Unity is a new desktop environment designed for netbooks and touch-screen devices. It includes a new panel as well as a new vertical launcher. Unity is build using technologies from GNOME 3, including the Clutter library and the Mutter window manager.

Ubuntu Light is a version of Ubuntu designed to dual-boot with another operating system, and focused on getting on the web fast. It’s a stripped down Ubuntu (no file management) and uses the simpler Unity desktop. Canonical is offering Ubuntu Light to computer manufacturers only, because it’s intended to be customized for specific computers in order to boot fast.

Here’s a few other bits of information about the next version of Ubuntu:

• Ubuntu Netbook Edition will drop Network Manager for Intel’s Connection Manager because Network Manager does not support indicators. This change will probably be included in the Ubuntu 11.04 desktop.
• GNOME Shell is for desktops (it will be available in Ubuntu 10.10, but not as the default environment), and Unity is for netbooks.
• Client-side window decorations and RGBA (alpha channel) will be added to Ubuntu 10.10 early in development.
• More category indicators (like the messaging indicator) will reduce the number of indicators. A sound indicator will hold indicators for media applications and allow interactions like manipulating playlists.
• Canonical has a professional font foundry working on a new interface font. When it’s ready, there will be a beta program.
• A new icon theme is being worked on, but it will take a while to complete and may not be finished in time for the next Ubuntu.
• Ubuntu 10.10 will be released on October 10, 2010 (that’s 10.10.10).

You can get all the details by watching Mark Shuttleworth’s UDS keynote (thanks to Alan Pope for posting the video).

There’s an official PPA software source from Canonical with a test version of Unity. Here’s how to install it:

1. Open Ubuntu Software Center.
2. Select Edit->Software Sources->Other Software.
3. Click Add, enter ppa:canonical-dx-team/une, and click Add Source.
4. Search for Unity in the Software Center and install it.

To start Unity, log out to return to the login screen. Select your user, select Ubuntu Unity Netbook Edition in the Sessions box, and log in.

At first glance, it looks like you have the normal netbook edition GNOME panel at the top of the screen, but with a Google search box instead of a window list. There’s also a colourful stack of icons on the left hand edge of the screen.

The launcher

The Unity application launcher is a dock. There are some default applications which always appear. Any application that is running will also appear, along with a small indicator that it is running on the left of the icon. The currently focused application also get a indicator on the right side.

Selecting an icon in the launcher causes it to glow while the application loads. Dragging up and down scrolls the list of applications, and dragging an icon out allows it to be repositioned. Right clicking on an icon initiates a scale effect which lets you select from all the windows for that application. There’s no support for minimizing windows.

It’s not easy to access applications which are not in the launcher because there’s no main menu. One item in the launcher is a folder which will show all the installed applications.

The window manager
Unity uses the Mutter window manager from GNOME 3. It’s a compositing window manager and supports some basic animations. At this time the integration between window title bars and the panel has not been implemented. The panel and launcher are run by Mutter, so it won’t be possible to use another window manager like Compiz with Unity. [update] A Compiz developer has Compiz working inside Unity, so this may not be true after all.

The panel

Clicking the Ubuntu logo scales all the windows and lets you select one to switch to it. The search box goes to Google for now, but later it should be used to search your computer. Everything else on the panel is an indicator, which the current exception of the network manager applet. Despite it’s appearance, the panel is not based on GNOME panel, but is drawn by Mutter.

I’m pretty excited about Unity. While the current version is not complete, it does seem to be in a usable state on my netbook so I’ll continue testing it there.

1. You’ll need to edit a PulseAudio configuration file to make the fix. Run the following command in a terminal to open it in the text editor (you will be prompted for your password):
   gksu gedit /etc/pulse/default.pa
2. Find the following line in the file:
   load-module module-udev-detect
3. And change it to this:
   load-module module-udev-detect ignore_dB=1
4. Save and close the editor. Run the following command in a terminal to restart PulseAudio (it restarts when killed):
   killall pulseaudio

This workaround fixes the volume range, but I still can’t get it really quiet. I tried playing with the settings more but couldn’t get a better result. If you want to try the same, be sure to open alsamixer in a terminal so you can watch how the mixer levels are changed by PulseAudio.

There’s a bug report for the issue, but it’s status is “Won’t Fix”. The PulseAudio developers explain that this feature works properly, but depends on mixer controls being named properly. Some drivers don’t do this properly and need to be fixed.

Some of the following keyboard shortcuts will not work at all if Compiz (visual effects) if turned off.

