UbuntuHandbook

GNOME Considers Adding New Core Audio Player App

Last updated: March 24, 2024 — Leave a comment

GNOME Desktop considers adding a new core application for audio playback!

It’s Decibels, a basic free open-source audio player that is supposed to fill the gap of GNOME currently not having a Core app that is designed to open single audio files.

The app has a stupid simple user interface that works in both Linux Desktop and Mobile devices. It features:

Shows the waveform of the track
Adjust playback speed from 0.5x to 3.0x.
Easy seek controls – pause, play, skip back/forward 10s, volume up/down.

In News Audio, Gnome

[Quick Fix] Enlightenment Xorg Session is Missing in Ubuntu 24.04

Last updated: January 13, 2025 — Leave a comment

After installed Enlightenment desktop in Ubuntu 24.04, the classic Xorg session is missing from the login screen. And, here’s a quick fix for it.

Enlightenment released version 0.26.0 last year with experimental Wayland session support. Which is however missing the Xorg session in the login screen due to bug.

UPDATE Jan 2025: The Ubuntu package seems already fixed the issue by renaming the wayland session entry to enlightenment-wayland.desktop

Why the Enlightenment Xorg Session is missing

Ubuntu now finds the desktop sessions from both /usr/share/wayland-sessions/ and /usr/share/xsessions/ directories. And, the former one has higher priority!

Enlightenment 0.26.0 installs its session entries in both directories with same name. In the case, only the one for Wayland is in active, while another for Xorg is ignored and hidden from login screen.

Ubuntu 24.04 missing Enlightenment on Xorg

In Howtos Enlightenment

Get Rid of thunderbird.tmp in Ubuntu 24.04 Downloads Folder

Last updated: March 23, 2024 — 2 Comments

For Thunderbird users, there will be a thunderbird.tmp sub-folder in Downloads in Ubuntu 24.04. Here are the workarounds to get rid of it!

As you may know, the Thunderbird package in Ubuntu 24.04 is a Snap package that runs in sandbox! Due to this switch, the “thunderbird.tmp” sub-folder will be created on every launch (even after you deleted it) of the email client, in user’s Downloads folder.

According to this discussion page:

“This is a tmp dir to store files you choose to open directly from Thunderbird. The snap can’t use the usual (insecure) /tmp location so had to choose something widely available so other apps can open the files if chosen.“

In Howtos email client, thunderbird

How to Install Thunderbird as DEB (Not Snap) in Ubuntu 24.04

Last updated: February 20, 2025 — 23 Comments

For Thunderbird users who don’t like Snap package, here’s step by step guide shows how to replace the pre-installed snap version of the mail client with classic Deb package in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

Like Firefox, the Thunderbird Email Client in Ubuntu 24.04 and 24.10 has been replaced as Snap package that runs in sandbox! If you don’t like the change, then here are 2 other choices:

Mozilla Team PPA
Mozilla’s official Linux Tarball.

In Howtos email client, thunderbird

Install & Setup Veyon Classroom Management App in Ubuntu 24.04 | 22.04

Last updated: February 19, 2025 — 2 Comments

This tutorial shows how to install and setup Veyon for classroom management in Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 20.04, and Debian 12, though it should also works in Windows 10 & 11.

Veyon is a free and open-source software for monitoring and controlling computers across multiple platforms. It supports monitoring all computers in one or multiple classrooms, view or control computers, and broadcast the teacher’s (or student’s) screen in real-time.

Besides the basic monitor, control, screen sharing features, the program also can do:

Lock student computers screen.
Power on/off, reboot student computers.
Send message, start app, open website, take screenshot, and transfer files to student computers.

In Howtos classroom management tool

GNOME 46 Released! New Global Search, Remote Login, and More

Last updated: March 21, 2024 — Leave a comment

GNOME, the popular Linux desktop environment, announced new 46 stable release this Wednesday!

The new GNOME 46, code-name“Kathmandu”, will be default desktop for Ubuntu 24.04 and Fedora 40 planned for next month, and optional for Arch, Manjaro, etc.

The Files, aka Nautilus, in the release features new global search, that can be triggered either by Ctrl+Shift+F or top-left search icon. It supports searching multiple locations simultaneously, including locations outside user home. Other changes for ‘Files’ include:
Continue Reading…

In News Gnome

Oracle Announced the General Availability of Java JDK 22

Last updated: March 20, 2024 — Leave a comment

Oracle announced the release of JDK 22 GA this Tuesday.

“JDK 22 delivers 12 enhancements that are significant enough to warrant their own JDK Enhancement Proposals (JEPs), including seven preview features and one incubator feature. They cover improvements to the Java Language, its APIs, its performance, and the tools included in the JDK.”
Continue Reading…

In News java, programming

Firefox 124.0 Released! Caret Browsing in PDF Viewer & Qwant to All Languages in France

Last updated: March 20, 2024 — Leave a comment

Mozilla announced a new monthly release of its Firefox web browser on March 19.

In the new release, the caret browsing mode, keyboard navigating just like in text editor, also works in the built-in PDF viewer.

The Qwant search engine has been expanded to all languages in the France region along with Belgium, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland.

In MacOS, Firefox now uses the macOS fullscreen API for better user experience for fullscreen spaces, menubar and the Dock. In Windows, it populates the taskbar jump list more efficiently, for a smoother overall browsing experience.

Firefox Caret Browsing setting option

In News Firefox, web

Ubuntu 24.04 Default Wallpaper Revealed [Download Link]

Last updated: March 20, 2024 — Leave a comment

The default wallpaper for Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, Noble Numbat, was finally released this Tuesday!

Similar to the one for current Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, the new wallpaper uses gradient color background (from purple in top-left to orange in bottom right?) with mascot in center.

I can’t say how it looks! Just see the image below for the new wallpaper:

In News ubuntu 24.04

Disable USB System or Certain Ports in Ubuntu 24.04 | 22.04

Last updated: August 23, 2024 — Leave a comment

This tutorial shows how to disable USB, either the full sub-system or for certain USB ports, in Ubuntu 24.04 or Ubuntu 22.04.

For server or production machines, disable USB can be useful for data privacy, virus protection, and other security reasons. For Ubuntu and most other Linux, here I’m going to show you how to disable USB via 3 ways:

Disable whole USB sub-system
Disable USB storage only – Only disable access for USB flash drive and other storage devices.
Disable specific USB port

In Howtos security