After receiving an installation file from the download server, we check its checksums to verify data integrity.
Other than running a Linux command or using a graphical tool, a Nautilus (the default file browser in Ubuntu Gnome) extension, nautilus-gtkhash, is available for computing checksums and showing them in file’s properties dialog box.
To install the extension, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:
sudo apt-get install nautilus-gtkhash
Input your password (no visual feedback while typing) when it prompts and hit Enter
Once installed, restart Nautilus via command:
nautilus -q
Finally, right-click on your file and go to Properties dialog. Under Digests tab, click the Hash button to compute checksums and enjoy!
Free and open-source Matroska software MKVToolNix v21.0.0 was released days ago. The biggest change is that mkvinfo’s GUI portion has been removed.
New features and enhancements in MKVToolNix 21.0.0:
mkvmerge: track statistics tags: the TagDefault element will not be written anymore as it was always set to the default value 1 anyway.
mkvmerge, MKVToolNix GUI: JSON files can now contain C++-style line comments outside of strings (e.g. something like this: // this is ignored). Such comments, even though not part of the official JSON specifications, are now ignored when reading JSON files.
MKVToolNix GUI: chapter editor: opening a Matroska file without chapters in it will now open the file in an empty chapter editor instead of showing an error message.
MKVToolNix GUI: an “info” tool has been added, replacing the functionality of mkvinfo’s GUI. The functionality is not on par yet but will be for release v22.
For the bug-fixes and other changes, see the release note.
How to Install MKVToolNix 21.0.0 in Ubuntu:
The official apt repository offers the latest packages for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.10 so far.
Open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching it from app launcher. When it opens, do following steps:
Hugin panorama stitcher has reached the 2018.0.0 release. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.10.
Hugin 2018.0 is mainly a bug fix release and introduce some minor new features.
Several improvements for optimizer tabs:
mark deselected images
allow changing optimizer variables for all selected images at once
option to ignore line cp
hugin_stacker: New tool to stack overlapping images with several averaging modes (e.g. mean, median).
Added option to disable auto-rotation of images in control point and mask editor.
Nona, verdandi and hugin_stacker can now write BigTIFF images (for files >4 GB). The output of BigTIFF has to manually activated on the command line.
Added expression parser to GUI: This allows to manipulate several image variables at once.
Add user-defined assistant and expose it in the GUI. It allows to set up different assistant strategies without the need to recompiling.
How to Install Hugin 2018.0 in Ubuntu:
The new release has been made into Ubuntu 18.04 main archive. For Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 17.10, you can install it temporarily via following steps while Hugin PPA is not updated.
1. Open terminal either via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching ‘terminal’ from app launcher. When it opens, run command to add PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps
Input your password (no visual feedback while typing) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.
2. Then run commands to check updates and install Hugin 2018:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install hugin
or upgrade it via Software Updater if a previous release was installed.
Uninstall:
To remove PPA, launch Software & Updates and navigate to ‘Other Software’ tab.
To remove Hugin panorama stitcher, run command in terminal:
Wallpaper Downloader is a java software to automatically download you favorite wallpapers from internet and set as desktop background every few minutes.
With the software, you can:
Automatically download wallpapers from:
Wallhaven.cc
Devianart
Bing daily wallpaper
Social Wallpapering
WallpaperFusion
DualMonitorBackgrounds.
Download wallpapers with given keywords.
Download wallpapers with given time interval
Changes desktop wallpaper with given time interval.
Single click to move favorite wallpapers to another directory.
How to Install Wallpaper Downloader in Ubuntu:
1. For users (Ubuntu 16.04 only) never installed a snap package, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to install snapd:
sudo apt-get install snapd snapd-xdg-open
2. As a snap package, you can search for and install the package in Ubuntu Software:
or run single command to install the snap package:
snap install wallpaperdownloader
(Optional) If you don’t like the software, simply run command to remove the snap:
snap remove wallpaperdownloader
In addition, the software also has an official PPA with traditional deb packages for all current Ubuntu releases.
Audacity audio editor 2.2.2 was released two days ago with some improvements and several bug-fixes. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.10, and Ubuntu 18.04.
Audacity 2.2.2 release highlights:
Easier zooming in and out with mousewheel, new Zoom Toggle command, and context menu for vertical rulers.
Easy access to change keyboard bindings of menu commands by holding Shift key
Detection of dropout errors while recording with overburdened CPU
The Audacity team does not offer pre-compiled Linux binaries. Other than building from source, a third-party PPA is available with Audacity 2.2.2 packages for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.10, and Ubuntu 18.04.
1. Open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching for ‘terminal’ from app launcher. When it opens, run command:
ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors can now be installed in Ubuntu easily via Snap package, the universal Linux app packaging format, though it’s in candidate channel for testing so far.
ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors are free open-source office editors for text documents, spreadsheets and presentations working offline. The software features:
Work with all popular formats – DOC, DOCX, ODT, RTF, TXT, PDF, HTML, EPUB, XPS, DjVu, XLS, XLSX, ODS, CSV, PPT, PPTX, ODP, FODS, FODT, FODP.
View, create and edit documents of any size and complexity.
Extend editing capabilities with the pre-installed plugin set (e.g. insert special symbols, YouTube videos, ClipArt, create templates and more).
Automate your routine activities with macros.
Ability to switch to online mode to collaborate with your teammates in real time.
1. For Ubuntu 16.04 users never installed a snap, you need to install snapd first via command:
sudo apt-get install snapd snapd-xdg-open
Input your password (no visual feedback while typing) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.
2. To install the office suite, open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching it from app launcher, and run command:
SMPlayer media player 18.2.2 was released earlier today. It has been made into PPA repository for all current Ubuntu releases.
SMPlayer 18.2.2 features:
The option Open -> URL can now also load YouTube playlists.
New option in Preferences -> Subtitles to select the opacity of the background of the subtitles (available when the “border style” is set to “opaque box”).
The options to select the preferred number of track for audio and subtitles are back.
(mpv) Now the direct3d is the default video output for Windows, since some users reported problems with the gpu output.
How to Install SMPlayer 18.2.2 in Ubuntu:
For Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.10, Ubuntu 18.04, and derivatives, do following steps to install or upgrade SMPlayer via PPA.
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.
2. Then upgrade SMPlayer using Software Updater (or Update Manager):
or run commands in terminal to install (or upgrade) the media player: