Start Lubuntu

Dear all,

As promised, I'm just done from setting up a Wiki Page for our huge project and great challenge:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lubuntu/CommunicationsTeam/WOWLubuntu/StartLubuntu

I was waiting for 13.04 to be released.
Now, the successful 13.04 has been released, I'm glad to announce that I'm 100% up, running and ready for this.

Your are more than welcome to join!

Thank you!

Attention, Please :)

Hi,

Now that the release of 13.04 is approaching soon and you will be notified when we will post the announcement :)
There is something important that everyone needs to understand and be aware of.

With each and every release, the same Q is being asked.
"Do I have to Upgrade? or Download the new ISO and Install?"

The real Q must be, IMHO:
Do I really need to upgrade or Download and install the new version?

The answer for this Q is: Read The Release Notes :)

You need to READ The Release Notes in order to tell whether you really 'NEED to CHANGE' (upgrade OR download and install 13.04)? or you do NOT need that?

Hope that will help you to make the right decision ;)

Regards from Lubuntu Communications Team!

Read Also: http://amjjawad.blogspot.com/2013/04/lubuntu-and-very-old-machines.html

Lubuntu 10.04 - Part 1

Note: I'm using Lubuntu 10.04 on my Test Machine - Laptop - ASUS F3F, Intel Due Core, 1.86GHz and 488MB RAM

Hello,
Are you shocked? indeed, the post is labeled "Lubuntu 10.04 - Part 1" and you did read it correctly :D
I have sent this email:

From: Ali Linx (amjjawad) <amjjawad@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 12:30 AM
Subject: Re: [Lubuntu-wiki-docs] End Of Life..
To: "lubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com" <lubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com>, "lubuntu-qa@lists.launchpad.net" <lubuntu-qa@lists.launchpad.net>, Lubuntu Comms <lubuntu-comms@lists.launchpad.net>, "lubuntu-wiki-docs@lists.launchpad.net" <lubuntu-wiki-docs@lists.launchpad.net>, "ubuntu-quality@lists.ubuntu.com" <ubuntu-quality@lists.ubuntu.com>

Hi,

I've been discussing this issue and Lubuntu 12.04 being 100% LTS or not [1] and all the confusion about "will Lubuntu still support my very old machine or not?" for the last two weeks or maybe more.

Long story short, I will jump in and find out myself some if not all the answers that our users are seeking and looking for.

http://phillw.net/isos/lubuntu/lucid/
I'm downloading Lubuntu 10.04 right now from the above link.

I will install it once done on my test machine.
I need to see myself what is going on and the EOL for the 10.04 Desktop version is coming soon, less than a month. That will be really interesting :)
As you know/may know, each release has different Kernel [2]. Some machines can't use 12.04 or 12.10 because the support had been dropped/stopped. So, if you guys have Qs about that, you do now know who is doing the test and experiments.

Thank you!

[1] - http://i46.tinypic.com/i24igz.jpg

[2] - http://amjjawad.blogspot.com/2013/04/lubuntu-and-very-old-machines.html


So what is really going on? the above email should explain that :)

This post is about my first experiment with 10.04 after 3 years from releasing 10.04 :D I really miss 10.04 and for the sake of our Users with really very old hardware that 12.04 is no longer support, I'm writing this :)




This is the Desktop of Lubuntu 10.04 with little bit of change as I find it so hard to see/use when the icons on the LXPanel are small so I always do this after each installation: 

1- Right Click on LXPanel

2- Panel Settings

3- See this:




4- Go to Appearance Tab

5- Choose "System Theme"

6- Done.

I always do that as the first step after installation no matter what release of Lubuntu I'm using :)

Oh, and I added LXTerminal to the LXPanel and Synaptic as well - here is how:
1- Right Click on LXPanel

2- Panel Settings

3- Panel Applets



4- Double Click on "Application Launch Bar"

5- You will see this:



6- From the right side, choose the applications you want to add to your Panel either by selecting and click on "Add" or just double click on it.

