I have upgraded my desktop but not my laptop.
Note:
Xneois an alias forneofetch --ascii_distro xubuntu.
In general, the switch to mostly snaps could be smoother, and I still need to play with the system more to discover all the changes.
Note: the upgrade to Noble 24.04 was delayed several days after initial release.
Disabling third-party PPAs
For any upgrade, third-party PPAs are disabled in the process. See Settings Manager | Software & Updates | Other Software.
Third-party PPAs on my system were for Insync, Vivaldi, Darktable, and Handbrake. Here are those PPAs prior to the upgrade:
Reenabling the PPAs with updated info for Noble (in place of Jammy) did not work. For example:
only led to the PPA key being rejected as out of date.
Instead, I had to delete the PPAs completely and then download the PPA keys again. Then I could reinstall Handbrake and Darktable. The PPA for handbrake and the PPA for darktable along with instructions are courtesy of ubuntuhandbook.org — a lovely resource.
Unfortunately, a fix for my other third-party PPAs — Insync and Vivaldi — was not so easy and remains unsolved. On the other hand, Vivaldi now offers a snap version. Whether I switch to the snap version is an open question at the moment.
FireFox (and other browsers)
While FireFox is my default browser, I also use Chromium, Vivaldi, and Opera. Chromium and Opera are snaps.
The PPA for Vivaldi, tied to installation of the deb, has also been removed manually per the update process, so I am not getting updates anymore until I download a newer deb and then install that newer deb via sudo apt install ./vivaldi . . . .deb.
Note: Installing an updated deb file did not lead to the Vivaldi PPA being activated/installed. So, I am trying the snap version of Vivaldi.
All the browsers are doing well. Opera is noticeably faster, while the others seem faster.
Thunderbird
Thunderbird as a snap took a very long time (a minute or two) to start up on first run. And, links to signature files all needed to be updated, as the previous links now led to a snap location rather than the original location for the signature txt files I use with my various e-mail accounts.
Drag and drop of attachments from encrypted folders is no longer possible. The files are seemingly successfully attached in the e-mail message via drag-n-drop but cannot be found when sending the e-mail message. The solution right now is to attach a file from an encrypted folder via the attach button in the Thunderbird messaging window — a more cumbersome process.
Updates of Thunderbird are happening more quickly now (at least initially). Here is my snap refresh history for two days (and after a week away from the computer):
$ sudo snap refresh
[sudo] password for victor:
telegram-desktop 5.5.4 from Telegram FZ-LLC (telegram-desktop✓) refreshed
hugo (extended/stable) 0.134.3 from Hugo Authors refreshed
skype 8.128.0.207 from Skype✓ refreshed
snap-store (stable/ubuntu-24.04) 0+git.4fcd62b7 from Canonical✓ refreshed
core20 20240705 from Canonical✓ refreshed
chromium-ffmpeg 116575-116569-115541-115016 from Canonical✓ refreshed
firefox 130.0.1-1 from Mozilla✓ refreshed
nmap 7.95 from Maximiliano Bertacchini (maxiberta✪) refreshed
chromium 129.0.6668.58 from Canonical✓ refreshed
opera 113.0.5230.86 from Opera (opera-software✓) refreshed
signal-desktop 7.25.0 from Snapcrafters✪ refreshed
thunderbird 128.2.1esr-2 from Canonical✓ refreshed
converseen 0.12.2.3 from Francesco Mondello (faster3ck) refreshed
$ sudo snap refresh
[sudo] password for victor:
thunderbird 128.2.3esr-2 from Canonical✓ refreshed
core22 20240904 from Canonical✓ refreshed
So, the switch to snap for Thunderbird seems to be a good thing, outside of the attachment problem with files from ecrypted folder locations.
Thunar (and Insync)
Insync, though the same version for 22.04 and 24.04, needed to be reinstalled for it to run again under 24.04. After installation, Insync prevented thunar and xfdesktop from running/displaying the desktop. Killing those apps completely did not fix the problem.
Furthermore, there is no longer an active PPA for Insync anymore with the switch to 24.04, and Insync’s instructions for re-enabling the PPA with a new set of keys did not work. That problem will need to be addressed.
CAUTION: the thunar error required a great deal of trouble-shooting and some luck to resolve. I tried killing thunar with pkill thunar as well as xfdesktop and even xfwm4 (via Task Manager — mistakenly thinking that the problem was a display/window manager bug) but had no luck on resolving the issue. After several reboots, the problem disappeared until the next reboot. Relevant journalctl entries appeared to be:
Sep 24 07:35:47 Thunar[5325]: thunarx_python_init_python failed
Sep 24 07:35:47 Thunar[5325]: pygobject initialization failed
xfdesktop shows the following errors as well when the bug was in play:
$ xfdesktop
(xfdesktop:5137): thunarx-python-WARNING **: 10:48:27.363: g_module_open libpython failed: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/lib.so.1.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
ImportError: could not import gobject (error was: ImportError('/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/gi/_gi.cpython-312-x86_64-linux-gnu.so: undefined symbol: PyExc_NotImplementedError'))
(xfdesktop:5137): thunarx-python-WARNING **: 10:48:27.448: pygobject initialization failed
(xfdesktop:5137): thunarx-python-WARNING **: 10:48:27.448: thunarx_python_init_python failed
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/share/thunarx-python/extensions/insync-thunar-plugin.py", line 28, in <module>
from gi.repository import GObject, Gtk, Thunarx # noqa isort:skip
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/gi/__init__.py", line 40, in <module>
from . import _gi
ImportError: /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/gi/_gi.cpython-312-x86_64-linux-gnu.so: undefined symbol: PyExc_NotImplementedError
Segmentation fault (core dumped)
The solution, however, was not with thunarx-python. Rather, removal of the insync-thunar plugin fixed the problem with thunarx-python.
LibreOffice
The upgrade to 24.04 brings version 24.02 of LibreOffice. The new version seems to be doing better with file translation with MS Word documents. And, handling of PDF documents has also been improved (fewer glitches when displaying PDF documents). As an attorney, I make heavy use of the redaction tool LibreOffice introduced a year or so ago.
Other software
Strangely, I had to reinstall pdftk and xsane with the upgrade to 24.04. Why?
Cryptomator, used to encrypt my work files and run as an AppImage, kept chugging along without issues. Wünderschön.
Veracrypt needed to be removed sudo apt remove veracrypt — and then re-installed with a version just for 24.04. A simple and well done resolution by the folks who manage Veracrypt.
Emacs had a strange bug. With the update to noble, Emacs went to version 29.2, but the org-mode package was out of date.
A click on the install button resolved the error.
Note: as a snap, emacs is at version 29.4. As a deb in 22.04, emacs is at version 27.1. It is unclear to me how all of the support apps and files for emacs available in the repositories interact with the snap version of emacs (they apparently do not, I presume, unless loaded as part of an emacs configuration). This obvious information should be easily available, but I cannot find it.
Snaps
Ubuntu has pushed snaps as its future, and so Xubuntu has had to join the snap bandwagon. I am agnostic on the issue. I see both benefits and drawbacks on using snaps. Given modern hardware and my own middling computer needs, I can live with snaps.
To check on the size of your snap installation, use these commands:
$ sudo du -hs /snap
[sudo] password for user:
24G /snap
$ du -hs /var/lib/snapd/snaps
8.0G /var/lib/snapd/snaps
The first number is the virtual disk size being used by the snap applications. The second number is the actual amount of disk space being used by the snap applications. As explained in the source for this information:
when unused, the files in /snap are just mount points and nothing in there should occupy more ram than needed for holding the directory and file structure, when you do an ls or find command on it …
as long as you do not run the snap app itself, the only resource used is the disk space in /var/lib/snapd/snaps but no CPU or any significant amount of RAM.
I typically do NOT use the App Center application (or its prior versions) for installing or updating installed software. Rather, I update either via the command line — sudo apt update and then sudo apt upgrade — or via Settings | Software Updater. For snap applications, I need to separately run in the terminal sudo snap refresh. I have found that snap applications are typically NOT updated if I reply solely on apt or the Software Updater. That is, I need to run sudo snap refresh separately to get snap applications updated.
My habit now is to update each morning I begin work.
The switch to snaps began in earnest with 22.04. As a result, not much has changed with 24.04 other than than more apps are now defaulting to snap versions.
For instance, wine is now a snap and the available version has jumped to a much more current 9 (the deb version with 22.04 was stuck at 6.0.3).
Clean-up script for snaps
I use the following script from itsfoss.com, with modifications for a warning, for cleaning up old snap applications that have been replaced (or refreshed in the parlance of snap):
$ cat clean-snap-warning.sh
#!/bin/bash
# run with sudo
# source for warning: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1885525/how-do-i-prompt-a-user-for-confirmation-in-bash-script
read -p "Are all snap applications closed [y/n]" -n 1 -r
echo # moves to new line
if [[ ! $REPLY =~ ^[Yy]$ ]]
then
[[ "$0" = "$BASH_SOURCE" ]] && echo "Close all snap applications and run again" && exit 1 || return 1 # handle exits from shell
else
# Removes old revisions of snaps [original script]
# CLOSE ALL SNAPS BEFORE RUNNING THIS
set -eu
snap list --all | awk '/disabled/{print $1, $3}' |
while read snapname revision;
do snap remove "$snapname" --revision="$revision"
done
fi
See the even better script available at this forum post. I still prefer the simpler script I use which requires actually typing y to start the script, so as to avoid an accidental start while a snap application is still running.
