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Archives For January 31, 2014

Beautify Your Boot Menu with Burg in Ubuntu or Linux Mint

Last updated: December 26, 2014

Bored with the default Grub bootloader? You may give Burg a try. Burg is a Grub based boot loader which works in both text and graphic mode. There are quite a few themes so that you can always make your boot menu beautiful.

Below is the burg boot menu with Metro theme.

Install Burg:

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the commands below one by one to install Burg from PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:n-muench/burg

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install burg burg-themes

UPDATE: Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10, and derivatives are added support!

So far, the PPA supports Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 11.10, Ubuntu 11.04 and their derivatives.

While the installing process, click OK to answer all questions. In the below screen, you need to press the Space key first to select your disk name and Tab key to select OK.

Install Theme for burg:

There are 16 themes available by default. You can download more themes at deviantart.com and install them via following steps:

1. Download the theme, Metro as example, at deviantart page

2. Extract the theme package and put the result folder into /boot/burg/themes/ directory. Run below command in the terminal to open file browser with root, then do the copy and paste things.

sudo nautilus

3. The theme misses Linux Mint logo. Download the below icons and put them into /boot/burg/themes/Metro/icons/ if need.

hover_linuxmint

normal_linuxmint

Then edit the icons file in the same folder and added the line below to make the icons work:

-linuxmint { image = “$$/normal_linuxmint.png:$$/hover_linuxmint.png” }

4. Update burg boot loader:

sudo update-burg

5. Now you’re able to test your boot entries via:

sudo burg-emu

In testing mode, press F2 to switch the themes. You can also press F3 to change resolution in the real burg boot menu.

Tips: You can edit the “menuentry” sections in “/boot/burg/burg.cfg” to remove unwanted menu entries.
Also uncomment “GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_RECOVERY=”true”” in “/etc/defaut/burg” will hide the recovery mode.

Restore Grub:

To revert back to original grub boot loader, run the command below in terminal:

sudo grub-install /dev/sda

/dev/sda is the disk name (Run sudo fdisk -l to check it out).

In Howtos beautify boot loader, burg, burg ppa

Bluefish Editor 2.2.5 Released, Install in Ubuntu 13.10/12.04/12.10

Last updated: February 10, 2014

Bluefish, a powerful editor targeted towards programmers and webdevelopers has reached version 2.2.5. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Linux Mint and their derivatives.

According to the changelog:

Bluefish 2.2.5 is a minor bug fix release but has also quite some new features. The syntax scanning engine is faster after small changes to the text. The filebrowser is also much faster with less memory usage, with various fixes and new features. Projects now store the active document and active line numbers. Indenting is improved in auto-completion and the smart indenting. Bookmarks and paste special also have been improved. On OSX there are many improvements, such as Mavericks support, Retina display support, working system hotkeys, native input methods (Japanese, Chinese, etc.), opening files from the finder and Widget bindings on MacOSX are moved to Cmd+C|V|X|A and working. Furthermore almost all syntax highlighting has been improved, most notable jquery in javascript, HTML5, and HTML5 in PHP files. There are also many bug fixes, such as in wrap text on right margin, in the replace engine, the jsmin licence, the split lines feature, the auto-recovery and many obscure bugs. Last bluefish now has an appdata file.

Install Bluefish:

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the commands below one by one to install Bluefish from PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:klaus-vormweg/bluefish

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install bluefish

You can also install Bluefish compiled against GTK2:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:klaus-vormweg/bluefish-gtk2

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install bluefish

In Howtos Bluefish Editor, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 13.10

How to Install The Latest FileZilla Client Release 3.7.4 in Ubuntu

Last updated: February 10, 2014

This simple tutorial shows you how to install the latest FileZilla Client in all versions of Ubuntu currently supported on the desktop. So far, they are Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 12.10, and Ubuntu 12.04.

The current FileZilla release is version 3.7.4. It comes with below new features and bug fixes:

Added SOCKS4 support
Added Corsican and Kabyle translations
SFTP now supports the hmac-sha2-256 algorithm
Additional bugfix for site-specific bookmarks
Improve compatibility with servers sending directory listings in Polish language or in EBCDIC encoding
Handle set user id bit when populating permissions dialog.
MSW: Show local timestamps for old files using the correct daylight saving time (DST) offset.
Fix loading of transfer queue if starting FileZilla while another instance is in the process of shutting down
Fix interaction between site-specific bookmarks and multiple tabs
Don’t resume uploads when there’s zero octets left to transfer
Improve symbolic link detection when using MLSD
If processing a queue with files queued on multiple servers and not storing passwords, the password was not always asked prior to switching servers
Use the correct name element when importing sites
MSW: Show actual Windows version in about dialog regardless of app-compat settings

Install FileZilla:

If you don’t like PPAs, you can always follow the steps below to install the latest FileZilla Client in Ubuntu.

1. First go to System Settings -> Details and check out your OS type: 32 bit or 64 bit

2. Download FileZilla from the official download page.

32 bit system download the “FileZilla_x.x.x_i586-linux-gnu.tar.bz2”
64 bit system download the “FileZilla_x.x.x_x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.bz2”

3. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the command below to extract FilaZilla to /opt/.

cd /opt/ && sudo tar jvxf FileZilla_*-linux-gnu.tar.bz2

In the code, you may replace the file name to yours!

4. Change the ownership of extracted folder:

cd /opt/ && sudo chown -R root:root FileZill*

5. Now, you’re able to launch FileZilla Client via the command below:

/opt/FileZill*/bin/filezilla

6. To create a launcher. Run the command below to edit the config file:

sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/filezilla.desktop

Copy and paste below lines into the file and save it.

[Desktop Entry]
Name=FileZilla
GenericName=FTP client
GenericName[de]=FTP-Client
GenericName[fr]=Client FTP
Comment=Download and upload files via FTP, FTPS and SFTP
Comment[de]=Dateien über FTP, FTPS und SFTP übertragen
Comment[fr]=Transférer des fichiers via FTP, FTPS et SFTP
Exec=/opt/FileZilla3/bin/filezilla
Terminal=false
Icon=filezilla
Type=Application
Categories=Network;FileTransfer;
Version=1.0

Change the FileZilla3 to the exact folder name and done.

In Howtos filezilla client, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 14.04

ExMplayer Added Facebook Sharing, Subtitle Search, Upload & Download

Last updated: February 9, 2014

ExMplayer, the Mplayer GUI known as thumbnail seeking feature has just released version 3.8.0 with great new features and bug fixes.

According to the changelog, ExMplayer now supports Facebook sharing, Subtitle search, upload and download.

For details, see:

Added Facebook sharing( Listening to… Watching….)
Added subtitle Search (Thanks to Opensubtitles.org)
Added subtitle download and upload (Thanks to Opensubtitles.org)
Added support for multiple subtitle languages
Added update checking
Introduced mini mode
Fixed fontcache problem on 64 bit Windows
Fixed screen flickering (Seek view) on Windows8

Install:

The official PPA provides the latest build for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 10.04 and their derivatives.

To get started, press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the commands below one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:exmplayer-dev/exmplayer 

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install exmplayer

If you don’t like adding PPAs, download the DEB package from the launchpad page.

ExMplayer Homepage

In News ExMplayer, subtitle download

Install the Latest Pidgin 2.10.9 via PPA in Ubuntu 14.04/12.04/13.10

Last updated: December 12, 2014

The instant messaging program Pidgin 2.10.9 has been released recently. It mainly fixed problems logging into some servers including jabber.org and chat.facebook.com.

The default Pidgin versions in Ubuntu universe repositories are quite old (See Pidgin changelog history). The Pidgin Developers PPA provides the most recent version of Pidgin for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 12.10, and Ubuntu 12.04. Here’s how to add the PPA and install / upgrade your Pidgin from it.

To get started, press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the command below to add Pidgin PPA to your system:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:pidgin-developers/ppa

After that, update your system package lists and then you’re able to install packages from the PPA:

sudo apt-get update

Now install the Pidgin:

sudo apt-get install pidgin

That’s it. Enjoy!

For the Off-the-Record (OTR) plug-in, which is designed for use with Pidgin ensures authenticated and secure communications between Pidgin users, just search for and install pidgin-otr from Ubuntu Software Center. Finally enable the plugin from Pidgin menu Tools -> Plugins.

In Howtos pidgin ppa, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 14.04

How to Install VLC 2.1.2 in Ubuntu 12.04/12.10/13.04/13.10

Last updated: July 28, 2015

The popular VLC media player has reached version 2.1.x with some fantastic new features, bug fixes and performance improvements. However, the official PPA for Ubuntu 13.10 and earlier is stuck at version 2.0.8.

