Mate 1.4 on Lubuntu 12.04

I strongly prefer Ubuntu to Mint since Mint doesn't provide an install-time option for an encrypted LVM, i.e., full-disk encryption. This just seems to be a basic requirement, especially for a laptop. However, Ubuntu has gone along with the Gnome 3 atrocity, and compounded the matter with Ubuntu Shell. So, how to get a usable UI with Ubuntu? I've been playing around with LXDE on Lubuntu, and it has considerable appeal. However, when all is said and done, it is too bare-bones. What I really want is Mate, except not bloated.

What I have done this afternoon is a fresh Lubuntu 12.04 install, and then I installed Mate 1.4 on that. This is a newer version of Mate than I have on my Mint 13 systems; that is possibly a good thing--I'm hoping for fewer bugs.

How did I install Mate on Lubuntu? It's pretty simple--the first page Google pointed me to was the right one, at Ubuntu Geek. It was not quite right, but the solution was in the comments following the article. My summary, combining the above-mentioned article with one of the corrections in comments:

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://packages.mate-desktop.org/repo/ubuntu precise main"

sudo apt-get install mate-archive-keyring

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install mate-archive-keyring

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install mate-core

sudo apt-get install mate-desktop-environment

The weird thing above is the repeated install of mate-archive-keyring and update. What I was seeing was that, as expected, apt was unable to verify the packages in the Mate archive without its public key. So the first time I installed mate-archive-keyring, there was a warning message indicating a missing key. Then I did the update, and received a similar warning message. The next time I installed mate-archive-keyring and update, each worked. Everything else was smooth and easy.

So, how badly bloated is the result? I'm not yet sure, but I will be going over it in the near future making a list of what to remove.

Audio Working (Today); Maybe Popping Mint & Ubuntu from Active Stack and Pushing them to Used Stack

Audio is working today on my Linux Mint 13 64b system, which is a pleasant surprise. It's been stuttering the last few weeks, and after much Googling it appears to be a known problem with PulseAudio, one of Linux's several albatrosses. As soon as I read speculation that it would be fixed in Mint 14, I spent a little while pondering OSS, but I have work to do, and clearly the Ubuntu/Mint flavors of Linux are not cut out for that. Is it time to go back to Debian? My recollection was that, as of a few years ago, Debian mostly worked. Or do I try out Arch Linux?

The biggest albatrosses around Ubuntu/Mint's indistinguishable necks? Unity and Gnome Shell, and the notion that we're more interested in crippling desktop and laptop computers to look like smart phones than in, again, actually getting our work done.

Mate 1.2 Missing Crucial Scrollbar Functionality in Linux Mint 13

In Mate 1.2 on Linux Mint 13, the arrows at the tops and bottoms of scrollbars are sometimes present, and sometimes not. It seems to vary from application to application, suggesting it could simply be a bug rather than an egregious usability screw-up, but it is probably both. Having had similar problems with recent versions of Gnome, I figured someone had probably figured out how to fix this. Here's the trick (copy and paste as a single line):

sudo aptitude purge liboverlay-scrollbar-0.1-0 liboverlay-scrollbar-0.2-0 liboverlay-scrollbar3-0.2-0 overlay-scrollbar

Clearly overlay-scrollbar is screwed up. Oddly, this was removed from Linux Mint 12, but somehow snuck back into Linux Mint 13.

Thanks to MartinVW and LewRockwellFAN at http://forums.mate-desktop.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=113&p=1422

As an aside, it appears that this scrollbar crap is intentional. The following is from a posting elsewhere on "Ayatana scrollbars":

Overlay Scrollbar – The overlay scrollbar, or the Ayatana Scrollbar, is a feature designed to solve a non-existent problem. According to the official description, it was designed to “improve the user’s ability to focus on content and applications” and to “ensure that scrollbars take up no active screen real-estate” thereby “reducing the waste of space and distracting clutter that a traditional scrollbar entails.” That is pure nonsense. It just creates more problems than it solves. In fact, it does not solve any problem, because as stated earlier, there is no problem to solve, as far the scrollbar is concerned.

Aside from making you “look” for the scrollbar before you can use it, it creates an inconsistency in the system because some applications, like Firefox, will have the traditional scrollbar, while native Ubuntu applications will have the overlay scrollbar.

