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Kaidan – Modern XMPP Chat Client for Linux

Last updated: April 24, 2024

Kaidan is a simple, user-friendly chat client that uses the open communication protocol XMPP (Jabber) and runs on Linux, Mac OS, Android, Plasma Mobile and Ubuntu Touch.

The software is written in C++ with Qt and the Qt-based XMPP library QXmpp. Unlike other chat apps, you are not dependent on one specific service provider.

Kaidan features: supported XEPs / RFCs and planned XEPs. The latest release so far is Kaidan 0.5 that contains QR code scanning and generation, message search, and more.

Get Kaidan chat client:

Source code, APK, Appimage, and Mac os packages are available for download at the link below:

Download Kaidan

For Linux, grab the .appimage package, make executable in file’s Properties > Permissions. And finally run it to launch the chat app.

As an alternative, Kaidan is also available in flatpak package:

Kaidan in Flathub

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KeePassXC 2.6.1 Released with Xfce Screensaver Support [PPA]

Last updated: August 20, 2020

KeePassX 2 YubiKey support

KeePassXC, a community fork of KeePassX password manager, released version 2.6.1 today with some new features, improvements, and various fixes.

KeePassXC 2.6.1 release highlights:

  • Add option to Auto-Type just the username or password
  • Automatic database locking with Xfce screensaver.
  • Add command for retrieving current TOTP
  • Add OARS metadata
  • Substitute tilde with USERPROFILE on Windows
  • Change actions for F1, F2, and F3 keys
  • Improve man page, and password generator UI / UX
  • And various bug-fixes, see here for more details.

How to Install KeePassXC 2.6.1 in Ubuntu:

The official upstream PPA has made the packages of the password manager for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, and derivatives.

1.) Open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard, or by searching for ‘terminal’ from system application launcher.

When terminal opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:phoerious/keepassxc

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

2.) Then either update the software package using Software Updater

or run command to install the software:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install keepassxc

Uninstall:

You can run the PPA repository simply by running command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:phoerious/keepassxc

And if you want, remove keepassxc password manger via command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove keepassxc
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Display Current Weather in Clock Menu in Ubuntu 20.04

Last updated: April 24, 2024

Want to get more information in the clock menu underneath the calendar? You can get the current weather condition via an extension.

Weather in the clock is a simple extension based on Gnome Weather that adds an icon representing the current weather condition and the current actual temperature to the clock in the panel.

If you like it, do following steps one by one to install it on Ubuntu 20.04.

1.) First open terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command to install Gnome Weather:

sudo apt install gnome-weather

2.) Then search for and launch weather from ‘Show Applications’ menu and setup your location:

3.) Finally install the gnome shell extension.

  • Run command to install chrome-gnome-shell if it’s not installed: 
    sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell

  • Then go to extensions.gnome.org, turn on the toggle and install the extension.

    If you don’t see the toggle on icon, follow the link to install browser extension, then refresh the web page.

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NVIDIA 450.66 Released with Matrox D1450 D1480 Support

Last updated: August 18, 2020

Nvidia Linux driver

NVIDIA for Linux driver 450.66 was released today as the latest long lived branch version.

NVIDIA 450.66 fixed triple buffering support of Vulkan X11 swapchains when applications are syncing to vblank.

It also added following GPUs support:

  • EIZO Quadro MED-XN31LP
  • EIZO Quadro MED-XN50LP
  • EIZO Quadro MED-XN51LP
  • EIZO Quadro MED-XN70
  • EIZO Quadro MED-XN71
  • EIZO Quadro MED-XN72
  • EIZO Quadro MED-XN90
  • EIZO Quadro MED-XN91
  • EIZO Quadro MED-XN92
  • Matrox D-Series D1450
  • Matrox D-Series D1480

How to Get Nvidia 450.66 in Ubuntu:

The “Graphics Drivers” team PPA is a reliable source that contains most recent Nvidia packages for Ubuntu. Check the PPA link before getting started as it’s not updated to 450.66 at the moment of writing.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa

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

2. Then launch Additional Drivers utility, choose Nvidia 450 and apply changes.

Sorry I can’t see these drivers as I don’t have a discrete graphics card in my laptop :(

(Optional) To remove the PPA repository, either go to Software & Updates > Other Software, or run command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
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Kdenlive 20.08 Released with New Interface Layouts [Ubuntu PPA]

Last updated: August 17, 2020

Kdenlive, KDE Non-Linear Video Editor, released version 20.08 today with nifty new features, stability and interface improvements.

