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+---- Thread: v17 Ubuntu freezing (/showthread.php?tid=292360)
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Ubuntu freezing - WelshPaul - 2016-09-28
I've just started using Ubuntu and installed Kodi following the command line instructions in the wiki. This installed Krypton rather than Jarvis, which I assume is intended (I also found that software centre is installing Krypton beta 3 too).
Anyway, I find using Krypton is very stable, both in Estuary and Transparency, however as soon as I alt-tab to any other program I can't get Kodi to work again, either by alt-tabbing back to it or clicking its icon in the task bar. I don't think Kodi is locking up as the log kept updating while I was scanning music to my library, it's just the display is completely locked and I can neither activate it with mouse or keyboard. If I choose quit by right clicking the taskbar icon nothing happens, and the only way I seem to be able to close it is by killing the kodi.bin process system monitor. The kodi icon stays open in the task bar but if I close and re-open system monitor it will shut down.
Is this known behaviour, or is there something I'm missing in using Ubuntu?
Thanks
debug log - in this debug log all I've done is open kodi, use up and down arrows to go up and down the menu, alt-tab to the desktop, alt-tab back to kodi and it's locked up.
RE: Ubuntu freezing - fritsch - 2016-09-28
Quote:20:40:23 T:140535561353600 DEBUG: Window Manager Name: Compiz
^^ can you install fluxbox and retry?
RE: Ubuntu freezing - WelshPaul - 2016-09-28
(2016-09-28, 22:05)fritsch Wrote: ^^ can you install fluxbox and retry?
So, like I said I've only just started using Ubuntu, but after trawling google I was able to install and boot into fluxbox, but I've no idea what you're suggesting I'm supposed to do with it, as you don't appear to be able to switch between windows or anything. Sorry if I'm missing an in-joke or something but if fluxbox is how you're supposed to run kodi on ubuntu I think I'll give it a miss.
RE: Ubuntu freezing - fritsch - 2016-09-29
That was no Joke. Open a Browser or something else and alt Tab between kodi and that window. Does it work?
RE: Ubuntu freezing - WelshPaul - 2016-09-29
OK - sorry about that - long day!
So, the short answer is yes it does work - here's the log
Long answer, just to check I was doing the right thing:
1. Installed fluxbox with the sudo apt-get thing
2. Rebooted and at login screen clicked the symbol next to my name and chose Fluxbox
3. Got a black and white screen with Ubuntu symbol in the middle and only a menu to set resolution, etc
4. Right click on desktop and found applications. No web browser so I went back to regular Ubuntu and installed Chrome (no idea why Firefox didn't show up)
5. Returned to Fluxbox, opened Chrome and then Kodi.
6. Alt-tabbed between them resulting in the log above.
I hope that's what you meant I was supposed to do.
Should I uninstall Fluxbox now, or is it like Windows Safe Mode for Linux and I should just leave it there for emergencies?
RE: Ubuntu freezing - black_eagle - 2016-09-29
I think @fritsch is saying that you should use Fluxbox as your window manager rather than Compiz if you want to run Kodi and be able to alt-tab between applications. That said, I'm running Compiz with Ubuntu 14.04 and I don't get the issues that you're having.
Just to point out - fluxbox makes it look different is all, it's still the same underlying OS so you can still open a terminal to install stuff or access any of the installed apps in much the same way. Think of it as being like a Kodi skin.
RE: Ubuntu freezing - WelshPaul - 2016-09-29
Thanks Black_Eagle. In that case to save me hours of trawling the Ubuntu forums for mostly erroneous instructions from 2006 on how to switch the window manager without doing what I did above (which is what the Ubuntu help site said to do), could you please give me some hint as to how I'm supposed to do that. I'm using 16.04 by the way. Is that a development version, because it's the one they tell you to download on the Ubuntu web-site?
As an aside - if the fluxbox I was looking at was a kodi skin I'd say it still had some work to do.
RE: Ubuntu freezing - black_eagle - 2016-09-29
Nope, 16.04 is the latest LTS (Long Term Support - 5 years) version. Development is already onto 16.10 which is in beta 2 !!
You've done it right. You just choose the fluxbox session from the login screen rather than the other option(s).
Fluxbox is meant to be very lightweight, which is probably why you think that. Bells and whistles are not always necessary you know. Besides, with a little bit of scripting, you can do all sorts with your desktop
RE: Ubuntu freezing - WelshPaul - 2016-09-29
(2016-09-29, 10:52)black_eagle Wrote: with a little bit of scripting, you can do all sorts with your desktop
I have to be honest - that's the last thing people converting from Windows really want to hear.
RE: Ubuntu freezing - black_eagle - 2016-09-29
(2016-09-29, 11:15)WelshPaul Wrote: I have to be honest - that's the last thing people converting from Windows really want to hear.
Isn't it ? Why not
I converted from windows about 5 years ago. I have it on a laptop because of work, but my day to day machines only run Linux. I knew nothing of Linux when I started. I don't care to remember how many times I broke it whilst trying to figure out how to do things. And I mean broke it sometimes to the point it wouldn't boot at all, not even into the grub menu let alone into recovery.
But, I persevered with it, fixed what I had broken and learnt a lot along the way. All that stuff on my desktop screenshot updates in real time. What channel my SKY box is tuned to (if it's on) and what show is on, what 3 Kodi instances are playing right now. What the system itself is doing, weather forecast, clock, news headlines etc etc. I've done all that myself but I would have never even thought about attempting that on Windows.
I wouldn't put Windows back on my main boxes if MS paid me to do it. I enjoy the flexibility that Linux gives me, the scope that I have to do things the way that I want to do them and not how MS wants me to. If I stuff up or I don't know how to do something, google often has the answer and if not, I'll go to some forum and ask, because I can pretty much guarantee that for every problem I can't solve myself, there will be 20 people that either have solved it or know why it's not currently solvable.
Just try and stick with it for a bit. I know it's perhaps a bit daunting at first, coming from a comfy Windows background, but honestly, it's more than worth putting in some time to get used to it. The more you use Linux the less intimidating it becomes to try and harness some if its power and flexibility. When I first started with it, I tried to keep away from the terminal as much as possible. Now, there are at least two terminal windows open all the time !
I know it looks different to Windows but IMHO it's worth sticking with. Windows ? They're for looking out of right ?
RE: Ubuntu freezing - WelshPaul - 2016-09-29
OK, firstly this may be leaping a few steps ahead, because I still don't really know whether Fritsch was suggesting that using Fluxbox was the way to go or was just asking me to test it to narrow down why Kodi's freezing on the existing setting.
But that aside, the reason for my comment is that not everyone wants to be a hobbyist programmer. I can totally understand why you would never want to go back to MS, but that doesn't mean that all those coming from MS want to go through the perseverance of breaking everything so they can learn how to mend it.
I accept that open source software won't be as seamless as commercial, although Kodi and Ubuntu get pretty damned close, however it is the presumption that in order to switch from MS or Apple you have to learn to script or program yourself that puts most people off breaking the shackles. I've set up Ubuntu, got all my office software up and running, installed Wine to run those programs for which there's no suitable alternative, and I just have a small issue where Kodi locks up. I can't believe the answer to that is to install a dual-boot windows controller which I need to script from scratch to get a start menu. Try explaining that one to my granny over the phone.
There are too many push factors to mention for why people, including myself, want to move from Windows, all I'm saying is that the pull factor to Ubuntu or other distros should be that you're not going to be starting from scratch or going to have to program it yourself. Unless that still is what Linux is all about, in which case it does seem that in the OS world there's nothing between the equivalent of a Ford and a kit-car and Linux never will get beyond 1% or 2% OS market share while everyone else is having their lives organised by the MS 'eco-system' (fingers down throat emoji).
RE: Ubuntu freezing - wsnipex - 2016-09-29
I suggest you try XFCE instead of fluxbox. Its _ a lot_ more enduser friendly and provides a capable desktop environment while still being fairly lightweight.
RE: Ubuntu freezing - WelshPaul - 2016-09-29
Thanks all for your suggestions, but I am a little confused as to why you're all proposing a lightweight system. I'm on a pretty powerful machine that's never had a problem running Kodi on Windows 10. I'm really surprised that the solution being proposed is to downgrade to a lightweight desktop rather than querying why Kodi may be locking up on the standard distribution,
RE: Ubuntu freezing - WelshPaul - 2016-09-29
and by the way, I've also now worked out that it is only freezing in Full Screen mode. If I select Windowed mode then it doesn't lock up.
RE: Ubuntu freezing - fritsch - 2016-09-30
The problem is the compositing in combination with an outdated driver. That's why everyone suggested a window manager without compositing.