How to Restore Alphabetical Order of Show Applications App Grid in Ubuntu 22.04

Last updated: August 9, 2022 — Leave a comment

Messed up the app list in ‘Show Applications’ menu in Ubuntu 22.04? It’s easy to restore the original alphabetical ordering.

In Gnome, user can either click the 3×3 9-dots icon on dock or press Super (Windows logo key) + A on keyboard to open the ‘Start Menu’.

The GNOME Desktop ‘Start Menu’

App icons in that menu (definitely screen) support drag and drop re-arranging position. However, there’s no option to restore the app order.

To deal with the issue, user can either use the hidden configuration key or install an extension to do the trick in Ubuntu 22.04.

Option 1: Single command to restore app grid order

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command:

gsettings set org.gnome.shell app-picker-layout "[]"

The command set the layout to empty and let it re-generate automatically. However, you need to log-out and back in to apply change.

If you happen to use the classic Xorg session, simply press Alt+F2, type r in pop-up dialog and hit Enter to restart Gnome shell to apply change.

Option 2: Use Alphabetical App Grid Extension:

It’s ‘Alphabetical App Grid‘ which so far supports for GNOME version from 38 to 42. Which means you can install and use the tool to restore app grid in Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 11, Fedora 35/36, Arch Linux and Manjaro etc.

1. For Ubuntu 22.04, firstly search for and install “Extension Manager” from Ubuntu Software.

Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu 22.04

2. Then, search for and open the tool from start menu or ‘Activities’ overview.

3. When the app opens, navigate to ‘Browse’ tab. Finally, search for and install “Alphabetical App Grid” extension.

After installation, it restore the alphabetical ordering automatically. In case you want to drag & drop re-arranging the app icons again, turn the extension off under “Installed” tab. And, re-enable it at any time you want to restore.

In addition, both methods do not restore (remove) the folders that combine multiple app icons in sub-menus. You need to manually drag them out, then use either method above to re-order them.

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‘Just Perfection’ Finally Fixed Window Height for Low Resolution Displays

Last updated: August 8, 2022 — Leave a comment

The popular Gnome Extension ‘Just Perfection‘ got an update recently, with love for small displays, e.g., 13 inch laptop with 1366 x 768 screen resolution.

For those never heard of the tool, it’s an extension, with lots of configuration options for customizing your Ubuntu, Fedora, or other Linux’s GNOME desktop appearance.

With it, you can hide the top-bar, the dock, ‘Activities’ button; change the position of clock menu; configure panel height, position (top or bottom), panel icon size, padding; change notification bubble size, location, and much more.

And it supports profiles to quickly switch between your pre-defined layouts and behaviors.

However, the app configuration dialog was always bigger than screen height in my case on 1366×768 laptop screen. I have to press Alt + F7 on keyboard, and move the cursor to move the dialog beyond screen top every time when trying to change something. And, use the shortcut again to move the header bar back in screen.

In the most recent 21.0.0 release, the extension now fixed the issue for GNOME 42 (defaut in Ubuntu 22.04, Fedora 36, and Arch / Manjaro Linux) with small as well as scaled displays.

In addition, this release add options to configure the size of “Alt-Tab” window preview and icon. Toggle display the separator in dock that separate favorite and other opened app icons.

‘Alt-Tab’ Window Preview and Icon size is configurable

And, it allows to change the position of OSD display, such as volume and brightness up/down pop-up, and configure the size of looking glass (GNOME Shell’s integrated debugger and inspector tool).

How to Install ‘Just Perfection’:

To install the extension in Ubuntu 22.04 +, firstly search for and install “Extension Manager” via Ubuntu Software.

Next, open the tool, then search for and install ‘Just Perfection’ under ‘Browse’ tab.

For old Ubuntu and other Linux systems, just turn on the slider icon in the link below:

Install Just Perfection

NOTE: Ubuntu has to first run sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) to install the agent. And, install browser extension if prompted to make the on/off switch visible.

Finally, open the configuration dialog for “Just Perfection”, either via “Extension Manager” or “Gnome Extensions” app, which are available to install in Ubuntu Software/Gnome Software.

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Kid3 Tag Editor Updates with DSDIFF (DFF) File Support

Last updated: August 6, 2022 — Leave a comment

Kid3, the popular Qt audio tag editor, released version 3.9.2 today. PPA updated for Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 20.04, and Ubuntu 18.04.

The new Kid3 3.9.2 is a bug-fix release. Though, there are new features including .dff support, an audio format developed by Sony and Philips for Super Audio CD (SACD).

