18.04 Upgrade - Where are all the settings?

[Replicon]

Hi,

I just bit the bullet and upgraded from 16.04 to 18.04. I went in to fix my various settings, which of course, were blown away by the upgrade, and am surprised at how little configurability I'm seeing in "settings".

For example, I wanted to disable the alert sound (which plays if, for example, I am at the first file in explorer and press the 'up' arrow).

According to these instructions: https://help.ubuntu.com/stable/ubuntu-help/sound-alert.html.en

I'm supposed to go "Activity -> Sound -> Sound Effects" (or just Settings -> Sound...), but... when I go there on my settings, I don't see any "Sound Effects" tab! I only see "Output Volume", "Over-Amplification", and "Output Input Sound Effects Applications".

Similarly, "Mouse" only has "Primary Button", "Speed", and "Natural Scrolling"....

... And "Mouse Speed" doesn't do anything!!!! I can click it, and nothing happens!!

I am assuming my installation is completely broken.

How do I fix this?

Here's some screenshots from the settings dialog:

281283

281284

There's all kinds of other brokenness, like I selected a Background Image, but it doesn't show up, and I just have a grey background.

[TheFu]

Gnome3 has been around a long time, so there are a few "settings" programs. Any of the Gnome3 versions should work. https://www.linuxuprising.com/2018/09/how-to-disable-mouse-acceleration-in.html explains a little about "Gnome Tweaks".

Why?
16.04 used Canonical's Unity.
18.04 uses Gnome3.
The DE settings are stored in different files with different config settings. Some people might want to run Unity as a fall-back, so leaving prior Unity settings untouched is important.

And don't forget that there are 20 other GUIs you can put on top of Ubuntu. Each fills a niche market, so it just depends on what you need from a GUI as to which is preferred.

I don't use Gnome or Unity, just posting to give options and backgrounds.

[Replicon]

Thanks, I'll set up gnome-tweaks when I get home and see if things are any better.

I've always assumed tools like 'xxx-tweaks' are unsupported by the mainline WM creator (in this case, Gnome), and meant for highly advanced settings (like if I want to do really really specific customizations, like "I want 'Edit' to show up on the left of 'File'" for some reason, or something of the sort).

Surely, I'm not the only one who thinks the default settings configurator provided by gnome should be at LEAST as feature-complete as what you'd expect from a basic Windows XP control panel dialog from 10 years ago. :)

Anyway, I'll give gnome-tweaks a try tonight.

I was definitely going to look into better WM options, longer term. I haven't played with them in a while. At some point I remember having FluxBox, and loving how minimal it was, how fast it loaded, etc. I'll have to look up the new gold standard of awesome WM that won't break backwards-compatibility with every upgrade... I just want my look-and-feel to not change from LTS to LTS, and I DEFINITELY want to switch to a WM that doesn't act like my desktop is a friggin cell phone. No, I won't swipe up. YOU swipe up! :p

[TheFu]

Expecting things to be like Windows will just lead to frustration. http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm The way a distro gets put together is nothing like how a commercial OS does it.

Ubuntu-mate has more of a complete, nice, but simple GUI management layer. At least it did on 16.04. 18.04 is too new for my needs. I'm still waiting. I'm hardly the best person to ask about configuration GUIs. Haven't used any in a very long time. I prefer modifying the files directly.

[Replicon]

Expecting things to be like Windows will just lead to frustration. http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm The way a distro gets put together is nothing like how a commercial OS does it.

Ubuntu-mate has more of a complete, nice, but simple GUI management layer. At least it did on 16.04. 18.04 is too new for my needs. I'm still waiting.

Make no mistake, I don't want it to be like Windows... I just meant the amount of control. I normally expect anything Linux to be MORE configurable out of the box, if anything. In fact, even something like the Unity settings we had with 16.04 would be great. I don't see why we're okay with a step back in that department.

I've been exclusively on Linux, and mostly on Ubuntu, since Gutsy Gibbon, and this is the first time I installed an updated LTS, and was severely disappointed in the lack of basic configurability.

Actually, I STILL think my install is broken. Let me re-iterate (and I'm happy to start a separate thread to isolate this issue):

I tried to follow these instructions to turn off the annoying "alert" sound: https://help.ubuntu.com/stable/ubuntu-help/sound-alert.html.en

These instructions point to the default "Settings" dialog that comes installed out of the box. It says there's supposed to be a "Sound Effects" tab. There isn't one (see my screenshot from my OP). I thought maybe it's just broken UI and I need to figure out how to scroll down, but mouse wheel/arrows aren't doing anything...

So... is my installation broken, or is there a mistake in that documentation? Is what you see on the screenshot for the "Sound Settings" dialog what it's supposed to look like?

[deadflowr]

Sound Effects is right there on the sound settings page.
It's a tabless(?) tab.
Just click on the Sound Effects entry in that line above the Main area, where it says Output Input Sound Effects Applications

And the mouse speed settings seems to be missing the slide bar, which is probably the result of a broken or unsupported theme.

That aside, Gnome is moving in the direction opposite of where any other window manager/desktop environment is going.
Instead of more, it's going with less.
(You could replace more and less with better and worse, depending on your opinion)
Almost any other DE/WM has more nuanced controls.


