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 of Sugar. This page is a historical reference.

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.

Solution: this was fixed in ticket #2278.

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:

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.

Workaround: see how to configure full screen.

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