UbuntuHandbook

IntelliJ IDEA 2017.2.3 Available for Download [Ubuntu PPA]

Last updated: August 30, 2017

JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA 2017.2.3 was release one day ago with some new features, usability improvements, and numerous bug-fixes.

According to the release note, IntelliJ IDEA 2017.2.3 fixed bugs and improved usability to SQL database, docker, UML, CSS modules, JavaScript, and more.

Download / Install IntelliJ IDEA 2017.2.3:

The official source tarballs (non-install) are available for download at the link below:

Just extract and run executable file to launch the IDE.

An unofficial PPA is also available which contains an install script that automatically:

downloads the official source tarball via wget.
extracts to /opt/ for global use.
installs icon and application shortcut for Ubuntu integration.

1. To add the PPA, open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T and run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

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

2. Then check updates and install the script:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install intellij-idea-community

For the ultimate edition, use intellij-idea-ultimate in the last command.

For those who don’t want to add PPA, grab the .deb package directly from PPA packages page.

Uninstall:

To uninstall IntelliJ IDEA installed via the script in PPA, run command:

sudo apt-get remove intellij-idea-community intellij-idea-ultimate

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

In Howtos, News IntelliJ IDEA, java

How to Install Budgie Desktop 10.4 in Ubuntu 16.04, 17.04

Last updated: August 29, 2017

Budgie Desktop 10.4 for Ubuntu and Debian users was released earlier today. It has been made into main repositories of Ubuntu 17.10. And here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04 via PPA.

Budgie 10.4 is considered a major release on our 10.x series, with significant improvements to applets, panels, and personalization of Budgie. This release also introduces polish to Alt+Tab, animations, and Budgie Menu!

Budgie 10.4 features:

maximize and unmaximize animations for applications.
Alt+Tab switcher now prefer the theme icon instead of the X11 icon
New ‘Night Light’ applet which can help reduce eye strain
Places indicator, workspace applet, and other applet improvements.
Searching in App Launcher has been completely overhauled.
vertical panels can be set on the left or right.
Budgie panel now has dock mode.
Budgie Settings now is a dedicated application
See other more changes in the release note.

How to Install Budgie 10.4 in Ubuntu via PPA:

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

For Ubuntu 16.04, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:budgie-remix/ppa

For Ubuntu 17.04, use another PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntubudgie/backports

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

2. Then check updates and install budgie desktop 10.4 via commands:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install budgie-desktop

Once installed, log out and select login with Budgie Desktop session:

Uninstall:

To remove Budgie desktop, run command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove budgie-desktop budgie-indicator-applet

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

In Howtos, News budgie desktop, Ubuntu Budgie

uGet 2.0.10 Released, How to Install it in Ubuntu 16.04 & Higher

Last updated: August 27, 2017

uGet download manager has reached a new stable 2.0.10 release a few days ago. The uGet team now is working on a brand new website and a new support system.

uGet 2.0.10 only gets a few changes. They are:

User can use sorting in any category and status.
curl plug-in: It can use ftruncate() to create large file.
Fix: uGet doesn’t close File Descriptor when saving config file.
add translation files.

How to Install uGet 2.0.10 in Ubuntu 14.04, 16.04, 17.04

The official uGet PPA dropped support for Ubuntu 12.04. So far, it provides the latest packages for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04, Ubuntu 17.10, and their derivatives.

1. Open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or from app launcher, and then run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:plushuang-tw/uget-stable

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

2. Then upgrade the download manager from an existing release via Software Updater:

or you can run following 2 commands to check updates and install / upgrade uGet:

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install uget

How to Remove:

Run following command in terminal will remove the PPA and also downgrade to the stock version of uGet in your Ubuntu system:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:plushuang-tw/uget-stable

If you want to remove uGet download manager, simply search for and remove it via “Ubuntu Software” utility.

In Howtos uget, uGet download manager

GIMP 2.9.6 Release, How to Install it in Ubuntu 16.04

Last updated: August 25, 2017

The development version of GIMP image editor reached the 2.9.6 release a day ago.

As pre-release for the next major GIMP 2.10, here’s how you can install and test the 2.9.x series in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04, Ubuntu 17.10, and their derivatives.

GIMP 2.9.6 release highlights:

It’s now multi-threaded for modern processors
Better Hi-DPI support
Better Adobe PSD file support
Metadata Viewing and Editing
Several new filters
Crop presets (2×3, 3×4, 16:10, 16:9, square)
And see the release note for more.

