ubuntu is not and will never be desktop ready

[solarbird]

Today, Ubuntu Linux has decided I don’t get to log in to the desktop.

I can log in via a command line just fine. Just, you know, no GUI for me today.

It let me log in a couple of hours ago, but for WHO EVEN KNOWS reasons, I was getting a bunch of XRUNs suddenly, even when I just tried to copy a track internally. (XRUNs are buffer overflows or underflows resulting in lost data.) I think that’s because the software updater decided to restart itself after I disabled it. I even uninstalled it from the command line, but I think there are secretly two of them, one command-line based and one GUI based, because WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!

So I went through in the GUI and disabled that version too (because when it starts, it hits the disk for obvious reasons, and when you’re recording to disk, as I was, that’s bad), and while I was at it made Dropbox not autostart anymore since the first thing I always do is turn it off until I actually need it.

Then I ran apt-get update/apt-get upgrade manually (like I do always) and restarted.

Now, no GUI for me. Oh, it gives me a graphic login, and it looks like it starts to log me in, but then it says “eh, no” and blanks the screen and throws me back to login with a big HA HA FUCK YOU GUESS WHAT YOU GET TO DO TODAY INSTEAD OF WORKING ON MUSIC.

Ubuntu is not and will never be desktop ready. I know I’ve spent a lot of time talking about using Linux and running Ardour, but you know what? Ardour also ships for the Mac, and I am done with this horseshit. I have literally spent more time this last month working on making Ubuntu Linux work again after some new damn explosion than anything I might ever conceivably release, and this isn’t a one-off, Ubuntu just fucking explodes every so often now, and this isn’t worth it.

So, yeah. My job today is fixing this piece of shit OS again. But my other job is: start saving for a studio Mac. This insanity simply isn’t worth it.

eta: Y’know what? Two hours of failed searching later, this is stupid. I have a system partition image from less than a week ago. Maybe it wasn’t the system patches, maybe it was some other damn thing. I’ll restore the boot partition from that and pray it doesn’t happen when I reapply the security updates.

Hey, I don’t have any better ideas. I lose today regardless, so why not?

eta2: Restored previous boot partition, booted up fine, applied the security updates (apt-get update / apt-get upgrade), hosed again. It’s definitely the security updates.

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Comments

[alatefeline]

AAAAAARRRRRGH! I am so sorry. That sucks.

[solarbird]

The lead dev on Ardour has just about convinced me to give AV Linux a go. I have concerns, but it's not Ubuntu-based, so that's helpful, and unlike the move to OS X, I won't have to compile(!) all the plugins I want to keep(!) myself(!) and can just keep using them.

[alatefeline]

Good luck. Since you want to actually use the computer more than you want to tinker with it, not compiling your own plug-ins just to keep using them sounds very much preferable.

[solarbird]

EXACTLY. This summer I have spent more time on making the computer work than making recordings or music with the computer. It's unacceptable.

[alatefeline]

Unacceptable seems like a precise and apt word usage in this circumstance. I wish for you to be able to make lots of music and creative things and have technology be a help rather than a hindrance. Good luck. You're my favorite creator of lesbian supervillian romance/adventure/action songs. :)

[solarbird]

It's a small field. But thank you.

[alatefeline]

:)

[mdlbear]

Usually means that the update broke something you're calling in .bash_profile, .bashrc, or some other session start-up file. Possibly by deleting a program you want to run.

Command line will happily leave you logged in at that point, but stupid lightdm won't. You might find something in .xsession-errors; you can also try ". .bashrc".

One of the reasons I stopped using gnome -- don't even get me started about unity -- was their habit of breaking things when you upgrade.

Every once in a while I go back to ctwm because those damned config files are still working almost a quarter-century after I wrote them.

[solarbird]

Guest login had the same problem, so it's not a specific-to-me userland issue.

Here is what I combined together from what little I knew, and dropped into the Ubuntu official support chat in case someone not there at the time actually cared to investigate the issue. I do not think it will happen, but I can at least say I did it. xsession-errors was distinctly unenlightening, but it is included in this paste:

http://pastebin.com/csdTGe1K

(The people there when I popped in were distinctly uninterested in talking to me at all.)

Unity should be purged from this earth, with all copies buried IN THE SUN.

[mdlbear]

Agree completely about Unity. Mir, too -- not that I've actually used it, but the idea of replacing X with something written at Canonical is just... no.

[angelwolfgeek]

I've never run unity - I've been a long time KDE user, and I've heard nice things about some of the alternate DMs. Unity is all NIH. I run fedora now though since my last job ran centos (which is rock solid, then proceeded to violate the FHS and common sense in ways that would be illegal in quite a few places). I *like* fedora now, other than the time a particular release would random shit itself....

Also IRC support has always sucked. I have a clear and distinct bias towards askubuntu (I moderate at a sibling site - superuser.com), and their forums seem better than meh.

[alatefeline]

>> Every once in a while I go back to ctwm because those damned config files are still working almost a quarter-century after I wrote them. <<

You're a superhero.

[mdlbear]

>> You're a superhero. <<

?!

No, I'm just old, and somewhat set in my ways.

[alatefeline]

You make technology do its thing in sometimes innovative ways and you've been doing it for a long time and are wise at figuring out how to do it. You are extraordinarily kind and well connected. You are creative, giving, and clever. My conclusion is that you're worked your ordinary abilities so long and so well they've leveled up to super-nary levels. Certainly you're not perfect, but you are very very cool. So I will probably continue to give the accolades of good person, good artist, and good technical person to you. If you dislike it, I won't attach the the label I did earlier, but I do admire you and want to give you happy shiny to slightly counterbalance things that are hard, because just in the little time since I've internet-met you you and Mama C have treated me with great kindness.

[mdlbear]

*smiles, tips hat, looks around for cape*

Thanks. I need to remember that when someone gives me a compliment the correct response is "thank you". But it's nice to know exactly what you meant.

[alatefeline]

Your velcro. (For the cape, obviously...)