Trying to get back to the desktop

J

Joseph8

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About 10 years ago I was using Linux on the desktop full time. I didn't even dual boot. I am currently using linux on several servers, so am not completely new to Linux. I really like Linux and keep trying to use it on the desktop again, but its so damn frustrating and time consuming I can't seem to sustain it.

I have tried Ubuntu 14.10 amd64 and Kubuntu 14.10 amd64 (I prefer KDE) on my machine and had resolved to using VirtualBox for the few things I need windows for.

My frustrations are:

1. Crashing. seriously WTF!?! One of the main reasons I like to use Linux on my servers is stability. But the installs are crashing my desktop! like once each hour, I don't remember that when I was using it on the desktop in the past. The whole thing will go black or freeze and nothing seems to liberate other than a full reset. Serious Linux buzz-kill. I am trying to dual boot with windows 7, which incidentally has never crashed on this machine.

2. Virtalbox - holy, effing, nightmare. I guess I have been spoiled by windoze where you double click the installer and you are done. Vanilla ubuntu install pukes -- so I spend like 2 hours going through docs and forums to fix it, then... .The machine crashes. Dammit!

3. USB hell. gettting my Samsung Galaxy S5 to work with Android studio, and audio through a Logitech c270 to webex or webex in a virtualbox. Hell on skiis.

What I have to do: Develop in Android Studio (using Galaxy S5), have meetings in WebEx, view/read Documents from MS Office, HipChat, git, node, mongo, gimp.

I keep thinking this list isn't that ugly - most of what I am doing is fairly straight forward. I don't really game on the machine and most of the software I choose is open source stuff.

Wrong distro? VMWare player instead of VirtualBox? Just keep Linux on the server?
 


Hi!

Could you actually specify what crashes exactly? And what's wrong with USB stuff?

Also I can suggest using QEMU-KVM instead of VBox, it's much more lightweight, pretty easy. There is GNOME Boxes out there, it's actually Gtk+3 front-end for QEMU as far as I understand. The interface becomes shitty on GTK+2 environments though (probably on Qt too)

Put my two cents in
 
Small observation: 14.10 is only supported until July 2015. You would be better with 14.04 LTS (Long Term Support) . It is supported until April 2019
 
Could it be possible there is a hardware issue that's causing the crashes?
 
What's your video device?

Which display driver is loaded?


Just as a suggestion, Manjaro all the way...

Or Mint as its preloaded stuff may help with plug-and-play compatibility, plus it's Ubuntu-based.


By the way, have you tried Cinnamon for DE? I'd say it's more Linux-like but won't miss your win key to start programs ;)
 
Mitt Green said:
Hi!

Could you actually specify what crashes exactly? And what's wrong with USB stuff?
Click to expand...
Not sure, it locked the first time while browseing in chrome, the second when i was doing a listing in konsole, The third.. I don't remember, but I can't reproduce it through user interaction. I will scan the logs and see if I can figure out what was really going on when it croaked. I guess I just expect it to handle misbehaving pieces more gracefully.

USB: my Logitech c270 is unusable in browser apps, the video works in cheese, and the mic works in audacity so that was awesome. The other issue was getting my Galaxy S5 to show up in android studio as a debug device.

One note about drivers though - Linux knocked it out of the park when it came to My network cards, so much easier than winders.

Also I can suggest using QEMU-KVM instead of VBox, it's much more lightweight, pretty easy. There is GNOME Boxes out there, it's actually Gtk+3 front-end for QEMU as far as I understand. The interface becomes shitty on GTK+2 environments though (probably on Qt too)
Click to expand...
Thanks, I will try it, my brother in law was trying to convince me it was too slow to be useful, but I don't need it for much.
 
Last edited:
arochester said:
Small observation: 14.10 is only supported until July 2015. You would be better with 14.04 LTS (Long Term Support) . It is supported until April 2019
Click to expand...
Hmm on my servers I am using and LTS version and I love it. I guess I was trying to be "edgy" using 14.10 on the desktop, hoping for better driver support etc.. I guess now I am toying with the idea of a whole different distro...
 
