Zorin 17 "retrospective" from a long time Windows (and some *ix) user

Hello,

Been using Zorin Pro 16/17 for a while now, and really happy with it. Find myself often getting cheerful when realizing im about to open my laptop from 2017 with a nice clean setup which is different from Windows, and at the same time, feel just as efficient working at it.

Just to give insight to a users journey, thought I'd share some of the obstacles that I have encountered, so you may consider if those may be relevant for future improvements or not.

There where one missing feature I needed to fix myself, that would be nice out of the box: The bluetooth connect shortcut button from the systray menu. I had to install Gnome Shell Extensions followed by a specific extension, to be able to quickly connect to random devices.

Then there where some bugs/limitations that I have yet to address. I will maybe start some separate threads on those, but these are as follows (in "prioritized" order)

  • Bluetooth will not load on boot.
  • Nextcloud sync app will not load on boot.
  • My Jabra headset seems to jump between headset and headphone mode, triggering "mic unmuted/muted" warning on my headset.

Then there are bugs/limitations I have given up/delayed to fix as of now:

  • Onedrive sync with offline powerpoint and collaborative editing. Web powerpoint has rendering issues that makes me uncomfortable to rely on it. Though I did not get comfortable/trust the onedrive installation. I have solved it by starting to rely on other tools than PowerPoint. Word, excel etc I can use in web version.
  • Fingerprint sensor on my Lenovo Yoga 920. I seem to remember down deep some other forum that the support on these where broken. Not critical, but a bit annoying.

Other than that, really happy running with Zorin, appreciate your efforts making it look great and run stable!

Br, Zirum

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Hi Zirium,

In regard to Nextcloud, I'm not using their app, but I am using the inbuilt Zorin Nextcloud account.

Settings > Online Accounts > Nextcloud.

It connects at boot/login and is always available as a location in Files.

I don't have enough knowledge to comment on any of your other issues. I agree wholeheartedly with your Zorin experience though. I feel cheerful sitting in front of it.

If Lenovo didn't provide drivers for Linux, your best hope is that the community efforts to reverse engineer it are fruitful. You might want to give this a try:

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Ah, did not know that was an option. Will for sure test it out, thanks a bunch for the tip!

Thanks for tips on fingerprint, zenzen!

When following the guide, Im stuck at step 3 when attempting to start the service:

jan. 20 12:10:06 Zirum-Yoga-920-13IKB dbus-service[763]: Exception: No matching devices found

My device are listed as follows, which I guess are unsupported. The only mention of that device that I have found is this thread, requesting help to get it supported.

Bus 001 Device 004: ID 06cb:0081 Synaptics, Inc. 

Do you know if the app supports marking files for "offline" copy etc?

Reason to ask is that I have Obsidian linked to my notes folder in Nextcloud, making note taking accessible on pc, web and my android phone (the latter became possible just recently with their two-way sync support). I dont think thats possible as long as its a cloud folder, or?

So far as I can see its just giving me the usual local 'Files' options.
I use it for share between my notebook (zorin) and desktop (win10) from various locations.

https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/latest/user_manual/en/groupware/sync_gnome.html

I'm afraid I'm a little loss as well. Maybe it's worth it opening a new issue in their project in case there's any developments?

No worries, appreciate the assist, zenzen! As mentioned, it was on my "maybe" :slight_smile: I'll try to find a suitable time to dig some more on my own, and the maybe open a thread if valuable to others.

1 Like

On topic: Nextcloud app will not load on boot.

I tested the built in account, but found it too slow to work with on a regular basis.

So I reinstalled the app, and solved "launch on boot" by:

  1. Open "Startup applications"
  2. Add new, command flatpak run com.nextcloud.desktopclient.nextcloud

I guess maybe the flatpak have a bug or limitation, making the "run on boot" button in app useless.

Some bluetooth devices work much better with a linux bluetooth dongle - got one on Amazon for like 10 bucks, solved about all the issues for reception.