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Issues and gripes (SMB/GVFS/FUSE, Mouse Settings...)

jcartner-young

Tue Mar 15, 2016 9:54:57 pm

Hello all. This is my first post.

I am above average competency with computers and software, but Linux systems are different to each other again, so I make no presumptions about any Linux distros including Zorin/Ubuntu. In fact, I started on Ubuntu, but don't like the idea of an unknown binary blob running my OS as much as everyone else apparently does - I thought Zorin was different in that respect, but apparently systemd does a Microsoft (gets it's claws and tendrils in) and doesn't let you get rid of it that easily.

I have been using Zorin Linux for a year or so now and I have found a couple of things which need some fixing. If there is a place I can drop all my observations, please let me know :)

1. Drag and drop from SMB mounts don't seem to work universally, esp. with Thunderbird. The application sees an smb:// path, whereas it should see a local mountpoint path, shouldn't it? Maybe work needs to be done on FUSE/GVFS? AFAIK, I've never had to use FUSE/GVFS before, just normal mounts from my fstab and had no issues connecting to Windows shares before Zorin. I can't find any specific log entries (can't find a gvfs/smb log file anywhere!) which show any errors, it just takes ages talking back to it.

2. Clicking on a menu item seems to make it close the sub-menu O_o meaning I have to move off and then back on and wait - slightly annoying and slows things down;

3. It freezes when I leave it for a couple of nights. I got a Kernel Dump after coming back to it after the weekend - All hardware checks out.

4. There is no log browser, which makes finding relevant entries in the myriad of log files very hard. Something akin to Computer Management should do, unless there's a tool out there somewhere which can do this?

5. SMB is veeeerrrrrryyyyyyy slooooowww to respond where my Windows PCs are fine and have nothing special configured on them. Nautilus seems to be slow to connect to SMB shares on my Windows 7 File Server;

6. Support for iPhones is somewhat lacking - I have customers who use iPhones, unfortunately, and so I still have to have a spare Wintel boxen to pick up the slack. Although, to be honest, iPhoners can go fiddle;

7. The control panel / system configuration applets are either extremely limiting or there is something missing from my install - Where do I change my mouse speed? How do I change the refresh rates of my monitors? Where are all the sound options? How do I set sample-rate/quality for the audio output? How do I monitor audio inputs? Why do I have an option to set up a 'Wacom Tablet' when I don't have one connected? O_o How do I set up my mouse buttons and scroll-wheel?

8. The multiple monitor applet freaks out when you have more than two monitors... When attempting to arrange my third monitor, it jumps around, display icons get stuck outside the positioning space and I have to relaunch so I can try again - More trial and error tweaks than predictable configuration changes! :(

9. The boot screen sometimes doesn't show a Zorin logo, just a blue or sometimes a white screen with some text about manual mounting which is disconcerting;

10. It is running systemd O_o Why? If it were a choice I'm sure youi would just do without, but I'm guessing it's a vestige of the ill-fated Ubuntu;

11. The Software & Updates applet can ignore your input, leaving tickboxes unticked, etc;

12. The Printers Settings is very slow to open;

13. The Brother printer I have doesn't wake up when I send a print, Zorin tells me the printer is off-line, but it worked fine with Windows;

14. The scrollbars are too narrow and don't have single arrows to scroll by one line, as the mouse scroll-wheel doesn't always work on all applications;

15. Scrolling the list of 'Online Accounts' with your pointer over the list leaves items highlighted;

Apart from these few things, Zorin seems to be a nice distro so far. Thanks for the work and keep going - it's nearly there! :)

It is good so far, but I wouldn't recommend it to home users just yet due to the inconsistent interface ('Move to Rubbish Bin' instead of just 'Delete' or even 'Recycle' and unusual and cryptic responses from some operations.

#1 is the biggest issue so far, with the others just irritating me and knocking confidence in the integrity of the OS when they happen.

Do you gather telemetry about Zorin's performance? ie Does Zorin measure how long things take and report back when they're taking too long to improve software performance?

Has anyone else noticed these inconsistencies and strange behaviours? If not, I could just do a re-install (again)

Many thanks

PS: I hope you're getting all my Zorin error reports and that they're helping :)

Swarfendor437

Wed Mar 16, 2016 1:11:56 pm

jcartner-young wrote:Hello all. This is my first post.

I am above average competency with computers and software, but Linux systems are different to each other again, so I make no presumptions about any Linux distros including Zorin/Ubuntu. In fact, I started on Ubuntu, but don't like the idea of an unknown binary blob running my OS as much as everyone else apparently does - I thought Zorin was different in that respect, but apparently systemd does a Microsoft (gets it's claws and tendrils in) and doesn't let you get rid of it that easily.

I have been using Zorin Linux for a year or so now and I have found a couple of things which need some fixing. If there is a place I can drop all my observations, please let me know :)

1. Drag and drop from SMB mounts don't seem to work universally, esp. with Thunderbird. The application sees an smb:// path, whereas it should see a local mountpoint path, shouldn't it? Maybe work needs to be done on FUSE/GVFS? AFAIK, I've never had to use FUSE/GVFS before, just normal mounts from my fstab and had no issues connecting to Windows shares before Zorin. I can't find any specific log entries (can't find a gvfs/smb log file anywhere!) which show any errors, it just takes ages talking back to it. I can't comment on this aspect of your post - please PM AZorin and quote this thread (copy and paste the link for this thread from your browser into the PM

2. Clicking on a menu item seems to make it close the sub-menu O_o meaning I have to move off and then back on and wait - slightly annoying and slows things down; You could try a different menu that comes with Avant Window Navigator such as the Cairo Menu? If you are keen to keep the Windows 7 menu then install GnoMenu (Zorin 9 uses a tweaked version called ZorinMenu!) - how to get it go to http://www.upubuntu.com/2012/03/how-to- ... unity.html and see if your experience improves - you will need to add the applet from right-clicking the AWN panel, preferences, applets - then either drag the menu applet to the 'replica' panel at the bottom or just click on the down arrow - doing the latter places anything you choose to the far right! but you can drag to desired location - reverse to remove.[/color]

3. It freezes when I leave it for a couple of nights. I got a Kernel Dump after coming back to it after the weekend - All hardware checks out.

4. There is no log browser, which makes finding relevant entries in the myriad of log files very hard. Something akin to Computer Management should do, unless there's a tool out there somewhere which can do this?
https://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-system-log/ - check for it in Synaptic Package Manager!

5. SMB is veeeerrrrrryyyyyyy slooooowww to respond where my Windows PCs are fine and have nothing special configured on them. Nautilus seems to be slow to connect to SMB shares on my Windows 7 File Server;
Don't know if it will make any difference but install Thunar File Manager and see if things improve - DON'T remove Nautilus or you will break your System!

6. Support for iPhones is somewhat lacking - I have customers who use iPhones, unfortunately, and so I still have to have a spare Wintel boxen to pick up the slack. Although, to be honest, iPhoners can go fiddle;
Zorin 11 might be different but support only until July this year - I installed at work and could access not just DCIM like occurs in Windows - and just to add this was an iPad not an iPhone it also picked up documents produced in 'Documents' and 'Pages'!

7. The control panel / system configuration applets are either extremely limiting or there is something missing from my install - Where do I change my mouse speed? How do I change the refresh rates of my monitors? Where are all the sound options? How do I set sample-rate/quality for the audio output? How do I monitor audio inputs? Why do I have an option to set up a 'Wacom Tablet' when I don't have one connected? O_o How do I set up my mouse buttons and scroll-wheel? Please take time to browse Wolfman's Post Installation guide - first item on the Board Index of Global Threads - in particular the Audio Section

8. The multiple monitor applet freaks out when you have more than two monitors... When attempting to arrange my third monitor, it jumps around, display icons get stuck outside the positioning space and I have to relaunch so I can try again - More trial and error tweaks than predictable configuration changes! :(
Have you installed xrandr?

9. The boot screen sometimes doesn't show a Zorin logo, just a blue or sometimes a white screen with some text about manual mounting which is disconcerting;
Make sure that the boot splash is set to GDM - check out Zorin Plymouth settings - at work so not sure of location - hardly used it! ;)

10. It is running systemd O_o Why? If it were a choice I'm sure youi would just do without, but I'm guessing it's a vestige of the ill-fated Ubuntu;
I suspect so as Zorin is a fork of Ubuntu

11. The Software & Updates applet can ignore your input, leaving tickboxes unticked, etc;
This is some sort of bug but it will not prevent security and other essential updates from installing!

