The Road to Zorin 16

Feedback
195

I forgot to mention the ever-useful Debian Goodies:
https://packages.debian.org/stretch/debian-goodies

As well as zsh with ohmyzsh and Powerlevel10k... Gives the terminal autocorrect, word suggestions and much more.

You could create a partition that is small and install on that. Testing the Alpha, I did on a 60gig partition. I had another at 30gigs.
Your primary reason for testing won't necessarily be to Test it for the devs, but to test it for you. You do not have to buy Ultimate and Pop_OS! is a solid working OS.
But I would still encourage you to test it anyway- for your own speeds. Zorin OS16 Beta is as fast on my machine as Alpha was, which admittedly surprised me. I really thought it would be slowed down.
I am unable to wait a couple months for Zorin Lite, so will be doing some modifications of my own on Zorin Core. As it is, I have been waiting on Z16 before really progressing on my webpage and themes and can wait no longer.

196

I don't know what was wrong with my connection. I was sitting about 5m away from my router in line-of-sight, and I was getting less than 50kB/sec. I even tried using a different browser. Cancelled the download, restarted it, still no improvement. I grabbed another laptop, wired it into the router and had the ISO downloaded in less than 5 minutes at 10MB/sec.

197

MaximX85, welcome to Zorin OS, the most friendly OS for ex-Windows users, beginners, and beyond!

The situation you are describing, sound like....

(1) Wireless channels are over saturated by other wireless signals in the area.

(2) Too much wireless interference from nearby wireless devices in your immediate area.

(3) Your wireless radio in the router is dying and its time to buy a new router.

(4) Or your WIFI adapter in your desktop or notebook is dying and needs replaced.

Only further testing in multiple fronts will provide you the actual root cause. But for now, I am glad you were able to solve the issue by going wired.

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(5) Too many users accessing sourceforge at once. Waiting a moment resolved. (it's possible..)

199

Strange, I use this extension and it works properly for me after I turn off the Intellihide options and turn on "show panel when mouse approaches edge of the screen".

What I couldn't do for the life of me is get Xscreensaver to randomly display images from a folder every couple minutes or so. I got black screens in 15.3 when I tried.
Gotta check if I can get it working in Z16 though.

200

So, I looked into it again, and I discovered after reading your post, that Intellihide options were enabled, and the mouse approaches screen option was disabled. So I reversed both of those, and now its working. Thank you so much Greyhound!

OK, the issue that you are facing with Xscreensaver, is most likely due to the screensaver daemon not being auto loaded with the OS. By default, Xscreensavers is not designed to load with the OS.

This Post Explains How To Set The Xscreensaver Daemon To Auto Load On Startup

Also, hope that you made sure to install the Xscreensaver extra's, so that you get all the available screensavers. You do this by entering the command bellow....

sudo apt-get install xscreensaver xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl-extra

Blank:
Refers to the time it takes before the screensaver comes on. I have mine set to 60-minutes, you can set yours for however long you want.
Cycle:
This refers to how often the screen saver changes, which only will function, if you have the mode set to random. I prefer only one, Flurry.
Lock:
This refers to how long the computer will wait before it locks itself, once the screensaver has come on. I have mine set to 1-minute. If I don't get to it within that time, I must be busy, so lock for safety.

Screenshot from 2021-04-15 18-57-16
Screenshot from 2021-04-15 18-57-161280×830 372 KB

Because you so expertly helped me out, I want to help you out in return, paying it forward and all that. I really appreciate the help, thank you so much!

1 Like
201

What version of kernel will Zorin OS 16 use? i haven't tried zorin os 16 beta yet. thanks you :grinning: :grin:

202

The Beta I installed today starts at 5.8.0-50

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POP OS 20.10 uses kernel version 5.11. But its important to note, you only need a kernel that current, if you have a brand new high spec machine. If your machine is 4-months old or more, kernel version 5.8 is more then enough.

Hopefully you guys don't have too many issues with the BETA.

204

Beta feels solid, no issues so far. Performance is way better than Z15 Core :sunglasses:

205

if using the 5.8 kernel means is Zorin OS 16 based on ubuntu 20.04.2? . When will the final version of Zorin OS 16 be released? I hope the beta version is stable so that the final version will be released soon. :slightly_smiling_face:

206

Azenis-2021-Light on Zorin OS 16 (Beta) :slight_smile:

Azenis2021-gtk3
Azenis2021-gtk32880×900 623 KB

(Aeolus Icon Set in use, Not Azenis icons.)

1 Like
207

I have had 2 failed attempts to "Try" Z16 Core Beta on my machine.

Both finish with a dark Blue desktop with white taskbar at top showing time correct at boot (then frozen) and a mouse pointer that does nothing.

This is a retrograde step for me as Z16 Core Alpha was fine running from that same 32GB USB stick.

Any ideas?

...more
I now tried selecting 2nd option - Try Zorin using safe graphics.
I now have it working but wrong screen resolution.

Something has changed between 16 Alpha and 16 Beta. I have never had this issue with Z12, Z15 or Z16Alpha.

208

Do you see the default Zorin Wallapaper? Is the white topbar different than the Zorin 16 panel you saw in Alpha?
It sounds like the Zorin Os Desktop is failing to initialize.

209

I now tried selecting 2nd option - Try Zorin using safe graphics.
I now have it working but at inferior screen resolution. Max 1024x768

Something has changed between 16 Alpha and 16 Beta. I have never had this issue with Z12, Z15 or Z16Alpha

Could it be a RAM capacity issue maybe 16Beta needing more than 16Alpha whilst using Live USB?

210

Do you have Nvidia? Otherwise, what are your onboard graphics?

211

It is an old Centrino Duo laptop. No Nvidia or other exotic graphics. Video Controller is Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950.

I have also found that USB persistence is still not working on 16Beta, as reported on 16Alpha. So my alsamixer tweak (which I still have to do to get sound to work through internal speakers) and other setting changes are not retained between boots.

Other feedback comments:
In 15.3 Core, I have a dark background taskbar (semi transparent) with a light theme. I can't seem to achieve that in 16Beta. I can't remember if I did it using gnome tweaks on 15.

It was possible to change desktop icon size by right click and dragging a corner. On Z16Beta it appears we now only get choice of "Tiny" and 3 other preset choices of icon size.

212

Hello, @anon37206250...

According to @AZorin's post above, a direct upgrade from Zorin OS 15 to 16 won't be available for several months (until a thorough testing period of 16 has been completed).

In the meantime, we have to download Zorin OS 16 Beta and perform a clean install.

Also, be sure to read the warning that's on the download page before installing it (screen shot below):

ZorinForum-HowToTest16Beta_041621
ZorinForum-HowToTest16Beta_041621799×327 90.9 KB

Good luck :zorin:.

2 Likes
213

I tried reducing Persistence to 1024MB on the USB with Z16 Core Beta, but still cannot lauch Zorin Live disk with normal graphics. I have 2.5GB RAM.

214

Glad I could help you out. I would stop using Gnome too if I was unable to hide the top bar hahahaha

And thanks for your help, I followed your instructions and Xscreensaver is working properly under Z16, will try it on 15.3 later today.

I think that the only glitch I have is that Xscreensaver does not respect Caffeine. Screensavers still show up when Caffeine is turned on.

Apart from that, I really loved the extra screensavers. Particularly Pacman, UnknownPleasures, and m6502.

Thank you