UbuntuHandbook

New Features & Changes in Ubuntu 24.04 since Ubuntu 22.04

Last updated: April 25, 2024 — 2 Comments

For users who want to go directly from Ubuntu 22.04 to Ubuntu 24.04, here’s an overview of the changes between the two Ubuntu LTS releases.

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS has 5 years support until 2029, and then 7 years extended security updates (through Ubuntu Pro) until 2036. The release features Linux Kernel 6.8, and will receive feature Kernel updates in next point releases.

Linux Kernel

Ubuntu 22.04 so far has Kernel 6.5. As usual, it will backport Kernel 6.8 from 24.04 in the next point release.

Before that happens, you’ll see a list of changes between the Kernel 6.5 and Kernel 6.8, including:
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In Howtos ubuntu 24.04

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Beta is Out for Testing

Last updated: April 12, 2024 — Leave a comment

Ubuntu 24.04, code-name Noble Numbat, is finally available for Beta testing after a week of delay.

Ubuntu 24.04 is long term support (LTS) release with 5-year of support. By enabling Ubuntu Pro, user can get 7 years more security updates. Meaning that Ubuntu LTS has 12 years of support!

The new LTS features GA Kernel 5.8 and GNOME Desktop 46.

In News ubuntu 24.04

How to Enable Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) in Ubuntu 24.04

Last updated: May 27, 2024 — 1 Comment

This tutorial shows how to enable variable refresh rate (VRR) to get better gaming experience in Ubuntu 24.04 with default GNOME Desktop.

Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), aka adaptive sync, is a feature that allows your monitor to adjust the refresh rate on the fly, so it matches the frame rate of output signal from the graphics card. It’s useful for games to eliminate screen tearing, and can also lowers power consumption since the monitor does not need to always refresh at the highest rate.

GNOME introduced experimental VRR since version 46 in default Wayland. Here I’m going to how to enable this feature.

Requirements:

Before getting started, you need to check something to make sure you meet all the requirements for enabling this feature.
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In Howtos Gnome

How to Install & Setup PeaZip Archive Manager in Ubuntu 24.04

Last updated: April 10, 2024 — Leave a comment

This tutorial shows how to install PeaZip file archive manager and setup file manager integration in Ubuntu Desktop.

PeaZip is a free open-source archive manager for Windows, Linux, macOS, and BSD. It’s based on open source technologies of 7-Zip, p7zip, Brotli, FreeArc, PAQ, Zstandard, and PEA projects. And, supports over 200 archive types including 7Z / XZ / TXZ, ACE (*), BZ2 / TBZ, Brotli BR, GZ / TGZ, ISO, RAR, TAR, WIM, ZIP, ZIPX, ZPAQ, Zstandard ZST and more.

The free file archiver is easy to install in Ubuntu and other Linux through its official binary package. It provides a GUI window, and integrates well into file manager context menu.

In Howtos archive manager, Peazip

Kodi 21 “Omega” Stable Officially Released! [How to Install]

Last updated: April 8, 2024 — Leave a comment

After more than a year of development, Kodi media player 21, code-name “Omega”, is finally released!

Kodi 21 is a new major release. It’s now based on FFmpeg 6.0, that features Radiance HDR image support, VAAPI decoding and QSV decoding for 10/12bit 422, 10/12bit 444 HEVC and VP9, MediaCodec decoder, and various other exciting new features, see ffmpeg.org for details.

For macOS, the release supports HiDPI (retina) displays using its native implementations for window displays. And, it fixed crash on speech recognition activation, improved window resizing when moving (or fallback when display disconnected) from one display to another, and implemented Hotkeycontroller for media keys.
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In News Kodi, media player

Install & Manage Flatpak Apps with This Full-Featured Tool

Last updated: April 7, 2024 — Leave a comment

Have many Flatpak app packages installed on your Linux desktop or mobile? Here’s an app to install, remove, downgrade, and manage app data with a simple graphical interface.

Flatpak is getting popular in today’s Linux, and some (e.g., Linux Mint, Fedora, and Pop!_OS) even have it support out-of-the-box. User can install (or uninstall) a Flatpak package by either using system package manager or running a Linux command in terminal. And, there’s a popular graphical tool Flatseal to manage permissions for each app package.

For users who want to get more controls for their Flatpak app packages, there’s a free open-source tool warehouse available for choice.

In App Review, Howtos flatpak

Install FFmpeg (7.1 Updated) via PPA in Ubuntu 22.04 | Ubuntu 24.04

Last updated: October 5, 2024 — 1 Comment

FFmpeg announced new major 7.0 release yesterday! Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04, Linux Mint 21.

The new version of this popular multi-media library came with name “Dijkstra”. It features native decoding support for VVC (aka H.266) through the libavcodec library, though it’s so far experimental.

The libavformat library can now read and write IAMF (Immersive Audio) files. And, a new -stream_group option is added into CLI tool to configure the IAMF structure.

As announced at the end of last year, the CLI (command-line) tool now is multi-threaded. Meaning, the transcoding process now runs in parallel that can be much faster than before.

In Howtos ffmpeg

How to Install & Update Discord in Ubuntu 24.04

Last updated: April 4, 2024 — Leave a comment

This is a step by step guide shows how to install Discord instant messaging app and keep it up-to-date in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

Discord is a popular instant messaging and VoIP social platform, that supports voice & video calls, text messaging, media and files. It works in Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, iOS/iPadOS, and web browser.

Discord for Linux so far supports only x86_64 (AMD/Intel CPUs) platform with following packages:

Deb – native for Debian/Ubuntu.
tar.gz – portable package for most Linux.
Flatpak – runs in sandbox for most Linux.
Snap – runs in sandbox for most Linux.

In Howtos Discord

Ubuntu 24.04 Beta Delayed Due to XZ Open Source Attack

Last updated: April 3, 2024 — 2 Comments

The Beta release of Ubuntu 24.04, Noble Numbat, has been pushed to April 11, 2024, one week after the previous date (April 4, 2024)!

It’s because an attack publicly disclosed on March 29, 2024.

An attacker using the name “Jia Tan” installed a backdoor into liblzma library. It’s a part of xz, which happens to be a dependency of OpenSSH in Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, etc. The backdoor sends hidden commands at the start of an SSH session, allowing the attacker to run an arbitrary command on the target system without logging in.

Russ Cox, Google’s Golang developer, post a page talking about timeline of the xz open source attack. According to the post, “Jia Tan”, the attacker, started contributing to xz since October 2021, and became a maintainer since the second half of 2022.

Attack began on 2024-02-23, and Debian Unstable, Ubuntu 24.04 (Dev), Fedora 40 Beta and Fedora Rawhide have been affected.
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In News ubuntu 24.04

How to Install Google Chrome in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

Last updated: April 3, 2024 — 3 Comments

This is a step by step guide shows how to install Google Chrome web browser and keep it up-to-date in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

Google Chrome is the top popular web browser today. It is a proprietary software free for use. For those who prefer open-source, then Google also offers Chromium browser for choice.

Google Chrome is available to install in Linux on only Intel/AMD platform through 2 ways! They are: