kubuntu jaunty Network manager plasma applet gets a major overhaul

At last ubuntu guys updated to the nm plasma applet to SVN version which fixed some most annoying bugs which made me use gnome nm applet for some time. One was the applet not remembering saved settings which caused it ask for wire less settings if it gets disconnected.

This is fixed and still some issues remain which is it cannot be used for vpnc connections the settings just won't work, its not even saving anything. Other than that it's pretty much OK to be used in desktop.

End of woes with X and intel graphics?

In my last post I talked about issues I faced with X and my intel graphics. I wished that was the end of story, but not. There was 2 other issues I discovered.
X crash on laptop lid close
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=22383 and
X crash on kde 4 log out.
http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=20867

Fortunately the laptop lid close one has been fixed and there is a work around for kde 4 log out issue.
For users of ubuntu jaunty latest intel driver package xorg-xserver-video-intel from xorg-edgers PPA has fix for the laptop lid issue.

For laptop lid issue edit /etc/kde4/kdm/kdmrc and add
TerminateServer=true under [X-*-Core]

This option will make kdm to restart X server instead of reusing it.

My X adventure with kubuntu jaunty.

As many of us might know, ubuntu januty has serious X related problems because of bugs in xorg intel driver and some in kernel itself. As one of the early adopters of jaunty from the aplha stages itself, I was among early set of users who experienced the full fury of this bug. X server just locks up, though we can move mouse nothing works, but we can ssh to the box and use it.

This is the bug I reported for this issue
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/359392

The bug report says all what is the issue and work around.
Jaunty is shipped with kernel 2.6.28 and xserver-xorg-video-intel based on 2.6

The X infrastructure is in a flux because of architectural changes and that was the root cause of all issues. Read this article to know what changed
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/columns/the_new_xorg_features

I even tried compiling the x server from scratch using instruction from here
http://wiki.x.org/wiki/Development/git
But it was too bleeding edge and freezes on alt-tab switch. ( May be I didn't digg enough to fix that). I was already mad at ubuntu and was planning to switch to Arch or Fedora 11. But al distros has the issues as the problem is with mainstream. Atleast the distros could have chosen to stick with stable old code.

So the solution to these problems requires newer kernel 2.6.30 and latest xserver-xorg-video-intel 2.7.99.* which is still under development though stable enough for use.

You can get the latest kernel for ubuntu from here
http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/

To get the latest x server and xserver-xorg-video-intel we need to enable this ppa
https://launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers/+archive/ppa

Then do an upgrade and enjoy. But beware after installing the packages from the xorg-edgers PPA only acceleration method available will be UXA and support for EXA and XXA have been dropped in favour of UXA.

If you want a little bit more excitement you can enable KMS ( kernel mode setting). KMS shifts the job of identifying and setting up graphics mode from X server to linux kernel. Follow instructions here for enabling kms and learn more about it.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/KernelModeSetting

I have been using this set for 2 days and enabled KMS today morning and performance has been great.

Making gnome-keyring unlock iteslf on login in kde

This part is very easy if you are using gnome and gdm. But the part that I use kdm and nm-applet uses keyring made matters worse for me. As of now nm-applet is the only decent UI for network manager.
So after hours of search and reading existing bug reports I arrived at the solution for me. Though I am using ubuntu I got the solution from a fedora bug report.

First we need to edit /etc/pam.d/kdm . I added these to it
auth optional pam_gnome_keyring.so
session optional pam_gnome_keyring.so auto_start

Also the important part is if you have been already using gnome-key-ring by default your data such as wifi WEP2 key will go to the default keyring. This make this setup fail. So you need to delete the existing keyrings. So that new ones will go to login keyring.

What I am frustrated is that there is no consistent way for kdm users to use this feature. It took me hours of frustrating searching to arrive at this working set up.

2 Applications kubuntu jaunty users should ditch for a better user experience

The ones I am talking about is KPackage kit and networkmanger-palsma-applet. Both are a joke. They are currently under development and is never ready for general usage.

Network Manager Plasma is the worst, It cannot reconnect wireless without re typing password and cannot manage vpn connections and confuses uses by showing vpn options.
KPackage kit can just do the basic stuff, you can click and install and search , thats its nothing more. When downloading it cannot show the details of what it is doing.(Though there is a details tab its disabled) And the history button makes you laugh. It shows the last cache refreshed time.

So users (like me) who are frustrated with these two applications must move to nm-applet(gnome one) and synaptics package manager which in my opinion should be shipped with kubuntu jaunty.

Synaptic and gtk style in kde

All kubuntu users who prefer synaptic might have noticed how ugly it looks. All gnome applications running on sudo or kdesudo looks same as such applications look for gtk style under /root which do not have the gtk style.
In my kde I am using qtcurve kde 4 version. TO fix this issue i simple copies the gtk file to root directory.

sudo cp ~/.gtkrc-2.0-kde4 /root/.gtkrc-2.0

Now my synaptic has the beautiful qtcurve style. But when ever you change the gtk style for gnome applications by kde system settings , you will have to copy them to root's home directory if it needs to be updated for synaptic package manager

Back To Wndows XP From Ubuntu Jaunty

Well this post undermines the very existence of this blog. I have been following ubuntu jaunty from the alpha releases. In between in switched from alpha to beta something happened, it broke the intel graphics. Users are getting frequent X freezes and only way out is rebooting the system using the MAGIC sysreq keys R S E I U B.


I have been using this in my office laptop in search for a perfect KDE 4.2 distro and it was a frustration because it crashed when I was checking mails or working on something. Now we have the final ubuntu release, but where does this bug stand. Unfortunately its still there and funny thing is that no one knows why this is happening, finally some xorg.conf settings have been proposed which increases the virtual size in xorg and still its not clear why this fixes the issue. All distos using intel driver > 2.5 seems to be affected especially intel 965 chipset users, like me.

Well I could live with this fix, but the annoying issues in jaunty is far from over. Most disappointment is the kde itself. The applications running is having repaint issues, some application like amarok, kmail, quassel are like having holes in them with areas not getting painted showing the background. Some blame on qt others on kde and some in intel.

And finally the most annoying issue I faced in jaunty is the detection of usb devices. Some times it takes 30 mins for my usb to device to get detected. In the mean time I can see on dmesg message
unable to enumerate USB device on port *
getting printed for the time till the usb is detected.

There are bugs for all these and no response from anyone. Well I just cannot spend my entire day trying to ponder why this is not working.
Every time I log in to ubuntu its thinking on what might not work today and the first thing a user wants is a stable environment to use.

After doing all help to make ubuntu beautiful and seeing that still its not working, then there is something wrong with the entire process. That says all and I am back to Windows XP.

Using XP after using kubuntu jaunty is like using windows 98 after using Windows Vista/XP. At least everything works as intended.