Pluma on Ubuntu MATE 19.04 VM and made right mouse click on text. The context menu looks ugly:

Upstream GTK3 bug.

[Wimpy]

@Norbert_X

It is strange that Minimal installation adds LibreOffice icon to the menu, but it does not function. It also does not start from terminal. I reported this previosly to launchpad as bug 1813538 .

Should be fixed from 19.04 daily images form April 7th 2019 onwards.

@Norbert_X

MATE Welcome → Getting Started → Optional tasks: unable to install Deja Dup - reported this previously as bug 1813549 .

Fix committed. Will be in the next release due this weekend.

@Norbert_X

MATE Welcome → Software: boutique does not show applications with “ Sorry, Welcome could not feature any software fot this category that is compatible on this system. ” message. But it is expected, as 19.04 is not released yet.

Fix committed. Will be in the next release due this weekend.

@Norbert_X

MATE Welcome → Getting Started → Updates & Extras: it is impossible to install Blu-Ray and DVD Playback Support - shows errors about Release file on VLC's site: it "is not signed". Maybe temporarily issue.

Fix committed. Will be in the next release due this weekend.

@Norbert_X

MATE Welcome → Getting Started → Drivers, Printers: HPLIP is listed here, but does not show its menu in tray (reported previously as bug 1810745 ).

Upstream bug in HPLIP.

@Norbert_X

MATE Welcome → Browser Selection: the Brave Browser does not install, but it is expected.

Fix committed. Will be in the next release due this weekend.

@Norbert_X

1. As before Human, Human-Clearlooks and other themes have incorrect gray window title color .

The Human themes need updating to GTK3. Not our bug to fix, sorry

[Apollonius]

@Wimpy
Any update on this one?

It still persists on 19.04...

We have the bug report here on MATE Desktop, but I've found that this doesn't happen on vanilla MATE like on Fedora or Debian. So is the issue specific to UM?

[Norbert_X]

I did some research - started with my favorite Ubuntu MATE 16.04.6 LTS release on VM and upgraded release-by-release to 19.04.

The problems with human-theme and

@Norbert_X

Text selection in dialog windows have low contrast.

started to appear with Ubuntu MATE 16.10 release (it is bug 1763942), but latter is theming issue:

• affected themes - Ambiant-MATE, Ambiant-MATE-Dark, Radiant-MATE;
• not affected themes - BlackMATE, BlueMenta, Blue-Submarine, GreenLaguna, Green-Submarine, High Contrast, High Contrast Inverse, Menta, TraditionalGreen, TraditionalOk.

See TraditionalOk as a good example:

Monospaced text in Pluma's (and Gedit's) drop-down menu started to appear in Ubuntu 17.04. So I have reported this as bug 1823550. But really it is caused by theming of GtkSourceView component (see bug 52 on GNOME GitLab).
The issue:

• exists with the following themes - Ambiant-MATE, Ambiant-MATE-Dark, BlackMATE, GreenLaguna, Radiant-MATE, TraditionalGreen, TraditionalOk;
• does not exist with BlueMenta, Blue-Submarine, Green-Submarine, High Contrast, High Contrast Inverse, Menta.

See example with BlueMenta theme:

@Wimpy please check theme settings for special cases about text selection and GtkSourceView.

The table with comprehensive analysis is below (using default Ambiant-MATE theme):

Ubuntu version	LED indicator on light theme	Caja text previews	Human theme	Text selection - contrast	Pluma dropdown menu
16.04 LTS (xenial)	NOK	OK	OK	OK	OK, with icons
16.10 (yaketty)	NOK	NOK	NOK	NOK	OK, without icons
17.04 (zesty)	NOK	NOK	NOK	NOK	NOK - monospaced
17.10 (artful)	NOK	NOK	NOK	NOK	NOK - monospaced
18.04 LTS (bionic)	NOK	NOK	NOK	NOK	NOK - monospaced
18.10 (cosmic)	NOK	NOK	NOK	NOK	NOK - monospaced
19.04 (disco)	NOK	NOK	NOK	NOK	NOK - monospaced

and as far I can understand - many problems are caused by GTK3 internal changes.

[Wimpy]

@Apollonius

We have the bug report here on MATE Desktop, but I've found that this doesn't happen on vanilla MATE like on Fedora or Debian. So is the issue specific to UM?

Yeah, this issue has bugged me for ages. We've tried a few times to track it down. Ubuntu MATE uses Indicators and other MATE distros do not. This bug is likely in mate-indicator-applet or libappindicator. Certainly an issue I really want to fix.

[Wimpy]

@Norbert_X

I did some research - started with my favorite Ubuntu MATE 16.04.6 LTS release on VM and upgraded release-by-release to 19.04.

Thank you for putting in so much effort to dig into these issues! Really useful information, thank you! No promises these will get fixed in 19.04 but this certainly gives me what I need to investigate futher

[Norbert_X]

@Wimpy

Thank you for putting in so much effort to dig into these issues! Really useful information, thank you! No promises these will get fixed in 19.04 but this certainly gives me what I need to investigate futher

Thank you for kind words

I have tested Ubuntu MATE 19.04 minimal with latest updates and can say that that all previously discovered problems seems to be fixed:

• LibreOffice icon is removed from minimal install (bug 1813538 is fixed);
• Deja Dup installs normally from minimal install (bug 1813549 is fixed);
• Software tab of MATE Welcome is filled with the software. I see all 123 applications from here (including Brave Browser, it is installable now).

@Wimpy

Been working on this over the weekend. I "think" I've fixed it.

The updated MATE Welcome (rev 291) does not want show its contents with virtualbox-guest-x11 (or virtualbox-guest-x11-hwe) installed in guest and 3D Acceleration enabled.
But it works with official VBoxGuestAdditions_5.1.38.iso. I'm not completely sure what is going on here, so we need confirmation from other users.
My VirtualBox 5.1.38 may be too old for this Ubuntu 19.04 release.

---

I'm ready to test final daily ISO image or beta2 (if any).

I hope that GTK3-related problems will be fixed in 19.10 or maybe in 20.04 LTS

[tiox]

Is there a way to do release upgrade in terminal or do I have to install as a new system?

[Norbert_X]

@Wimpy

Please do not forget to remove 16.04 LTS leftover (/etc/X11/Xsession.d/99mate-environment) by some post-install script of ubuntu-mate-default-settings package.
It is known on GitHub as #3 and on launchpad as bug 1785622.
It floods ~/.xserver-errors file with messages like

Gtk-Message: 11:15:39.978: Failed to load module "topmenu-gtk-module"

on launch of many applications.
Just seen this behavior on system upgraded from 16.04 LTS to 19.04.

[Norbert_X]

@Norbert_X

Monospaced text in Pluma's (and Gedit's) drop-down menu started to appear in Ubuntu 17.04. So I have reported this as bug 1823550. But really it is caused by theming of GtkSourceView component

By the help of Khurshid Alam (khurshid-alam) on launchpad bug it can be fixed by creating Gtk3 per-user:

mkdir -p ~/.config/gtk-3.0
cat > ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css << EOF
.context-menu {
    font-weight: normal;
    font-family: regular;
}
EOF

This results in normal look-and-feel of context menu in Pluma: