How can I break a development release installed on my machine?

[amjjawad]

Hi,

A side of well-known bugs and broken features reported, how can I break an installed development release? I know Beta 2 is approaching and things get more stable but from my own testing and other feedback from many different users, even Alpha Releases were a bit stable this cycle.

Now, don't get me wrong but I'm looking for some fun and above all, I am seeking to learn new stuff and better understanding

I want to learn how to break an installed system and how can I fix it. But, of course, if it is not broken, how would I fix it?

Any good suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

P.S.
Do not worry, I have test machines (real ones) and I have extra IDE HDD and also some USB Drives and of course, to play that safe, I can do it on VMs

P.S. 2
This is also will help me in Testing (learn more about it).

P.S. 3
Systems I usually Test: Ubuntu GNOME and Lubuntu

[grahammechanical]

For Ubuntu Gnome I would suggest installing the 3 PPAs and wait until something downloads and breaks something. There are a couple of threads in this section that confirm the warning that the code in these PPAs is experimental.

We can enable the proposed repository. That brings in code before it goes into the usual update channels. We can install upstream beta software. Some install Linux kernel versions before they get into the Ubuntu update channel. Likewise with proprietary video drivers.

Fixing them is another matter. It is not something that I have mastered. Far from it. I have found the Recovery Mode options to be useful, especially when we cannot get to a desktop. I think there is a sticky at the top of this section that has a list of useful commands/codes. I have used these many times in giving advice in the other forum sections.

Oh, it just now came to mind. The best way to break Ubuntu is to endlessly modify the user interface. Plenty of people in the other sections manage to break the OS quite easily. Seriously, just experiment.

Regards.

P.S. Here is an experiment for you. I have had Ubuntu and all the flavours running on Xmir except Ubuntu Gnome. Now why would that be the case? I installed the Ubuntu Gnome daily from the 18th and the situation is still the same. Could the difference be GDM instead of LightDM? Or something else? Practical experimentation. That is my way of breaking things.

[amjjawad]

Hello and thanks for your reply

For Ubuntu Gnome I would suggest installing the 3 PPAs and wait until something downloads and breaks something. There are a couple of threads in this section that confirm the warning that the code in these PPAs is experimental.

Will give that a go
My only problem with Ubuntu GNOME is, I am testing it on my Real Hardware Machine which is not for testing. My Testing Machines (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/Hardware) can't handle Ubuntu GNOME so I must play it safe on the VM. This is Core i5 2nd generation with 4GB RAM

We can enable the proposed repository. That brings in code before it goes into the usual update channels. We can install upstream beta software. Some install Linux kernel versions before they get into the Ubuntu update channel. Likewise with proprietary video drivers.

Ah, I see deep complicated stuff here

Fixing them is another matter. It is not something that I have mastered. Far from it. I have found the Recovery Mode options to be useful, especially when we cannot get to a desktop. I think there is a sticky at the top of this section that has a list of useful commands/codes. I have used these many times in giving advice in the other forum sections.

Yes, but let's break something first hehe

Oh, it just now came to mind. The best way to break Ubuntu is to endlessly modify the user interface. Plenty of people in the other sections manage to break the OS quite easily. Seriously, just experiment.

By the way, I don't test Ubuntu, just Ubuntu GNOME and Lubuntu for now.

What do you mean by modify the user interface? settings and tweaks?

Thank you!

[amjjawad]

P.S. Here is an experiment for you. I have had Ubuntu and all the flavours running on Xmir except Ubuntu Gnome. Now why would that be the case? I installed the Ubuntu Gnome daily from the 18th and the situation is still the same. Could the difference be GDM instead of LightDM? Or something else? Practical experimentation. That is my way of breaking things.

I saw this after I posted my previous post.

It could be that because Ubuntu GNOME is using GDM and not LightDM but I have never tested XMIR except very few times when I was trying to help Xubuntu Team with their test and my test was a failure with the hardware I used at that time.

If I have enough time, I might try to look into this. Even though I'd like to focus more on features and/or packages which already exist and will be used rather than features/packages which will not be available with the stable release. But thanks a lot for this suggestion, will keep it in mind

[grahammechanical]

What do you mean by modify the user interface? settings and tweaks?

Yes. The usual procedure is to immediately forget what was changed and say, Ubuntu just broke itself. I do not get into it myself but installing themes and tweaking the desktop of the development branch is just as much a part of testing as anything else. I suppose.

Tomorrow I will install Lightdm in my new install of Ubuntu Gnome and replace GDM with it and see what happens.

Regards.

[deadflowr]

Deleting, renaming, or moving configuration files usually works well to bork a system up.
You don't even need to be root to do so.
Start mucking around the various hidden files and folders in the home folder.
.config might be a good start.

Edit(Disclaimer) I do not condone or support any of this though. For the record

[zika]

Yes. The usual procedure is to immediately forget what was changed and say, Ubuntu just broke itself. I do not get into it myself but installing themes and tweaking the desktop of the development branch is just as much a part of testing as anything else. I suppose.

Tomorrow I will install Lightdm in my new install of Ubuntu Gnome and replace GDM with it and see what happens.

Regards.

Brave... I did not see LightDM working for quite a while, Mir got it firmly...

[cariboo]

You could always enable the proposed repository, although it may be to late in the cycle, some of the guys have experienced some satisfying breakage when doing this.

[whatthefunk]

Install Mir.

[grahammechanical]

Actually, I have not found xmir to be breaking anything. I have had Ubuntu and all the flavours except Ubuntu Gnome running on xmir. I have just now finished an experiment that came into my mind yesterday - use lightdm instead of gdm. And it works. Having installed unity-system-compositor I then installed lightdm and configured it, in the process it deactivated gdm. On reboot Ubuntu Gnome is now running on xmir.

graham@sda8-UG-Saucy:~$ grep -i LoadModule /var/log/Xorg.0.log
[ 22.289] (II) LoadModule: "glx"
[ 22.329] (II) LoadModule: "xmir"
[ 22.400] (II) LoadModule: "nvidia"
[ 22.401] (II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"
[ 22.401] (II) LoadModule: "nouveau"
[ 22.421] (II) LoadModule: "vesa"
[ 22.428] (II) LoadModule: "modesetting"

As we will not be getting the full Mir on the desktop until sometime in the 14.10 development cycle, I do not see installing Mir as an effective way of breaking the desktop.

I am posting this from a fully functional Ubuntu Gnome + Xmir.

Regards