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Easily Toggle Dark / Light Mode in Ubuntu 20.04, 21.04 via This Extension

Last updated: July 2, 2021

This simple tutorial shows how to add a system tray menu option to switch between Dark and Light system mode in Ubuntu.

By default, the System Settings -> Appearance page offers options to choose Standard, Light, and Dark window colors. It however only apply the app theme.

For system menu, notifications, date and time menu, etc, you have to install user themes extension, and change the Gnome Shell theme individually via Gnome Tweak Tool.

Here I’m going to introduce a new Gnome Shell Extension called ‘Ubuntu Appearance‘. With it, you can toggle fully dark and light mode easily via a few clicks.

The extension features:

  • Integrate Light, Dark, Standard option into system tray menu.
  • Toggle fully dark / light mode, not only app window colors but also system theme (e.g., system menu, calendar, notifications.).
  • Option name vary according to current system mode.
  • The user themes extension is not required.

Install Ubuntu Appearance extension:

1.) Firstly, open terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When terminal opens, run command to install required packages:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell gnome-shell-extension-prefs

2.) Secondly, go to the extension web page and click on the slider icon to install it.

Though the extension says for Gnome 40, it works well in my Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 21.04 machine.

Install Ubuntu Appearance Extension

Don’t see the toggle icon? Click the link ‘Click here to install browser extension’ to install browser extension and refresh the web page.

Once you installed the extension, the option should appear in system menu immediately. Log out and back in or restart Gnome Shell if you don’t see the option.

In Gnome Shell
 

How to Encrypt Full System Disk While Installing Ubuntu 20.04, 21.04

Last updated: June 11, 2021

This is an easy to follow beginner’s guide shows how to encrypt the full file system while installing Ubuntu.

As you may know, it’s easy to hack against Ubuntu Linux physically. Though users can add password protect to the Grub boot menu, the file system is still accessible via a live system, e.g., bootable USB installer.

To prevent your Ubuntu from physical hacking ultimately, adding password protect to the full system disk can be the best choice. And you can do it during installing Ubuntu.

1.) Firstly, this tutorial is not a full Ubuntu installation guide. If you are not getting started, take a look at this step by step how to install guide.

2.) If you’re going to install Ubuntu as the ONLY operating system in the hard drive, just choose ‘Erase disk and install Ubuntu‘ when you’re at Installation type page.

Then click on ‘Advanced features’ to choose either LVM or ZFS and enable ‘Encrypt the new Ubuntu installation for security’.

3.) Mostly I’ll choose ‘Something else‘ to manually create partitions for Ubuntu file system.

Unlike Fedora and Manjaro, Ubuntu does not provide an ‘Encrypt‘ checkbox while creating an EXT4 partition. Instead you need to create a partition use as ‘physical volume for encryption’.

a.) Simply choose the free space and click on ‘+‘ icon on partition table. In the pop-up Create partition dialog do:

  • Set the size for Ubuntu file system. 20 GB at least. For long time use, as large as possible.
  • Select use as ‘physical volume for encryption‘.
  • Set your password and confirm, and finally click OK.

b.) After clicking OK, wait for a few seconds. A new device ‘/dev/mapper/sdaX_crypt‘ will be created as EXT4 file system.

Highlight it, and click on ‘Change‘ button. In the pop-up dialog, set the mount point as /.

c.) Same to Fedora, you have to create a separated /boot partition, as it can not be encrypted.

To do so, select the free space and click “+” to create:

  • 500 MB should be enough. 1 GB will be better.
  • use as ‘Ext4 journaling file system’
  • mount point /boot

d.) Also create 250 MB ‘EFI System Partition‘ for UEFI boot machine, or 2 MB ‘Reserved BIOS boot area‘ for legacy BIOS boot machine. For small RAM, a swap area is also recommended.

Finally the partition table will look like:

Finally click on “Install Now” button. And confirm on pop-up dialog.

Once you successfully installed Ubuntu, restart and you’ll get into the password prompt when booting Ubuntu (see the top picture). As well, accessing the file system from any other OS need the password you set.

In Howtos
 

Enable Automatic Shutdown / Hibernate when idle on Ubuntu

Last updated: April 28, 2024

Unlike laptop lid close action, it’s easy to tell Ubuntu to shutdown or hibernate automatically when reached idle timeout.

In all current Ubuntu releases, including Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 24.04 running with the default GNOME desktop, you can enable ‘Automatic Suspend‘ feature in Power Settings easily.

What if you want to power off, hibernate, or even log-out Ubuntu after it reached inactivity timeout? Here’s how to do this in two ways.

Method 1. Run 2 commands to enable Automatic Shutdown / Hibernate:

Firstly open terminal either from system application launcher or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard.

NOTE: Hibernate does not function out-of-the-box in current Ubuntu releases. You have to enable it first if you need automatic hibernation.

When terminal opens, run command for computer on AC power:

  • Enable automatic shutdown for desktop PC or laptop on AC power: 
    gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-ac-type 'shutdown'

    For choices, you can change ‘shutdown’ in command to ‘hibernate‘, ‘logout‘, ‘nothing‘, etc.

  • Change the inactivity timeout (in seconds), half an hour for instance: 
    gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-ac-timeout 1800

For laptops on battery, use following commands instead:

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-battery-type 'shutdown'
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-battery-timeout 1800

Method 2: Change system idle action via Dconf Editor.

For those prefer graphical configuration tool, search for and install ‘Dconf Editor‘ from Ubuntu Software.

Then launch the tool, and go to ‘org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/power‘.

Next scroll down, find out and change the values of ‘sleep-inactive-ac-type‘ and ‘sleep-inactive-ac-timeout‘ for system idle action when on AC power.

When on battery, change the values of ‘sleep-inactive-battery-type‘ and ‘sleep-inactive-battery-timeout‘ instead.

Changes will take place immediately when you click on ‘Apply’ button.

In Gnome Shell
 

How to Install Blender 2.93 LTS via Another PPA in Ubuntu 20.04, 21.04

Last updated: June 8, 2021

The free and open-source 3D modeling software Blender 2.93 was announced as LTS (Long Term Support) release.

Blender 2.93 is the last major milestone of the 2.x series. And the next Blender 3.0 is under development now.

“Blender 2.93 brings 22 new nodes to the Geometry Nodes editor, mesh primitives support, adds the much anticipated Line Art modifier to automatically generate grease pencil lines around objects, a new and faster fill tool, and many Eevee renderer improvements.”

How to Install Blender 2.93 via PPA:

Blender is available officially via Snap package, which can be easily installed from Ubuntu Software.

For those prefer the classic .deb package format, Rob Savoury’s PPA maintains the latest packages for all current Ubuntu releases.

1.) Remove Thomas Schiex’s PPA

If you installed old Blender packages from Thomas Schiex’s PPA, it’s better to remove it first to prevent from going to dependency hell!

Firstly, open terminal from system app launcher.

Secondly, run command to remove the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:thomas-schiex/blender

You can try purge the PPA instead, but it won’t work in my case due to issue.

2.) Remove old Blender package:

Open terminal and run command to remove old Blender packages if any:

sudo apt remove blender blender-data libopenshadinglanguage1.10

It’s important to remove libopenshadinglanguage1.10 package, or the configuration will fail while installing Blender 2.93.

3.) Add Rob Savoury’s PPA

To add the new PPA, simply run command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:savoury1/blender

4.) And add the FFmpeg PPA for dependency libraries:

To do so, run command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:savoury1/ffmpeg4

5.) For Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 16.04 only.

For Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 16.04, you need to add even more PPAs for dependencies. To do so, run commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:savoury1/gcc-defaults-9
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:savoury1/display

6.) Finally install package updates & install Blender:

Firstly run command to refresh package cache and install available package updates:

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade

Finally install Blender 2.93 via command:

sudo apt install blender

If everything’s done successfully. Open Blender from system app launcher and enjoy!

Remove Blender and Ubuntu PPAs:

If you don’t use these PPAs anymore and want to remove Blender, purge them by running following commands one by one:

1. Firstly open terminal and run command to install ppa-purge:

sudo apt install ppa-purge

2. Then purge the Ubuntu PPAs one by one:

sudo ppa-purge ppa:savoury1/gcc-defaults-9
sudo ppa-purge ppa:savoury1/ffmpeg4
sudo ppa-purge ppa:savoury1/display
sudo ppa-purge ppa:savoury1/blender

Note purging Ubuntu PPA will either downgrade or remove packages installed from that PPA. Even other packages, GIMP in my case, will be removed.

You can alternatively remove these Ubuntu PPAs only, without uninstalling software packages, by going to ‘Software & Updates -> Other Software’ and removing relevant lines:

In Howtos
 

How to Revert to the Old User Interface in Firefox 89

Last updated: June 7, 2021

Since version 89, the free and open-source Firefox web browser makes use of the new ‘Proton’ UI design.

For those who do not like the new Firefox appearance, the configuration options to re-enable the old style interface is still available in the 89 release.

