Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

horsemanoffaith · 2016-02-01 10:27:49

Silkworm205 wrote:

I'm trying to compile gtk2-ubuntu but makepkg says on line 92 it ends unexpectedly. The package stage is missing its closing curly bracket.
I hope this post comes across as useful and not just me looking for issues.
Editing as I compile:
Gnome settings daemon 3.19.4 has been removed. Closest is now 3.19.5. That seems to compile fine, and the patches report that they succeed.
Gnome-creensaver PKGBUILD expects gs-manager.c, but it's not in the git. Commenting it out along with its matching checksum solves that.
Unity-settings-daemon checksums don't match on 0001-Remove-accountsservice-dependency.patch, 0002-Add-gnome-settings-daemon-3.12-rfkill-plugin.patch, and 0003-Use-GNOME-3.16-deprecated-schemas.patch. Compiles fine when skipping them.
Lightdm-ubuntu 0001-guest-account-use-cross-distro-commands.patch fails checksum. Patch fails when checksum is skipped. Compiles when that particular patch is skipped.
Indicator-keyboard required libgee along with libgee06.
indicator-power 0002-remove-accountsservice-dependendy.patch is missing and fails to build.
Indicator-printers checksum is incorrect on *0ubuntu2.diff.gz
indicator-session PKGBUILD refers to 0002-Remove-url_dispatch.patch but it's called 0002-Remove-url_dispatcher.patch
Indicator-sound fails on requirement of url-dispatcher which I cannot find.
dee-qt points to the wrong directories in the PKGBUILD. And conflicts with libqtdee. I'm assuming libqtdee is a replacement?
hud fails to build as libdee-qt5 was not found.

gtk2-ubuntu, gnome-settings-daemon, and gnome-screensaver are fixed. MAKE SURE to rebuild gnome-session-ubuntu. It has been updated and a patch added to correct log-in issues. I will try to tackle the rest of these issues as I can in the next few days.
Edit #2 Unity-settings-daemon and lightdm-ubuntu should be fixed. Lightdm-ubuntu has been upgraded to a newer version.
Edit #3 Indicator-datetime has been updated to the latest version
Edit #4 Libgee06 and libgee coexist peacefully. You should be able to install both on your system.
Edit #5 Indicator-power should now be fixed.
Edit #6 Indicator-session has been fixed.
Edit #7 Indicator-printers has been fixed.
Edit #8 indicator-sound has been updated to newest version
Edit #9 dee-qt has been reverted to Chenxiaolong's version. I found I was sourcing both files from the same place, thus the conflict. I will add libqtdee into the build order just after dee-qt, because it is a requirement for HUD. Once you rebuild and install dee-qt and libqtdee, you should have no problem with HUD

Last edited by horsemanoffaith (2016-02-02 05:24:37)

horsemanoffaith · 2016-02-02 20:34:52

I have done a full re-build of Unity-for-Arch on my desktop, and I can get Unity working, but it's not working well. First of all, I can only log in once. If I log out of the session or restart lightdm using the TTY, I can no longer log in. Also, I log into a blank screen that only shows my desktop. If I start a terminal and type Unity, it DOES start Unity, but without the top bar. If I start ANOTHER terminal and type /usr/lib/unity/unity-panel-service, I get the working topbar and window borders, but instead of being the correct theme, they're the ugly GNOME defaults. I'm also finding that the Control/Alt/T is not starting a terminal the way it should, even if I go into Unity Control Center and reassign the shortcut. I'm going to ask for help on these issues from Launchpad, because I'm not sure where else I can go. Other than these issues, Unity does seem to work correctly, as far as I've been able to find (of course, I've done VERY little testing). If I can get these issues ironed out and fixed, Unity will be good to go again (at least until GNOME 3.20 is released).

Silkworm205 · 2016-02-05 15:57:14

Sweet, It's Working! To a degree. Early days but progress has been made.
CCSM's command plugin works, so I've rebound the terminal launching to that. pcmanfm is my preferred file manager so that's installed and painting the desktop.
Unity itself works, I can launch programs, see the files scopes, etc. Regarding the top panel, I only have the logout button. No clock, network manager, integrated menus... The top bar is just a bar void of texture and utility.
I can log in multiple times, but I'm going in through .xinitrc rather than Lightdm. (Skylake issues)
Everything works except that top bar, even when launching the process from /usr/lib.

