This decision was not made lightly. After several months using Ubuntu 24.04, I was happy with the system. I was even using GNOME after using KDE Plasma for most of the last few years, because I liked Ubuntu's default experience on that desktop environment and found it better than the default one.

What happened

What I didn't like, though, was that it started to log me out of GNOME randomly.

When it first happened, I thought it could be an issue with an extension, but I checked the system logs nonetheless. They were useful for confirming that this was an issue somewhere in GNOME, but not for pointing to an extension as the culprit.

Then, it happened again. And again. Always at random times. Even on a clean account.

Trying to mitigate it

After a few days of searching the web for similar reports, I found a bug report for Ubuntu about an issue in, I believe, GNOME Shell. This issue had been fixed in more recent versions of the desktop environment than the one shipped in Ubuntu 24.04, but it appeared that there were no plans to backport it to the existing LTS. Luckily, the bug report included a mitigation I could apply to my system.

I tried the mitigation (adding something in /etc/profile). For a few days, it felt like the issue was gone, and I could use my computer without getting on my nerves.

Task failed successfully

Then, it happened again. And again. Always at random times.

This started to get me a bit angry. Then, it happened while I was working. I was using a web platform with autosave, so the work wasn't lost, but I lost my train of thought and had to start almost from scratch.

This made me mad! I couldn't afford to have this happen again while working. If it happens when I'm gaming or browsing the web, it's annoying, but I can live with it if it happens seldomly. However, during the few paid work chances I get, it can't happen.

But it did happen one more time.

root@computer:~# whereis replacement

I decided I had to find a replacement.

Returning to Arch was one of my options. Installing Void, a distro I quite enjoyed a few years back, was another alternative. I also considered Debian, Fedora, Alpine, and a couple more.

One of those “couple more” was OpenSUSE, specifically the Tumbleweed branch/edition or whatever the correct naming convention is. I had used OpenSUSE for a bit several years ago (somewhere between 15 to 20 years ago, if my memory isn't failing me again), and it offered a bleeding-edge approach like Arch. It is also a distribution developed and maintained in Europe, at least for the most part, which helped, given the current state of the US with nutjobs in power.

All in on green

So, on the day after my 42nd birthday, I backed up all the data I needed, and I replaced Ubuntu 24.04 with OpenSUSE Tumbleweed.

I admit I did little reading about the tools the distribution offers, like the package manager and YaST. Or that a pattern you install and then uninstall with zypper will be installed again when you update your system. If it was removed, it has no business being installed again, and I shouldn't have to create a lock on that pattern to prevent that behavior. This makes no sense to me as a user.

I did take a look at their docs, but they pale in comparison to the Arch Wiki. OpenSUSE could actually learn a few things from Arch in this regard to improve their documentation, in my opinion.

A mostly smooth sail (so far)

Of course, this hasn't been a perfect experience.

The day after installing the distro, I installed profile-sync-daemon, a tool that copies your browser profile into RAM while you're using it and lets you set up a sync interval with the filesystem, so it doesn't batter the SSD or NVMe so much. I believe I also installed some updates after that, and then rebooted.

The system booted fine, and I was able to log in to Plasma. Then, no matter what application I tried to launch, it would show an error and wouldn't open. It took me a bit to remember that this tool fills the user's tmpfs if you have the default 20% for the RuntimeDirectorySize in systemd's logind.conf.

Even with 12 GB of RAM and 12 GB of SWAP, this happens.

I bumped the value to 30%, just to be super safe, rebooted, and voilà, I could open applications again.

I think this was the only major issue.

I also had an issue with a kernel update that wouldn't boot, but I had the previous kernel version still installed, so it didn't matter all that much.

Additionally, some tools I use aren't available in the repos, but it's just a few, and that's easily fixable by compiling them. Given that most of these tools are written in Go, it's easier to deal with dependencies.

Let's see if I'll revisit my decision of using OpenSUSE Tumbleweed in a few months.

#Ubuntu #OpenSUSE #Linux #SystemD #GNOME #KDE

I've been using Ubuntu daily for a few months. I was a bit afraid of having some major issue and having to try another distro before thinking about returning to Arch, but the balance is positive so far.

I admit there have been a few things that've annoyed me. Then again, I've had that on any OS I've used, so... yeah, computers... At least they're not printers, right?! 👀

✔️ The positives

I find the default GNOME experience on Ubuntu to be good. Back in the day, I enjoyed the hell out of Unity, and having a similar experience is nice. Of course, we're talking about GNOME here; extensions are necessary, but I didn't install that many, and some were only to improve the interface's bling (I like pretty things 🤷).

It's also nice to have a free tier for the Ubuntu Pro program. If, for whatever reason, I decide to stick with this version, I'll have 10 years of security updates (at the time of writing). The specifics are on the link above, so don't forget to check it out to know more about them.

