UbuntuHandbook

OpenShot 2.4.1 Available for Install via Ubuntu PPA

Last updated: November 25, 2017

OpenShot Video Editor

OpenShot video editor reached the 2.4.1 release two weeks ago. Now it’s finally available in PPA for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04.

OpenShot 2.4.1 release highlights:

Improved image quality.
Improved playback smoothness.
Improved stability (especially for Windows)
New video tutorials
Stability improvements and more. See the release note.

How to Install OpenShot 2.4.1 in Ubuntu:

The PPA does not support Ubuntu 17.10 so far. However, a 64-bit AppImage is available for download at the link below. Just download, make executable and run the file to launch OpenShot:

Download OpenShot AppImage

For traditional packages, OpenShot’s official PPA contains the .deb packages for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, and Ubuntu 17.04:

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:openshot.developers/ppa

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

2. Then upgrade the editor via “Software Updater”, if you have a previous openshot-qt package installed.

Or run commands to check updates and install / upgrade OpenShot:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install openshot-qt libopenshot*

Uninstall:

To uninstall openshot video editor, run following command in terminal:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove openshot-qt

And remove the PPA by launching “Software & Updates” and navigating to Other Software tab.

In Howtos OpenShot Video Editor, video editor

Virtualbox 5.2.2 Added Improvements to High Resolution Screens

Last updated: November 24, 2017

Virtualbox

Virtualbox 5.2.2, the first maintenance release for VBox 5.2 series, was released earlier today.

Changes in Virtualbox 5.2.2 include:

Various improvements for high resolution screens
Added functionality to duplicate optical and floppy images
Various improvements for the virtual media manager
VMM: fixed emulation so that Plan 9 guests can start once more
Storage: fixed regression breaking iSCSI
Audio: added HDA support for more exotic guests (e.g. Haiku)
Serial: fixed hanging I/O when using named pipes on Windows
Serial: fixed broken communication with certain devices on Linux hosts
USB/OHCI: improved behavior so that the controller state after a VM reset is closer to the initial state after VM start
EFI: fixed HFS+ driver which in rare cases failed to access most files on a volume
Shared clipboard: fixed hang with OS X host and Linux guest
Linux hosts/guests: fixed kernel module compilation and start failures with Linux kernel 4.14.
X11 hosts: better handle WM_CLASS setting
Linux guests: fixed various 5.2.0 regressions
Bridged networking: fixed duplicate EtherType in VLAN/priority tags on Linux.

How to Install Virtualbox 5.2.2 in Ubuntu:

1. If you’re still running with VirtualBox 5.1.x, 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:

Download VirtualBox for Linux

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 artful (for Ubuntu 17.10).

Virtualbox Official Linux repository

Setup the keyring so to trust the updates from the repository:

wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox_2016.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Finally install virtualbox 5.2 via commands:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-5.2

With the repository added, you can simply install the future 5.2 series updates via Software Updater.

In Howtos, News Virtualbox

Vivaldi Browser 1.13 Released with Improvements

Last updated: November 23, 2017

Vivaldi browser has reached the new stable 1.13 release with improvements to download and tabs functionality.

Vivaldi Browser 1.13 features:

Warning dialog if a download is incomplete
Ability to pause and resume downloads
Download speed displayed in the progress bar
Window Panel and tree-style tabs functionality

Download / Install Vivaldi Browser:

For Ubuntu, it offers the DEB package available for download at the link below:

Download Vivaldi Browser

For those who have installed a previous release, and enabled the Vivaldi Linux repository, upgrade the browser via Software Updater:

To manually add the repository, run command to edit the source file:

gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vivaldi.list

When the file opens, un-comment or add (if empty) the following line and save it:

deb http://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb/ stable main

In News Vivaldi

How to Install VLC 2.2.7 (2.2.8) in Ubuntu 16.04, 14.04

Last updated: November 22, 2017

Although they are not officially announced, VLC media player 2.2.7 (and 2.2.8 with single fix) now are available for download. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 14.04, and derivatives.

