Bugs Nominated to be fixed for Lucid LTS

The following are issues that I am nominating to be fixed in the next stable Long Term Support version of Ubuntu (10.04 - Lucid Lynx). To bring attention to these bugs, feel free to confirm that a bug affects you by clicking on the +affectsmetoo link.

High Priority

Login (GDM) Configuration

Karmic introduces many new things with booting, new but a little incomplete for the taste of ubuntu users. Short boot times are great, xsplash make for nice splash screens, it has definitely acquired some design taste. But at what price? There are currently (in Karmic) 2 options in gdmsetup: Show the login screen or Log in automatically. In the previous release, there were many more configurable options which have been there for years and on which users have relied. The need for this is so urgent that the community has started to develop a graphical utility (using python) to work around the bug.

If you have a missing feature in gdmsetup which you can no longer use in Karmic please confirm that the bug affects you by clicking on the +affectsmetoo link.

• General Bug for gdmsetup (linked to upstream)- gdm 2.26 has no graphical configuration tool +affectsmetoo

Lack of an updated gdmsetup or "Login Screen" configuration utility causes users to have problems accomplishing the following tasks graphically:

• Install/Change the GDM Theme +affectsmetoo

• Turn on remote login (XDMCP) +affectsmetoo *

• Allow TCP logins to Xserver +affectsmetoo *

• Enable multiple logins for a single user +affectsmetoo

• No GUI to configure/disable login sound +affectsmetoo *

• Remove Shutdown/Reboot option form actions menu +affectsmetoo

* Workaround available

devicekit-disks, mount points and partition labels

Whereas HAL used to mount unlabeled disks to /media/disk,disk-1,disk/2, its successor devicekit-disks now mounts them to /media/f5d1d6cf-22d8-4db0-9ae3-816001dd248b/ which is more intimidating to a novice user. In certain circumstances this could be the only way a user can identify a drive. What is not simple on the user is having to use the Disk Utility on an unmounted disk to have to change a label. This should be doable using nautilus, without issues, without needing the user to unmount the disk.

• Unlabeled partitions are mounted under their UUIDs +affectsmetoo

• Feature request: Provide support for changing volume labels in nautilus +affectsmetoo

USB Creator

Karmic has introduced a less stable version of usb-creator. There are many usability and technical issues to be fixed in the upcoming version for Lucid. Given the quality and user experience of usb-creator in Karmic, as well as the increased use of netbooks(computers with no CD drive), it would be beneficial to have usb-creator undergo a proper testing and quality assurance process. This is a vital piece of software for the distribution, so I believe we should test it thoroughly, stabilize it and have it working like clockwork for Lucid.

• USB Creator does not warn or ask user to confirm before formatting disks +affectsmetoo

• Regression: usb-creator stopped using abstracted device for device paths +affectsmetoo

• Error "Unable to mount Filesystem. A job is pending" when inserting drive +affectsmetoo

• Error "DBus error org.gtk.Private.RemoteVolumeMonitor.NotFound: The given volume was not found" when formating +affectsmetoo

• Does not provide UI notification when a partition cannot be unmounted +affectsmetoo

• Standardize the formatting process: reformat fat16 to fat32 before starting +affectsmetoo

• ubuntu-bug and apport-collect should attach .usbcreator.log +affectsmetoo

• Should not re-mount all connected drives on startup +affectsmetoo

Medium Priority

The Clipboard

The clipboard bug has been one with no answer for a long time. Many users, from novice to sysadmin do not get the concept that they have an X paste buffer (select text to copy and middle mouseclick OR R+L Mouse OR shift insert click to paste) and a clipboard buffer provided by the desktop environment. As useful as X paste buffer is, it should be configurable from the desktop to enable/disable it. As mentioned previously, there is the Copy Paste functionality provided by GNOME. Unfortunately this one deletes content in the clipboard when quitting the source program. This means Copy -> Quit -> (Can't Paste).

How to test

1. Copy some text from firefox.
2. Close the firefox
3. Open Text Editor (gedit)
4. Try to paste
5. Result: You cannot paste because clipboard contents were wiped at step 2.

If you have experienced this please confirm that a bug affects you by clicking on the +affectsmetoo link. The GNOME desktop environment deserves a clipboard management daemon capable of copying text and media without this type of issue.

• Copy-Paste doesn't work if the source is closed before the paste +affectsmetoo

Network Manager

The network manager applet works fine on a one user system, but fails miserably in multi user scenarios. Switching to second user does not allow the second user to use nm-applet. Users have a hard time gathering Connection information without ability to use nm-applet. Another usercase is that Admin2 cannot make a change to the network until Admin1 logs out. Resource locking and notification of changes may be needed to resolve this bug. Last I heard, asac and cyphermox were working on the issue.

If you have experienced this please confirm that a bug affects you by clicking on the +affectsmetoo link. The GNOME desktop environment deserves a clipboard management daemon capable of copying text and media without this type of issue.

• nm-applet fails when another user is logged in +affectsmetoo

Low Priority

Update Manager

Starting in Jaunty (Ubuntu 9.04) Update manager stopped using a notification system and just started up, unrequested from the user. This behavior caused a lot of people to turn off updates all together. The bug has been a platform for a large ammount of unconstructive comments. It was marked WONTFIX and even had many comments from sabdfl himself. While some people who understand the importance of updates there are others who do not want applications to start up on their own, intrusively. The proper method to solve this is to go back to the old behavior, but instead of using the old applet, we provide more information on the updates (security/needs reboot) through indicator-applet, which, when the user wants, can open up update-manager. We top it off with a libnotify osd notification of the number of updates, and voila, we have a behavior many users can find acceptable, without going back to the old applet and causing applet congestion. When I asked David Barth about the issue before UDS Karmic, I was told that in Karmic, software sources would present a choice between old and new behavior of notifying and letting the user click to run update-manager. When Karmic came out I followed up with David Barth on the option. Well the option is there, but does not work as it states. In the picture below you will see the "Only notify about available updates" option which currently starts update-manager (this is not a notification). The option was re-assigned to Michael Vogt.

What I'm requesting to happen in Lucid is that the "Only notify about available updates" in software sources to bring up a notify-osd notification and place an item stating the number of packages (linked to update manager) in the indicator applet.

• Update Notifier icon would provide useful status information / new update-manager behaviour is annoying +affectsmetoo

Sound Effects

Since Jaunty, users can no longer customize their sounds. GNOME sound themes are a good idea, but it is badly implemented and documented There are no known utilities or instructions to simply create a sound theme. It has not taken off, and after two releases, we should either create utilities to make sound themes or return to per event sound files. The option that was available to customize sounds is now gone in karmic, leaving many disappointed.

• gnome-volume-control missing ability to customize session sound effects theme +affectsmetoo