Archives For jimingkui

Want to install Ubuntu on your computer but don’t have an USB drive on your hand? An open-source tool Tunic may help.

Tunic is a tool that can install Ubuntu or Linux Mint over or alongside an existing Windows install, straight from Windows, without requiring to boot from external media like a flash drive or making BIOS configuration changes.

The software asks all questions at beginning, so you don’t have to babysit the install. It supports Linux Mint, Ubuntu, and most official Ubuntu flavors. And all the process is automated, it downloads the iso image, installs Grub with Secure Boot support, alculates Linux equivalent values for your Windows locale and user account, and finally reboots and runs the installer.

Features of Tunic include:

  • Shrink C: volume to make space for Linux, so you can dual boot them.
  • Disables Windows fast start.
  • Provide tools to assist with freeing up space for Linux.

And, requirements include:

  • 64-bit Windows 10
  • Single drive hosting the C: volume
  • 4 GB RAM or higher.
  • At least 15 GB of free disk space
  • UEFI
  • Administrator user permissions
  • Internet access for downloading iso image.

As a new project, it may have bugs! BACKUP your data before getting started! For more about Tunic, as well as the download link, go to its project page in Github.

RawTherapee

RawTherapee 5.8, cross-platform raw photo processing system, was released a day ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.10, Linux Mint 19.x.

RawTherapee 5.8 release highlights:

  • New Capture Sharpening tool to automatically recover detail lost to lens blur.
  • CR3 support: image data is decoded, though metadata is not supported yet.
  • Improvements of various camera models
  • Speedups and optimizations to various tools
  • Better memory management and various bug fixes.

Download / Install RawTherapee 5.8 in Ubuntu:

The official Linux Appimage, single executable to launch the software (non-install), is available for download in the previous link.

For Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.10, Linux Mint 19.x, you can also install RawTherapee 5.8 via this unofficial PPA.

1. Open terminal by either pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or searching for “Terminal” from application menu. When it opens, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dhor/myway

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

2. After that, upgrade the software via Software Updater if a previous version was installed:

or run commands one by one in terminal to install RawTherapee:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install rawtherapee

How to Remove:

To uninstall the free raw developer, run command in terminal:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove rawtherapee

And remove the PPA via Software & Updates utility under Other Software tab, by removing the line says “http://ppa.launchpad.net/dhor/myway/ubuntu”.

Gotify Indicator is a simple tool in the system tray area to send and receive messages via your own Gotify server.

Gotify is a server that can send and receive messages. It works as a push notifications server. It’s a free open-source tool written in Go language, and features a web UI, allowing to sending messages via a REST-API, subscribing/receiving messages via a web socket connection, and managing users, clients and applications.

Gotify also features iOS and Android app, a command line tool for pushing messages. While, Gotify-Indicator is a third-party indicator for Gotify in the Linux Desktop. With it you can send and receive messages directly from your computer. So you can send messages to other devices that are connected to the same server.

How to Install Gotify indicator in Ubuntu:

NOTE: The PPA package support until Ubuntu 22.04, check the PPA link below.

The developer maintains the software packages in the PPA repository for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, and Ubuntu 22.04.

1.) Open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or by searching for ‘terminal’ from application menu. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/atareao

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

2.) Then install the tool via command:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install gotify-indicator

Once installed, open it from your system application launcher and you’ll see the indicator in system tray area. Setup the notification sending and receiving service (see top picture) and enjoy!

Uninstall:

To remove the PPA as well as the software package, run commands in terminal one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:atareao/atareao

sudo apt remove gotify-indicator

CopyQ clipboard editor released version 3.10.0 a day ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.10.

CopyQ is a free open-source clipboard editor with editing and scripting features. It monitors system clipboard and saves its content in customized tabs. Saved clipboard can be later copied and pasted directly into any application.

Changes in CopyQ 3.10.0 include:

  • Use environment variable COPYQ_DEFAULT_ICON=1 to show the original
    application icon.
  • Avoid updating menu unnecessarily
  • Require at least Qt 5.5
  • Use non-native color and font dialogs which fixes showing these in Gnome/Gtk
  • Fix GUI with fractional scaling
  • Improve clipboard/selection synchronization
  • Avoid reading clipboard in parallel in the monitor process

How to Install Copyq 3.10.0 in Ubuntu:

The official PPA repository has made the latest packages for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.04, Ubuntu 19.10, and Linux Mint 18.x, 19.x.

1. To add the PPA, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) from application menu and run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:hluk/copyq

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

2. Then install CopyQ either via Synaptic package manager or by running commands in terminal:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install copyq

Once installed, start the clipboard manager from application menu and you’ll see the icon in system tray area.

Uninstall:

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

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove copyq

To remove PPA repositories, launch Software & Updates and navigate to Other Software tab.

Urban Terror, free multiplayer first person shooter, now can be installed easily via Snap package in Ubuntu 18.04 and higher.

Urban Terror is a freeware multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by FrozenSand. It can be described as a Hollywood tactical shooter; somewhat realism based, but the motto is “fun over realism”. This results in a very unique, enjoyable and addictive game. It is available for Windows, Linux and Macs.

To install Urban Terror Snap in Ubuntu:

The game now can be easily installed as Snap (runs in sanbox) in Ubuntu 18.04 and higher. Simply search for and install Urban Terror from Ubuntu Software (or App Center in 24.04).

or run single command to install the game in Ubuntu:

snap install urban-terror

Once installed, launch the game from system application menu and enjoy!

To uninstall it, use command:

snap remove --purge urban-terror

TLP is a free and open-source tool aims to save laptop battery life for Linux laptops. It’s a feature-rich command line utility for saving battery power without the need to dig deeper into technical details

It comes with a default configuration already optimized for battery life, so you may just install and forget it. Nevertheless TLP is highly customizable to fulfill your specific requirements.

TLP features include:

  • Kernel laptop mode and dirty buffer timeouts
  • AMD/Intel CPU scaling driver operation mode
  • Processor frequency scaling and turbo boost
  • Intel CPU max/min P-state limits to control power dissipation
  • AMD/Intel CPU energy/performance policies (EPP) and dynamic boost
  • Intel GPU frequency limits
  • AMD GPU power management
  • Enable/disable integrated bluetooth, Wi-Fi and WWAN devices
  • And much more.

How to Install TLP in Ubuntu:

The software has an official PPA repository so far supports for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 23.10, and Ubuntu 24.04.

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:linrunner/tlp

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

2.) If you already installed an old version, open Software Updater and upgrade the package.

This will also upgrade TLP from the beta release to the latest stable.

Or run command in terminal to install it for the first time:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install tlp

After installation, just leave it running silently in the background and you’re done.

For advanced users, you may edit the config file /etc/tlp.conf and change the settings according to your need:

sudo gedit /etc/tlp.conf

For Ubuntu 23.10, and Ubuntu 24.04, replace gedit with gnome-text-editor. For non-default desktop environments, use your own text editor, or use nano that works for all. For how to configure the file, see the official documentation.

Uninstall TLP:

You can run command in terminal to purge the PPA which also downgrade TLP to the stable version available in Ubuntu main repository:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:linrunner/tlp

To completely remove the TLP power management tool, run command:

sudo apt remove tlp tlp-rdw

This simple tutorial shows how to install the latest Photoflare, simple but powerful image editor inspired by PhotoFiltre, in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.04, and Ubuntu 19.10.

Photoflare is an open-source, cross-platform image editor written in C++ with Qt5 framework. It features:

  • Simple but powerful, and very fast to do everything.
  • Works on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS.
  • Basic image editing capabilities
  • Paint brushes
  • Image filters
  • Color adjustments
  • And more advanced features such as Batch image processing.

How to Install PhotoFlare in Ubuntu:

The image editing software is available in Ubuntu universe repositories since Ubuntu 19.04, though it may be old as Ubuntu does not offer the software updates.

To install the latest version, and receive future updates via Software Updater utility, the official Photoflare stable PPA maintains the packages with support for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.04, and Ubuntu 19.10 so far.

1.) Open terminal by either pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard, or searching for ‘terminal’ from application menu. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:photoflare/photoflare-stable

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

2.) After adding the PPA, install the image editor via command:

sudo apt install photoflare

Some Ubuntu derivatives may need to run sudo apt update first.

If an old version was installed, you can upgrade the software simply via Software Updater (Update Manager) utility.

Uninstall:

To remove the image editor, simply run command in terminal:

sudo apt remove photoflare

To remove the PPA repository, go to Software & Udpates -> Other Software tab and remove the repository line.

LibreOffice

LibreOffice, Ubuntu pre-installed office suite, released version 6.4 today as the latest “fresh” version.

LibreOffice 6.4.0 so far is recommended for technology enthusiasts, which contains new features and program enhancements.

LibreOffice 6.4 release highlights include:

  • Option to mark comments as resolved in Writer
  • Possible to comment on Writer images and charts
  • btLr text direction in Writer.
  • Allow-overlap shape property in Writer
  • Export Calc files to PDF with all pages on a sheet as one page in the PDF.
  • Add ‘Remove Hyperlink’ to context menu in Impress
  • Add ‘Consolidate Text’ which combines multiple selected textboxes into one
  • Access2Base callable from Python
  • Doc, DocX, PPT, PPTX, Excel 2003 XML import/export improvements.
  • Draw MIME type icon overlay on thumbnails at the start center
  • Add new ‘Table’ sidebar panel to Writer

How to Install the Latest LibreOffice in Ubuntu:

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

1.) Add LibreOffice Fresh PPA. It contains v6.3.4 at the moment, and v6.4 packages will be available in a few days.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa

For enterprises, the mature “still” version (v6.3 so far) of LibreOffice is recommended. See HERE.

2.) Once the official PPA updated with the new packages, you’re able to upgrade the office suite through the Software Updater utility:

Uninstall:

You can either remove the LibreOffice PPA via Software & Updates utility under Other Software tab,

or purge the PPA which also downgrade LibreOffice to the default pre-installed version via command:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:libreoffice/ppa

upgrade Linux Kernel

Linux Kernel 5.5 was announced two days ago. Linus Torvalds wrote on lkml.org:

So this last week was pretty quiet, and while we had a late network update with some (mainly iwl wireless) network driver and netfilter module loading fixes, David didn’t think that warranted another -rc. And outside of that, it’s really been very quiet indeed – there’s a panfrost driver update too, but again it didn’t really seem to make sense to delay the final release by another week.

…”

Kernel 5.5 release highlights:

  • Support for the Broadcom BCM2711 SoC (Raspberry Pi 4).
  • New Logitech driver for G15 and G510 keyboard.
  • KVM support for IBM POWER secure guests/VMs.
  • Initial Intel Jasper Lake support.
  • Intel 5-level paging support is enabled by default
  • AMD OverDrive overclocking for Navi GPUs.
  • and much more other changes.

How to Install Linux Kernel 5.5 in Ubuntu:

The mainline kernels do not include any Ubuntu-provided drivers or patches. They are not supported and are not appropriate for production use

The mainline kernel packages for Linux 5.5 are available for download at the link below:

Download Kernel 5.5

Depends on your OS type, download and install the packages in turns:

  1. linux-headers-5.5.0-xxxxxx_all.deb
  2. linux-headers-5.5.0-xxx-generic(/lowlatency)_xxx_amd64.deb
  3. linux-modules-5.5.0-xxx-generic(/lowlatency)_xxx_amd64.deb
  4. linux-image-xxx-5.5.0-xxx-generic(/lowlatency)_xxx_amd64.deb

Select generic for common system, and lowlatency for a low latency system (e.g. for recording audio), amd64 for 64bit system, or armhf, arm64, etc for other OS types.

Alternatively you can download and install the kernel binaries via terminal commands ( open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T):

For 64-bit OS:

cd /tmp/

wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.5/linux-headers-5.5.0-050500_5.5.0-050500.202001262030_all.deb

wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.5/linux-headers-5.5.0-050500-generic_5.5.0-050500.202001262030_amd64.deb

wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.5/linux-image-unsigned-5.5.0-050500-generic_5.5.0-050500.202001262030_amd64.deb

wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.5/linux-modules-5.5.0-050500-lowlatency_5.5.0-050500.202001262030_amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Note that there’s no Kernel 5.5 packages for 32-bit system.

Once installed, restart your computer and enjoy!

Uninstall Linux Kernel 5.5:

Restart your machine and select boot with the previous kernel in boot menu ‘Grub2 -> Advanced Option for Ubuntu’. Then run command to remove Linux Kernel 5.5:

sudo dpkg --purge linux-image-unsigned-5.5.0-050500-generic

MPV media player logo

MPV media player released version 0.32.0 today with some new features and various bug-fixes.

MPV 0.32.0 features RAR5 support and initial implementation of bash completion. Other changes include:

  • add support for forcing the dedicated GPU for rendering
  • add pinch to resize window gesture
  • support minimizing/maximizing using osc window controls
  • add a playlist-unshuffle command
  • add osd-dimensions property
  • new PLAYONLY and PAUSEONLY keycodes
  • various fixes for wayland
  • usability improvements for osc window controls
  • To install the latest MPV 0.32.0 in Ubuntu, besides building from the source, you may keep an eye on the Doug McMahon’s PPA, which will built the new release packages for Ubuntu 18.04, Linux Mint 19.x.

    Just open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run following command to add the PPA. And new MPV packages will be available in Software Updater after the maintainer updating the PPA.

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mc3man/mpv-tests

    Type user password (Ctrl+Alt+T) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.

    To remove the PPA, either open Software & Updates and remove the repository line from ‘Other Software’ tab,

    or run previous command with --remove flag:

    sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:mc3man/mpv-tests