Ubuntu

Summary

You have an Ubuntu system and you wish to try Sugar?

Installation

As of 2012-02, Ubuntu does not have a stable version of Sugar in the Ubuntu repositories.

Until this is fixed, try one of these options:

use Sweets on Ubuntu, recommended for Ubuntu 11.04, see below,
use a virtual appliance, compatible with any version of Ubuntu, see below,
use the unstable version 0.90 of Sugar, from the Ubuntu repositories, compatible with any version of Ubuntu, see below, or
install from Sugar source.

How to install Sweets on Ubuntu

Install packages on an Ubuntu system so that you may run Sugar.

See How to install Sweets on Ubuntu.

How to install a virtual appliance

Install a virtual appliance based on Ubuntu:

the Ubuntu 11.04 Sweets Distribution Sugar 0.94 virtual appliance,
a tutorial on How to Import a virtual Appliance into VirtualBox.

There are other virtual appliances based on other distributions, which can be imported into virtualisation software on Ubuntu.

see Emulator image files.

How to install Sugar 0.90 on Ubuntu 11.10

click on Ubuntu Software Centre,
search for Sugar,
click on sugar-emulator-0.90,
click on Install,

Sugar will be downloaded and installed.

To start Sugar, click on Dash, then search for Sugar.

How to install Sugar 0.90 on Ubuntu 11.04

click on Applications, then Ubuntu Software Centre,
search for Sugar,
click on Install,

Sugar will be downloaded and installed.

To start Sugar, click on Applications, then Education, then Sugar.

Using Sugar 0.90 on Ubuntu

There are many problems with Sugar 0.90 on Ubuntu, many of which have been fixed in a later version, so we recommend the above methods instead.

Problem: collaboration is broken

Activity collaboration over a local area network does not work. There is no workaround.

Problem: unexpected dialog

A "Choose password for new keyring" dialog may appear the first time Sugar is started.

Workaround: the dialog can be cancelled.

Problem: Browse activity does not work

Browse can be installed, but does not work, because the Sugar Platform is incomplete on this version of Ubuntu; it is missing hulahop.

Workaround: use the Surf activity:

download http://people.sugarlabs.org/Tgillard/Surf-115.xo
install the bundle in a terminal by typing:

sugar-install-bundle Surf-115.xo

Workaround: use Firefox started from Terminal. However, Firefox is not integrated with Sugar, and does not access the journal or install activity bundles.

Problem: very few activities

Only the Pippy and TurtleArt activities are included.

Workaround: you can download more Activities from activites.sugarlabs.org using Surf.

Workaround: you can download more activities from Ubuntu. Click on System, then Administration, then Synaptic Package Manager. The packages names all start with sugar- and end with -activity. For example sugar-terminal-activity.

Workaround: you can download more Activities from activites.sugarlabs.org from outside of Sugar and install each .xo bundle individually in a terminal with:

sugar-install-bundle activity.xo

Activities that you install in a Sugar Terminal activity are automatically made favourites and will appear in the home view.

Activities that you install in GNOME Terminal are not automatically made favourites, and so do not appear in the home view. Use the List View to mark them as favourites.

Problem: Sugar is not full screen

Sugar on Ubuntu is run in a window. For some ages of learner, a full screen is better, to avoid distractions.

Workaround: to run Sugar full screen:

Go to the menu Applications -> Education -> Sugar,
Drag and drop the Sugar icon to the desktop,
Right-click on Sugar icon and choose Properties,
Change the command to:

 /usr/bin/sugar-emulator -f

Use the desktop icon instead of the menu to start Sugar.

Problem: no screensaver or power management controls in Sugar

Sugar does not have screensaver or display power management controls compatible with Ubuntu.

Workaround: turn off screensaver and power management, using Terminal commands:

xset s off
xset -dpms