12. The Printers Settings is very slow to open;
Try this from a terminal - the best way if trying to connect to printers connected to Windows machines:

Code:
sudo sytem-config-printer


Opens the same interface but more stable for some reason!


13. The Brother printer I have doesn't wake up when I send a print, Zorin tells me the printer is off-line, but it worked fine with Windows;
Check out Wolfman's Post-Install guide on Brother printers!

14. The scrollbars are too narrow and don't have single arrows to scroll by one line, as the mouse scroll-wheel doesn't always work on all applications;
To widen the the scroll bars install gnome-color-chooser - I did a tutorial video on vimeo.como - just search for my username - same as here!

15. Scrolling the list of 'Online Accounts' with your pointer over the list leaves items highlighted;

Apart from these few things, Zorin seems to be a nice distro so far. Thanks for the work and keep going - it's nearly there! :)

Hope where I have answered helps! ;) :D

It is good so far, but I wouldn't recommend it to home users just yet due to the inconsistent interface ('Move to Rubbish Bin' instead of just 'Delete' or even 'Recycle' and unusual and cryptic responses from some operations.

#1 is the biggest issue so far, with the others just irritating me and knocking confidence in the integrity of the OS when they happen.

Do you gather telemetry about Zorin's performance? ie Does Zorin measure how long things take and report back when they're taking too long to improve software performance?

Has anyone else noticed these inconsistencies and strange behaviours? If not, I could just do a re-install (again)

Many thanks

PS: I hope you're getting all my Zorin error reports and that they're helping :)

Swarfendor437

Wed Mar 16, 2016 10:19:44 pm

OK I left answering the thread at work as my lunch break was over - I am not sure whether error reporting does work - in the past it did not appear to be - again because it was built off ubuntu and when I have tried similar things it would not connect so I assume it has not been modified for Zorin - you could always PM AZorin. ;)

jcartner-young

Fri Mar 18, 2016 12:59:30 am

Thank you for the info - Very much appreciated. :D

I'll try a few things and report back.

jcartner-young

Sat Aug 03, 2019 2:02:26 pm

I've since upgraded to Zorin 12.4, so many things have disappeared and been replaced by more frustrating solutions. I will report my issues in the appropriate area (as soon as I can find it)

Thank you for your reply.

Swarfendor437

Sat Aug 03, 2019 5:54:36 pm

Hi, there is nothing wrong in using this thread for further feedback - you could also PM AZorin with a link to this thread and copy the link from your next response as where to view - i.e., right-click the subject area in the latest post and select 'copy link address' and paste to PM for AZorin to look at. Thanks for coming back to us with your issues. ;) :D

jcartner-young

Sun Dec 08, 2019 1:11:26 am

Thank you for your time in answering my queries. Unfortunately, I have had to make the decision to go with a different distro - I just can't get along with the 'user friendly' interface :/ It's a bit too restrictive for me.

And also, why did Ubuntu/Zorin devs render Compiz useless? It is amazing for productivity when configured correctly and other 'similar' window managers lack the major features I use. A big deal breaker.

As the problem of having too many choices goes, it may just be that there are so many software titles to choose from, that finding the right one is actually going to be counterproductive... Decisions, decisions lol

Aravisian

Sun Dec 08, 2019 3:54:27 am

jcartner-young wrote:Thank you for your time in answering my queries. Unfortunately, I have had to make the decision to go with a different distro - I just can't get along with the 'user friendly' interface :/ It's a bit too restrictive for me.

And also, why did Ubuntu/Zorin devs render Compiz useless? It is amazing for productivity when configured correctly and other 'similar' window managers lack the major features I use. A big deal breaker.

As the problem of having too many choices goes, it may just be that there are so many software titles to choose from, that finding the right one is actually going to be counterproductive... Decisions, decisions lol

I use Zorin 12.4 or Zorin 15 LITE editions as a starting launchpad for building a modular system. Leaving GNome off it helps a great deal.
From there, you can install compiz reloaded to use the emerald window manager.
Which.... your question just gave me an idea...