The effect of this script is obvious. For instance, after running the clean snaps script:
$ du -hs /var/lib/snapd/snaps
8.0G /var/lib/snapd/snaps
$ sudo ./clean-snap-warning.sh
Are all snap applications closed [y/n]y
bottom (revision 767) removed
chromium (revision 2940) removed
core22 (revision 1586) removed
firefox (revision 4793) removed
glow (revision 81) removed
gnome-46-2404 (revision 42) removed
monolith (revision 651) removed
opera (revision 327) removed
shotcut (revision 1505) removed
skype (revision 357) removed
$ du -hs /var/lib/snapd/snaps
6.6G /var/lib/snapd/snaps
Something like this script should be automated as a cron job by Ubuntu as part of weekly system cleanup, especially if snaps are going to be the “future.”
AppImage apps
I use numerous AppImage applications, like Cryptomator, that are installed in my ~/.local folder.
The AppImage format is so much simpler to manage and upgrade than snap applications. When running an AppImage application, it tells me when a new version is available. I then download the new version, quit and delete the older version, copy the new version to my ~/.local directory (and usually change the name to something simpler, like cryptomator.AppImage), and then use the Properties|Permission contextual menu to turn on the option to Allow this file to run as a program (in a terminal window, chmod +x cryptomator.AppImage would also work).
Panel issues
I have already seen that the PulseAudio plugin in the panel is non-functional after the upgrade. Running pavucontrol from terminal, however, still works. And, as noted in the official upgrade guidance, removing the PulseAudio plugin and then reinstalling it fixed the problem.
One plus is that the major changes with the panel in 22.04 (which redid the notifications and systray plugin scheme for the panel) was much easier to manage this time around with 24.04. The only problem so far, as noted above, has been the PulseAudio plugin.
Finally, the display of apps via the launcher plugins is much improved.
Overall
I have been running Xubuntu since at least 2011 (maybe even earlier). This jump to 24.04 should have been easier than it turned out.
Yes, there were many screens about changed config files. Those are normal through the years. What has changed is that re-enabling PPAs with updated info no longer works. And, having to reinstall simple software should not be required.
The framework for snap applications needs some work. If Ubuntu is going to turn to snap applications, then management of snaps also needs to included. Folks with some memory will recall that Ubuntu kernel updates used to hang because the /boot volume would run out of available disk space because of previous kernel versions being retained. The solution back them was to manually remove old kernels with the rm command — a fraught solution given that an errant rm could render a system unbootable.
The same excessive number of versions and running-out-of-disk-space problem will be happening with snap applications if care is not taken to manage and remove old versions of applications that have long since been updated.
These problems are mainly the responsibility of Ubuntu, however. As for Xubuntu itself, I have much better news to report.
The appearance of 24.04 is much improved over 22.04 in Xubuntu. Compare, for instance, the task manager. In 22.04, the task manager had a find box that toggled on or off in the middle of the window.
Notice too that the window chrome is grey on grey with the window itself. With the update to Noble, the task manager’s appearance has a natural layout (find is automatically available in a dedicated space) and there is solid contrast between the title bar (black) and the window itself (grey).
Thunar — one of the best parts of Xubuntu — is stellar. Performance and display have been improved. A comparison with what Files/nautilus is doing showcases just how spectacular Thunar has become visibly.
One change in Thunar I do NOT like is that the Open Terminal here contextual menu command is now only available when NO file is selected inside a folder. In 22.04, Thunar allowed you to open the terminal for a directory even when a file inside that directory/folder was selected. In 24.04, however, selecting a file means the Open Terminal here contextual command is no longer available.
Only by making sure no file is selected is the Open Terminal here contextual command available.
Watching DVDs via Parole has been broken for some time — DVD menus do not appear properly and DVD videos do not play in Parole (but do with VLC) — and the upgrade to 24.04 has not fixed that problem. Sigh.
Note: the help documentation does not resolve this problem. And, advice on itsfoss.com has not fixed the problem either.
The upgrade to Noble has brought important and welcome changes to the Xubuntu experience, and the increasing use of snaps is not a major obstacle . . . yet (but could become problematic if better management of snaps is not implemented soon). Problems with the upgrade are mainly the result of the increasing complexity of securing these systems as well as providing for ever increasing complexity in the available hardware and across competing software packages.