18.04 desktop - getting it working again

derWalter

Hey guys

I'm constantly checking back here, to see if I can go for unity8 on my 18.04 machine yet.

Could you please give me an update on if it's apt install unity8 and everything is running to try it out, our would it still need a lot of commandline-work?

greetings
Walter

alan_g

@derwalter there is still work in progress. The logind work hasn't landed in Mir yet, so it isn't integrated in Unity8.

@mariogrip reported last week that he got things work with Wayland.

Bottom line: There's nothing to install yet.

GizmoChicken

@alan_g said in 18.04 desktop - getting it working again:

@derwalter there is still work in progress. The logind work hasn't landed in Mir yet, so it isn't integrated in Unity8.

Looks like this commit will provide logind support in Mir 0.32. True?

alan_g

@gizmochicken No, that's just part of it. But the rest will be along soon.

derWalter

Thanks for the quick reply!

I ll stick around and wait till it works

pixelr0

yay, unity8 is installable again on 18.04
https://github.com/ubports/unity8-desktop-install-tools

after installing use the workarround from this thread or follow the opened issue at https://github.com/ubports/unity8-desktop-install-tools/issues/22

xwayland doesn't work but @mariogrip and the mir people are making progress on it, i think. gtk3 apps sort of work, qt are rendered quite small for my eyes

screencast unity8 on ubuntu 18.04
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PITcJLo0A58

it's recorded with a phone because mirscreencasting didn't work for me
mirscreencast --stdout -m /run/mir_socket -s 1920 1080 --cap-interval 2 | ffmpeg -f rawvideo -pix_fmt bgra -s 1920x1080 -r 30 -i - -c:v libx264 -preset ultrafast -f matroska cast_full.mkv

GizmoChicken

Looks like the Mir team is making progress with the logind tweak.

derWalter

After a few crashes, when opening Dolphin, which dropped me back to a not responding TTY and some reboots, I got it running!

Thing is, I use a Lenovo Twist, which apparently doesn't have a recognized/working screen-rotation-detection and there is no manual way of rotating the screen like in unity7, which I am using right now. Unity7 is just not geared enough towards tablet-style-usage, but will have to do

how does the actual development process of Unity8 go? (If there is a development process)
How many people are contributing, what is being worked on, I would love to get some insights

Greetings and good luck,
I am staying connected

GizmoChicken

More progress has been reported. See "This week in Mir (25th May, 2018)" for details.

advocatux

@gizmochicken Ivan is brilliant, that's for sure, and he's only 15 years old

GizmoChicken

Mir 0.32 release candidate discussed here. Note the logind support is nearly complete.

alan_g

@gizmochicken said in 18.04 desktop - getting it working again:

Mir 0.32 release candidate discussed here. Note the logind support is nearly complete.

The Mir 0.32 release candidate including the logind support is now working fine on 18.04.

Although there is currently a problem (seen on 16.04) that's blocking the release it should have no impact on Unity8.

For the adventurous it would be reasonable to take Ubuntu 18.04 and...

install the Mir from the Release Candidate PPA and Unity8 from UBports;
recompile and install QtMir locally; and,
try logging into a Unity8 desktop session.

(Detailed instructions intentionally omitted to avoid tempting those that don't understand the risks.)

GizmoChicken

For the adventurous it would be reasonable to take Ubuntu 18.04 and...

install the Mir from the Release Candidate PPA and Unity8 from UBports;

recompile and install QtMir locally; and,

try logging into a Unity8 desktop session.

Reportedly, the UBports repo has been updated, and Unity8 can again be installed using the instructions found here.

Unity8 on 18.04 is discussed in Ubuntu Touch Q&A 31 starting at about 61m49s.

LexSwed

Any chances to get unity8 desktop image for installation?

alan_g

@lexswed said in 18.04 desktop - getting it working again:

Any chances to get unity8 desktop image for installation?

Once Unity8 is working well enough, that's a likely goal. But, as there are currently very few active developers, this might take a year or two.

GizmoChicken

After installing Unity8 using the instructions found here, I was able to log into Unity8 from either GDM or LightDM.