Revert to old UI Design in Firefox 89:

Firstly, type about:config in the address bar and hit Enter. Click on the ‘Accept the Risk and Continue‘ button when it prompts.

Next type browser.proton in the search box. Then click on the double arrow icons to disable the values of:

  • browser.proton.contextmenus.enabled
  • browser.proton.doorhangers.enabled
  • browser.proton.enabled
  • browser.proton.modals.enabled

The Firefix UI will change immediately after the settings. And you can reset these settings to get back the new ‘Proton’ UI design.

In addition, the previous settings is going to be removed in next release according to this bug. So using a browser theme could be a good choice for long time solution.

In Howtos
 

Qpdf Tools – Beginner’s Tool to Compress, Split, Merge, Rotate PDF in Ubuntu

Last updated: June 6, 2021

Working with PDF files regularly in Ubuntu Linux? QPDF Tools is a nifty tool to manage your PDF documents.

It’s a free and open-source software, easy to use Qt based user interface for Ghostscript and Stapler, with ability to compress, split, merge and rotate your pdf documents.

The main window is simple and works with 4 buttons. Click the action you want to do for the PDF documents. Then select the PDF along with a few options and click the button to go.

The Compress a PDF file option will change the resolution for printing, Ebooks, or screen optimized. It also reduce the file size depends on the option you choose.

It however may stuck a few seconds when you clicking ‘Save‘ button on exporting file dialog.

While ‘Merge PDF files‘ option allows to add multiple PDF files, arrange them, and convert them into single, the ‘Spile a PDF file‘ option allows to extract all PDF pages or export from one page to another. And ‘Rotate a PDF file‘ can rotate left or right with live preview.

How to Install QPDF Tools:

The DEB package for Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint, as well as the source tarball are available to download at the link below:

QPDF Tools Releases

The software developer also maintains an Ubuntu PPA that support all current releases, e.g., Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 20.10, and Ubuntu 21.04. The packages for old releases, e.g., Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 14.04, and Ubuntu 16.04 are also available.

1.) Open terminal from system app launcher. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:silash35/qpdftools

2.) Then refresh package cache (optional for Ubuntu 20.04 & higher) and install the tool via commands:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install qpdftools

Once installed, open the tool from your system application launcher and enjoy!

Uninstall QPDF Tools

While the Ubuntu PPA is used to install or upgrade the software package, you can safely remove it either by running command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:silash35/qpdftools

Or by going to ‘Software & Updates’ -> ‘Other Software’, and remove the relevant line.

To remove the software, either use Synaptic Package Manager or run command:

sudo apt remove --purge qpdftools
In App Review
 

Install NVIDIA Driver & Switch Between Intel and NVIDIA in Ubuntu 22.04

Last updated: May 7, 2022

This simple tutorial shows how to install the NVIDIA proprietary driver in Ubuntu 22.04 and switch between dedicated and integrated GPU.

Since Ubuntu provides the proprietary driver packages via its restricted repositories, user may install NVIDIA driver as easy as a few clicks.

Install NVIDIA Driver

1.) Firstly, click on top-left corner ‘Activities‘, and then search for and open ‘Softwre & Updates’ utility.

When the tool opens, make sure the “Proprietary drives for devices (restricted)” is enabled.

Make sure ‘restricted’ repository enabled

2.) Next, navigate to ‘Additional Drivers‘ tab. There it should list all available graphics drivers.

If it shows nothing, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal and run command sudo apt update to refresh package cache. Then re-launch the ‘Software & Updates’ utility.

Choose one of the drivers from the list and click on ‘Apply Changes‘ to install it. There will be a little bar indicates the installing process. When done, restart your computer!

Switch between NVIDIA and Intel Graphics:

After restart, your machine will be on performance mode with the dedicated GPU. To switch GPU mode, search for and open ‘NVIDIA X Server Settings‘.

When the app opens, navigate to ‘PRIME Profiles‘. Then you’ll see three options available in the right:

  • NVIDIA (Performance Mode) – use dedicated NVIDIA GPU to render Ubuntu desktop.
  • NVIDIA On-Demand – use integrated graphics to render desktop, but possible to offload specific apps via dedicated GPU.
  • Intel (Power Saving Mode) – use integrated graphics to render Ubuntu desktop.

In my case, the “Intel (Power Saving Mode)” is somehow grayed out. As a workaround, choose Intel graphics card by running sudo prime-select intel in terminal.

Changing GPU mode however needs log out and back in to apply changes.

Run certain apps via NVIDIA GPU while rendering desktop via integrated graphics

By setting GPU mode to “NVIDIA On-Demand”, you may run certain apps via NVIDIA GPU, while others handled by the integrated GPU.

1.) For CUDA apps, you need to run command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) to install the nvidia-cuda-toolkit package.

sudo apt install nvidia-cuda-toolkit

Then there’ll be application-specific menu to tell it which device to use.

2.) For other apps, just use the following environment variables.

__NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1
__GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia

You can do this by launching apps from command line. For example, launch SuperTuxkart (a kart racing game) via command:

__NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1 __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia supertuxkart

Or, edit the application’s .desktop file which is usually under “/user/share/applications” directory. And, change the line of ‘Exec’ to:

Exec=env __NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1 __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia supertuxkart

Add System Menu option to Switch CPU

To make it easy to switch between your GPUs, there’s a Gnome Extension available to add options into system tray menu.

1.) To get the menu option, you need to first install the open-source EnvyControl tool. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal, and run the command below one by one:

  • Use git command to grab the source: 
    git clone https://github.com/geminis3/envycontrol.git
  • Navigate to the source folder, and install it for global use via pip package manager: 
    cd envycontrol && sudo pip3 install .

If the pip3 command does not exist, run sudo apt install python3-pip command to install it.

As the project page mentioned, users have to run the following 2 commands one by one to prevent Ubuntu’s own gpu-manager from interfering:

sudo prime-select on-demand
sudo systemctl disable gpu-manager.service

2.) Next, run command to make sure you have the agent packages installed for installing Gnome Extensions:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell gnome-shell-extension-prefs

3.) Finally, go to the extension page and turn on the slider icon to install it:

GPU Profile Selector Extension

NOTE 1: The pre-installed Firefox does not support this stuff so far! Use another browser, or install back Firefox as classic deb package.

NOTE 2: If you don’t see the on/off switch in that page, click the ‘click here to install browser extension‘ to install extension for your web browser and refresh the page.

The menu option should appear immediately after successfully installed the extension. If not, press Windows (Super) key on keyboard or click “Activities” on top panel, and then search for and open the “Gnome Extensions” app to manage your extension.

In Howtos
 

OBS Studio 27.0 Released with Wayland Support. How to Install via Ubuntu PPA

Last updated: June 3, 2021

OBS Studio, the free and open-source software for video recording and live streaming, released version 27.0.0 a few days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 21.04 via PPA.

OBS Studio 27.0.0 features native Wayland support, includes new PipeWire capture source for Ubuntu 21.04+. Also, it adds undo/redo support either from ‘Edit’ menu or via Ctrl+Z /Ctrl+Shift+Z keyboard shortcuts.

Other changes in the release include:

  • Display Capture on laptops now allows for capturing displays on different GPUs
  • Added a missing files warning when loading scene collections
  • Added service integration and browser dock support to macOS and Linux
  • (Windows only) Added support for NVIDIA Noise Removal in the Noise Suppression filter
  • Added a Track Matte mode to stinger transitions
  • Added support for SRGB texture formats

How to Install OBS Studio 27.0 via PPA:

The official Ubuntu PPA has made the packages for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 20.10, Ubuntu 21.04, and their derivatives.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:obsproject/obs-studio

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


2. Then either upgrade OBS Studio from an existing version using Software Updater, or run command in terminal to install the software:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install obs-studio

Once installed, launch the software from your system application launcher and enjoy!

Uninstall:

To remove the software, either use Synaptic package manager or run command in terminal:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove obs-studio

To remove PPA repositories, launch Software & Updates and navigate to ‘Other Software’ tab, then remove the relevant line from the list.

In Howtos
 

Create Bootable USB Installer for Linux via Ventoy [New Solution]

Last updated: April 26, 2024

I used to create bootable Ubuntu USB installer with UNetbootin, then with Ubuntu’s built-in USB creator. Now Ventoy is a good choice that I use often to try different operating systems.

Why Ventoy:

Different to other USB creators, you don’t need to format your USB stick again and again to write data from ISO images. With Ventoy, it just format your USB one time, create a small (34 MB in my case) EFI partition, and leave all other spaces free in another partition.

Without extracting, just drag and drop to move ISO images into USB drive, and it will boot them! Like normal USB drive, you can put your photos and other data along with ISO images. Ventoy will find what to boot and show them all in startup menu.

