Contributor forteller - Ubuntu brainstorm

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The Ubuntu community has contributed 21986 ideas, 135057 comments, 2615221 votes

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Contributor forteller on the Internet & Networking category

Implement way of telling user that there is a connection but no internet

Written by tancrackers the 4 Dec 11 at 21:00. Related project: Network Manager. New

Please implement a method of telling the user that there is a wireless connection but not internet like Windows 7 does.

Sometimes my router goes nuts and will give me a wireless connection but I cannot connect to the internet.

All I have to do is unplug the router and plug it back in.

Though, on Ubuntu I only know when I try to go online and my homepages fails to load.

On Windows 7, the wireless icon in the taskbar shows the bars that represent the connection, but there is a yellow "caution" arrow on the wireless icon followed by a message that there is no internet connection.

Can you please implement something similar to this in Ubuntu so I can know right after log in that it is my router failing as opposed to something else?

Thank you!

106
votes

4
votes

-4
votes

Solution #5: Try root DNS servers and tooltip message

Written by EduardoR the 2 Jan 12 at 05:04.

Are many and may be tried in Round Robin manner.

But some networks may not "need" to be routed to internet to be connected, then must be *optional*.

Root servers are listed with dig command:
dig
ping a.root-servers.net

I really prefer to have an independent and configurable indicator. There are too many situations and can be very confusing. Best with a one time tooltip message.

The alert may be when no-IP address is offer by DHCP server o manual. Called local o IPv4 169.254.x.x. But is a another idea.

23
votes

Solution #6: Modify the existing indicator to show the status

Written by PaddyLandau the 1 Mar 12 at 16:36.

Windows does this well, with the indicator itself showing the status.

At present, the Ubuntu indicator shows four statuses: disconnected; trying to connect; connected via wireless; and connected via Ethernet.

Increase it to six statuses, as follows:
- Disconnected
- Trying to connect
- Connected via wireless
- Connected via Ethernet
- Connected via wireless, but no Internet access
- Connected via Ethernet, but no Internet access

I would imagine the last two being the same as the previous two but in red.

See the 12 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 6 Mar 12 at 10:02) >>

Use BitTorrent as primary protocol for apt-get

Ubuntu

In :
Priority :	Undefined
Definition :	New (Needs guidance)
Implementation :	Unknown
Assignee :

Written by kevinfishburne the 28 Apr 08 at 19:10. Global category: Internet & Networking. New

This is an attempt at a unification of:

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/7081/
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/7390/
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/7649/
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/7725/

I can't think, nor have I heard, of any showstopper reason for why BitTorrent shouldn't be used as the primary download method of Ubuntu respository packages. Although the specifics of the implementation of this idea will be different for ISOs and repositories, I feel they should be unified in the brainstorm because the goal is to allow the rapid, efficient, reliable, and available download of Ubuntu software.

Implementation Benefits

1) Speed. All Ubuntu downloads (ISO downloads, dist upgrades, regular system updates, and new application installs) will as a whole be faster. Generally torrent download speeds benefit from higher numbers of downloaders that seed, which Ubuntu users have demonstrated they are prone to do. BitTorrent is better able to absorb (and eventually use as an asset) large numbers of users attempting to download data at the same time, such as with the recent mad rush of Hardy downloaders/upgraders.

2) Efficiency. The BitTorrent protocol has proven to be one of the most efficient methods of distributing data amongst a large number of clients. It will harness the collective upstream of tens of thousands of Ubuntu users, from DSL and cable connections to the fastest of corporate connections.

3) Reliability. Checksums guarantee the integrity of BitTorrent downloads, so data corruption is much less likely to occur. Only the pieces that fail checksum are redownloaded, contributing to points 1 and 2.

[....]

2215
votes

6
votes

Solution #2: Make debtorrent active by default

Written by bukzor the 9 Apr 11 at 19:12.

There is already a system to do this: debtorrent (http://debtorrent.alioth.debian.org/)

The *main* problem with it is that there are so few users that have it installed. Making this installed and active in the default Ubuntu distribution solves this bug, as well as implementing Idea #7792 (and its 30 duplicates).

It seems fairly mature, but probably still needs some polishing for inclusion in the Ubuntu default. In particular, we need to ensure that the upload settings are very easily tweaked, both automatically and manually.

6
votes

Solution #3: Make debtorrent available at install

Written by lengau the 25 May 11 at 20:32.

Rather than making debtorrent the default, which could be harmful to a large number of users (some ISPs block Bittorrent, as do many universities, etc.), we should allow users to choose debtorrent an option in the installer (as well as being able to enable/disable it in the software centre).

Including the debtorrent and apt-transport-debtorrent packages on the CD/DVD will add just short of 300 KiB to the disc images.

6
votes

2
votes

See the 76 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 29 Dec 11 at 10:48) >>

Ask user if he/she wants to download blocklist when first starting Transmission.

Written by arckeda the 28 Dec 08 at 09:55. Related project: Transmission. New

Transmission is the default bittorrent client for Ubuntu. There is a little known feature that allows you to download a blocklist stopping you from connection to IP addresses of known organizations that would monitor your bittorrent activity. Many users don't know about this feature. When first starting transmission, they should be asked if they want to use it or not. The download process takes a little time, but in my opinion, (And according to studies of bittorrent monitoring) it is worth it.

It would also be nice if we could see a 0 to 100 percent complete bar while downloading the blocklist.

Please don't comment saying that the only people who would benefit from this are pirates. Privacy is always a major concern, and I would rather not have corporations monitoring me, regardless of what I am downloading. As the makers of Ubuntu, Canonical should support privacy.

61
votes

4
votes

Solution #2: Just enable it by default; many first-time users won't know what a blocklist is

Written by charles the 14 Aug 09 at 19:14.

I think the best solution is to leave blocklists as they currently are, disabled by default and without a popup dialog.

But *if* making the blocklist more prominent is a popular idea, IMO turning turning it on by default is closer to Transmission's "Just Works" design than a popup dialog. Many first-time users won't know what a blocklist is, and that's not the first thing they should see when starting Transmission.

See the 13 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 1 Dec 11 at 06:16) >>

Webcam with Pidgin!

No information about this blueprint
Information is updated every 5 minutes.
Please wait till the next update.

Written by kwixbit the 28 Feb 08 at 19:24. Global category: Internet & Networking. Won't implement

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!

2072
votes

-5
votes

See the 52 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 1 Dec 11 at 06:14) >>

Remove Ebay from default search engines list in firefox

Written by Auzy the 22 Mar 08 at 01:06. Related project: Firefox. Won't implement

Based on idea 5321, by Eldmannen (about removing yahoo).

We should remove ebay from the default installed searches, because:
- It reduces competition with other auction sites.
- Recently there was a uproar about changes in ebay which make in some case make it unfair. I agree!
- Ebay VERY heavily pushes Paypal, which is acknowledged by many to be very dodgy. A lot of people know someone who has been screwed by ebay. And here in aus, I had to upgrade my account because they had a bug which prevented me accessing my money (which is very unprofessional). The freenet Project owner was also screwed by ebay (and it demonstrated they don't research at all claims made against customers), and another friend of mine was charged 2x the amount he was supposed to be receiving because someone used a stolen credit card against him (so seems they profit from illegal credit cards).
- If ebay was a bank, they would have a 24/7 riot outside their building by customers who were screwed.
- Ebay doesn't exactly listen to feedback. If are a typical large company, where you have no way of providing feedback (if you scream at them over the phone, maybe they will let you speak to a manager). But they clearly dont care much (no forums).

Its to our advantage to promote competition within the auction sites. More competition means lower costs for us, and better payment methods. We should try to encourage the development of a world wide auction site that is more consumer/seller friendly, that actually promotes active feedback and improvement.

There is nothing stopping a patch being applied to the firefox code to prevent ebay being a default search engine (and it shouldn't be hard to do).

256
votes

See the 30 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 22 Nov 11 at 22:43) >>

Provide a simple graphical interface to manage _any_ type of network connection

Ubuntu

In :
Priority :	Medium
Definition :	New (Needs guidance)
Implementation :	Unknown
Assignee :

Written by Alan Pope the 28 Feb 08 at 13:50. Global category: Internet & Networking. In development

A single unified tool should be provided which allows the user to connect to a network (or internet) via any supported method. It would also be useful to provide an extension to this tool to manage firewall rules and network connection sharing.

Developer comments

We’re currently designing this graphical interface, with the Internet connection part powered by ConnectionManager.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NetworkSettings

—mpt

8497
votes

113
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64
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83
votes

69
votes

Selected solution (#6): Add "Automatically connect to VPN..." option to wireless network settings

Written by nickpick the 29 May 09 at 18:54.

Add a drop-down list (or another similar way) allowing the user to select a VPN network he wants to connect to automatically -once the connection with the specified, not just any, WiFi network- has been established.

Example:

+ Automatically connect to VPN...
-- none (default)
-- University_VPN_Example
-- Corporate_VPN_Example
-- Home_server_VPN-Example

42
votes

55
votes

41
votes

64
votes

66
votes

Selected solution (#11): Sharing Internet and network configuration automatically.

Written by nq6 the 13 Aug 09 at 02:39.

#view the outline of the idea.

The new user can not share your internet with other computers or put two computers with Ubuntu in a network easily.

Below is the commands for the user to perform these tasks. This is not simple for a new user. Install packages, use the terminal, set the ip manually, type in the link of the Nautilus Ip of the other machine.

#commands to the two computers
sudo apt-get install samba system-config-samba

#commands to the computer that shares the Internet
sudo su
modprobe iptable_nat
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth1 -j MASQUERADE

[...]

#command to view the other ubuntu in the network - the PC 1
sudo su
ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.2 up
smb://192.168.0.1/

#command to view the other ubuntu in the network - the PC 2
sudo su
ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.1 up
smb://192.168.0.2/

Who has two network devices, you want to share internet and create a network between two PCs, it has to be experienced and know many commands. This is not ideal. The Ubuntu aims to ease.

-16
votes

Selected solution (#13): Create something like in Win XP

Written by viejoyoda the 13 Feb 10 at 14:54.

Last time i have to connect two computers with a regular ethernet cable, was really imposible to share internet and folders... finally i have to restart from my windows xp partition and then apply the network configuration assistant, it was like 20 secs. for success!!!
Regular users don't have to manage a cybercafe or protect a meil server or a bank from "attacks", why is it so difficult!
By the way it could be useful to choose between "network-manager" and "wicd". I prefer Wicd.

See the 122 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 22 Jul 11 at 12:30) >>

Update Manager is not optimized for low speed Internet.

Written by ravibuz the 16 Jul 09 at 12:23. Global category: Internet & Networking. In development

Update Manager Is not optimized for people with slow internet connection..For me it nearly takes 2 days to update a version of ubuntu from update manager.

654
votes

392
votes

273
votes

142
votes

Selected solution (#5): Let the Update Manager "feel" the use of the net

Written by Rodrigo the 18 Jul 09 at 08:14.

I remember a few years back a daemon for the SETI project that "felt" the use of the processor, and when it was idle it would make its calculations.
Something similar with the internet would be nice. So it would be downloading, but when you want to see a new web or send an email the net will be free in very little time. Maybe through a "pause" as Solution #1 said.

-34
votes

274
votes

Selected solution (#8): Use better compression as much as possible.

Written by yaknowwat the 21 Jul 09 at 05:55.

LZMA has been updated with LZMA2 included in the newer beta's of 7z which is making it into Karmic.

It seems with the new LZMA2 compression using 2 threads and Solid compression it gives better compression than even RAR's upcoming WINRAR64 with comparable speeds.(LZMA2 with 4 or more threads is about 50% faster and 2 or less threads is about 20% slower, though 2 threads has better compression.)
[ Note: This is for compressing LZMA2Solid could easily be far faster at decompressing ]

I know it won't be as big a difference as moving to delta's but it will cause about a 30% reduction compared to the current tar.gz compression used now which is actually very large when you consider some people have to download 200 MB in gunzip compressed updates with LZMA2 it would be around 150 MB. Huge difference if your connection is slow.

Downside is compression is slower with lzma ,but its designed to have decompression speeds like gunzip fortunately.

-53
votes

Selected solution (#9): Create a update package file

Written by fernandoc1 the 30 Jul 09 at 15:06.

With an update package file, people can download the most recent updates in a single file and install it.
This solution could help people with slow internet connection, because they can get the file in a Lan House or with a friend that has already downloaded the updates and keep it with him for future use.
It could work like a "service pack" for example, and become available in the ubuntu official site.
I think that with it, there will be even an economy of Ubuntu mirrors bandwidth, because in many places, people put many machines in a same network to update directly from the mirrors and it is not reasonable, because the same download will be done many times.
With the update as a single file package, any download manager can resume a partial download of the file.

-57
votes

Selected solution (#10): Blend to background

Written by put4558350 the 30 Jul 09 at 15:52.

By doing this. The update process will look blend to background. User can just using the computer when download of update file is in progress.

- hidden interface as much as possible.
- put QOS (quality of service) over it. so it dosn't take bandwidth too much when user using internet.
- update as much package as it downloaded when user shutdown or startup so no file is in used.

Optional

- sort important update on top of download list. so important update package get update first.
- reusme last package. so long package can finish.
- popup when download compleate or error.

111
votes

81
votes

Selected solution (#12): Support continuation of terminated download

Written by fukanchik the 3 Aug 09 at 08:33.

I use low bandwidth gprs connection. During updates i very often see that in the middle of downloading a package the process terminates and starts over from zero (!) again downloading what has already been downloaded! And over and over and over. During this process it consumes times more traffic than entire update. It looks like bug.

If update manager will support continuation of terminated download process (like wget or sometimes firefox does) it will be very helpful.

Upd: delta updates alone will not fix the problem. Such update can itself be of large size.

20
votes

-23
votes

Selected solution (#14): Add a "help a buddy" feature to Synaptic

Written by mdhunn the 4 Aug 09 at 19:49.

Actually this would be two features. Add the ability to export a list of the installed packages and their versions installed on one machine along with any apps desired onto a thumb drive. And of course the corresponding feature to download and update the drive.

Basically just an update to the download / add packages feature that's all ready there. After all an update done in Synaptic is just as valid as one done in Update Manager or by using apt on the command line. Having both a laptop and a desktop, I might even get some use out of that when my home connection goes down.

-46
votes

33
votes

Selected solution (#16): Generate a download script.

Written by Darwin Survivor the 9 Aug 09 at 22:13.

The package manager is capable of generating a download script, so why not the update manager?

The user could then take that download script to a friend's house, a library or their school and download the files to USB, CD, etc. Then simply insert the media in their computer and BOOM, updated!

It may also be an idea to make the script and OS agnostic as possible (many libraries only have windows) or allow the user to select what OS they will be using to do the download (windows can do ftp via CLI, so it should be possible).

833
votes

Selected solution (#17): Show download rate and add pause option

Written by sirish.gauni the 1 Nov 09 at 18:00.

You could just add a pause option to the software center and also show the download rates. Further more if the software center can be made such a way that when the network/internet goes off the download doesn't stop completely and starts from where it left of when the internet is back.

This idea can also be applied to Update manager.

237
votes

Selected solution (#18): Allow multiple Downloads

Written by Sebin Benjamin the 5 Nov 09 at 16:47.

Allow multiple downloads to take place using all of the bandwidth Or limit usage. Sometimes some files/servers have very low speed. So simultaneous downloads would be helpful

Anyway why would anyone waste time for each file to get downloaded, whereas you could let it download 2 or 3 files depending on the bandwidth and finish the updates faster.

