eog, gpaste and a few other bugs in openSUSE 13.2

[BJay]

Hi!

Over a week ago I switched to openSUSE and I came across a few bugs. Can't seem to create a bugreport on the Bug Tracker as, at the time of writing, there's no "openSUSE 13.2" selection.

Anyway, here we go... in case someone from the top brass is reading the forums.

- Eye of Gnome (eog):
When I select "Preferences" it opens a very small, empty, "Preferences" window containing no actual content at all. Though it shows the "OK" and "Cancel" button clicking either doesn't close it. It stays there until the main eog window is being closed.

- gpaste:
There seems to be a snafu in the repository. Installing the gpaste shell extension along with its dependencies only leads to a "Not compatible with this shell version" error in "Gnome Tweak Tool". Upon second glance this is no greater surprise as gpaste and related dependencies are for Gnome 3.12 while openSUSE 13.2 ships with Gnome 3.14. Could the repo maintainer be bothered to update the contained software to compatible-with-the-release versions?

- "Screen shield":
I disabled the screen lock ("Privacy" control panel) and set the monitor to go to sleep after 15 minutes. When I wake the monitor it shows me the "screen shield" I have to either pull-up or press "ESC" to make it take a hike. I don't think this is a "feature" ... a desktop PC, at least in my opinion, is not a lousy tablet, and Gnome is clearly not Metrocalypse where something like this would be expected.

- Network Zone:
After installation the NIC is not assigned to any zone, and the installer didn't ask me either. It actually took me about 30 minutes to figure out why I couldn't connect to my network shares on the LAN (the generic "Couldn't connect" error message wasn't helping things either). I don't think that not assigning the NIC to a zone (ask the user during install) is a good idea ... "Joe Average" won't have the patience to sort it out.

- "SuSE Policy: We don't clear temp dirs"
Oh thank you very much for not clearing out /tmp and /var/tmp by default therefore cluttering up my drive, and thank you for not mentioning it either. Also, it's insanely poorly documented on how to actually make the system clean them during boot (stray posts around here in the forum but no word about it in some "official" documentation).

- Fonts look terribly bad
The default "Monospace" font used in gEdit (as well as in Firefox when a site show's monospaced formatted text or Gnome Terminal) is terribly ugly. Too thin, too blocky, hard to read. To be honest, the fonts do look a lot worse than on Ubuntu (from where I converted over).

- "Plymouth" doesn't show on shutdown/reboot
So, it was actually a pleasure to see Plymouth not getting totally messed up upon installing the Nvidia driver (on Ubuntu/Mint it's actually 0xdeadbeef once you install the evil proprietary driver), but it doesn't show up on system shutdown/reboot. When X exits it drops back to the textmode framebuffer console. Not a biggie really, just a visual abomination. Remark: I set grub, through YaST's "Bootloader" config panel, to run at 1920x1080 (native rez of my monitor) because the "splash" look kinda low-res and blurry after I installed the Nvidia driver... in case that could somehow be related to it.

- Package Updater doesn't seem to notify about updates being available
Looking though the "Notifications" settings ... it is allowed to display notifications, yet it didn't notify me about updates being available. Only found out after running "Package Updater" manually as I found it kinda strange that there are no updates.

- Java dependency
I understand that Libre Office's "WikiMedia" plugin (and some other components of it I fail to recall) require Java, though I would rather being able to uninstall them (if only they would be packaged seperately) than have OpenJDK 1.7 _AND_ 1.8 (plus the Browser pluggie) installed by default (especially the browser plug-in). While I need Java for Android compilation I can't care less about Libre Office's components that require Java ... even under the danger of being called out on it, Libre Office is the same piece of c**p as Open Office. I rather write my pamphlets and spreadsheets with Google Docs or Office 365. In short: Take a page out of "Ubuntu install defaults" ... NO Java and NO Java browser plug by default (and Ubuntu also comes with Libre Office by default, but a whole lot better packaged).

That's about it for the time being.

