UbuntuHandbook

Install LibreOffice 5.1.0 in Ubuntu, Linux Mint via PPA

Last updated: February 12, 2016

The Document Foundation officially announced the release of LibreOffice 5.1 yesterday. PPA updated for Ubuntu 15.10, Ubuntu 14.04, and derivatives, e.g., Linux Mint 17.x, and Elementary OS Freya.

LibreOffice 5.1 offers a completely reorganized user interface, and several improved features targeted at enterprise deployments: better support for ODF 1.2, interoperability with proprietary document formats and file management on remote servers.

Read the announcement for more details.

How to upgrade to LibreOffice 5.1:

LibreOffice 5.1 has been made into Software Center for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. For ubuntu 15.10 and Ubuntu 14.04, it’s available in the LibreOffice 5.1.x series PPA.

For Linux Mint users who are still running LibreOffice 4.x, you have to do below changes to be available to upgrade via PPA:

Launch terminal, and run command to create and edit a file:
gksudo gedit /etc/apt/preferences.d/libreoffice.pref
When the file opens, paste below lines and save it.
Package: *
Pin: release o=LP-PPA-libreoffice
Pin-Priority: 700

1. To add LibreOffice 5.1.x PPA.

Launch terminal from App Launcher or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut key. When it opens, paste below command and hit run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/libreoffice-5-1

Type in password (no visual feedback when typing) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.

2. To upgrade LibreOffice

Launch Software Updater (or Update Manager for Mint), and install available updates after checking for updates.

3. (Optional) To revert the changes, install ppa-purge and purge the PPA:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge

sudo ppa-purge ppa:libreoffice/libreoffice-5-1

For Linux Mint 17.x which is based on Ubuntu 14.04, use -d option to specify Ubuntu codename, so the last command should be:

sudo ppa-purge -d trusty ppa:libreoffice/libreoffice-5-1

In Howtos LibreOffice

How to Install VLC 2.2.2 in Ubuntu 15.10

Last updated: February 10, 2016

VLC 2.2.2, the second bugfix release for VLC 2.2 series, was released a few days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 15.10 Wily via PPA.

VLC 2.2.2 “Weatherwax” is the second update to VLC’s 2.2 release series.

It fixes numerous security issues, notably in the MP4, RealRtsp and Sparkle modules, but also important crashes for the MXF, ADPCM, Telextext, Skins and Qt modules.

It also improves our codec support by adding new formats and providing faster decompression.

More than 100 fixes for issues reported for 2.2.1.

Full support of Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan.

For a complete list of changes, see the ChangeLog.

Install VLC 2.2.2 in Ubuntu 15.10:

The new release has been made into Software Center for Ubuntu 16.04. Below is how to install VLC 2.2.2 in Ubuntu 15.10 using a third-party PPA repository.

1. Add PPA

Open terminal from App Launcher or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut key. When it opens, paste below command and hit run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nicola-onorata/desktop

Type in password (no visual feedback when typing) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.

2. Launch Software Updater and upgrade VLC after checking for updates.

Or run below commands one by one in terminal:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install vlc

3. (Optional) To revert back the 2.2.1 release, purge the PPA via ppa-purge tool:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:nicola-onorata/desktop

If everything goes OK, you may disable or remove the PPA via Software & Updates -> Other Software tab, since the PPA contains many other packages you may not want.

In Howtos vlc media player

How to Install Birdie 2.0 Beta in Elementary OS Freya

Last updated: February 7, 2016

Birdie 2.0, an open-source twitter client for Elementary OS, now is in public beta, available in daily build PPA for test.

This beta release features:

An absolutely massive redesign
Great new pop-out media viewer
Automatically load more Tweets when you reach the bottom (infinite scrolling)
A native Instagram photo viewer
Circular avatars
Direct Messaging with conversation views
User account, hashtag, and link highlights
The icons in the timeline switcher change to alert you to new mentions and messages
Click the home button to return to the top of your timeline
Stars are out, hearts are in
Higher resolution images throughout
and much more!

picture from birdie website

How to install Birdie 2.0 Beta in Freya:

1. Launch terminal from Applications launcher:

2. Add Birdie daily build PPA by running below command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:birdie-team/daily

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

3. Birdie 2.0 requires the latest version of Granite, so also add elementary OS Daily PPA for the dependencies via command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:elementary-os/daily

4. Finally run commands to update and install birdie, the last command will also install the latest Granite and other dependencies:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install birdie

5. Since the Elementary OS daily PPA contains other unstable updates, it is recommended to remove / disable the PPA after installation.

