Linux Intermezzo: Buggy Indeed, But Win10 Is Worse
Some time ago I said to myself that I should definitely switch to Linux. Returning from Win7 to Win10 in the times of a pathetic 2004 (but which Windows update isn’t buggy like hell?) isn’t particularly tempting. The other day, I tried some more Linux distros. Well, Linux is still Linux.
Initially, I thought I was set to Linux Mint 19.3 XFCE because it worked, I liked it, it’s based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (20.04 LTS was in beta back then), and it’s familiar–I’ve been using both Mint and Ubuntu in the past. For some reason, I keep getting back to XFCE or lighter desktop environments, to avoid being torn between MATE and Cinnamon. (GNOME3 isn’t usable. At all. I just tried Ubuntu 20.04, the standard edition, and if anyone believes this shit is supposed to bring people from Windows or macOS to a system that has ZERO usability at the desktop environment level, well, they’re on illegal drugs. The only times when the default Ubuntu DE made sense was in the times of GNOME2, i.e. from versions 4.10 to 10.10.) Oh, and I tested KDE Plasma 5, the so-called “KDE neon User Edition Live”: still ugly, buggy, and unpersuasive. I suppose it can appeal to people who are so forgetful (and forgiving) so to leave behind the enormously long and grotesque failure that has been KDE4 since January 2008; KDE5 or rather Plasma5 was released in the summer of 2014, but only became really usable with 5.16 in the summer of 2019. I can’t imagine anything worse than that, except for GNOME3.
When I previously tested Mint 19.3 XFCE, and I was satisfied that everything worked just fine, I also tested Xubuntu 19.10 and the beta versions of Xubuntu 20.04 and Lubuntu 20.04. My only complaint was that in all those distros, the headphone jack wasn’t detected, and inserting of headphones didn’t have any effect. That’s progress, the Linux way. (More generically, the software update/upgrade way: with new features that nobody asked for, usually regressions occur.)
Well, guess what? By applying the updates to Mint 19.3 XFCE, this distro (nominally still based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, but with backports, e.g. it features XFCE 4.14 instead of 4.12.4) got contaminated with the new bug!
I remember now why I stopped using Linux Mint years ago: it was also about a bug that shouldn’t have been there, but Clem wanted a newer version of some package (newer than in Ubuntu), and this caused a regression. I don’t remember what was it about, maybe about hibernation, or something hardware-related anyway (i.e. not going to happen in a virtual machine). Well, what’s the purpose of basing your distro on a long-time supported release, which was supposed to involve STABILITY, if careless updates break the said stability by introducing new bugs?
To be fair, I didn’t try Xubuntu 18.04 LTS with the latest updates–maybe the bug got there too (spoiler: it did!). Anyway, Xubuntu 20.04 LTS is unappealing:
Enter Peppermint OS 10, the latest so-called Respin (Peppermint 10-20191210-amd64). I was reluctant about it, for several reasons, one of which being that a peppermint candy or lollipop is supposed to include some green in it; just red and white don’t make it a peppermint. Well, then also because it has been said to be “too colorful” and based on Lubuntu (before the switch to LXQt)…
To my surprise, Peppermint OS 10 is actually good. The hybrid LXDE/XFCE desktop environment actually tends a lot towards XFCE (panels, menu, etc.), with a number of peculiar choices though:
- Nemo instead of Thunar (XFCE) or PcManFm (LXDE)–although it’s a good choice when it comes to usability and features
- xed for a file editor (Mint XFCE doesn’t use Mousepad either, and Leafpad is too dumb, and FeatherPad is Qt5…)
- Online office and games (I know this is a hallmark of Peppermint OS, but I find it useless)
- Software and Software Manager (beyond synaptic), which is a sort of a duplication (and I’d prefer the latter)
- too dark and red by default (Arc-Default-Dark, Arc-Red-Xfwm4), but better themes available (Peppermint-10-*)
Gallery not found.
And… the headphones were detected!
That is, until I updated the system. Then it borked:
So I had to investigate what is that it caused the bug to happen.
