Ubuntu 19.04 Desktop pre-beta testing

[Jason]

Btw, I tried the weekly build last night for Ubuntu 19.04 Desktop in a VM. It was produced Feb. 26 and it broke. I couldn't update it. I chose to do the downloads during the install which worked. But when I went to update after the install, the updater froze and eventually told me it had crashed. I couldn't even get System Monitor up to kill the updater. Going to try to update it in the terminal and see what happens.

Btw, I allocated to the guest 4 GB of RAM, two processor cores, turned on 3D acceleration and gave 128 MB for video RAM.

[Jason]

After a night of sleep and a reboot I was greeted with Ubuntu starting in what I recall as failsafe mode. Terminal-only and a big complaint about filesystem errors. That might be because I had to use a "hardware" shutdown after the update crash as icons were clickable but didn't do anything any longer. It was late. I was tired. I don't remember.

Anyway, It suggested I run fsck which surprisingly looks almost identical to came out of my mouth when I saw it. After doing so (with fsck /dev/sda1), and hitting <enter> about 20 or so times (see attachment) and typing reboot, I was greeted with the normal desktop. And this time the update worked.

Then I got cocky and tried Software Manager. which appeared to freeze after not showing anything. I could close it but I don't think it really closed because if I clicked it again, it appeared instantly like I had just minimized it. Ubuntu gave me a message saying it had crashed and offered to send a report, which didn't work, though I'm not really sure. It didn't show the normal crash report window but maybe that is gone now? I had to use System Monitor to kill Software Manager and when I restarted it this time, it came up and I was able to successfully install Gimp which happens to be a snap.

This is fun! You never know what is going to happen next. It's like a big adventure.

[Jason]

First thoughts on changes in 19.04. The icons are different looking - softer, more pleasant on the eyes. You can see what I mean  below. Clicking on the image is best as the thumbnail downgrade in size loses something.

Livepatch seems to be a new feature which lets you install updates that would normally require a reboot. It does require creating an account to use so I didn't bother.

I don't recall seeing AisleRiot Solitaire and Soduko before so I think they are new games to the default install but I'm not a normal Ubuntu user so that could be wrong.

[fox]

....
First thoughts on changes in 19.04. The icons are different looking - softer, more pleasant on the eyes....
Livepatch seems to be a new feature which lets you install updates that would normally require a reboot. It does require creating an account to use so I didn't bother.
....

Thanks for taking this alpha version for a spin and telling us about it. I knew that Ubuntu has been working on the icons. They did a nice transition with the Yaru icons, and it looks like more improvements are on the way. I wish they would change the LibreOffice icons more substantively. I don't care for the current ones, and other icon sets like Deepin have done a much nicer job with these.

Livepatch is in Ubuntu 18.10. I think it was introduced in that version.

[fox]

Ubuntu 19.04 has been released. I just did an upgrade on my home iMac and on my Dell laptop. Software Updater didn't show the upgrade for some reason, so I did from a Terminal. Very simple, main command is:

Code Select Expand

sudo do-release-upgrade -d

Full instructions are here. The upgrades were successful; I'm writing this message on Disco. The upgrade is supposed to make the commands and windows more responsive, and that does seem to be the case.

[Jason]

I'm doing it for Kubuntu right now. I'll post a separate topic if I have issues or anything interesting to say about it.

[fox]

I upgraded a different laptop last night. This time the Software Updater showed it was available and I was able to do it from the GUI. Again, it went smoothly. I have to say that I have attempted Upgrades upgrades since version 7.10 and I can't recall a single one that failed.

[Jason]

Longer (12 min) review here of Ubuntu 19.04 by InfinitelyGalactic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPjYVINjP8c