UbuntuHandbook

HPLIP 3.19.12 Released with New Printers Support

Last updated: December 12, 2019

HP Linux Imaging and Printing

HPLIP 3.19.12, open source Linux driver for HP printers and scanners, was released today with many new devices support.

HPLIP 3.19.12 added following new devices support:

HP Color LaserJet Pro M256dn, M256nw, M256dw.
HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dn, M255nw, M255dw.
HP Color LaserJet Pro M155a, M155nw, M156a, M156nw.
HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M282nw, M284nw
HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M283fdn, M285fdn
HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M283fdw, M285fdw
HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M283cdw, M285cdw
HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M182n, M184n
HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M182nw, M184nw
HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M183fw, M185fw

This release also added support for Debian 10.1, Debian 10.2, and Manjaro 18.1.2.

1. To install the software, download the package “hplip-3.19.12.run” from the link below:

HPLIP Download Page

2. Then open terminal either via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching for “terminal” from app launcher. When it opens, run command to give executable permission:

chmod +x ~/Downloads/hplip-3.19.12.run

3. Finally run command to start installing the driver:

./Downloads/hplip-3.19.12.run

Follow the terminal output and answer some questions. If everything goes OK, plug or re-plug your HP devices and enjoy!

In Howtos, News HPLIP

Enable ‘2×2’, ‘3×3’ Workspace Grid in Ubuntu 18.04/19.10

Last updated: December 11, 2019

This is another tutorial about how to arrange workspaces in a two dimensional grid (2×2, 2×3, 3×3, etc.) in Ubuntu 18.04 and higher.

The Workspace Grid gnome shell extension does the job, it is however seems to be not maintained anymore.

The Workspace Matrix extension takes up the job and so far supports for Gnome Shell up to version 3.34.

With the extension, you can bring up the workspace grid via Super+W (press again to hide) key, and use arrow keys to navigate between workspaces.

1. First open Gnome Tweaks (install it via Ubuntu Software), and enable “Static Workspaces” under Workspaces tab.

2. Then install the Workspace Matrix extension in Ubuntu Software.

3. Launch the extension settings page either in Ubuntu Software (package installing page) or via Gnome Tweaks -> Extensions.

Finally set the number of rows, columns, and scale of workspace thumbnails.

That’s it. Enjoy!

In Howtos enable workspace grid

Disable Installing Updates During Shutdown in Ubuntu 19.10

Last updated: December 10, 2019

Ubuntu 18.04

While shutting down, Ubuntu sometimes gets stuck at purple screen with Ubuntu logo and the scrolling 5 dots. And it says ‘Unattended-upgrade in progress during shutdown, please don’t turn off the computer‘.

This happens not very often, and it’s OK to press and hold the power button to force shutdown Ubuntu, which will not break you machine.

You can also prevent Ubuntu from installing updates while shutting down simply by doing following steps one by one.

1.) Open applications menu, search for and launch Software & Updates utility.

2.) When it opens, navigate to Updates tab. Then disable ‘Automatically check for updates‘ by setting its value to Never.

That’s it.

NOTE: Disabling automatic updates comes with a security risk. You may launch Software Updater or run sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade command to keep your system updated manually.

In Howtos

Restore Missing Dual / Triple Boot Menu in Ubuntu 18.04

Last updated: December 9, 2019

After installing recent updates in my Ubuntu 18.04 via Software Updater, Grub2 boot-loader menu is not showing on startup. The dual-boot (or triple-boot) operating system is no longer available when you press Shift (or Esc) to show the menu entry.

It seems to be a grub2 package issue in the recent update, though I’m not sure. And sudo update-grub can’t detect operating systems outside the current Ubuntu release.

If you happened to have the similar issue, try following steps to fix the problem.

1.) Open terminal and run following commands one by one to install grub-customizer:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer

sudo apt update

sudo apt install grub-customizer

For Ubuntu 19.04 and higher, grub-customizer can be easily installed from Ubuntu Software.

2.) Launch Grub Customizer. When it opens, do:

navigate to General Settings tab.
check the first two check-boxes under visibility to show menu, check for other OSes.
click on the Save button.

3.) After saving the changes, navigate to ‘List configuration‘ tab, and click on Refresh button.

The Grub2 boot-loader should finally list all available operating systems menu entries in the next startup.

In Howtos grub miss dual boot

Install Atom Text Editor via Apt Repository in Ubuntu 18.04 / Higher

Last updated: December 8, 2019

This simple tutorial shows how to install Atom text editor and receive future software updates via its official apt repository in Ubuntu 18.04 and higher.

Atom is a hackable text editor for the 21st century. It is available in Ubuntu Software via Snap package, which runs in sandbox and auto-updates itself once a new release is published.

However, for those prefer Ubuntu .deb package atom can be also installed and easily updated via its official apt repository.

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

wget -qO - https://packagecloud.io/AtomEditor/atom/gpgkey | sudo apt-key add -

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

2. Then run command to add the official Atom repository:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://packagecloud.io/AtomEditor/atom/any/ any main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/atom.list'

3. Now you can always update an old Atom .deb software installation via Software Updater utility:

or run command in terminal to install (or upgrade) the editor:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install atom

replace atom with atom-beta in the code if you want to install the latest beta package.

Uninstall:

To remove the apt repository, open Software & Updates and navigate to Other Software tab, then remove the line says Atom Editor.