New features also include support for chapters in MP4 audio books, importing from URLs containing search results from Discogs and MusicBrainz, and a Norwegian translation.

Other changes in the release include:

  • Allow playlist file name formats to be edited.
  • URLs with search results from web browser can be entered in the import dialogs (Amazon, Discogs, gnudb.org, MusicBrainz).
  • New style for macOS icon.
  • Cli interface adds encoding detection for text file import and export.
  • Set rating as star count with ‘set ratingstars’ (Kid3-cli).
  • Build with latest mp4v2 library.
  • Fix wrong modifications of frames when importing.

How to Install Kid3 3.9.2 in Ubuntu:

The app has an official PPA contains the packages for all current Ubuntu releases, and their based systems, such as Linux Mint, Pop! OS, Zorin OS.

1. First, search for and open terminal either from system start menu or ‘Activities’ overview. When it opens, run command to add PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ufleisch/kid3

2. Then update package cache by running command:

sudo apt update

3. If an old version of the software package exist in system, you can now open “Software Updater” or “Update Manager” to update the tag editor app.

Or, simply run the command below in terminal to install it:

sudo apt install kid3-qt

You may replace kid3-qt with kid3 in the code for KDE desktop, and/or with kid3-cli for the command-line interface.

Uninstall:

To remove the PPA, either use ‘Software Sources’ or ‘Software & Updates’ utility, or run command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ufleisch/kid3

And, remove kid3 tag editor via command:

sudo apt remove --auto-remove kid3 kid3-*
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This Extension Enables Rounded Window Corners in Ubuntu 22.04/Fedora36

Last updated: August 4, 2022 — Leave a comment

Gnome finally has an extension to enable rounded corners for all app windows, and customize the window borders!

Start in Gnome 40, more and more applications use GTK4 toolkit for rendering their user interface. So, you have modern apps with rounded (bottom) corners and classic GTK3 and Qt apps with sharp (bottom) corners.

To make your system apps look consistent, this project is created and works on Ubuntu 22.04, Fedora 35/36, Arch Linux, Manjaro Linux with GNOME.

GTK3 app with rounded corners

The extension provides options for configuring window border width, color, and radius. There can be some applications that are not working well with the extension, so it provides blacklist option. Also, it supports for setting different clip padding on per app basis.

Set border width, color. radius, and blocklist

How to Install the Extension in Ubuntu 22.04

Ubuntu 22.04 user can simply search for and install ‘Extension Manager‘ first in Ubuntu Software.

Then, search for and open ‘Extension Manager’ from Activities overview. Finally, use the tool to search and install “Rounded Window Corners” extension under ‘Browse’ tab:

After installation, you may switch back to “Install” tab in the tool, and click on gear icon to open the settings dialog for the extension.

Configure Extension

Install the Extension in Fedora 35/36 & other Linux

For Fedora and other Linux with GNOME 40+ desktop, simply go to the link button below in your web browser:

Rounded Window Corners

If you don’t see the ON/OFF switch, click the link in that page to install browser extension and refresh.

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GNU Octave 7.2 Released! Here’s PPA for Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04

Last updated: August 2, 2022 — Leave a comment

GNU Octave 7.2 was released a few days ago. Here’s unofficial Ubuntu PPA for those who prefers the classic .deb package.

The new 7.2 release of this scientific programming language contains mainly bug-fixes. See the release note for the changes.

GNU Octave 7.2.0

How to Install GNU Octave 7.2.0 in Ubuntu Linux:

The software offers official Snap package which runs in sandbox. User may simply search for and install it from Ubuntu Software. Though it’s still in v7.1 at the moment of writing, it updates automatically once new package is out.

Install Octave Snap from Ubuntu Software

It’s also available to install as Flatpak package. And, here’s the step by step tutorial shows how.

For those who prefers the classic .deb package format, here’s an unofficial PPA contains the package for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Linux Mint 21/20.

1.) First, press Ctrl + Alt + T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, paste the command below and hit run to add PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/octave

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) and hit Enter to continue.

2.) After adding PPA, run command to refresh system package cache. This is done automatically in Ubuntu 20.04 +, but Linux Mint users need to do it manually:

sudo apt update

3.) Finally, either update the software package via ‘Software Updater’ (Software Manager):

Or, run the command below in terminal to install / update the package:

sudo apt install octave

Uninstall:

To remove the PPA as well as downgrade the Octave package to the stock version in system repository, run command:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/octave

To remove the programming language package, either use your system package manager (Ubuntu Software) or run command below in terminal:

sudo apt remove --autoremove octave octave-common
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