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Archives For November 30, 1999

Jabber/XMPP Client ‘Kaidan’ 0.7.0 Released with New Features

Last updated: February 2, 2021

Kaidan, free and open-source Jabber / XMPP client, released version 0.7.0 with enhancements and bug-fixes.

Kaidan is a user-friendly and modern chat app uses the open communication protocol XMPP (Jabber). Unlike other chat apps, you are not dependent on one specific service provider.

The new version 0.7.0 was released today adds more information in contact profile including nickname, software version, and operation system.

The favorite emojis now is showing by default, and you can search emoji by typeing :<name>.

Other changes in Kaidan 0.7.0 include:

  • drag’n’drop support for sending files
  • Paste images from clipboard (Ctrl+Shift+V) into the chat
  • Insert newline with Shift + Enter
  • Custom hostname and port.
  • Improved design of media preview sheets
  • Restructure message sending bar
  • And bug-fixes.

How to Install Kaidan in Ubuntu:

The software offers non-install Appimage available to download at its website.

It also available as Flatpak package, which runs in sandbox. Open terminal from system app launcher and run following commands one by one to install it:

1. Run command to install flatpak daemon if you don’t have it:

sudo apt install flatpak

2. Add the flathub repository which hosts the software package:

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

3. Finally install Kaidan package via command:

flatpak install flathub im.kaidan.kaidan

Once installed, open it either from app launcher or by running command flatpak run im.kaidan.kaidan

Uninstall Kaidan:

To remove the flatpak package, simply run command in terminal:

flatpak uninstall im.kaidan.kaidan
In News
 

How to Install and Setup Universal Media Server in Ubuntu 20.04

Last updated: February 1, 2021

This tutorial is going to show you how to install and setup Universal Media Server in Ubuntu 20.04 Desktop and Server.

Universal Media Server, UMS in short, is a DLNA-compliant UPnP media server allows streaming media files to a wide range of devices including video game consoles, smart TVs, smartphones, and Blu-ray players.

1. Install required libraries:

Media transcoding is accomplished through packages from AviSynth, FFMpeg, MEncoder, and VLC, you have to first open terminal and run command to make sure these packages installed:

sudo apt install mediainfo dcraw vlc mplayer mencoder

2. Download Universal Media Server:

The latest tarballs are available to download at github project page. Select download (run uname -m to tell system type):

  • x86 package for old 32-bit machines.
  • x86_64 package for 64-bit machines.
  • arm64 / armhf for Rasperry Pi devices.

At the moment, the latest release is version 10.0.1. If you’re running Ubuntu Server, use this command to download it (replace URL in the command if a newer version is available):

wget -c https://github.com/UniversalMediaServer/UniversalMediaServer/releases/download/10.0.1/UMS-10.0.1-x86_64.tgz

3. Decompress the tarball

Run following 2 commands will navigate to user’s Downloads folder, then extract the UMS package /opt, and finally rename result folder from ‘ums-10.0.1‘ to ‘ums‘.

cd Downloads
sudo tar -zxvf UMS-10.0.1-x86_64.tgz -C /opt/ --transform s/ums-10.0.1/ums/

Skip cd Downloads if it was downloaded via wget command.

And replace “UMS-10.0.1-x86_64.tgz” if a newer version was downloaded, also do change version number in “ums-10.0.1“.

4. Run UMS as system service

If everything goes well, you should be able to run the Universal Media Server via command:

/opt/ums/UMS.sh

For Ubuntu Desktop, it brings up a setup dialog to choose language, start minimized or not, choose network, and media folder etc.

Then it offers an user interface with more configurations, log view, and more.

For Ubuntu Server without UI, edit the .config/UMS/UMS.conf file for configurations. By default, it steams all files under user home. You can add “folder = /PATH/TO/MEDIA1,/PATH/TO/MEDIA2” to set media folder. For more, read the UMS.conf file under source tarball.

After starting the server go to http://server_ip:9001 in your web browser to check out if the server is working.

To make it run as systemd service, open terminal and run command:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/ums.service

It will create an empty file and open with nano command line text editor. Paste (Ctrl+Shift+V) following lines and change ji to your user name. Also change memory limit from 500M to another value if you want.

[Unit]
Description=Run UMS as Ji
DefaultDependencies=no
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=ji
Group=ji
ExecStart=/opt/ums/UMS.sh
TimeoutStartSec=0
RemainAfterExit=yes
Environment="UMS_MAX_MEMORY=500M"

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

Save changes by pressing Ctrl+X, follow with Y, and hit Enter.

Finally run commands to reload systemd daemon, enable and start UMS service. 

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable ums.service
sudo systemctl start ums.service

And check the service status via command:

sudo systemctl status ums.service

In Howtos
 

Kid3 Audio Tag Editor 3.8.5 Released, How to Install via Ubuntu PPA

Last updated: January 31, 2021

The Kid3 audio tagger 3.8.5 was released today as a new bug-fix release which however includes also some minor new features.

Kid3 3.8.5 adds ability to change the language via Settings -> Appearance, though app needs a restart to apply change.

It also brings “Invert Selection” option under Edit menu, command option “config” to query and set configuration options, and script to rewrite all tags of the selected files.

Other changes include:

  • Import multiple genres from Discogs and MusicBrainz.
  • Support import from Discogs JSON API when token is provided.
  • Allow code signing for Mac OS
  • Fix crash issue when adding Chapter frame.
  • Fix support for ID3v2 Podcast Category (TCAT) and Podcast Keywords (TKWD).
  • Fix support for multiple genres with ID3v2.3.0.
  • Fix support for MP4 values with multiple strings with TagLib.

How to Install Kid3 3.8.5 in Ubuntu via PPA:

The official Kid3 PPA has made the new packages for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 20.10, Linux Mint 20, and derivatives.

1. Open terminal either from application launcher or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ufleisch/kid3

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

2. If an old version was installed, upgrade Kid3 using Software Updater:

or run commands one by one in terminal to install or upgrade to the latest tag editor:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install kid3-qt

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

Uninstall

To remove the PPA repository, either open Software & Updates -> Other Software tab and remove the relevant line, or run command:

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

To remove the audio tag editor, either use your system package manager or run command:

sudo apt remove --auto-remove kid3 kid3-*
In News
 

Wine 6.1 Released as New Development Version [How to Install]

Last updated: January 30, 2021

The new wine development version 6.1 was released with new features and dozens of bug-fixes.

Wine 6.1 release highlights:

  • Arabic text shaping.
  • More WinRT support in WIDL.
  • VKD3D version 1.2 is used for Direct3D 12.
  • Support for Rosetta’s memory layout on M1 Macs.
  • Support for Thumb-2 mode on ARM.

As usual, there are many bug-fixes to applications including Dark Sector, LabVIEW 2014, Skyrim SE, The Witcher 3, Still Life 2, The Sims 3, and more.

How to Install Wine 6.1 in Ubuntu:

Open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard, or by searching for ‘terminal’ from system application menu. When it opens, run following steps one by one.

1.) Run command to enable 32 bit architecture (if you don’t have it):

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

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

2.) Install the repository key by running command:

wget -O - https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key | sudo apt-key add -

3.) Add wine repository via command (for Ubuntu 20.04 and Linux Mint 20):

sudo apt-add-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ focal main'

NOTE: You may replace focal in the code with:

  • groovy for Ubuntu 20.10.
  • bionic for Ubuntu 18.04 and Linux Mint 19.x

4.) For Ubuntu 18.04 and Linux Mint 19.x only, libfaudio0 library is required to install from a third-party repository by running command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cybermax-dexter/sdl2-backport

5.) Finally install Wine 6.1 via command:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-devel

Uninstall wine:

You may remove the PPA by launching Software & Updates utility and navigating to Other Software tab.

To remove wine 6.1, run command in terminal:

sudo apt remove --auto-remove winehq-devel
In Howtos
 

How to Install Ardour Audio Workstation 6.5 via PPA in Ubuntu 20.04

Last updated: January 29, 2021

This simple tutorial shows how to install the free audio workstation Ardour 6.5 in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and / or Linux Mint 20.x via PPA.

Ardour 6.5 was released with support for plugins in Steinberg’s VST3 format, on Linux, Windows and macOS. As usual, there’s various bug fixes and improvements ranging from the minor to the extremely useful.

The new release has been made into the main repositories for next Ubuntu 21.04. For Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, a backport PPA by Ubuntu Studio packaging team now maintains the package.

1.) Open terminal either from system application launcher or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntustudio-ppa/ardour-backports

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

2.) After adding the PPA and refreshing package cache (should be done automatically), run command to install the multichannel hard disk recorder and digital audio workstation:

sudo apt install ardour

If everything’s done successfully, launch the software from system app menu and enjoy!

Uninstall Ardour 6:

To remove the software package, simply run command in terminal:

sudo apt remove --auto-remove ardour

To remove the Ubuntu PPA, open Software & Updates and go to Other Software tab. Then remove the relevant repository line.

In Howtos
 

How to Install Linux Mint’s Web App Manager in Ubuntu 20.04

Last updated: February 21, 2021

The latest Linux Mint 20.1 introduced a new application, Web App Manager, allows to turn any web pages into desktop applications. Like a normal application, web app has its own window, its own icon, and can be launched from system app menu.

Ubuntu used to have web apps integration when it was Ubuntu 14.04. The project was however discontinued.

For those want to try out the new Web App Manager from Linux Mint, here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 20.04.

Download & Install the DEB binary via direct link:

If you just want to try it out, the DEB binary package is available to download via Linux Mint ftp download page:

Grab it and install the package either via Gdebi package installer or by running command in terminal:

sudo apt install ./Downloads/webapp-manager*.deb

Add Linux Mint repository & Receive software udpates (for Web App Manager only):

You are able to add Linux Mint repository and only receive updates for the app from that repository.

1.) First download the key (it’s “linuxmint-keyring_2016.05.26_all.deb” so far):

And install it via command:

sudo apt install ./Downloads/linuxmint-keyring*.deb

2.) Add Linux Mint 20 repository by running command:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.linuxmint.com ulyssa main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mint.list'

3.) Set the priority to make Ubuntu only install webapp-manager from Linux Mint repository.

Run command to create and open the configuration file in text editor:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/preferences.d/mint-ulyssa-pin

When it opens, paste below lines and save the file.

# Allow upgrading only webapp-manager from Ulyssa repository
Package: webapp-manager
Pin: origin packages.linuxmint.com
Pin-Priority: 500

# Never prefer other packages from the Ulyssa repository
Package: *
Pin: origin packages.linuxmint.com
Pin-Priority: 1

4.) Now run apt update command to refresh your system package cache:

sudo apt update

5.) Before installing the webapp-manager package, try command:

sudo apt install webapp-manager --simulate

It won’t really install the package, but only list which packages will be installed, including the package versions (which marked with package source, Ubuntu or Linux Mint).

6.) To finally install the application, run command:

sudo apt install webapp-manager

How to Remove Web App Manager:

To remove the application, simply open terminal and run command:

sudo apt remove --auto-remove webapp-manager

To remove the Linux Mint repository, remove the relevant line from Software & Updates -> Other Software.

And you may also remove the config file created to set the priority, via command:

sudo rm /etc/apt/preferences.d/mint-ulyssa-pin

via: reddit

In Howtos
 

Mozilla Firefox 85 Released with Enhanced Privacy Protection

Last updated: January 26, 2021

Mozilla Firefox 85.0 was officially released today with improvements to privacy protection, bookmarks, and password manager.

Firefox 85 introduces a fundamental change in the network architecture. It now partitions network connections and caches, including HTTP cache, image cache, favicon cache, HSTS cache, OCSP cache, style sheet cache, font cache, DNS cache, HTTP Authentication cache, Alt-Svc cache, and TLS certificate cache. So it protects you from supercookies.

Since this release Adobe Flash is no longer supported, and there is no setting available to re-enable Flash support.

Other changes in Firefox 85 include:

  • Remember user preferred location for saved bookmarks
  • Display bookmarks toolbar by default in new tab.
  • Easy access to all of your bookmarks via a toolbar folder.
  • An option to remove all of saved logins.
  • Various security fixes.

How to get Firefox 85 in Ubuntu:

For all current Ubuntu releases, simply wait! The new Firefox package will be published in Ubuntu security & updates repositories in next a few days.

At that time, you can easily update the browser through Software Updater (Update Manager)

For those can’t wait, go to the release page which also includes a download button:

In News
 

How to Search, Install, Remove Snap Apps in Command Line

Last updated: April 24, 2024

This simple tutorial shows how to search for, install, remove, and list installed Snap applications in Ubuntu from command line.

Snap is an universal Linux package format developed by Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu. Though many users hate the Snap apps, it’s hard to keep away from it since many popular applications (e.g., VLC, Spotify, VS Code, Android Studio) offer official Ubuntu binaries through Snap rather than classic deb package.

As Ubuntu Software still sucks and does not load application pages quite often, you can run followings command instead to search for & install snap applications.

1. Searching for Snap Apps in Terminal:

Simply open terminal from system application launcher. You can then either run snap find or snap search command follow with app name to query the store for available packages.

Both commands below do the same searching for GIMP packages:

snap find gimp

snap search gimp

For the verified publisher, you’ll see a green check mark after the publisher name.

2. Command to Install a Snap App:

To install a Snap application package, simply run snap install command follow with the package name.

After searching for an app, you can then select install one from available packages by running command (VLC for instance):

snap install vlc

Some applications support for installing with --classic flag to access files outside user’s home directory. So, the command could be:

snap install vlc --classic

Usually, we install Snap applications from the stable channel. There are also beta, edge, candidate channels include packages for testing purpose. For example, install VLC from its Beta channel, use command:

snap install vlc --channel beta

3. How to List installed Snap applications:

To list all installed snap applications, simply run snap list in terminal.

snap list

While “core” and “core18” are snap core packages, “snap-store”, “snap-store-proxy”, and “snap-store-proxy-client” relates to the Ubuntu Software.
All others are user installed packages, though “gnome-3-xxx” packages were installed automatically as dependency platform.

Snap apps update automatically when new release packages published. So, there may be old packages present in your system after using them for a period of time. To list all of them, use command:

snap list --all

Old packages should be marked as ‘disabled’.

4. How to Remove Snap Apps via command:

To remove a snap package, simply run snap remove command follow with package name.

In the case, I’m going to remove VLC snap package via command:

snap remove vlc

NOTE that the dependency platform (e.g., gnome and wine) won’t to be removed while removing the snap that requires it.

The previous remove command will leave a snapshot of app data on your system. Use --purge flag will clear all the app data:

snap remove --purge vlc

By running snap list --all command in terminal, you may see some old versions of app packages left in system marked as “disabled”. To remove one of the disabled package, there’s a ‘revision‘ flag can do the job. For example, remove chromium marked as rev 2254:

snap remove chromium --revision=2254

Thanks to @Fernando, the command below will free up disk space by removing all the old disabled snap packages:

snap list --all | awk '/disabled/{system("sudo snap remove " $1 " --revision=" $3)}'

Summary:

In brief you can run snap find APP_NAME or snap search APP_NAME to search for available packages. Use snap install PACKAGE_NAME or snap remove PACKAGE_NAME to install or remove an application. And run snap list to list all installed snap applications.

In command skills
 

TV-Lite – GTK 3 IPTV, Sopcast, Acestream Player for Linux

Last updated: January 18, 2024

TV-Lite is a free open-source IPTV player with Sopcast and Acestream handling capabilities, which runs in Linux and Windows.

TV-Lite aims to be a replacement for the older TV-Maxe. It so far uses VLC for media playback, and need Acestream and / or Sopcast for this program to be able to handle the respective stream types.

UPDATE Jan 2024: the app has NOT been updated for a period of time. And PPA support ends for Ubuntu 22.10 at the moment.

How to install TV-Lite in Ubuntu via PPA:

There’s an Ubuntu PPA maintains the software packages for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 20.10, and Linux Mint 20.

1.) Open terminal from system application launcher, and run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tv-lite/ppa-git

2.) You can then install the player via command:

sudo apt install sp-auth tv-lite

Once installed, open the player from system app menu and you can add following line into Menu -> “Manage subscriptions” for free TVs.

https://is.gd/freeiptvall

How to Remove TV-Lite:

To remove the IPTV player, open terminal and run command:

sudo apt remove sp-auth tv-lite

And remove the Ubuntu PPA via command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:tv-lite/ppa-git
In App Review
 

How to Install PHP 8.0 & PECL Extensions in Ubuntu 20.04, 18.04, 16.04

Last updated: April 24, 2024

Want to install PHP 8.0 as well as many PECL extensions in your Ubuntu Server? Well there’s a well trusted PPA that contains the packages for all current Ubuntu releases.

Ondřej Surý, a Debian Developer who maintains the official PHP packages in Debian, is maintaining an Ubuntu PPA that contains the latest PHP 5.6, PHP 7.0, PHP 7.1, PHP 7.2, PHP 7.3, PHP 7.4, and PHP 8.0 packages as well as PECL extensions for all current Ubuntu releases.

1.) Simply open terminal or connect to your remote Ubuntu server, and run command to make sure software-properties-common is installed:

sudo apt install software-properties-common

2.) Then run command to add the php PPA repository by running command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

For non-UTF-8 locales, run LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

3.) If you are using php-gearman, you need to run command to add the gearman PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/pkg-gearman

I’m using Nginx web server, and it’s recommended to add the Nginx stable PPA instead:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/nginx

If you’re using Apache2, adding the apache2 PPA is recommended:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/apache2

4.) Finally refresh system package cache and install php 8.0 packages via command:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install php8.0-fpm libapache2-mod-php8.0 php8.0-mysql php8.0-xml

There are also many other packages available, e.g., php8.0-amqp, php8.0-apcu, php8.0-memcache, php8.0-memcached, and more. Just add or remove package names after “sudo apt install” depends what you need.

In all previous commands, you can replace php8.0 with php7.4, php7.3, php7.2, php7.0, or php5.6 to install a specify version of PHP packages

Uninstall PHP:

To remove an Ubuntu PPA, add --remove flag in adding PPA command. For instance, remove php PPA via command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ondrej/php

Instead of removing Ubuntu PPA, you can also purge PPA which also downgrade installed packages to the stock version in Ubuntu repositories.

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:ondrej/php

To remove a php package, simply run command:

sudo apt remove Package_Name_Here
In Howtos