[hendersj]

On Tue, 18 Nov 2014 03:26:01 +0000, BJay wrote:

> Hi!
>
> Over a week ago I switched to openSUSE and I came across a few bugs.
> Can't seem to create a bugreport on the Bug Tracker as, at the time of
> writing, there's no "openSUSE 13.2" selection.

For 13.2:

https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Submitting_bug_reports

Click the "openSUSE 13.2" link on that page to be taken to the bug
submission form.

> Anyway, here we go... in case someone from the top brass is reading the
> forums.

That's not how bugs get reported or addressed. They /need/ to be in
Bugzilla.

A couple of comments on specific issues, though:


> - "Screen shield":
> I disabled the screen lock ("Privacy" control panel) and set the monitor
> to go to sleep after 15 minutes. When I wake the monitor it shows me the
> "screen shield" I have to either pull-up or press "ESC" to make it take
> a hike. I don't think this is a "feature" ... a desktop PC, at least in
> my opinion, is not a lousy tablet, and Gnome is clearly not Metrocalypse
> where something like this would be expected.

Press Enter to clear the shield. I find this useful, myself, as I like
seeing the clock (helps me keep track of my work day).

> - Network Zone:
> After installation the NIC is not assigned to any zone, and the
> installer didn't ask me either. It actually took me about 30 minutes to
> figure out why I couldn't connect to my network shares on the LAN (the
> generic "Couldn't connect" error message wasn't helping things either).
> I don't think that not assigning the NIC to a zone (ask the user during
> install) is a good idea ... "Joe Average" won't have the patience to
> sort it out.

Ask a question in the Networking forum. This isn't really a bug, but a
user education issue - no network zone is required in order for
networking to work properly.

> - "SuSE Policy: We don't clear temp dirs"
> Oh thank you very much for not clearing out /tmp and /var/tmp by default
> therefore cluttering up my drive, and thank you for not mentioning it
> either. Also, it's insanely poorly documented on how to actually make
> the system clean them during boot (stray posts around here in the forum
> but no word about it in some "official" documentation).

Not all programs handle using tmp properly, so the default setting is
conservative so as to not break things that misuse tmp. (That kind of
breakage causes more complaints - while I don't disagree that making the
poorly-behaved programs do things properly is the ideal solution,
sometimes it's not the most practical solution).

> - Fonts look terribly bad The default "Monospace" font used in gEdit (as
> well as in Firefox when a site show's monospaced formatted text or Gnome
> Terminal) is terribly ugly. Too thin, too blocky, hard to read. To be
> honest, the fonts do look a lot worse than on Ubuntu (from where I
> converted over).

This is a licensing issue. Truetype ain't free, and openSUSE is
primarily committed to using *free* software (as in "not burdened by
proprietary technology". Not all distros take that same approach.

> - Package Updater doesn't seem to notify about updates being available
> Looking though the "Notifications" settings ... it is allowed to display
> notifications, yet it didn't notify me about updates being available.
> Only found out after running "Package Updater" manually as I found it
> strange that there are no updates.

Post a separate question about this in the appropriate forum (install/
boot/login is probably the best place).

> - Java dependency I understand that Libre Office's "WikiMedia" plugin
> (and some other components of it I fail to recall) require Java, though
> I would rather being able to uninstall them (if only they would be
> packaged seperately)
> than have OpenJDK 1.7 _AND_ 1.8 (plus the Browser pluggie) installed by
> default (especially the browser plug-in). While I need Java for Android
> compilation I can't care less about Libre Office's components that
> require Java ... even under the danger of being called out on it, Libre
> Office is the same piece of **** as Open Office. I rather write my
> pamphlets and spreadsheets with Google Docs or Office 365. In short:
> Take a page out of "Ubuntu install defaults" ... NO Java and NO Java
> browser plug by default (and Ubuntu also comes with Libre Office by
> default, but a whole lot better packaged).

First: Language. If you want help, be polite and don't swear in your
posts. This is a family-friendly forum environment.

Second: Again, picking the option that helps users the most is usually
the way to go with something like this. While I'm sure you don't care
about Libre Office's Java requirements, that's not the way this
installation is configured.

If you don't like LibreOffice or OpenOffice, just uninstall it.

Collecting a number of different issues into one massive post isn't the
way to get help here - take each issue and start separate threads on them
in the appropriate forums. That way, people with the right expertise are
able to help you.

Aggregating multiple issues like this doesn't facilitate helping you with
them, and it doesn't facilitate making the issues easy to find. That's
why we have different sub-forums for different topics.

Thanks,

Jim




--
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

[BJay]

For 13.2:

https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Submitting_bug_reports

Click the "openSUSE 13.2" link on that page to be taken to the bug
submission form.

Oh, there it hides. Thank you very much for the pointer.

That's not how bugs get reported or addressed. They /need/ to be in Bugzilla.

Will report them there now that you pointed me into the right direction.

A couple of comments on specific issues, though:

Press Enter to clear the shield. I find this useful, myself, as I like seeing the clock (helps me keep track of my work day).

Pressing ESCape also works to make the screen shield go away, though I still stand my point that my desktop PC is not an Android/WinMo/iOS tablet therefore not needing a lock screen. Pressing an extra key is just one more thing that's in the way (and at which "modern" user interfaces have become very efficient ... getting in the way of a workflow, that is).

As for "keeping track of the time of day": I don't know of your workflow Sir, but I think the clock in the gnome-panel (is it still called that way?) is sufficient. For good measure I tend to wear a clock on my wrist and have my smartphone as a backup where the time is also being displayed right there on the lock screen.

Ask a question in the Networking forum. This isn't really a bug, but a user education issue - no network zone is required in order for networking to work properly.

Not necessary, I found out about needing to put the NIC into a zone - though I would say that what you call "a matter of user education" is rather "a lack of documentation / user guidance". But I think this depends on ones viewpoint.

Not all programs handle using tmp properly, so the default setting is conservative so as to not break things that misuse tmp. (That kind of
breakage causes more complaints - while I don't disagree that making the poorly-behaved programs do things properly is the ideal solution, sometimes it's not the most practical solution).

Well, Debian/Mint/Ubuntu all clear the temp directories at shutdown because they are "tmpfs", so there's no clutter inside of them. Even SuSE Linux up to 8.0, which was the last version I used in a long time before this one, cleared the temps at the convenience of setting a config option in YaST. But okay... just because I never had a problem with "cleared out temp dirs" doesn't mean that there's not a certain likelihood that some poorly coded program may crash-and-burn because it expected to find some file from a previous run inside the temp directories.

Still, it could be documented about how to "enable" the option.

This is a licensing issue. Truetype ain't free, and openSUSE is primarily committed to using *free* software (as in "not burdened by proprietary technology". Not all distros take that same approach.

Oh, you misunderstood me. I wasn't talking about non-free fonts, I was talking about the default "Monospace" font that comes pre-installed with each and every Linux distribution - if memory serves me right "Monospace" is even a part, and a dependency, of the X-server since the dawn of time.

What I meant is:
Open a text file (any file you fancy) in gEdit (given you're running with Gnome 3 as your desktop interface) and compare the quailty of the font rendering to Debian, Mint, Ubuntu, Arch, Fedora... take your pick. The font rendering looks an order of magnitude better on the "others" (at least on the same level as in, for example, Notepad / Notepad++ on Windows).

Open the terminal and compare the quality of the text rendering to one of the others mentioned before. Should be obvious that it looks better on the "others".

Open Firefox, jump into some mailinglist where you have lots of "monospace" formatted messages to look at (i.e. LKML, which is always fun to read). Again, you will notice a great difference.

I tried playing around with the font settings in Gnome Tweak Tool (Smoothing / Subpixel) and just can't make it look good. Even "Source Code Pro" (free font from Adobe, installed through "Font Viewer" in the user context) looks kinda sad and edgy on openSUSE in gEdit/Terminal/Firefox/...

As much as "proprietary fonts" are concerned... I have my set of fonts which I tend to install in $HOME/share/fonts.

First: Language. If you want help, be polite and don't swear in your posts. This is a family-friendly forum environment.

I'll happily follow your advise good Sire, though the word that got censored there is not that uncommonly used in "PG13" TV programming (the only series I watched in a long time that circumvented the evil four-letter c-word was Warehouse 13 where they used the hilarious "for crying out loud" set phrase) or other TV series intended for an ever younger audience.

Second: Again, picking the option that helps users the most is usually the way to go with something like this. While I'm sure you don't care
about Libre Office's Java requirements, that's not the way this installation is configured.

If you don't like LibreOffice or OpenOffice, just uninstall it.

And that's exactly what I did once I discovered, after yet another "happy hour" spent on Google, how to make YaST to not keep on re-installing it all over again.

Though I'd like to defend my point that it's not a good choice from a security standpoint - Adobe Flash is already bad enough, having the Java pluggie just adds insecurity (even if Firefox is set to "Ask" before activating it).

Anyway, I'll report the "eog" bug and will otherwise be a good user and sort things out myself ... I've "only" 19 years of Linux experience, so chances should be pretty good I even manage to slap this one into the shape and form I want it to be...

[nrickert]

Pressing ESCape also works to make the screen shield go away, though I still stand my point that my desktop PC is not an Android/WinMo/iOS tablet therefore not needing a lock screen.

You can turn off the locking. I normally use KDE rather than Gnome, so I can't tell you how to turn it off. But I had no difficulty finding that when I first logged into Gnome. The screen-saver/clock still kicks in, but hitting ENTER gets me back to work -- no passwork required.

As to whether it is needed -- some people use desktops that are in a semi-public space, and appreciate the locking. I turn it off, because my computer is in a sufficiently secure location.

In any case, the place to complain is with the Gnome developers, not with opensuse. Or use a different desktop environment. The KDE default is to blank the screen but not lock it (though you can turn on locking), and to show the screen again after a mouse movement or any keyboard activity (including just SHIFT).

Not necessary, I found out about needing to put the NIC into a zone - though I would say that what you call "a matter of user education" is rather "a lack of documentation / user guidance". But I think this depends on ones viewpoint.

No, it does not depend on viewpoint. It depends on how one is using the system.

The zones are part of the firewall setup. By default, the firewall works for all interfaces. You only need to put interfaces in zones if you want to have the firewall behave differently for different zones.

Well, Debian/Mint/Ubuntu all clear the temp directories at shutdown because they are "tmpfs", so there's no clutter inside of them.

It is not too hard to make "/tmp" use "tmpfs" on opensuse.

Even SuSE Linux up to 8.0, which was the last version I used in a long time before this one, cleared the temps at the convenience of setting a config option in YaST.

So the default was still to not clear them. You had to take a step to have them automatically cleared. That's the way it still is -- you have to take a step.

Still, it could be documented about how to "enable" the option.

man tmpfiles.d

Oh, you misunderstood me. I wasn't talking about non-free fonts, I was talking about the default "Monospace" font that comes pre-installed with each and every Linux distribution - if memory serves me right "Monospace" is even a part, and a dependency, of the X-server since the dawn of time.

You can install additional fonts.

I have Mint KDE installed on one of my boxes. My main contact with monospace is in "xterm" or "konsole". And, to me, that looks better on opensuse than on Mint 17 KDE.

And that's exactly what I did once I discovered, after yet another "happy hour" spent on Google, how to make YaST to not keep on re-installing it all over again.

That's actually a recent change. Even in opensuse 13.1, if you uninstalled a package it would not be automatically installed again. Apparently that caused occasional problems. But the new policy also causes problems for users and you are not the first to complain.

[malcolmlewis]

Pressing ESCape also works to make the screen shield go away, though I still stand my point that my desktop PC is not an Android/WinMo/iOS tablet therefore not needing a lock screen. Pressing an extra key is just one more thing that's in the way (and at which "modern" user interfaces have become very efficient ... getting in the way of a workflow, that is).

Hi
Have you tried https://extensions.gnome.org/extensi...screen-shield/ you will probably have to edit the metadata.json to add 3.14 restart the shell (alt+F2+r) and see how that goes.