UbuntuHandbook | News, Tutorials, Howtos for Ubuntu Linux

How to Upgrade to Inkscape 0.91 in Ubuntu 14.04/12.04/14.10

January 30, 2015 — Leave a comment

The free, open-source, and professional quality vector graphics software Inkscape 0.91 has been released recently with quite a lot of changes.

According to the official release note, Inkscape 0.91 features:

cairo rendering for display and PNG export
OpenMP multithreading for all filters
C++ code conversion
type design features
a new measure tool
cross platform WMF and EMF import and export
symbol library and support for Visio stencils
improved support for Corel DRAW documents, Visio importer
support for real world document and page size units, e.g. millimeters
numerous usability improvements

For a full list of changes, see this page.

How to Install or Upgrade Inkscape in Ubuntu:

Since Ubuntu repositories provide the old 0.48 release, Inkscape 0.91 (renamed from ver 0.49) is available in its official PPA repository for Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 15.04, and Linux Mint 17/17.1.

Just open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command below to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:inkscape.dev/stable

After that, open Software Updater utility and click install the updates for Inkscape:

Or you can run below commands one by one to install or upgrade it in terminal:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install inkscape

That’s it. Enjoy!

In Howtos Inkscape, Inkscape PPA

How to Upgrade to LibreOffice 4.4 in Ubuntu 14.04

January 30, 2015 — 1 Comment

LibreOffice, the open-source office suite, has reached the 4.4 release. Here’s how to upgrade it in Ubuntu 14.04 and/or Ubuntu 14.10.

According to the official release note, the new release brings user-interface and OOXML file formats support improvements, source code fixes thanks to Coverity scans, a new OpenGL framework, digital signing of PDF files on exporting, and many other changes. See more at libreoffice website.

Install or Upgrade LibreOffice 4.4 in Ubuntu:

~~Since the official LibreOffice PPA does not yet update the new release for Ubuntu 14.04 users,~~ you can always follow below steps to install or upgrade a new LibreOffice release in Ubuntu via the official DEBs.

LibreOffice 4.4 has been made into PPA, available for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.10 and derivatives. Simply run below commands one by one in terminal to install / upgrade it:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:libreoffice/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

1. Before getting started, you may remove the previous installation by opening terminal from the Dash (or press Ctrl+Alt+T) and running command:

sudo apt-get purge libreoffice*

You can skip this step, but you’ll have two LireOffice versions on your system after this tutorial.

2. Download LibreOffice installer from the official link below:

LibreOffice Download Page

Depends on your OS type, 32-bit or 64-bit (check out via System Settings -> Details), scroll down and select download Linux x86 (deb) or Linux x64 (deb).

After clicked the link in below picture, you’re redirected to the download page (similar to previous link, but url changed.). Just click download the Main Installer.

The downloaded package looks like “LibreOffice_4.4.0_Linux_*.*_deb.tar.gz”.

3. Once downloaded, open your file-browser and extract the package from its context menu.

In the result folder, there are a number of .deb packages. What you have to do is install all of them.

4. Open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run below command to navigate to the LibreOffice package folder:

cd Downloads/LibreOffice_4.4.0.3_Linux_x86_64_deb/DEBS

Depends on the downloaded package, you may replace LibreOffice_4.4.0.3_Linux_x86_64_deb with the folder name to yours. Or type LibreOffice and hit Tab key to auto-complete its name.

5. Finally run one command to install all the .deb packages in that directory:

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Now start LibreOffice from the Dash and enjoy!

If you don’t see the shortcut icons like me, restart your computer.

In Howtos LibreOffice, LibreOffice 4.4

Selene Media Converter Adds VP9 and H265/HEVC Support

January 29, 2015 — 1 Comment

Selene, a free and open-source batch media converter, has recently reached ver 2.5 with VP9 and H265/HEVC encoding support.

For the new encoding supports, there are some points noted in the official release note:

For VP9 encoding support using ffmpeg or avconv:

VP9 encoder is very slow compared to VP8. Use the ‘speed’ slider to adjust the encoding speed. Lower values will give better quality video at expense of encoding speed. Higher values will speed-up encoding at the expense of quality. You need to find a balance that you are comfortable with.
The ‘constant quality’ rate control method seems to be broken in the VP8/VP9 encoder. Both ffmpeg and vpxenc tools ignore the –crf/–cq-level parameter and produce bad quality video. So currently only ‘variable bitrate’ mode is available in the application.
Output format is WebM (*.webm). Other containers currently do not support VP8/VP9 video formats.
Ensure that the version of ffmpeg/avconv on your system was compiled with VP8/VP9 support. As of now, the version available in the Ubuntu repositories for 14.04 and above, have support for VP8/VP9 encoding. You can verify this by running the command: ‘avconv -codecs | grep libvpx’

Selene with VP9 Encoding support

For H.265/HEVC encoding support:

x265 encoder is very slow compared to x264. Change the ‘preset’ option to ‘fast’ or ‘fastest’ to speed-up the encoding at the expense of compression (output file size).
Only MP4 container is supported for output. MKV output is not yet available since both ‘mkvmerge’ and ‘ffmpeg’ are yet to add support for muxing h265 streams.

Selene with H265 encoding support

How to Install / Upgrade Selene in Ubuntu:

For Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, and Linux Mint 17/17.1 users, the latest packages for this converter are available in the developer’s PPA.

Open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run below commands one by one to add the PPA and install the software:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:teejee2008/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install selene

Or you can directly grab the .deb installer from the ppa packages page.

via: TeeJee Tech

In Howtos batch converter, media converter, selene

How to Install / Upgrade to Linux Kernel 3.18.4 in Ubuntu

January 28, 2015 — Leave a comment

The latest Linux Kernel 3.18.4 has been released. All users of 3.18 kernel series are urged to upgrade as soon as possible.

The kernel 3.18.4 is a big release that brings architecture updates for x86 and ARM, driver updates for i915, radeon, wireless, and ethernet, various USB fixes, and more. For details, see the release note.

Upgrade to Kernel 3.18.4 in Ubuntu 14.04/ 14.10:

Ubuntu Kernel team has made the binary packages of this kernel release, available for download at the link below:

DOWNLOAD KERNEL 3.18.4 .DEBs

First check out your OS type, 32-bit (i386) or 64-bit (amd64), then download and install the packages below in turn:

linux-headers-3.18.4-031804_xxx_all.deb
linux-headers-3.18.4-031804-generic_3.18.4-031804.xxx_i386/amd64.deb
linux-image-3.18.4-031804-generic_3.18.4-031804.xxx_i386/amd64.deb

If you need a low latency system (e.g. for recording audio) then download and install the packages below in turn:

linux-headers-3.18.4-031804_xxx_all.deb
linux-headers-3.18.4-031804-lowlatency_3.18.4-031804.xxx_i386/amd64.deb
linux-image-3.18.4-031804-lowlatency_3.18.4-031804.xxx_i386/amd64.deb

For Ubuntu Server edition without a graphical session, run below commands one by one to download & install the kernel debs:

For 64-bit system, run:

cd /tmp/

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.18.4-vivid/linux-headers-3.18.4-031804-generic_3.18.4-031804.201501271243_amd64.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.18.4-vivid/linux-headers-3.18.4-031804_3.18.4-031804.201501271243_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.18.4-vivid/linux-image-3.18.4-031804-generic_3.18.4-031804.201501271243_amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-3.18.4-*.deb linux-image-3.18.4-*.deb

For 32-bit system, run:

cd /tmp/

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.18.4-vivid/linux-headers-3.18.4-031804-generic_3.18.4-031804.201501271243_i386.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.18.4-vivid/linux-headers-3.18.4-031804_3.18.4-031804.201501271243_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.18.4-vivid/linux-image-3.18.4-031804-generic_3.18.4-031804.201501271243_i386.deb

sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-3.18.4-*.deb linux-image-3.18.4-*.deb

Once done, restart the machine. For proprietary graphics driver, you may have to re-install/re-built your driver.

If for some reason, the new kernel does not work properly for you, reboot with the previous Kernel (Grub boot loader -> Advanced -> select previous kernel) and run below command to remove Linux Kernel 3.18.4:

sudo apt-get remove linux-headers-3.18.4-* linux-image-3.18.4-* && sudo update-grub

In Howtos Linux Kernel, Linux Kernel 3.18 series

How to Upgrade to KDE Plasma 5.2 in Kubuntu 14.10

January 27, 2015 — 4 Comments

KDE Plasma 5.2 has been announced today with a number of new components, new features and many more bug-fixes.

According to the release note, the new release comes with below new components:

BlueDevil to manage Bluetooth devices.
KSSHAskPass, a graphical UI to enter SSH keys’ passwords.
Muon: install and manage software and other addons for your computer.
Login theme configuration (SDDM)
KScreen, a System Settings module to set up multiple monitor support.
GTK Application Style, configure themeing of applications from Gnome.
KDecoration: this new library to make themes for KWin, Plasma’s window manager.

Also there are many other highlights in the KDE Plasma 5.2, such as:

Undo changes to Plasma desktop layout
press Alt-space to easily search through your computer
Breeze window decoration theme is now used by default.
New plasma widgets: 15 puzzle, web browser, show desktop
Various improvements and over 300 bug-fixes.

Fore more details, go to KDE.org.

How to Install / Upgrade to KDE Plasma 5.2 in Ubuntu:

For (K)Ubuntu 14.10 and derivatives users, the latest packages are available for install / upgrade at the Kubuntu Next Backports PPA.

Just open a terminal window, and run below commands one by one to add the PPA, update package cache and install or upgrade KDE:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/next-backports

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

sudo apt-get install plasma-desktop plasma-workspace plasma-workspace-wallpapers

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade