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Blender 2.78b Releaesed! How to Install in Ubuntu

Last updated: February 11, 2017

Blender 2.78b, a 2.78a release-compatible update was announced yesterday with important speedups, especially in Cycles and for Dependency graph.

BLender 2.78b comes with Cycles Speedups that were announced last month. Most notable will be faster rendering of Motion blur with hair, which has a 5-10 time speedup – important for production rendering. Also there are various bug-fixes.

How to Install Blender 2.78b in Ubuntu:

Blender is now available as SNAP package, first install snapd via command sudo apt install snapd in terminal, then you’re able to search for and install blender-tpaw in Ubuntu Software.

For those who don’t like the SNAP version, Blender 2.78b is also available in Thomas Schiex’s PPA, supports for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 16.10, and derivatives.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:thomas-schiex/blender

Type in your password (no visual feedback) when it prompts and hit enter.

2. Then you can upgrade Blender from an existing version via Software Updater (or Update Manager) after checking for updates.

Or install blender package either via Synaptic Package Manager or via commands:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install blender

Uninstall:

If you installed blender from PPA repository, run the following command in terminal to remove the PPA and downgrade Blender to the stock version available in Ubuntu main repositories.

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:thomas-schiex/blender

In Howtos, News blender

Ukuu – Simple Tool to Install the Latest Kernels in Ubuntu / Linux Mint

Last updated: August 14, 2020

For those who want to test the latest Linux kernels, Ukuu (Ubuntu Kernel Upgrade Utility) offers a simple interface with list of the “mainline” Kernels and allow user to one-click download and install a selected kernel release.

The mainline kernels are provided by Ubuntu Kernel Team for testing and debugging purposes. They are not supported and are not appropriate for production use. You should only install these if they may fix a critical problem you’re having with the current kernel. Read more about mainline kernels.

UPDATE 2020-08: UKUU is no longer free for use. You need to pay $12 for a personal license.

Ukuu features:

Fetches list of kernels from kernel.ubuntu.com
Displays notifications when a new kernel update is available.
Downloads and installs packages automatically

How to Install Ukuu in Ubuntu / Linux Mint:

For Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 16.10, Linux Mint 17 & 18, and based systems, you can install the tool from the developer’s PPA.

Just open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T keyboard shortcut, and run the commands below one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:teejee2008/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install ukuu

For those don’t want to add PPA, grab the DEB package from ~~HERE~~.

Uninstall:

To remove the utility, simply run apt-get command with remove flag in terminal:

sudo apt-get remove ukuu

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

In addition, if the new kernels do not work properly on your machine, you can easily go back to the old (stable) kernel by:

reboot your computer.
go to Grub boot-loader (press & hold Shift key while booting if don’t see the menu)
in Grub menu, select Advanced Options and select boot the old stable kernel.
finally use Ukuu to remove mainline kernels.

In Howtos Ubuntu Kernel Upgrade Utility

GIMP 2.8.20 Available in PPA for Ubuntu 16.10, 16.04, 14.04, 12.04

Last updated: February 8, 2017

GIMP image editor 2.8.20 stable was released one week ago. Now it’s finally available in PPA repository for Ubuntu 16.10, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, and their derivatives.

GIMP 2.8.20 fixed the weird initial user interface language selection on mac OS. For Windows, an annoying oscillating switching between different input devices has been fixed.

Avoid D-Bus error message when built without D-Bus support
fix OS X min required conditional in gimpimagewindow.c
Saving to existing .xcf.bz and .xcf.gz files didn’t truncate them and could lead to unnecessarily large files
Text layer created by gimp-text-fontname doesn’t respect border when resized
Flow on Paint Dynamics editor dialog: the ‘y’ axis is indicating ‘Rate’ instead ‘Flow’
Vertical ruler shows artifacts if the status bar isn’t showing
Tablet stylus misbehaves when crossing the edge of a dock in multi-window-mode
Disable the new “automatic window tabbing” feature introduced on mac OS Sierra
Improve the visiblity of slider handles with dark themes
Make it harder to switch to renaming if selecting already selected items in resource lists
make toggling to color picker mode of paint tools more robust
call gimp_file_entry_set_filename() with filename encoding

How to Install GIMP 2.8.20 in Ubuntu / Linux Mint:

The new release has been made into the PPA repository, available for all current Ubuntu releases and derivatives.

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

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

2. You can then upgrade the editor from a previous release via Software Updater utility:

Or install GIMP either via Synaptic Package Manager or command:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gimp

Uninstall:

To restore GIMP to the stock versions available in Ubuntu main repositories, open terminal and purge the PPA via ppa-purge tool:

sudo apt-get ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp

In Howtos gimp, image editor

Kodi 17 Released! How to Install in Ubuntu 16.10, 16.04

Last updated: February 6, 2017

Kodi, formerly known as XBMC, finally reached the new stable 17.0 release. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu via PPA.

Kodi 17.0, code-name “Krypton”, brings updated default UI, better organisation of settings, and many under-the-hood changes on Video Player, Music Library, PVR, audio on Android, and thousands of small bug-fixes and improvements to stability.

Kodi 17.0 features:

New default skins “Estuary” for TV, and “Estouchy” for touchscreen devices.
New default web interface
New inputstream add-ons with more protocols support.
hardware-accelerated DVD playback
Numerous improvements to Live TV and PVR functionality
Android implementation, and a wide variety of other changes.

How to Install Kodi 17 in Ubuntu / Linux Mint:

The Kodi Team announced that the official PPA will be updated soon with the new packages, available for Ubuntu 16.10, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 14.04, and Linux Mint 17 & 18.

At that time, you can follow the step below to install Kodi 17:

1. Open terminal from app launcher or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut key, when it opens, run command:

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

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

2. Then you can upgrade Kodi Media Center from an existing version, by launching Software Updater:

Or install it via following commands in terminal:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install kodi

Once installed, you can either launch Kodi from app launcher or log with Kodi session when you’re in login screen.

Uninstall:

To uninstall Kodi 17 and restore to the stock version in your Ubuntu repository, purge the PPA via ppa-purge tool via command:

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

In Howtos, News Kodi, XBMC media center

Install LibreOffice 5.3 via PPA or SNAP in Ubuntu 16.04

Last updated: February 4, 2017

The LibreOffice office suite has reached the 5.3 stable series a few days ago. Now it’s available in both Ubuntu PPA and Snappy store.

LibreOffice 5.3 features:

The MUFFIN interfaces (Microsoft Ribbon UI)
First source release of LibreOffice Online, that offers basic collaborative editing of documents in a browser
Faster rendering performance
Many UI/UX improvements
New text layout engine
And much more, see the release note.

LibreOffice 5.3 ‘Ribbon’ UI

How to Install LibreOffice 5.3 in Ubuntu:

For Ubuntu 16.04 and higher, the latest LibreOffice is now available via snap package, simply run commands below in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo apt install snapd && sudo snap install libreoffice

You can also use Ubuntu Software to install the snap version of LibreOffice (need to install snapd).

To remove the Snap version of LibreOffice, either use Ubuntu Software App, or run command:

sudo snap remove libreoffice

Note that the snap packages so far have known issues, such as unreachable folders outside the Snap’s sandbox, and custom theme issue.

Also, the official PPA is available with traditional packages for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 16.10, Linux Mint 17 & 18:

1. To add the PPA, run following command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa

2. Then upgrade LibreOffice using the Software Updater (or Update Manager) utility after checking for updates:

In Howtos, News LibreOffice

How to Install RawTherapee 5.0 in Ubuntu 16.04, Linux Mint 18

Last updated: September 11, 2019

The RawTherapee RAW file processor has reached the new stable 5.0 release a few days ago. Now it’s available in PPA for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 16.10, Linux Mint 18, Elementary OS Loki, and derivatives.

RawTherapee 5 supports most raw formats, including some unusual ones like those from cameras using Foveon and X-Trans sensors. If your camera’s raw format is not supported, read ‘Adding Support for New Raw Formats‘.

New Features in RawTherapee 5:

Wavelets tool.
Retinex tool.
Monitor profile and rendering intent support.
Print soft-proofing support.
Automatic chroma noise reduction, manual luminance noise reduction using sliders and curves.
The “Inspect” tab in the File Browser lets you see a 100% preview of the image whose thumbnail your mouse cursor hovers over, which is either the largest JPEG image embedded in the raw file or the image itself when hovering over non-raw images.
The curve pipette allows you to pick the right point of a curve by clicking in the preview, and input/output values so that you can set the desired output value for a given input value.
Post-resize sharpening, to give your photos that subtle crispness after resizing them.
Dual-illuminant DCP support with curves, base tables, look tables and baseline exposure.
New exposure tone curve modes “Luminance” and “Perceptual”.
Queue processing will stop if an error is encountered while saving, e.g. if you run out of disk space.
The Contrast by Detail Levels tool received the “Process Locate Before/After Black-and-White” option.
Rec. 2020 ICC profile added.
The Navigator can show RGB, HSV and L*a*b* values in a range of 0-255, 0-1 or %.
The Lockable Color Picker allows you to place multiple sample points over the preview to measure colors and see them change in real time as you manipulate the image. They support the same ranges as the Navigator.
Grayscale JPEG and TIFF images are now supported.
32-bit TIFF files are supported.
In addition to these new features, RawTherapee received over two years worth of amazing speedups, code cleanups and bug fixes, making it faster and more stable than ever before!

How to Install RawTherapee 5 in Ubuntu

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dhor/myway

Type in password (no visual feedback) when it prompts and hit enter.

2. Then install or upgrade RawTherapee either via Synaptic Package Manager or by running the commands below one by one:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install rawtherapee

For those who don’t want to add PPA, grab the DEB package from here.

Note: you won’t be able to upgrade the software using Software Updater utility since the PPA build miss data and debug files.

How to Restore:

To uninstall RawTherapee 5.0 and restore to the stock versions in Ubuntu main repositories, run command to install ppa-purge and purge the PPA:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:dhor/myway

In Howtos RAW processor, RawTherapee

GTK+ Twitter App Corebird 1.4.2 Released with some fixes

Last updated: April 4, 2019

Corebird, native GTK+ twitter client, got an update 15 hours ago with compilation and crash fixes. PPA has been updated for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 16.10, and derivatives.

Corebird 1.4.2 is a small bug-fix release to the 1.4 series, here’s the changelog:

Fix a crash when going back from a tweet with media to another tweet with media
Fix compilation with –disable-video
Decrease log level of UserStream output to debug when no internet connection is present

How to Install Corebird 1.4.2 in Ubuntu:

I’ve made the new release into PPA (unofficial) available for Ubuntu 16.04, and Ubuntu 16.10.

1. Run the following command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/corebird

2. Then upgrade it via Software Updater if you have a previous release installed.

Or run the commands to install / upgrade the app:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install corebird

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

In News corebird, twitter client

RSS Guard Feed Reader 3.3.7 Released [How-to-Install]

Last updated: January 26, 2017

RSS Guard, a simple, light RSS and ATOM feed reader, has reached the 3.3.7 release with new features and some fixes.

According to the release note, the open-source Qt feed reader RSS Guard 3.3.7 features:

support custom user skins
option to switch on/off DB transactions
require MySQL >= 5.5
MySQL database backend now requires at least version 5.5
Size of attachment image is now configurable
All textual contents now locally saved in explicit UTF-8 encoding.
updated localizations and some fixes.

How to Install RSS Guard 3.3.7 in Ubuntu 16.04, 16.10:

The GetDeb repository has built the new release for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 16.10, and their derivatives.

Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run following commands to add the PPA and install RSS Guard news reader:

1. Paste the command below in terminal and hit Enter to add the repository:

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

You may replace the code name xenial (Ubuntu 16.04) with yakkety for Ubuntu 16.10.

Then setup the key via command:

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

2. After that, either search for and install rssguard via Synaptic Package Manager, or run the commands below in terminal:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install rssguard

Uninstall:

To uninstall the software, either use Synaptic Package Manager or run the apt remove command with sudo privilege:

sudo apt remove rssguard && sudo apt autoremove

And you can remove the GetDeb repository via Software & Updates utility under Other Software tab.

In Howtos Feed Reader, RSS Guard

Firefox 51 Released with FLAC, WebGL 2 Support

Last updated: January 24, 2017

Mozilla Firefox web browser has reached the 51 stable release today, features FLAC playback, WebGL 2, video performance improvements, security fixes and other enhancements.

Firefox 51 release highlights:

Users can view passwords in the save password prompt before saving them
Added a zoom button in the URL bar
less CPU usage and a better full screen experience for users without GPU acceleration
Added support for FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) playback
Added support for WebGL 2, with advanced graphics rendering features like transform feedback, improved texturing capabilities, and a new sophisticated shading language
An even faster E10s! Tab Switching is better!
Use 2D graphics library (Skia) for content rendering on Linux
Various security fixes and more.

How to upgrade to Firefix 51 in Ubuntu:

Ubuntu Mozilla Team is maintaining the latest Firefox packages, and will soon build and publish the 51 release via Ubuntu’s main security & updates repositories (check this page).

At that time, you can launch Software Updater and upgrade Firefox after checking for updates.

In News Firefox

How to Install AVRDude 6.3 in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 14.04

Last updated: January 23, 2017

For those who want to install the latest AVRDude 6.3 (AVR Downloader / Uploader), here are the backport PPA for Ubunu 16.04, Ubuntu 14.04, Linux Mint 17/18, and derivatives.

AVRDUDE is a utility to download/upload/manipulate the ROM and EEPROM contents of AVR microcontrollers using the in-system programming technique (ISP).

It provides a command-line interface for all downloading and uploading features. Supports a wide range of programming hardware, from cheap ISP plugs that connect the AVR’s ISP interface directly to a computer’s parallel port or serial port. Supports Intel Hex, Motorola S-Record, and raw binary files for input and output.

While the current two Ubuntu LTS offer old versions in their main repositories, I’ve uploaded the 6.3 release into PPA to make it easy to install.

AVRDude 6.3 features:

New devices support: ATmega48PB, ATmega88PB, ATmega168PB, ATtiny28 (HVPP-only device), AT90PWM216, ATmega32M1
New programmers support:
- Atmel mEDBG: xplainedmini, xplainedmini_dw
- ftdi_syncbb
- uncompatino, ttl232r (FTDI TTL232R-5V with ICSP adapter)
- Atmel DFU, using FLIP protocol version 1 (AT90USB and ATmegaU devices), or version 2 (Xmega devices)
- Atmel-ICE (ARM/AVR), JTAG, PDI, debugWIRE, ISP modi
The stk500v2 implementation now uses its own higher-level command implementation for byte-wide access
The -B option can be suffixed with “Hz”, “kHz”, or “MHz”, in order to specify a bitclock frequency rather than period.
Print part id after signature
buspirate: Also support “cpufreq” extended parameter in binary mode
The “-P net:” syntax (forwarding of serial data over TCP) is now also implemented for Win32 systems.
Atmel EDBG protocol support added (JTAGICE3, XplainedPro, Atmel-ICE)

Install AVRDude 6.3 in Ubuntu / Linux Mint:

Either run the following commands one by one in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) to add PPA and install the utility:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install avrdude avrdude-doc

Or grab the DEB packages for both avrdude and avrdude-doc from the link below and click install via Gdebi or Ubuntu Software App:

Download AVRDude (deb)

In Howtos AVRDude

Archives For jimingkui

How to Install Blender 2.78b in Ubuntu:

How to Install Ukuu in Ubuntu / Linux Mint:

How to Install GIMP 2.8.20 in Ubuntu / Linux Mint:

How to Install Kodi 17 in Ubuntu / Linux Mint:

How to Install LibreOffice 5.3 in Ubuntu:

How to Install RawTherapee 5 in Ubuntu

How to Install Corebird 1.4.2 in Ubuntu:

How to Install RSS Guard 3.3.7 in Ubuntu 16.04, 16.10:

How to upgrade to Firefix 51 in Ubuntu:

Install AVRDude 6.3 in Ubuntu / Linux Mint:

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