Switch desktop mode missing in 9.10 Netbook Remix

[Anton32828]

The "switch desktop mode" application is unavailable in the released version of 9.10 UNR (it was in the beta version). It is unavailable from the application repositories as well. I need to switch desktop modes (back to normal desktop) to evaluate a problem I've found in how Totem interacts with the "places history" in Gnome.

Hardware: HP Mini 110 netbook
Release: 9.10 Netbook Remix

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
CheckboxSubmission: d7ee8f93baf7c60809e0fb87137a8cf1
CheckboxSystem: b845c366ea09c60efa3a45c1b5b21525
Date: Thu Oct 29 19:22:50 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/nautilus
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
Package: nautilus 1:2.28.1-0ubuntu1
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: nautilus
Tags: ubuntu-unr
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686

[WeatherGod (ben-v-root)]

Personally, I had problems with Desktop Switcher in UNR in 9.04. When I tried out 9.10, I still had some trouble with it. I suspect that they finally removed the package?

Can anyone confirm that? Maybe someone can suggest a safe way to get the regular GNOME desktop?

[WeatherGod (ben-v-root)]

Ah, found it. Report #443298 talks about them removing the package because of stability issues. 10.04 will come with the ability to choose a UNR or regular session at the login screen as opposed to doing the switch live.

In the meantime, however, you still need a way to go to the regular desktop mode...

[Anton32828 (djangopaul)]

I just downloaded a new iso in anticipation of wiping UNR off my system and doing a clean install of 9.10 desktop version. I'll probably wait a few days, but I'm running out of patience with the 9.10 UNR interface. There are too many small things that would be easy to ignore if I could just drop into "normal desktop" once in a while to work around them, but I can't.

My HP Mini has an annoyingly non-standard screen resolution of 1024x568, so things like long drop-down menus don't work (scroll) in the UNR interface (but I can get them to work in normal desktop).

[Dylan Taylor (dylanmtaylor)]

I can confirm the issue. It is the same on my freshly installed Ubuntu Karmic 9.10. I really like this feature, and on the Jaunty version, I used it all the time. If it wasn't for the switch desktop mode, I probably would've never tried the netbook remix. Hardware: Asus Eee PC 1000HA

[Taikochu (taikochu)]

This bug is a very important regression in Karmic and there is also little information about desktop-switcher dropping from Karmic. I lost UNR mode when upgrading from jaunty to karmic in desktop mode .

[bostongeek24 (markdymek)]

i for one really miss this feature. i hate the unr interface please please please give us a way to change.

[WeatherGod (ben-v-root)]

bostongeek24, do note that there are very little differences between UNR and the normal Ubuntu installation, besides the interface. If you wish not to use the UNR interface, you may be better off just installing the normal Ubuntu.

In the meantime, I will do some follow-up to find out what is the plan for Karmic with regards to this issue. The last I heard is that Lucid will allow the user to choose the desktop manager at login. Live switching has been completely dropped.

[primefalcon (primefalcon)]

funny I upgraded since I was in normal mode and now I can't get the unr interface back lol, I guess I better not format until 10.04 since I prefer classic most of the time and tended to go unr when on the move

[zoqui (zoqui)]

I would like to try the netbook mode, but after I have updated from a classical mode, I could not found the item in desktop combox selection (at login time)
The netbook visual option is only available for new users.

[Anton32828 (djangopaul)]

I am happy with the UNR desktop for most things. I have two main objections with UNR:

1) No ability to clear document history within the applications. This is a function of the Gnome "Places" menu which isn't available in UNR.

2) Some applications (disk utility palimpsest, system test utility, and others I didn't write down) have pick-lists or data entry fields that assume a larger screen than my HP Mini (1024x576) possesses. I can't switch to desktop mode to see if this resolves the issue for these particular apps.

I could work around these issues if the "Display" application would allow me to set a screen size larger than my physical display (1024x600 or 800x600 would probably work). This is possible in Windows XP by right-clicking on the desktop. XP then creates a "virtual desktop" that slides around as I mouse towards the edges of my physical display. In fact, the HP manual for my netbook describes this as the only way to install certain HP printer drivers on this and similar machines.

Thus far I have not found any Linux FAQ or HowTo to describe this process ---- in fact, most of them warn about knowing the exact hardware specs for your monitor due to the old problem of possibly over-driving CRTs and causing a physical fire in the unit.

Basically, I could live within the UNR interface if I could (1) delete the Gnome file histories maintained for applications ("clear recent file history") and (2) temporarily "expand" my desktop to make sure I can access all drop-down menus, pick lists, and text entry fields for applications that assume a minimum 600-pixel vertical screen resolution.

[WeatherGod (ben-v-root)]

Anton32828, I agree with you about the "Clear Documents" feature. It would be nice to be able to better handle that.

As for the problem with windows that are too big, there is a non-obvious feature that can help. If you hold down "Alt", then you can click and drag anywhere in a window to move it! We need to make this shortcut key more obvious to users.