How to Install GIMP 2.9.x in Ubuntu:

There’s a PPA repository contains the latest development GIMP packages for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04, and Ubuntu 17.10.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp-edge

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

2. Then upgrade GIMP from an existing release via Software Updater utility:

or simply run commands to check updates and install GIMP:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install gimp

How to Restore:

You can easily restore GIMP image editor to the stock version (distribution build) in your Ubuntu by purging the PPA via command:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp-edge

And if you want to re-install the latest stable GIMP (2.8.22 so far), see this tutorial after purging the previous PPA.

In Howtos, News gimp, GIMP 2.10, GIMP 2.9

Kodi 17.4 Released! How to Install it in Ubuntu

Last updated: August 24, 2017

Kodi media center, formerly known as XBMC, reached the 17.4 release a few days ago with a bunch of bug-fixes. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04, and their derivatives.

Changes in Kodi 17.4 include:

Potentially fix crashing on Windows due to an issue in Python
Potentially fix crashing on Windows when enabling zeroconf
Fix sporadic crash on Windows when installing or updating add-ons
Fix issue for users with reverse proxies attempting to forward websockets.
Fix possible issue if Linux distro uses system ffmpeg and cause black screen with 10-bit H.265
Properly throttle scraping music information online to prevent overloading the provider
Fix native keyboard on iOS 11
Fix potential crash on Android O loading App icons
Fix non showing Kodi banner on Android O
Fix potential crash on Android with certain keymaps
Fix wrong detection of VP6 and VP8 videocodec on Android
Update FFmpeg to 3.1.9
Set hard requirement to use FFmpeg 3.1.x only
Fix for Hangup when viewing recording and pressing next/previous
Fix merged scraped album type and label correctly with that derived from tags from music files
Fix possible crash on Linux when using ALSA
Save skin settings immediatly after they have changed instead of only on shutdown

How to Install Kodi 17.4 in Ubuntu:

Kodi has an official PPA that contains the latest packages for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, and Ubuntu 17.04.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc/ppa

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

2. For those who have previous release installed, upgrade the media center via Software Updater:

or run commands to check updates and install kodi:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install kodi

Once installed, log out and log in back with Kodi session, or launch Kodi from Unity Dash, Gnome app launcher, or other app launcher.

Uninstall:

Run command to purge the PPA which also downgrade Kodi to its stock version in your Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:team-xbmc/ppa

To remove kodi, either use your system package manager or run command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove kodi

In Howtos, News Kodi, XBMC media center

Audacious 3.9 Released! How to Install it in Ubuntu

Last updated: August 22, 2017

Audacious audio player reached 3.9 release a few days ago with many new features, Qt UI enhancements, usability improvements, and various bug-fixes.

Audacious 3.9 release highlights:

New ‘View’ menu and additional options in Settings.
Full drag-and-drop capability for playlist entries
Configurable playlist columns (add, remove, resize, and rearrange)
New controls for stream recording
Improved playlist search bar, which hides until Control+F is pressed.
Integrated menu items and keyboard shortcuts for the Playlist Manager and Search Tool
Better high-DPI support and many other cosmetic fixes
audtool gains better support for multiple playlists with the --select-displayed and --select-playing commands
Recursive adding of folders specified in M3U playlists
See the release note for details.

Audacious GTK and Winamp like interface

How to Install Audacious 3.9 in Ubuntu:

The Webupd8Team PPA has made the packages for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04, Ubuntu 17.10, Linux Mint 18.x, and derivatives.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8

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

2. Upgrade Audacious via Software Updater (Update Manager) if you have a previous release installed:

Or run following commands one by one to check updates and install the audio player:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install audacious audacious-plugins

Uninstall:

You can restore the Audacious music player to its stock version in your Ubuntu by puring the PPA via command:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8

You can then remove the audio player as you want via Ubuntu Software utility.

In Howtos, News audacious, music player

MKVToolNix Reached 15.0.0 Release, How to Install it in Ubuntu

Last updated: June 17, 2018

MKVToolNix, a set of Matroska tools for Windows and Linux, has now reached the 15.0.0 release with improved support for new track header elements and a couple of bug-fixes.

