Bugs and Improvement ideas for XUbuntu 10.04

[Pál Gergő]

Hello Everyone!

XUbuntu is already the best operating system, I think I'll never switch 
to anything else. But if we want more average windows users to switch to 
(X)Ubuntu, you may want to consider the following ideas.

I use XUbunbu 10.04 as a main desktop operating system, initially it was 
a dual-boot with a Vista (later deleted). I didn't read any official 
handbooks or manuals, I'm the man of experiences, and many future users 
will be like me. Here are the issues I came across.

1. Currently the easiest way to change a partition volume label is with 
GParted.
- Gparted should be installed by default
OR
- Mtools mlabel should be improved, to work like e2label , without 
hand-editing any config file

2. The xfce widget "Mount devices" lists XUbuntu partition with a scary 
UUID, and no name. It should use partition label or "xubuntu" string 
instead. (All the other partitions are listed as expected). The user 
should be notified that if he/she wants to view UUID, he/she should use 
blkid.

3. When I install and boot linux other than HD0,0 , then the Places 
application does not list HD0,0 . I think it is because Grub always 
calls the booting partition HD0,0 , so when XUbuntu wakes up, it may be 
confused. But Gigolo lists it correctly, and I myself was able to write 
a 1kb automount shell script, to mount /dev/sd?? -> /mnt/?? .
- The user should be notified about this possible problem, and that the 
solution is Gigolo
OR
- Places app should be improved (like I implied, it can't be too difficult)

4. Pulsaudio is incompatible with many widespread applications, notably 
Blender. Esound seems to be compatible with anything (even Audacity, 
which, according to its developers , is not expected to). Esound should 
be the default sound system.

5. XUbuntu should not use UTC time settings by default. If it is 
dual-booted with a Windows, it is just a source of misunderstandings. If 
XUbuntu is installed alone, then it is totally indifferent, which time 
settings it uses. There also should be a GUI way to change it.

6. Setting the default mouse cursor speed multiplier [ex. for a too 
sensitive touchpad] AND changing xorg color depth (24 / 16) should be 
achieved in a GUI way.

7. There should be a more easy way to change the number of desktops , 
and to create Launcher shortcuts. (ex: right click on the desktop 
changer -> Set count ; Right click on a file -> create shortcut)

8. When I install XUbuntu with hungarian default language, it is not 
able to locate and use the restricted nVidia GeForce Go 6200 drivers, 
System -> Hardware drivers does not list them. I reinstalled in english 
and it works again. LANGUAGE PROBLEMS SHOULD NOT CAUSE DRIVER PROBLEMS!

9. If I have some minimized and some normal sized applications , I have 
to click "Hide windows and show desktop" button twice to view my desktop 
(and obviously it is the function i want to use it in most caces). The 
first click pops up all the windows , even minimized ones.

10. Network monitor gadget uses "wlan0" string for wireless network. I 
could not find any /dev/wlan0 , so it was strange to me at first. The 
users should be notified about that they can get info from Ifconfig.

11. Personal oppinion: xterm should be completely replaced by 
xfce4-terminal. It even should have a shorter, more convenient name. I 
created a /usr/bin/cmd symlink to xfce4-terminal

12. During installation, the default GRUB2 setting is to put XUbuntu on 
HD0 boot sector, no matter where the ext4 partition is. Now think about 
that a little bit.
If I have two hard disks, on one windows (hd0) and on one XUbuntu (hd1), 
and I install grub into (hd0), then none of the devices are removable 
anymore, I will need both to boot any of the two operating system.
- GRUB2 settings should not be hidden under the "Advanced" button
- The default setting should be: Install GRUB2 into HD? whereever the 
ubuntu is, and if it is not HD0, warn the user to use Bios Boot Menu.
- GRUB2 should warn the user about every possibilities and detect their 
consequences.

13. Total newbie linux users shoud be informed even before the 
installation begins, about:
- Why to use EXT4 file system
- what a swap is and what's its recommended size, and that it has to be 
created as a separate partition
- how to set up mount points ("/" for file system, "swap" for swap)
- that they can find other partitions in /media/
- what does rwxrwxrwx attribute format mean
- what is a root password for , and also the existence of the SUDO or SU 
- commands.
- the existance and usage of Synaptic
- the existence and usage of wine
- the existance and usage of PlayOnLinux (many people think that the 
computers are not just for work!)
- that samba is equivalent to windows file sharing and Thunar does not 
support It. Use Krusader.
- - to show these informations, there should be a SHORT or step-by-step 
or on-screen-actualities guide.

14. About the SWAP: just to be sure, I gave a 5 GB partition to XUbuntu, 
so that I never wanted to hear it complain. After installation, I often 
check it with the gnome system monitor, and XUbuntu ever since the 
installation, did not even touch the swap. I have 1GB ram, and it is 
more than enough to XUbuntu. During installation, especially when the 
user creates the swap partition, the user should be notified about some 
guidelines of the recommended swap settings, and also that an idle 
XUbuntu uses about 250 Mb memory.

15. Users should be informed that the lock screen option is actually 
done by the xscreensaver daemon, so if they turn off their screen saver 
completely, they cannot lock the desktop. Or, the lock screen should 
automatically re-enable xscreensaver.

