Ubuntu 18.04

This page contains notes and changes introduces with the update to Ubuntu 18.04.

Printers

The CUPS printing service has been switched back to the official way with cups-browsed. That means you will see all printers in the institute, not only those intended for your use. Be carefully when choosing a printer. You can select your default printer with the command 'lpoptions -d PRINTERNAME'.

Update 18.7.19: Printers are still pain. They disappear sometimes from the announcement service of the print server. We are working on a solution for this.

Emergency work around for the printers

If the printers disappeared from the list and no admin is available, the is are workaround you can apply yourself. But this can imply other problems, if to many users use it.

Cups client library has the option to connect directly to server and not to the local spooler. This circumvents the browsing problem. But this has the drawback that the server may run out of connections, because the client opens one TCP connection for each printer.

Create a file in your home ".cups/client.conf". The .cups directory may not exist. Add the following line to the file:

   ServerName print-itp:631

If you want to switch back, you can just comment out the line with a '#' in front.

Computer is very slow

In the case the KDE full test indexing, call 'baloo' is consuming all your network bandwidth. Benefit is rather small, you should disable this service. It's a use service. We have disabled this service in other desktop environment except KDE Plasma in later installations. This issue popped up already with Ubuntu 16.04, you will find instructions here: Baloo_file_indexing

Ubuntu 18.04 and the Gnome Desktop Manager (Default Desktop Manager)

If you are using gnome as desktop manager, then there exist two applications for settings. For the main settings menu click on 'Activities' or 'Aktivitäten' in the upper left corner and search for 'Settings' or 'Einstellungen'. If the settings you search for do not exist in the normal settings menu, then exists for gnome a second settings menu. Search for 'Tweaks' or 'Optimierungen'. Following some usual problems with gnome an ubuntu 18.04:

'Missing Desktop Icons' or 'Missing Options in the Right-Click-Menu on the Desktop'

In the second settings menu in the section 'Desktop' activate the desktop icons.

'Scripts on the Desktop are not executable' or 'Search in the File Manager does not find existing Files'

The Desktop is managed by the graphical file manager (nautilus). If you open nautilus (e.g. by clicking the 'Home'-Folder on the desktop) and select the nautilus window, you get in the bar at the top of the screen a menu 'Files'. From this menu you can select "Preferences'. There you can set the behaviour of nautilus like whether text files can be executed by clicking (but only if the file itself is executable) and search and preview options.