Lubuntu 22.04: Almost perfect

 Keywords: "Lubuntu 22.04 review"
Other than sluggish responses to password-inputs during booting, a bug (probably already fixed by some upgrade) which hinders the opening of encrypted flash-drives which are plugged in after the system is booted, and a slow first Firefox Snap launch during each session (although after loading, it's amazing), Lubuntu 22.04 quickly became one of my favorites, along with MX-Linux XFCE (and KDE), Ubuntu Mate, and Kubuntu (I'm partial to Debian/APT-based distros, due to APT-offline). (MX-Linux with the LXQT desktop would be a great combination.) Lubuntu 22.10, which will have a more mature version of the LXQT desktop environment, will undoubtedly be fantastic. You can install LXQT 1.1 (the latest as of this writing), but it's from a PPA, not the Ubuntu repository. I've read that it's excellent, however.

Lubuntu 22.04's selection of software is probably the most functional I've seen, without a lot of niche apps. For example, I almost always install Disks (gnome-disk-utility) when I create an installation, but Lubuntu includes the KDE Partition Manager, which does everything that Disks does. It also includes the Muon package manager, which is a lot like Synaptic, and a software-sources-management app like Software & Updates (i.e. software-properties-gtk) in addition to the Discover app-store.

The file manager, PCManFM-Qt is a sort of combination of Thunar and Dolphin, and is powerful and easy to use. It can be configured to open files and folders with one click, and has a button to open a tab as a root instance, although the administrative password is still required.

Lubuntu 22.04 includes Noble Notes, which is very functional although somewhat cumbersome compared to desktop-notes apps and widgets. I believe I read that an LXQT notes-widget is in the works - hopefully it will be like XFCE's notes-widget.

To add an app to a panel, you would just drag its icon from the main menu to a "Quick Launch" widget/area in the panel.

I had a "package cannot be authenticated" problem when trying to install software after performing an update via APT-offline, but I performed it again (60MB download each time using APT-offline, and 30MB when using a direct connection, which is small for a package-index update compared to most I've seen lately), and the problem went away. I'm not sure exactly what caused the problem, but I suspect that the first time, I didn't give the APT-offline get-op (a specialized download/screening process) sufficient time to write the package-index files from DRAM (apparently used as a transit point to maximize the download-rate) to the flash-drive installation which I had designated as the storage-location, because for one thing after installing those package index files, there was no InRelease file among the resulting packages lists, although there was an InRelease file among the package lists after installing the 2nd batch of package-index files. (It didn't occur to me to compare the two sets of package-index files themselves until after I had deleted the first set.)

The installer (Calamares) apparently couldn't create an installation on a flash drive which already contained an installation (perhaps as a safety measure), so I had to format the drives which I decided to use for Lubuntu installations before I could perform an installation on them with this installer. I prefer Kingston USB3 Datatravelers (a 32GB is probably optimal) because the installation-process isn't glacial, the resulting installation is sufficiently responsive, and the KDT-USB3 drives which I've used run cool compared to most USB3 drives I've tried.

Lubuntu 22.04 is definitely a worthy member of the Ubuntu family, although you might want to wait for the next point-release if you don't want to perform an upgrade to get rid of some bugs, or if you want a more mature version of the desktop without installing it from a PPA. However, you might have to get 22.10 for the upgraded desktop.

My impressions of Ubuntu 22.04

Screenshot of my MX-Linux 21 XFCE installation

 

Based on the lavish praise heaped upon Ubuntu 22.04, I gave it a shot, and found that it's actually quite disappointing, starting with the 3.4GB displacement of the ISO. It doesn't even do a very good job of opening files in response to clicking on their icons, which is one of the most basic functions. I had to install quite a few apps to compensate for the poor functionality of of the ones included by default, and just installing APT-offline (not the GUI) required a download of something on the order of 10 MB, as I recall, whereas with MX-Linux XFCE, I just had to install a couple of small packages. The highly-touted workspace-overview struck me as a gimmick designed just to be different, rather than functional, because it's essentially as easy to use multiple workspaces in XFCE - there's a workspace-switcher widget which has an icon in the panel which provides a thumbnail of each workspace. It doesn't even have a desktop-notes app or widget, although Feather Notes is excellent and requires only a 750 kb download to install it. I previously used Ubuntu Mate, and I still use Kubuntu on my desktop-PC, and both of them are great, although I still prefer MX-Linux XFCE. The KDE version is also excellent, although each package-index update requires a download of approximately 120 MB, and the file manager, without add-ons, is a toy compared to Thunar.

So, I did a search for articles by others with a similar perspective on Gnome, the desktop used (with modifications) by Ubuntu, and eventually found one entitled GNOME Linux — A Complete Disaster?, based on versions up to 41, by someone who develops other Linux distributions. It supports the complaints of a former Ubuntu-developer, who claims that Canonical no longer cares about Ubuntu desktop.

My current favorite is MX-Linux 21 XFCE, partly because the file manager (Thunar) is powerful and easy to use, and MX-Linux includes MX Tools, including the apparently-unique Snapshot tool which allows installations to be turned into ISOs. This allowed me to turn my installation into a live installation, which I put on a cool-running 4GB USB2 drive and run on my air-gap PC (a $200 Gigabyte Brix, which consumes very little energy and has plenty of power for my purposes), and when I shut it down, the installation doesn't retain any session-data. Since I use the original installation for nothing but tweaking the installation and making new ISOs, I didn't have to worry about power consumption and put it on a Sandisk Ultra Luxe USB3 drive which has a fast write-speed but runs hot, indicating high power consumption. I can also connect it to the internet to make changes, with confidence that no hacker can access any data on it. With other Debian-types of Linux, I would have to use the original installation as my working-installation, and I would use APT-offline to make changes to it (including upgrading the OS itself) to avoid connecting it to the internet.

