Archives For jimingkui

Kid3 audio tag editor released version 3.8.2 a few days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, and Ubuntu 19.10.

Kid3 3.8.2 is a small but important release for those who have a lot of M4A files. The release fixes a crash that happens when frames are removed from M4A files. Additionally it brings new Catalan, Portuguese and Ukrainian translations.

How to Install Kid3 3.8.2 in Ubuntu:

The official Kid3 PPA has built the packages for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, and, Ubuntu 19.10.

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:ufleisch/kid3

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

2. If an old version was installed, upgrade Kid3 using Software Updater:

upgrade kid3 via software updater

or run commands one by one in terminal to install or upgrade to the latest tag editor:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install kid3-qt

You may replace kid3-qt with kid3 in the code for KDE integration, or with kid3-cli for the command-line interface

Uninstall

To remove the PPA repository, either open Software & Updates -> Other Software tab, or run command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ufleisch/kid3

To remove the audio tag editor, either use your system package manager or run command:

sudo apt remove --auto-remove kid3 kid3-*

Wine Stable

Wine 5.0 stable was released 2 days ago with a large number of improvements. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.10 (fix dependenices).

Wine 5.0 is dedicated to the memory of Józef Kucia, who passed away in August 2019 at the young age of 30. Józef was a major contributor to Wine’s Direct3D implementation, and the lead developer of the vkd3d project. His skills and his kindness are sorely missed by all of us.

UPDATE 2024: THIS TUTORIAL IS OUTDATED! Please see this new one instead of current Ubuntu releases!

Wine 5.0 features:

  • Builtin modules in PE format.
  • Multi-monitor support.
  • XAudio2 reimplementation.
  • Vulkan 1.1 support.

How to Install Wine 5.0 in Ubuntu:

The official wine apt repository has made the packages for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.04, and Ubuntu 19.10.

To get out of WINE DEPENDENCY HELL:

I’ve successfully installed Wine 5.0 in Ubuntu 19.10 via following steps without any dependency issue.

Ubuntu 18.04 however run into unmet dependencies issue even after purging graphics drivers PPA, kisak-mesa PPA, etc. And sudo aptitude install wine-stable command output hundreds of package conflicts with no workaround.

THANKS to lutris, I’ve finally got out of the Wine Dependency hell in Ubuntu 18.04 by running command:

sudo apt-get install libgnutls30:i386 libldap-2.4-2:i386 libgpg-error0:i386 libxml2:i386 libasound2-plugins:i386 libsdl2-2.0-0:i386 libfreetype6:i386 libdbus-1-3:i386 libsqlite3-0:i386

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.) Run command to enable 32 bit architecture:

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

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

2.) Download and install the repository key via command:

wget -nc https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key; sudo apt-key add winehq.key

3.) Add wine repository via command (for Ubuntu 19.10):

sudo apt-add-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ eoan main'

NOTE: You may replace eoan in the code with:

  • bionic for Ubuntu 18.04 and Linux Mint 19.x
  • xenial for Ubuntu 16.04 and Linux Mint 18.x

4.) Add PPA for the required libfaudio0 library:

For Ubuntu 18.04, Linux Mint 19.x, and Ubuntu 19.04 only, as higher Ubuntu releases already have libfaudio0 in the main repositories.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cybermax-dexter/sdl2-backport

5.) Finally install Wine 5.0 stable via command:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-stable

(Optional) After successfully installed Wine 5.0, you may remove the PPAs by launching Software & Updates utility and navigating to Other Software tab.

KeePass2 2.44 Released with True Key 4 CSV Import

Last updated: January 10, 2021

KeePass2

KeePass 2.44 was released a days ago as the latest stable mono password manager. Users of any previous 2.x version are recommended to upgrade.

KeePass Password Safe was a Windows only password manager. Through the use of Mono, KeePass 2.x works on Linux and Mac OS.

KeePass 2.44 comes with many new features including:

  • New commands to find database files
  • New ‘Edit’ menu in the internal text editor
  • Support for importing True Key 4 CSV files.
  • Add an auto-type event for plugins.
  • New command line options for adding/removing scheme-specific URL overrides.

There are also improvements to the internal text editor, HTML export and printing, and XSL files. See the release note for more details.

How to Install KeePass 2.44 in Ubuntu:

The Julian Taylor’s PP maintains KeePass2 packages for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.04, and Ubuntu 19.10, and the 2.44 packages will be available in a few days.

1. Open terminal either via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching for “Terminal” from app launcher. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/keepass2

Type user password (no visual feedback due to security reason) when it asks and hit Enter.

2. Then upgrade KeePass password safe via Software Updater if you have a previous version installed:

upgrade KeePass2

Or run commands to install / upgrade the software:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install keepass2

Uninstall:

The PPA repository can be removed via Software & Updates utility under Other Software tab. To remove KeePass password safe, simply run command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove keepass2

KeePassX 2 YubiKey support

KeePassXC password manager 2.5.3 was released today with stability improvements and new feature: browser extension for Chromium-based Edge browser.

KeePassXC 2.5.3 changelog:

  • Fix possible database lockout when removing a YubiKey from a KDBX 3.1 database
  • Fix crash if Auto-Type is performed on a new entry
  • Fix crash when all entries are deleted from a group
  • Improve the reliability of clipboard clearing on Gnome
  • Do not check cmd:// URLs for valid URL syntax anymore
  • Prevent unnecessary merges for databases on network shares
  • Browser: Prevent native messaging proxy from blocking application shutdown
  • Browser: Improve website URL matching

How to Install KeePassXC 2.5.3 in Ubuntu:

For Ubuntu 18.04 and higher, KeePassXC Snap package (runs in sandbox) can be easily installed via Ubuntu Software.

For those prefer native Ubuntu .deb package, open terminal from application menu or press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard, and run following commands one by one:

1.) Run command to add the official PPA, which so far supports for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.04, and Ubuntu 19.10.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:phoerious/keepassxc

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

2. Then upgrade KeePassXC from previous release via Software Updater:

or run commands one by one in terminal to install the password manager:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install keepassxc

Uninstall:

To remove the PPA, open Software & Updates and navigate to Other Software tab.

To remove KeePassXC .deb package, run command in terminal:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove keepassxc

GNOME, the default desktop, shows focused app menu in the top bar next to the upper left Activities button.

Users may use the menu to open or switch between windows of the same app, launch preferences dialog, or close the app window. The design is great, but some may not use the menu and find it useless.

So here’s how to disable this feature in all current Ubuntu releases, e.g., Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 22.04, that running the default GNOME desktop.

UPDATE: In Ubuntu 24.04, there’s no longer app menu in top-bar, due to GNOME feature change.

Disable Top bar App menu in Ubuntu 18.04:

For Ubuntu 18.04, it’s easy to get rid of the menu since the popular “GNOME Tweaks” tool has an option to toggle it.

1.) Firstly, search for and install Gnome Tweaks from Ubuntu Software if you don’t have it.

2.) Next launch the configuration tool by searching from the Activities overview screen. When it opens, navigate to “Top Bar” in the left pane, then you’ll see the option to turn on/off the App menu.

Remove Top bar App menu in Ubuntu 20.04 & 22.04:

For any reason, GNOME Tweaks removed the option to toggle the function in recent Ubuntu releases. However, there are quite a few GNOME extensions can do the job! And here’s the one that works on GNOME from version 3.36 to 44.

Which means Linux distributions include Debian 11/12, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Fedora 37/38 can install the extension to remove the top bar app-menu.

1.) Firstly open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or by searching from the ‘Activities’ overview.

2.) When terminal opens, run command to install chrome-gnome-shell package if you don’t have it:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell

The package makes it possible to install GNOME extension from ‘extensions.gnome.org’ via your web browser.

3.) Finally click the link button below to go to the ‘Remove App Menu’ extension page, and turn on the slider icon to install it.

Turn on the toggle icon to install Remove App Menu extension

Don’t worry if you don’t see the slider icon, install browser extension via ‘Click here to install the browser extension‘ link and REFRESH the web page will make it visible.

After installed the extension, the top bar app menu disappears immediately in my case. If not, try restart Gnome Shell (press Alt+F2, type r and hit Enter) or log out and back in.

