Contributor XerxesXS

Each time I change my partitions, I have to do 'it' again. Yes, you know what I mean. Change /etc/fstab to point to the new partitions. Or suppose I insert a USB harddisk with more than one partition. I either have to mount those partitions myself, or edit, yes again, /etc/fstab. But then I reboot without the external drive attached.... "Kernel panic, filesystem not found". That happens automatically when you have a ext2/ext3 filesystem in /etc/fstab that doesn't exist.

Now, you might say "You don't often change your partitions, do you?" Yes, that's true. But think of a newbie. Installs Ubuntu, likes Ubuntu, says "Hey this Linux thing is wicked, lets try uhm... say Mandriva". Good, he installs Mandriva, but what happens? The partitions are messed up, Ubuntu won't boot anymore. In a very bad case, the previous Ubuntu /-partition had the same name as the /-partiton of the other Linux install, resulting in something very messy.

Now, this all can be avoided very easy. Like any problem, solving this problem requires eleminating the root of the problem. Yes. /etc/fstab. But how do we have to eleminate it? Simply removing it isn't an option, since that would result in a kernel panic. So, you say, "Well it's simply impossible to eleminate /etc/fstab". Think again. Mac OS X is a good example of a Unix system that doesn't require /etc/fstab. Even better: /etc/fstab contains a single line: "# This file is present for backwards compatibility. It may be removed all together from future versions." This can become reality for Ubuntu too. How, do you say? Very simple actually. Somewhere in the early boot process, mount -a gets called. As we all know, this will mount everything in /etc/fstab. So remove that. Next we need something to replace it. A daemon that cooperates with hal, udev, ... to check for new devices. Or even merge hal and udev with this daemon. The daemon -- lets call it "mountd" -- will check for any new filesystems. It checks if it can mount it, if it can, it will do so, at a predefined location, such as /media/devname where devname is something like hda1, sdb3, ... This directory will be created if it doesn't exist. It also has to check if a filesystem hasn't been just unmounted by the user, so it won't remount it again. This can be done by patching umount to log the devices it has unmounted.
But how about special mount-points? How about homedirectories? Well, that's solvable, too. In the root of each partition which has to get mounted on a special location, a text file called ".mountpoint" will be created which contains the path where to mount that partition, e.g. /home. Mountd will check for such a file once a partition is mounted, next it will unmount that partition, and remount it on the proper location.

[....]

There have been complaints that Ubuntu lacks a disk configuration utility, which forces newbies to manually edit fstab if they want to use a drive that was not present when they installed the system. Manually editing the file is difficult and frustrating to them, and not an ideal way to handle the issue on the long run.

An application exists by the name of Disk Manager, which keeps tracks and notifies of newly added units, and for extremely easy (automagical) configuration. That is the kind of stuff we want in Ubuntu.

-Disk Manager notifies about new drives:

http://flomertens.free.fr/disk-manager/images/notify.png

-Disk Manager allows the user to mount or unmount drives without any hassle, even by providing a simple name for them:

http://flomertens.free.fr/disk-manager/images/add.png

-Disk Manager allows to easily enable NTFS writing support:

http://flomertens.free.fr/disk-manager/images/main_general.png

-Disk Manager allows to keep track of mounted / unmounted partitions and free space on them:

http://flomertens.free.fr/disk-manager/images/main_advance.png

[....]

a lot of times, text is not copied. even if i cut, the selected text disapears in firefox and isn't pasteable in pidgin. sometimes the clipboard is an older version, if i paste.

One of the serious problems in Ubuntu is that Gnome is a bit sluggish when it comes down to the graphics. Try to install AWN and you know that the icons literally look like shit (compared to OSX).
But the problem does not end there, the whole system should be vector graphics by now when it comes to rendering the windows, menus, icons and so on.

I know this is not a Ubuntu feature, but it should be pressed HARD upon so we also get the great crisp sharp user-interface OSX has. It does not make the system slower, just better. With vector graphics, CompizFusion could take a new leap forward since it is then not hold back by the limitations of bitmap images. Also new graphical applications would be easier to develop, see on the mac side where Quartz engine has helped make a sea out of new graphical applications. We need a Quarz engine for Gnome now!

I recently switched to linux mint, I must say it is very nice and based on gutsy 7.10.

They use the red hat liberation fonts by default and OMG It looks amazing.


The default ubuntu fonts are painful to look at once you know how good it can look.


https://www.redhat.com/promo/fonts/

Since I don't think many people would be scared of an extra button to configure their selected screensaver, it would be really nice if it could be included (like it is in xscreensaver-settings).

It would be great to have the "nautilus-image-converter" (a bulk image resize/rotate add-on to nautilus)
Installed by default default in Ubuntu.

