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Install Variety Wallpaper Changer in Ubuntu 16.04

Last updated: January 9, 2016

variety-icon

Variety, an open-source wallpaper changer, downloader and manager, has been made for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS in its official PPA repository.

Variety is a system tray applet that changes the desktop wallpaper on a regular basis, using user-specified or automatically downloaded images from different online sources such as Imgur and Flickr. It can also automatically apply various fancy filters to the displayed images – charcoal painting, oil painting, heavy blurring, etc.

variety wallpaper changer indicator on panel

variety wallpaper changer settings window

How to Install Variety in Ubuntu:

Variety available in the developer’s PPA for all current Ubuntu releases, including Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 15.10, and the upcoming Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.

To install it, either add the PPA or download .deb binary directly from the below link:

1. Add PPA.

Open terminal from Unity Dash, Application launcher, or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut key. When it opens, paste below command and hit run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:peterlevi/ppa

Type in your password (no visual feedback just type in mind) when it asks and hit enter to continue.

2. After that, use Synaptic Package Manager to install the software after clicking Refresh button. Or run below commands one by one in terminal:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install variety

For those who don’t want to add PPA, grab latest “variety_x.x.x_all.deb” package from THIS PAGE and click to install it via Software Center or Gdebi package manager.

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How to Mount The Windows 10 Partition in Ubuntu

Last updated: January 7, 2016

On Ubuntu and Windows 10 dual boot machine, when trying to mount the Windows system drive from Ubuntu, you may get an error saying “Windows is not fully shutdown” due to the new hybrid boot feature.

And below is the how-to-fix steps:

1. Fully shutdown Windows 10, or disable Fast Startup

Ubuntu Linux can’t access Win10 system drive because Windows does not fully shut down (it actually hibernates). So you have to choose:

  1. Do a full shutdown – When you’re in Windows select “Restart” option or hold the SHIFT key when clicking “Shutdown” option.
  2. or Disable Fast Startup – Launch Control Panel and do:
    • navigate to Power Options -> Choose what the power buttons do
    • click the link “Change settings that are currently unavailable” at the top
    • uncheck the “Turn on fast startup” box under Shutdown settings.

2. Add read & write mount permission

After step 1 you should be able to access your Windows system drive in Ubuntu. But to have write permission, you still need to do:

1. Launch Disks utility from Unity Dash or Application Launcher.

2. When it launches, highlight Windows 10 partition (it’ll be a NTFS partition), then click the gear button and select “Edit Mount Options”.

3. In next window, disable “Automatic Mount Options” and add remove_hiberfile to the end of the text box, separated by a comma.

After saving the changes, click mount/remount the Windows 10 partition in your file browser and enjoy!

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Ubuntu 16.04 Flavors: Alpha 1 Downloads Now Available

Last updated: January 30, 2016

The first alpha of Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus LTS has been released. Features images for Lubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, and UbuntuKylin.

Ubuntu 16.04 Alpha 1 comes with Linux Kernel 4.3. As an alpha pre-release, it is only recommended for developers and those who want to test by finding, reporting, and/or fixing bugs.

Download links:

For a reminder of upcoming Ubuntu release dates see the table:

January 28th Alpha 2 (for opt-in flavors)
February 25th Beta 1 (for opt-in flavors)
March 24th Final Beta
April 14th FinalFreeze, ReleaseCandidate
April 21st Final release of Ubuntu 16.04
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Install Nuvola Player 3 Stable in Ubuntu 15.10, 14.04

Last updated: January 3, 2016

Linux cloud music player Nuvola Player 3 finally goes stable. Its official repository is ready for Ubuntu 15.10, Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.04, and derivatives.

Nuvola Player 3 supports various services such as Google Play Music, 8tracks, Amazon Cloud Player, Bandcamp, Deezer, Jango, KEXP Live Stream, Logitech Media Server, Mixcloud, Plex Music, Spotify, TuneIn, Yandex Music.

The new release has been rewritten from scratch and contains plenty of improvements over Nuvola Player 2. It features:

  • built on top of WebKit2Gtk+ so it doesn’t need any hacks to support Flash plugin
  • run multiple services side-by-side, the software creates a desktop application shortcut when a particular service starts
  • official repositories for Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora.
  • GTK header bar, client-side-decorations in Gnome.
  • and more at the release page.

How to Install Nuvola Player 3 in Ubuntu:

Open terminal from Unity Dash, Application Launcher, or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut key. When it opens, run below command one by one.

1. Add the official repository.

Paste below command in terminal and hit run:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb https://tiliado.eu/nuvolaplayer/repository/deb/ wily stable" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tiliado-nuvolaplayer.list'

Type in your password (no visual feedback so just type in mind) when it asks and hit enter.

Here you may replace wily in the code with:

  • wily — for Ubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf
  • vivid — for Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet
  • trusty — for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Linux Mint 17.x, Elementary OS Freya, etc.

2. Add GPG key to trust the repository packages.

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys 40554B8FA5FE6F6A

3. Finally install Nuvola Player 3 via either Synaptic Package Manager after clicking Refresh, or below commands one by one:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install nuvolaplayer3

For those who hate Linux commands, try the graphics installer available at this page.

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How to Install Latest PeaZip File Archiver 5.9.1 in Ubuntu 64-bit

Last updated: January 2, 2016

PeaZip file manager and file archiver has reached the 5.9.1 release recently. Here’s a quick tip for you how to install it in 64-bit Ubuntu.

PeaZip website provides the .deb binaries for Debian/Ubuntu based systems, but the software does not launch after installing it on 64-bit Ubuntu. The workaround is to simply install the 32-bit dependency libraries.

1. Go to link below:

PeaZip download archive

select download

  • peazip_x.x.x.LINUX.GTK2-2_i386.deb for 32-bit Ubuntu
  • peazip_x.x.x.LINUX.GTK2-2_all.deb for 64-bit Ubuntu

2. For 32-bit machine just install the package and you’re done.

The 64-bit package requires ia-32 libs, which is no available in Ubuntu since Ubuntu 13.10. The “fix” is to simply install the 32bit dependency libraries on 64bit Ubuntu, and that’s how multiarch works.

So first open terminal from Unity Dash, App Launcher, or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut key. When it opens, paste below command and run to install dependencies:

sudo apt-get install libatk1.0-0:i386 libc6:i386 libcairo2:i386 libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0:i386 libglib2.0-0:i386 libgtk2.0-0:i386 libpango1.0-0:i386 libx11-6:i386 libcanberra-gtk-module:i386

Then click to open and install downloaded PeaZip binary via Software Center or Gdebi.

3. You may right-click on one of your RAR, ZIP, TAR, etc. files, go to the Properties -> Open With tab. Finally select PeaZip as the default application to open these file formats.

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