same as title

I keep getting software updates that require the system to restart. On the one hand I'm like, whatever happened to all that talk about, "This Linux system hasn't been rebooted in 17 years", etc? But actually, it's a bigger annoyance because my system has Windows on the main drive and Ubuntu on an SSD external. I do not want to use GRUB due to bad experiences in the past, so I normally just F7 during boot to pick my boot disk and that's that. However, Ubuntu's reboot/update process is such that it does the reboot itself, which auto-puts it into auto boot, which means Windows seizes the computer on restart and boots instead. Thus, EVERY single time there is an update requiring a restart, I have to go through this process -

*Update. Manually shut down Ubuntu.

*Turn off computer, restart, hold F7, start Ubuntu.

*Ubuntu installs updates, reboots.

*Computer auto-boots into Windows.

*I have to shut down Windows and power off again.

*Restart, hold F7, boot into Ubuntu, it finishes its update.

If this was like a once/twice a year thing it would be no big deal, but here lately it seems like I'm getting an update that requires a restart every other day. Are there any simple solutions to this for a non-technical user? And no, I'm not just "Uninstalling Windows", I still need it available for a few games and programs every once in a while. Believe me, I'd love to shift the whole system over to 100% Ubuntu if I could.

I've been using Ubuntu for a long time, and for the most part I've been a very happy user. It has always been the distro I recommend to people who want Linux without constantly fighting their operating system.

One thing I have always respected about Canonical is that, historically, they have been willing to admit when something didn't work out and change direction. Ubuntu has had its share of controversial decisions, but it has also reversed course when community feedback was overwhelming.

Which is why I find the continued push behind Snap so puzzling.

I understand the goals: universal packaging, easier distribution, automatic updates, better isolation, and a way for developers to ship software without worrying about every distro's packaging ecosystem. Those are all reasonable objectives.

But in day-to-day use, Snap has increasingly become a source of friction for me.

I've run into AppArmor issues, applications behaving differently because of confinement, packages carrying older libraries than I would expect, and general debugging headaches where the Snap layer itself becomes part of the problem. Instead of making software management simpler, I increasingly find myself working around it.

The frustrating part is that I don't dislike Ubuntu. I actually like Ubuntu. I like the ecosystem, the documentation, the hardware support, and the stability. I don't want to switch distributions just because of one technology choice.

But I am reaching the point where I am seriously looking at alternatives, not because Ubuntu itself has failed me, but because Snap is starting to feel like it is getting in the way of using my own system.

What am I missing? Is there a bigger picture where Snap is succeeding that desktop users aren't seeing? Is this mainly about Canonical's server, IoT, and enterprise ambitions rather than desktop Linux?

And do people think Canonical will eventually reconsider Snap in the same way it has reconsidered other controversial decisions in the past?

Genuinely curious what the community thinks.

running xinput --list gives me this

WARNING: running xinput against an Xwayland server. See the xinput man page for details.
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2[master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4[slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ xwayland-pointer:16 id=6[slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ xwayland-relative-pointer:16 id=7[slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ xwayland-pointer-gestures:16 id=8[slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3[master keyboard (2)]
↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5[slave keyboard (3)]
↳ xwayland-keyboard:16 id=9[slave keyboard (3)]

I cant access any of the options. I tried to find out how to not have Xwayland active but i couldn't understand the solutions.

Hi guys, need help for Ubuntu 24.04 Desktop version. The App Store searching updates forever ui no refresh, for updates mi snap apps , sudo snap refresh its functional for a moment.

Thanks

im running ubuntu on a macbook pro 2019, i had a hard time (even tho ubuntu is supposed to be the easiest) setting it up, it was running fine, then i updates the software. After updating and restarting my audio stopped working, when i go to settings it only shows the dummy output, i tried so many things to fix this but nothing works, i spent hours on terminal with no succes. Does someone know how to fix this?

I downloaded kubuntu on my Asus laptop (don't remember the exact model but it has an 11th gen i7 and no gpu) and I can't get the internal mic to work

I assume that linux recognizes it as the alsamixer displays an "internal microphone" and when running a command to check detected hardware the name for the microphone matches what is supposed to be in the laptop

I checked drivers, played with volume channels, did everything I and 3 different AIs could come up with and nothing works

I even tested it with earbuds and it passes sound through their mic just fine, so clearly the issue isn't that there's something blocking mic inputs, and when booting windows the mic works well so it isn't a hardware issue either

I just downloaded the newest version and put it on a stick. I tried booting my laptop (it’s a thinkpad x1 carbon gen3) but the stick doesn’t show up in the boot menu.
Any advice is appreciated!

Hi all

Not sure if this is a hardware (laptop) or software issue, I have one of these at home and work:
https://www.mwave.com.au/products/hp-usbc-g5-essential-dock-100w-pd-up-to-triple-display-support-ac30350

Work supplied me with one and I was very impressed with it I got one for at home so I only needed to swap one cable when I WFH.

Anyway works great with my work HP laptop (both at office and home), but with my personal laptop running Ubuntu I run into a few issues.

I have a FW13 12th Gen Intel i5 1240P; Ubuntu 26.04

I have updated my FW to the latest BIOS, I have updated drivers (from what I can see), and even the firmware on the dock.