This is going to be an interesting Weekend.

roger-fladie · 2016-02-11 20:11:28

Why is Unity so "hard" to get it running?
Is there anything special equaliced to other DE ?
I see no other distro using it besides Ubuntu.

Silkworm205 · 2016-02-12 10:57:21

Unity's so hard because Ubuntu designs it specifically for Ubuntu, and Ubuntu is not a rolling release like Arch.
Two problems for us; Ubuntu patches a lot of core files, and we have to do the same or get the software to work without them (Unity ties into the Ubuntu software center, in Ubuntu removing that removes Unity too so we need a patch to remove that dependency), secondly we have the latest versions of software whilst Ubuntu goes through a "Feature Freeze". We may have GTK 3.19, but Unity's written for GTK3.16.

If Unity was written the other way around, as a standalone UI that gets imported to Ubuntu it'd be different. As it is, it's an Ubuntu UI which gets exported to be standalone UI, then added to Arch.

It's a real shame because Unity's the only interface I've used which feels good on a touch screen. Gnome shell, cinnamon, plasma, metro and whatever the hell Windows 10 is, never felt right. My touchscreen netbook is running Unity for arch, courtesy of the Arch Linux Archive.

Spara06 · 2016-02-22 01:16:41

I'm trying to run Unity on Arch, I followed the instructions on the Wiki using the pacman repos. I get to the login screen and LightDM works fine. However, whenever I try to login, the screen flickers for a moment and then I'm brought back to the login screen. Anyone experienced a similar issue? Trying to figure out where to start in order to determine what's going wrong.

roger-fladie · 2016-02-23 09:46:56

Spara06 wrote:

I'm trying to run Unity on Arch, I followed the instructions on the Wiki using the pacman repos. I get to the login screen and LightDM works fine. However, whenever I try to login, the screen flickers for a moment and then I'm brought back to the login screen. Anyone experienced a similar issue? Trying to figure out where to start in order to determine what's going wrong.

I have exactly the same. Found the info that bamfwatcher.service didn´t start so I started it manually. But the issue remains.
I was told to have a look intoo the lightdm journal and the Xorg log. In the Xorg log I dindn´t find any helpful info.
I wasn´t even able to find a lightdm log file/journal. Maybe i´ll find more there.

Basicly I did the same as mentioned in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UViQCuSQLBI

dragon321 · 2016-03-03 17:37:57

Did you read topic?

Unity for Arch repo didn't work, and probably won't work anymore, because maintainer abadoned development. If you want to see Unity on Arch you have to compile it from sources.

blaale · 2016-03-19 06:37:42

Silkworm205 wrote:

My touchscreen netbook is running Unity for arch, courtesy of the Arch Linux Archive.

At which date was Unity still functional for you? Considering doing this.

Silkworm205 · 2016-03-21 12:13:56

blaale wrote:

Silkworm205 wrote:
My touchscreen netbook is running Unity for arch, courtesy of the Arch Linux Archive.
At which date was Unity still functional for you? Considering doing this.

Looking back I think it was 2015-08-19, as in this thread that's before things started going wrong. If that's not it, try a month back.

horsemanoffaith · 2016-06-02 04:26:50

Looks to me like Chenxiaolong is starting work on Unity-for-Arch again!!! His github repo shows activity recently... I'm hoping that perhaps we might get Unity-for-Arch back in the unofficial repos again!

Silkworm205 · 2016-06-02 08:30:20

Just when I was starting to look into Gentoo to use their own unofficial Unity overlay packages.

horsemanoffaith · 2016-06-04 04:54:21

Silkworm205 wrote:

Just when I was starting to look into Gentoo to use their own unofficial Unity overlay packages.

I was considering the same thing!

SilentPuffer101 · 2016-07-21 12:39:02

Hello, will there any more updates to the repos? Bummer this is one of the DEs that works too well for a touchscreen laptop. I really want to help, but i don't know where to start.

horsemanoffaith · 2016-09-10 07:35:00

Hey there all you Unity-for-Arch people! I have GREAT news!!!! I have SUCCESSFULLY installed Unity on my desktop, and at the moment it looks to be working correctly. I so far have not seen any issues.... yet. It took me a lot of trial and error, and I had to update some packages in Chen's Unity-for-Arch and Unity-for-Arch-Extra repos, but as of this moment, Unity is back on Arch Linux!!!!!!!

horsemanoffaith · 2016-09-12 06:47:04

SilentPuffer101 wrote:

Hello, will there any more updates to the repos? Bummer this is one of the DEs that works too well for a touchscreen laptop. I really want to help, but i don't know where to start.

I saw a note on Chenxiaolong's Github page that he is no longer maintaining his Unity-for-Arch and Unity-for-Arch-Extra repos. Per his note, the only way to install Unity at this moment is to build it entirely from source. I have recently done this, and I have a fully-functioning Unity DE on my desktop. I do have Unity working on my laptop, but for some reason the background is still not working. I can tell you that there are packages on his Github page that are already out-of-date, so if you're looking to build from source, don't be afraid to go looking at his sources and finding the newer versions of the packages available. I also had to update ubuntu-themes off his Unity-for-Arch-Extra Github page to get the themes and greeter working properly. If there's anything I can do to help, don't hesitate to mention something here.

Silkworm205 · 2016-09-13 21:02:22

Cheers for your work horsemanoffaith. I'm compiling this now. I'll report back with a yay or a neigh.

Silkworm205 · 2016-09-13 22:30:29

News; several packages fail to build, but I managed to fix them. A couple I can't solve myself.
ido-ubuntu failed patch validity check. Skipped and compiled fine.
libappindicator failed all patches validity checks. Skipped and compiled fine.
libindicator3 does not exist. Assumed it was libindicator-gtk3-ubuntu and removed it from the required field. Build passed.
gnome-settings-daemon failed with a 404 on the tar.xz package. Fixed by using your AUR package updated mere hours ago.
indicator-appmenu is installed before its dependency unity-control-center, which in turn requires unity-settings-daemon, which also requires (the incorectly named?) libappindicator3. Removed the libappindicator3 requirement and built in the proposed order.
indicator-keyboard fails to build as gee-0.8 was not found. installed libgee and build passed.
indicator-power fails as 0002-Remove-accountsservice-dependency.patch is missing. Dashes should be underscores. Filename needs changing as PKGBUILD refers to the dashed name twice.
dee-qt is installed before dee-ubuntu.
dee-ubuntu fails to build! This stops lots more compilations.
geis requires dbus-core, which I can't find. Assuming is wants dbus and compiling with just that seems to work.
compiz-ubuntu fails to build
gmock 404's its source.
finally, the language packs fail checksums on all languages.

All other packages either compile fine, or fail because of dependency hell from dee-ubuntu.

I hope this helps. Thanks for your efforts.

horsemanoffaith · 2016-09-26 06:00:36

Silkworm205 wrote:

News; several packages fail to build, but I managed to fix them. A couple I can't solve myself.
ido-ubuntu failed patch validity check. Skipped and compiled fine.
libappindicator failed all patches validity checks. Skipped and compiled fine.
libindicator3 does not exist. Assumed it was libindicator-gtk3-ubuntu and removed it from the required field. Build passed.
gnome-settings-daemon failed with a 404 on the tar.xz package. Fixed by using your AUR package updated mere hours ago.
indicator-appmenu is installed before its dependency unity-control-center, which in turn requires unity-settings-daemon, which also requires (the incorectly named?) libappindicator3. Removed the libappindicator3 requirement and built in the proposed order.
indicator-keyboard fails to build as gee-0.8 was not found. installed libgee and build passed.
indicator-power fails as 0002-Remove-accountsservice-dependency.patch is missing. Dashes should be underscores. Filename needs changing as PKGBUILD refers to the dashed name twice.
dee-qt is installed before dee-ubuntu.
dee-ubuntu fails to build! This stops lots more compilations.
geis requires dbus-core, which I can't find. Assuming is wants dbus and compiling with just that seems to work.
compiz-ubuntu fails to build
gmock 404's its source.
finally, the language packs fail checksums on all languages.
All other packages either compile fine, or fail because of dependency hell from dee-ubuntu.
I hope this helps. Thanks for your efforts.