I've always assumed tools like 'xxx-tweaks' are unsupported by the mainline WM creator
Tools such as gnome tweaks is supported by the creators, but whether those tools make it into any distribution is solely up to the distribution.
Ubuntu has opted not to include it by default, but that doesn't mean other distros won't.

[Replicon]

Sound Effects is right there on the sound settings page.
It's a tabless(?) tab.
Just click on the Sound Effects entry in that line above the Main area, where it says Output Input Sound Effects Applications

WOWZERS, I did NOT see that, and I was totally scanning it really carefully up and down, looking for it haha.

I guess this is an example where "less" is "worse", because if there were any kind of proper separator showing the tab options, my brain would not have parsed that as "this is a list of input/output sound-effect applications" which I thought was strangely-worded. :D (unless it's got to do with the broken theme)


And the mouse speed settings seems to be missing the slide bar, which is probably the result of a broken or unsupported theme.

This is very possible. When I was on Unity, I enabled a dark theme, and I guess those are just shared across those WMs. Unfortunately, I don't recall a "Themes" panel in the settings, which would allow me to change it. I'll re-check, though. Maybe for that, I'll need one of the tweakers.

So the unsupported theme hypothesis is quite valid. That might be why some other things broke, like how I selected a background image, and it doesn't show up (unless I click the "apps" button with the 9 squares).




That aside, Gnome is moving in the direction opposite of where any other window manager/desktop environment is going.
Instead of more, it's going with less.
(You could replace more and less with better and worse, depending on your opinion)
Almost any other DE/WM has more nuanced controls.


Tools such as gnome tweaks is supported by the creators, but whether those tools make it into any distribution is solely up to the distribution.
Ubuntu has opted not to include it by default, but that doesn't mean other distros won't.

Thanks for the info.

And my apologies if I'm coming across as a frustrated grump. Every time I update my OS version, I just lose my cherub-like demeanor haha... The "X" (close) button on a window moves from left to right to left... I'd rather just stick its location in an RC file and forget about it, and have it work the way I want it to work forever, through the next decade of LTS updates, until the concept of a "desktop computer" changes enough to warrant changing something that works great as-is. Can't wait to tweak away that "swipe up" nonsense haha. ;)

[Replicon]

OK, finally! Installing gnome-tweaks has allowed me to get things to a better state, by switching to a different dark theme. The unsupported theme made things look JUST bad enough that it just looks like terrible UI design choices, and then when people here said "gnome is going with a 'less' design", I took it to mean "my windows have no borders and blend into one another... I guess that's this 'less' I'm hearing about" haha. The options inside gnome-tweaks, especially "Themes", should really be in the main distro, but that's not an argument I'm willing to spend time on with the main creators...

Anyway, aside from minor annoyances like forcing a vertical workspace layout, it's usable enough for the next few weeks until I find a suitable WM to switch to (MATE or perhaps something ultra-lightweight but ultra-configurable). Thanks for the help!

[TheFu]

Slight distinction that might be important for any lurkers.

WM is Window Manager. Openbox, fluxbox, fvwm, awesome, twm, mwm are examples.
DE is a Desktop Environment. Mate, LXDE, Gnome, KDE, XFCE, LXQt are examples.

A DE requires a WM to work. DEs sit on top of WMs.

A WM does not require a DE to work. WMs sit on top of an X/Server.

WMs are usually highly configurable via the text config files. I remember controlling the width of the borders, scrollbars, menus, title bar decades ago. Obviously, controlling the colors was possible too, along with new window placement rules, and different workspace use.

I would guess that gnome-tweaks helps with settings in the Gnome DE.

[Replicon]

Slight distinction that might be important for any lurkers.

WM is Window Manager. Openbox, fluxbox, fvwm, awesome, twm, mwm are examples.
DE is a Desktop Environment. Mate, LXDE, Gnome, KDE, XFCE, LXQt are examples.

A DE requires a WM to work. DEs sit on top of WMs.

A WM does not require a DE to work. WMs sit on top of an X/Server.

WMs are usually highly configurable via the text config files. I remember controlling the width of the borders, scrollbars, menus, title bar decades ago. Obviously, controlling the colors was possible too, along with new window placement rules, and different workspace use.

I would guess that gnome-tweaks helps with settings in the Gnome DE.

One quick question: Does whether a WM works in conjunction with a DE depend on the WM, or are there just two ways of running any WM? For example, if I set up FluxBox or Openbox, does that enforce "no DE" or "yes DE", or is that a completely separate, orthogonal thing, meaning I can choose to run Openbox with or without a DE, for a different experience of sorts?

[TheFu]

You can run any WM without any other layers over it.

Some DEs are tied to the WM, but many are not. They just need a WM that follows the standards for what a WM is supposed to do and services a WM is supposed to provide.

I run plain openbox. No menus. A terminal is my launcher and I've setup accel keystrokes for the 5 things I use all the time in the openbox XML config file. There ain't no GUI for managing that.

[PaulW2U]

Anyway, aside from minor annoyances like forcing a vertical workspace layout,
Take a look at GNOME Shell Extensions (https://extensions.gnome.org/) for officially approved extensions to GNOME Shell. Workspace Grid (https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/484/workspace-grid/) might be of interest to you. If not just search for 'workspace'. There's plenty there that will enable you to customise your GNOME desktop to your liking.