I upgraded from Mir 0.32 to Mir 0.32.1 RC4 via ppa:mir-team/rc, and now, I can no longer log into Unity8 from either GDM or LightDM. What’s more, when I merely attempt to log into Unity8 with Mir 0.32.1 RC4 installed, I must reboot my system before I am again able to log into GNOME or Unity7.

@mariogrip and/or @alan_g: Is Unity8 currently installing a modified version of Mir 0.32 rather than upstream Mir 0.32?

If Unity8 is installing a modified version of Mir 0.32, then I would expect Mir 0.32.1 RCs likely not to work, and I’ll stop attempting to test the Mir 0.32.1 RCs for now.

@alan_g: If Unity8 is installing upstream Mir 0.32, shouldn’t the Mir 0.32.1 RCs from ppa:mir-team/rc be expected to work with Unity8? Or am I missing a step?

alan_g

@gizmochicken said in 18.04 desktop - getting it working again:

@alan_g: If Unity8 is installing upstream Mir 0.32, shouldn’t the Mir 0.32.1 RCs from ppa:mir-team/rc be expected to work with Unity8? Or am I missing a step?

I would expect 0.32.1 to be a "drop in" replacement for 0.32.0. (It works that way for egmde.)

We need to understand what is happening, could you leave a message on the 0.32.1 PR? Preferably with informative log messages?

Thanks

GizmoChicken

@alan_g said in 18.04 desktop - getting it working again:

We need to understand what is happening, could you leave a message on the 0.32.1 PR? Preferably with informative log messages?

I posted in this PR for Mir release 0.32.1. I mostly just reiterated what I posted here, but I did add a few minor details regarding my system.

As for posting informative log messages, I’m not sure what to look for, or even where to look. With some guidance, I’d be happy to try. But realistically, the quicker approach would probably be for someone else to confirm what I’m reporting.

Perhaps someone who is also testing Unity8, but who is more technically savvy than me, would be willing to test Unity8 installed as described here along with a Mir 0.32.1 RC installed from ppa:mir-team/rc? Do you know of anyone who fits that description, @pixelr0?

alan_g

@gizmochicken said in 18.04 desktop - getting it working again:

As for posting informative log messages, I’m not sure what to look for, or even where to look. With some guidance, I’d be happy to try.

Thanks for what you done already!

As for guidance, I replied on phone while away from old fashioned computers so couldn't be more specific. I think the following will be helpful:

grep --before 25 --after 75 "mirserver: Starting" /var/log/syslog | tail -n 100

Please check the output for anything personal you don't want to share. (This will probably only capture the user name you try to sign in with but the unexpected can happen.)

I'll try to look myself later, but first need to finish other tests and then set up a suitable test environment.

--- update ---

I found one problem, which I fixed by hacking the launch script:

$ cat `which  lightdm-unity8-session`
...
# {arg} systemctl --user set-environment MIR_SERVER_VT=$XDG_VTNR

After this, I see the following just before Unity8 crashes:

Jul 12 12:12:35 alan-NUC7i3DNKE unity8-session[4469]: [2018-07-12 12:12:35.775889] mirserver: Using software cursor
Jul 12 12:12:35 alan-NUC7i3DNKE unity8-session[4469]: [2018-07-12:12:12:35.776] zero sized software cursor image is invalid

Which is a Unity8 bug I think @mariogrip is aware of.

I'm not sure how either problem was avoided before. Maybe UBports made changes to Mir 0.32.0?

--- update ---

I've checked with @mariogrip - Mir 0.32.0 from the UBports repository is unaltered. I still don't understand how this ever worked.

GizmoChicken

@alan_g said in 18.04 desktop - getting it working again:

I found one problem, which I fixed by hacking the launch script

Just to be sure we're seeing the same problem (which we probably are), I still posted my results in in the PR.

I'm not sure how either problem was avoided before.

Note that, in addition to posting results for Mir 0.32.1 RC4 (installed from ppa:mir-team/rc), I also posted results for Mir 0.32.0 (installed from the UBports repo). Hope that helps.