Restore the App Menu

If you change your mind, simply go to the extension web page again and turn off the toggle icon will remove it.

Or, install the ‘Gnome Extensions‘ app by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard and running command in pop-up terminal:

sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-prefs

Then launch the tool and you’ll see the options to toggle all installed extensions. By clicking on the little triangle icon at the end of each line, you may also remove that extension.

The open-source LaTeX text editor TeXstudio 2.12.20 was released today as a new bug-fix release for the 2.12 series.

Most notably changes in TeXstudio 2.12.20 include fix bug when replacing highlighted search results, and add \text{} to amsmath.cwl.

How to Install TexStudio 2.12.20 in Ubuntu:

The official PPA has made the new release packages for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04,
Ubuntu 19.10, Ubuntu 20.04, 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.

Cawbird DISCONTINUED since 2023! It does not longer work. See the archive in Github page.

Cawbird is a fork of the Corebird GTK twitter client that continues to work with Twitter on Linux.

Corebird became unsupported after Twitter disabled the streaming API. Cawbird takes up the job to work with the new APIs and includes a few fixes and modifications.

Cawbird 1.0.4 was released today as the latest version including following changes::

  • Reduce bespoke themeing and make the main bar use native colors
  • Import favourited images from Corebird
  • Fixed crash caused by Twitter sending invalid entity positions in tweet
  • Fixed tweet length error with counting prime marks (quotes)
  • Update Italian translation

How to Install Cawbird in Ubuntu:

The community maintained Cawbird Snap package, which runs in sandbox, can be easily installed from Ubuntu Software:

For those prefer native .deb package, go to the developer maintained repository at the link below:

Select Ubuntu, then click ‘Grab binary packages directly‘ and download the .deb package for your system.

Finally install the .deb via Gdebi package installer (available in Ubuntu Software) and enjoy!

Nutty is a free open-source network utility made for Linux. It monitors the devices on your network and check bandwidth and speed details.

Nutty is made for elementary OS and it works on Ubuntu. The software features:

  • Display basic and detailed information for the device network card
  • Provides network data usage in two views: historical usage and current usage
  • Check Upload and Download speeds and get route times to a host
  • Provides information on active ports and application using them on the local device
  • Monitors, alerts and provides information on the other devices connected on the network

To install Nutty in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, and Ubuntu 22.04, open terminal from application launcher or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run following commands one by one.

1.) Run command to add the Nutty main PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bablu-boy/nutty

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

2.) Also add Elementary OS stable PPA (can be removed later) for libgranite5 library. ()

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:elementary-os/stable

You may skip the step in UBUNTU 19.04 and higher since libgranite5 available in main repositories.

3.) Finally refresh system package cache and install the utility via command:

sudo apt update; sudo apt install com.github.babluboy.nutty

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

Uninstall:

You HAVE to remove the Elementary OS stable PPA as it contains many eos specific packages that may break your Ubuntu desktop.

Simply open Software & Updates utility and navigate to Other Software tab. There remove the line for Elementary OS PPA, and Nutty PPA if you want.

You can also remove Nutty network utility by running command:

sudo apt remove com.github.babluboy.nutty

gnome shell

For Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.10, and higher with the default Gnome desktop environment, there’s a built-in screen recording tool you may not know.

For Ubuntu 23.10, Ubuntu 24.04, and later, the built-in screen recorder is now available in top-right system tray menu.

There’s no app shortcut or manual page for the hidden video recording tool. It has limited features that include:

  • Start recording by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R on keyboard.
  • Stop recording also by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R.
  • Maximum video length is 30s (change it via following steps).
  • Full-screen recording only.
  • Record to WebM only.
  • Automatically saved videos to user’s Videos folder.

Change video length time limit:

The maximum video length is 30 seconds by default. You can change 30 to any number in seconds or 0 with no time limit. Then you can press the shortcut key again at any time to stop the recording process.

1. Install Dconf Editor from Ubuntu Software and then launch it.

When it opens, navigate to org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/media-keys.

Screen down and click to change the value of ‘max-screencast-length’ as you want.

2. Alternatively, run single command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) to change the value:

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.media-keys max-screencast-length 0

You may replace number 0 in the command as you want.