MKVToolNix 15.0.0 release highlights:

Add “Set destination file name from selected file’s name” option to the “source files” context menu for multiplex tool.
Add “Only use the first source file that contains a video track” option in the preferences on “Multiplexer” → “Output”.
Ctrl+Up/Down keys to move up/down selected jobs
Add support for the “video projection” track header attributes for the GUI, mkvmerge, mkvinfo, and mkvpropedit.
Add support for editing the video colour attributes for the GUI and mkvpropedit.
Remove the keyboard shortcuts for switching between the different tools in GUI

How to Install MKVToolNix 15.0.0 in Ubuntu:

The tool has an official Linux repository offers the latest packages for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04 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 http://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

In Howtos, News MakeMKV, mkvmerge GUI, MKVToolNix

Gscan2pdf reached 1.8.5 release with enhancements

Last updated: August 20, 2017

Gscan2pdf, a simple graphical tool to produce PDFs or DjVus from scanned documents, reached the new 1.8.5 release a day ago with some new features.

Five clicks are required to scan several pages and then save all or a selection as a PDF or DjVu file, including metadata if required.

gscan2pdf can control regular or sheet-fed (ADF) scanners with SANE via libimage-sane-perl, scanimage or scanadf, and can scan multiple pages at once. It presents a thumbnail view of scanned pages, and permits simple operations such as cropping, rotating and deleting pages.

OCR can be used to recognise text in the scans, and the output embedded in the PDF or DjVu.

PDF conversion is done by PDF::API2. The resulting document may be saved as a PDF, DjVu, multipage TIFF file, or single page image file.

Changes in gscan2pdf 1.8.5 include:

Add support for Poppler (pdftops) as postscript backend.
Remove support for libsane-perl
Reapply current scan settings for those scanners that reset them when forcing a reload
Eliminate unnecessary strings from gscan2pdf.pot to prevent unnecessary work and confusion on the part of the translators.
Add A3 to default paper sizes
Translation updates.

How to Install Gscan2pdf 1.8.5 in Ubuntu:

The developer’s PPA offers the latest packages for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04, and derivatives.

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

1. Add the PPA via command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jeffreyratcliffe/ppa

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

2. For those who have a previous release installed, upgrade it through Software Updater:

For the first time, you can either install it via Synaptic Package Manager or by running following commands in terminal:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gscan2pdf

How to Remove:

To remove gscan2pdf, either use your system package manager or run command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove gscan2pdf

And the PPA can be removed via Software & Updates utility, under Other Software tab.

In Howtos, News gscan2pdf

How to Install Avidemux 2.7.0 in Ubuntu 16.04 or 17.04

Last updated: January 14, 2018

Avidemux video editor reached the new 2.7 series a few days ago. Now you can install it in Ubuntu 16.04 and/or Ubuntu 17.04 via GetDeb repository, though there’s already an appimage available.

For the release highlights and appimage, a single executable file (non-install), see this page.

To install Avidemux 2.7, open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching for “terminal” from app launcher, and do following steps:

1. Add the GetDeb repository via command:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://archive.getdeb.net/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc)-getdeb apps" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/getdeb.list'

For Linux Mint 18.x, replace $(lsb_release -sc) directly with xenial in the command. Type in your password when prompts and hit Enter.

2. Download and install the repository key via command:

wget -q -O - http://archive.getdeb.net/getdeb-archive.key | sudo apt-key add -

3. Finally install avidemux2.6-qt either via Synaptic Package Manager:

or by running command:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install avidemux2.6-qt

It’s Avidemux 2.7 though getdeb still uses the old 2.6 package naming system.

Uninstall:

You can remove the GetDeb repository via Software & Updates utility (Other Software tab), and remove Avidemux 2.7 either via Synaptic package manage or by running command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove avidemux2.6-qt

In Howtos avidemux video editor

Install Latest Gnome Twitch 0.4.1 via Snap in Ubuntu 16.04

Last updated: August 19, 2017

Gnome Twitch, GTK+3 Twitch app for Linux desktop, now is available as Snap package in beta channel for testing.

WebUpd8 PPA is maintaining the latest Gnome Twitch app for Ubuntu, however, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS is excluded due to old system GTK+3 libraries.

Now Ubuntu 16.04 and even Ubuntu 14.04 users can easily install the latest Gnome Twitch app via snappy store, though it’s in beta stage at the moment.

1. For those who’ve never installed a snap app, install the snapd deamon first in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo apt install snapd snapd-xdg-open

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

2. Install Gnome Twitch snap app via command:

sudo snap install --beta gnome-twitch

3. And gnome environment is required. Install and connect to it via 2 commands:

sudo snap install gnome-3-24

sudo snap connect gnome-twitch:gnome-3-24-platform gnome-3-24:gnome-3-24-platform

Finally launch the app from your application launcher and enjoy! And it should automatically update itself once a new release is out and published in snappy store.

Uninstall:

To remove Gnome Twitch snap app, simply run command: