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Archives For November 30, 1999

How to Install MESA 17.3.3 in Ubuntu 16.04, 17.10

Last updated: January 29, 2018

The latest MESA 3D graphics library 17.3.3 now is available in Ubuntu-X team PPA repository for Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 17.10.

MESA 17.3.3 is a bug-fix release announced a week ago. It fixed:

  • Dota crashes when switching from game to desktop
  • Compute Shader: Wrong alignment when assigning struct value to structured SSBO
  • Check if Mako templates for Python are installed

For more details, see the release note.

How to Install Mesa 17.3.3 in Ubuntu 16.04, 17.10 via PPA:

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/updates

Input your password (no visual feedback while typing) when it prompts and hit Enter.

Mesa ppa

2. Then refresh your system and install upgrades via commands:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

3. To check result, run command:

glxinfo | grep "OpenGL version"

How to Restore:

To revert back to the original Mesa 3D graphics library in Ubuntu, get into command console and run command:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/updates
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Advanced Rhythm Game StepMania 5.1 Beta Released

Last updated: January 27, 2018

StepMania icon

StepMania, free dance and rhythm game, reached first beta of new major 5.1 series a day ago.

“Due to the amount of remaining work needed, the scope of changes, and in response to feedback about difficulty with new systems: StepMania 5.1 is now going to be postponed to 5.2, and to bring some of 5.2’s less invasive and more demanded features to people we’re going to be backporting things onto 5.0 for version 5.1.”

Features planned for 5.1 include:

  • Loading songs from profiles on USB drives
  • PacDrive support
  • Updated default theme
  • Profile improvements (including switching stats XML to an SQLite database)
  • Mouse support for all platforms (may not be used in the default theme – but available for others)
  • Stencil-based masking by default instead of zbuffer masking, so masking 3D objects behaves better without resorting to render to texture.

As the first beta release it brings following changes:

  • A new high-resolution (720P) default theme: Lambda
  • The DirectInput handler for Windows now supports XInput.
  • Songs can be loaded from profiles on USB drives.(For Linux, StepMania must run as root to save USB profile scores)
  • And many other changes, see release page for details.

StepMania 5.0.6 in Ubuntu 14.10

How to Install StepMania 5.1 Beta in Ubuntu:

The launchpad build farm is kinda busy, my unofficial StepMania binaries are waiting to build for 24 hours. I’ll updated the tutorial once they are available.

UPDATE: To install StepMania 5.1 Beta in Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.10, and Ubuntu 18.04, do following steps one by one:

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/stepmania

Type in your password when it asks and hit Enter.

stepmania-ppa-1604

2. Update package index and install the game:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install stepmania

Note that minimaid disabled in Ubuntu 17.10, 18.04 due to bug. And please ignore wrong version number in game screen because I forgot to remove old patch in v5.0.12.

Uninstall:

To remove the game, simply run command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove stepmania

And remove the PPA via “Software & Updates” utility under “Other Software” tab.

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SMPlayer 18.2 Released with YouTube Playlists Support

Last updated: January 25, 2018

SMplayer

SMPlayer 18.2, the second release of the free media player in 2018, was available one day ago with two new features.

Changes in SMPlayer 18.2 include:

  • Now it’s possible to use a priority list of preferred languages for the audio and subtitles.
  • Now there’s support for YouTube playlists. In the playlist window, click in the Load/save icon, select “Load playlist from URL” and paste the URL of the YouTube playlist.

SMPlayer with Mac skin

How to Install SMPlayer 18.2 in Ubuntu:

For Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.10, Ubuntu 18.04, and derivatives, the latest SMPlayer packages are available in the PPA repository (check the link before getting start following steps).

1. Search for and launch “terminal” from application launcher. When it opens, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rvm/smplayer

Input your password (no visual feedback while typing) when it asks and hit Enter.

Smplayer PPA

2. Then upgrade SMPlayer using Software Updater (or Update Manager):

upgrade smplayer

or run commands in terminal to install (or upgrade) the media player:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install smplayer smtube smplayer-themes

Uninstall:

To remove SMPlayer, run command in terminal:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove smplayer smtube smplayer-*

And remove the PPA via “Software & Updates” utility under Other Software tab.

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Mozilla Firefox 58 Released! How to Upgrade

Last updated: January 24, 2018

Firefox 55

Mozilla Firefox reached new stable 58.0 release hours ago. Ubuntu Mozilla team has built the packages for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu16.04, Ubuntu 17.10, and their derivatives.

Changes in Firefox 58.0 include:

  • Loading pages faster by changing how Firefox caches and retrieves JavaScript
  • Rendering graphics for Windows users by using Off-Main-Thread Painting (OMTP)
  • Firefox Screenshots now works in Private Browsing mode
  • Copy and paste screenshots directly to your clipboard
  • Add support for Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) in Firefox on Android.
  • Added Nepali (ne-NP) locale
  • Read the release note for more details.

Upgrade to Firefox 58 in Ubuntu:

For Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, and Ubuntu 17.10, simply launch Software Updater (Update Manager) and you’ll see Firefox in the update list after checking for updates.

upgrade firefox

If you don’t see the Firefox update, make sure “security” and “updates” repositories are enabled by Software & Updates utility:

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Quick Tip: No Sound from HDMI Display / TV

Last updated: January 21, 2018

My laptop display was broken last night by accident. Now I connect my Ubuntu laptop to home TV using a HDMI cable for temporary use.

However, there’s no sound output from HDMI device (TV in my case) by default. So here’s the quick tutorial show you how.

1. Open terminal either via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching for “terminal” from application launcher. When it opens, run command:

alsamixer

Then you’ll see something similar in following picture:

Here you need to make sure S/PDIF, S/PDIF 1, S/PDIF 2 are no muted.

  • use Left/Right keys to choose item.
  • press M to mute/unmute (00 means unmuted)

2. If sound is not muted via sound card mixer, launch “System Settings” and go to “Sound”:

Select HDMI device as sound output and unmute output volume.

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How to Install Wireshark 2.4.4 in Ubuntu 17.10, 16.04

Last updated: January 20, 2018

wireshark

Wireshark network analyzer 2.4.4 was released a week ago. Now it’s finally available in PPA repository for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.10.

Wireshark 2.4.4 is a small release with mainly bug-fixes and updated protocol support. Bug-fixes in the release include:

  • Multiple dissectors could crash.
  • The IxVeriWave file parser could crash.
  • The WCP dissector could crash.
  • Disabled the Linux kernel’s BPF JIT compiler due to security vulnerable.
  • Some keyboard shortcut mix-up has been resolved
  • Remote interfaces are not saved.
  • Wireshark & Tshark 2.4.2 core dumps with segmentation fault.
  • SSH remote capture promiscuous mode.
  • For more, see the release note.

How to Install Wireshark 2.4.3 in Ubuntu:

Wireshark has a stable PPA with the latest packages for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, and Ubuntu 17.10.

1. To add the PPA, open terminal from Unity Dash / App Launcher, or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut keys, and then run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wireshark-dev/stable

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

wireshark-official-ppa

2. For those who have a previous release installed, launch Software Updater (or Update Manager) to upgrade it to the latest:

upgrade wireshark

Or run the commands below in terminal to install / upgrade wireshark:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install wireshark

How to restore:

To restore to the stock version of Wireshark in Ubuntu main repositories, purge the PPA via ppa-purge tool:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:wireshark-dev/stable
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Wine 3.0 Released with Direct3D 10 and 11 Support

Last updated: January 25, 2019

Wine Stable

The Wine team announced the new stable release Wine 3.0 a day ago a large number of improvements and following great changes:

  • Direct3D 10 and 11 support.
  • The Direct3D command stream.
  • The Android graphics driver.
  • Improved DirectWrite and Direct2D support.

“because of the annual release schedule, a number of features that are being worked on have been deferred to the next development cycle. This includes in particular Direct3D 12 and Vulkan support, as well as OpenGL ES support to enable Direct3D on Android.”, the Wine team announced.

For detailed changes, read the announcement.

Wine running windows app in Linux

How to Install Wine 3.0 in Ubuntu:

Wine has an official apt repository contains packages for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.10.

Wine 3.0 binary packages are in the process of being built. Once it’s published in apt repository, do following steps to install it:

1. Open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching it from app launcher. When it opens, run command to add the repository key:

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

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

2. Add wine repository via command:

sudo apt-add-repository https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/

For Linux Mint 18.x, use following command instead (replace xenial with trusty for 17.x):

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

3. Finally check updates and install wine stable packages:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install --install-recommends winehq-stable

NOTE: If you get the unmet dependencies issue while installing Wine 3.0, try aptitude instead via command:

sudo aptitude install winehq-stable

The command tells you which packages broke the installation. This usually caused by wrong dependency versions. You can then manually fix the dependencies via Synaptic package manager.

For more details, see the official documentation.

Uninstall:

To remove wine-stable package, run command in terminal:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove wine-stable wine-stable-amd64

To remove Wine repository, launch Software & Updates utility and navigate to Other Software tab.

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PyRadio – Command Line Internet Radio Player for Ubuntu

Last updated: January 18, 2018

PyRadio is an open-source curses based internet radio player that runs in command console. The software is implemented in Python, and uses mplayer or VLC for media playback.

The community has recently made the snap package for PyRadio to make it easy to install the tool in Ubuntu 16.04 and higher either via Ubuntu Software:

or by running command in terminal:

snap install pyradio

Since snap app contains most required libraries and dependencies, the installation file is kinda large.

To start the radio player, run command:

pyradio --play

And here are keyboard shortcuts:

  • Up/Down/j/k/PgUp/PgDown Change station selection
  • Enter Play selected station
  • -/+ Change volume
  • m Mute
  • r Select and play a random station
  • g Jump to first station
  • <n>G Jump to n-th station
  • Space Stop/start playing selected station
  • Esc/q Quit
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MKVToolNix 20.0.0 Released with mkvinfo Rewritten

Last updated: January 4, 2019

MKVToolNix, free and open-source Matroska software, reached 20.0.0 release a day ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.10.

MKVToolNix 20.0.0 fixed quite a number of bugs in mkvmerge, and removed those options and features deprecated a year ago. An important change was the near complete rewrite of mkvinfo’s internals.

Important notes in the announcement:

  • Feature removal: several deprecated features have been removed:
    • mkvmerge: the deprecated options --identify-verbose (and its counterpart -I), --identify-for-gui, --identify-for-mmg and --identification-format verbose-text
    • support for the deprecated, old, proprietary format used for option files
    • support for passing command line options via the deprecated environment variables MKVTOOLNIX_OPTIONS, MKVEXTRACT_OPTIONS, MKVINFO_OPTIONS, MKVMERGE_OPTIONS and MKVPROPEDIT_OPTIONS
  • mkvinfo: most of its code was re-written in order to lay the groundwork for including its functionality in MKVToolNix GUI but with more features than the existing mkvinfo GUI. Changes include but aren’t limited to:
    • Several element names are a bit clearer (e.g. Maximum cache instead of MaxCache).
    • All timestamps and durations are now output as nanoseconds in formatted form (e.g. 01:23:45.67890123). All additional formats (e.g. floating point numbers output in seconds or milliseconds) were removed.
    • Element names for chapters and tags are now translated if a translation is available.
    • Elements located in wrong positions within the Matroska document are handled better.

How to Install MKVToolNix 20.0.0 in Ubuntu:

The official apt repository offers the latest packages for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04, Ubuntu 17.10 so far.

Open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching it from app launcher. When it opens, do following steps:

1. Run command to add the repository:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb https://mkvtoolnix.download/ubuntu/ $(lsb_release -sc) main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bunkus.org.list'

Replace $(lsb_release -sc) with xenial for Linux Mint 18.x. And input your password (no visual feedback while typing) when it prompts and hit Enter.

2. Then install the key:

wget -q -O - https://mkvtoolnix.download/gpg-pub-moritzbunkus.txt | sudo apt-key add -

3. Finally either upgrade the software via Software Updater (Update Manager):

or run command to install the software packages:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install mkvtoolnix mkvtoolnix-gui

Uninstall:

To remove the repository, launch Software & Updates utility and navigate to Other Software tab.

To remove MKVToolNix, use Synaptic Package Manager or run following command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove mkvtoolnix mkvtoolnix-gui
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How to Install KXStitch 2.1.0 in Ubuntu 18.04, 17.10, 16.04

Last updated: January 15, 2018

Kxstitch cross stitch

KXStitch 2.1.0, free and open-source cross stitch pattern software, was released a day ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu via PPA.

KXStitch is a cross stitch pattern editor by KDE. The software features:

  • Importing images
  • Multiple floss palettes
  • Multiple stitch types
  • Pattern libraries
  • Reads PCStitch files
  • Flexible printing options

The latest KXStitch 2.1.0 was released silently. No announcement, no changelog. If you want to know what changed, look over the project commits on github page.

KX Stitch PPA for Ubuntu

How to Install KXStitch 2.1.0 in Ubuntu:

For Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.10, Ubuntu 18.04 users, it can be easily installed via the unofficial PPA.

1. Open terminal either via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching for ‘terminal’ from app launcher. When it opens, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/kxstitch

Input your password (no visual feedback while typing) when it prompts and hit Enter to add the PPA.

2. Then check updates and install the software either via Synaptic Package Manager or by running commands:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install kxstitch

Uninstall:

To remove KXStitch cross stitch software, either use Synaptic or run command in terminal:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove kxstitch

The PPA can be removed via “Software & Updates” utility under “Other Software” tab.

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