7- Close, Close and you are Done.

This is actually the second step I do after I install Lubuntu no matter what release I'm using, specially when I test :)

Sometimes, for my main systems (daily use), I create another Panel and keep my applications there:




Don't freak out, this is Lubuntu 13.04 Beta 2 which is still under development and not yet released as a stable version.

I'm just trying to support my words with visual examples :)


YES, obviously, the Artwork has been improved BIG TIME - Many thanks to our Artwork Team for their great job!


Now, the third step I do (sometimes, this is my very first step) is:

Open LXTerminal and run:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-ger dist-upgrade

You will be surprised how fast apt-get update will finish because 10.04 has less resources than 12.04 for example.

The above 3 steps had been done already. That was 5 days now :D

Today, 15-04-2013, I decided to write this post :)

Now, if this is the fourth step, then we are going to install some useful applications for our daily use.

Honestly, I was surprised when I saw Chromium on the latest version after "sudo apt-get dist-upgrade" the other day - Version 25.0.1364.160 Ubuntu 10.04 (25.0.1364.160-0ubuntu0.10.04.1)

This is really great. 

For me, one browser was never enough for me so I always have another one and by the way, I suggest you do the same no matter what is your favorite browser is, just have two of these ready in case you need one day :) you never know what could go wrong.

Let's install Firefox

You may again be surprised that after "sudo apt-get update", you can install the latest version of Firefox on your Lubuntu 10.04 so no worries here regarding Internet Security, etc. You will be able to use the same version that someone with 13.04 is using ;)

- You can do that from LXTermainl:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install firefox

- You can also do that from Synaptic:

On the search tool, type "firefox" then hit Enter

For me, I find the CLI is much easier to update and install packages but that is me. Synaptic is a very helpful tool. It is just the graphical front end for CLI :D

Usually, after each install, we used to install this package: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/

We used to run:

sudo apt-get install lubuntu-restricted-extras
With Lubuntu 10.04, you can not do that because that package wasn't available back on the days of 10.04 - click here and go to "=== New extras packages ==="

I have done a quick search and found this.

I'm not 100% sure if that is correct because I can't remember what I have done 3 years ago :D

I used to do this.

Anyway, I must check and update my post.

So far, this is the end of Part 1 :)

Thank you!

HOWTO - Heavy Testing

NOTE: I'm not responsible if your machine will show some smoke or stop working for good :P


Hi,

Everyone is busy testing Lubuntu 13.04 Beta 2 to make sure we shall have yet again another successful release. Everyone has his/her own way of test and so do I :)

I'd like to share my experience in testing or my approach in testing. To be more specific, this is a bit of advance testing.

Have you ever wondered what is the real ability of your old machine? what could happen when your Physical RAM is being full used? how to produce a system lack? how to make your system slow? how to push your system to stop responding? how to do a heavy testing?

This is how I do it :)

As you may know, each Lubuntu installation, at least, have two partitions: Root and SWAP. SWAP partition is very important and I advise everyone to use it even if you have large size of RAM. Please read this link.

And as you know, usually, if you have 512MB of Physical RAM, you need to set your SWAP Partition to 1GB. 

What I do for a heavy real test, I turn SWAP OFF and put my system on a real heavy test.

When you turn your SWAP OFF, you won't be able to use anything but the available space that your RAM has. So, if you have 512MB of RAM + 1GB of SWAP, when turning off your SWAP, you will have only 512MB of RAM.

You can see on "gnome-system-monitor" that SWAP is not available. So, you are forcing your machine this way to use nothing but the available RAM.

This way, you can break your system easily, produce slow system, and if you open more application, your system will stop responding for sometime. This is what I call a heavy testing and you need to be aware that this is a bit of advance testing. 


While I was writing this post, I thought to take a Screenshot for one opened tab in Chromium (Version 25.0.1364.160 Ubuntu 13.04 (25.0.1364.160-0ubuntu3) and System Monitor:

41% usage is fine and the system was very much usable and fast. 

If you want to make it a bit worse, start opening more tabs or run Firefox side by side with Chromium :D

I'm going to do that and I really hope I won't see this:

By the way, the above error "He's dead, Jim!" is a well-known issue with Chromium which has nothing to do with what version/release you are using, it is something with Chromium itself. Whenever there is Low RAM system, you need to expect to see this more often.

LOL, indeed, once I ran Firefox, BOOM!

Congratulation, you just produced an error :P
However, this is a well-known issue and every easy to produce ;)

It is really funny that Firefox was on a Blank Page and did not take much but once I ran Firefox, Chromium Crashed.

This is a Screenshot after I closed Firefox:

46.7% with Firefox and He's dead, Jim and 46.3% without Firefox.

Yes, of course one opened tab on Blogger will use MORE RAM that He's dead, Jim error message but I'm just saying, there was no big deal to run Firefox as the RAM Usage did not jump to, for example, 55% :)

Now, you do know how to produce that error for example. Isn't this fun?

If you want to produce a slow system, I would suggest not to use Chromium or at least, open it on the default Home Page and then start Firefox and use more than one opened tab. Or maybe don't use Chromium if that error message is really annoying (for me, I hate to see it).
It is very easy to produce a slow system. 

You can see I minimized Chromium and started Firefox with these 4 tabs and oh yes, a running video on YouTube :D

It took few minutes only and my whole system crashed and dropped to the Login Manager and after I logged in, I got this error message. In fact, my system crashed when I started "gnome-screenshot" to take a screenshot but the screen went totally black with only the pointer of the mouse and BOOM, crashed and dropped to the login manager :D

I did it yet again after I logged in to my desktop:

After I logged in, I started Firefox again and it did restore the 4 tabs all by itself.
Everything was fine and below 55% of used RAM but when I clicked on each tab, it was reloading and when I clicked on the Facebook Tab, the machine started to be so slow and the sound of the HDD was so much obvious and clear :D

I wanted to produce another system crash and indeed, while I was doing a search for a Lubuntu Page on Facebook, the Memory Usage jumped to 68% and again, when I tried to take a screenshot, this time with "scort" the default tool that comes with Lubuntu, it gave me the black screen and crashed. When I logged back in, I couldn't even find the screenshot. So, I'm sorry, couldn't capture the last moment before CRASH! :D

NOTE:
Your system doesn't have to be crashed when RAM Usage will reach 90% for example. As you have seen, it crashed even before 70%. IMHO, this is a nice feature on Linux. Your OS won't push it too hard and if you ask me, this is really smart. Think about it as a sign or warning for you to tell you that: Hey, I can't handle that any longer - do something.


You may think I'm crazy but this is a real fun. This how real test should be :P

I hope that was helpful.
I was always wanted to write such a simple guide but never had time. I'm glad I finally did.

Thank you for reading :)

WOW Lubuntu

Hi,

On 8th of April 2013, WOW Lubuntu has started its first activity and one of the most important and biggest projects ever. This will be a huge project for Lubuntu.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lubuntu/CommunicationsTeam/WOWLubuntu

Say Hello to The Savior :D

Lubuntu & The VERY Old Machines - Part 2

Hi,

Further to the previous post [1], I'd like to highlight a point that I find it very important and valid, IMHO :)

Since my first days with Linux until date, I always find people are so much obsessed about 'Upgrading' their perfectly working systems to the 'newer/next' version/release to what they are currently using. For example, if they are using 12.04, they upgrade to 12.10.

First thing first, you need to understand that 'upgrading' does not necessarily mean something 'good' or 'prefect' or 'better' all the time :) it actually could be 'worse'.

HOW?

Will explain in examples and numbers:

L/ubuntu 12.04 is using Kernel 3.2 series 

L/ubuntu 12.10 is using Kernel 3.5 series 

L/ubuntu 13.04 will be using Kernel 3.8 series 

As explained in my previous post, each version of Linux Kernel has something different than the previous version. We are in 2013 and the rapid growth of the software and the hardware world is crazy and unbelievable. Have you asked yourself for how long my 10+ years old machine will still breathe Linux? for how long you can actually use it? etc. 

Do you see my point and where I'm heading? 


Okay, to make it clear, simple, and direct:

1- If you are upgrading JUST for the sake of upgrading or because you like that, this is different story and I can't discuss that because this is a personal opinion. However, if I were you, I would first of all, read the release notes of the new version carefully before I do anything else. Again, 13.04 does not necessarily mean it is better than 12.04 for example just because 13 is larger than 12 :P 

2- If you are upgrading because your current system have some problems/bugs and you couldn't mange to fix that in 6 months or so, then upgrading could be a valid point. However, you still need to read the release notes :D to make sure the current problems which you currently have, will be fixed with the next release. Otherwise, upgrading is useless if you ask me :) 

3- If you are upgrading because your current system has reached to its EOL[2], then no doubt, this is a very valid point. I guess, needless to repeat, you still need to read the release notes to make sure the next release still support your Hardware. If that is not mentioned, you need to give it a try. Remember, old machines what we are talking about here :D 

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOLUpgrades

4- If you are upgrading JUST because you think your machine may work better or something with the new release then you need to understand that this is not necessarily correct. Yes, again, release notes to understand what is/are the difference(s) between your current working version and the next one. And if I were you, I would test the new release on my machine to see whether it will work better or not. 

IMHO? 

As long as you have a perfectly working system with no issues, etc then I would never think to change that :) 

I still keep 12.04 on my two laptops and I'm not planning to install Lubuntu 13.04 on them. I'm using 13.04 right now for testing purposes :D
Think twice before any step because your machine is old. Treating old stuff is not like treating new ones ;) 

Hope that was a bit helpful :)

As always, thanks for reading!

[1] - http://amjjawad.blogspot.com/2013/04/lubuntu-and-very-old-machines.html 

[2] - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

Lubuntu & The VERY Old Machines - Part 1

Hi,First of all, I'm not a developer and not even close so I will explain as a Lubuntu User :)

I know that starting from 12.04, people started to raise some concerns and sometimes, complaints.
May I explain what is really going on?

As you all know, Lubuntu is based on Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a Linux Distribution after all that is using Linux Kernel.When Linus Torvalds (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds) and probably his team release a new version of Linux Kernel, as you may know, with each newer version, new drivers, etc are being added but on the other hand, some are being removed.

Why do we keep Lubuntu 10.04 on our Wiki Area and Servers so you can download it and using it? simply because the Kernel that is being used there does support some old hardware while the NEW version can not.

Linux Kernel version 3.5 - http://www.pcworld.com/article/2020196/linux-3-8-will-drop-support-for-intel-386-chips.htmlThis is not in our hands.
So, assuming (for example) this Kernel will be with 13.04 or 13.10, we have nothing to do with the fact that this Kernel does not support this or that hardware.

I hope this is clear.That is why, sometimes, two versions of Lubuntu become different sometimes. Like 12.04 and 11.10 when it comes to drivers, etc.

Hope this will help for a better understanding :)

Thank you so much for reading!

To read Part 2, please click here: Part 2

Testing Lubuntu 13.04 - Report 1

This is the testing feedback/notes for Lubuntu 13.04 (raring-desktop-i386)

Test Machine:

Laptop - ASUS F3F, Intel Due Core, 1.86GHz and 488MB RAM

Installation done from Multi-ISO-Booting USB created using "MultiBootUSB".

I will include Screenshots because I believe a picture speaks louder than 1000 words :)

1- Before installation:

2- When installation started:

3- After Installation is done:

Okay, as you can see above, the amount of RAM which has been used. This is just to prove that using the Desktop ISO from LiveUSB doesn't really need big RAM :)

Now, that was the good news.

The BAD news :(

So, I need to contact the QA Team to understand why I'm having this?

Will update this post later ...

Thank you!