Kdenlive 20.08 release highlights:

  • New interface layouts.
  • Multiple audio stream support
  • A new cache management interface to maintain / control the size of cached and proxied files as well as backup-ed data.
  • Zoom bars in the Clip Monitor and Effects Panel
  • Some new keyboard shortcuts.
  • Performance boost to audio thumbnail generation as well as JPG image sequence playback
  • And miscellaneous improvements

See the video about the new Kdenlive video editor:

How to Install Kdenlive 20.08 in Ubuntu 20.04:

The software offers single executable Appimage which is available in files.kde.org.

For those prefer native .deb packages, the kdenlive team ppa has built the packages for Ubuntu 20.04 and derivatives.

1.) Open ‘terminal’ from your system application menu, and run command to add the PPA:

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

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

2. ) If an old version of kdenlive was installed, upgrade it via Update Manager:

Or simply run command in terminal to install the video editor:

sudo apt install kdenlive

NOTE for non-KDE users, Kdenlive will be installed along with a large list of KDE libraries.

Uninstall:

To purge the PPA as well as downgrade Kdenlive package, run command in terminal:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:kdenlive/kdenlive-stable

To remove the PPA only, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:kdenlive/kdenlive-stable

And to remove Kdenlive, run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove kdenlive kdenlive-data
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FetchCord – Display Your System Info as Discord Rich Presence

Last updated: April 24, 2024

FetchCord is a simple tool grabs your system information and displays it as Discord Rich Presence.

FetchCord is written in Python 3 and relies on Neofetch for your basic system information. With the handy tool, you’ll see your system info inside Discord user’s profile.

How to install FetchCord:

1. In Ubuntu 20.04 and Linux Mint 20, first open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to install Neofetch and python3-pip package:

sudo apt install neofetch python3-pip

2. Then install Fetchcord via pip command:

pip3 install fetchcord

Once installed, run fetchcord command while Discord is running and enjoy!

NOTE: while the software is in very early stage, it may have bugs. For any issue report to the Github page.

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Photoflare – Simple Powerful Image Editor Inspired by PhotoFiltre

Last updated: April 24, 2024

Photoflare is an open-source simple and powerful image editing software inspired by PhotoFiltre.

Photoflare is written in C++ with Qt5 framework. It works on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS, and features basic image editing capabilities, paint brushes, image filters, colour adjustments and more advanced features such as Batch image processing.

Besides the community version, the software also offers studio edition requires to pay for packages.

Features of Photoflare include:

  • 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:

Option 1: Ubuntu PPA

The software has a stable PPA which so far contains the latest packages for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 23.10.

1.) To add the PPA, open terminal either from system application launcher or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens,  run command:

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

2.) After adding PPA, update system package cache and install the image editor via commands:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install photoflare

Option 2: Flatpak package

For choice, user can install the software as Flatpak runs in sandbox environment. Meaning even the old Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 18.04 can install the latest version of this image editing app.

1. (Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 18.04 only) First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal, run command to add the Flatpak PPA for old Ubuntu that don’t have the package in system repository:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:flatpak/stable

Type user password when it asks (no asterisk feedback) and hit Enter to continue. Next, run sudo apt update to refresh system package cache.

2. Then, run command to enable Flatpak support:

sudo apt install flatpak

3. Finally, install the app as Flatpak package by running the command below in terminal:

flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/io.photoflare.photoflare.flatpakref

Once installed, search for and launch the app either from start menu or ‘Activities’ overview depends on your desktop environment. If app icon not visible, try log out and back in to apply path environment changes.

And for future versions, use the command to check updates:

flatpak update io.photoflare.photoflare

Uninstall Photoflare:

To remove Photoflare image editor, either use your system package manager or run command in terminal:

sudo apt remove photoflare

And remove the PPA either via Software & Updates under Other Software tab, or by running command:

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

To uninstall the Flatpak package, use command:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data io.photoflare.photoflare

Also run flatpak uninstall --unused to remove useless run-time libraries.

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Mainline – Another Tool to Install Latest Kernel in Ubuntu / Linux Mint

Last updated: August 20, 2024

Mainline is a graphical tool to install the latest mainline Kernel in Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and derivatives.

Mainline (Ubuntu Mainline Kernel Installer) is an open-source fork of ukuu, which now is pay for use. It offers a simple interface with updated list of the “mainline” Kernels, allows to one-click install, remove, or purge Kernels in Ubuntu-based distributions.

Mainline features:

  • Fetches list of available kernels from Ubuntu Mainline PPA
  • Optionally watches and displays notifications when a new kernel update is available
  • Downloads and installs packages automatically
  • Display available and installed kernels conveniently
  • Install/remove kernels from gui
  • For each kernel, the related packages (headers & modules) are installed or removed at the same time

How to install Mainline in Ubuntu:

NOTE: The mainline kernels are provided by Ubuntu Kernel Team for testing and debugging purposes. They are not supported and are not appropriate for production use. You should only install these if they may fix a critical problem you’re having with the current kernel.

The software has an official PPA so far contains packages for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04, and derivatives.

1.) To add the PPA, open terminal from system application launcher and run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cappelikan/ppa

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

sudo apt update

sudo apt install mainline

Uninstall:

To remove the PPA, run command:

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

To remove the Ubuntu Mainline Kernel Installer, run command:

sudo apt remove mainline
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Ubuntu 18.04.5 Released with Linux 5.4 Kernel

Last updated: August 14, 2020

Ubuntu 18.04

The Ubuntu team announced the release of Ubuntu 18.04.5 and Ubuntu 16.04.7 last night.

While Ubuntu 16.04.7 comes with only security package updates and other fixes, Ubuntu 18.04.5 includes an updated hardware enablement stack from Ubuntu 20.04.

With Linux Kernel 5.4, WiFi should work out-of-the-box in Ubuntu 18.04.5 with RTL8723DE (tests in my HP 246 G6 laptop).

Also users of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS will be offered an automatic upgrade to 18.04.5 via Update Manager.

Get Ubuntu 18.04.5 / Ubuntu 16.04.7

For Ubuntu 18.04.4 and previous, you’ll be automatically update to v18.04.5 after installing all system updates.

If you were updated from the original Ubuntu 18.04, and you never installed the hardware enablement stack, you may run command to get the latest kernel:

sudo apt-get install --install-recommends linux-generic-hwe-18.04

For ISO images, go to releases.ubuntu.com

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GNU Emacs 27.1 Released with Native JSON Parsing Support

Last updated: August 12, 2020

GNU Emacs 27.1 was released after almost one year of development. Here is what’s new and how to install it in Ubuntu.

Emacs 27.1 contains a wide variety of new features, including:

  • Built-in support for arbitrary-size integers
  • Text shaping with HarfBuzz
  • Native support for JSON parsing
  • Better support for Cairo drawing
  • Portable dumping used instead of unexec
  • Support for XDG conventions for init files
  • Additional early-init initialization file
  • Lexical-binding is used by default
  • Built-in support for tab bar and tab-line
  • Support for resizing and rotating of images without ImageMagick

How to Get Emacs 27.1 in Ubuntu:

Emacs is available Snap Store, v27.1 will be available very soon.

To install Emacs Snap, simply search for and install Emacs in Software utility.

Emacs flatpak package has been updated. It’s available to install in flathub repository.

To install Emacs flatpak, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run following commands one by one:

sudo apt install flatpak
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
flatpak install flathub org.gnu.emacs
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