UbuntuHandbook

GNU Emacs 29.3 Released with Emergency Bug Fixes [Ubuntu PPA]

Last updated: March 26, 2024 — Leave a comment

GNU Emacs editor released new 29.3 as an emergency bug-fix release this Sunday.

The new release intended to fix several security vulnerabilities described below:

Arbitrary Lisp code is no longer evaluated as part of turning on Org mode. This is for security reasons, to avoid evaluating malicious Lisp code.
New buffer-local variable ‘untrusted-content’. When this is non-nil, Lisp programs should treat buffer contents with extra caution.
Gnus now treats inline MIME contents as untrusted. To get back previous insecure behavior, ‘untrusted-content’ should be reset to nil in the buffer.
LaTeX preview is now by default disabled for email attachments. To get back previous insecure behavior, set the variable org--latex-preview-when-risky to a non-nil value.
Org mode now considers contents of remote files to be untrusted. Remote files are recognized by calling file-remote-p.

In News Emacs

Dash to Panel Updates with GNOME 46 Support

Last updated: March 26, 2024 — Leave a comment

Dash-to-panel, the popular GNOME Shell Extension, got a update few days ago with the latest GNOME 46 support.

For those who don’t know about dash-to-panel, it’s a free open-source extension for GNOME, which replaces the default panel and dock with a single bottom bar. Along with ArcMenu, user can easily customize the desktop to Windows 10 or Windows 11 style layout.

Ubuntu 24.04 with Dash to panel and ArcMenu

In News Gnome

2 Apps to Play Ambient Noise in Ubuntu 24.04 & 22.04

Last updated: March 26, 2024 — Leave a comment

Want to play some soothing sounds in your Linux Desktop? Here are 2 applications can do the job in current Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 24.04.

To improve focus and increase your productivity, or easy to fall asleep, there are a few applications can help by playing natural sounds in Linux.

1. Relaxator

In Howtos Ambient Noise

How to Fix Python Pip Install Error in Ubuntu 24.04

Last updated: March 26, 2024 — 1 Comment

When using pip command to install a Python package in Ubuntu 24.04 will output “error: externally-managed-environment“. Here are a few workarounds to ‘fix’ the issue.

As the terminal output shows you, it’s the change due to PEP 668. Since Ubuntu 23.04, it recommends Python-specific package management tools (e.g., pip) to install packages using a virtual environment, to avoid conflicts to packages installed by OS package managers. Though, user can still force pip to install into interpreter’s global context just like before.

In Howtos python

Kooha Screen Recorder 2.3.0 Has Better Area Recording Support

Last updated: March 25, 2024 — Leave a comment

Kooha, the small free open-source screen recording app, release new 2.3.0 version a few days ago.

Kooha is one of the first apps support Wayland, the default display server in recent Ubuntu and Fedora workstation releases. Since GNOME’s built-in screenshot/screencast tool does not support recording audio, it is a good alternative to record full screen or rectangular area with microphone and desktop audio support. And, it can record your desktop screen into WebM, MP4, GIF, and Matroska formats.

In last 2.2.x release series, Kooha added new area selection UI for better Wayland support. In the new 2.3.0 release, the area selection window now is resizable, so you can have a bigger view when selecting recording area. And, previous selected area is now remembered to make it easy to redo recording last area.

Kooha Area Selection Window

In News video recording

GNOME Considers Adding New Core Audio Player App

Last updated: March 24, 2024 — Leave a comment

GNOME Desktop considers adding a new core application for audio playback!

It’s Decibels, a basic free open-source audio player that is supposed to fill the gap of GNOME currently not having a Core app that is designed to open single audio files.

The app has a stupid simple user interface that works in both Linux Desktop and Mobile devices. It features:

Shows the waveform of the track
Adjust playback speed from 0.5x to 3.0x.
Easy seek controls – pause, play, skip back/forward 10s, volume up/down.

In News Audio, Gnome

[Quick Fix] Enlightenment Xorg Session is Missing in Ubuntu 24.04

Last updated: March 23, 2024 — Leave a comment

After installed Enlightenment desktop in Ubuntu 24.04, the classic Xorg session is missing from the login screen. And, here’s a quick fix for it.

Enlightenment released version 0.26.0 last year with experimental Wayland session support. Which is however missing the Xorg session in the login screen due to bug.

Why the Enlightenment Xorg Session is missing

Ubuntu now finds the desktop sessions from both /usr/share/wayland-sessions/ and /usr/share/xsessions/ directories. And, the former one has higher priority!

Enlightenment 0.26.0 installs its session entries in both directories with same name. In the case, only the one for Wayland is in active, while another for Xorg is ignored and hidden from login screen.

Ubuntu 24.04 missing Enlightenment on Xorg

In Howtos Enlightenment

Get Rid of thunderbird.tmp in Ubuntu 24.04 Downloads Folder

Last updated: March 23, 2024 — 2 Comments

For Thunderbird users, there will be a thunderbird.tmp sub-folder in Downloads in Ubuntu 24.04. Here are the workarounds to get rid of it!

As you may know, the Thunderbird package in Ubuntu 24.04 is a Snap package that runs in sandbox! Due to this switch, the “thunderbird.tmp” sub-folder will be created on every launch (even after you deleted it) of the email client, in user’s Downloads folder.

According to this discussion page:

“This is a tmp dir to store files you choose to open directly from Thunderbird. The snap can’t use the usual (insecure) /tmp location so had to choose something widely available so other apps can open the files if chosen.“

In Howtos email client, thunderbird

How to Install Thunderbird as DEB (Not Snap) in Ubuntu 24.04

Last updated: October 24, 2024 — 23 Comments

For Thunderbird users who don’t like Snap package, here’s step by step guide shows how to replace the pre-installed snap version of the mail client with classic Deb package in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

Like Firefox, the Thunderbird Email Client in Ubuntu 24.04 has been replaced as Snap package that runs in sandbox! If you don’t like the change, then here are 2 other choices:

Mozilla Team PPA
Mozilla’s official Linux Tarball.

In Howtos email client, thunderbird

Install & Setup Veyon Classroom Management App in Ubuntu 22.04

Last updated: March 21, 2024 — Leave a comment

This tutorial shows how to install and setup Veyon for classroom management in Ubuntu 22.04/20.04 and Debian 12, though it should also works in Windows 10 & 11.

Veyon is a free and open-source software for monitoring and controlling computers across multiple platforms. It supports monitoring all computers in one or multiple classrooms, view or control computers, and broadcast the teacher’s (or student’s) screen in real-time.

Besides the basic monitor, control, screen sharing features, the program also can do:

Lock student computers screen.
Power on/off, reboot student computers.
Send message, start app, open website, take screenshot, and transfer files to student computers.