As expected, this is the update that magically breaks the headphones jack:
This kind of bug plagued Linux, or at least Ubuntu, for years, but different people–depending on the hardware–had it at different times. Some had it in Ubuntu 12.04, some in 16.04, some in 18.04 (but not with the initial release). In my case, 18.04 was fine, but from 19.10 on, this is no more the case. My hardware:
"HDA-Intel" "Intel Broadwell HDMI" "HDA:80862808,80860101,00100000" "0x1025" "0x0924" "HDA-Intel" "Realtek ALC282" "HDA:10ec0282,10250924,00100003" "0x1025" "0x0924"
Now, about the fix. The pulseaudio update did change /etc/pulse/default.pa, but reverting to the original wouldn’t help. Here’s what worked:
• As superuser, add this line to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf:
options snd-hda-intel dmic_detect=0
• Also, add this line to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf:
blacklist snd_soc_skl
• Then, to avoid a logoff/logon (or, God forbid, a reboot), run these two lines as the normal user (the first one might be useless):
pulseaudio -k
pulseaudio -D
Now it should again detect the inserting of the headphones:
I tested it with Peppermint OS 10 with updated packages and Linux Mint 19.3 XFCE with updated packages. I couldn’t be bothered to see whether Xubuntu 20.04 can be helped this way.
I also wasn’t able to identify where in the road from pulseaudio 1:11.1-1ubuntu7.2 to 1:11.1-1ubuntu7.7 something bad happened; but now I see that upstream (bionic-updates) the most recent version is 1:11.1-1ubuntu7.8, which I haven’t been offered. Is any new breakage in sight? The changelog frighteningly mentions some work in the headphones jack area in 7.8; also, 7.7 was a security update, so it had to go down to all the distros based on *buntu.
Does it mean Peppermint OS 10 is my new choice? Probably yes, although, one more time, mint is never red. Not even after having enjoyed some in the above variant.
Why not Linux Mint XFCE? After all, it wasn’t their fault this time. And they’re working on Mint 20, based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. Well, yes, but their artwork is looking so bland, gray and dusty! I can see Clem is praising their system tray icons, which I find ugly. Business-like as it might look, Mint never was sexy. Suppose I change the XFCE theme to a more satisfactory one; however, I am left with this stupid Samsung-like Firefox icon:
I don’t have to decide right now. What I know so far is that, alas, even in a LTS distro (or a derivative), I’d have to fix their stupid bugs every once in a while. But with so many Win10 horror stories, this is a piece of cake by comparison (unless you update the kernel).
Other contenders? Say… Manjaro? I once liked it and used it for quite some time. It wasn’t bad, but I still prefer something more familiar than Arch. Besides, what a waste of time for Manjaro and Solus to get involved in the Budgie desktop! (Yup, I didn’t like it.)
Speaking of “familiar”: the RPM-based world (Fedora, openSUSE, Mageia, etc.) is too buggy and virtually dead. Yum and YumEx were not perfect, but they worked, albeit on the slower side; DNF is the crappiest shit I’ve ever seen, and it’s here to stay (more like GNOME3 or Plasma5).
What else have I tried lately? Elementary OS 5.1, praised by some as “the best macOS replacement,” “perfection: macOS feel and function without big Apple looking over my shoulder,” or “the Linux desktop done right” feels so clumsy that I wonder which of the following is true: either the reviewers are dumb, or macOS is for people who don’t do much on their systems. Is moving windows, minimizing windows, switching between windows–especially those of a same app–similarly painful under macOS? Either way, decorative crap is still crap. Finally, while Geary is an interesting mail client, it was terribly buggy (UI-wise) under Elementary OS. Too bad, and case closed.
Linux Lite 4.8 (I didn’t test 5.0) was OK, but unimpressive. Solus 4.1 was stupid and ugly. From the Ubuntu family, I already hinted that Ubuntu and Kubuntu don’t exist for me, and Xubuntu is ugly with the default theme. Lubuntu isn’t bad-looking, but not enticing either.
OK, the final argument, in FORBES: Here’s Why Blazing Fast Linux OS Peppermint 10 Just Blew Me Away. The guy is a bit confused about how much of LXDE and how much of XFCE were on his desktop, but he was thrilled by the result: snappy and low on resources. And he isn’t a newbie–he’s the Linux for Everyone guy!
A last word: I never test a distro in a virtual machine. It’s like fucking an inflatable puppet with a condom.
> “I still prefer something more familiar than Arch.”
Well, Manjaro is not Arch :
“A note about Manjaro and Arch
Manjaro is based on another distribution called Arch Linux. As such, it is also able to draw software packages from the community maintained Arch User Repository (AUR). However, please note that Manjaro is not Arch, and any enquiries about the Manjaro operating system should be directed towards the Manjaro forums and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channels alone. For example, although Ubuntu is derived from Debian – and therefore shares some similarities with its parent – there are still substantial differences between these operating systems and how they work. Such is the case with Manjaro, which is far from just being an “easy to install” or “pre-configured” Arch operating system. Here are some of the key differences between the Manjaro and Arch operating systems:
• Manjaro is developed independently from Arch, and by a completely different team.
• Manjaro is designed to be accessible to newcomers, while Arch is aimed at experienced users.
• Manjaro draws software from its own independent repositories. These repositories also contain software packages not provided by Arch.
• Manjaro provides its own distribution-specific tools such as the Manjaro Hardware Detection (MHWD) utility, and the Manjaro Settings Manager (MSM).
• Manjaro has numerous subtle differences in how it works when compared to Arch.
To reiterate, although Manjaro is indeed an Arch-derivative, it is not Arch!”
(Manjaro User Guide)
Manjaro is not Arch.
Ubuntu is not Debian.
Mint is not Ubuntu.
Peppermint is not Ubuntu.
OK, so what? Manjaro is not Arch, but the problem is this: Manjaro’s own core, extra, community and multilib repos are different from Arch’s, despite sharing the same name; and yet, Manjaro can also use Arch’s AUR is someone needs a piece of software that’s missing in Manjaro. Can you imagine the possible dependency breakages?
I believe I have read that nowadays Manjaro does not recommend the use of AUR. I used it, but for few things (for Google Chrome for example).
They shouldn’t recommend it, yet they don’t discourage its use either:
The guide itself is more cautionary though:
As I’d need software that’s not commonly available, I prefer distros with a larger user base and more packages (even via PPAs) than Manjaro (without AUR).
MX Linux seem to be trending as far as XFCE desktops go.
Yeah, but I’m not such a huge fan of it.
What’s wrong with it?
Nothing is wrong, but it doesn’t have anything to entice me to use it. Oh, well, the distro’s icon (logo?) is ugly and I don’t even know what it represents. Generally, it’s a bit unattractive.
As I didn’t make my mind yet, some side notes based on Dedoimedo’s opinions (a smart, yet peculiar guy).
He was unfair with Peppermint last March in Peppermint 10 – Too spicy for my desktop. Knowing that he always finds some fault with a distro or another, and yet he might rate such distros 8/10 (heck, he even rates 8/10 Manjaro 19 Kyria Gnome, although he’s not a big fan of GNOME3, he’s “not sure what that Caffeine thing is meant to do” and it has some bugs and “oddities”), only giving 6/10 to Peppermint seems unexplainable. The review doesn’t actually count “way too many visual glitches and oddities” (as he concludes), and the sharpest observation is a grammatical one: “Wrong use of plural – SSB’s. Should be SSB or SSBs. This spikes my blood pressure to 2,885 mm Hg.” At least, we agree on this topic. But then… “It’s got some rather amazing points, but it’s also rather precariously built, and any change from the baseline ruins the whole deal. On the bright side, you get reasonable connectivity on all fronts, network, media and phone, the installation is simple, and there are a lot of goodies available, even if the default set of apps is slim. Speed, another killer feature.”
Of course, you cannot beat someone’s like of KDE Plasma: Kubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa – Purrs like a bear: 8.5/10. Maybe I should try it too, but it’s ugly like shit by my taste. One can however make the Plasma desktop look like a Mac, should they want to.
As for Xubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa, which is also bland, Dedoimedo thinks low of it: 5/10. Indeed, it’s a failure per se.
Ubuntu MATE 20.04 Focal Fossa? 6.5/10: “It’s an LTS, and yet, you get application crashes, inconsistent behavior, some fresh new and weird errors I’ve not seen before.”
But I’m not sure I always trust Dedoimedo’s taste. For instance, he tested OnlyOffice Desktop Editors 5.5.1, which is an abomination even under Windows, but he couldn’t be bothered to try SoftMaker’s FreeOffice (for Linux).
At least, no matter what the RPM fans are saying, Fedora 32 Workstation is a complete failure: “No ability to create new files in the file manager via right-click, no window min/max buttons.” “If I wanted to depress myself, I could just watch the news.” “The font contrast is just horrible on the eyes.” “Behold, Firefox without titlebar – where the min/max buttons ought to be, or at least the right-click option to invoke these two functions. Hence, in Fedora 32, and we’ve seen this in previous versions, you simply cannot minimize the browser by normal means.” (Because Gnome 3.36.) Installation: bugs galore, etc. etc. “Sometimes, often, more frequently than ever before, I wonder why I bother. I refuse to be inefficient. Time is valuable. Why do I spend it doing un-fun stuff when I could be doing nice and productive things? Maybe it’s time to stop Linuxing. ‘Twas a great ride and all that, but I kept getting dragged back to 2005, and I simply don’t want that.”
And I’m not sure I want to try Manjaro again. I just don’t feel like.
But also : “If you want to Red Hat, you could try the rather nifty CentOS 8 instead. If you don’t care, there are more viable options out there.”
So… CentOS 8 ? 😉
CentOS is dead. I already said that Red Hat is dead, right? Not just Fedora. GNOME2 sucks, and they screwed the RPM tools (when they replaced yum with dnf).
Have you decided on a distro yet?
Dedoimedo probably hasn’t heard of it if he hasn’t tested it.
Not yet, but I suppose I’ll boycott Mint 20. One of the reasons I don’t comment ANYTHING, ANYWHERE (except on Twitter, but almost nobody cares of what I think, so I post rather rarely) ANYMORE is that, with all due respect, most people are stupid and they cannot stand politically incorrect comments.
I tried to comment on the Linux Mint Blog, to rhY’s comment here, and my comment got deleted instead of being approved (even with my moderation-hash, I couldn’t see anymore my comment that was awaiting moderation). Here’s my comment that didn’t pass Clem’s censorship rules:
Unrelated to Clem: it looks like pulseaudio 13.99.1-1ubuntu3.3 broke someone’s audio.
Well, Ubuntu 20.04 seems to be a mess right now.
If there’s something to learn from Mint, is that a system backup solution should be used regularly, although not necessarily TimeShift. Maybe Déjà Dup, or I dunno what.
This comment about Linux Mint 20 made my day:
Have you tried PopOS? Got some colleagues quite impressed with it.
It’s based on Ubuntu which I dislike, but ymmv.
Personally I am on Fedora 32 + MATE, I’ve been distro hopping a couple of months back to see what’s out there, but returned to RedHat’s universe, maybe age and familiarity got the best of me… I’m itching to try Slack now. 🙂
The yum/dnf change, in practice doesn’t affect me at all. I open the terminal, run yum update, yum search, yum provides, everything just works. Don’t care about yumex, hardly ever used a GUI for software installation.
I know what PopOS is, but it’s still Ubuntu. I once wanted to try it, but I don’t remember why I didn’t do it.
But I loved YumEx, so I feel betrayed!
Yes, but ruling out a distro just because Yumex is missing… it’s a bit of heavy-handed.
I found Fedora to be the most “it just works” from what I tried.
BTW plugging in my headphones switched sound output to them automatically and the headphones port got their own mixer settings (ie the loud speakers could be muted while the headphones work fine).
Of course it’s not for that reason alone. It’s because Red Hat took so many questionable decisions and changes of direction that I simply don’t trust them anymore.
Fedora too, even when Max Spevack was still their leader.
There is no RPM-based distro I trust nowadays. Obviously, not for a server, but for a laptop.
What if I try with my hardware (still, Intel HDA) and the headphones are not detected?
BTW, there was one hardware design that didn’t need support in the software, but nobody uses it anymore:
Dedoimedo reviews Fedora 32 (GNOME 3.36):
Of course, there is the KDE spin. But who’s the main sponsor of this failure called GNOME3? Let’s ask Wikipedia:
Worse than Fedora? Only openSUSE, I guess (but they default to KDE).
Let’s add some “Fedora’s principles on open source software” bullshit from a review of Fedora 32 KDE Spin:
This is 2020, for fuck’s sake. Fedora principles, my arse. Oh, “GTK is not tied to a commercial entity”; I suppose Fedora is in no way tied to Red Hat Inc. And pigs fly low these days, ’cause it’s rather rainy here.
I just inserted a USB stick with pop-os_20.04_amd64_intel_11.iso. It started with GNOME3 (directly in the installer, which I had to quit), which made the whole thing totally unusable. I’m not stupid enough to be able to use GNOME3, so fuck you, GNOME, fuck you, Red Hat, and fuck you, Ubuntu, fuck you, Pop OS!. GNOME3 should be forbidden by law, it’s genocidal.
Fortunately, it would not detect the headphones, so case closed, USB stick reformatted.