Email or username:

Password:

Forgot your password?
mcc's posts Post Back to profile
Top-level
mcc

I see problems including, but not limited to

- When I close the laptop lid and open it again, a shocking percentage of the time it does not wake up and I have to force power it off ( bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sou , ongoing since April)
- Every time I briefly brush my fingers against the screen, GNOME enters an entirely broken "touchscreen mode" in which it pretends my keyboard and mouse don't exist. It fixes itself after an unpredictable amount of time ranging from 5 to 30 seconds. Can't be disabled

9 July at 20:06 | Open on mastodon.social
148 comments
mcc

- Firefox can't show image previews when selecting attachments (because of "security", somehow)

- Often, when I direct a program to open a new window, GNOME refuses to let the program do it, and instead opens the window at the back of the stack and shows a top-of-screen notification letting me know there's a new window (I guess also "security")

- Just fresh weird stuff happening at random intervals. Since last week, when I right click in Firefox, I can't click on the menu. It's happening RN

9 July at 20:07 | Open on mastodon.social
mcc

I can use even a very poorly functioning OS because the OS, to me, is just a thin support system that allows a web browser to run. Linux is not succeeding well at this very minimal goal.

9 July at 20:10 | Open on mastodon.social
mcc

Note: I assume that I will get responses to these posts (okay, I was GOING to say that, but I have got two such responses so far, I didn't even get to finish typing the thread) saying I wouldn't have problems if I didn't use Ubuntu. *I don't believe you!* Using a different distro means yanking an arm on a slot machine. MAYBE I get a functioning system. MAYBE it gets worse! And the cost of *trying* is a few days of intensive work and maybe screwing up my daily-use computer.

9 July at 20:11 | Open on mastodon.social
Michael T Babcock

@mcc Fedora live image. No install just try and see. YMMV of course.

9 July at 20:12 | Open on floss.social
Josh Simmons

@mcc only one of those issues is a ubuntu problem anyway. then there's a few wayland ones, and i guess the last one is just firefox being broken. it's certainly a game of choose your broken, or perhaps roll the dice and have the broken chosen for you.

9 July at 20:13 | Open on mastodon.social
mcc

@dotstdy I'm not using Wayland. At least one of the issues is a Snap issue.

9 July at 20:14 | Open on mastodon.social
Josh Simmons

@mcc the "popups opening in the background" is an xwayland issue, unless there's a specific bonus problem with your configuration, hurray for a rare dice roll. the firefox attachment one is because you're using snap indeed (which is arguably a ubuntu thing because snap is ubuntu only madness).

9 July at 20:16 | Open on mastodon.social
mcc
DELETED

@mcc gnome tweaks might help with the backgrounded windows

9 July at 20:51 | Open on hachyderm.io
Oblomov

@dotstdy @mcc yep, the forced snapification of everything (and especially firefox) is the main reason why I won't be installing Ubuntu anywhere anymore. Fool me once and all that. Pity because it used to be the distro I could put on machine I didn't want to get handsy with. Oh well, back to Debian 12 even for non-power users it seems.

9 July at 20:59 | Open on sociale.network
dcbaok

@mcc @dotstdy yeah any firefox brokenness on ubuntu I blame on snap first until proven otherwise

9 July at 20:16 | Open on fosstodon.org
cliziə

@mcc before trying another distro just try another DE, they can be swapped without switching distro

9 July at 20:14 | Open on mastodon.social
v̾i̾t̾r̾i̾o̾l̾i̾x̾

@mcc Heh, I was going to say "try Ubuntu, it's worked pretty seemlessly on my laptop". the struggle is real though

9 July at 20:18 | Open on mastodon.social
mcc

Someday Cosmic DE will get released, and I will switch to Pop!_OS, and then all the problems on my laptop will be because Cosmic DE is an unfinished product rather than because GNOME is a finished product which made design decisions I disagree with, and I will be Happy because the problems with my laptop will be happening for the correct reasons

9 July at 20:19 | Open on mastodon.social
Adriano
funbaker #AssangeIsNotGuilty

@mcc oh, that one. driver or firmware issue.

