[Dapper] Windows networking broken in Nautilus

Thanks for your bug. Do you have libgnomevfs2-extra installed?

No, I didn't. After the installation of libgnomevfs2-extra, the issue has gone away.

I feel that you should make either nautilus or libgnomevfs dependent on libgnomevfs2-extra or at least make it highly visible during the installation process that libgnomevfs2-extra is necessary to use Windows file servers.

I guess that mixed Windows/Ubuntu environments are not that uncommon and without this package, using files on a Windows or Samba server is impossible from a Gnome desktop. That would relegate Ubuntu to a server operating system in such environments. This would be a shame.

Regards

Erich Pawlik

Rejecting, that's not a bug. I've changed ubuntu-desktop when I've splitted the package but no new version of the package has been uploaded since, that should be enough (it'll be installed by default and for people who have ubuntu-desktop installed, people who removed ubuntu-desktop accept the tradeoff that they may have to install packages by hand on upgrade). Note that libgnomevfs2-0 Recommends it and some tools, like aptitude, install Recommends by default

I still believe it is a bug. It just was broken (even with ubuntu-desktop installed). Some months ago, I decided to invest some time in Ubuntu by setting up Ubuntu in my small company environment (four networked PCs), to keep Dapper up to date and to research and report everything as a bug that doesn't work just by behaving quite innocently - using standard installers and the Gnome GUI. My strong belief is that I shouldn't break anything by going this route.

Some comments:

1 As a user of those things I don't feel that ubuntu-desktop is the right place to deal with this. nautilus and gnomevfs should make sure that they are working without forcing me to install a package that again forces my to have stuff I might not need. Delocalizing dependencies makes life more miserable.

2. The description of ubuntu-desktop says that I can deinstall if I don't need some desktop packages. It is recommended to keep it for certain upgrade operations. I did deinstall ubuntu-desktzop on one of my two boxes when I was running into trouble with dependencies during some package installations and deinstallations (actually something with totem) when I was trying to get audio to work. I understood that there might be difficulties with upgrades but I <b>was not</b> accepting the tradeoff that important features are breaking without notice. And I guess the typical Ubuntu user will agree with this.

3 The core of my argument basically is that "smb support" is not a (recommended) extra, but a core feature. Quite frankly, I wouldn't have an issue with Webdav moved to extra; this is not a very typical use of networking by typical users.

4 On one of my two Ubuntu boxes, ubuntu-desktop is installed and up to date. Might be that I am bit nitpicking on this, but smb didn't work and the issue has been caused by updating to the latest versioon of libgnomevfs. Probably be the bug will be fixed by a new version of ubuntu-desktop. But until then, it is still a bug.

5 Final point: Synaptic doesn't install recommends by default. And synaptic is the default.

Regards

Erich

An unstable version can be subject to some minor issue, that's one due to ubuntu-desktop is taking some days to be update. I agree that's not perfect, but people tracking a working distribution have to accept maintainers are working and it can create some glitches by moment.

1. ubuntu-desktop is here to make things easy for you. You may disagree and come with a better suggestion that would be nice. It might not be ideal, but there is no obvious way to do the same thing in a better way

2. "However, it is recommended that you keep it installed, because it is used to carry out certain upgrade transitions (such as adding new packages to the system)." ... that's exactly what is happening with that case. By not accepting the tradeoff you just say that you don't accept the responsability of your actions for something described to me, that doesn't seems to be so fair.

3. By using a Depends you force people to install it. There is no way for them to uninstall that later. Debian is about choice and flexibilty and they decided to not force people to install samba if they want to. The "Recommands" is the tool for that, those package should be installed by default, which gives the feature to normal users and let the option to power users to remove the package. Here comes your point 5., you are probably right that synaptic should install them by default, that would have make that transition transparent for you without forcing people who do want to use samba to keep it installed

4. As said before that's an unstable distribution, people are working, things are moving, some annoyance happen. We try to keep that a smooth as possible but nobody is perfect. Usually those issues are fixed quite quickly

5. That's a good point. Some cleanup of "Recommends" should probably happen first because some package use for some stuff instead of "Suggests", but that's probably the right way to go

Thank you for the interest to the distribution and sorry for the glitch on that

Thank you for working on Ubuntu (and dealing promptly with that issue). Of cause I understand that Dapper is somewhat unstable - that was one of the reasons I was going to track it and to report bugs. Ubuntu being a community project I am also accepting the glitches (that is not about a closely monitored continuous integration dicipline).

However most of what I have written is also about choice. I am looking for a Linux distribution that supports choice for the technically illiterate or semi-illiterate and I think I have found this distribution in Ubuntu. This type of choice sometimes is at odds with Debian's idea of choice - making things more complex might give more options to people that are technically literate, but the average user might pay the price for this.

Windows networking is a point in case. Both homes and offices are full of networked Windows boxes and as long as I stay inside the Windows world everything is plug and play (in practical terms, everything means at least file and printer sharing).. More choice means to me that a user is able to decide whether to use Windows or Ubuntu or both on a particular box.

Regards

Erich