Archives For jimingkui

Kodi 17.4 Released! How to Install it in Ubuntu

Last updated: August 24, 2017

Kodi media center, formerly known as XBMC, reached the 17.4 release a few days ago with a bunch of bug-fixes. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04, and their derivatives.

Changes in Kodi 17.4 include:

  • Potentially fix crashing on Windows due to an issue in Python
  • Potentially fix crashing on Windows when enabling zeroconf
  • Fix sporadic crash on Windows when installing or updating add-ons
  • Fix issue for users with reverse proxies attempting to forward websockets.
  • Fix possible issue if Linux distro uses system ffmpeg and cause black screen with 10-bit H.265
  • Properly throttle scraping music information online to prevent overloading the provider
  • Fix native keyboard on iOS 11
  • Fix potential crash on Android O loading App icons
  • Fix non showing Kodi banner on Android O
  • Fix potential crash on Android with certain keymaps
  • Fix wrong detection of VP6 and VP8 videocodec on Android
  • Update FFmpeg to 3.1.9
  • Set hard requirement to use FFmpeg 3.1.x only
  • Fix for Hangup when viewing recording and pressing next/previous
  • Fix merged scraped album type and label correctly with that derived from tags from music files
  • Fix possible crash on Linux when using ALSA
  • Save skin settings immediatly after they have changed instead of only on shutdown

How to Install Kodi 17.4 in Ubuntu:

Kodi has an official PPA that contains the latest packages for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, and Ubuntu 17.04.

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:team-xbmc/ppa

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

2. For those who have previous release installed, upgrade the media center via Software Updater:

or run commands to check updates and install kodi:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install kodi

Once installed, log out and log in back with Kodi session, or launch Kodi from Unity Dash, Gnome app launcher, or other app launcher.

Uninstall:

Run command to purge the PPA which also downgrade Kodi to its stock version in your Ubuntu:

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

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

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove kodi

Audacious audio player reached 3.9 release a few days ago with many new features, Qt UI enhancements, usability improvements, and various bug-fixes.

Audacious 3.9 release highlights:

  • New ‘View’ menu and additional options in Settings.
  • Full drag-and-drop capability for playlist entries
  • Configurable playlist columns (add, remove, resize, and rearrange)
  • New controls for stream recording
  • Improved playlist search bar, which hides until Control+F is pressed.
  • Integrated menu items and keyboard shortcuts for the Playlist Manager and Search Tool
  • Better high-DPI support and many other cosmetic fixes
  • audtool gains better support for multiple playlists with the --select-displayed and --select-playing commands
  • Recursive adding of folders specified in M3U playlists
  • See the release note for details.

Audacious GTK and Winamp like interface

How to Install Audacious 3.9 in Ubuntu:

The Webupd8Team PPA has made the packages for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04, Ubuntu 17.10, Linux Mint 18.x, and derivatives.

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:nilarimogard/webupd8

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

2. Upgrade Audacious via Software Updater (Update Manager) if you have a previous release installed:

Or run following commands one by one to check updates and install the audio player:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install audacious audacious-plugins

Uninstall:

You can restore the Audacious music player to its stock version in your Ubuntu by puring the PPA via command:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8

You can then remove the audio player as you want via Ubuntu Software utility.

MKVToolNix, a set of Matroska tools for Windows and Linux, has now reached the 15.0.0 release with improved support for new track header elements and a couple of bug-fixes.

MKVToolNix 15.0.0 release highlights:

  • Add “Set destination file name from selected file’s name” option to the “source files” context menu for multiplex tool.
  • Add “Only use the first source file that contains a video track” option in the preferences on “Multiplexer” → “Output”.
  • Ctrl+Up/Down keys to move up/down selected jobs
  • Add support for the “video projection” track header attributes for the GUI, mkvmerge, mkvinfo, and mkvpropedit.
  • Add support for editing the video colour attributes for the GUI and mkvpropedit.
  • Remove the keyboard shortcuts for switching between the different tools in GUI

How to Install MKVToolNix 15.0.0 in Ubuntu:

The tool has an official Linux repository offers the latest packages for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04 so far.

Open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching it from app launcher. When it opens, do following steps:

1. Run command to add the repository:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://mkvtoolnix.download/ubuntu/ $(lsb_release -sc) main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bunkus.org.list'

Replace $(lsb_release -sc) with xenial for Linux Mint 18.x. And input your password (no visual feedback while typing) when it prompts and hit Enter.

2. Then install the key:

wget -q -O - https://mkvtoolnix.download/gpg-pub-moritzbunkus.txt | sudo apt-key add -

3. Finally either upgrade the software via Software Updater (Update Manager):

or run command to install the software packages:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install mkvtoolnix mkvtoolnix-gui

Uninstall:

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

To remove MKVToolNix, use Synaptic Package Manager or run following command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove mkvtoolnix mkvtoolnix-gui

Gscan2pdf, a simple graphical tool to produce PDFs or DjVus from scanned documents, reached the new 1.8.5 release a day ago with some new features.