To do so, launch Software & Updates and navigate to Other Software tab, then un-check or remove the two PPAs

In Howtos birdie, twitter client

Install Sigil Epub Editor 0.9.3 in Ubuntu 15.10

Last updated: February 6, 2016

Sigil EPUB ebook editor has reached the 0.9.3 release recently. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 15.10 via PPA.

Sigil-0.9.3 is a major new release that greatly improves Sigil’s ability to work with and generate epub3 ebooks without losing any of its epub2 capabilities. This release also includes a number of bug fixes and stability improvements.

The main bug fixes are:

Add a python based updatechecker for Sigil updates to prevent Windows OpenSSL build issues

Stop ‘Generate TOC’ from introducing unnecessary spaces in front of class attibute values

Use localeAwareCompare to attempt to add Index Entries to build them sorted

……

— for more see the release note.

How to Install Sigil 0.9.3 in Ubuntu:

There’s no official binaries for Linux users. You can install it by either building from the source or using an unofficial PPA.

Here’s a PPA for Ubuntu 15.10 (Ubuntu 16.04 will be support soon). Ubuntu 14.04 is not supported since Sigil requires Qt >= 5.4

1. Add PPA

Open terminal from Unity Dash, App Launcher, or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut key. When it opens, paste below command and hit run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/sigil

Type in your password (no visual feedback just type in mind) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.

2. After that, upgrade the software via Software Updater, or run below commands one by one in terminal:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install sigil

For those who don’t want to add PPA, grab the .debs for sigil-data and sigil packages at the PPA page.

3. (Optional) After installed the editor, you may disable/remove the PPA by going to System Settings -> Software & Updates -> Other Software.

In Howtos epub, sigil epub editor

Ubuntu 15.04 Reaches End of Life, Upgrade to Ubuntu 15.10

Last updated: February 7, 2016

Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet is reaching the end of its life. Its users will no longer receive security notices, critical fixes, or updated packages after today, February 4th, 2016. Even launchpad PPA will build no more packages for Ubuntu 15.04.

Canonical will officially announce the end of Ubuntu 15.04 soon on news page. Users are recommended to upgrade to Ubuntu 15.10, another 9 months support release (ends in July, 2016), or install Ubuntu 14.04, an LTS release with 5 years support.

Upgrade to Ubuntu 15.10:

After making a backup of your data, disabling third-party PPAs, and uninstalling the proprietary video drivers, you may press Alt+F2 and type in “update-manager” (without the quotes) into the command box.

It should bring up Update Manager and tell you: New distribution release ‘15.10’ is available.

Click the Upgrade button and follow the on-screen instructions. See this page for more details.

Or download Ubuntu 14.04 image at: releases.ubuntu.com/trusty/

In Howtos ubuntu 15.04

Opera 35 Released! Features Tab Muting, 32bit Linux Build

Last updated: February 3, 2016

Opera web browser for computers has reached version 35, the first stable release for 2016, which features mute tabs, refreshed downloads page, new basic section in setting page, and 32-bit DEB/RPM for Linux users.

Opera 35 lets you mute the sound from a website easily via an option from the tab’s context menu. There’s also an option to mute all other tabs.

The download page has been redesigned. There are quick links in left pane for most used file formats: documents, PDFs, images, music, videos, archives and others.

The settings page brings a new basic section with simple settings for start-up behavior, downloads, bookmarks bar, themes, and cookies.

And finally Opera Team made 32-bit DEB and RPM binaries for Linux users, available for download at the link below:

Download Opera for Linux

In Howtos, News Opera

Free Video Editor and VJ Tool LiVES 2.6.0 Released

Last updated: February 2, 2016

LiVES, free and open-source video editing system and VJ tool, has reached the 2.6.0 release. It features h264/aac, wmv2, ffv1 and mjpeg encodings support to ffmpeg_encoder and a few important fixes.

LiVES is upgrading continually in recent months. The first release in 2.6 series was released yesterday, one week after the 2.4.8 release. And here’s the changelog:

Fix crash when applying rendered effects to virtual clips.
Add h264/aac, wmv2, ffv1 and mjpeg encodings to ffmpeg_encoder.
Fix memory leak in new style gdkpixbuf converter.
Fix frame seek bug in avformat decoder with non-zero start time.
Autoscroll “Show details” when encoding.
Work around a gtk+ crash bug in GtkTextView with lots of text.
Show missing libraries in ffmpeg_encoder.
Show time remaining estimate for encoding for most encoder formats.
OK / Cancel in the file chooser should immediately cancel any preview (regression).
Add “Use current clip values” button when entering multitrack.
Fix memory leak in pulseaudio input analysis.
Minor GUI improvements.

How to Install LiVES 2.6.0 in Ubuntu:

Besides building from the source code, here’s a unofficial PPA available for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 15.10, Ubuntu 14.04 and their derivatives.