66
votes

See the 17 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 9 Jul 11 at 15:29) >>

Native Firefox on Ubuntu is even slower than on Wine

Written by Dinth the 15 Feb 09 at 12:43. Related project: Firefox. Not an idea

This new benchmark shows that native linux version of Firefox is very slow comparing to Windows version, even when run on Wine.

1128
votes

125
votes

582
votes

Solution #3: Add native 64bit Java and Flash packages to PPA

Written by Dinth the 15 Feb 09 at 12:52.

There are avalible native 64bit Java and Flash versions on Suns and Adobe websites. ATM they are in beta state, but there are pretty much stable, so why dont package them to repo or at least PPA? This would greatly speed up Firefox on 64bit systems - now, sometimes nspluginwrappers takes 50% of cpu power when playing video from some sites.

944
votes

-272
votes

-438
votes

-120
votes

-96
votes

Solution #9: Port Firefox to Qt

Written by flammon the 14 Mar 09 at 22:18.

I love GNOME and use it every day, have been since pre 1.0 but I think that its weakest part is GTK/GDK. Qt is faster and GPL so perhaps it is time to start porting. Firefox is mostly written in C++ so using Qt shouldn't be a problem.

The project has already begun and I'm anxious to see the results.

http://browser.garage.maemo.org/news/10/

-42
votes

Solution #11: Option to install firefox32 on 64-bit distributions

Written by sanketmedhi the 15 Apr 09 at 09:24.

Edit: I take this back. I upgraded to Janty 9.04 and Firefox works like a charm with the Flash 10 driver!

I have been using Ubuntu 64 bit versions for several years. And what I still don't like is that my system slows down pathetically when the browser tries to load a Flash or Java applet which are used on most pages on the Internet today, not to mention ads.

Although, its not exactly Ubuntu's problem that the sources providing these plugins do not entirely support x86_64 platforms, users should have the freedom to choose whether or not to use these packages and how to use them.

There should be a meta package that installs firefox32 and removes firefox64 on 64 bit versions of Ubuntu. Also, plugins for Firefox like Flash, Java, Adobe Reader, Shockwave, etc. should be replaced with 32 bit versions without any intervention.

See the 22 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 7 Jul 11 at 05:06) >>

Better wi-fi support

Written by neilneil2000 the 29 Feb 08 at 00:20. Global category: Internet & Networking. In development

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

4435
votes

13
votes

Selected solution (#2): never ever download network drivers

Written by snap the 27 Apr 10 at 17:30.

The OS should never need to download network drivers.

Here is what I experienced 2 minutes ago:

1. Disable closed wifi driver (I wanted to try the free one)
2. Enable the free network driver

Result: Ubuntu tries to download the driver but you have no Internet connection ! Why was it removed from disk ?? If I had no other network card, I would be very embarrassed.

In other words, I think network drivers should never be removed from hard disk, or whatever great idea not to self-destruct its network connection.

See the 61 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 26 May 11 at 14:43) >>

Thunderbird Indicator Applet

Written by hyakov2 the 11 Nov 09 at 23:02. Global category: Internet & Networking. Implemented

Thunderbird also should be unified with the indicator-applet, because not everyone uses the Evolution.

811
votes

150
votes

148
votes

-102
votes

58
votes

Selected solution (#5): Link Indicator Applet to 'Preferred Applications'

Written by Pernig the 26 Nov 09 at 20:58.

The indicator applet could be made to reflect the preferred application choices. Therefore only one email client will be shown.

Under the Internet tab a preferred instant messaging client could be added too. As far as I am aware there isn't an option for this on any other operating system, but IM clients are very widely used, so there should be! Perhaps Ubuntu could pioneer this?

By doing this it would be possible to allow users to change their status in the 'indicator-applet-session' for their IM client of choice, too.

49
votes

23
votes

12
votes

See the 13 comments or propose a solution (latest comment the 27 Apr 11 at 08:53) >>

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