Changes in VLC 2.2.7 include:

Fix flac heap write overflow on format change
Fix crash in libavcodec module (heap write out-of band) (CVE-2017-10699)
Fix infinite loop in sami subtitle
Fix AAC 7.1 channels detection
Fix potential crash in ASX parser
Fix AVI read/write overflow
Fix compatibility with Mac OS High Sierra
Fix regression in ASS subtitle decoding for Mac OS
Fix crash during automatic update in Mac OS X. Some users might need to manually update to the newest version.
Fix Direct3D9 output with odd offsets
Fix crash in MTP
Support libupnp 1.8

And VLC 2.2.8 fixed AVI invalid pointer dereferences for demuxers.

VLC 2.2.7

Install VLC 2.2.7 in Ubuntu 16.04/14.04:

There are quite a few PPAs with VLC packages for Ubuntu. At the moment, you can install VLC 2.2.7 in Ubuntu easily via Jonathon F’s PPA.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jonathonf/vlc

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

VLC 2.2.5 PPA

2.Remove old VLC version, if you installed it from Ubuntu Software, to avoid a package conflict:

sudo apt remove --autoremove vlc vlc-nox

3. Finally run commands in terminal to check updates and install VLC 2.2.7:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install vlc

How to Restore:

To restore VLC media player to the stock version in your main Ubuntu repository, run command to purge the PPA:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:jonathonf/vlc

In Howtos, News vlc media player

Supertuxkart 0.9.3 Final Released (How to Install)

Last updated: November 20, 2017

The open source kart racing game, Supertuxkart 0.9.3, was released earlier today. The new release features in-game screen recording and Android support.

Supertuxkart 0.9.3 release highlight:

Reduced RAM and VRAM usage, reducing load times.
New mesh format optimized for space and hardware skinning
Code refactoring of both render pipelines
New karts Wilber, Hexley, Kiki and updated Konqi.
New tracks Cornfield Crossing and Candela City
Physics improvements and various physics bugfixes
Kart GFX improvements (exhaust and headlight)
In-game screen recording powered by libopenglrecorder
High quality mipmap generation by Stragus
New smoother camera
New Grand Prix win scene
Gamepad configuration bugfixes
3 Strikes Battle: added spare tire karts
Various improvements (see the release note)

How to Install Supertuxkart 0.9.3 in Ubuntu:

There’s a stable PPA contains the new 0.9.3 release for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04, Ubuntu 17.10, and next Ubuntu 18.04.

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:stk/dev

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

2. If you have a previous release installed, just upgrade it via Software Updater.

Or run commands in terminal to install or upgrade to Supertuxkart 0.9.3:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install supertuxkart

Uninstall:

You can launch Software & Updates utility and navigate to ‘Other Software’ tab to disable or remove the PPA.

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

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove supertuxkart

In Howtos, News racing game, SuperTuxKart

Install Google Hangouts client ‘YakYak’ via Snap in Ubuntu

Last updated: November 18, 2017

YakYak, an open-source desktop chat client for Google Hangouts, now can be easily installed in Ubuntu via Snap package.

YakYak features:

Send/receive chat messages
Create/change conversations (rename, add people)
Leave/delete conversation
Notifications (using native OS notifications)
Drag-drop, copy-paste or attach-button for image upload.
Hangupsbot sync room aware (no bot name, proper user pics)
Show inline images
Send presence/focus/typing/activeclient to behave like a proper client
History scrollback
Video/audio integration (open in chrome)
Focus/typing indications (mainly a design issue. keep it clean)
Offer alternative color schemes

YakYak now is available as Snap, simply search for and install ‘yakyak’ in Ubuntu Software (need login with Ubuntu One account).

Or open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T and run command instead to install the snap:

sudo snap install yakyak

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

To remove the software, either use Ubuntu Software or run command:

sudo snap remove yakyak

In Howtos Google Hangouts, YakYak

Video Cutting Application ‘VidCutter’ 5.0 Released with New Features

Last updated: November 17, 2017

VidCutter, the simplest & fastest video cutting and joining application, has reached the 5.0 release with great new features and other changes.

VidCutter 5.0 release highlights:

New ‘SmartCut’ feature introduced for frame accurate cuts.
New progress bars on clips in timeline
New “View keyframes” button option available under Video Info
New app icon
Improvements to stream mapping, and standard quick cutting.
countless more improvements and fixes, see here.

How to Install VidCutter 5.0 in Ubuntu:

The developer’s PPA contains the latest packages for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04, Ubuntu 17.10, and their derivatives.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ozmartian/apps

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

2. Then update and install the app via commands:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install vidcutter

Remove VidCutter:

To remove the software, run command in terminal:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove vidcutter

And remove the PPA via Software & Updates utility under ‘Other Software’ tab.

In Howtos, News vidcutter, video cutter, video joiner

SMPlayer 17.11.2 Released with Fixes for KDE

Last updated: November 16, 2017

The SMPlayer media player reached the 17.11.2 release earlier today with a few bug-fixes for KDE users.

SMPlayer 17.11.2 fixed:

A crash that may happen on KDE when the global menus are activated.
SMPlayer won’t cancel logout in KDE.
The seek function in the MPRIS2 code has been fixed.

SMPlayer with Mac skin

How to Install SMPlayer 17.11.2 in Ubuntu:

For Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04, Ubuntu 17.10, and derivatives, the latest SMPlayer packages are available in the PPA repository.

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.

In Howtos, News SMPlayer

IntelliJ IDEA 2017.2.6 Released with Various Fixes

Last updated: November 15, 2017

JetBrains’ IntelliJ IDEA Java ide has reached the 2017.2.6 release with 2 new features and various bug-fixes.

IntelliJ IDEA 2017.2.6 added or fixed:

Allow “generate classes from database schema” for plain-JDBC developers
Allow “Return of ‘null'” to be ignored when return type is java.lang.Void
Code inspection hangs in the latest 2017.2.5 release
IntelliJ crashes system when generating a database diagram
Error on Refresh Gradle Project using Java 9
application properties not set when starting Spring Boot service in IDEA
New > Tapestry > Component / Page operation does nothing
“Open Task” makes the whole IDE freeze when selecting a task too quickly
And see the release note for more.

IntelliJ IDEA 2017.2 splash

How to Install IntelliJ IDEA 2017.2.6 in Ubuntu:

The official Linux packages are available for download at the link below:

IntelliJ IDEA Linux Download

Grab the package, extract, and run the executable to launch the IDE. You may manually create an application shortcut to be able to start it from app launcher.

For Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04, Ubuntu 17.10, you can also use the installer script that automatically downloads the IDE from JetBrains’ web server, installs it to /opt/, and finally creates an app shortcut for it.

installer script (.deb) for IntelliJ IDEA Community | IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate

Install the script via dpkg command:

sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/intellij-idea-*_2017.2.6-1_all.deb

Alternatively, simply open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run following commands one by one to add the PPA and install the script:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install intellij-idea-community

replace intellij-idea-community with intellij-idea-ultimate in the last command to install the ultimate edition.

Uninstall:

To remove the Java IDE, simply run command in terminal:

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

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

In Howtos, News IntelliJ IDEA, java

Firefox 57 Released! Over 2x Faster Than Before

Last updated: November 14, 2017

Firefox 55

Mozilla Firefox reached the 57.0 release earlier today. The new release, Firefox Quantum, features a completely new browsing engine makes it over twice as fast as before.

Mozilla Firefox 57.0 release highlights:

A completely new browsing engine.
A redesigned interface, and optimizations for touch screens
A unified address and search bar.
A revamped new tab page that includes top visited sites, recently visited pages, and recommendations from Pocket
An updated product tour to orient new and returning Firefox users
AMD VP9 hardware video decoder support for improved video playback with lower power consumption
An expanded section in preferences to manage all website permissions
Also various security fixes and other changes. See release note.