Archives For jimingkui

Yarock 1.2.0 Released! How to Install it via PPA

Last updated: October 8, 2017

Yarock, a Qt music player designed to provide a clean music collection based on album cover art, reached 1.2.0 release a few hours ago.

It has been one year since the last update of Yarock music player. And Yarock 1.2.0 features:

  • Configurable custom cover art size
  • Redesign player tool bar with expanded tool bar mode
  • Replace Echonest with Spotify web service for artist image.
  • Add option to prevent downloading artist image from internet.
  • Change & fix many lyrics provider services
  • Changes: Many minors ui changes and improvments

How to install yarock 1.2.0 in Ubuntu:

There are a few third-party PPAs contain yarock packages for Ubuntu. At the moment, you can install the 1.2.0 release via this PPA in Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04, Ubuntu 17.10, and derivatives.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

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

2. Then install the player either via Synaptic Package Manager (after clicking refresh), or by running commands:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install yarock

Once installed, launch the music player from your application launcher and enjoy!

How to Remove:

To remove the software, use Synaptic Package Manager or run command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove yarock

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

Visual studio code reached the 1.17 release a day ago with Mac OS touch bar support, and some performance improvements.

VS Code 1.17 features:

  • Mac OS Touch Bar actions for navigation and debugging.
  • Folding now supports region markers.
  • Terminal rendering is up to 45 times faster with new canvas-based rendering engine
  • Automatically show module and path import suggestions while coding
  • Debug Console messages show source location (optionally)
  • Built-in Dark+ and Light+ themes now highlight regular expression components
  • new SOURCE CONTROL PROVIDERS section to view changes in multiple source control repositories.

See the video about VS Code 1.17:

How to Install VS Code 1.17 in Ubuntu:

The official .deb package for Debian/Ubuntu is available for download at the link below:

Then install it via either Gdebi package manager or command (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/code_*.deb; sudo apt -f install

For those who want to receive updates for VS Code via Software Updater utility, add the Microsoft repository via following steps (64bit only):

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

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/vscode stable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list'

2. Download and install the repository key via commands:

curl https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | gpg --dearmor > microsoft.gpg

sudo mv microsoft.gpg /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/microsoft.gpg

Uninstall Visual Studio Code:

To remove the code editor, either use Synaptic Package Manager or run command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove code

And remove the Microsoft repository by launching Software & Updates utility and navigating to Other Software tab.

Boring with the default purple login screen background in Ubuntu 18.04? Well, here’s how to make a change by hacking the css file.

UPDATE 2024: This tutorial is outdated and only work for old Ubuntu 18.04!! For most recent Ubuntu versions, see this tutorial instead!

Ubuntu since 17.10 switches to Gnome 3 Desktop and GDM display manager. Although there are options to change desktop wallpaper and lock screen background (it’s actually screen saver with date & time displayed), the login screen is always purple.

In the picture above, I’ve changed the login background to the image “Aardvark_Wallpaper_Grey_4096x2304.png” locate in /usr/share/backgrounds.

1. Move your favorite image to /usr/share/backgrounds:

It’s better to move the image you want to set as login background to system pictures folder: /usr/share/backgrounds.

To do so, open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T, then either run command:

sudo cp PATH/TO/YOUR/IMAGE /usr/share/backgrounds/

or run command to open file browser via root and then do copy and paste in that window:

xhost +local: && sudo nautilus /usr/share/backgrounds/

2. Edit the css file that define GDM login background:

Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to edit file /etc/alternatives/gdm3.css, which is linked to /usr/share/gnome-shell/theme/gdm3.css:

xhost +local: && sudo gedit /etc/alternatives/gdm3.css

Input your password (no visual feedback while typing) when it prompts and hit Enter. And of course back up the file before editing.

3. When the file opens, go to menu (right after ‘Save’ button) -> find and find out following section:

#lockDialogGroup {
  background: #2c001e url(resource:///org/gnome/shell/theme/noise-texture.png);
  background-repeat: repeat; }

change the lines into:

#lockDialogGroup {
  background: #2c001e url(file:///usr/share/backgrounds/Aardvark_Wallpaper_Grey_4096x2304.png);
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  background-size: cover;
  background-position: center; }

Replace Aardvark_Wallpaper_Grey_4096x2304.png with your picture file name.

Finally save the file and restart your computer to apply changes.

NOTE: these changes may be overwritten in case of an system update with GDM packages. Please let me know if you find a good way to change the GDM3 login background in Ubuntu 17.10.

For notebook or PC with a touchpad, you’ll find that tap clicking function does not work in the GNOME login screen out-of-the-box, either in Ubuntu or other Linux.

You may hit Enter on keyboard to login after typing password. It will however more convenient if tap to click works when trying to select another user, session, or upper right corner menu. And here’s how to enable this function in Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 20.04.

UPDATE: There’s now graphical GDM-Settings configuration tool, can do the job as easy as few mouse clicks.

Enable Tap Clicking in GDM Login Screen.

Both the System Settings and ‘Dconf Editor’ configuration tool have option to toggle ‘Tap to Click’ in Ubuntu. However, none works for the login screen due to permission issue. You need the gdm system user privilege to do the setting.

1.) Firstly, open terminal by either searching from the overview screen or pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard.

2.) For Ubuntu 22.04, you have to first install the dbus-x11 package for dbus-launch command:

sudo apt install dbus-x11


3.) When terminal opens, run command to add user gdm to the control list:

xhost SI:localuser:gdm

It will indicate that ‘localuser:gdm being added to access control list’.

4.) Finally run gsettings command to enable ‘tap to click’ using gdm user privilege:

sudo -u gdm gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad tap-to-click true

For Ubuntu 22.04, add dbus-launch flag in command, so it will be:

sudo -u gdm dbus-launch gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad tap-to-click true

If you want to do more settings about the GNOME login screen, you may first install “Dconf Editor” and launch the tool via gdm system user. To do so, paste the command below into terminal and hit run:

xhost SI:localuser:gdm && sudo -u gdm dconf-editor

When it opens, navigate to “org/gnome/login-screen“. There you may toggle settings for disable user list, enable fingerprint, smartcard authentications, and more.

That’s all. Enjoy!

RawTherapee, an open-source cross-platform raw image processing program, reached the 5.3 release a few days ago with new features, performance improvements and numerous bug-fixes.

RawTherapee 5.3 release highlights:

  • CIECAM02 enhanced with control over the scene and viewing conditions.
  • CIECAM02-friendly “Average Surround” color theme and L* middle gray preview background color, takes into account human vision and color appearance with regard to the surrounding color.
  • Manually save the collapsed/expanded state of tools.
  • Lensfun support, for automatic (and manual) profiled lens correction.
  • ACES, DCI-P3 Theater and DCI-P3 D65 output color profiles.
  • Numerous speed optimizations and bug fixes.

How to Install RawTherapee 5.3 in Ubuntu:

Dariusz Duma’s PPA contains the latest RawTherapee packages for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04, Ubuntu 17.10, and their derivatives.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dhor/myway

Input your password (no visual feedback when typing) when it prompts and hit Enter to add the PPA.

2. After that, upgrade the software via Software Updater from an existing release:

The upgrading process may be kept back if you were installing it from Ubuntu Software App.

A workaround is simply running following commands instead to install or upgrade RawTherapee:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install rawtherapee

How to Remove:

To uninstall the free raw developer, run command in terminal:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove rawtherapee

And remove the PPA via “Software & Updates” utility under Other Software tab, by removing the line says “http://ppa.launchpad.net/dhor/myway/ubuntu”.

A new monthly update of SMPlayer media player was released earlier today. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu via PPA.

SMPlayer 17.10 following two changes:

  • Replace the deprecated video and audio filters in mpv with new ones.
  • The karaoke filter is available again.

Note that due to the first change, Linux users may need to update MPV (see how to install the latest MPV) in order to use SMPlayer 17.10.

A workaround is to turn off all video and audio filters. Another workaround is to switch to mplayer by selecting mplayer as multimedia engine in Preferences -> General.

How to Install SMPlayer 17.10 in Ubuntu via PPA:

The new release has made into the official PPA, available for Ubuntu 17.10, Ubuntu 17.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, and their derivatives.

1. Open terminal and run the following command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rvm/smplayer

For those who prefer Qt4 version, use the new PPA instead:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rvm/smplayer-qt4

2. Then you can upgrade SMPlayer from a previous release via Software Updater (Update Manager) after checking for updates:

Or you can run the commands below in terminal to do install or upgrade SMPlayer:

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install smplayer smtube smplayer-themes

How to Restore:

For any reason, you can easily restore the installation to the stock version via the ppa-purge tool:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:rvm/smplayer

For the qt4 ppa, replace ppa:rvm/smplayer with ppa:rvm/smplayer-qt4 in the code.

Ubuntu 17.10 Artful Aardvark reached its final beta release earlier today. Ubuntu 17.10 Desktop, Server, and Cloud images, and flavors images of Kubuntu 17.10, Lubuntu 17.10, Ubuntu Budgie 17.10, Ubuntu Kylin 17.10, Ubuntu MATE 17.10, Ubuntu Studio 17.10, and Xubuntu 17.10 are available for download.

The beta release of Ubuntu 17.10 includes 4.13 kernel and updated version of core applications.

Ubuntu 17.10 desktop and server images: http://releases.ubuntu.com/17.10/

Kubuntu 17.10: cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/17.10/

  • use VLC as default media player.
  • Muon package manager shipped by default, as an alternative to Plasma Discover.
  • Cantata Qt5 music player replaces the unmaintained KDE4 based Amarok as default.
  • Telepathy instant messaging client has been dropped from defaults.

Lubuntu 17.10: cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/17.10/

Ubuntu Budgie 17.10: cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-budgie/releases/17.10/

  • Files (Nautilus) 3.26 with Folder-Color extension.
  • Replaced GNOME Photos with gThumb
  • Login screen changed from lightdm-gtk-greeter to slick-greeter

Ubuntu Kylin 17.10: cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntukylin/releases/17.10/

Ubuntu MATE 17.10: cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-mate/releases/17.10/

  • Add new features to Caja file manager: Advanced bulk rename, Hash checking.
  • Replaced caja-gksu with caja-admin.
  • Updated folder-color extension.

Ubuntu Studio 17.10: cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/17.10/

Xubuntu 17.10: cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/17.10/

Mozilla Firefox web browser has reached the new stable 56.0 release a day ago.

Firefox 56 features a built-in screenshot tool, allows you to take, save, and share screenshots without leaving the browser.

The new release updated the Preferences section with a search tool so users can find a specific setting quickly.

Other changes in Firefox 56:

  • improved Send Tabs feature, it can be discovered even by users without a Firefox Account
  • Added hardware acceleration for AES-GCM
  • New Encoding Standard-compliant implementation written in Rust
  • Updated the Safe Browsing protocol to version 4
  • Reduced update download file size by approximately 20 percent
  • Improved security for verifying update downloads
  • Added Layout Panel to CSS Grid DevTools

Download / Install Firefox in Ubuntu:

The best way to install the latest Firefox in Ubuntu is waiting for the distribution builds published in security/updates repository.

Be patient, it will be available in a few days. At that time, you can simply install/upgrade it via Software Updater:

For those who don’t want to wait, download the official Firefox package, extract and run the executable to launch Firefox 56.

Opera web browser reached the new stable 48 release earlier today with new and improved features.

Opera 48 release highlights:

  • Add measurement, time zone, currencies converters in Search pop up tool.
  • Capture your favorite parts of the web with the Snapshot tool
  • Add option to remove unwanted autocomplete suggestions in the search and address bar.
  • O-Menu cleaned up
  • All importing bookmarks from Edge and Yandex
  • UI improvements for HiDPI displays.
  • Update to Chromium version 61.
  • And see the release note for more.

How to Install Opera 48 in Ubuntu:

The opera website offers official .deb binaries for Ubuntu Linux, available for download at the link below:

If you have a previous release installed, and enabled the official Opera Linux repository, upgrade it via Software Updater:

To manually add the Opera for Linux repository, open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or from app launcher, when it opens, run commands:

1. Add the opera repository:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://deb.opera.com/opera-stable/ stable non-free" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opera.list'

2. Get the key:

wget -O - http://deb.opera.com/archive.key | sudo apt-key add -

Finally either install Opera via your system package manager or upgrade the browser via Software Updater.

Adobe Brackets, a modern open-source code editor for the web, has reached the 1.11 release a day ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04, and derivatives.

What’s New in Brackets 1.11:

  • Brackets now supports ECMAScript 2015. Quick-type listing now shows classes, methods, arrow functions, generator functions and much more. Brackets also supports linting of ECMAScript 2015 code, with ESLint defaulting as Javascript linter, as well.
  • Brackets now offers full support for the Linux platform.
  • Fix a few minor issues found by lgtm.
  • Fix extension registry link in README.md
  • Fix CTRL+Space handling while the CodeHintList is open
  • Fix wrong function call in ProjectManager.js
  • Double click on search result header closes search results window
  • Add mapping for stylus mode in LanguageManager
  • Now reverse inspect can be disabled by setting the ‘livedev.enableReverseInspect’ pref to false
  • Upgrade brackets-eslint to 3.2.0
  • See the release note for more.

How to Install Brackets 1.11 in Ubuntu:

Adobe offers the official .deb packages in the github release page.

For those who want to receive updates though Software Updater, you can use the Webupd8Team PPA which provides Brackets packages for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04, and derivatives.

1. Open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or from app launcher. Run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/brackets

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

2. Then you’re able to upgrade the code editor via Software Updater utility:

or install it for the first time via commands:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install brackets

Uninstall:

To remove the PPA repository, launch Software & Updates utility and navigate to Other Software tab.

To remove Brackets code editor, either use system package manager or run command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove brackets