MX-Linux installer tries to put bootloader on live source-installation by default

When installing MX-Linux, pay close attention to the designation for the drive on which the installation is to be placed, so that when you get to the point in the installation-process where you're given a choice of drive on which to install the bootloader, you'll make the right choice. In my experience, the installer tries to put the bootloader on the live installation used for booting the PC, so if you don't change this setting, the installation process will fail, and near the end, after perhaps 70 minutes (on a slow but cool-running drive such as a Kingston USB3 Datatraveler).

I've experimented with the MX Snapshot (an MX Tool) in MX-Linux, by using it to create ISOs from encrypted "full" flash-drive installations, and live installations from the ISOs. Then I used one of the live installations to boot another PC, and to create another encrypted "full" flash drive installation. So, the MX Snapshot tool is extremely useful. Anyone who has spent a long time getting an installation tweaked to their liking can appreciate the ability to quickly and easily create back-up copies and re-create the original installation.

There's a lot to like about MX-Linux XFCE

When I first started using MX-Linux, I was leaning toward the KDE version, until I got fed up with Dolphin, the KDE file manager, due to its lack of access to such things as system directories. I disliked some aspects of MX-Linux XFCE, until I realized that all I needed was to change some settings. For example, it has an optional panel which can be placed anywhere on the screen in a vertical or horizontal orientation (although it works better in horizontal mode), so that I was able to put all of the controls centered at the top of the screen, along with a "LCD" clock which is highly visible regardless of which wallpaper I select, whereas the default desktop-clock's minutes-digits blend in with dark backgrounds and can't be seen very well. There doesn't appear to be any way to change its color scheme.

MX-X is set up by default to mount flash drives and open a file-browser window for each partition, or to open a window for entering the password for encrypted partitions, which I don't like. Fortunately, it turns out that there are file-manager options which allow you to plug in a bunch of flash drives, and then open a file browser window and mount and view each partition at your convenience, without a lot of windows popping up all over the place at inconvenient times.

Another advantage is that it's easy to install APT-offline on MX-21 (all flavors) it without an internet connection, even though the package manager is locked on any new installation, including live installations, until the package index is updated. All it needs is APT-offline and python3-magic, based on the APT-offline page on the Debian Packages site, and on Distrowatch, which lists all packages installed by default on essentially every type of Linux. You would just go to the Debian Packages site, download APT-offline and python3-magic, calculate the checksums of your copies and compare them to the reference values on the Debian Packages site. (Besides checking the ISO's checksum before using it, these are the most important checksums to check, because if APT-offline is corrupted, it might allow malware to be installed on your system. So, I recommend using the SHA256 checksum, or the MD5 sum and the file size.) APT-offline can download the package-index files (75-80MB for the XFCE version, and 120MB for the KDE version) into a folder so that they can be installed on multiple installations (such as to start over from scratch while experimenting with it) without having to download them each time. To install the same software modules/packages on multiple systems over time, you need to install the package index which was originally used for installing the software. But I gather that at some point, the package index will become too outdated to install, so you'd need to download a fresh copy and perhaps some new software-module revisions specified by the new package index.

But the frosting on the cake is MX Snapshot, which allows you to make an ISO out of your full installation, with all of the added software and settings. I used Snapshot to make a few ISOs, and it works very well, and I used the MX Live USB Maker to create a nonpersistent live flash-drive installation which I run on my air-gap PC. It's secure because when it's shut down, it retains no session-data (I save everything on separate flash drives with EXT4 and LUKS partitions). If the full installation from which I made the ISO ever stops working, I can just create a new full installation from the ISO, so that I can tweak the installation and generate a new ISO if I like.

So anyone who's considering getting into Linux, or who's shopping around for a new type of Linux, should give MX-Linux a shot. It's one of the most popular types of Linux for good reason.

Sandisk Ultra Luxe USB-3 FD for Linux installations

Rev 2/26/22 (see Notes)

I finally got around to buying a small metal 64GB USB-3 flash drive from Sandisk (Ultra Luxe) to use for Linux installations, and found that it works very well. The installation-process went extremely quickly (I'd say less than 10 minutes, although I didn't time it), and the resulting installation runs without a hitch and has fast response.  Although I can't guarantee that every one is as fast, I'll buy a Sandisk Ultra Luxe the next time I need a flash drive for this purpose.

The Sandisk Ultra-FIT (stubby) is good if you plan on leaving the drive plugged in, because it has a plastic connector-shroud, which I've worn out as a result of plugging and unplugging it frequently. (The bottom of the shroud came off.) However, it still worked even with part of the shroud missing, although caps required tape to keep them in place. 

 

Notes

Rev 2/26/22 - Deleted reference to 64GB Verbatim Metal Executive because it died after using it for a couple of times. So, the disappointing performance which I obtained from it while it was working might not be typical.

A couple of decent desktop backgrounds

Although my sky-snapshots usually end up being disappointing, I couldn't resist taking these, and have found them to be excellent as desktop backgrounds. So, I decided to post the photos and my 16:9 cropped versions, in case anyone else wants to try them.

Click on the image of interest below for the high-res version.

 

 

Revised APT-Offline A-Z

I revised the introductory sections (up to "> Set-operation details") of APT-offline A-Z, to clarify and otherwise enhance them. I was frankly disgusted that there was still so much bad writing. Naturally it's better, but I've learned to avoid predicting whether it will need more revisions. At least the introductory section, which is the key to putting the rest into perspective, is fairly good at this point.