Core Desktop development preview feedback

Well at first i am sorry if this is in wrong place trying to find correct place.

Today I got installed on bare metal and it works now

On installer when opted install third-party drivers it won’t detect anymore NVME, but when opted out on that I can install it again

On other hand I know it is still WIP and not ready for public and missing features so here is still what I have found

-Nvidia drivers probably in future later coming

-Tpm no backup key for encryption unlock

-nordVPN needs to add nordVPN to group, but that is not possible ATM ( fix would be really good )

But at overall it actually feels really solid already and it seems to tick on all my criteria what I have been looking for at immutable systems

-app support will get better later no code editors ATM working and might be missing containers.will explore more and learn on the go

Please excuse my disbelief but you are talking about Ubuntu Core Desktop?

I ask because I have seen two other recent topics where the words β€œUbuntu,” "Core " and β€œDesktop” were mentioned together but they clearly referred to a Ubuntu 25.04 version which does not exist for Ubuntu Core Desktop. There is a Ubuntu Desktop 25.04 development version. Also known a Plucky Puffin.

Where did you get your images from? I got my installation images from here:

https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/experimental/ubuntu-core-desktop/24/stable/

The ISO images have not been updated since 7th October 2024. My attempt to install from it crashed when the installer tried to find storage.

I have had more success writing the compressed (xz) image from the 30th January 2024 to a 16 GB flash drive. After following the process through I was able to reach a login screen and then on to a desktop.

For a few weeks it was receiving updates to the snaps but that has now stopped. In my opinion there is no further need for updates/upgrades. It is like a tool that functions so well that there is no point in making changes to the design. It could not work any better than it is doing.

I did try to write the compressed image to an external SATA drive in a USB drive enclosure. The writing part of the process went well but the UEFI could not boot the image. Which it could do with the image on the 16 GB flash drive. The motherboard would reboot and load the Grub of the internal drive.

I even tried cloning the 16 GB Flash drive to the external SATA drive but the motherboard UEFI still could not boot from it.

And that is where I am at the moment. As I cannot find any official Ubuntu documentation on Ubuntu Core Desktop and I do not see images being updated I am starting to think that Ubuntu Core Desktop is another of those Canonical projects that are developed until Proof of Concept is reached and then filed under the heading: Code That Might Be Useful Some Day.

Regards

See this:
https://nordvpn.com/blog/nordvpn-now-on-snapcraft-store/

1 Like

yes actually ubuntu core desktop

do not use stable/current it is old as my socks and it wont work as you see the iso created 2024-01-30 16:52 use the stable and take pending since it has latest iso 2024-10-07 15:07

phatle@ubuntu:~$ nordvpn login
Permission needed. To ensure NordVPN runs smoothly, grant the necessary permissions for the snap using these commands:

sudo groupadd nordvpn
sudo usermod -aG nordvpn $USER

To start using the app, log in to your Nord Account by entering nordvpn login.

the issue

phatle@ubuntu:~$ sudo groupadd nordvpn
[sudo] password for phatle: 
groupadd: cannot lock /etc/group; try again later.

also

phatle@ubuntu:~$ sudo snap connect protonmail-bridge:password-manager-service
error: snap "snapd" has no "password-manager-service" interface slots

even these i really enjoying it and cant wait to see more updates and get it better

some more things

-locales wont change ( US ) always even changing locales and keyboards and languaes
-timezone is US always
-power profiles missing
-Bluetooth not autostart, manually need to enable bluetooth
-wifi same enabled by default wont still connect on saved wifi automatically
-online accounts unavailable ( offline )
-cant add own wallpapers on settings or add to backround
-cant add profile picture to user
-lxd installs, but cant run anyhting ( Error: LXD unix socket "/var/snap/lxd/common/lxd/unix.socket" not accessible: permission denied )

got nordVPN working now no user groups so need to setup and run all as root/sudo so setup it as always on with autoconnect and now just testing will it start and run on boot etc

On UbuntuCore you want:

sudo groupadd --extrausers nordvpn

The /etc/group file is readonly, the db for additional users lives in /var/lib/extrausers, the above switch tells groupadd to use this … (the usermod should function normally without extra switches then)

3 Likes

thank you this is nice to know in later use and now it makes more sense and keeping now nordVPN and all settings behind sudo is good solution

now i just cant wait to get new installer with working third-party drivers and nvidia open drivers with cuda and optimus then this is going to be perfect already learning LXD and how to develope on it and integrations etc and then easy part is apps starting to work

Clarification about β€œfeedback”:

Ubuntu Discourse is a good place for camaraderie and discussion and assistance.

However, it’s the wrong place to report bugs (β€˜locales wont change’). That kind of feedback must be through the bug tracker for obvious reasons. So don’t put too much effort into compiling lists to post here. Get into the habit of searching the bug tracker and filing good, useful bugs.

4 Likes
            β”Œβ”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”
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            β”‚        .=~^^^^^^^~=.           β”‚
            β”‚      :' () () () () :          β”‚
            β”‚       ````\`````/`````         β”‚
            β”‚            `===`               β”‚
            β”‚                                β”‚
            β”‚                                β”‚
            β”‚          I WANT TO             β”‚
            β”‚           BELIEVE              β”‚
            β”‚    (in Ubuntu Core Desktop)    β”‚
            β””β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”€β”˜

Pro-tip: You can build it yourself. :slight_smile:

I did this a year ago, and ran it on my SteamDeck for a while.

https://popey.com/blog/2023/11/ubuntu-core-snapdeck/

Here’s how to build it…

$ sudo snap install ubuntu-image --candidate
$ sudo apt install make
$ git clone https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-core-desktop
$ cd ubuntu-core-desktop
$ make
rm -rf img/
ubuntu-image snap --output-dir img --image-size 20G \
  --snap firefox ubuntu-core-desktop-24-amd64.model
[0] prepare_image
WARNING: proceeding to download snaps ignoring validations, this default will change in the future. For now use --validation=enforce for validations to be taken into account, pass instead --validation=ignore to preserve current behavior going forward
WARNING: the kernel for the specified UC20+ model does not carry assertion max formats information, assuming possibly incorrectly the kernel revision can use the same formats as snapd
[1] load_gadget_yaml
[2] set_artifact_names
[3] populate_rootfs_contents
[4] generate_disk_info
[5] calculate_rootfs_size
[6] populate_bootfs_contents
[7] populate_prepare_partitions
[8] make_disk
[9] generate_snap_manifest
Build successful
mv img/pc.img .
tar czSf pc.tar.gz pc.img

Have fun! :slight_smile:

2 Likes