Category: Linux

an odd bug with ubuntu 24.04 desktop

whbeebe
Ubuntu 24.04 desktop with gnome-tweak

Lately I’ve been working with Ubuntu 24.04 on my Raspberry Pi 5 8 GiB. On this system I like to tinker with my installation’s desktop from time to time, trying out new wallpapers just to see how they look. Recently I’ve noticed that my installation “forgets” my icon selection, Papirus, and reverts back to an icon family I’m not particularly keen on, Yaru-Red. The lead screenshot shows my desktop with Gnome Tweaks open showing my Icons selection, Papirus-Dark.

Ubuntu 24.04 desktop with Settings > Appearance showing wallpaper selection, and now the icons are switched

However, as soon as I bring up the wallpaper Settings > Appearance view (right click on the desktop and select Change Background…), Ubuntu immediately switches the icon family back to Yaru-Red. I don’t even have to change a wallpaper. All I have to do is bring up the Appearance panel and Ubuntu switches it immediately.

I use Gnome Tweaks to set my icon family. Whenever I install Tweaks I get a Dread Warning about how Tweaks is frowned upon by the Gnome Desktop High Holy Developers. To which I respond (inside my head) then give me a friggin’ way to select my icon family within the Officially Sanctioned Settings application. I’m sure that Tweaks isn’t setting one of myriad locations within Gnome’s configuration files to the proper value for Papirus-Dark, which is why some High Holy Gnome Desktop Developer decided to make sure all the locations were properly configured and fix it if they weren’t, thus changing my selection back to what is considered Proper on the Ubuntu 24.04 desktop.

Maybe I’ll Get Around To It one day and either file a bug report and/or just fix the issue on my end.

Maybe…

 

vivaldi replaces firefox

whbeebe

Today I installed the Vivaldi browser on my little Raspberry Pi 5 system running Ubuntu 24.04. After a very short time using Vivaldi I must say how great it is, even better than on my AMD/Intel Linux Mint system. Vivaldi on this system provides me with one of my favorite Vivaldi features, side-by-side tab tiling. I use that feature when blogging as it allows me to write on the left tab, and to see a preview on the right; or if I’m using photos from my Flickr account, to copy links from my Flickr photos to use in my blog post.

btop showing minimal system usage with Vivaldi

As I wrote above, Vivaldi has minimal resource impact on the RPi 5 running Ubuntu 24.04. The reason for the spike on the right is due to pulling the terminal to the front and then getting a screenshot for this post. Otherwise, the system basically flatlines.

Vivaldi side-by-side tab tiling

As you’ll note above, I’ve got side-by-side tab tiling set up for writing, in this case writing this post on the left and the preview on the right. This layout for me is far more efficient than having to switch back-and-forth between individual tabs in the browser. The only odd thing to report is the keystroke to set this up: chording [Shift] and [Ctrl] keys to select the two tabs to tile, and then to bring up the right button menu to select tab tiling for the two selected tabs.

I’m going with Vivaldi because I’m dropping Firefox. Why am I dropping Firefox? Because there’s a report out that Firefox is blocking anti-censorship add-ons at Russia’s request. This from the holy keepers at the Mozilla Foundation.

This is my first, and last rant against the Mozilla Foundation. I’d rather move on and do useful work with Vivaldi on this little Raspberry Pi 5.

Update

It looks like Mozilla has caved into criticism outside of Russia and unblocked the extensions (see link 2 below). I’m not going back, however. They shouldn’t have caved into Russia in the first place. Firefox is dead to me.

Links

  1. Firefox Browser Blocks Anti-Censorship Add-Ons at Russia’s Request — https://qoshe.com/the-intercept/nikita-mazurov/firefox-browser-blocks-anti-censorship-add-ons-at-russia-s-request/173740673
  2. Exclusive: Mozilla reverses course, re-lists extensions it removed in Russia — https://www.osnews.com/story/139943/exclusive-mozilla-reverses-course-re-lists-extensions-it-removed-in-russia/