Linux Mint 13 PulseAudio Stuttering

[ Note added 2012-07-17: the below was only a temporary fix. 13 days later, PulseAudio is stuttering again, with a vengeance. For now I'm watching this thread. ]

Recently my 64b desktop developed a bad stutter. I originally thought it was a rhythmbox problem, but it turned out to be a PulseAudio problem. The fix is here--thanks to MRA2011!

Summary:
In emacs or a lesser editor open /etc/pulse/default.pa, change this line:
   load-module module-udev-detect
to this
   load-module module-udev-detect tsched=0

Then restart PulseAudio,
   pulseaudio -k

Skype Insanity: No Longer Worth It

Tonight I noticed that I didn't have Google Voice or Skype installed on my primary desktop, which I recently upgraded to Linux Mint 13, so I decided to remedy the situation. Installing Google Voice was painless, easy, an quick. Installing Skype appears insane, I don't remember it being so bad in the past. Anyhow, to install Skype, I need to install 240-some additional packages. No frigging way:

The following NEW packages will be installed:
  bluez bluez-alsa:i386 gcc-4.6-base:i386 glib-networking:i386
  gstreamer0.10-plugins-base:i386 gstreamer0.10-plugins-good:i386
  gstreamer0.10-x:i386 gtk2-engines:i386 gtk2-engines-murrine:i386
  gtk2-engines-oxygen:i386 gtk2-engines-pixbuf:i386 gvfs:i386 gvfs-libs:i386
  ia32-libs ia32-libs-multiarch:i386 ibus-gtk:i386 lib32asound2 lib32gcc1
  lib32stdc++6 libaa1:i386 libacl1:i386 libaio1:i386 libao-common libao4:i386
  libasn1-8-heimdal:i386 libasound2:i386 libasound2-plugins:i386
  libasyncns0:i386 libatk1.0-0:i386 libattr1:i386 libaudio2:i386
  libaudiofile1:i386 libavahi-client3:i386 libavahi-common-data:i386
  libavahi-common3:i386 libavc1394-0:i386 libbz2-1.0:i386 libc6:i386
  libc6-i386 libcaca0:i386 libcairo-gobject2:i386 libcairo2:i386
  libcanberra-gtk-module:i386 libcanberra-gtk0:i386 libcanberra0:i386
  libcap2:i386 libcapi20-3:i386 libcdparanoia0:i386 libcomerr2:i386
  libcroco3:i386 libcups2:i386 libcupsimage2:i386 libcurl3:i386
  libdatrie1:i386 libdb5.1:i386 libdbus-1-3:i386 libdbus-glib-1-2:i386
  libdrm-intel1:i386 libdrm-nouveau1a:i386 libdrm-radeon1:i386 libdrm2:i386
  libdv4:i386 libesd0:i386 libexif12:i386 libexpat1:i386 libffi6:i386
  libflac8:i386 libfontconfig1:i386 libfreetype6:i386 libgail-common:i386
  libgail18:i386 libgcc1:i386 libgconf-2-4:i386 libgcrypt11:i386
  libgd2-xpm:i386 libgdbm3:i386 libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0:i386 libgettextpo0:i386
  libgl1-mesa-dri:i386 libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 libglapi-mesa:i386
  libglib2.0-0:i386 libglu1-mesa:i386 libgnome-keyring0:i386 libgnutls26:i386
  libgomp1:i386 libgpg-error0:i386 libgphoto2-2:i386 libgphoto2-port0:i386
  libgpm2:i386 libgssapi-krb5-2:i386 libgssapi3-heimdal:i386
  libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0:i386 libgstreamer0.10-0:i386