And remove the text editor if you want via command:

sudo apt remove atom atom-beta

In Howtos Atom official PPA, Atom PPA

Slow Shutdown – A stop job is running for Snappy Daemon

Last updated: December 7, 2019

The shutdown process in Ubuntu 18.04 or Ubuntu 19.10 machine sometimes is really slow. It gets stuck at purple screen with Ubuntu logo and the dots for quite a few seconds.

Press F2 on keyboard when shutting down Ubuntu. It prompts that ‘A stop job is running for Snappy Daemon’ with a timer (1min 30s) at the end.

It is obviously an issue stopping the snappy daemon. I DON’T know how to fix the problem unless removing all snap applications and the daemon.

A workaround to this problem is to reduce this timeout, from 90s down to for example 10s.

1. Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to edit the /etc/systemd/system.conf file.

sudo gedit /etc/systemd/system.conf

When the file opens, change the line #DefaultTimeoutStopSec=90s to DefaultTimeoutStopSec=10s and save it.

2. Then either reboot or run command to reload the systemd daemon.

systemctl daemon-reload

Done.

In Howtos slow shutdown snap, slow shutdown Ubuntu 19.10

qBittorrent 4.2 Released! How to Install in Ubuntu

Last updated: December 5, 2019

qBittorrent

qBittorrent bittorrent client released new stable version 4.2.0 a few days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.04, and Ubuntu 19.10.

qBittorrent 4.2.0 is a new stable series that contains following new features:

Support for Libtorrent 1.2.x series
Use PBKDF2 for the GUI lock. You will need to set your password again.
Allow setting larger checking memory usage in GUI
Add “Socket backlog size” option
Add “File pool size” option
Allow styling with QSS stylesheets
Add “Tracker entries” dialog
Add “Remove torrent and its files” option to share ratio limiting.
Reallow to pause checking torrents
Reallow to force recheck torrents that aren’t fully started
Add “Preview file” double-click action.

There are also various bug-fixes, a lot of WEB UI changes, and other changes. See the release note for details.

How to Install qBittorrent 4.2.0 in Ubuntu:

This release uses the libtorrent 1.2.x series. If you run it and then downgrade to a previous qBittorrent version then your torrents will probably start rechecking.

The official qBittorrent PPA has built the new release packages for all current Ubuntu releases (though the 16.04 build is broken).

1. To add the PPA, open terminal either via Ctrl+Alt+T keyboard shortcut or by searching for “Terminal” from application menu. When it opens, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:qbittorrent-team/qbittorrent-stable

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

2. Then either upgrade qBittorrent from a previous release via Software Updater,

upgrade qBittorrent

or run following commands to install /upgrade it from terminal:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install qbittorrent

Uninstall:

To remove qBittorrent PPA, either go to Software & Updates -> Other Software, or run command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:qbittorrent-team/qbittorrent-stable

To remove the bittorrent client, either use your system package manager or run command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove qbittorrent

In Howtos, News qbittorrent

Mozilla Firefox 71.0 Released with Native MP3 Decoding

Last updated: December 4, 2019

Mozilla Firefox released the latest stable 71.0 a day ago. Here’s what’s new and how to install it in Ubuntu.

Firefox 71.0 release highlights:

Lockwise (integrated password manager) improvements.
More information about blocked trackers
Picture-in-Picture video support for Windows. Pop video into a separate small window and always on top.
Native MP3 decoding for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.
Various security fixes and more.

Download / Install Firefox in Ubuntu:

You’ll be able to upgrade the pre-installed Firefox to the latest 71.0 release in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.04, and Ubuntu 19.10, through the Software Updater in 2 or 3 days (check the building page).

Or install the Firefox 71 Snap package (runs in sandbox) simply from Ubuntu Software. It can be installed alongside pre-installed Firefox.

Also the official non-install Linux package (run the executable from the tarball) as well as Firefox 71.0 release note are available at the link below:

Firefox 71 Release Note & Download

In Howtos, News firefox native mp3

How to Install Cinnamon Desktop 4.2 in Ubuntu 18.04, 19.04

Last updated: December 3, 2019

Linux Mint 17 Rebecca Xfce

Without installing Linux Mint 19.x, you can try out Cinnamon Desktop 4.2 in Ubuntu 19.04 or Ubuntu 18.04 via the PPA repository.

Cinnamon 4.2 features less RAM usage, Muffin optimizations, switch VSYNC on or off without restart, faster application menu, samba improvements, and many other improvements.

Install Cinnamon 4.2 via PPA in Ubuntu:

NOTE the PPA contains UNOFFICIAL (though probably the next best thing after official) builds of Cinnamon releases for Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 19.04 so far.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:embrosyn/cinnamon

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) for sudo prompt and hit Enter to continue.

2. Then install Cinnamon desktop via command:

sudo apt install cinnamon

Once installed, log out and login with Cinnamon session.

Uninstall:

To remove Cinnamon desktop, run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove cinnamon cinnamon-desktop-data

To remove the PPA, either go to Software & Updates -> Other Software, or run command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:embrosyn/cinnamon

In Howtos cinnamon 4.2 PPA

Googler 4.0 Released, Google Search from Command Line

Last updated: December 1, 2019

Googler, power tool to Google (Web & News) and Google Site Search from the command-line, released version 4.0 a few days ago.

It shows the title, URL and abstract for each result, which can be opened in a browser from the terminal. You can also integrate it with a text-based browser.

With Googler, you can also print content of results to terminal or listen to new directly, search error on StackOverflow in terminal, stream YouTube videos on desktop.

For other features and the latest changes, see Googler on github.