Ventoy features:

Ventoy is a free and open-source tool written mainly in C. It features:

  • Just copy ISO to USB and boot it! No extraction needed.
  • Mutil-boot support. As many ISO images as your USB stick can store.
  • Save all other data along with ISO images, just like a normal USB driver.
  • 700+ ISO files supported (Windows, Linux, WinPE, Unix, Vmware, Xen).
  • Windows auto installation supported
  • Also support Local Disk, SSD, NVMe, SD Card
  • and more.

How to Install Ventoy:

The software provides ISO image as well as installers for Windows and Linux. Download them from the link below:

Download Ventoy

a.) using Ventoy’s graphical app for Linux:

The software now provides graphical user interface for Linux since version 1.0.52. Both GTK and Qt are supported. And it runs in either modern 64-bit PC, old 32-bit machine, ARM64 OS like Phytium/Kunpeng, and mips64el Loongson 3A MIPS OS.

Simply download the “linux.tar.gz” tarball from the above button, extract, and right-click on the executable to “Run” it will bring up the UI:

Same to the Windows app and Web UI, plug your USB into computer and select it from the app window (click Refresh if you don’t find it). And use either “Install” or “Update” button to install /upgrade Ventoy to the USB drive.

From the “option” menu, it’s possible to enable Secure Boot support, select partition to MBR for compatibility or GPT for most modern PCs. You may also preserve some space at the end of the disk.

NOTE: Installing Ventoy will format the USB stick. All data will be lost. Make a backup before getting started!

After installation, copy and paste some system discs (iso images) into the USB stick. Then start or re-start your machine, and select boot the USB. It will bring you into menu of iso image entries, like the picture shows:

b.) Install Ventoy in Linux from command line:

Also download the “linux.tar.gz” tarball. Then extract, and right-click on blank area in generated folder to open the directory in terminal via ‘Open in Terminal’ menu option.

When terminal opens, copy and paste the command below into it and hit Enter to install Ventoy to USB:

sudo ./Ventoy2Disk.sh -i /dev/sdb

If your machine boot with UEFI mode, also add -s flag for secure boot support, so the command will be:

sudo ./Ventoy2Disk.sh -i -s /dev/sdb

Though the device name of your USB stick is mostly “/dev/sdb”, check the terminal output, or use gparted, mount command, etc to confirm.

If you want to use GTP partition table instead of MBR, add “-g” flag, so the command will be sudo ./Ventoy2Disk.sh -i -g /dev/sdb.[/ac-box]

Type ‘y’ to confirm twice. If everything’s done successfully, it will prompt ‘Install Ventoy to /dev/sdb successfully finished.‘

c.) Install Ventoy in Windows or Linux via Web UI

The software also has a Web UI which has same appearance to the Windows app.

As the previous step did, download ‘linux.tar.gz‘, extract and go to source folder. Then right-click on blank area to select ‘Open in Terminal‘.

When terminal opens, run command to start the Web UI service:

sudo ./VentoyWeb.sh

Next in web browser go to “http://127.0.0.1:24680” will open the web installation page:

In the web UI, select your USB device and click ‘Install’. Also for UEFI mode enable ‘Secure Boot‘ under options.

When everything’s done, you’ll find the USB driver mounted with name “Ventoy”, put ISO images into it and boot it when required. As mentioned, you may treat it as normal USB disk by storing photos, documents, etc, along with disc images.

In App Review
 

Firefox 89.0 Released with New Elegant UI Design

Last updated: June 2, 2021

Mozilla Firefox 89.0 was officially released today with the focus on redesigned and modernized user interface.

Firefox 89 has a simplified browser chrome and toolbar. It uses floating tab design with rounded corners for active tab. Less toolbar buttons present, and bookmarks, history and downloads are merged into single menu button.

The main menu content has been reorganized and prioritized. Menu items no longer have icons at beginning.

The new release also introduced new ‘Pocket’ icon in left side of the menu button. It allows to save any archive, video or page from Firefox. And it provides buttons to sign in/up pocket, so to view your saved content on any device any time.

Other changes in Firefox 89.0 include:

  • Native context menus on Mac OS with dark mode support.
  • Reduced number of alerts and messages, so you can browse with fewer distractions.
  • Update private browsing mode with even more privacy.
  • Smart Zoom support via double-tap with two fingers, or single finger on your Magic Mouse.
  • Various security and other fixes.
  • Event Timing API Support.

How to Get Firefox 89:

As usual, Ubuntu will publish the Firefox 89 packages through the security & updates repositories in next few days.
You can just wait until it being available to update in Software Updater:

Alternatively, see the release note and download the portable package from Firefox website:

Firefox 89 Release Note & Download
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