When it comes to regular home users, Pro's free tier can be a nice thing to have. This way, they can slowly prepare the migration to a newer LTS and still stay reasonably secure. Well, to be honest, also because they don't tend to like changes, and keeping a stable environment for some time reduces the stress of computing for them.

This, of course, is also beneficial for self-hosters, for example. But it might not be for you, and that's fair, too. 🍻

Snaps have also improved quite a lot. You may find the occasional exception, but they have become quite performant compared to just a few years ago. Even the Steam snap has improved; however, it can take a little bit more time to launch than the native package when you have a lot of games installed and/or they take up a lot of disk space.

Another plus for the Steam snap is being able to change Mesa versions. There might be some games that require more recent versions than the included one, so this is a nice feature to have.

❌ The negatives

There's an issue with the Steam snap, where right-clicking on something to show a menu and then clicking on a menu entry just closes the menu and doesn't perform the action. This one can be annoying as hell sometimes! 💢

I do miss having some utilities I use already packaged or from a trusted enough source on the AUR, but I compiled them from source, and I keep tabs on new updates occasionally.

It's also a shame there is no official gamescope package, and you're left compiling it from source. I do think there are a few issues with that on the 24.04 LTS version, but I'm just remembering this as I type, so I might be misremembering.

I was also having the best KDE experience I've had in ~20 years with Plasma 6.x on Arch, but it's not packaged for Ubuntu 24.04. One time, I tried using a repo from Kubuntu or something, but I ended up borking the package and dependency lists, and couldn't remove the upgraded packages. 💀 I ended up reinstalling, which was faster than spending a day debugging dependency issues and force-installing some packages manually.

I had forgotten how PPAs can be a headache if you just YOLO it. 😅

👋 Conclusion

At least for now, I'm sticking with the latest stable LTS. When I switched, my goal was to have a system that doesn't change much over time and, in doing so, doesn't bother me every day to install a ton of updates. I also wanted something more reliable. While the verdict is yet to be reached on the latter, it has been reached on the former — most days, I only have flatpak updates.

I'll stick with Ubuntu LTS for a few more months, so I can safely say if it is what I'm looking for or if I need to find another distribution. Although I think I'll probably stick to it until the next LTS — unless I have a major issue with it —and then reevaluate it.

#Ubuntu #Linux #Arch #KDE #GNOME #Steam #Gaming #LinuxGaming #DesktopLinux

How to list all the installed versions

LANG=C snap list --all | awk '/disabled/{print $1, $3}'

How to remove all the old versions in a batch

LANG=C snap list --all | awk '/disabled/{print $1, $3}' |
    while read SnapName revision; do
        sudo snap remove "$SnapName" --revision="$revision"
    done

This can save you some disk space, but it can become a headache if you don't make sure the new snap package version is working well. Also, don't forget to read the fine manual.

#Linux #Ubuntu #Snap #Tips

A few days ago, I switched from Arch Linux to Ubuntu. I've been thinking about starting to use a distro more focused on stability and less on having the latest everything. Ubuntu was already the operating system my wife and my father were using, mainly due to the Ubunto Pro free tier, so I decided to go with it, too, and make my life easier when giving them support.

Surprisingly, the default Ubuntu experience improved a lot since I last used it. When was it? Ten years ago? More? I can't recall, but I know it was a long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, and I remember using Unity. I miss Unity. I did install some extensions for GNOME, changed the typeface, used my own .fonts.conf, and a few other configurations, installed and built some utilities I had used on Arch for more than five years, and that was it.

The only issue I've had is using the Steam snap package and running games installed via Heroic Games Launcher's flatpak package, with shortcuts for them added to Steam. The confinement rules set for this snap don't let it use a lot of stuff outside of it, so I can't use the same setup I had on Arch.

I could install Steam with the --classic flag, which disables the confinement. However, if I'm using Snap for isolation, I might as well take advantage of it. I could also use the deb provided by Steam, but I want to stay close to the default as much as possible so I don't have to deal with as many potential issues.

There's also the possibility of installing Steam via Flapak. I might do it eventually. But now, I want to use the Snap package and send some reports to the team. If you want to submit them, too, take a look at the Testing page at the repo's wiki, and read the instructions on how to submit carefully.

After thinking about this for a day, I remembered there's this application called Cartridges, that serves as a main hub for your gaming clients. Steam and Heroic are both supported, but for it to see the Snap package, you need to change the Steam path to /home/USER/snap/steam/common/.steam/steam. (don't forget to change USER to your username)

While this is not ideal, because I have to have another package installed, it fixes it for me. My main game hub is now Cartridges.

For custom Proton forks, like Proton-GE, ProtonUp-QT supports the Steam snap package out-of-the-box.

You can also use different Mesa environments with the package. The repo's wiki has all the instructions. Shoutout to Diogo for mentioning this to me and for giving me a few tips that helped make the transition to this distribution easier.

#Linux #Ubuntu #GamingOnLinux