  libgtk2.0-0:i386 libgudev-1.0-0:i386 libhcrypto4-heimdal:i386
  libheimbase1-heimdal:i386 libheimntlm0-heimdal:i386 libhx509-5-heimdal:i386
  libibus-1.0-0:i386 libice6:i386 libidn11:i386 libiec61883-0:i386
  libieee1284-3:i386 libjack-jackd2-0:i386 libjasper1:i386 libjpeg-turbo8:i386
  libjpeg8:i386 libjson0:i386 libk5crypto3:i386 libkeyutils1:i386
  libkrb5-26-heimdal:i386 libkrb5-3:i386 libkrb5support0:i386 liblcms1:i386
  libldap-2.4-2:i386 libllvm3.0:i386 libltdl7:i386 libmad0:i386
  libmikmod2:i386 libmng1:i386 libmpg123-0:i386 libmysqlclient18:i386
  libncurses5:i386 libncursesw5:i386 libnspr4:i386 libnss3:i386 libodbc1:i386
  libogg0:i386 libopenal1:i386 liborc-0.4-0:i386 libp11-kit0:i386
  libpango1.0-0:i386 libpciaccess0:i386 libpcre3:i386 libpixman-1-0:i386
  libpng12-0:i386 libproxy1:i386 libpulse-mainloop-glib0:i386 libpulse0:i386
  libpulsedsp:i386 libqt4-dbus:i386 libqt4-declarative:i386
  libqt4-designer:i386 libqt4-network:i386 libqt4-opengl:i386
  libqt4-qt3support:i386 libqt4-script:i386 libqt4-scripttools:i386
  libqt4-sql:i386 libqt4-sql-mysql:i386 libqt4-svg:i386 libqt4-test:i386
  libqt4-xml:i386 libqt4-xmlpatterns:i386 libqtcore4:i386 libqtgui4:i386
  libqtwebkit4:i386 libraw1394-11:i386 libroken18-heimdal:i386 librsvg2-2:i386
  librsvg2-common:i386 librtmp0:i386 libsamplerate0:i386 libsane:i386
  libsasl2-2:i386 libsasl2-modules:i386 libsdl-image1.2:i386
  libsdl-mixer1.2:i386 libsdl-net1.2:i386 libsdl-ttf2.0-0:i386
  libsdl1.2debian:i386 libselinux1:i386 libshout3:i386 libslang2:i386
  libsm6:i386 libsndfile1:i386 libsoup-gnome2.4-1:i386 libsoup2.4-1:i386
  libspeex1:i386 libspeexdsp1:i386 libsqlite3-0:i386 libssl0.9.8:i386
  libssl1.0.0:i386 libstdc++5:i386 libstdc++6:i386 libtag1-vanilla:i386
  libtag1c2a:i386 libtasn1-3:i386 libtdb1:i386 libthai0:i386 libtheora0:i386
  libtiff4:i386 libtinfo5:i386 libudev0:i386 libunistring0:i386
  libusb-0.1-4:i386 libuuid1:i386 libv4l-0:i386 libv4lconvert0:i386
  libvisual-0.4-0:i386 libvisual-0.4-plugins:i386 libvorbis0a:i386
  libvorbisenc2:i386 libvorbisfile3:i386 libwavpack1:i386
  libwind0-heimdal:i386 libwrap0:i386 libx11-6:i386 libx11-xcb1:i386
  libxau6:i386 libxaw7:i386 libxcb-glx0:i386 libxcb-render0:i386
  libxcb-shm0:i386 libxcb1:i386 libxcomposite1:i386 libxcursor1:i386
  libxdamage1:i386 libxdmcp6:i386 libxext6:i386 libxfixes3:i386 libxft2:i386
  libxi6:i386 libxinerama1:i386 libxml2:i386 libxmu6:i386 libxp6:i386
  libxpm4:i386 libxrandr2:i386 libxrender1:i386 libxslt1.1:i386 libxss1:i386
  libxt6:i386 libxtst6:i386 libxv1:i386 libxxf86vm1:i386 mysql-common odbcinst
  odbcinst1debian2 odbcinst1debian2:i386 oss-compat skype xaw3dg:i386
  zlib1g:i386
0 upgraded, 246 newly installed, 0 to remove and 14 not upgraded.
Need to get 105 MB of archives.
After this operation, 288 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n

Abort.

It appears that many packages listed are specifically 32b--this on a 64b version of Linux Mint. I went back and checked, and I did click the 64b Ubuntu link and the .deb downloaded has a 64 in its name. So, WTF, Microsoft?

Manually Configure Your DNS Settings in Linux

Using your ISP's or employer's DNS servers may or may not be a good idea. Are they configured properly? Are they monitoring your lookups? Note that some employers may have policies regarding what DNS servers clients use, so you may want to look into those policies.

When visiting a Wi-Fi hotspot, do you really trust their DNS settings? By default client machines using DHCP will get their DNS settings as well as other addressing information from the DHCP server, which would be the router at a wireless hotspot. Trustworthy? Why would anyone think so?

First, don't bother with the Gnome/Mate/Cinnamon networking applet. It will let you make the change, but doesn't successfully change the system configuration. Instead, find the Network Settings. In the Mate menu it's at System|Administration|Network. It should something look like this:

Click on the padlock where it says "Click to make changes" and enter your root password. Click on the connection you want to configure. For this example I'm using a desktop on a home network using Verizon FiOS. Feeling neither trust nor love for Verizon, I'd rather not trust their DNS servers. Instead, I'll use OpenDNS. Here's a little piece at the bottom of their home page:

Note the two IPv4 addresses, 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. Enter these addresses in the DNS Servers box under the DNS tab. There are other choices for a public DNS, e.g., Google.

One unfortunate aspect of the GUI management of DNS settings is that with wireless connections, the settings must be made for each access point, which means that the first time you connect to a new access point, the DNS server address will default to the access point or its DNS server. Fix it as above and then restart networking.

At the Google page there is a link to a nice little introduction to DNS security.

Making OpenJDK 7 on Linux Mint 13 actually Work

I had a rude surprise last night after revising and recompiling some Java code: the compiler was, as intended, OpenJDK 7, but the interpreter was OpenJDK 6. So the program barfed.

OpenJDK 7 had previously been installed in the normal way (sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jdk openjdk-7-source openjdk-7-doc), so that wasn't the problem. The problem was that in /etc/alternatives, some of the tools linked to JDK 6, and some to JDK 7. Blech. An obvious quick fix was to write a script to update all the soft inks, pointing all to OpenJDK 7. This seemed like a hack (in the original CS sense, where a hacker is a careless or unskilled programmer), so I decided to "do it right."

Uninstalling OpenJDK 7, uninstalling OpenJDK 6, and then re-installing OpenJDK 7 seems to have fixed things.

Zeitgeist Spyware Framework Installed by Default in Linux Mint 13

I thought I would take a moment to pull together information on the Zeitgeist monitoring system which has become a part of Gnome and is inexplicably included within Linux Mint. First, Zeitgeist is not itself spyware, but it collects much information about a user that would be one-stop shopping for any spyware that finds its way onto a system. It provides no discernible benefit, and is dangerous to keep around, so get rid of it. More information:

1. My take on what Zeitgeist is.
2. Zeitgeist was dropped as a component for Gnome 2.32 but the Ubuntu folks decided life wouldn't be complete without a spyware framework.
3. Removing Zeitgeist.

An Even Nicer Little Improvement in Linux Mint 13

Mint 13, as is common in the Ubuntu world, includes a framework for spyware called zeitgeist. In the past it was challenging to remove since apt would then try to remove the entire gnome environment. So my reaction was to disable it to the extent possible, but it's still dangerous to have this stuff on the system. However, on a Mint 13/Mate system dumping zeitgeist is easy:

  sudo apt-get remove zeitgeist zeitgeist-core zeitgeist-datahub

Yippee!

This is a followup to Nice Little Improvement in Linux Mint 13.

Nice Little Improvement in Linux Mint 13

In the past with Ubuntu and Linux Mint it's been difficult to remove some relatively useless packages,  since removing any of these would result in gnome or the like being removed. Not useful, and not logical. Why do I need thunderbird to use my desktop? But now with Mint 13 a simple sudo apt-get remove successfully removes all of the following without making apt think I want to throw away my desktop environment:

• xchat
• xchat-common
• pidgin
• thunderbird
• bluez
• bluez-alsa
• bluez-cups
• bluez-gstreamer
• libbluetooth3 

Trying to remove libgnome-bluetooth8 still results in apt wanting to get rid of the desktop, but being able to easily delete all the above detritus is a big improvement, so I am not complaining.

So I just installed Linux Mint 13 last night on my primary desktop. This is the Mate 64b version. Last week I installed the 32b Cinnamon version on my laptop, and after a couple days, installed Mate and started using that instead. Cinnamon's a valiant effort and to be applauded, but has some significant usability problems.

As long as I'm detailing what I got rid of in Linux Mint 13, here's the initial additions I make and a complete list of what I remove. Additions first:

• ccrypt emacs tcsh
• ispell rhythmbox mirage
• openjdk-7-jdk openjdk-7-source openjdk-7-doc
• jflex
• haskell-platform ghc-mod
• texlive-latex-base texlive-latex-base-doc texlive-latex-extra
• gftp
• dia
• opera
• gparted
• easytag
• openssh-server
• sound-juicer
• xsane
• alacarte
• gtk-recordmydesktop

Now the removals:

• banshee
• tomboy
• gthumb
• avahi-daemon avahi-autoipd
• vino
• xchat xchat-common
• pidgin
• thunderbird
• bluez bluez-alsa bluez-cups bluez-gstreamer
• libbluetooth3

BTW, above I used thunderbird as an example of something to be removed. I like thunderbird--it's a good tool. But now I do all my e-mail through web-based interfaces, which is concerning in some respects, but until I decide to break this bad habit, I' do not need a mail client.