Workspaces

• Ctrl + Alt + Left/Right/Up/Down arrow – move to the workspace in the given direction
• Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Left/Right arrow – move the current window to the workspace in the given direction
• Super + E - “expo” effect, shows all workspaces (move windows with left mouse button, zoom to a workspace with right mouse button)

Window Management

• Super + W – “scale” effect, shows all windows in current workspace (left click selects window, middle click closes window, right click zooms window)
• Super + A – “scale” effect, shows all windows
• Alt + F10 – toggle maximize current window
• Alt + F9 – minimize current window
• Ctrl + Alt + D – toggle show desktop
• Alt + Middle mouse button – resize window
• Alt + Left mouse button – move window
• Alt + Right mouse button – window menu
• Alt + F7 – move current window (without holding down mouse button)
• Alt + F8 – resize current window (without holding down mouse button)
• Alt + Tab – switch windows on current workspace
• Ctrl + Alt + Tab – switch windows on all workspaces

Accessibility

• Super + Mouse wheel scroll – zoom screen
• Super + Middle mouse button – draw rectangle to zoom to
• Super + N – invert colours of current window
• Super + M – invert colours of screen (Compiz is configured for this shortcut, but the messaging indicator seems to have taken it over so it doesn’t work)

Ubuntu Community Documentation has more on keyboard shortcuts (although some of it is outdated now for Ubuntu 10.04). You can view and change some shortcuts using System->Preferences->Keyboard Shortcuts.

Moving everything to the left opens up the space on the right nicely, and I would like to experiment in 10.10 with some innovative options there.

Now it is clear what he was talking about: Shuttleworth has introduced window indicators (“windicators”) on his blog. Window indicators are like the indicator applet on the panel, but live on the right hand side of every window title bar. They would be used to show state for a particular application, and would be interacted with using an API similar to the one used for the indicator applet.

Here are the example window indicators given:

• online/offline status
• unsaved changes
• progress
• “basket” showing items selected for a purpose
• sharing status
• application-specific volume

Shuttleworth also proposes using window indicators and Chrome-inspired temporary status bars to replace traditional status bars. This would save precious vertical screen space on netbook displays. On netbooks, window indicators would also be integrated into the panel like the title bar is in Ubuntu Netbook Edition. Shuttleworth blogged about a global menu bar for netbooks as well.

These changes would be implemented in the next version of Ubuntu, 10.10 “Maverick Meerkat.”

My Thoughts
I’m not convinced that there’s enough benefit in window indicators to justify the problems they would create.

It will be a challenge to get applications to adopt window indicators. Thanks to PulseAudio, it’s easy to show a volume control for every window. But most applications that use sound already have a volume control built in which would have to be patched out for Ubuntu. I can foresee problems with applications such as web browsers which use sound through plugins which show up as separate applications to PulseAudio. But most other window indicators will require even more modifications to applications. If GNOME doesn’t adopt window indicators, then applications will need specific code for Ubuntu and every other distribution.

Currently window title bars are not drawn by the individual applications, but by the window manager or window decorator. Window indicators require applications to interact with their title bars much more. If an application draws it’s own title bar, it’s called “client side window decorations,” which are mentioned in Shuttleworth’s blog post. (Google Chrome has an option to do this in order to draw tabs over the title bar and save screen space.) Giving applications this control could create inconsistent title bars and cause problems for other window managers (just read what Compiz and KWin developers have to say). A better option for implementing window indicators would be to have an API for the application and window manager to communicate over.

Instead of window indicators, I’d like to see something simpler: the menu bar collapsed into a button and moved into this area. Especially in web browsers, there’s been a move away from having a traditional menu bar. Chrome, the Firefox 4 theme mockups, and the latest version of Opera have all moved what used to be the menu bar into different places. Firefox 4 and Opera have added a button to the title bar. Why not standardize on a button in the title bar for the application menu? It would be consistent, reduce clutter on the screen, and save screen space. There are already global menu bar hacks which move the menu bar, so it could be possible to do this without changing applications.

A 64-bit browser can not load 32-bit plugins. On 64-bit systems, this is worked around using a plugin viewer called nspluginwrapper that can load 32-bit plugins. The bug seems to be caused by an interaction between some changes to GTK, nspluginwrapper, and Adobe’s Flash Player. Adobe needs to update their plugin to fix the problem.

I’m using Ubuntu 10.04 64-bit with Flash Player installed from the flashplayer-installer package (via Ubuntu Restricted Extras). The following workarounds worked for me:

Workaround 1: disable desktop effects. Open System->Preferences->Appearance and select the Visual Effects tab. Select None to turn off desktop effects. The issue should be immediately resolved.

