Kubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa - Purrs like a bear

Discussion in 'all things UNIX' started by Mrkvonic, May 1, 2020.

  1. Mrkvonic

    Mrkvonic Linux Systems Expert

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    Tuxers worldwide, unite. And here we go, the distro hunting season has begun. Today, on the menu, a long, detailed review of Kubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa, tested in a multi-boot Windows and Linux setup on a laptop with UEFI, 16 partitions and Intel graphics, covering live session, installation and post-install usage, including look & feel, fonts, networking - Wireless, Bluetooth, Samba sharing, printing, multimedia - HD video and MP3 playback, smartphone support - Android and iPhone (iOS), partitioning and slideshow, package management and updates, applications and extras, hardware compatibility, stability, suspend & resume, resource usage, performance and responsiveness, battery life, customization, some buglets, other observations, and more. Take a look.

    https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/kubuntu-focal.html


    Cheers,
    Mrk
     
  2. Iangh

    Iangh Registered Member

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    Great! Can you post when you think it's low-risk to upgrade from 18.04?
     
  3. Mrkvonic

    Mrkvonic Linux Systems Expert

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    I've already done some tests, and it's fine. You can definitely go ahead.
    Mrk
     
  4. Joxx

    Joxx Registered Member

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    Thanks, KDE rocks. And Kubuntu is probably the best platform.
     
  5. Iangh

    Iangh Registered Member

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    Thanks, it was straightforward. Only issue I can see if losing meta/super key (known bug). Have to click 'Application Menu' icon for now.
     
  6. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    How does one upgrade to 20.04 over 18.04?
     
  7. Iangh

    Iangh Registered Member

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    $ sudo do-release-upgrade -d
    Took about 3hrs. Keep checking as you get asked for input. I chose 'default' as I don't know what I'm doing.:)
     
  8. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    Thanks. I tired that before but wasn't offered the upgrade.

    Macrium Reflect (in Windows) is scheduled to run its weekly backup in just under hour. I'll boot into Kubuntu and try again.
     
  9. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    @Mrkvonic ,

    Great review. I finally had time to have a read. I am inspired!

    Thanks,
    Dave
     
  10. Joxx

    Joxx Registered Member

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    I'd make a fresh install instead of an upgrade. I know you have to go through all the configurations and install your programs, but doing this every two years is not that much of a hassle, and it's safer.
     
  11. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    I tried that and the update started and was progressing until it said in Terminal what was going to be uninstalled. Instead of clicking "Y", I pressed "D" (I think) to see what would be uninstalled, then I couldn't progress past that point. I restored my fresh image and tried again but this time I'm getting this again.
    Code:
    Checking for a new Ubuntu release
    There is no development version of an LTS available.
    To upgrade to the latest non-LTS develoment release
    set Prompt=normal in /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades.
    Yeah, you may be right.
     
  12. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    Never mind. Restored my backup again, ran "sudo do-release-upgrade -d" in Konsole again. This time the upgrade is downloading and installing. I'll be sure to press "Y" this time instead od "D". ;)

    Gotta luv Macrium Reflect. :thumb:
     
  13. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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  14. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    I love Elisa! I found this little gem in Solus Plasma and am stoked it made it into Kubuntu 20.04.
     
  15. Iangh

    Iangh Registered Member

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    When you do the install it disables 3rd-party sources. In Software Sources/Other Sources it lists what was disabled with the descriptor "disabled on upgrade to focal focal". I assume I just enable them again?
     
  16. Stupendous Man

    Stupendous Man Registered Member

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    I suppose third-party sources were disabled because you chose the 'default' installation. Third-party sources can be included, but that is not default.
    (The Kubuntu Manual for 20.04 is not yet available, but I guess the info for Kubuntu 18.04 LTS is similar. You can find the information about including third-party software at page 11 of the 18.04 PDF that is available in the Support section of the Kubuntu site.)

    I would do so.
     
  17. shmu26

    shmu26 Registered Member

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    "I did create my own color profile - Brooze, which is Breeze with black fonts."
    @Mrkvonic do you have a tutorial or a tip for doing that?
     
  18. Mrkvonic

    Mrkvonic Linux Systems Expert

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    Yup, coming soon.
    Mrk
     
  19. Stupendous Man

    Stupendous Man Registered Member

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    Recently, I upgraded my two Kubuntu 18.04 installations to 20.04.1.
    With the 20.04.1 release, last August, there were some issues and because of that the automatic upgrade to 20.04 was not offered. For my Kubuntu 18.04 installations, the 20.04 upgrade was not offered even recently. Last week, I decided to upgrade anyway.

    When automatic upgrade is not offered, there are a few different upgrade options.
    One option is to run the release upgrade tool, as documented in https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FocalUpgrades/Kubuntu

    I decided not to do a true upgrade, but to do a partially clean installation.
    I kept my /home partition, and also my /home/username/backup partition on my second internal drive (one of my backup locations, besides a couple of external backup drives).
    A How-To is documented here: https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showthread.php/77354-Upgrade-but-save-Home

    I started the installation using the Kubuntu 20.04.1 ISO, selected 'Install Kubuntu', and in Disk Setup, I selected Manual, Prepare partitions.
    Next, I selected the existing / partition, selected the Change button, selected to set it as /, and selected FORMAT.
    I selected the existing /home partition, selected the Change button, selected to set it as /home, DO NOT Format.
    I selected my /home/username/backup partition, selected the Change button, selected to set it as /home/username/backup, DO NOT Format.

    For one of my systems, the upgrade installation went just fine.

    The other one, not so fine.
    After installation, there was no audio, and worst of all, no Ethernet connection. Oh no! Was my old hardware no longer fully supported, were drivers missing?
    I decided to start over, and check what the live session 'Try Kubuntu' option would show.
    The live session 'Try Kubuntu' option offered both audio and Ethernet connection. OK, that was much better.
    So, what went wrong with installation?
    I decided to look for driver and firmware updates offered in Discover Software Center, I found a few, and chose to install those in the live session, not knowing if these would be kept with installation. Next I started the Kubuntu installation.
    This time, after installation, audio and Ethernet were fine.
    I don't know what made the difference. Was the installation with missing audio and Ethernet just some random malfunction, or does 'Try Kubuntu' and next 'Install Kubuntu' work better, or were there some drivers missing that I installed in the second run? I'm still too much a newbie to understand.

    Anyhow, both my installations were now successfully upgraded.

    Because of the partially clean installation, I had to reinstall some applications, of course.
    It was good to see that most my 18.04 system and application settings were saved in 20.04.1, apart from a few things that changed but were rather easy to set to my wishes.

    All in all, it was a bit of a bumpy ride, because of the missing audio and Ethernet, but in the end everything is fine, Fossa purring cosily.
     
    Last edited: Feb 5, 2021
  20. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    I've been getting this error for a while now when first opening Discover:

    "Failed to update metadata for lvfs: checksum failure: failed to verify data"

    What do I do about it? How do I fix it?
     
  21. vasa1

    vasa1 Registered Member

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    According to https://www.reddit.com/r/Fedora/comments/jxo9c9/unable_to_get_list_of_updates/,
    Code:
    fwupdmgr refresh
    may help.

    I don't use Discover myself but I tried just now and didn't see the message.

    (And when I ran fwupdmgr refresh in Konsole, I got:
    Code:
    Firmware metadata last refresh: 23 hours ago. Use --force to refresh again.
    BTW, other users have reported the "Failed to update metadata for lvfs: checksum failure: failed to verify data" as well on other distros (and DEs).
     
    Last edited: Aug 17, 2021
  22. Stupendous Man

    Stupendous Man Registered Member

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    Thanks, Krusty, and thanks, vasa1.
    Since a couple of weeks, I too see that error when first opening Discover, daily after fresh boot.
    Good to know that more users see the same issue. I suppose it will be fixed one day or another.

    Today, I booted and first opened Discover earlier than Yesterday, and I did't see the error. I understand that was expected, less than 24 hours later.
    Next, I ran: fwupdmgr --force refresh

    One thread [1] mentioned a server that was out of memory and that rebooting the server fixed the issue. In such a case, we need to wait till they reboot the server, I don't have any idea how often that is done.
     
  23. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    Thanks @vasa1 .

    I had found that command and ran it which said it succeeded.

    Thanks also @Stupendous Man . I'm sorry to hear you've also been seeing that error too but it's good to know I'm not on my own. Hopefully it will get sorted soon.

    Cheers guys.
     
  24. vasa1

    vasa1 Registered Member

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    Hah! I tried Discover today a couple of hours after having done my usual "sudo apt update" and "sudo apt dist-upgradesudo apt full-upgrade" (which got me upgrades for "linux-firmware:amd64 (1.187.15, 1.187.16), libexiv2-27:amd64 (0.27.2-8ubuntu2.5, 0.27.2-8ubuntu2.6").

    This time, Discover popped up the same message seen by @Krusty and @Stupendous Man :)
     
    Last edited: Aug 18, 2021
  25. Stupendous Man

    Stupendous Man Registered Member

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    Thanks, vasa1.
    I got those same two updates, Yesterday, using Discover to look for and install updates.
    The "Failed to update metadata for lvfs: checksum failure: failed to verify data" error doesn't stop Discover looking for and installing updates. Not even firmware updates, or so it seems, even with the LVFS ( Linux Vendor Firmware Service) metadata error.
     
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