Fedora 39 is so close to being right for my new FW13, but…
Can anyone suggest a more reliable desktop to go with Fedora 39 on a FW 13th gen Intel, please?
Background: I’ve spent more time with CLI on Linux servers than the GUI.
I get problems after (frequent) updates. Suddenly Gambas3 won’t start, the editor Kate suddenly disappears from the menu bar (and the list, if I click “Show Apps”), but it’s still present and working normally if I seach for it by name. Tried removing/reinstalling both.
dnfdragora is a PITA, always resizing comumns wrongly, or sometimes starting in a zero-width window that’s almost invisible.
Does that suggest anything, please?
Roops
p.s. Also I can’t copy (free software) .exe files from my old Google drive account (that I’m closing as soon I can I can empty it) using Files/Nautilus or command line–I can copy other .exe files, so I guess that’s a problem with Google Drive, rather than Linux itself. Files/Nautilus app gives error “Authentication required: Forbidden”
If I’m being honest, I’ve stuck with the same Fedora install for years as it’s been rock solid on my main PC. Before that I would distro hop every few months between the many desktop options out there. Could you elaborate on the issues you’re encountering?
On top of that, I would stick with one of the Framework supported distros (Fedora or Ubuntu). Supported packages in the official repos are your best bet to avoid issues usually…
Gambas3 I was just playing with, to see. I don’t have any diagnostics yet. Its icon appears in the usual places, but there is no sign of it starting in the GUI.
All I can add to the problem with kate is that I’ve installed it and removed it via dnfdragora and also via the “Software” app trying to fix things. Each time I used it fine, dragged its icon onto the menu bar (the one I get from the “Windows” key or “Activities”) . After updates and a reboot (or sometimes before) it’s gone from the menu bar and from the list when I click “Show Apps” at the end.
I can still start kate from the CLI, but it’s clunky and I lose focus on what I’m doing if I have to go looking for an editor that was there 5 minutes ago.
I tried uninstalling, renaming its .desktop file, and then reinstalling. That brought it back to the menu bar, until I closed kate and then it was hiding again. A bit messy
I am using the XFCE spin of Fedora. I started with 38 and upgraded to 39, and it’s been pretty solid for me. I do have GNOME installed and I switched from lightdm to gdm because of problems I was having with an app or two, but nothing like the problems it sounds like you’ve experienced.
I personally don’t like GNOME so I haven’t run it much, but I did try Cinnamon and it was not quite ready for my production use but I’ve got a lot of stuff installed so who knows if it would be better from someone else’s machine.
Read through this, sounds a multitude of items surrounding specific applications and also KDE applications (KATE).
Generally speaking, while largely untested, Fedora KDE itself should be fine and in some light testing with KDE on Fedora, do not recall any show stoppers.
This does not take away from your point however, you are looking for a good, stable experience. However everything I am seeing listed appears to be related to software unless I am missing something? Not entirely sure this would be the right forum for these application specific issues, have you tried filing bug reports for these?
Blockquote
However everything I am seeing listed appears to be related to software unless I am missing something? Not entirely sure this would be the right forum for these application specific issues, have you tried filing bug reports for these?
I did look for kate and Gambas3 bugs and didn’t find anything similar. So I asked here just in case these bugs are linked with (say) FW drivers.
To be clear, the hardware is 100%, as far as I know. I only asked because these are bugs nobody else has reported, as far as I can see. I’ll collect some more diags and report when I get a day off.
If that is the case why are you using dnfdragora when you could simply use dnf in cli? Dnfdragora is a mess nor is it the recommended way to handle packages. If you need to use a GUI use Software and pick either flatpaks or rpms.
This sounds like Google Drive wants you to provide a user name and password…have you setup online accounts? Is gvfs-goa installed?
Is this a fresh install? i.e. no carried over .local .config files from a previous install in another desktop? Do you have qt5ct setup for theming qt apps?
Sounds like you are trying to do things in a different manner from what is recommended. Gnome is exceedingly stable. If you want a traditional taskbar oriented desktop then I would recommend the XFCE spin or possibly KDE…though in my experience KDE breaks in often strange and unexpected ways.
Just to clarify, and out of courtesy, as it sounds that you are new to the latest iteration of GNOME’s UI.
I believe what you are describing as the menu bar is the GNOME dash, which appears at the bottom of the Activities overview. The dash will show open applications alongside any applications that have been “pinned”.
To clarify, you tried to pin the Kate launcher to the dash and the icon persists when you close the application, then when you update or reboot the application is no longer there nor visible in the application menu?
Partly because it was there in the desktop setup (and “Software” didn’t find a few things, such as Regina Rexx for some scripting tasks), partly because I lost some memories with long Covid from 2020–I’ve forgotten some of the gotchas and I can’t even assume that dnf, apt, apt-get etc. all work the same in detail, anyway.
Looks as though I need to re-learn a few things
Not sure about the first sentence. Fresh install of Fedora 38, updated to 39. Files/Nautilus has Google drive access out of the box. And I just copy+paste from one Nautilus window showing Google Drive to a local directory. CLI isn’t practical because all the cloud names are 33 characters of line noise I think Gargoyle is running a heuristic scan for malware and finding some iffy patterns in the .exe files. It also failed on an ASCII .txt file, which happens to be text of an antivirus forum listing all the filenames dropped during infection.
“GNOME dash” yes! But kate doesn’t show up anywhere I can pin it. Only under the “Installed” tab of Software, so I can find & start it, but not pin it.
I’ve never tried XFCE, so I’ll take a look.
BTW I tried adding Cinnamon and it seems well-behaved after 10 mins, except that I now remember there was no Bluetooth management app (so I couldn’t pair new devices) and adding one (to a previous Fedora 38 installation) caused failed connections–I suspected it was fighting with the underlying Bluetooth setup that came wih Fedora.
Thanks for naming it Yes, if I start kate via the CLI it appears on the right of the dash. It disappears when it’s not running, which is irritating. The closest I get to a workaround is to pin “Main Menu” to the dash. That seems to stick OK, so far.
(later) I just discovered that if I login to the GNOME (classic) desktop, I don’t get the problem with kate disappearing. Don’t know how I missed that before.
It doesn’t fix Gambas3 not running, but I can wait to play with that some other day.
The new GNOME desktop is ‘beautiful’ according to my other half, but I can live with old school look in the ‘Classic’ version.