@Joseph8 On QEMU you have to specify plenty of memory, like 1gb at least, of course it depends on your needs (I usually use 3 gigs on bloated systems) and use QEMU-KVM and since it works from actual kernel, it will be really fast unlike just QEMU which is slow.
 
Yesyesloud said:
What's your video device?

Which display driver is loaded?
Just as a suggestion, Manjaro all the way...

Or Mint as its preloaded stuff may help with plug-and-play compatibility, plus it's Ubuntu-based.

By the way, have you tried Cinnamon for DE? I'd say it's more Linux-like but won't miss your win key to start programs ;)
Click to expand...

I will look into both those distros, a friend of mine that works computer forensics for the police suggested Mint also. I shall pick and do a re-install this weekend.

The boxen:
Intel core i7-4770k in an Asus Q87M-E/CSM mobo
12 GB RAM
Intel 8 Series C220 Series SATA AHCI Controller
Logitech HD Webcam C270
Intel HD Graphics 4600 With dual monitor setup.
Panda PAU06 USB 802.11n Wireless adapter
 
Ok stupid question maybe, I have a 64 bit machine but I understand Java might be less of a hassle and there would be some chance of getting Webex working if I use a 32 bit install. Seems like a waste to not use the full potential - but if it would be more stable... Any thoughts?
 
Aye, you can also give a chance to CentOS, it has a lot of software in even CentOS Base and Plus, and even more in additional repos, you can check out their wiki http://wiki.centos.org/PatrickDGarvey/AdditionalResources/Repositories
Also things like hotplugging seem to be done, at least in GNOME. CentOS is very friendly to a developer, biggest problems there probably systemd and XFS (there is no systemd in 6 and earlier) (not very stable) but hopefully these things will be done by the time:)
 
Joseph8 said:
Ok stupid question maybe, I have a 64 bit machine but I understand Java might be less of a hassle and there would be some chance of getting Webex working if I use a 32 bit install. Seems like a waste to not use the full potential - but if it would be more stable... Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
They won't work better IMO, Java itself tends to crash, what's on Cisco I am not sure, seems like video chat software or however you call it is still not in best conditions on Unix systems.
 
I decided to try Mint, having had at least two endorsements on it. I installed Mint 17.1 Cinnamon and so far so good.

@Mitt, thanks for the tip on QEMU, i am installing Win7 on it now and it was super-easy to install and get running. :)
 
Thanks for all the suggestions and help. I am using Linux on my work desktop today for the first time in about 10 years. Woo hoo! I did my webex call in an virtual machine, but it seems for now, that and the occasional weird Office document I won't need to use the windows VM very much.

With this distro my SGS5 just sort of worked, no hassles. I have been happily running and debugging my code from Android Studio. I found SmartGitHG to replace SourceTree. So far so good...
 
Black screens. I am familiar with that.

Mine ended up being a very old laptop with very old Intel video. Two issues seemed to aggravate this for me:
  1. Hardware acceleration in a browser. My video replies "Sure, I can do it!" but it cannot. Any video / web page that would need hardware acceleration would turn the screen black; the system kept running, there was just no display. Only a reset would resolve this. I turned hardware acceleration off in my browsers, and that one was fixed.

  2. Inactivity screen blank / screen saver. I am not sure if the culprit is the video driver or Ubuntu / Mint handling, but sometimes the system would just go black and not return. I shut off screen saver and screen blanking, and that one was fixed.

  3. I seem to remember a third item, but it is not coming to me right now. I think I had to turn off hardware accelerated video somewhere else - maybe BIOS? It's been some time since I fixed that.
I have seen this with a few different systems, but all of them had "older" Intel video. My laptop is a Dell D630, probably 8 to 10 years old. It runs well, aside from those few quirks.

This may not be your issue, but it seemed worth mentioning. Hardware acceleration was a real dinger for me - it would cause the black screens at the most inopportune times.
 
Joseph8 said:
Woo hoo! I did my webex call in an virtual machine, but it seems for now, that and the occasional weird Office document I won't need to use the windows VM very much.
Click to expand...
Another tip, in case it somewhat helps: WPS Office.

Regarding MS-compatibility, it will solve most when not all document reading/editing/formatting issues.
 
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