9 July at 20:54 | Open on chaos.social
mcc

Note: I don't mind Snap. I'd rather my OS be using Flatpak, but I mostly use Snap on purpose and I don't specifically object to my applications being installed as Snap. I just want Snap/Flatpak to like… work right.

9 July at 21:01 | Open on mastodon.social
mhoye

@mcc I have never once heard the advice to switch distros come from somebody who wanted to make any effort whatsoever to understand and solve a problem, only from people who want to say they don't have your problem.

I have had success forcibly disabling touchscreens by adding the appropriate module - "usbtouchscreen" I think? to /etc/modules.d/blacklist, but you're I think right to consider this an indignity.

9 July at 20:29 | Open on mastodon.social
mcc

@mhoye I believe this would probably work, however, I want a touchscreen, which is why I purchased a laptop with a touchscreen

9 July at 20:36 | Open on mastodon.social
margot

@mcc i HATE this response bc like, you are a pretty seasoned computer user! and most ppl have even more of a huge cost to switching their OS! and ppl who use linux still don’t seem to understand why the average person doesn’t want to get on linux

9 July at 20:41 | Open on mastodon.social
Neia

@mcc@mastodon.social Yeah, my experience is that changing distros can fix some problems while introducing new ones. Like I went from Debian to Ubuntu and it improved hardware support while causing a number of other issues.

Yanking out snap improved a lot of those issues, as did using MATE rather than GNOME, but that's more futzing about than anyone should have to do.

9 July at 20:47 | Open on fedi.ikeran.org
Risotto

@mcc oh gosh that's wild!

I'm sorry you're one of the lucky people with bugs I can't reproduce :(

9 July at 20:12 | Open on tech.lgbt
Cameron MacLeod

@mcc Depressed chuckle at the replies suggesting things that are far beyond the scope of "thin support system that allows a web browser to run."

Me: "my streetcar keeps getting caught in traffic due to city policies"

Some Linux fans: "Oh I've seen that before, don't worry, just repave the street in a new shape and you'll be all set."

9 July at 20:22 | Open on mstdn.ca
@frueheneuzeit

@mcc just use Emacs as your browser. #scnr

9 July at 20:53 | Open on fedihum.org
mcc

@stefan_hessbrueggen Well… I guess I don't have any refutation of that

9 July at 20:53 | Open on mastodon.social
gkrnours

@mcc I nearly said I didn't have the issue with firefox but I did spend lot of time and struggle to install the non-snap version. Truly a miserable process just to get the package like in most other linux.

9 July at 20:13 | Open on mastodon.gamedev.place
Alex P. 👹

@mcc
for problem #2:

there's a gnome plugin called "Grand Theft Focus" that will make its behavior less infuriating

9 July at 20:23 | Open on jorts.horse
mcc

@saddestrobots Thanks, I'll look into it.

There was a plugin that ameliorated the "touchscreen mode" issue by permanently killing the GNOME on-screen keyboard, but then I upgraded and it stopped working.

9 July at 20:28 | Open on mastodon.social
Trillion Byter

@mcc @saddestrobots

Lol. *sad trombone*

Every tutorial that includes "just run 'apt upgrade' " infuriates me.

No! I need to fix this one specific issue. Not spend the next 8+ hours figuring out which package upgrades broke my dependency stack and downgrading packages by trial and error.

9 July at 20:52 | Open on mstdn.social
₲.$.₱₹ᏫĐɄ₡₮łᏫ₦

@mcc@mastodon.social
Oh, yes, I can't say anything about Gnome, because I have Ubuntu. But, yes, we, in MissKey, have some noise through FireFox instead of uploaded pictures to the local disk, and only on JPG, it seems (on PNG there is no pink noise after uploading, I think)! I've already asked our natives to help me with this somehow, but they didn't help me. Well, as Churchill said, "he who chooses security over liberty is worthy of neither!".