Five clicks are required to scan several pages and then save all or a selection as a PDF or DjVu file, including metadata if required.

gscan2pdf can control regular or sheet-fed (ADF) scanners with SANE via libimage-sane-perl, scanimage or scanadf, and can scan multiple pages at once. It presents a thumbnail view of scanned pages, and permits simple operations such as cropping, rotating and deleting pages.

OCR can be used to recognise text in the scans, and the output embedded in the PDF or DjVu.

PDF conversion is done by PDF::API2. The resulting document may be saved as a PDF, DjVu, multipage TIFF file, or single page image file.

Changes in gscan2pdf 1.8.5 include:

  • Add support for Poppler (pdftops) as postscript backend.
  • Remove support for libsane-perl
  • Reapply current scan settings for those scanners that reset them when forcing a reload
  • Eliminate unnecessary strings from gscan2pdf.pot to prevent unnecessary work and confusion on the part of the translators.
  • Add A3 to default paper sizes
  • Translation updates.

How to Install Gscan2pdf 1.8.5 in Ubuntu:

The developer’s PPA offers the latest packages for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04, and derivatives.

Open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching for “terminal” from app launcher. When it opens, do following steps:

1. Add the PPA via command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jeffreyratcliffe/ppa

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

2. For those who have a previous release installed, upgrade it through Software Updater:

For the first time, you can either install it via Synaptic Package Manager or by running following commands in terminal:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gscan2pdf

How to Remove:

To remove gscan2pdf, either use your system package manager or run command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove gscan2pdf

And the PPA can be removed via Software & Updates utility, under Other Software tab.

Avidemux video editor reached the new 2.7 series a few days ago. Now you can install it in Ubuntu 16.04 and/or Ubuntu 17.04 via GetDeb repository, though there’s already an appimage available.

For the release highlights and appimage, a single executable file (non-install), see this page.

To install Avidemux 2.7, open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching for “terminal” from app launcher, and do following steps:

1. Add the GetDeb repository via command:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://archive.getdeb.net/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc)-getdeb apps" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/getdeb.list'

For Linux Mint 18.x, replace $(lsb_release -sc) directly with xenial in the command. Type in your password when prompts and hit Enter.

2. Download and install the repository key via command:

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

3. Finally install avidemux2.6-qt either via Synaptic Package Manager:

or by running command:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install avidemux2.6-qt

It’s Avidemux 2.7 though getdeb still uses the old 2.6 package naming system.

Uninstall:

You can remove the GetDeb repository via Software & Updates utility (Other Software tab), and remove Avidemux 2.7 either via Synaptic package manage or by running command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove avidemux2.6-qt

Gnome Twitch, GTK+3 Twitch app for Linux desktop, now is available as Snap package in beta channel for testing.

WebUpd8 PPA is maintaining the latest Gnome Twitch app for Ubuntu, however, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS is excluded due to old system GTK+3 libraries.

Now Ubuntu 16.04 and even Ubuntu 14.04 users can easily install the latest Gnome Twitch app via snappy store, though it’s in beta stage at the moment.

1. For those who’ve never installed a snap app, install the snapd deamon first in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo apt install snapd snapd-xdg-open

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

2. Install Gnome Twitch snap app via command:

sudo snap install --beta gnome-twitch

3. And gnome environment is required. Install and connect to it via 2 commands:

sudo snap install gnome-3-24

sudo snap connect gnome-twitch:gnome-3-24-platform gnome-3-24:gnome-3-24-platform

Finally launch the app from your application launcher and enjoy! And it should automatically update itself once a new release is out and published in snappy store.

Uninstall:

To remove Gnome Twitch snap app, simply run command:

sudo snap remove gnome-twitch

You may also remove the gnome-3-24 snap if you don’t require it via sudo snap remove gnome-3-24 command.

JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA java IDE has reached the new point release 2017.2.2 a few hours ago. The new release brings some new features, numerous bug-fixes and improvements.

Changes in IntelliJ IDEA 2017.2.2 includes:

  • Fix crashes that occurred with the use of using custom fonts
  • Fix wrong HiDPI scaling on multiple monitors for Windows 10
  • Kotlin pugin updated to 1.1.4
  • Support for CSS Modules with LESS and SASS
  • XQuery/XPath with Language Injection
  • Favorites in the Database tool window
  • Fix major performance regression

How to Install IntelliJ IDEA 2017.2.2 in Ubuntu:

JetBrains offers official Linux packages for download at the link below:

Just extract and run the executable file to launch the Java IDE.

For Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04, Ubuntu 17.10, you can also use the installer script available in the link below.

Run the script will download the official package from JetBrains web server, then install it in your Ubuntu automatically with application shortcut integration.

