Testing 21.10 - Are you brave enough?

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This topic is intended to capture early testing of 21.10 (Impish Indri). Note for 21.10 planning please use this thread

21.10 Schedule

  • Apr - August - development
  • Aug 19th - Feature freeze
  • Sept 20th - Beta Testing
  • Oct 7th - Release Candidate
  • Oct 14th - Final Release

If you have spare hardware (or a virtual machine or two) and don’t mind regularly reinstalling when (and I mean WHEN) 21.10 eats your installation then feel free to give your feedback here. Early testing will improve the final release

Please use http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/ for testing ISOs (just click the relevant links and there’s guides as you navigate the site)

Packages and hardware are meant to be tested also using QA trackers: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/Roles/Tester

As the above page shows, probably the best way to get stuck in with testing is run Ubuntu 21.10 (either download or upgrade from 21.04 with update-manager -d ) as often as possible for usual tasks (bearing in mind that one’s productivity and data may be hampered by bugs on 21.10!) and reporting bugs with ubuntu-bug and ubuntu-bug package-name as you go.

Alternatively, there is always a huge backlog of bugs that need to be triaged (i.e., progressed towards being fixed), head to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad for a guide on getting started with that!

Use this query to see if your testing issue has been highlighted by others first before reporting.

This first post will be updated with the latest important info - so you don’t need to trawl through the posts. Remember - everything listed below is subject to change/removal and should not be used as indicative with the beta & later release.

Applets and mini-apps

For Ubuntu Budgie applets these can be tested via our daily PPA for 20.04/20.10/21.04 & 21.10:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntubudgie-dev/budgie-extras-daily && sudo apt upgrade

  1. Lots of updated translations from our brilliant translators Log in · Transifex

  2. Fix for spamming the syslog when previews was enabled but end-user was logged into a wayland desktop session

  3. Fix for WIndow Shuffler layouts executable installation path to work on stateless distros

  4. Window Shuffler Control has been completely revamped and redesigned

  5. Shuffler now includes Window Rules - explained here Testing 21.10 - Are you brave enough? - #4 by fossfreedom

  6. Shuffler Window rules now allow you to open application windows on specific workspaces

  7. Applications Menu - Calculator now shows a visual hint how to copy the result to the clipboard. Try it - press Super then enter 2+2

  8. Applications Menu - transition from Grid to List modes is now a fade rather than a slide animation

  9. We no longer install the elementary gsettings schema - this ensures we don’t clash with a pantheon install. The elementary schema entry is now found in the budgie applications schema.

  10. Some themes space the category list oddly. We now have a user configurable override (adjust category spacing) in the applet settings allowing you to control the spacing.

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  11. Fix where after connecting to a VPN spinner cursor was still showing

  12. Budgie Calendar Applet changes: Handle correctly the display of AM/PM when using custom date formats. Also backported to 20.04/20.10

  13. Budgie Calendar Applet changes: Select the current date when opening the popover. Also backported to 20.04/20.10

  14. Budgie Calendar Applet changes: How & Hide current week option. Also backported to 20.04/20.10

  15. v0.7.0 of budgie-indicator-applet has been released. This has a fix (hopefully) for any appindicator that used to display big/huge icons

  16. New applet called CPU Temp that displays the temperature of various sensors. It has been backported to 20.04, 20.10 & 21.04 as well. Testing 21.10 - Are you brave enough? - #11 by fossfreedom

  17. Thanks to contributor Akira (AkiraMiyakoda (Akira Miyakoda) · GitHub) budgie-pixel-saver-applet has now received a number of enhancements:

  • Drag - drop to unmaximise
  • Configurable title theming
  • Updates to ensure work with arc-theme
  • Increase configurable title width to 200px
  • Allow right alignment of title
  • revamped theming support for window controls
  • new style class “pixelsaver” to aid theme maintainers

These changes are now available in 20.04/20.10/21.04 & 21.10

  1. VisualSpace - we now display a hint when you open the popover - scrolling over the panel icon changes the workspace.
  2. Brightness Controller has now been reworked to use GNOMEs dbus control … so this should be all distro friendly and will reflect accurately the same Power slider in GNOME Settings.