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

9 July at 20:28 | Open on shitpost.poridge.club
Dana Fried

@mcc it took me forever to understand why, when I accidentally pressed CTRL-O instead of ALT-O in VS Code, I got a random popup that said that the application was ready and then it became completely unresponsive.

Turns out it was showing the "open file" dialog *behind* the window, but still somehow making it modal. Because Wayland? I dunno.

Now I at least know how to fix it without having to close and restart Code, but it was driving me absolutely nuts for a while.

9 July at 20:32 | Open on mastodon.social
Adriano

@tess @mcc Dialogs opening behind vscode under Wayland are one of the things I've missing-staired, and I hate it.

9 July at 20:38 | Open on lile.cl
Josh Simmons

@adriano @tess @mcc fwiw i believe it should actually be fixed in vscode now generally. (as of the may release)

9 July at 20:57 | Open on mastodon.social
margot

@mcc the new window bug baffles me every time it happens, especially bc it’s SO inconsistent. weirdly i have a different bug upon waking up from sleep where everything will work fine except my touchpad won’t work at all unless i reboot

9 July at 20:36 | Open on mastodon.social
mcc
margot

@mcc i think overall tho i’ve had worse weird random bugs with windows (hello, bug which makes my computer decide i don’t have internet anymore until i reboot) that i have a much better opinion on ubuntu as a casual user. nothing really beats early mac os, tho

9 July at 20:38 | Open on mastodon.social
mcc

@emaytch Sometimes I think I was never happier using a computer than I was using Mac OS 9

9 July at 20:40 | Open on mastodon.social
margot

@mcc that was definitely the golden era and i assume it has nothing to do with me being young enough to be impressionable at the time

9 July at 20:41 | Open on mastodon.social
Mr Salteena is not quite a gentleman
@mcc oh lordy the image preview thing. I fixed that by following arcane instructions to get Firefox installed old style from a debian package again via a PPA, rather than Ubuntu's snap and that did the job - at the price of nuking my profile and requiring me to set it all up again. It's infuriating that Ubuntu took the app we probably spend most time with, and preferred to push it into the snap model they advocate at the cost of usability.

If I weren't so pig-headedly committed to FOSS I would be running a Mac for sure.

(said arcane instructions are here https://askubuntu.com/questions/1399383/how-to-install-firefox-as-a-traditional-deb-package-without-snap-in-ubuntu-22/ )
@mcc oh lordy the image preview thing. I fixed that by following arcane instructions to get Firefox installed old style from a debian package again via a PPA, rather than Ubuntu's snap and that did the job - at the price of nuking my profile and requiring me to set it all up again. It's infuriating that Ubuntu took the app we probably spend most time with, and preferred to push it into the snap model they advocate at the cost of usability.
9 July at 20:46 | Open on microbe.vital.org.nz
Nire Bryce

@mcc
The windows behind everything might be "focus stealing prevention", i know it is called that on KDE, the worst possible description for it.

I haven't used gnome in a bit for anything but playing around with breezy so I don't know the specifics there though

9 July at 20:59 | Open on hachyderm.io
cliziə

@mcc they sound like ubuntu problems, not linux problems

9 July at 20:08 | Open on mastodon.social
mcc

@chiamamialmort The problem with my Big Issue (sleep/wake) appears to be a range of Linux kernels in the neighborhood of github.com/torvalds/linux/comm . If whatever non-ubuntu distro I switch to has a kernel based on this range, it will not resolve the problem. It is also unclear to me whether torvalds commit ca299b45 fixes the problem fully.

9 July at 20:13 | Open on mastodon.social
nicholas_saunders

@chiamamialmort @mcc at least some of that is hardware support. The laptop is built for windows.

I don't understand the Firefox problems, tho. Probably can be configured differently.

9 July at 20:14 | Open on mastodon.social
mcc

@nicholas_saunders @chiamamialmort It's a fucking ThinkPad! It lists Ubuntu as a supported operating system on the manufacturer website! I literally bought it because it was the line people mostly said was good for running Linux

9 July at 20:14 | Open on mastodon.social
FoolishOwl

@mcc Honestly, I so quickly got used to closing the lid fucking up the system, that I just never do it until I power down the system, and I'm astonished when I see other people close the lids on running laptops.