Then install the script via command:

sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/intellij-idea-*_2017.2.2-1_all.deb

To automatically update the installer script, add the PPA repository via command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

Uninstall:

To remove IntelliJ IDEA installed via the script, run command:

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

Avidemux Video Editor Reached 2.7.0 Release

Last updated: April 4, 2019

The Avidemux video editor has reached the new version series 2.7.0 release earlier today.

The official website wrote in the announcement:

On windows, some antivirus do not like recent versions, it is a false positive. There is no virus/trojan…… The code is generated on linux.

Changes in Avidemux 2.7.0 include:

  • FFmpeg switched to the 3.3.x branch
  • Fixed frame computation bug that led to bad cutting
  • Put log files into the local folder for Win32.
  • Steplessly zoom paused video when the window is resized
  • Added Ctrl+Shift+C shortcut to copy the current PTS to clipboard
  • HEVC decoding via DXVA2 blacklisted on win32, active on win64
  • Fix VP9 decoding
  • New filter:ADM ivtc
  • Distinguish between AC3 and EAC3 when importing
  • UI improvements and more.

Download / Install Avidemux 2.7.0 in Ubuntu:

The getdeb repository and Thanh Tung Nguyen’s PPA maintain the Avidemux packages for Ubuntu, though the two repositories do not update with the new 2.7.0 release at the moment of writing.

The official AppImage, a single executable file for all Linux, is available for download at the link below:

Make the AppImage executable from its ‘Properties’ dialog, and run the file will launch the video editor:

If you don’t see ‘Run’ option, go to menu Edit -> Preferences -> Behavior -> tick the box says ‘Run executable text files when they are opened’, and finally re-open Nautilus file browser.

This quick tutorial is going to show you how to install the free ‘fre:ac’ audio converter in Ubuntu and manually create app shortcut to be able to launch it from Unity Dash, Gnome app launcher, or other app launcher.

fre:ac is a free audio converter and CD ripper works on Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and FreeBSD. It offers Linux packages but lacks application shortcut.

Download fre:ac:

First download the latest version of the audio converter from the link below:

Select download:

  • freac-yymmdd-linux.tar.gz package for 32-bit system.
  • freac-yymmdd-linux-x64.tar.gz package for 64-bit system.

Then extract it. In the case below, I downloaded the 64-bit tarball:

You can now launch the audio converter by run the executable file from its context menu:

Create app shortcut for fre:ac audio converter:

To be able to launch the software from Unity Dash, Gnome app launcher, or other app launcher, you have to manually create an app shortcut for fre:ac.

To do so, open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or from app launcher, and do following steps:

1. Move the source folder to /opt/ directory for global use by running command:

sudo mv ~/Downloads/freac-*-linux /opt/freac-linux

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

Then change the ownship via command:

sudo chown -R root:root /opt/freac-linux

2. Create a symbolic link to the executable file, so you can easily run command freac to launch the software:

sudo ln -s /opt/freac-linux/freac /usr/bin/freac

3. Finally run command to create and edit a .desktop file for the audio converter:

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

And paste below lines into the file and save it.

[Desktop Entry]
Name=freac
GenericName=freac audio converter
Comment=fre:ac free audio converter
Exec=env LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/opt/freac-linux/ freac %f
Icon=/opt/freac-linux/icons/freac.png
Terminal=flase
Type=Application
Categories=Audio;
MimeType=application/ogg;application/x-extension-mp4;application/x-flac;application/x-matroska;application/x-ogg;audio/ac3;audio/mp4;audio/mpeg;audio/ogg;audio/x-flac;audio/x-matroska;audio/x-mp3;audio/x-mpeg;audio/x-vorbis;

It’s important to add variable env LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/opt/freac-linux/ to the value of Exec, or it won’t launch the software and output error:

freac: error while loading shared libraries: libsmooth-0.8.73.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

4. Finally launch fre:ac audio converter from app launcher (might need log out and back in) and enjoy!

How to Remove:

To remove fre:ac audio converter, simply remove the source folder, symbolic link, and app shortcut by running following command:

sudo rm -rf /opt/freac-linux /usr/bin/freac /usr/share/applications/freac.desktop

GIMP, the popular free and open-source cross-platform image editor, now is available as Snap app for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, and higher.

GIMP has been made into the beta channel of Ubuntu Snappy Store for testing for days. Now the latest GIMP 2.8.22 is available in stable channel:

1. For Ubuntu 14.04 and Ubuntu 16.04 users that have not installed any Snap app, install snapd daemon first via command (open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo apt-get install snapd

Input your password (no visual feedback while typing due to security reason) and hit Enter.

2. Then install GIMP snap app either via command:

sudo snap install gimp

Or by using Ubuntu Software Center (need login):

The snap app can co-exist with the traditional GIMP package. So if you have both versions installed, you have to launch GIMP Snap app via following command since the app launcher opens the traditional one:

/snap/bin/gimp

How to Remove GIMP Snap app:

To remove the app, simply run command in terminal:

sudo snap remove gimp