UbuntuHandbook

New Pepper Flash Installer for Chromium, Firefox

Last updated: November 6, 2016

For Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 14.04, and based systems, a backport of pepperflashplugin-nonfree with direct download from Adobe website instead of using Chrome RPM is available to make installing Pepper Flash Player easy again in Chromium based browsers.

Since Google removed the latest PPAPI bundle from Chrome web browser, the Pepper Flash Installer, pepperflashplugin-nonfree, available in official Ubuntu repositories does no longer work.

Although you can manually download the plugin, an updated version of the installer offered by J Fernyhough makes it easier to install the latest PPAPI by downloading it automatically from Adobe website.

To install the new pepperflashplugin-nofree:

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jonathonf/pepperflashplugin-nonfree

2. Then update and install the new installer:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install pepperflashplugin-nonfree

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

When a new flash release is out, just one command to install the updates:

sudo update-pepperflashplugin-nonfree --install

3. The PPA also contains, browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash, an adapter to make pepper flash work for Firefox based browsers, install it via:

sudo apt install browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash

Uninstall:

To remove the installer, simply run command:

sudo apt remove pepperflashplugin-nonfree browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash && sudo apt autoremove

And the PPA can be removed by going to System Settings -> Software & Updates -> Other Software tab.

In Howtos pepper flash plugin

Install Touchpad Indicator in Ubuntu 16.04

Last updated: November 3, 2016

Looking for an app to easily control and configure your touchpad in Ubuntu Desktop? Touchpad Indicator, an open-source system tray applet, is well worth a try.

Touchpad indicator is a great simple applet that indicates your touchpad status, which also offers:

Keyboard shortcut to quickly disable/enable touchpad.
Ability to disable touchpad on typing.
Basic touchpad configuration like:
- vertical scrolling
- horizontal scrolling
- two fingers vertical or horizontal scrolling
- one finger, two fingers and three fingers tapping actions

How to install Touchpad Indicator in Ubuntu:

The software can be easily installed from the developer’s PPA repository. Simply open terminal from Unity Dash, App Launcher, or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut keys, and run commands below one by one:

1. Run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/atareao

Type in your password when it asks and hit Enter.

2. Then update and install touchpad indicator via command:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install touchpad-indicator

For those who don’t want to add PPA, grab the .deb package from HERE and click install via Ubuntu Software.

Uninstall:

To remove the software, simply run apt command with remove flag:

sudo apt remove touchpad-indicator && sudo apt autoremove

The PPA can be removed by going to System Settings -> Software & Updates -> Other Software tab.

In Howtos touchpad, touchpad indicator

Sigil EPUB Ebook Editor Updated to 0.9.7 [Ubuntu PPA]

Last updated: October 31, 2016

Sigil, an open-source and multi-platform ebook editor, has reached the 0.9.7 release a day ago with some new features and various bug-fixes.

Sigil 0.9.7 is a mix of bug fixes and new features for both epub2 and epub3 users. It features:

Extend validation plugin interface with add_extended_result() method to allow better cursor positioning
Extend TextTab and Tabs derived by it to position cursor based on offset
Allow editing of page-map.xml files, xpgt files and other misc xml based files inside Sigil
Remove support for python2.7 only plugins and simply Manage Plugins settings
Update Windows and OS X builds to use Python 3.5.2
Update jquery to 2.2.4 and jquery.scrollTo to 2.1.2
Upgrade to double sized 48×48 pixel icons for High DPI displays
And various fixes. See more.

How to install Sigil 0.9.7 in Ubuntu:

For Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 16.10, and their derivatives, you can install / upgrade Sigil using this unofficial PPA.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/sigil

2. To upgrade from a previous release, just launch Software Updater and install the updates after checking for updates:

Or install / upgrade Sigil via command:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install sigil flightcrew

(Optional) To uninstall Sigil 0.9.7 and downgrade to the original version in Ubuntu official repositories, simply run command to purge the PPA:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/sigil

In Howtos ebook, sigil epub editor

Install Planetarium App KStars 2.7 via PPA in Ubuntu 16.04

Last updated: October 29, 2016

KStars, an open-source and cross-platform Astronomy Software, has reached 2.7.0 release with speed improvements, better cross-platform support, and Android mobile/tablet support.

KStars provides an accurate graphical simulation of the night sky, from any location on Earth, at any date and time. The display includes up to 100 million stars, 13,000 deep-sky objects,all 8 planets, the Sun and Moon, and thousands of comets, asteroids, supernovae, and satellites. For students and teachers, it supports adjustable simulation speeds in order to view phenomena that happen over long timescales, the KStars Astrocalculator to predict conjunctions, and many common astronomical calculations.

KStars 2.7.0 features:

much better experience on embedded devices such as Raspberry PI
object internet lookup from online catalogs
Ekos GUI improvements, especially on low-resolution displays.
guide module rewritten to support multiple external guiders
guide drift graphics written, minor improvements to alignment module, significant updates to Focus module.
And much more, see the official announcement.

How to install KStars 2.7.0 in Ubuntu 16.04, 16.10:

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mutlaqja/ppa

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

2. After added the PPA, run commands in terminal to update the index and install the software:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install indi-full kstars-bleeding

3. (Optional) To uninstall KStars, simply run apt command with remove option:

sudo apt remove indi-full kstars-bleeding && sudo apt autoremove

And the PPA can be removed via System Settings -> Software & Updates -> Other Software tab.

In Howtos, News free planetarium software, KStars

HPLIP 3.16.10 Released with Ubuntu 16.10 Support

Last updated: October 28, 2016

HPLIP, HP Linux solution for printing, scanning, and faxing with HP inkjet and laser based printers, has reached the 3.16.10 release with Ubuntu 16.10 and Debian 8.6 support.

Also following new printers are supported in HPLIP 3.16.10:

HP officejetPro7740 wide Format All in one
HP Office jet 6950 All-in-One printer
HP ScanJet Pro 3000 s3 Sheet-feed Scanner
HP ScanJet Enterprise Flow 5000 s4 Sheet-feed Scanner
HP Scanjet Entrprise Flow 7000 s3 sheetfeed Scanner
HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M277c6

How to Install HPLIP 3.16.10 in Ubuntu:

The project offers the .run binary packages available for download at the link below:

After downloaded the binary, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

cd ~/Downloads/ && chmod +x hplip-3.16.10.run && ./hplip-3.16.10.run

The commands navigate to Downloads folder, give executable permission, and finally run the binary.

Follow the terminal prompts and restart your computer when everything’s done.

In Howtos, News HP Print Driver for Linux, HPLIP

Shotwell 0.25 Released, How to Install it in Ubuntu 16.04

Last updated: October 27, 2016

Shotwell, an open-source Gnome photo manager, has reached the 0.25 release with various improvements, bug-fixes, and translation updates. Here’s how to install or upgrade it in Ubuntu 16.04 and / or Ubuntu 16.10.

As a frequent updated software, Shotwell 0.25.0 is a ‘big’ release with following changes:

Add contrast to improvements
Add a log when shifting events
Add a debug output of the current timezone
Fix compilation with recent Vala compiler
Fix focus handling of full-screen viewer
Remove obsolete CSS style property
Support ACDSEE tags
Use unicode characters
Remove deprecated calls
Silence two C warnings that are usually caused by valac
Refactor web authenticator
Spelling fixes
Piwigo: Add option to override SSL certificate handling
Piwigo: Add option to show the SSL certificate
Remove an old GTK+ work-around
Remove deprecated GSettings calls
Persist export dialog settings
Remove deprecated elements from export dialog
Port web plugins to new libsoup API
Fix libraw binding
Piwigo: Fix new album creation
Blacklist vaapi decoder to prevent crashes in video meta data extraction
Hide “Folder” side-bar when empty
Enable SQL debugging through environment variable

How to install Shotwell 0.25 in Ubuntu:

The official Shotwell binaries for Ubuntu are maintained in the PPA repository. ~~However, it seems to be an auto-build PPA and the 0.25.0 builds are broken due to the updated dependencies.~~

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yg-jensge/shotwell

2. To upgrade Shotwell from a previous, launch Software Updater and install available updates.

NOTE: To undo the installation, and downgrade shotwell to the stock version in your Ubuntu repository, run command to purge the PPA:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:yg-jensge/shotwell

In Howtos shotwell

Install Reddit Gnome App ‘Something for Reddit’ in Ubuntu

Last updated: April 4, 2019

Something for Reddit is an open-source Reddit client for GNOME, built for touch, mouse and VIM keyboards.

The simple desktop app features dark and light theme, built-in browser and:

Touchscreen tested interface
VIM style keybindings
View subreddits, comments and user pages
Vote on comments and links, write replies
Integrated WebKit2 browser for viewing links
Multi-account support

reddit comment is kinda unreadable

How to Install ‘Something For Reddit’ in Ubuntu:

For the source tarball, this application is available for download at the github.com.

The ~~GetDeb repository~~ has made the .deb binaries to make it easy to install it in Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 16.10.

1. To add the repository, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://archive.getdeb.net/ubuntu xenial-getdeb apps" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/getdeb.list'

Replace xenial with yakkety in the command for Ubuntu 16.10.

And install the key via:

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

2. After adding the repository, update and install the Reddit app via:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install something-for-reddit

3. (Optional) You can remove the software via command:

sudo apt remove something-for-reddit && sudo apt autoremove

And the GetDeb repository can be removed by going to System Settings -> Software & Updates -> Other Software tab.

In Howtos reddit, reddit client

[Updated] Install Flash Player for Chromium, Opera in Ubuntu 16.10

Last updated: March 5, 2017

The Pepper Flash Player installer, pepperflashplugin-nonfree package, does not work any more for Chromium based browsers since Google Chrome 54 removed the latest PPAPI bundle.

failed to install PPAPI

For those who want to install the latest PPAPI Flash Player (so far it’s 23.0.0.185), you can download the source tarball from Adobe website and install it manually.

1. Go to link below:

Check your OS type from System Settings -> Details, then select in download page:

Linux (64-bit) or Linux (32-bit)
FP 23.0 PPAPI

2. Extract the downloaded .tar.gz package, and navigate to the result folder.

3. pepperflashplugin-nonfree is still required to work as a wrapper. Install it if you don’t have it via command (Press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal):

sudo apt install pepperflashplugin-nonfree

4. Now move the libpepflashplayer.so file from downloaded folder to /usr/lib/pepperflashplugin-nonfree directory.

You can do this via command:

sudo mv ~/Downloads/flash_player_ppapi_*/* /usr/lib/pepperflashplugin-nonfree/

Or open the “/usr/lib/pepperflashplugin-nonfree” directory via root by running command:

gksudo nautilus /usr/lib/pepperflashplugin-nonfree

Then drag and drop ALL THE FILES from Downloads folder to the directory:

Finally restart Chromium, Opera, or other based browsers and flash should work.

In Howtos chromium browser, Opera, pepper flash plugin

Install Wunderlist App ‘Wunderlistux’ in Ubuntu 16.04, Elementary OS

Last updated: October 21, 2016

Wunderlistux is an open-source electron wrapper for the free Wunderlist task management software, that is specially designed for Elementary OS.

The app uses the elementary (sic) GTK theme and icons and looks awesome indie in elementary OS Loki. It also works in Ubuntu 16.04 in my test though it lacks application icon.

How to Install Wunderlistux in Ubuntu / Elementary OS (64-bit only):

Download the source (.zip or .tar.gz) from the link below:

Extract and run the executable from the result folder will launch the software:

To install an application shortcut:

1. Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to open the source tarball via root:

gksudo file-roller ~/Downloads/wunderlistux-0.0.4-linux-x64.tar.gz

Change the package name “wunderlistux-0.0.4-linux-x64.tar.gz” in the code to yours. And install gksu via command sudo apt install gksu if need.

When the source opens via Archive Manager, do:

rename the source folder to wunderlistux
extract it to other location -> Computer -> /opt/

So finally you installed Wunderlistux into /opt for global use:

2. Now run command to create a shortcut file:

gksudo gedit /usr/share/applications/wunderlistux.desktop

When the file opens, paste below lines and save it.

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Wunderlistux
Exec=/opt/wunderlistux/Wunderlistux
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Icon=/opt/wunderlistux/resources/app/images/wunderlist.png

Now you should be able to launch the software from Unity Dash or Application Launcher. Enjoy!

(Optional) If you want to remove Wunderlistux, simply remove the .desktop file and source folder from /opt via command:

sudo rm -rf /opt/wunderlistux && sudo rm -rf /usr/share/applications/wunderlistux.desktop

In Howtos Wunderlist

[Quick Tip] Ubuntu 16.10 Fix Chrome Error ‘Adobe Flash is out of date’

Last updated: October 19, 2016

For Ubuntu 16.10 users or those just installing the new version of Google Chrome browser, you may encounter “Adobe Flash Player is out of date” error while trying to play flash videos in the browser.

This is because Google Chrome does no longer come with bundled Adobe Flash Player since version 54. For Firefox, you can get the latest Flash 23 beta via this tutorial. And for Chrome browser, you need to manually update the flash via below steps: