Archives For November 30, 1999

Foliate is an open-source GTK eBook viewer built with GJS and Epub.js. It offers a simple and modern user interface, and features:

  • View EPUB files in two-page view or scrolled view
  • Customize font, line-spacing, margins, and brightness
  • Light, sepia, dark, and invert mode, or add your own custom themes
  • Reading progress slider with chapter marks
  • Bookmarks and annotations
  • Quick dictionary lookup with Wiktionary, Wikipedia, and dictd, or translate text with Google Translate
  • Touchpad gestures—use two-finger swipe to turn the page
  • Basic text-to-speech support with eSpeak NG and Festival

To install foliate ebook reader in Ubuntu 18.04 and higher:

The software offers Ubuntu .deb package, com.github.johnfactotum.foliate_1.4.0_all.deb at the moment, which is available to download at the release page:

Grab the package, then either double-click to install it, or open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/com.github.johnfactotum.foliate_*.deb

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

(Optional) To remove the software, simply run command in terminal:

sudo apt remove --auto-remove foliate

For those who prefer the Flatpak package, Foliate is also available in Flathub repository.

Gis Weather is an open-source desktop weather widget and indicator applet with highly customizable user interface.

Gis Weather is written in Python 3 with GTK+ 3. It features:

  • View weather for several days
  • Detailed weather forecast for today and tomorrow
  • Select the background and theme weather icons
  • “Compass” with the wind direction, with adjustable angle of rotation
  • Highlighting the high wind
  • Support weather services: Gismeteo.com, OpenWeatherMap.org, Yr.no.

The new version 0.84 was released hours ago with updated icons, translations, and various bug-fixes.

How to Install Gis Weather in Ubuntu:

The software offers .deb package available to download at the link below:

Grab the package the install it by opening terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/gis-weather_*.deb

Once installed launch it from your system application menu:

Choose weather service, and setup your location at first launch:

Then you can change icons, background, text font via widget’s right-click menu. And in Preferences, change units, widget location, refresh time interval, appearances, enable indicator applet, auto-start, etc.

Mozilla Firefox 68.0 was released a few days ago with dark mode improvements, new features, and security fixes. Here’s how to install it in all current Ubuntu releases.

Firefox 68.0 release highlights:

  • Window controls, sidebars and toolbars will be dark with dark mode in reader view.
  • New reporting feature to report security and performance issues with extensions and themes.
  • Redesigned extensions dashboard for easy accessing to information about your extensions
  • Redesigned extensions now displays user count and ratings for each extension.
  • Add cryptomining and fingerprinting protections to strict content blocking settings
  • Windows Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) update download support.
  • Camera and microphone access now require an HTTPS connection.
  • And various security fixes. See release note for details.

Upgrade to Firefox 68 in Ubuntu:

Firefox 68 has been will be made into Ubuntu universe repositories for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, and higher in a few days. Check HERE, and do following to upgrade it once available.

For all current Ubuntu releases, simply open Software Updater and install the updates after checking for updates.

If you don’t see the Firefox updates, go to Software & Updates and make sure the security and updates repositories are enabled in Updates tab.

Open source continuous file synchronization program syncthing 1.2.0 was released yesterday with new features, various bug-fixes, and enhancements.

Syncthing 1.2.0 release highlights:

  • Add QUIC with NAT traversal as a new transport protocol. TCP remains the preferred way of connection when possible.
  • Adds automatic crash reporting.
  • Make large / variable block size the only available mode of operation
  • Versions are now named with the time of their archiving
  • The new release does not interoperate with Syncthing 0.14.45 or older

Syncthing offers official Snap package. It can be easily installed in Ubuntu 18.04 and higher via Ubuntu Software:

For Ubuntu 16.04, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to install snapd daemon first:

sudo apt-get install snapd

Then install Syncthing via command:

sudo snap install syncthing

Once installed, start it via command syncthing. Then go to localhost:8384 in web browser to setup shared folder, remote devices, and more.

For more, read the getting started guide.

Xinput-gui is a simple graphical application for Xorg’s Xinput tool, utility to configure and test X input devices.

Xinput-gui is written with Python 3 and GTK+3. It’s in early stage with basic features. For bugs, feature requests, reports to project issues page.

To install xinput-gui utility in Ubuntu 18.04 and higher:

1. Download the source tarball from the link below:

2. Then extract and select “open in terminal” from source folder context menu:

3. When terminal opens, run commands:

sudo python3 setup.py install

If everything goes OK, an executable file xinput-gui should be created in the source folder.

To launch xinput-gui utility:

To launch the tool, either run command xinput-gui when you’re in the source folder:

xinput-gui

Or run the executable file from its context menu:

The second Beta of the latest Python 3.8 was released a few days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 16.04 via PPA.