Workaround 2: tell GTK to use its old behavior for the Flash Player. If you don’t want to lose desktop effects, this is probably the solution you’re looking for. Press Alt-F2 to open the Run Application dialog and paste the following command:
gksu gedit /usr/lib/nspluginwrapper/i386/linux/npviewer
You will be prompted for your password so you can edit the configuration file. Add this line as the second to last line in the file:
export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1
The file should look like this when you are done:
#!/bin/sh
TARGET_OS=linux
TARGET_ARCH=i386
export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1
. /usr/lib/nspluginwrapper/noarch/npviewer

You will need to refresh the page with Flash content for this fix to take effect.

Both workarounds work on my system in Firefox and Chrome. As a last resort, you can also try installing Adobe’s pre-release (and possibly buggy) Flash Player for 64-bit, but I have not tried this myself.

Note that 3D acceleration is required to run Google Earth.

Method 1: Medibuntu
Medibuntu offers a Google Earth package for Ubuntu 10.04. You can download and install it here. Scroll to the bottom of the page and select your system type (i386/32 bit, amd64/64 bit) to start the download. Double-click on the downloaded package to open the Package Installer, and click Install Package.

Start Google Earth from Applications->Internet->Google Earth.

Method 2: googleearth-package
If the Medibuntu package is out of date or unavailable, you can create your own package with an easy script. The Ubuntu repositories offer a script which can create an easy to install Google Earth package for you.

1. Open Ubuntu Software Center and install googleearth-package.
2. Open Applications->Accessories->Terminal
3. Type the command:
   make-googleearth-package --force
4. Wait for the script to build your package. This could take a minute or two depending on the speed of your computer and your Internet connection. At the end you should see:
   Success!
You can now install the package with e.g. sudo dpkg -i .deb
5. You should now have a Google Earth package waiting in your home folder. Open Places->Home Folder, find the package named googleearth_VERSION_ARCH.deb, double-click to open the Package Installer, and click Install Package.
6. Start Google Earth from Applications->Internet->Google Earth.

If you’re having trouble, check out the Ubuntu Community Documentation on Google Earth. I’ve also written previously about installing Google Earth using the installer from Google.

I’ve been following the development of 10.04 on my netbook, but today I performed a fresh installation on it and my main desktop system. Here are my thoughts so far.

Eee PC 901 Netbook
My netbook has been getting better and better with recent Ubuntu releases. Installation is easy thanks to the Startup Disk Creator tool included in Ubuntu which lets me put the installer on an SD card. All the hardware works perfectly.

I’ve actually been running the development version of Ubuntu 10.04 on this system since alpha 1, so I thought there was a bug when after installing the final release I didn’t get any desktop effects. The desktop effects settings are grayed out. After a bit a digging I found that Compiz was not even installed. I haven’t found any information about this, but it appears that the netbook edition no longer includes desktop effects.

During the alpha releases I was using the full Ubuntu desktop rather than the netbook edition because when I installed the netbook installer was not available yet. The netbook edition is touted as being even faster, so I installed that instead when the final release was available.

I set up my wireless network as usual, but found that Ubuntu would not connect to it when I logged in or woke up from suspend. For some reason the “connect automatically” option was not set. I removed the network and re-added it and the option was set this time.

The netbook boots very quickly; if I look away I’ll miss the boot entirely. The boot splash is hardly necessary on this machine.

Dell Dimension 9200
My desktop system has been working great with Ubuntu for many releases now, and this is no exception. After fixing a hardware issue with my CD drive (the old Ubuntu system wouldn’t recognize blank CDs and I got I/O errors from the live CD, checking the SATA cable fixed it), the installation went smoothly. Everything on the system works. This is the first time I’ve installed 64-bit Ubuntu on this system.

On systems with Nvidia graphics, Ubuntu now defaults to the open source nouveau driver. It provides 2D acceleration and kernel mode setting (flicker-free booting) support, but no 3D acceleration at this time. After installing the Nvidia restricted driver, which lacks kernel mode setting, the boot splash is very low resolution and low colour.

General Notes
I can’t wait until I can remove the notification area entirely and replace it with the indicator applet. The indicator applet allows “scrubbing” between different items, and includes no inconsistent right and left click menus. So far the network manager applet is the only item running that has not been ported, and it still includes different right and left click menus!

It’s nice to have a default theme that I can not only live with, but find to be high quality. Parting with the consistent gray panel icons for another theme would be tough.

I was running Ubuntu 9.10 will PulseAudio disabled for a long time. It fixed a lot of stuff but it broke some Ubuntu things, so I’d rather not have to do that. In 10.04, so far it seems that some problems have been fixed, and some remain.

The new Simple Scan utility is awesome, it’s so much better than what there was before.

This is the first time I’ve used 64-bit Ubuntu. I was reading a while ago that there’s actually a performance advantage to running 64-bit when you can. So far everything seems to just work, including running 32-bit applications.

Some of the first applications I installed:

1. Google Chrome: I install the version from Google so I can keep up with updates from the beta channel. Installing Google’s package will add their repository automatically.
2. GNOME Do: the super-spacebar key combination is in my muscle memory so I can’t live without this application launcher.
3. KeePassX: what I use securely store my passwords.
4. Ubuntu Restricted Extras: the quickest way to install Flash, Java, web fonts, audio/video codecs, and more.
5. rdiff-backup: my backup software of choice. I also remembered to restore my crontab to keep my automated backups going.
6. Gmail Notifier: a Gmail notifier that’s integrated with Ubuntu. It pops up a notification when new mail arrives in my gmail inbox, and lights up the messaging indicator.
7. GIMP: the powerful image editor. Don’t forget you have to install it yourself now that it’s not included.
8. WINE: run the occasional Windows application in Ubuntu. Add the WINE PPA to get new versions as they are released.

I’ll have lots to write about over the next few days as I finish getting set up.

Note: This was tested on Ubuntu 9.10. Previous versions of Ubuntu require different procedures because of changes to the way Ubuntu boots.

Open /etc/init/tty1.conf as root:
sudo nano /etc/init/tty1.conf

Change the last line of this file to (where USERNAME is the username of the user you want to log in):
exec /bin/login -f USERNAME < /dev/tty1 > /dev/tty1 2>&1

Reboot, and the user you chose should be logged in automatically after boot. If something goes wrong, you can switch to a different TTY with CTRL+ALT+F2 and log in normally.

If you want this user to be logged into a graphical environment instead of just a shell, there’s more work to be done. Open your user’s .bashrc file:
nano ~/.bashrc

Add the following to the end of the file:
if [ $(tty) == "/dev/tty1" ]; then
startx
fi

This code will start X (the graphical environment) whenever the user logs in on TTY1. You can add more code after startx that will be executed if the user logs out of X.

I’ve also written a post on sending mail using sSMTP which may be better suited for single user systems.

Install Postfix on your server:
sudo apt-get install postfix

During the installation of Postfix, you will be prompted to choose some settings for Postfix.

1. For “type of mail configuration” select “Satellite system”.
2. For “mail name” type the default domain name to use in outgoing emails.
3. For “relay host”, set blank.

That’s all you need to send email with Postfix. Time to test it out:
sendmail EMAILADDRESS
FROM: FROMADDRESS
SUBJECT: hello world
this is a test email
.


The email will be sent to EMAILADDRESS with a reply address of FROMADDRESS. If this works, PHP’s mail() function should now also work.

For security, you should check that port 25 is still closed so nobody can connect to Postfix. This setup is working for me, but I’m no expert in Postfix or email and it’s possible you could have trouble with some spam filters rejecting mail sent this way without additional configuration.

Docky is a full fledged dock application that makes opening common applications and managing windows easier and quicker. Docky is fully integrated into the GNOME Desktop and features a no non-sense approach to configuration and usage. It just works.

Docky hasn’t hasn’t made any releases yet, but the project has a software source for Ubuntu 9.10. The packages closely follow the current development source code and are mostly untested, so proceed with caution.

To get Docky, add the software source ppa:docky-core/ppa and install the package docky. To do this from a terminal, use the commands below:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:docky-core/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install docky

The Docky wiki has more on installing Docky. Docky will be added under Accessories in the Applications menu.

When you first launch Docky you will get a pretty simple dock on the bottom of your screen. You can drag and drop your application icons to rearrange them, and drag applications from the applications menu to Docky to add them. Pull an icon from Docky out and it will disappear in a puff of smoke.

Click on the blue Docky logo to open the configuration window. While this window is open, you can click and drag to reposition the dock. You can manage multiple docks with the “New Dock” and “Delete Dock” buttons. Click a dock to select and configure it, the current dock will glow blue.

You can choose between themes and hiding modes, as well as change the icon and zoom sizes. Be sure to check out the 3D background mode, which can also be combined with any theme for a different look. Also, the intellihide hiding mode only hides the dock when the current window would be obscured by the dock.

Docky comes with a selection of plugins (also known as docklets). An active plugin can be configured by right mouse clicking on it in the dock. All plugins are confined to the right side of the dock, and can be rearranged in by changing the order in the active plugins list. I’m currently using the the gmail, weather, and clock plugins.

I’m very impressed with Docky, but I’m not sure whether I’m willing to give up GNOME panel yet. Still missing from Docky for me is a plugin compatible with indicator applet, a volume control, a workspace switcher, and a main menu.