16. The default screen saver should be phosphor with fortune. All the 
others are trivial to set up.

17. It would be a nice feature in Synaptic that it had a backup ability 
for the downloaded DEB packages also (and this function would be 
available through command line too)

18. It would be a nice feature to have a backup function for restricted 
drivers too (or being informed that they are usual ordinary DEB packages 
if they really are)

19. When I installed music players, my first experiences are: "Damn, no 
sound!". Audio and video cocecs are not REQUIRED just recommended. 
Synaptic should somehow detect the cocecs/plugins that the program can 
use, and ask the user if he/she wants to install those, too. For an 
other example: Krusader should come with kdiff3, krename and kompare 
installed by default.
- Also, Krusader shoud be offered to be installed by default.

20. The ICEDTEA (or any other firefox - openjava brigde) should be 
installed by default. Seriously.

21. When I exit Krusader on a mounted device that is later removed, and 
start Krusader like that, Krusader tells me that the devices does not 
exist anymore. But it the removed device was on the right panel, 
Krusader crashes instead.
Also in Krusader: it would be nice to have an FTP disconnect button, 
would be useful on some web servers.
Also: Krusader shoud often check automatically if I later installed any 
plugin it can use (kdiff3, krename, kompare)
Also: When I start an exe program through wine in Krusader, it starts 
that with ~ as the working directory. I have to first start a command 
line in the program directory with F2 button, and use wine in that to 
solve this problem.
Also: when opening a file, there are two ways that it is likely to have 
been created: THIS operating system or Windows. So the automatic charset 
guessing should try these first, before anything else.
Also: when opening a file, it loads the whole conent into memory, even 
if the file size is over gigabytes. I recommend to modify the editor to 
load only the parts I currently view/edit. Hexa editing also would be a 
nice feature (sorry if there is one, I was yet unable to find it)

22. Pidgin uses the ~/.purple directory to store settings and logged 
conversation. Why???

23. Samba and smb-fuse should be installed by default.

24. In Application -> Settings -> Xfce4 settings manager -> Sessions and 
startup -> Application autostart, I cannot view or edit existing entry 
command-lines. Also If I create an own and want to change it later, I 
have to delete and re-create. The user who is advanced enough to 
navigate here has the right to at least know what are the commands for 
the startup items.

25. Klamav, Clamav, Ufw and Gufw should be installed by default, even in 
an inactive state, or the user should receive information about their 
existance.
Klamav sometimes has trouble with update file-creation so I have to use 
command-line freshclam for updates. Newbie users should be warned that 
ufw blocks incoming SSH, FTP, SMB and HTTP requests by default, but it 
has a built-in rule gui to enable them. And just a question: why would 
anyone ever use "block all outgoing" feature?

26. Freepascal Lazarus : Cross compiling should be either 
improved/simplified or totally forgotten forever. I found a several tens 
of pages guide how to set up cross compiling, which would have been a 
whole day of my life. I found a shortcut: I downloaded the 
windows-version compiler and used it with Wine. Works perfectly, and in 
no time.

27. A very very nice feature would be a completely automatic gui wizard 
to create a failsafe "Xubuntu 10.04 bootable ISO on a USB pendrive 
stick" for reinstall/backup/ext4 portability opportunities. Mine was 
created with using info on www.pendrivelinux.com , and I also use this 
pendrive to backup Synaptic marking list and DEB packages.
Also It should contain an EXT2IFS like tool (for windows to mount ext 
file systems) just for EXT4.

28. When I click on the white question mark in a blue sphere "Help" 
launcher-icon in Xubuntu 10.04 , I get a "Welcome to Xubuntu 9.10" 
document in file:///usr/share/xubuntu-docs/about/xubuntu-index.html .

29. The default music player Exaile does not handle mp3-s without 
ID2/ID3 tag, they don't appear when I want to search for them by 
filename. This is bad, because I have a lot of home made stuff. I use 
Audacious, which I recommend to be the default, because it is not less 
lightweight than Exaile. [Windows -> Linux switchers will be used to 
Winamp, anyway]

30. Same as 29 with Totem and SMplayer : I'm already used to SMplayer, 
and I like it because it can play damaged files too, and uses built-in 
codecs for everything.

31. tar.gz (the kind Krusader uses by default) has trouble with accent 
characters.

+1: Totem, Mousepad and many other linux applications are shy about 
their names. I would like to see them in the window title, not just in 
Help -> About. It won't scare newbies, they probably will be used to 
Windows which does the same. It rather would help them find and start 
faster the applications they want.

Anything I didn't enumerated on this list is TOTALLY AWESOME so 
congratulations anyway. XUbuntu is the best!
The connection method to the internet is a blessing, I didn't have 
trouble installing flash player under firefox, and I usually play nice 
windows-games like Titan Quest, Dark Messiah, Metin2 and GTA2. I also 
use XUbuntu for developing multimedia , programs and web sites in html, 
php, javascript, mysql, freepascal, c++ , matlab-clone scilab, Blender, 
Audacity, LMMS, they all work fine.

Regards,
Gregorius
( also available at lordofdance at freemail.hu )