Thank you for your input!!! It helps to have others that are building Unity off my Github page so I can know if I've made any errors.

Based on some of what you're saying in your comment, I'm wondering exactly where you're getting your installation order. If you're following the readme at the bottom of my Github page, indicator-appmenu is installed several packages after unity-control-center, and unity-control-center is built directly following unity-settings-daemon. Also, I'm not sure where you are getting libappindicator3 or libindicator3 from, because I changed libappindicator and libindicator to libappindicator-ubuntu and libindicator-ubuntu respectively back in February. These changes eliminate the *3 packages and rename them *-gtk3-ubuntu. I did this so I could put them in the AUR and distinguish them from Chenxiaolong's packages that were already in the AUR. Also, dee-ubuntu is built early in the order, and dee-qt isn't until way later in the build process. Can you help me by providing the source of your build order?

You are correct on GEIS- you just need to delete -core from dbus-core in the dependencies, and it builds correctly. Gmock will no longer be needed after I have all my packages updated. It will be deleted from the build order once I get everything updated. I do not build all the language packs, because I have never seen the need to do so. If you want the language packs, go to Chen's Github page and use his PKGBUILD.

A note of signifcance- I have recently updated my system to a testing version of glib so that I could build the Yakkety version of gtk3-ubuntu (it requires glib2 greater than 2.48). This puts my gtk3-ubuntu at 3.22. I am running Cinnamon as a DE until I get Unity functioning correctly, and so far I'm not seeing any issues. I'm hoping that this will give me an early stab at 3.22 packages so that when GNOME3 updates to 3.22, we don't have a complete mess on our hands.

I have re-worked my Unity-for-Arch files up to upstart-user... I built ido-ubuntu with the exact checksums that were on my existing PKGBUILD, and it built correctly... not sure what happened there. I have updated to the Yakkety repo for libappindicator, so you'll have a new PKGBUILD. Dee-ubuntu needs a simple patch to get the package building correctly, and that patch is now in my updated dee-ubuntu. I have added libnih-ubuntu and upstart-user to my build order. I'm hoping to continue working on my Github repo over the next several days and get a fully updated list of packages for anyone that needs them. Unfortunately, it takes quite a bit of time to verify all of the PKGBUILDs, edit what needs to be edited, build them on my system, then update them on my Github page. I stay pretty busy, so it might take me a few days or even a couple of weeks to get it all done.

If you're in a hurry to build Unity now, follow my order up to upstart-user, then switch to Chenxiaolong's Github page and finish it out in the order he has it laid out. There are a couple of packages in his list that are out of order (I believe it's libzeitgeist and zeitgeist-ubuntu that should be built before nautilus-ubuntu, but don't quote me on that), but it's pretty minor. I can't seem to remember needing to alter a bunch of the files after upstart-user, but there may be two or three PKGBUILDs that need editing.

** Important note ** After you build Unity, make SURE to build ubuntu-themes from Chen's Unity-for-Arch-Extra Github repo with updated sources from the Yakkety repos. If you don't, you'll have bizarre issues with the Ubuntu based themes that are built off of gtk3 3.18. If you use lightdm-unity-greeter, it won't work correctly, and the Radiance and Ambiance themes won't render correctly either.