There’s now a third-party PPA that provides the most recent build of VLC (it’s 2.1.2 so far) to Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 13.04, and Ubuntu 13.10 users. The PPA is maintained by djcj

The PPA is not officially endorsed, supported or otherwise backed by the Videolan team. Use it at your own risk!

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the commands below to add the PPA and install VLC.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:djcj/vlc-stable

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install vlc

If you don’t like the PPAs, directly download & install the DEBs from the launchpad page.

In Howtos install latest vlc Ubuntu, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 13.10, vlc media player

YouTube Client Minitube 2.1.6 Released, How to Install in Ubuntu

Last updated: February 7, 2014

Minitube, the YouTube desktop application has just released version 2.1.6 with a fix for the playback of some YouTube videos. A minor change in Minitube’s Browse tab removes some so-called standard feeds like Most Shared, etc.

This simple tutorial will show you how to install or upgrade to the latest build of Minitube in Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Linux Mint and their derivatives via the PPA repository.

What is Minitube:

Minitube is a lightweight and stylish YouTube application. With it you can watch YouTube videos in a new way: you type a keyword, Minitube gives you an endless video stream.

By automatically playing videos one after another, Minitube aims to create a TV-like experience. Stop fiddling, just sit back and enjoy.

Minitube is designed to be very easy to use. This simplicity is great for kids and grandparents. Consider getting Minitube as a gift for the whole family.

Minitube consumes less CPU, preserves battery life and keeps your laptop cool. That’s because Minitube does not use the Flash Player. Minitube plays HD videos up to 1080p. Go full-screen and watch them play smoothly.

With Minitube you can search by keyword, search YouTube channels or just paste a YouTube link. Related videos are always a click away. You can also browse top videos for your favorite category and country. You can subscribe to YouTube channels and be notified of new videos.

Minitube is translated in more than 30 languages including German, French, Italian, Russian, Danish, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Hebrew and Chinese.

Install Minitube:

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the commands below one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install minitube

This will install the latest build of minitube from the webupd8 team PPA.

In Howtos Minitube, Minitube PPA, YouTube Client

Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS Released, How to Upgrade

Last updated: February 7, 2014

Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS has been finally released on Feb 6, 2014. Here’s how to upgrade from previous Ubuntu 12.04 releases.

Colin Watson announced in lists.ubuntu.com:

The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the release of Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS (Long-Term Support) for its Desktop, Server, Cloud, and Core products, as well as other flavours of Ubuntu with long-term support.

As with 12.04.3, 12.04.4 contains an updated kernel and X stack for new installations on x86 architectures.

As usual, this point release includes many updates, and updated installation media has been provided so that fewer updates will need to be downloaded after installation. These include security updates and corrections for other high-impact bugs, with a focus on maintaining stability and compatibility with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

How to upgrade to Ubuntu 12.04.4: (Thanks to h1repp from askubuntu)

The normal software updates will bring your system up to 12.04.4, but the Hardware Enablement Stack (HWE; the *-lts-saucy packages) is not part of those updates (by policy).

You can install the HWE packages manually, but there are some caveats.

To upgrade use this command line only (press Ctrl+Alt+T to open the terminal):

sudo apt-get install --install-recommends linux-generic-lts-saucy xserver-xorg-lts-saucy libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-saucy

The –install-recommends is important. It makes sure that the xserver will install completely. Without it, xserver will only install partly, and apt will remove most of your system.

When you upgrade like this you may notice that there are configurations left over, among others those of the original xserver-xorg. You can purge them (I always do), but beware: this will remove the symlink /etc/X11/X that is used to start the XServer, so on next boot it won’t start. To prevent this, after purging left over configurations, do the following before the next boot:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg-lts-saucy

This will recreate the necessary symlink and everything is fine again.

You can also download Ubuntu 12.04.4 iso with the new Saucy HWE stack at:

releases.ubuntu.com/precise

In News Ubuntu 12.04

Linux Kernel 3.10.29 LTS Released, Upgrade in Ubuntu or Mint

Last updated: February 7, 2014

Today, Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced the Linux Kernel 3.12.10, Kernel 3.13.2, Kernel 3.10.29 LTS and Kernel 3.4.79 LTS. All users of each kernel series are urged to upgrade as soon as possible.

I’ve written about how to install or upgrade to Kernel 3.13.2 & Kernel 3.12.10. This tutorial is going to talk about Kernel 3.10.29 LTS.

Linux kernel 3.10.29 LTS brings updated architectures, including ARM, s390, PowerPC, and x86, numerous updates drivers (wireless, rtc, scsi, tty, usb, etc.), some filesystem improvements (mainly Btrfs and EXT4), a couple of networking fixes for IPv4 and IPv6, and some sound improvements. See the announcement.

Install / upgrade to Kernel 3.10.29:

The Ubuntu Kernel Team has build the deb packages which are available in this page.

If you’re comfortable with command line, you can also follow the steps below to download & install this kernel:

1. Download Kernel DEBs:

For 32-bit system:

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.10.29-saucy/linux-headers-3.10.29-031029-generic_3.10.29-031029.201402061535_i386.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.10.29-saucy/linux-headers-3.10.29-031029_3.10.29-031029.201402061535_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.10.29-saucy/linux-image-3.10.29-031029-generic_3.10.29-031029.201402061535_i386.deb

For 64 bit system:

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.10.29-saucy/linux-headers-3.10.29-031029-generic_3.10.29-031029.201402061535_amd64.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.10.29-saucy/linux-headers-3.10.29-031029_3.10.29-031029.201402061535_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.10.29-saucy/linux-image-3.10.29-031029-generic_3.10.29-031029.201402061535_amd64.deb

2. Install all the packages:

sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-3.10.29-*.deb linux-image-3.10.29-*.deb

Once installed, restart your computer and done.

If you’re using a proprietary video driver, you may need to re-build or re-install to get it work with the new kernel.

If for some reason this kernel release doesn’t work properly for you, reboot into previous kernel (Grub -> Advanced -> select previous kernel) and run this command to remove Linux Kernel 3.10.29:

sudo apt-get remove linux-headers-3.10.29-* linux-image-3.10.29-*

In Howtos kernel 3.10 series, Linux Kernel

How to Install / Upgrade to Linux Kernel 3.12.10 in Ubuntu or Mint

Last updated: February 7, 2014

Greg Kroah-Hartman has also announced the Linux Kernel 3.12.10 and urged users of 3.12 series to upgrade as soon as possible.

Similar to Kernel 3.13.2, Linux kernel 3.12.10 brings updated architectures, including ARM, s390, PowerPC, PA-RISC, and x86, numerous updates drivers (wireless, rtc, scsi, tty, usb, etc.), some filesystem improvements (mainly Btrfs, HPFS and EXT4), a couple of networking fixes for IPv4 and IPv6, and some sound improvements. See the announcement.

Install / Upgrade to Kernel 3.12.10:

The Ubuntu Kernel Team has build the deb packages which are available in this page. Low-latency Kernel packages are also included.

If you’re comfortable with command line, you can also follow the steps below to download & install this kernel:

1. Download Kernel DEBs:

For 32-bit system:

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.12.10-trusty/linux-headers-3.12.10-031210-generic_3.12.10-031210.201402061553_i386.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.12.10-trusty/linux-headers-3.12.10-031210_3.12.10-031210.201402061553_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.12.10-trusty/linux-image-3.12.10-031210-generic_3.12.10-031210.201402061553_i386.deb

For 64 bit system:

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.12.10-trusty/linux-headers-3.12.10-031210-generic_3.12.10-031210.201402061553_amd64.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.12.10-trusty/linux-headers-3.12.10-031210_3.12.10-031210.201402061553_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.12.10-trusty/linux-image-3.12.10-031210-generic_3.12.10-031210.201402061553_amd64.deb

2. Install all the packages:

sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-3.12.10-*.deb linux-image-3.12.10-*.deb

Once installed, restart your computer and done.

If you’re using a proprietary video driver, you may need to re-build or re-install to get it work with the new kernel.

If for some reason this kernel release doesn’t work properly for you, reboot into previous kernel (Grub -> Advanced -> select previous kernel) and run this command to remove Linux Kernel 3.12.10:

sudo apt-get remove linux-headers-3.12.10-* linux-image-3.12.10-*

In Howtos Linux Kernel, Linux Kernel 3.12 series

Archives For January 31, 2014

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