[Paul Larson (pwlars)]

Anton, thank you for your feedback, however submitting feedback such as this on an unrelated bug is unlikely to get any attention. Please consider filing bugs for these items if there is not a bug for them already. For #2, with application issues, please make sure to tag the bug with "unr-application-res". Thanks!

[Anton32828 (djangopaul)]

Thanks for the "alt key" tip --- I just confirmed it in Evolution <g>.

[Anton32828 (djangopaul)]

Ref: Paul Larson's comment:

I am new to bug reporting. Thanks for the feedback. As the originator of this bug report, I added my subsequent comments mostly as clarification about *why* I want to switch from UNR to standard desktop and back again.

For the "clear file history" problem with UNR, I already filed a Bugzilla report for Totem, since I first noticed the problem within the movie player. As you may imagine, the Totem developer quickly pointed me back to UNR.

[SwaJime (john-swajime)]

Ok ... I've installed karmic on a mini-9 and installed several applications with aptitude ... Somewhere in the mix, I completely lost the desktop ! :-(

All I have is the bar across the top with the date and the username. Right-clicking on the background does nothing.

What do I need to do to get my desktop icons back? I can use ssh to get into a terminal, but I can't find any way to run a terminal from the desktop.

j

[SwaJime (john-swajime)]

Just to be clear ... there are no desktop icons or UNR menu ... just a brown screen with the bar on top. There are no menus available in the bar other than the shutdown and switch user menus.

Any help would be much appreciated :-)

[WeatherGod (ben-v-root)]

Swajime, I don't know if this will get back the UNR desktop back, but you can get the default desktop by renaming the directories .gnome and .gnome2 as .gnome_old and .gnome2_old
Then, log back into your desktop, and gnome will use the built-in defaults to make the .gnome and .gnome2 directories. If everything works as expected, you can then get rid of .gnome_old and .gnome2_old. If not, you can always move those directories back to their original names and log back in to get your (albeit broken) desktop again.

[SwaJime (john-swajime)]

WG,

I don't know why my installation went so horribly wrong ... :-(

I followed your suggestion, and I don't see any difference. I'll try the "new defaults" for a while to see if that fixed any of the other myriad of problems that came up.

To get any desktop at all, I had to use
    gconftool-2 --type bool --set /apps/nautilus/preferences/show_desktop true
* and also *
with gconf, go to /apps/nautilus/desktop and enable all of the "-visible" settings.

I also had to rebuild the gnome-panel. It turned out that there were invisible applets taking up the whole panel, so that the portion of the panel you normally right-click on to add applets was inaccessible. The fix for that was to unlock and then move the broken and invisible "go-home" applet, so that an empty spot on the panel could be accessed.

Now I'm trying to figure out why gnome-screensaver is not running ... and I'm having other annoying errors, like:

   $ gnome-screensaver
   (gnome-screensaver:3246): atk-bridge-WARNING **: AT_SPI_REGISTRY was not started at session startup.
   (gnome-screensaver:3246): atk-bridge-WARNING **: IOR not set.
   (gnome-screensaver:3246): atk-bridge-WARNING **: Could not locate registry
   $ gedit error.odd
   (gedit:3248): atk-bridge-WARNING **: AT_SPI_REGISTRY was not started at session startup.
   (gedit:3248): atk-bridge-WARNING **: IOR not set.
   (gedit:3248): atk-bridge-WARNING **: Could not locate registry

[WeatherGod (ben-v-root)]

Swajime, I accidentally left out a directory. In addition to .gnome/ and .gnome2/, you also want to do the same with .gconf/
That should reset your desktop.

[exactt (giesbert)]

i have the same problem here. my question is: is there also a way to manually get back to the UNR desktop? just like erasing the hidden gnome folders but the other way ´round?

[WeatherGod (ben-v-root)]

Warning: I am certainly not an expert in this topic and my advice should not be taken as definitive in this matter...

It is my understanding that changes in Gnome prevents the ability for live-switching that we have come to expect. Furthermore, it is looking like there are a number of different ways for the settings to be messed up that prevents a simple, sure-fire way to get back UNR desktop. I have inquired about this issue to others a while back and I haven't heard much more about it.

The only way I know of to recover UNR desktop is to create a new user. That user should have the normal UNR desktop. Then, you could transfer your files and most of your settings (like those in .mozilla and such). When happy with the transfer, you can then delete the old account. I would only recommend this for those who know what they are doing, though.

[exactt (giesbert)]

for me the gui got messed through a serious of distro updates. what was missing was the ubuntu-netbook-remix-default-settings package. I installed that one, restored the applets in the top-panel and set the "dust" theme. now everything is fine again.

just wanted to report that my problem is solved...

[leviolson (levi-olson)]

not sure if Anton32828 got this figured out yet but he said, "1) No ability to clear document history within the applications. This is a function of the Gnome "Places" menu which isn't available in UNR."

and I found out a shortcut...

press "Alt + F1" to display a normal drop-down that includes "Places" where you can then "Clear Recent Documents" inside of the "Recent Documents" menu item.

Hope this helps and makes sense...

Levi

[WeatherGod (ben-v-root)]

leviolson,

Neat! Nice to learn something new!