Sorry for the book, but I wanted to be thorough both on all the information you gave me as well as informing you and any others interested in where I'm at in the process of getting and keeping Unity working on Arch!

horsemanoffaith · 2016-09-29 05:25:38

I have updated my Github page up to indicator-datetime. Just about everything is updated the the Yakkety repos, but the Yakkety version of indicator-datetime has some dependencies that are new to the Unity-for-Arch build. I will see what I can do about getting them built for Arch and adding them to the build order, but for the time being I'm going to stick with the Xenial version of indicator-datetime.

horsemanoffaith · 2016-10-04 01:42:13

The good news: I have rebuilt all the Unity-for-Arch packages on my Github Unity-for-Arch page. The bad news: Unity isn't working for some reason. I'm going to fiddle around with it and see if I can get it working. I updated most of the packages to the Yakkety repos, but there were a few I had to leave on Xenial. One in particular I simply couldn't get to work- I can't get a necessary dependency to build. I'll see if I can get some help from the Ubuntu devs about that package.

kikislater · 2016-10-04 07:36:22

Following !
I think a lot of people are interested in it because Arch is rolling release and some like ubuntu unity desktop. The way to have both could be fantastic !

Where is your github ?

Last edited by kikislater (2016-10-04 07:36:51)

horsemanoffaith · 2016-10-06 04:10:12

https://github.com/horsemanoffaith/Unity-for-Arch

I am still working on getting Unity to work on my laptop... I'm still having an issue with Unity properly drawing the background. I don't have that problem on my desktop, and I'm trying to figure out what the issue is. There are other minor issues, but so far the background is the biggest. It doesn't seem to affect the rest of Unity, however.

horsemanoffaith · 2016-10-06 05:39:50

I have found a workaround on the background issue, but it comes at a cost: desktop icons. If you're like me, you don't care much about having icons on your desktop. I'd much rather have a nice background to look at rather than a bunch of icons on my workspace. I will post the workaround on Chenxiaolong's Unity-for-Arch Github page, because someone was asking how to fix the issue. I downgraded a bunch of packages looking for what was causing the issue, and I stumbled across it on my desktop. I went to my laptop, tried the same thing, and Voila, there's my background!!! At this point, it looks like Unity is fully functioning again!!!

horsemanoffaith · 2016-10-08 07:52:12

I seem to have fixed the issue with the black background in Unity. Just for kicks, I decided to pull nautilus-ubuntu off my system and install nautilus off the Arch repositories. To my surprise, it worked! I was able to have my background AND my desktop icons. What didn't work, however, is the Files icon on the launcher. It disappeared. As I played around with the PKGBUILD, I found that removing all the Ubuntu patches, save one, fixed the black background issue AND the launcher issue. As of right now, I have everything working.

To be absolutely sure that everything is working, I need those of you that are still wanting to run Unity-for-Arch to build it and test your installs. I have a desktop and a laptop, and both are running Unity (I still need to update my desktop with the corrected nautilus-ubuntu file), but I don't use every single little feature of Unity, so any input on this would be GREATLY appreciated!

I'm going to attempt to keep up with changes as they come out. I've already hit a roadblock with gtk3 version 3.22, so I may not be real successful over the coming months, but I will definitely do my best.

Arch Linux

#2876 2016-02-01 10:27:49

Re: Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

#2877 2016-02-02 20:34:52

Re: Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

#2878 2016-02-05 15:57:14

Re: Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

#2879 2016-02-11 20:11:28

Re: Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

#2880 2016-02-12 10:57:21

Re: Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

#2881 2016-02-22 01:16:41

Re: Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

#2882 2016-02-23 09:46:56

Re: Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

#2883 2016-03-03 17:37:57

Re: Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

#2884 2016-03-19 06:37:42

Re: Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

#2885 2016-03-21 12:13:56

Re: Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

#2886 2016-06-02 04:26:50

Re: Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

#2887 2016-06-02 08:30:20

Re: Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

#2888 2016-06-04 04:54:21

Re: Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

#2889 2016-07-21 12:39:02

Re: Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

#2890 2016-09-10 07:35:00

Re: Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

#2891 2016-09-12 06:47:04

Re: Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

#2892 2016-09-13 21:02:22

Re: Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

#2893 2016-09-13 22:30:29

Re: Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

#2894 2016-09-26 06:00:36

Re: Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

#2895 2016-09-29 05:25:38

Re: Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

#2896 2016-10-04 01:42:13

Re: Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

#2897 2016-10-04 07:36:22

Re: Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

#2898 2016-10-06 04:10:12

Re: Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

#2899 2016-10-06 05:39:50

Re: Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

#2900 2016-10-08 07:52:12

Re: Progress on Unity under Arch Linux!

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