Brief article here:
http://ubuntu-tutorials.com/2007/09/17/nautilus-image-converter-quickly-resize- or-rotate-images-within-nautilus/

(and thank you "10101011" for the info and link)

Currently samba sharing is (in my opinion) broken, since you can't share your folders through the GUI. Instead, you have to resort to the CLI in order to create a samba user which pretty much defeats the whole purpose of a GUI.

My proposal is to modify the samba share dialogue so that it allows to create samba users:

http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/8206/pantallazocarpetascompaqd0.png

Both Apple and Microsoft have a website dedicated to dispelling myths of their platforms (and in apple's case such as with viruses, lying about a lot of things). http://www.apple.com/getamac/

We need to offer a way to show people when visiting the main website why you would buy a Linux computer, and the benefits.

Apple's website has garbage like "114,000 viruses? Not on a Mac." Surely we can compete with garbage like that.

We have our own strengths, and as Ubuntu proceeds, we should emphasise them to people, and show them why they need linux. Because at the moment, you go to any website, and it shows you all these features (which is all good), but what makes them better?

Some things may include:
Its free, largest selection of high quality free programs, commercial and widely available free support, easily managed via Canonical Landscape or free solutions, Plays better with Windows and Apple networks then they do, etc.

When I came to mounting directories from an XP computer (although any windows this should be applicable) using SAMBA server at startup (similar to "map network drive" in windows) I found that this is relatively cryptic to do, with no warnings or messages to state that the mounting had failed.

Upon googling, I found that this is as for SAMBA to be able to mount using the SMB FS, the mounts need to be added to FSTAB with a lot of UID codes.

ie:

//Server/MountName /MountPoint smbfs credentials=/home/Username/.smbcredentials,uid=Username,gid=users 0 0

For the average user, this seems to be a little haphazard and many will not want to edit FSTAB nor know how to do this

Additionally, the user seems to need to be in the sudoers file.

I propose some sort of SAMBA addon GUI that will allow for automatic updating of FSTAB to this purpose; Perhaps a Nautilus shell script with something similar to the "Map Network Drive..." option in windows, when navigating the Network with Nautilus.

In Nautilus, there is an option to view thumbnails of images. This is all very well for the default size icons for thumbnails.

However, if the thumbnail is made larger using the "stretch icon" function in Nautilus, the icon remains at the same resolution, making it appear blurry and pixelated.

Would it be possible to scale the preview of the image directly to the size of the displayed thumbnail?

EDIT: On Hardy there appears to be a big problem in that the images are regenerated each time the folder is opened, leading to large delays and higher system load whilst they are being generated. Navigation away from the folder results in the generated images being lost.

On my current setup, I have mount points that are automatically mounted at boot that point to networked shares. This uses SAMBA as the files are hosted on an XP computer.

However, if this computer loses it's network connection or is turned off, Nautilus appears to crash and hang for a (seemingly) random amount of time. After a while, I can interact with it again, however it appears that the desktop is no longer updated or possible to be interacted with.

This may be due to the fact that the mount point cannot be resolved as soon as the computer is no longer accessible (Timeout errors, etc), however this is highly frustrating as it renders the computer fairly stunted whilst it attempts to recover.

I propose some sort of workaround that will prevent this from happening; Windows appears to have no problem with a network "share" from being removed, and even gives the user a popup message that states "X:/Share is no longer available", or a message to that effect. Something that popped up in Nautilus would be ideal.

Title self explanatory. I'd like more than just what is currently there.

Let the user be able to select a color of choice to use for his folders.

If I have many directories, then perhaps I would like to assign a different color for some of the folders.

Example, I want to assign Pink for my Porno directory, Blue for my collection of pictures of skies, etc.

http://www.deleongames.com/archives/folder-colors/colors.jpg
http://davigno.oxygen-icons.org/i/blog-folder-flave.png
http://best.j6.googlepages.com/colors.PNG

Include Compiz Fusion Manager by default

While requesting features to the open source community which consist mainly of free workers, we may often forget to say how much we like Ubuntu and look like costumers requesting.

So you can say thank you to the thousands of developers and users who gave their time by voting for this article :)

Enable Nautilus to use tabs.

Nautilus is Ubuntu's default file management software. There is no reason why you should need to open countless Nautilus windows to manage your files. It is time to bring tabs from your web browser to your file browser.

Given the success (as far as I know) of your Dell partnership, please do everything possible to seek alliances with other vendors, as it will reinforce the idea that Ubuntu is a viable alternative to other operating systems and will provide better hardware support for current Ubuntu users.

Dell is offering new models based on Ubuntu (recently the XPS M1330 in a few countries), proof that the business model makes sense.

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