Contributor Taku

It happened to me twice that I installed Ubuntu on an external USB hard drive, ie all the essential partitions (/, /usr, /var, /home, /boot, etc.) are situated on sda / sdb.

When setting up partitions manually, the installer does not detect that the installation will be done on a secondary disk.

As a consequence, grub is installed on the external drive (which is not necessarily a problem) BUT the MBR of the computer is overwritten. And then it is impossible to boot up the computer without the portable drive.

The time that is spent to fix this problem is sometimes huge.

I performed two installations.
First time, I already had Linux installed on my computer, on the main hard disk. So I just launched grub --batch, and set it up for (hd0).
Second time, I had only Windows installed on my computer but wanted to install Ubuntu on that hard disk. The MBR has been changed and that computer issued the famous GRUB error at boot time. I had to download FreeDOS and run an MBR fixing command to restore my computer to its original state.

I am not the only one to have experienced that problem. If you please could curb it, I would be delighted.

Canonical should hire at least one full-time developer for X.org and GNOME.

X Server 1.4.1 was delayed by 212 days. X is used by pretty much every distribution, and not only Linux also other operating systems, so it is a very important package. We need the bugs fixed, such as EDID. We need new features such as input hotness, XKB 2, Xi 2 and MPX, etc.

Zenwalk Linux have a Xorg developer, we should have at least one too.

GNOME is also one of the most important packages in Ubuntu, and we should have a developer for it too, so we can make Ubuntu more powerful, functional and friendly.

Every time I install Ubuntu, the first thing I have to modify is the font rendering. I use the "sudo dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig-config" command for that.

The Ubuntu system would be more enhanced if it had more sofisticated fonts with a nice contrast.

Every operational system has an unique "look and feel" thing... Ubuntu must acquire its.

Create and include a 'Speakers and sound' graphical configuration tool that would be able to configure the system soundcards and speaker settings (from simple stereo to surround 5.1, 7.1)

Currently it is very difficult to setup and control access to shared folders without editing conf files and reading detailed instructions on all the variables. I propose that sharing (specifically Samba) be given a well worked GUI and some real TLC to bring it up to standard with the experience on Windows or OS X.

For example, by default a share should be accessible as Read Only by anyone on the network without a username or password (guest access). While guest access should be turned on by default, it should also be easy to turn it off, and if desired to give guests read/write access to the folder.

You should also be able to specify local users who will have read/write access, and these local users should sync with smb users invisibly (ie: the user doesn't need to know that there are two password databases being used).

I propose the Properties window for a folder should contain a Sharing tab with all the options available to choose. I also propose a Shared Folders option in the Preferences menu should list the currently shared folders along with their settings, and provide a button to take you into the dialogue where you can set the options.

Pidgin is a good program to chat on all protocols, but a webcam plugin is still missing.
The developers aren't decided to code webcam support, but having this in Pidgin is very needed.

Or why not code this plugin for emesene? But you can only use the MSN protocol at the moment!

Brainstorm should offer support to marking an idea as a duplicate of another and delete the one with the lowest score or merge them.

There is a wide community of online artists capable of creating brilliant, unique artwork.

heading: Get your artwork on 10 million desktops

Ubuntu, the world's most popular Linux distribution, needs a new theme. The winner will appear in the default desktop of Ubuntu 8.10.

We're looking for original wallpapers, that match Ubuntu's color palette. You entry should also include a suggested combination of application, icon, and window themes. These can be existing themes, or your own original works - you only need to submit a wallpaper to win.

Work must be CC licensed, and be openable in either Inkscape or Gimp (rest of criteria continues)

Submit your works to DeviantArt and include the words [Ubuntu810].


Good luck!

More support for more wireless chipsets out of the box and "Windows style" ease of set up.

I have spent may a day trying to configure wireless cards on Ubuntu, often without much luck!

Please also deliver more support for what they are both wireless PCI cards and USB, as it is currently very low base of drivers for such devices

Change start page of Brainstorm to show latest ideas or something, else people will probably push for the already high-graded ideas and won't care of other newer ideas.

Maybe a page with random ideas?

And remove the grades if not specifically requested, since it will affect peoples voting.

I'm bored with dual-screen on GNU/Linux, it really has to have a graphic configuration, and better features.
I would like to move windows from a screen to another, but when I maximize I need it to be in a single screen.

Update: Xrandr GUI blog post by Bryce Harrington

In many cases, I can't configure my webcam or I have problems with the microphone. Now I can use my webcam but only with V4L2 and only 3 programas detect my webcam. It's a good idea can use my webcam in all programs as camorama.

Bluetooth support is still a mixed bag in ubuntu. Ubuntu needs to do a better job of making sure bluetooth devices work with the operating system. Headsets are still an arcane science and Nautilus still can't browse a BT device.

First of all: What is the difference between Preferences and Administration? For example: why do I see 'Encryption and Keyrings' in Preferences and 'Keyring Manager' in Administration? What is the difference between 'Default Printer' and 'Printing'? Why do I have to disable the Tracker under Sessions and not under Search and Indexing? And why are these menu's so large? I have 24 items in Preferences (they don't even fit on my screen!) and 18 items in Administration. To put all this stuff in a popup menu is bad interface design imho. Besides, the number of option should be much smaller. A few suggestions:

- Merge 'Screensaver', 'Screen Resolution' and 'Screens and Graphics'.
- Merge 'Network', 'Network Proxy' and 'Network Tools'.
- Merge 'Update Manager, Synaptic Package Manager, Software Sources'.
- Merge 'Encryption and Keyrings', 'Authorizations', 'Keyring Manager'.


Below are all settings I can visit via the System menu. This is just way too much.


-- Preferences --
Universal Access
About Me
Appearance
Bluetooth
Default Printer
Encryption and Keyrings
Keyboard
Keyboard Shortcuts
Main Menu
Mouse
Network Proxy
PalmOS Devices (I don't have one)
Power Management

[....]

Ubuntu needs to go green. Powertop, Lesswatts and other tools have finally hit the Linux scene to pave the way for better power management. It needs to be said, "if you want your battery to last longest, or have your energy bill be the lowest, you better use Ubuntu Linux."

I guess everybody has experienced the rather long boot up times in Ubuntu (particularly with laptops). I know they are already working on it, but the change from feisty to gutsy was a pain in the ass in terms of boot up speed.
A default WinXP installation beats Ubuntu's boot up time by far!! That shouldn't be allowed fellas!!

I therefore propose to the development team (both Ubuntu and by extension Gnome)to work on the improvement of boot up times in Ubuntu systems.

Allow users to log into Ubuntu Forums and other Ubuntu sites (such as ubuntu brainstorm) using their OpenID.

There are lot of people having troubles syncing their devices (pda, smartphones, etc.) with ubuntu. At this poing there is only one solution available, multisync, and works for only a few devices, and it's very limited on their functions.

And I think, this is a very important point for lots of people.

**Suggestions from duplicate idea 397 work on that idea :

1) Clean up the Opensync and SyncML plugin packages to work properly with Evolution by default.

2) Set up an official Ubuntu SyncML server for Ubuntu users.

3) Possibly clean up open source SyncML clients for the different mobile platforms.

As far as I understand, when shutting down, Usplash still flickers a moment. In any case, for Xubuntu and Kubuntu (and perhaps other derivatives too), the Usplash still isn't displayed during the full shutdown. If this is possible without being a very hackish solution, it'd be awesome.

Improve the boot sequence to reduce the number of mode switches and jarring look and feel changes. While our current boot sequence has evolved beyond a verbose scroll of text on the console, it is still not as elegant as it could be. Increased elegance would result in a much improved user experience, and increase user confidence in the distribution.