UbuntuHandbook

Audacity 2.4.2 PPA is back for Ubuntu 20.04 / 18.04

Last updated: November 26, 2022

This simple tutorial shows how to install the latest Audacity 2.4.2 via PPA in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 18.04, and Linux Mint 20.

Audacity audio editor 2.4.x was missing from the unofficial PPA for a few months, due to build system change and my poor debian packaging skill.

According to the Privacy Notice, Audacity higher than v3.0.2 now requires network connection for checking updates and error reporting.

Since the upstream maintainer has built the 2.4.2 package for Debian unstable and Ubuntu 20.10, backports for Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 18.04 now are here for you!

Note the package is built against system’s wxWidgets 3.0.x, while Audacity team recommends to use the patched 3.1.x. The PPA package seems working good, though I’m not an audio editor.

And I offer no warranty for the packages in PPA. Use it at your own risk!

How to Install Audacity 2.4.2 via PPA in Ubuntu 20.04:

Open terminal either from system application menu or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When terminal opens, run following commands one by one:

1.) Run command in terminal to add the PPA repository:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity

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

2. If you have a previous version installed, you can upgrade Audacity via Software Updater after adding the PPA.

upgrade audacity

or run following commands one by one to check updates and install (or upgrade) audacity 2.4.2:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install audacity

Uninstall:

To remove the PPA repository, launch Software & Updates utility and navigate to ‘Other Software’ tab. Or simply run command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity

To remove Audacity audio software, either use system package manager or run command in terminal:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove audacity audacity-data

In Howtos Audacity PPA

Blender 2.90 Released with Intel Embree, NVLink Support for CUDA / OptiX

Last updated: September 1, 2020

Blender 2.79

Open source 3D creation software Blender 2.90 was released as the new major series with huge feature updates and performance improvements.

Blender 2.90 release highlights include:

Faster motion blur with Intel Embree.
NVLink support for CUDA and OptiX.
New search menu.
Motion blur in EEVEE rewritten from scratch
New physically based texture for smulating the colors of the sky.
Initial Wayland Support

And improvements to EEVEE, Cycles, sculpt, VR, animation, modeling, UV editing and so much more. See the release note for details. Or see what’s new with the Youtube video:

How to Install Blender 2.90 in Ubuntu:

The official Blender snap package has been updated for the new release. You can install it either from Ubuntu Software or by going to https://snapcraft.io/blender

Or run command in terminal to install Blender Snap package:

sudo snap install blender --classic

If you have already installed the Snap package, it will be automatically updated to the latest.

Also the Blender download page offers Linux portable package, which you can extract and run the executable file to launch the software.

In News blender

Puddletag Audio Tagger 2.0.1 Released with Python 3 Port

Last updated: August 31, 2020

Puddletag audio tag editor 2.0.1 was released 2 days ago with official Python 3 and PyQt5 support.

Since Ubuntu 20.04 dropped Qt4 and old Python 2 libraries, Puddletag 1.2 as well was removed from Ubuntu universe repository.

The Python 3 & PyQt5 branch was started a few months ago by sandrotosi. Now it’s finally merged into Puddletag 2.0.1.

The audio tagger might be added back (hope so) into main repositories in future Ubuntu releases. Before it happens, you can either grab the source code or use an unofficial PPA.

See how to install puddletag in Ubuntu 20.04 via PPA.

Or grab the .deb package directly from PPA link:

Puddletag 2.0.1 (.deb)

And install it via either Gdebi package installer:

or by running command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T)

cd ~/Downloads/ && sudo apt install ./puddletag_2.0.1-0focal1_all.deb

In News audio tag editor

Reduce Top bar Indicator Icon Spacing in Ubuntu 20.04

Last updated: April 24, 2024

In Ubuntu 20.04 Gnome Shell, application indicator on top panel has wide spaces between icons. You can reduce the icon spacing via an extension called Unite.