Linux Mint 13 and Mate on Old, Modest Hardware

I have a Dell Inspiron 630m bought around December 2005 with 2 MB RAM and a single 1.73 GHz CPU core. Ubuntu dropped support for 10.04 "LTS," so it was time to find a replacement. Linux Mint was a no-brainer, and going with Linux Mint 13, Maya, allows me to play around with the new release. For the UI, I started with Cinnamon, but decided to also see if maybe Mate is ready to use--the answer on that is yes, which I'll discuss soon.

My main question was performance, and I see no difference on that account between Mint and Ubuntu 10.04. And it works. Thumbs up to Linux Mint 13 with Mate 1.2.0.

Ubuntu LTS

Ubuntu has, as expected, dropped support for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. Thinking that 2 years is too short for something called "long-term support," I visited https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LTS to see what the deal was. First, they erroneously claim the 10.04 Desktop will be supported through 2013. Sorry, my laptop says it's no longer supported, and when I do an apt-get update/upgrade it very clearly tells me I am no longer receiving security updates.

They also say they are going from 3 (they clearly mean 2) years to 5 for LTS, which is a good move, but came too late to avoid my blowing away yet another Ubuntu system for Linux Mint.

Added a dozen hours later, after reading some fine print regarding the Linux Mint 13 RC at http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2010, I thought I would point out yet another thing the Mint team is doing more intelligently than we've become accustomed to from the Ubuntu folks: Linux Mint 13 is also an LTS (Long Term Support) release and it will be supported until April 2017.

Fours years is good. Especially as compared to two.

Starting out in Cinnamon (w/Linux Mint 12)

[ Note added 2012-05-31: I no longer use Cinnamon. Here's why: http://martesmartes.blogspot.com/2012/05/why-im-not-using-cinnamon.html ]

I've been using Linux Mint 12 for awhile, and 11 briefly before that, ever since I got fed up with Gnome's decision that the user interface is unimportant.

Thursday a grad student asked me if I'd tried Cinnamon, which apparently he has liked on a few different platforms. This left me with a choice: work on the finals I would be delivering, or mess with Cinnamon. I chose Cinnamon, though I now must admit that my IS 247 exam suffered from insufficient proofreading.

I like Cinnamon, and recommended it to a friend, who didn't see much difference between it and what he had been running (probably Gnome Classic or Mate) on a Mint system.  I responded with a summary of my experiences with Cinnamon to date:

First, switching to Cinnamon on my recommendation should be worth some placebo effect. If not:

The panels are configurable, and it's okay to have just one.

TFM: the wrench & screwdriver  in the main menu leads to a different place from System Tools|System Settings wrench & screwdriver. If you select Menu|Wrench & Screwdriver, one of the options is Hot Corner. Make it visible, place it in a corner not otherwise critically used (it's translucent) and play with it.

I was using Gnome Classic with no effects, because with effects keyboard shortcuts didn't work. With Mate my volume controls (alt-up, alt-down) didn't work. This does everything Mate does without breaking keyboard shortcuts (big deal) and also allowing effects (not a big deal).

I really like Hot Corner.

Cinnamon has more themes than Gnome Classic, but still not one I really like. A little googling, though, led me to a page on creating themes, and it does look simple, except I'll be editing CSS and am unclear regarding what some of the tags are. I'll either find docs or experiment.

What I really want are larger fonts in the panel and top bars on windows that change colors noticeably between selected and not selected.

There is one clear-cut bug that I've seen: Under Cinnamon, Gnome Terminal 3.0.1 doesn't consistently switch its cursor to solid block (from outline) when the window has focus. A minor aggravation.

I have an old (ca. 12/2005) Dell laptop running Ubuntu 10.4 LTS. Ubuntu's LTS is rather short, and has expired, so I think I'll blow that away in favor of the Mint13 RC, Cinnamon, and Mate. If Mate is less buggy in the Mint 13 environment than Mint 12 (they use the word mature to describe it, but I have yet to see evidence of that) it might be a good choice. Anyhow, the new Mint 13, Cinnamon, and Mate on modest hardware seems worth learning about.