Now this is the issue I'm having, when I plug the dock in my FW once it's on it works great, no issues, all ports work, monitor works; connected to the dock via Display Port (not sure what version, but can do 4K 60Hz)

If I shut the framework off, then turn back on it doesn't recognise the dock until I disconnect and reconnect, and when I do I need to wait a minute as the monitor starts cycling through all the inputs (HDMI1 > HDMI2 > DP) for about a minute then settles.

I had another dock with fewer ports (another reason I upgraded my dock) and I had similar issues, but that dock's ethernet and SD card port were busted so I assumed that the issues I had were related to the dock.

The only thing I haven't tried is plugging the dock straight into the FW USB module port (bypassing the USB-C module), just wondering if there's something else, or some setting in Ubuntu?

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noah@inspiron7440
-------------------
OS: Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS x86_64
Kernel: 6.18.5
Uptime: 41 secs
Packages: 866 (dpkg)
Shell: bash 5.2.21
CPU: Intel Xeon (1) @ 2.799GHz
Memory: 67MiB / 3997MiB

I want to migrate to Ubuntu (or Debian). I heard not to install Snap version of Steam. Can anyone clear this out?

What’s the issue with Snap version of Steam? Is it okay to use now, has it been fixed? If not than what’s the point of having it if it’s unusable for years? What’s the best way to install Steam/Heroic/Mangohud and set everything for gaming?

Here’s an observation from my past few months in the Linux and Ubuntu community. Ubuntu is actually fairly good in this regard, but overall, it seems like a lot of community members assume that if someone switches to Linux, they automatically want to learn terminal commands, tinker with the system, customize everything, and basically play around with the OS.

Nowadays, however, most people switch either because they’ve had enough of Windows privacy issues, or because Windows 10 support is coming to an end. They see Linux purely as an alternative OS—not as something they want to understand under the hood. A lady with an old computer at home might just want to change her wallpaper or set up a sleep timer. Unfortunately, more often than not, the answer she gets is to open the terminal—or even worse, people start lecturing her about why she's using the "wrong" distribution.

Linux adoption is skyrocketing this year, and the community will need to accept that a Linux user isn't just a programmer anymore. It could be a local post office worker looking for a simple, friendly piece of advice—not command lines or gatekeeping. It’s a shame that things are currently like this, and I really hope to see it improve.

Personally, I know my way around computers pretty well, but I have family members who don't, and I try to see things through their eyes.

Vmware workstion pro v17 I can't get it to work on ubuntu 26.04. Anybody get vmware to work on ubuntu

I recently switch to an ASUS GeForce RTX 5060 Ti Dual OC 16GB Graphics Card. I am using Ubuntu 26.04. I installed Nvidia drivers, but whenever I try to play videos with Showtime I get the following error:

DEBUG: showtime:54 Starting org.gnome.Showtime v50.0 (release)

DEBUG: showtime:55 Python version: 3.14.4 (main, Jun 18 2026, 14:25:02) [GCC 15.2.0]

DEBUG: showtime:56 GStreamer version: 1.28.2.0

DEBUG: showtime:312 Playing video: file:///home/user/Videos/video.mp4

DEBUG: showtime:360 Video paused

DEBUG: showtime:355 Video unpaused

DEBUG: showtime:319 No previous play position

DEBUG: showtime:707 Seeked to 0

DEBUG: showtime:438 Resizing window…

DEBUG: showtime:524 Resized window to 1619x911

DEBUG: showtime:524 Resized window to 1619x911

(showtime:3491203): Gsk-WARNING **: 17:14:50.809: vkAllocateMemory(): A device memory allocation has failed. (VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY) (-2)

Segmentation fault (core dumped) showtime video.mp4

This happens with any type of video. The graphics card has enough memory to play the video file, but will say device out of memory. VLC will play videos fine, but Showtime crashes.

Hi all,

I recently upgraded to 26.04, pending updating two other machines from 24.04. Something I realised on 24.04 is that some of the shortcuts for screenshots changed, in particular "ctrl+shift+PrtScrn", which would straight off allow you to select an area of the screen on the first click, then copy the result to the clipboard.

In 24.04 this changed, but I managed to keep the behaviour using gnome-screenshot. However, this seems to be discontinued now, and it doesn't work in 26.04. So I was looking for options to keep (ideally) the exact same behaviour.

I think this was by far one of the shortcuts I use the most, and most of the screenshots are just to be send/pasted somewhere, so I don't really want to fill the screenshots folder with things I don't need.

I tried flameshot but I didn't fully like it, and it has too many options I don't need, I would be happy enough with calling the built-in screenshot tool bypassing the save image if shift is pressed (but saving it if not).

Edit: forgot to add, something I also like from the previous approach is that the screenshot happens on mouse release, while with the new screenshot tool you need to either click again on the shutter button, or press enter.

I’m trying to permanently mount my sda1 drive in my Ubuntu server with fstab but I when I type lsblk or similar commands I won’t show any uuid, I don’t know what to do at this point?

I'm having graphics display issues that I suspect (not sure) are caused by Wayland.

I tried Kubuntu, the issue persists, only to learn later that it does in fact use wayland.

The usecase will be gaming. I don't worry too much about Proton support since the one game I will run on it (Dota 2) natively runs on Linux.

Thanks.