Python 3.8 new features so far include:

  • New syntax (the “walrus operator”, :=) to assign values to variables as part of an expression.
  • new syntax (/) to indicate that some function parameters must be specified positionally
  • Parallel filesystem cache for compiled bytecode files
  • Debug build uses the same ABI as release build
  • f-strings now support = for quick and easy debugging
  • new C API to configure the Python Initialization
  • Added the “vectorcall” protocol to the Python/C API.
  • Pickle protocol 5 with out-of-band data buffers

How to Install Python 3.8 in Ubuntu:

The deadsnakes team PPA is maintaining most recent packages for current two Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

1. Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa

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

2. Then check updates and install Python 3.8 via 2 commands:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install python3.8

Once installed, check via command python3.8 --version

Uninstall:

You can run command in terminal to purge the PPA which also remove the installed 3.8 packages:

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

Code 1.36, the June 2019 release of Visual Studio Code, was released. The new release has updated to Electron 4.x, means it will no longer run on Linux 32-bit.

VS Code 1.36 release highlights:

  • Context menu for the status bar to hide / show individual entries.
  • Indent guides now available in File Explorer, Search view, Debug views, etc.
  • Select Default Shell command for Mac OS and Linux.
  • Control the order of task and subtask execution.
  • New debug command Jump to Cursor
  • New setting controls whether word wrap is enabled in the Debug Console.
  • New Java installer.
  • New extension integrates JS/TS nightly builds.
  • Remote Development (Preview) improvements

How to Install VS Code 1.36 in Ubuntu:

You can either download and click install the Ubuntu .deb from VS code website:

Or install the official Snap (containerized software package) from Ubuntu Software:

For Ubuntu 16.04, the snap package is not integrated into Ubuntu Software.

Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to install snapd first:

sudo apt-get install snapd

Then install the VS Code IDE via command:

sudo snap install code --classic

Uninstall:

Depends on your system edition, remove VS Code either via Software Center or run command in terminal:

sudo snap remove code

This quick tutorial shows how to enable hot corners in Ubuntu 18.04 and higher Gnome shell.

While Gnome Tweaks provides only option to enable top-left hot corner (Activities overview), users can enable more hot corners in Gnome desktop via an extension called ‘Custom Hot Corners’.

The extension enables multi-monitor hot corners with actions including Toggle overview, Show desktop, Show applications, and custom command.

To install the extension, simply open Ubuntu Software, search for and install ‘custom hot corners’

Then you can bring up the configuration page via Gnome Tweaks (install it via Ubuntu Software) -> Extensions page.

In addition, wmctrl is required for ‘Show desktop’ action. Simply open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T and run command to install the library:

sudo apt install wmctrl

That’s it. Enjoy!

Deadbeef audio player 1.8.1 was released a few days ago with various bug-fixes and performance improvements for the 1.8 series.

Deadbeef 1.8.1 release highlights:

  • Fixed audio freeze while sorting
  • Fixed error messages when loading PLS playlist with relative paths
  • Removed the unmaintained sndio plugin
  • Added experimental subgrouping support in playlist
  • Added new title formatting functions $stripprefix and $swapprefix
  • Updated Repeat and Shuffle hotkey names to match the menus
  • Fixed rounding bug of total playtime in statusbar
  • Added FLAC plugin option to ignore corrupted stream errors
  • Fixed reloading replaygain info
  • Fixed writing replaygain info to APEv2 tags
  • And many other bug-fixes, see the release note for details.

How to Install DeaDBeeF 1.8.1 in Ubuntu:

The new release package is available to install in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.04 via PPA repository.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:starws-box/deadbeef-player

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

2. Then refresh system package cache and install deadbeef via following 2 commands:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install deadbeef

Once installed, open the player from your system application menu and enjoy!

Uninstall:

To remove the music player, open terminal and run command:

sudo apt remove --auto-remove deadbeef

And remove the PPA via Software & Updates -> Other Software.

For Ubuntu 18.04 and higher users with multiple monitors, Hydrapaper is a GTK utility allows to set different background wallpaper for each monitor in Gnome 3, MATE, or Budgie desktop.

The utility uses Pillow to create a single image merging all of your chosen wallpapers and setting it as your wallpaper with the “Spanned” option.

Hydrapaper can be installed in Ubuntu 18.04 and higher via Flatpak (Containerized software package). Open terminal either from application menu or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T. When it opens, do:

1. Run command to install Flatpak deamon first:

sudo apt-get install flatpak

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

2. Then add Flathub repository via command:

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

3. Finally install the utility via command:

flatpak install flathub org.gabmus.hydrapaper

Like normal software package, open Hydrapaper from application menu once successfully installed on your system.

To uninstall the utility, run command in terminal:

flatpak uninstall org.gabmus.hydrapaper