Unite is a Gnome Shell extension which makes a few layout tweaks to the top panel and removes window decorations to make it look like Ubuntu Unity Shell. With the extension, your system tray area will look like:

To install the extension, do following steps one by one.

1.) Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell

2.) Run command to install the extension required x11-utils library:

sudo apt install x11-utils

3.) Go to extensions.gnome.org/…/unite/, toggle on and install the extension.

If you don’t see the toggle icon, click link to install browser extension and refresh this web page

The extension by default reduces top bar item spacing. To tweak other panel appearance, open Gnome Tweaks (or Extensions tool), and go to unite settings.

In Howtos Gnome

How to Install Liferea Feed Reader 1.3.2 in Ubuntu 20.04 (PPA)

Last updated: August 29, 2020

This simple tutorial shows how to install Liferea feed reader 1.3.2 via PPA in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 18.04, and Linux Mint 20.

Liferea, stands for Linux Feed Reader, is a news reader for Gnome. The software is available in Ubuntu universe repository, but it’s old.

And here’s the PPA for the latest 1.3 development serious, which so far features:

New “Reader mode”.
Embed YouTube videos from MediaRSS feeds
Add support for subscribing to HTML5 websites without RSS/Atom feeds
Add MediaRSS support (e.g. Youtube feeds) to display descriptions and thumbnails
Many UI improvements, bug-fixes.

Install Liferea 1.3.2 via PPA:

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

Type your password when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.

2.) Then check updates and install the news reader via commands:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install liferea

or update the old package (if installed) via Software Updater utility:

Uninstall:

As the PPA also contains many other applications, you may remove the PPA either via Software & Updates > Other Software, or by running command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

And remove the feed reader if want via command:

sudo apt remove liferea

In Howtos Feed Reader

3D Arcade Racer SuperTuxKart 1.2 Released [How to Install]

Last updated: August 28, 2020

SuperTuxKart 1.2, free and open-source kart racing game, was officially released a day ago.

What’s new in SuperTuxkart 1.2:

Support gamepad hotplugging
Use SDL2 for window creation
New “Cartoon” theme
Haiku support
Add support for IPv6 LAN servers
Team chat for team games
A new Kiki kart and improved Pidgin and Puffy karts
Fixed most gamepad related bugs
New settings to customize the game’s camera
And many many enhancements and fixes

How to Get SuperTuxKart 1.2:

Source code as well as packages for Android, Linux (portable), Mac OS, and Windows are available for download at the link below:

SuperTuxKart in Github

Also, there’s an Ubuntu PPA that contains .deb packages for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Linux Mint 20 / 19.x.

The PPA so far contains SuperTuxKart 1.2 RC1 package. It should be updated to v1.2 in days. Check the PPA link before getting started.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stk/dev

Type user password, no visual feedback, when it asks and hit Enter to continue.

2.) After adding the PPA, either upgrade from an old version via Software Updater, or run commands in terminal to install the game:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install supertuxkart

Uninstall SuperTuxKart:

To remove the PPA, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:stk/dev

To remove the racing game, run:

sudo apt remove --autoremove supertuxkart supertuxkart-data

In Howtos, News racing game

Tartube – A GTK+ 3 Front-end for Youtube-DL Video Downloader

Last updated: April 24, 2024

Looking for a graphical interface for the command line youtube-dl video downloader? Tartube is a GTK+ 3 front-end written in Python 3.

Tartube is partly based on youtube-dl-gui and runs on Windows, Linux, Mac OS, and BSD. It’s a free and open-source software that can download individual videos, and even whole channels and playlists, from YouTube and all youtube-dl supported websites.

Besides downloading videos, Tartube can also organize your videos into convenient folders, alert you when livestreams are starting, and more.

How to Get Tartube:

Note it’s illegal to download any content from YouTube or any other site unless you see a “download” or get permission from the publisher. Use the software at your own risk!

The Ubuntu deb, Windows exe, Fedora rpm, and source code are available for download at the link below:

Download Tartube

For Ubuntu users, grab the .deb package and click install either via “Software Install” or “Gdebi” (if installed).

NOTE: To make the software work, you have to install youtube-dl, and in Tartube’s “system preferences” set the path to youtube-dl executable.

In App Review youtube-dl GUI

Gcolor3 – A GTK+ 3 Color Selector and Picker for Linux

Last updated: April 24, 2024

Gcolor3 is a color selector and picker written in GTK+ 3. It is much alike Gcolor2, but uses the newer GTK+ version to get better integrate into modern desktop.

Gcolor3 enables you to pick the color from any pixel on your screen. It also offers a palette, so that you can easily mix and match a couple of colors together.

When you have found the perfect combination of colors, naturally you want to save them. Gcolor3 allows you to conveniently save and retrieve colors.

By releasing version 2.4.0, Gcolor3 now is “Color Picker” with a new maintainer, a new icon, lots of new improvements, and many translation updates.

How to get Gcolor in Ubuntu:

The latest Gcolor so far is available as Flatpak package. You can either download the package from the link below:

Gcolor in Flathub

or open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run following commands one by one to install the package:

sudo apt install flatpak

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

flatpak install flathub nl.hjdskes.gcolor3

To uninstall the software, run command:

flatpak uninstall nl.hjdskes.gcolor3

Prefer deb to the containerized flatpak package?

Gcolor3 has been made into the universe repository of Ubuntu 20.10.

For Ubuntu 20.04, you can grab the .deb package for 20.10 from the launchpad page.

In App Review color picker

LaTex Editor TeXstudio 3.0.0 Released [How to Install]

Last updated: August 25, 2020

TeXstudio 3.0.0, an open-source cross-platform LaTex editor, was finally released after some alpha, beta, and rc tests.

According to the changelog, TeXstudio 3.0.0 features:

speed up document parsing, should result in faster document load times
spell checking is done asynchronously
custom verbatim/math env highlighting abandoned for a cwl based approach
better dark-mode support
qt4 support abandoned

How to get TeXstudio 3.0.0 in Ubuntu Linux:

The new release source code, as well as Windows, Mac OS, and Linux packages are available to download at:

Download TeXstudio

The official PPA also made the new release packages for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Linux Mint 19.x, 20, and their derivatives.

1. Open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or by searching for ‘terminal’ from software launcher. When it opens, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:sunderme/texstudio

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

2. If an old version was installed in your system, remove the texstudio-doc, texstudio-l10n (if any) package before upgrading the software:

sudo apt-get remove texstudio-doc texstudio-l10n

3. After adding the PPA, you can either upgrade it via Software Updater:

or run commands in terminal to install or upgrade the software:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install texstudio

Uninstall:

To remove the LaTeX editor, run command in terminal:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove texstudio

And go to Software & Updates -> Other Software to remove PPA repositories.

In News LaTeX editor

4 Nifty Grub Themes for Your Linux Boot Menu

Last updated: April 24, 2024

Boring with the default boot menu in purple? Try installing some themes for this Grub boot-loader.

There’s an open-source project maintains 4 modern design themes for Grub2. They are Vimix, Stylish, Tela, and Slaze.

First take a look at the screenshots:

It’s easy to install the themes as the maintainer offers an installer script. First go to link below and download the source code:

Download Source Code

Then do following steps to install the grub themes:

1. Go to Downloads folder, extract the source tarball, and go into source folder.

2. Right click on blank area and select ‘Open in Terminal’

3. When terminal opens, run command to install a theme:

sudo ./install.sh --boot --vimix

For another theme, replace --vimix in command with --stylish, --tela, or --slaze.

You may use more flags, e.g.,

--white, install white color icons.
--ultrawide, install 2560×1080 background image – not available for slaze theme
--2k, install 2k(2560×1440) background image
--4k, install 4k(3840×2160) background image