Follow below steps to add PPA and install the video editor:

1. Launch terminal from Unity Dash, App Launcher, or via Ctrl+Alt+T key. When it opens, paste below command and run to add PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/lives

Type in your password (no visual feedback just type in mind) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.

2. Have a previous installed? Launch Software Updater and upgrade LiVES after checking for updates.

Or, run below commands one by one in terminal to check updates and install the new release:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install lives

3. (Optional) You may disable/remove PPAs after installation by launching Software & Updates and going to Other Software tab.

In Howtos, News LiVES, video editor

Install DeaDBeeF 0.7.0 in Ubuntu 15.10, 14.04

Last updated: February 2, 2016

DeaDBeeF music player has reached the 0.7.0 release after almost 6 months of development, which brings various fixes, performance optimizations, and some new features.

Changes since the last DeaDBeeF 0.6.2:

artwork: added cache cleaner, MusicBrainz backend,
- configurable default picture, numerous bugfixes,
- double-click / middle-click on empty area to create new playlist,
- middle-click on playlist to remove it,
- highlight current playlist, configurable columns,
- sort columns by clicking their headers,
added “Skip to …” next/prev album/genre/composer actions (Christian Boxdörfer)
initial OS X support, with cocoaui, coreaudio and xcode project, only in GIT sources
added center-alignment option to playlist columns (Christian Boxdörfer)
added 1 and 5 second “Seek forward/backward” actions
new title formatting implementation, aiming to be compatible with fb2k, replacing the old one
added libmpg123 support as a 2nd backend to mp3 plugin, as default
added Tabs widget in Design mode
mp3: added LAME preset support
various improvements, fixes, and more and more in the RELEASE PAGE

How to Install DeaDBeeF 0.7.0:

You can choose download the PORTABLE build, non-install version (official):

DeaDBeeF Download Page

Or install it in Ubuntu via PPA (unofficial but well integrated):

1. For Ubuntu 15.10, Ubuntu 14.04, and Ubuntu 12.04, launch terminal and run below commands one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:starws-box/deadbeef-player

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install deadbeef

Or download and install the “deadbeef_0.7.0-3~codename~ppa1_i386/amd64.deb” package for 32-bit/64-bit system at THIS PAGE.

~~2. For Ubuntu 14.04, select download the .deb package for i386 (32bit) or amd64 (64bit) at HERE~~.

In Howtos deadbeef music player

How to Install Rhythmbox 3.3 in Ubuntu 15.10, 14.04

Last updated: January 31, 2016

Rhythmbox, Ubuntu’s default music player, has reached the 3.3 release recently. It brings new plugin supporting Android devices via gvfs-mtp. Encoding settings are now configurable per device type, and it can force lossless files to be transcoded.

Rhythmbox also brings translation updates and following bug-fixes:

While extracting music from CDs, information in the “Year” field is lost
Typos in documentation
audioscrobbler: Fix displaying icon for libre.fm
JSON import errors
Sync Preferences Missing
iradio: remove Radio GFM
[PATCH] data: Add various mod files as supported MIME types
Don’t handle RTL icons manually for GTK+ >= 3.12
error: conflicting types for ‘rhythmdb_metadata_cache_purge’
crash when adding files found during startup scan
hangs after handling mod/xm/it (modplug) file when crossfade is enabled
Freezing with crossfade backend and Pulseaudio with GStreamer 1.6.x
commit 85c185d breaks compilation with -Wl,-as-needed
Album-Art caching issue

(rhythmbox 3.3 with alternative toolbar plugin)

How to Install / Upgrade Rhythmbox 3.3 in Ubuntu:

David mohammed, a Rhythmbox plugin developer, has made the new release into PPA, available for Ubuntu 15.10, Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.04 and their derivatives.

1. Open terminal from Unity Dash, App Launcher, or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut key. When it opens, paste below command and hit run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fossfreedom/rhythmbox

Type in your password (no visual feedback just type in mind) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.

2. After that, do upgrade via Software Updater, or run below commands one by one:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install rhythmbox

3. (Optional) To downgrade to the stock version of Rhythmbox in Ubuntu, use ppa-purge:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge

sudo ppa-purge ppa:fossfreedom/rhythmbox

via: xpress-ubuntu

In Howtos rhythmbox

Ubuntu 16.04 Flavors: Aplha 2 Available for Download

Last updated: January 30, 2016

The second alpha of Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus LTS has been announced one day after its scheduled release date. This release features images for Lubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Kylin and the Ubuntu Cloud images.

This Xenial Xerus snapshot includes the v4.3 kernel. 16.04 will ship with the 4.4 kernel which is available for testing. As an alpha pre-release, it is only recommended for developers and those who want to test by finding, reporting, and/or fixing bugs.