Budgie Desktop

  1. v10.5.3 released - available for testing for 20.04/20.10 & 21.04 users Testing Budgie Desktop 10.5.3. It is also available now in 21.10

Budgie 10.5.3 is a minor release that introduces fixes for bugs, various quality-of-life improvements, and support for the GNOME 40 stack.

Bug Fixes and Cleanup

Budgie 10.5.3 introduces fixes to Budgie panel applets, Raven, and various window state tracking.

  • Drop use of Queue and Cancellable in Raven’s NotificationView.
    • Instead of using a Queue (which is not thread safe anyways), just update a reference to a NotificationWindow since we only really cared about the head of the Queue to begin with.
    • Dropped Cancellable usage for async pixbuf scaling. There has not really been a scenario yet where we have not been able to scale an icon within the amount of time before a NotificationWindow is removed.
  • Fix application icons not scaling in Raven’s Notification Group headers.
  • Fix issue with VirtualBox icon not being displayed in IconTaskList applet
  • Fix regression in Budgie Desktop Settings icon handling.
  • MPRIS metadata, playback status, and CanGoPrevious / CanGoNext fetching is now performed immediately rather than being an unnecessary idle operation.
  • Notifications now use a high priority timeout.
  • Notification iconography now uses a consistent IconSize.DIALOG instead of IconSize.INVALID and only scales if the icon provided is not already the desired height.
  • Prevent Budgie Desktop Settings from being pinned via drag-and-drop, fixing an issue where Budgie Desktop Settings was inadvertently pinnable and unable to be unpinned.
  • Sound Indicator applet and Raven
    • Use standard mute/unmute methods, fixing issues like muting with media keys and then trying to unmute via the applet, which would previously not work.
  • System Tray applet
    • Fix issue with KeePass causing panel segfaults.
    • Various stability improvements, such as more proactive X11 error trapping.

GNOME 40 Support

Budgie 10.5.3 introduces support for the GNOME 40 stack. GNOME 40 introduced various changes in Mutter, gsettings-desktop-schemas, and gnome-shell which impacted the ability to use Budgie under a GNOME 40 stack or in conjunction with GDM (GNOME’s login manager which leverages gnome-shell).

When compiled alongside GNOME Settings Daemon 40.x, Budgie will use the migrated font anti-aliasing and hinting options, which were moved from org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.xsettings to org.gnome.desktop.interface . In GNOME Shell and GNOME Settings Daemon 40, there were changes introduced which impacted Budgie’s ability to use dedicated screensavers, such as Solus’ fork of gnome-screensaver (which we have been using since 2017). This fork has now been formally renamed to budgie-screensaver , bumped to v4 , and promoted to a required component of Budgie Desktop, with changes introduced to facilitate Budgie’s continued ability to lock the session and attempt to co-exist in an installation environment alongside GNOME Shell and GDM. As always, we encourage that Budgie be used with lightdm and an optional greeter such as slick-greeter, as opposed to being installed alongside GDM and GNOME Shell.

Quality-of-life Improvements

2021 04 Budgie Desktop Settings

Here are some quality-of-life improvements shipping in Budgie 10.5.3

  • Filter out audacious notifications so they do not clutter up Raven.
  • Hide “Default”, which is typically Adwaita / GTK’s internal theme. We continue to encourage the use of theming that officially supports Budgie, such as Materia and Plata.
  • Mutter and WM preference schema settings are now only applied for Budgie session.
  • Spacing is now configurable in the Status applet.
  • The application fullscreen state tracking has been slightly rewritten to use the window XIDs, only call our track window state function on specific flags in the changed or current state, and reducing instances where some unset flags would not result in the application being removed as a fullscreen application.
  • There is now an option in Budgie and exposed via Budgie Desktop Settings’ “Windows” section to automatically pause notifications when a window is fullscreen and unpause when there no longer is a fullscreen window. This is useful in reducing distractions when gaming or watching content!
  • To improve the default user experience of Budgie on some downstream operating systems such as Arch Linux, Budgie now ships with a default wallpaper, eliminating the need for downstreams to apply supplemental changes or ship a wallpaper package.
  • We will no longer filter device added / removed notifications. This resolves issues where ejection notifications for external media would not get stored in Raven’s Notifications section.
  • When xdotool is available on the operating system, the Lock Keys applet can be clicked to toggle CapsLock and NumLock!

Raspberry Pi

  1. Alpha 1 image available for testing Testing 21.10 - Are you brave enough? - #19 by fossfreedom
  2. Added support for the Compute Module 4 board
  3. Add --force-arm-mode command line option
  4. Add --force-findpi-mode command line option
  5. Add --force-model modelname command line option
  6. Add --model modelname —cpuinfo “CPU String to Match” TBD
  7. Disable buttons and provide hint on Display tab if pibootctl is not found
  8. Disable buttons and provide hint on Overclock tab if no ‘/boot/firmware/config.txt’
  9. Enhanced the various option discoverability by using mouse hover and displaying a hint in a ‘status area’

Themes

  1. Snaps have been produced for QogirBudgie and Pocillo GTK Themes - this means you can now theme snaps that are themable
  1. GTK+4 compatible version of WhiteSur available in Makeovers - backported to 20.04/20.10 & 21.04. Available to install on 21.10
  2. GTK+4 compatible version of QogirBudgie available in Makeovers (now in 21.10 ISO)
  3. GTK+4 compatible version of Arc Theme available in Makeovers (To be uploaded)
  4. GTK+4 compatible version of Vimix Theme available in Makeovers - backported to 21.04 and available to install on 21.10
  5. GTK+4 compatible version of Mojave Theme available in Makeovers - backported to 21.04 and available to install on 21.10
  6. GTK+4 compatible version of Pocillo Theme available - available for testing on the 21.10 ISO Testing the new Pocillo theme
  7. Updated our default Pocillo icon theme with lots of new icons
  8. Updated Whitesur icon theme with lots of new icons

Budgie Welcome

  1. Lots of updated translations from our brilliant translators Log in · Transifex
  2. Welcome snap no longer is updated from end-of-support 18.04. A message is now displayed when running on 16.04/18.04 & unrecognised distros
  3. Welcome has now been uplifted to core20 (focal) which ensures long-term compatibility with future Ubuntu Budgie versions - this ends all support for 16.04/18.04 (32bit) since it cannot be installed on these legacy versions.

Additional

  1. A couple of fixes to budgie-desktop-environment has been made to make budgie more friendly to other desktop environments / remote access that use dash as the default shell.
  2. Nemo Previews now available as a recommended app in Budgie Welcome to allow you to visualise the content of a highlighted file. Just press Space to toggle the viewer in Nemo. Backported to 20.04 & 20.10 as well.
  3. IRC links in Budgie Welcome now point to Libera Chat since the Ubuntu family has ended its association with Freenode.
  4. We have uploaded v0.8.3 of the Drawing application. We’ll be uploading newer versions as they become available up-to the freeze point of the release. Do give it a test to find out any packaging issues.
  5. The UB teams 21.10 wallpapers are now on the daily ISO. Eclectic as always… enjoy!
  6. Right click on a picture via Nemo has a “Set as wallpaper” menu option. This now has a fix to set both the desktop wallpaper and the lock-screen wallpaper at the same time. Previously only the desktop wallpaper was updated.
  7. GNOME 40 and later utilises the same super alt left/right keys combination to change workspaces that we also need for Shuffler to shift windows. For Ubuntu Budgie we use a gsetting override to revert to keybindings to that as used prior to GNOME 40.

Areas to look out for

  1. Kernel 5.13 is now the default in impish - we may yet see kernel 5.14. Do look out for this - remember its the key part of any linux distro so issues need to be reported … not worked around! https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux
  2. Note - from 22.04 Canonical will be enforcing all flavours swap to using the snap version of Firefox. For 21.10 we will default to the debian install. We do encourage all 21.10 users to start using the snap version now and feedback your finding back to Canonical so that 22.04 will be as problem free as possible. Don’t forget you can Pocillo & QogirBudgie theme all compatible snaps as well.
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Hello and welcome. Thanks for helping out!

