UberStudent - Linux for Learners Files

If no "Install UberStudent" icon appears on the Desktop when you
initially boot in to UberStudent, hit Alt+F2 on your keyboard
and run the following line:

cp /usr/share/uberstudent/ubiquity/ubiquity.desktop "$HOME/Desktop"

_______________________________________________________________


~ UberStudent 4.3 RELEASE NOTES ~

TOC

 * ABOUT UberStudent
 * CHANGES FROM 4.1
   * SYSTEM
   * 4.0 to 4.3 UPGRADE LIMITATIONS
   * BUG FIXES
 * 4.3 KNOWN LIMITATIONS & ISSUES
 * NOTES FOR ADMINISTRATORS DEPLOYING UberStudent 4.3

NOTE: You might wish to also see the release notes for
      UberStudent 4.1, available at https://sourceforge.
      net/projects/uberstudent/files/Releases/Epicurus/
   

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

~ ABOUT UberStudent ~

	* UberStudent:

	      * Is a Linux distribution FOR EVERYONE, especially
		higher education and college-bound secondary
		students, people who teach them, and their schools.
		Researchers, knowledge workers, and lifelong
		learners will equally benefit.

	      * Has been specifically designed for complete Linux
		beginners, while remaining equally satisfying to
		the most advanced Linux user.

	      * Contains not only a full suite of programs
		suitable for all students across all academic
		disciplines, but is easily extendable for
		specific disciplines using tools within
		UberStudent. It is also well-equipped for
		graphics handling, multimedia, and even games.
		UberStudent additionally contains a full suite of
		custom tools for common administrative tasks,
		including an Update Manager, Driver Manager,
		Locale Switcher, etc.

	      * Borrows code from Debian and Ubuntu, and has
		forked code from Linux Mint and other compatible
		systems, but is by no means simply a "re-mix."
		UberStudent contains its own software repository
		with hundreds of packages found nowhere else but
		in UberStudent. 

	      * Is a SEMI-ROLLING Linux distribution with a new
		point-release or upgrade available every 6 to 12
		months. It's base is always Ubuntu's Long-Term
		Stable releases. The UberStudent repositories
		contain many backported, latter-edition programs
		not contained in Ubuntu upstream repoistories.

	      * The UberStudent 4.* series is supported until
		April 2019.

HOMEPAGE

	http://uberstudent.com

CONTACT

Stephen Ewen, M.Ed.

	< ewens@uberstudent.com >
	< stephen.ewen@gmail.com >

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

~ CHANGES FROM 4.1 ~

SYSTEM:

	* Linux Kernel 4.2.0-19
	* xorg 1.17
	* mesa 10.5.9
	* Xfce 4.12
	* Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS base (supported until April 2019)
        * LibreOffice 5
        * Many other new features and improvements!

4.0 or 4.1 to 4.3 UPGRADE LIMITATIONS

UberStudent is a semi-rolling distribution. This means that if
you have UberStudent 4.0 or 4.1 installed, it will automatically
upgrade to 4.3 just by doing normal updates from the Update
Manager, with the following limitations:

* The Linux kernel will not upgrade to 4.2.0-19, nor will xorg 
  and mesa upgrade to the backported Ubuntu 15.04 stack contained
  on the 4.3 ISO. Normally, you should avoid upgrading these,
  unless you have a specific reason related to hardware 
  functionality. If you want the new stack, the best method is
  to install afresh from the 4.3 ISO.

* The default set of Thunar Custom Actions in 4.3 will not
  upgrade into your current user account. If you want the 4.3
  custom actions in a prior installed 4.0 or 4.1 system and
  user account, go to Applications Menu > System >
  Administration > Fixes > Thunar Custom Actions Restorer and
  run the program. Then, log out and log back in.

BUG FIXES

~ Installation in non-English locales ~

* A major bug that still affects dozens and dozens of other
  Linux distributions that use Ubuntu's ubiquity installer is
  FIXED in UberStudent 4.3. The bug caused the ubiquity
  installer to crash whenever a non-English locale was chosen
  for the installation language. You may now install UberStudent
  using any language.

* Lots of bug fixes that have not made their way into upstream
  Ubuntu repositories, including a bug causing Thunar 1.6.10 to
  frequently crash.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

4.3 KNOWN LIMITATIONS, ISSUES, and BUGS 

~ Translations ~

* Some aspects of UberStudent are still poorly translated in to
  non-English languages. The best support is in French, German,
  Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Please contact UberStudent
  if you wish to help provide complete (or better) support for
  your language.

~ Issues with Certain Noveau Drivers for Nvidea ~

*  Open source Nouveau drivers for certain Nvidea graphics cards
   cause both Chromium Browser and Google Chrome to freeze the
   system, forcing users to do a hard reset. As well, when 4.3 is
   installed into Virtualbox, such drivers cause the uberstudent-
   appinstaller (small GUI at various places in the menu) to give
   a divide by zero error. If you experience this, please run the
   Driver Manager to install Nvidea's proprietary driver for your
   card. Note that the Plymouth boot theme will not display during
   bootup with Nvidea's proprietary driver.

   REFS:
   https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=89842
   http://askubuntu.com/questions/651574/chrome-is-freezing-ubuntu-
   when-opening-a-tab-or-restarting
   http://uberstudent.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1098&p=3322&
   hilit=#p3322

~ LibreOffice ~
 
* Libreoffice has a still unfixed bug going back to v. 4.3.3.2
  < http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/libreoffice-bugs/2015-
  June/285418.html > that displays the active text color on a few
  menus. Everything is still legilble and workable, however. If I
  can get around to building libreoffice myself, I will patch it
  and release the fix.

~ Xfce ~

* Possible DBUS error just after bootup that freezes desktop activity
  for several seconds

	WORKAROUND:
	Let the desktop fully load and all notifications
	dissappear before clicking anything! Alternately, you can
 	go to Settings Menu > Session and Startup and UNTICK the
	entry for Menu Pre-Start. Then, you will just have to have
	a few seconds lag for items to appear from your
	Applications Menu after you click it the first time
	during a session.

~ RedShift ~

* UberStudent 4.3 includes the program RedShift, a tool to color
  adjust your monitor at night. It often crashes when you first
  run it. 

	WORKAROUND:
	Immediately start RedShift again. It succeeds.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

NOTES FOR ADMINISTRATORS DEPLOYING UberStudent:

~ Guest Account ~

* UberStudent supports a robust guest account, and is the ONLY 
  Linux distribution that uses the mdm login manager that does
  so. This is because the account does not depend on the login
  manager but runs from and is managed by the boot scripts in
  UberStudent. Of course, nothing is saved between guest sessions,
  and the guest account has a custom menu and panel so that
  certain programs are hidden from the guest user. The guest
  account will only work with English as the locale, at this time.

  To use the guest account feature in UberStudent:

    * Create a user with the user name "guest" (without the
      quotes). When you do so, add a password but immediately
      tick  "do not ask for a password, to se the guest account
      to the nopasswdlogin group. Somadministrators may wish to
      add "guest" to certain other groups, as well.
    * If non-guest accounts run on the same machine, change the
      permission of the home directory of each of those user
      accounts to 750 so the guest user cannot access them, e.g.,
      in the non-guest account you would simply run chmod 750 ~
  
~ Donate Dialog ~

* UberStudent 4.3 runs a dialog ONCE during the third session
  that softly asks users (other than "guest") to donate to the
  project. If you'd prefer it not ask, run the following line
  as root:
  touch /usr/share/uberstudent/home-prep/donate/disabled-by-admin