Criticism helps make Easy Ubuntu better... give us some!

[kbrooks]

The title says it all. If you have some constructive criticism, then do give it to us, so that EasyUbuntu can be improved!

[nigelenki]

Get people to actually use EasyUbuntu instead of Automatix. Everyone keeps using Automatix, have you seen the uninstall instructions? First update to totem or ESD will break the system.

[Kamping_Kaiser]

Get people to actually use EasyUbuntu instead of Automatix.

This isn't really a constructive critisism :), more a vague 'nice idea'. The EasyUbuntu team doesnt have the time or resources (or energy) to go and try and get everyone to use EU over Automatix.
This line of thinking is also hindered by the different roles EU and Ax play, as Ax has a much larger 'point and shoot' package selection.
kk

[Aurora]

I would like the capability of viewing/watching streaming video and audio in most common formats. Most media on the web will not play with any of the apps in Easy Ubuntu on my machine, an iMac G3 running Breezy/Xubuntu. I'm wondering if others are seeing more funtionality? I don't know if it's this machine, it seems to be missing a lot of libraries and plugins, and can't seem to install files from the CD ROM that the installer apparently calls for.

[houstonbofh]

First, I do not have either Easy or Automatix working yet. I tried Easy but it failed on install with a very poorly documented error. Before I continue, I am trying to find out if it changed anything. That said, I do have some good input...

What is it? - What does it do? Why is it better (or worse) for me than Automatix? This is huge for a new user, as no one says which to install with any real information!

Error reporting! - I am not a *nix beginner, and I have not been able to find out what was done, and what wasn't when it crashed. Good clear logs would help!

Autodetection - No reason it can't see what you have manually (or from a broken attempt) installed.

[Aviatrixie]

Just a few comments from a relative Linux newbie (11/05).

When I first jumped on the Ubuntu wagon last november I tried manual installation but it was very frustrating... very few things worked! A bit of browsing led me to Automatix. I perused the flamewars but decided to give it a try. It worked! Not only worked, but worked flawlessly for me. The only downside was I wound up with 2 or 3 (or more) things to do the same thing. But... at least I had a fully functional Ubuntu.

Fast forward a few months... I had recently upgraded a bunch of stuff on my PC all at once (CPU, DVD-ROM, DVD Burner) and Breezy refused to run. Being a newb, I decided to save my data and do a clean install of Breezy. I once again used Automatix (this was in late May) and this time flash and java refused to install. I decided to do a clean install of Dapper in early june. The install went flawlessly, but I decided to explore options besides Automatix and wandered into the Easy IRC chat.

There I was told that Automatix will definately eventually break my system. I decided to try using Easy and it all went flawlessly. I also found Add/Remove option in Apps to be a lot more complete and a lot less prone to messing up. I used that to install everything that Easy Ubuntu did not.

My point? Both Automatix AND Easy Ubuntu worked well for me. Maybe they break installs, but I've not seen that yet. And if they ever do I'll just reinstall my OS. It's really not THAT big of a deal!

I was a total Linux newbie when I wandered in here last november. I'm sorting it all out and on my way to be a literate penguin. But I do want to say, Automatix and Easy Ubuntu did ease the transition.

Keep up the good work!

[H.E. Pennypacker]

I would like the capability of viewing/watching streaming video and audio in most common formats.

EasyUbuntu does exactly that. You may have done something incorrectly. Search for the problems you're facing using the search feature, and see if there is a solution.

Why is it better (or worse) for me than Automatix? This is huge for a new user, as no one says which to install with any real information!

I wanted a comparison of Automatix and EasyUbuntu, but it was nearly impossible to find. Eventually, I went with EasyUbuntu, because I looked at the list of things that both installed, and EasyUbuntu installed less.

There I was told that Automatix will definately eventually break my system.

The author of Automatix is very upset people are making that claim. I don't know what the truth is, but the author blames any problems on the user for either not installing Automatix correctly, or not using it properly. It seems Automatix works for most people.

I also found Add/Remove option in Apps to be a lot more complete and a lot less prone to messing up. I used that to install everything that Easy Ubuntu did not.

What did you get from Add/Remove that EasyUbuntu did not install?

[Aviatrixie]

Quote:
I also found Add/Remove option in Apps to be a lot more complete and a lot less prone to messing up. I used that to install everything that Easy Ubuntu did not.

Quote:
What did you get from Add/Remove that EasyUbuntu did not install?


I installed Gnomebaker, a burner app that Automatix installed and that I found I liked very much. I also installed Adobe Reader, StreamTuner, XMMS, Audacity, AcidRip, MPlayer (which AcidRip requires), and XChat... some of which Automatix installs and all of which I use regularly. Everything that Easy Ubuntu offers installed properly for me, it just doesn't offer everything that I want. I find Dapper's Add/Remove to be much more complete and reliable than Breezy's. YMMV, but that has been my experience.

Oh... and I added Frozen Bubble... best time-waster I've seen in a while!

[Orion Mayair]

There may be a Better Place for this comment but...

Easy Ubuntu exists largely because...
:rolleyes:
The 6.06 ( Device Manager ) in Ubuntu is currently more Fiction than Fact...
In that it doesn't really give you a way to Manage your Devices...
Which in many cases is a Matter of...

1. ReConfiguring Your EXISTING Drivers

2. Installing NEW Drivers

3. Turning Devices ON or OFF

4. Finding NEW Devices or NEW Drivers

5. Re-Allocating or Assigning System Resources ( IRQs / DMA Channels / Memory ect. )

For Example... Some Sound Cards and Some Network Cards work better on or Only Work Correctly when using IRQ 19.

Another Example... Many PC Motherboards have Better / Faster Polling on Certain PCI Card Slots... ( This Information could be tied to a DataBase that Feeds into a Message or Device Driver Suggestion System... aka; Try Moving Your Sound Card to PCI Slot # 3
( Things like this are Ofter Required to Make Certain Combinations of Hardware Work together ! Plus These Issues are usually known by the Device Manufacture... )
Also Notes to the User like ( You have Two Audio Output Systems... One built into your MotherBoard and your ( Higher Quality ) EMU 1212m... We suggest that you DISABLE you Built-In Sound via your CMOS Configuration Utility and use ONLY your Emu 1212m ) This kind of System Assistance would make of break many potential new users by eliminating needless confussion...

This ( Device Manager ) should be called a Device Infomation Resource... It's Not Really a Device Manager. ( Not Yet Anyway )!

It could be Turned into a Really Cool one though...
Some Basic Ideas for it...

A. Re-Design it from the Ground Up to Mirror the Configuration of THE Hardware that Ubuntu is Running On...
Lay it Out Like the Actual MotherBoard, CPU, ChipSets, Memory and Attached Drives, CDROMs, DVDROMs

Some of the Functionallity of Easy Ubuntu is really much closer to a Device Manager...

Easy Ubuntu should be ( Built-In to Ubuntu ) many of it's features should be Part of the INSTALL PROCESS...

I personally have spent MANY NEEDLESS HOURS getting Real ATI Video Drivers installed and Configured... Because the Generic System Installed Drivers were sort of Lame on the 3d Side...
Now this is All Fun and Exciting Stuff but the Typical PC User is NOT Equipted to Go There...

So there's some Criticism for your Smoking Pipe !

:-D
On the Other Side your Ubuntu Teams are Doing Great Work !

Much Thanks,

Orion
:KS

[jan]

Get more "official" support from Ubuntu. Otherwise, the idea is good but crosses over with several other projects like the default Ubuntu's Add/Remove software tool. I guess with this Easy Ubuntu will barely have space to survive.

Sorry if I am too negative, guys! :-k

[shane2peru]

Ok, here is a quick one. I didn't read over the whole thread, so it may have been in there already. It would be nice if it was updated to dapper, or maybe a new name EU-Dapper and EU-Breezy ect.. I just tried it to try it, and it changed all my sources to breezy, I'm using dapper. I don't know if this is a big problem, but probably should be fixed.

Shane

[PingunZ]

I use both Automatix install a lot, easyubuntu install fewer things but they both work great:KS

Grtz PingunZ

[Kamping_Kaiser]

(Healthy levels of trimming used)


Error reporting! - I am not a *nix beginner, and I have not been able to find out what was done, and what wasn't when it crashed. Good clear logs would help!

Autodetection - No reason it can't see what you have manually (or from a broken attempt) installed.
EU logs to the terminal, i'm not sure about teh status of to-file logging.
EU can detect what is already installed in the current stable release.


EasyUbuntu does exactly that. You may have done something incorrectly. Search for the problems you're facing using the search feature, and see if there is a solution.
Many codecs are not available for PPC.
if you find a codec works on PPC and we dont include it (but do for other versions), let us know.

Quote:

Quote:
What did you get from Add/Remove that EasyUbuntu did not install?

I installed Gnomebaker, a burner app that Automatix installed and that I found I liked very much. I also installed Adobe Reader, StreamTuner, XMMS, Audacity, AcidRip, MPlayer (which AcidRip requires), and XChat... some of which Automatix installs and all of which I use regularly. Everything that Easy Ubuntu offers installed properly for me, it just doesn't offer everything that I want. I find Dapper's Add/Remove to be much more complete and reliable than Breezy's. YMMV, but that has been my experience.

Most of this stuff is easily available through the repos, EU was made to install some stuff that /isnt/ easily available.


Get more "official" support from Ubuntu. Otherwise, the idea is good but crosses over with several other projects like the default Ubuntu's Add/Remove software tool. I guess with this Easy Ubuntu will barely have space to survive.

Sorry if I am too negative, guys! :-k
too negative? not at all :)
see my comment just above, and also remember that crossover with other projects isnt alwasy a bad thing, as it helps drive them+us to improve :). as for the software install tool, it still wont do PLF (for example).


Ok, here is a quick one. I didn't read over the whole thread, so it may have been in there already. It would be nice if it was updated to dapper, or maybe a new name EU-Dapper and EU-Breezy ect.. I just tried it to try it, and it changed all my sources to breezy, I'm using dapper. I don't know if this is a big problem, but probably should be fixed.

Shane
EasyUbuntu stable (current one) supports dapper and breezy.

[azecraze]

What I would like to see is that when Easy Ubuntu says that it is putting on Skype, then that is what it does. Instead of installing SIP.

Unless I am looking at things a bit wrong as I am a noob to everything.

When I saw that it did that, I thought that it looked like something you would get from a "windows helper app"
Ask for one thing and it gives you all this ad stuff.

[Aurora]

Many codecs are not available for PPC.


Oh. Let me see if I've got this right: I am not going to be able to play most media on my Xubuntu-running G3 iMac, no matter what I install? The Easy Ubuntu page suggests otherwise:

"EasyUbuntu is so easy to use in fact, that even your grandma could be playing encrypted dvds, streaming Windows Media, and sporting the latest Nvidia or Ati drivers in minutes! And yes, EasyUbuntu is GPL.

EasyUbuntu works on (X/K)ubuntu and on all the three architectures (x86, AMD64 and PPC)."

Here's my suggestion to "make Easy Ubuntu better." I think a little transparency and honesty is in order. A simple disclaimer could let PPC users know that Easy Ubuntu is not going to solve the multimedia problems they have. I request that the Easy Ubuntu page (http://easyubuntu.freecontrib.org/) and this forum have a statement saying that, because of the lack of available codecs, they are not going to see much media with the apps Easy Ubuntu installs. It would save a lot of frustration and wasted effort trying to fix the unfixable.

[heislord5]

fresh install of dapper and install of easyubuntu and I get this message:

http://packages.freecontrib.org/ubuntu/plf/dists/dapper/Release.gpg: Could not connect to packages.freecontrib.org:80 (213.251.190.135). - connect (111 Connection refused)

So what does that mean? specifically set out to not install anything other than supported stuff because I know the fragility, but this still doesn't work for me.

From the account I installed from I was told that flash needed to be updated when I tried to watch video from foxsports.com. Updating didn't help (actually I think it ended up installing the same package). I could hear the sound, but no video.

Then I logged in as root and I don't even get the sound. No media seems to work, because I can't hear realmedia either or windows media from cspan.org.

When I start easy ubuntu again, it says that some packages are installed and some are not, but it won't let me install the other packages because of the error message from above.

any help appreciated.

[strumer]

The PLF repository is apparently down. You won't be able to get the win32 codecs and libdvdcss right now.

It's being discussed here as well
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=215443

This isn't an easyubuntu problem.

[heislord5]

The PLF repository is apparently down. You won't be able to get the win32 codecs and libdvdcss right now.

It's being discussed here as well
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=215443

This isn't an easyubuntu problem.

The package location and stuff has changed so now Easy needs to be updated.

[Azrael Nightwalker]

I think EasyUbuntu should be available as a package in Universe repository.
After a fresh installation Of Ubuntu I would just install EasyUbuntu & run it. No need to search for it - apt would do it for me.

[Bou]

I don't think "EasyUbuntu" is "Easy" to install. I mean, it is for me, but what about my friend who just tried Ubuntu and doesn't even know what the terminal is?

wget http://easyubuntu.freecontrib.org/files/easyubuntu-3.022.tar.gz
tar -zxf easyubuntu-3.022.tar.gz
cd easyubuntu
sudo python easyubuntu.in

I think this would scare him off. Please make it so that I can give him an easyubuntu.deb which he can double-click on, then look for the program on the menu. And add a checkbox to uninstall easyubuntu once the changes have been added.

[buntumaddy]

Edit: Didn't notice earlier that this was just for Easy Ubuntu. Some of these points still might apply to easyubuntu, but I wrote it for the distributioin in general. Sorry for the confusion.
-----

Sound control.

Almost all distributions I have messed with (Finally found ubuntu the best), the system sound control leaves a lot to ask for. Even after using automatix and installing all necessary packages/codecs, it's not very straightforward to start watching movies or playing music, esp. if the user has multiple sound cards such as on board and USB.

Switching between USB sound and on board sound on my laptop is one of my biggest gripes. Plugging in the USB headset brings up the nice message of a new sound device detected and I go to sound prefs and change to that device to, but the system does not automatically start playing to that device. A restart is required. I believe that defeats the entire purpose of having anything USB.

Also, it's nice to have a wonderfully large variety of sound/video applications to choose from, but as a basic setup, any new user would expect JUST ONE application (or maybe two, one for audio and one for video) which could satisfy all their multimedia needs. Personally, I have zeroed in on Rhythmbox and MPlayer, but still struggling with Mplayer audio (alsa-control) issues. I also wonder if there's a need for so many different audio drivers (alsa/oss/esd etc.). Can't we just have one default driver that works and easily switches to whichever the users chooses from one single list of available devices (which the user shouldn't HAVE TO, just a choice)? esd might be what I'm talking about, but it's plagued with lack of audio/video sync.

Summary till this point: For sound & video, one (maybe two) applications that actually work and not overwhelm the user with options (that actually dont work). Also, having just one single working audio driver wrapper set in every application, and that wrapper hides the current device being used. Once we have this, let's leave it upto the user to choose how deep they want to go and customize the applications/drivers.


Wireless

Windows drivers are readily available and ndiswrapper could be included by default too (even the Windows Wireless Drivers application). I'm clueless about legal implications, but is it really that prohibitive to not just include them by default. I see that in basic install (without ndis or anything else), the wireless device (bcm4306 in my case) gets detected just fine. So, why can't the driver be installed automatically, even with ndiswrapper?


Webcam

/dev/video0, /dev/video etc... I could see that the webcam was detected fine, even the inbuilt mic on it, but none of the applications could actually access that webcam feed? Not sure what's wrong.


USB Hubs

Have come accross this problem many many many times. Device does not work if plugged into a USB hub or a second layer USB hub (daisy chained with first one), but works just fine when directly connected to the onboard USB ports. Something minor but important to consider.


Other issues like lack of latest version support from Adobe, Skype etc. might not be in your hands, so, can't really talk about it.

[mikkohuo]

I don't think "EasyUbuntu" is "Easy" to install. I mean, it is for me, but what about my friend who just tried Ubuntu and doesn't even know what the terminal is?



I think this would scare him off. Please make it so that I can give him an easyubuntu.deb which he can double-click on, then look for the program on the menu. And add a checkbox to uninstall easyubuntu once the changes have been added.

Yeps! I really agree you!

[progster]

The title says it all. If you have some constructive criticism, then do give it to us, so that EasyUbuntu can be improved!

Nothing to improve as far as I am concerned, you squash the competition!

[jrc]

Please update the screenshot on the Easyubuntu overview page (http://easyubuntu.freecontrib.org/overview.html) so that it reflects accurately the multimedia packages that are available for installation.

The main reason I downloaded Easyubuntu was so I could do an easy installation of Realplayer. When I glanced at the screenshot I saw that Realplayer was listed. A close inspection of the Multimedia list below the screenshot, however, shows that Realplayer is no longer an available option.

[kbrooks]

Please update the screenshot on the Easyubuntu overview page (http://easyubuntu.freecontrib.org/overview.html) so that it reflects accurately the multimedia packages that are available for installation.

The main reason I downloaded Easyubuntu was so I could do an easy installation of Realplayer. When I glanced at the screenshot I saw that Realplayer was listed. A close inspection of the Multimedia list below the screenshot, however, shows that Realplayer is no longer an available option.

Updating screenshot: Well, we can't do this at the moment. But we will in the future.
Realplayer is no longer an available option because the package is broken.

[Free-Pete]

Make it easy to have dual monitors with out pasting code in to terminal and with out editing files.

[Free-Pete]

Originally Posted by Bou View Post
I don't think "EasyUbuntu" is "Easy" to install. I mean, it is for me, but what about my friend who just tried Ubuntu and doesn't even know what the terminal is?



I think this would scare him off. Please make it so that I can give him an easyubuntu.deb which he can double-click on, then look for the program on the menu. And add a checkbox to uninstall easyubuntu once the changes have been added.


Yeps! I really agree you!

Good idea. Flash should be a deb to