Also I fucking hate touchscreens on laptops.

9 July at 20:14 | Open on social.coop
DELETED

@mcc I had the onscreen keyboard issue and switching the login from Ubuntu to Ubuntu on Wayland seemed to help a little bit.

I agree though, linux on a laptop is hell. At this point, after three weeks, I've downloaded the windows iso to restore it. No amount of privacy intrusion is worse than dealing with Gnome Software Center again.

9 July at 20:42 | Open on hachyderm.io
DELETED

@mcc I should point out this is on an Ubuntu certified ThinkPad!

9 July at 20:44 | Open on hachyderm.io
mcc

@alexhammy Now to be fair, the version of Ubuntu which is satisfied for this thinkpad is 20.04, and I am running 24.04. Naughty me

(If I were running 20.04 I *would not* be seeing the problem with sleep/wake; it is specific to newer Linux kernels, so it impacts 23.10 and 24.04 but not 22.04 or older)

9 July at 20:46 | Open on mastodon.social
DELETED

@mcc same except it's 22.04 that I'm using which is strictly speaking qualified for my laptop model but only with a different dGPU

9 July at 20:48 | Open on hachyderm.io
Nire Bryce

@mcc
this is not helping the "user unfriendly" issue, but I might have a fix for the suspend thing, I'll get back to you when I'm at a keyboard (about to shower)

some of the amd boards have issues where they hang when suspending if you have an nvme drive, I *thought* it was unique to b550/650 motherboards but it's probably worth a shot and easy to test. (searching `b550 gpp0 suspend` will get you hits if i forget about this)

9 July at 20:57 | Open on hachyderm.io
mcc

@NireBryce There seems to be an extensive investigation in launchpad. It would be something that developed in the 6.8.0 kernel series, and it might be fixed in kernel top of tree for all I know, since I'm only using Ubuntu-vended kernels.

9 July at 20:59 | Open on mastodon.social
ianh

@mcc i recently installed linux on a laptop, and the thought of dealing with these sorts of problems was so unbearable to me that i resolved to instead write my own UI environment from scratch. i got a spinning triangle on the screen with KMS/GBM/EGL and have worked out a design for the UI hierarchy data structure which i am now implementing. this is the first i've mentioned it to anyone and i'll probably never actually finish it (it's definitely one of Those Projects) but it feels good anyway

9 July at 21:02 | Open on mastodon.social
mcc

@ianh This sounds fun.

What I want to do is wait for Cosmic DE to be viable and then just start forking it heavily. The important thing here is that Cosmic DE is in Rust, which means that patching it sounds doable instead of miserably exhausting. (I don't actually like Rust, per se, but I hate everything else much more)

9 July at 21:04 | Open on mastodon.social
Josh

@mcc tbf I don't think I've ever gotten a Windows laptop to wake from sleep

9 July at 22:31 | Open on dotnet.social
Princess Unikitty

@mcc
[Grizzled auto mechanic voice] that's your problem right there. New-fangled touch screens and what-have-you. That's why I only run machines that are 5 years or older.

For real tho, you're not wrong. IMO, the notification system just feels weirdly "too much" and yet also "not enough".

10 July at 0:04 | Open on kolektiva.social
SecurityByAndrew

@mcc I thought that laptop lid business was something I was doing wrong. I don't use my Ubuntu machine a lot but I absolutely noticed that issue.

10 July at 0:55 | Open on infosec.exchange
FRANK.MCCONNEL

@mcc Heh. A friend of mine and I, Mac users both, have been kicking around the idea of FreeBSD on the laptop and that idea of sleep on lid close, wake on lid open is #1 on both our lists and it doesn't work any worse or better; having to force power it off is exactly where I got to. Choice of hardware seems to matter. So does tailoring software for your hardware.

I have done FreeBSD on the desktop, several times before and after Mac OS X. Sometimes text modes only.

10 July at 1:17 | Open on fosstodon.org
Go Up