Ability to develop apps with Kotlin, a newer programming language designed to interoperate with existing Java code
An SDK for creating Instant Apps
New templates for Android Things applications, XML and downloadable fonts for Android 8.0 and higher
A new wizard for creating adaptive icons.
Android Plugin for Gradle 3.0.0 with significant performance improvements to large multi-module projects.
Ability to create Android 8.0 emulators with the Google Play Store pre-installed
How to Install Android Studio 3.0 in Ubuntu:
You can easily install it either via Maarten Fonville’s PPA or by using Ubuntu Make in Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04, and Ubuntu 17.10.
The Maarten Fonville’s PPA contains installer script that automatically downloads Linux package from Google, and installs it into /opt/ for global use.
1. Open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T and run command to add the PPA:
To install Android Studio 3.0 via Ubuntu Make, you need to first install the latest Ubuntu Make from this PPA. Then run command to install the IDE after accepting license.
RetroArch now has official snap packages to make it easy to install it in 64-bit and/or armhf versions of Ubuntu 16.04 and higher.
RetroArch is a front-end for emulators, game engines and media players that designed to be fast, lightweight, portable and without dependencies.
It enables you to run classic games on a wide range of computers and consoles through its slick graphical interface. Settings are also unified so configuration is done once and for all.
RetroArch has advanced features like shaders, netplay, rewinding, and more!
The Libretro Team announced the snap packages for RetroArch, so you can easily install it in Ubuntu Software Center (need login)
or open terminal and run a single command:
sudo snap install retroarch
Input your password (no visual feedback while typing) when it prompts and hit Enter.
Once installed, open it from application launcher and enjoy!
Uninstall:
To remove the snap package, either use Ubuntu Software app, or run command:
sudo snap remove retroarch
In addition, for those who prefer traditional .deb packages, a stable PPA is available with RetroArch packages for all current Ubuntu releases.
This simple tutorial shows how to enable ‘minimize on click’, minimize running app window when clicking on its icon on the left dock panel.
All the opened app icons are docked on the left panel in Ubuntu GNOME desktop. Unlike Windows, it however does not minimize focused app when you click its icon on the dock. And, neither “System Setting” nor “Gnome Tweaks” has option to enable this action.
Since the Ubuntu dock is handled by the dash-to-dock extension, it does have the option to enable the feature. All current Ubuntu releases, including Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 24.04, can enable this feature via following steps.
Single command to enable ‘Minimize on click’:
The dash-to-dock Gnome extension in Ubuntu is called ‘Ubuntu Dock’. As the built-in extension, it does not provide settings page in ‘Gnome Extensions’ app. However, users may run single command to change its options one by one.
Firstly, either search for and open terminal from ‘Activities’ overview or press Ctrl+Alt+T key combination on keyboard. When terminal opens, run command:
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock click-action minimize
After that, click on dock icon to open or focus an app, and click again to see effect!
Enable ‘Minimize on click’ via Extension Manager (Graphical Tool):
In Ubuntu 24.04, user can first launch App Center, then search for and install the Extension Manager tool.
Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu Software/App Center
Then, launch “Extension Manager” and click the setting icon for “Ubuntu Dock” extension to open its preferences dialog.
In next pop-up dialog, you’ll see lots of options to configure the left dock panel. There, navigate to “Behavior” tab and set “Click action” to minimize, will do the trick enabling click app icon to minimize its window.
Enable ‘Minimize on click’ via Dconf Editor (Graphical Tool):
For those hate Linux command, the advanced “Dconf Editor” configuration tool is present to do the trick.
1.) Firstly, search for and install ‘dconf editor’ via Ubuntu Software if you don’t have it.
2.) Next, search for and open the tool from the upper-left Activities overview, and then navigate to org -> gnome -> shell -> extensions -> dash-to-dock.
Then scroll down and find out settings for ‘click-action’, and do:
click the line to go into its configuration page.
turn off the default value switch.
select ‘minimize’ as Custom value.
You may also set the value to ‘minimize-or-overview’, which will go to overview screen if more than one windows of the same app are opened; or ‘minimize-or-previews’ that opens thumbnail preview if multiple app instances exist.
This quick tutorial is going to show beginners how to install and manage Gnome Shell Extensions in Ubuntu 17.10 while it uses Gnome Shell as default desktop environment.
Gnome Shell Extensions are small pieces of code written by third party developers. If you are familiar with Chrome Extensions or Firefox Addons, GNOME Shell extensions are similar to them.
How to Install Gnome Shell Extensions
Gnome maintains a website, extensions.gnome.org, for users to install or upgrade extensions. All extensions there are carefully reviewed for malicious behavior before they are made available for download.
To be able to install Gnome Shell Extensions in Ubuntu 17.10, do following steps:
Due to legal reasons, Ubuntu does NOT include multi-media codecs out-of-the-box for audio and video playback. It’s however easy to install them via a single command.
During the Ubuntu installing process, it provides an option “Install third party software for graphics and Wi-Fi hardware and additional media formats” in the wizard. If you didn’t enable it, Ubuntu refuses to play movie and sound via the default Totem media player and Rhythmbox music player.
Without installing third-party player with bundled codecs, you can simply install the ubuntu-restricted-extras package to fix the issue. The package does not contain anything, but tells to install the following packages for you:
ttf-mscorefonts-installer – Install Microsoft TrueType core fonts.
unrar – non-free package enables ability to extract rar package in Ubuntu.
libavcodec-extra – FFmpeg library with encoder / decoder for audio and video codecs.
chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra – FFmpeg codecs for Chromium based web browser.
And a few gstreamer1.0 plugins for audio / video playback, recording and editing.
How to Install Media Codecs in Ubuntu:
Firstly, open a terminal window either by searching from the ‘Activities‘ overview screen or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard.
When terminal opens, copy and paste the command below into it and hit Enter:
1. Open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or from application launcher. Remove old Virtualbox via command:
sudo apt-get remove virtualbox virtualbox-5.1
2. Download & install the latest Virtualbox package from the link below:
3. If you’ve added the Oracle VBox repository, you can directly install the 5.2 release from Synaptic Package Manager or via apt command, after removing the old version.
To add the repository, do:
Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to add the repository:
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian xenial contrib" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list'
Depends your Ubuntu edition, replace xenial (for Ubuntu 16.04) with trusty (for 14.04, Mint 17.x, eOS 0.3), or zesty (for Ubuntu 17.04).
Setup the keyring so to trust the updates from the repository:
Ubuntu 17.10 Artful Aardvark will be released soon today. Here’s how you can upgrade from the Ubuntu 17.04 desktop.
Ubuntu 17.10 replaces Unity with Gnome Shell as its default desktop environment. It’s powered by 4.13 Kernel and runs Gnome on Wayland by default. Xorg is also available for choice.
A fresh install of Ubuntu 17.10 is recommended. But for those who want to upgrade from Ubuntu 17.04, do:
1. First is always backup your important data, bookmarks, and other user documents.
2. Launch Software & Updates utility from application launcher,
in first tab, choose “Download from” Main server
in Other Software tab, remove/disable all third-party repositories.
in Additional Drivers tab, choose an open-source driver if a proprietary one is in use.
3. Remove other desktop environments (KDE, Cinnamon, etc). Upgrading desktop packages may take a few more minutes in the upgrading process.
4. Make you system up-to-date by running command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
5. Finally launch Software Updater to get the upgrade option. Or run following command (-d is required before it’s officially announced):
sudo update-manager -d
Click the Upgrade button and confirm in the next release note dialog to start the upgrading wizard.
Note: while the upgrading process, you need a few clicks to confirm installing or removing some packages.
The latest release of Mesa graphics library 17.2.2 is now available for users of Ubuntu 16.04 to install via PPA.
Mesa 17.2.2 is a bug-fix release for the 17.2 series. It was released two weeks ago and finally available in the “Ubuntu-X” team PPA for Ubuntu 16.04.
Mesa 17.2 contains many RADV/ANV Vulkan driver improvements, Vulkan and OpenGL performance improvements, more work towards OpenGL 4.6 compliance, and a wealth of other open-source driver improvements.
How to Install Mesa 17.2.2 in Ubuntu 16.04 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.
2. Then refresh your system and install upgrades via commands:
HPLIP, an open-source HP developed Linux drivers for HP printers, has reached the 3.17.10 release. Two new scanners and Debian 9.1 are supported in the release.
New scanners supported in HPLIP 3.17.10:
HP Scanjet Enterprise Flow N9120 fn2 Document Scanner
HP Digital Sender Flow 8500 fn2 Document Capture Workstation
Download / Install HPLIP 3.17.10:
To install the software, download the package “hplip-3.17.10.run” from the link below:
Then open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or search for “terminal” from app launcher. When it opens, run command:
cd ~/Downloads/ && chmod +x hplip-3.17.10.run && ./hplip-3.17.10.run
Input your password (no visual feedback while typing) when it prompts and hit Enter.
Then follow the terminal outputs, answer some questions to build and install HPLIP on your system. When everything is done, plug/re-plug your printers and enjoy!