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Team member Jacob has been a busy bee.

Window Shuffler Control has been redesigned.

Also - there is now a GUI implementation of Window Rules

Window Rules enable you to place application windows to where-ever you want on the screen / monitor when they first open.

Its available through our daily PPA for 20.04 and later

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntubudgie-dev/budgie-extras-daily
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install budgie-window-shuffler
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Nemo Previews can now be installed via Budgie Welcome - Recommendations.

Budgie Welcome has also been uplifted to core20 - this should works as is - so normal usage testing is only required.

IRC links in Budgie Welcome now point to Libera Chat since the Ubuntu family has ended its association with Freenode.

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Shuffler Window rules now allow you to open application windows on specific workspaces

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Budgie Desktop 10.5.3 has now been uploaded into Impish Proposed.

Remember proposed is the staging repo for all sorts of things - and the GNOME 41 transition is underway - so have fun - but beware if enabling proposed and upgrading.

EDIT:

Yeah - definitely steer away from the proposed repo - Changes in the GNOME40 stack break budgie and related apps quite badly.

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v0.7.0 of budgie-indicator-applet has been released. This has a fix (hopefully) for any appindicator that used to display big/huge icons

Needs testing with any and all appindicators to ensure no further display regressions.

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Back for yet another development cycle. :sweat_smile:

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The 21.10 versions of QogirBudgie GTK theme, Pocillo GTK Theme and Pocillo icons are now available in the 21.10 repo.

The themes are GTK+4 compliant … not that there is too many GTK+4 apps yet … but in the future…

So usual good observations and testing needed to ensure compatibility…

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Pleased to offer a nice small applet from a new independent budgie developer

applet

Called CPUTemp - it displays the temperature of a number of sensors.

Lookout for additional options in the applet panel budgie-desktop-settings.

Welcome needs to be updated - but it can be now installed on focal/groovy/hirsute for both intel/amd and raspberry pi

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntubudgie/backports
sudo apt install budgie-cputemp-applet

logout and login and add the CPU Temp applet to your panel

All feedback to upstream GitHub - tarkah/budgie-cputemp-applet: CPU temperature applet for Budgie (especially positive feedback!)

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Mojave-gtk-theme has now been updated - this include GNOME 40 / GTK+4 support.

This has been backported to 21.04 - and a package uploaded for impish.

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Thanks to contributor Akira (AkiraMiyakoda (Akira Miyakoda) · GitHub) budgie-pixel-saver-applet has now received a number of enhancements:

  • Drag - drop to unmaximise
  • Configurable title theming
  • Updates to ensure work with arc-theme
  • Increase configurable title width to 200px
  • Allow right alignment of title

These changes are now available in 20.04/20.10/21.04 & 21.10

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Akira has enhanced the applications-menu applet

Some themes space the category list oddly. We now have a user configurable override (adjust category spacing) in the applet settings allowing you to control the spacing.

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Drag and drop to unmaximize is an unvaluable addition! I’ve been suggesting it for a year already (but have no coding skills). It is now almost on par with Unite (Gnome extension) on user-friendliness.

Fantastic job!

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Good news - all of the GNOME 40 stack has now migrated to the Release pocket.

This includes budgie-desktop 10.5.3. Todays daily ISO will contain all of this.

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Latest stable version with Gtk 4 and GNOME 40 support is now available in impish-proposed

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The app Drawing that is the default mini artist based app on our iso is now at the very latest version 0.8.2

Please do test so that we can catch any packaging issues that we inadvertently made.

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Alpha 1 of our 21.10 raspberry Pi version of Ubuntu Budgie is now available for testing.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/budgie-remix/files/budgie-raspi-21.10/

So this has the very latest budgie arm tweak tool as described in the first post.

It has the very latest budgie desktop v10.5.3, the very latest GNOME 40 stack, latest Pocillo & Qogir Gtk theme.

Currently snaps such as budgie-welcome do not work.

Do give this image a try - early testing allows us to resolves things before the final release.

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The UB teams 21.10 wallpapers have dropped onto the latest ISO

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Enjoy!

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A post was merged into an existing topic: Plans for 21.10