UbuntuHandbook | Author Archives

Archives For November 30, 1999

How to Install Nuvola Player 3 in Ubuntu 14.04/14.10

Last updated: February 15, 2015

Nuvola Player 3, a cloud music integration for your Linux desktop, now is at beta build and is recommended for general usage.

Nuvola Player is an open-source music player that integrates cloud music services like Google Music, Rdio, Spotify, Grooveshark, Jango, etc with your desktop.

Nuvola Player 3 has been rewritten from scratch and contains plenty of improvements over Nuvola Player 2. Now it provides an official Linux repository currently supports Ubuntu 14.04 (Linux Mint 17.1), Ubuntu 14.10, Fedora 20-21 and Debian Jessie and Sid.

Supported Music Services:

Nuvola Player 3 currently ships with five music streamimg services:

Deezer 2.2 – Jiří Janoušek
Google Play Music 5.0 – Jiří Janoušek
Grooveshark 4.0 – Jiří Janoušek
Jango 2.0 – Stefano Bagnatica
This is My Jam 2.0 – Jan Vlnas

Five more services are in preparation and will be added to the repository when finished:

Rdio (Aaron Cripps)
Bandcamp (Jiří Janoušek)
Spotify (Michael Nye)
KEXP Live Stream (Michael Nye)
Synology Audio Station (Daniel Schep).
8tracks (Jiří Janoušek)

How to Install Nuvola 3 in Ubuntu:

NOTE: Nuvola Player 3 won’t replace Nuvola Player 2 in you system. You can keep using Nuvola Player 2 until Nuvola Player 3 is stable enough for you.

1. Add Nuvola Player stable repository.

Open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command to create and edit a repository file:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nuvola-player.list

When the file opens, paste below into it (For Ubuntu 14.10, replace trusty with utopic) and save the file:

deb https://tiliado.eu/nuvolaplayer/repository/deb/ trusty stable

2. The official website does not mention the repository gpg key. But sudo apt-get update command outputs below error:

W: GPG error: https://tiliado.eu trusty InRelease: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 40554B8FA5FE6F6A

This can be easily fixed by running below command to receive the key:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 40554B8FA5FE6F6A

3. Finally search and install Nuvola player 3 via Synaptic Package Manager. Or run below two commands one by one in terminal:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install nuvolaplayer3

Done! For more, go to tiliado.eu/nuvolaplayer/.

In Howtos cloud music, Nuvola Cloud Player

Scudcloud – Ubuntu Client for Slack Team Communication Tool

Last updated: February 14, 2015

ScudCloud is an unofficial, open-source Ubuntu Linux desktop client for Slack team communication tool.

Slack is a team communication tool founded by Stewart Butterfield, it offers one-on-one messaging, private groups, persistent chat rooms, direct messaging as well as group chats. All content inside Slack is searchable from one search box. Slack integrates with a number of third-party services, including Google Docs, Dropbox, Heroku, Crashlytics, GitHub and Zendesk.

So far, slack provides Mac, iOS, and Android apps, as well as Web versions. ScudCloud is an non official Linux client that uses the QT library + Webkit to render the web version of Slack, but using the QWebkit-Native bridge to improve desktop integration with:

native system notifications,
count of unread notifications at launcher icon,
launcher icon wobbling on new messages,
and channels quicklist at launcher icon.

Ubuntu users can easily install the client from the developer’s PPA. So far, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 10.04 and derivatives are supported.

Just open up terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run 3 commands one by one to add PPA, update system cache and install the app:

sudo apt-add-repository -y ppa:rael-gc/scudcloud

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install scudcloud

For those who don’t want to add PPA, grab the .deb package directly from this page and install it via Ubuntu Software Center.

via: github.com

In Howtos slack client for Linux, team communication

VirtualBox 4.3.22 Fixed Kernel 3.19 issue for Linux Guests

Last updated: February 13, 2015

Oracle has released a new maintenance release for VirtualBox 4.3 series. For Linux Guests, X.Org server 1.17 now is supported, guest additions do not build with 3.19 kernel issue is fixed.

Full changes in VirtualBox 4.3.22:

VMM: refined measurement of TSC frequency on the host, improves timekeeping for guests
VMM: decreased CPU load resulting from guest MMIO writes to the virtual APIC
VMM: fixed interception of debug exceptions, observed while using the dbx debugger on Solaris guests (VT-x only)
GUI: 3D overlay window positioning code improved, fixed potential misplacement of 3D accelerated guest graphics content
GUI: fixed accident SSL authentication failures during update check on Windows hosts
GUI: never send the “ACPI power” keyboard scancode to the guest, we have the ACPI power button for that
GUI: was unable to properly restore seamless mode VM from snapshot/saved-state under some circumstances
VBoxHeadless: don’t crash if 3D is enabled in the VM settings
ATA: fixed several passthrough issues
Audio: fixed DirectSound failure when the the host has no audio input device
SB16: fixed compatibility issue
Storage: fixed broken CD/DVD passthrough when using the IDE controller
NAT: new ping proxy for Windows hosts
NAT: Properly report outbound connect(2) failures to guest with TCP RST or ICMP
NAT Network: no need for frequent wakeups in VBoxNetDHCP and VBoxNetNAT
Host-only adapter: prevent Windows from creating an “Unidentified network”
Bridged Networking: don’t leak host-to-guest traffic to the wireless network when bridging to a wireless interface
Main: fixed a possible race when changing the medium leading to a deadlock under rare conditions
VBoxManage: fixed return code if starting a VM failed
API: fixed 2 deadlock opportunities related to medium handling
API: fixed bug in XPCOM which created too few worker threads, sporadically resulting in a deadlock
SDK: fixed a garbage collection leak in the Python VirtualBox webservice API binding
Linux hosts: fixes for activated SMAP (Broadwell and later)
X11 guests: prevent unwanted hiding of guest screens on multi-monitor guests
X11 guests: added support for X.Org Server 1.17
X11 Additions: fixed a memory leak in VBoxService if libdbus is available but dbus-daemon isn’t running
Windows Additions: prevent VBox WDDM driver from loading if host reports weak OpenGL capabilities. 3D content now can be shown over Remote Desktop connection.
Winodws Additions: some fixes for recent Windows 10 Previews
Linux Additions: fixed a compatibility issue with 64-bit Linux 2.4 kernels
Linux Additions: fixed a potential use-after-free when unloading the VBoxGuest module
Linux Additions: Linux 3.19 fixes

Download / Install VirtualBox in Ubuntu:

For Linux, you can either download the .deb installer (click install .deb package via Software Center) from:

VBox For Linux Download Page

or install VBox and receive future updates from its official repository:

1. Open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T. When it opens, run command to add VBox repository:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian $(lsb_release -cs) contrib" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list'

2. Run command to download and install the keyring:

wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

3. Finally upgrade VBox 4.3 via Software Updater, or install it for the first time via below 2 commands:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.3

In Howtos Virtualbox, virtualbox 4.3

Upgrade to Latest gThumb 3.3.3 in Linux Mint 17.1

Last updated: February 12, 2015

Quick tutorial shows how to upgrade to the latest gThumb image viewer and organizer in Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon.

gThumb is a free and open-source image viewer, browser, and editor for Gnome Desktop. While Linux Mint 17.1 still provides gThumb 3.27, the latest version has reached the 3.3.3 release with new image tools, bug fixes and translations updates.

New features and user visible changes:

Allow to apply the embedded color profile for jpeg images.
New image tools: special effects; curves.
Unified ‘equalize histogram’ and ‘adjust contrast’: show a preview of the various contrast filters.
Grayscale tool: show a preview of the different filters.
Fixed the interface style when used with gtk+ 3.14
File propery view: use a switcher; added a details page that show all the metadata, show only the important exif fields in the properties page.
UI changes to the preferences dialog: use a sidebar instead of a notebook to avoid a large dialog with some translations; better spacing; removed the Ok button.
Video player: save the screenshot without showing the dialog. Allow to set the screenshots location in the extension preferences dialog. Show a message in the statusbar after saving.
Gear menu: use the new icon if using gtk+ 3.13 or newer

Bugs fixed:

video player: do not hide the mediabar when using the volume control
Forbidden when trying to upload to Flickr (#732557)
Build against either webkit2gtk-3.0 or webkit2gtk-4.0 (Dominique Leuenberger)

How to install / upgrade gThumb in Mint Cinnamon:

1. Open terminal and run below command to add the Webupd8 PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:webupd8team/gthumb

2. Open Update Manager from menu, click “Refresh” button and then you should see the gThumb 3.3.3 available for upgrade (make sure you have upgrade to mintupdate 4.8.1).

Select it and click Install Updates.

In Howtos, Linux Mint gThumb image viewer, image editor

Install Free Finance App HomeBank 5.0 (GTK+3) in Ubuntu 14.04

Last updated: February 10, 2015

HomeBank, a free personal finance software, was finally ported to GTK+3 by releasing version 5.0. Here’s how to install or upgrade it in Ubuntu.

Besides being migrated to GTK+ 3, HomeBank 5.0 also brings new reworked icon set, new stack chart for budget report, added a file statistics dialog, reworked and refactored import process to ease import, and some bug-fixes. For the details, see the changlog.

How to install / upgrade to HomeBank 5 in Ubuntu:

While Ubuntu repositories provide an old version of this money management software, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10, and Ubuntu 15.04 users can install/upgrade to the latest version via official HomeBank PPA.

Open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mdoyen/homebank

Then upgrade HomeBank through ‘Software Updater’, or install it by running below commands one by one:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install homebank

In Howtos Free Finance Software, HomeBank

Double Commander 0.6 Adds RabbitVCS Integration

Last updated: February 10, 2015

Double Commander, the open source dual-pane file manager, has recently reached the 0.6 release with exciting new features and a few bug fixes.

According to the change log, the new release adds:

a built-in directory synchronization tool
Flat view (shows all files in the current directory and all subdirectories in a single file window)
Regular expressions in file search by content
Capability to use wdx-plugins in file search
Enhanced directory hotlist (subfolders, set path to both panes etc)
New supported archive types: XZ, TXZ, ZIPX
SevenZip plugin that supports same archive types as 7-Zip application (Windows)
Drag&Drop to external applications (Mac OS X 64 bit)
RabbitVCS context menu integration (needs rabbitvcs-core)

There are also a few bug fixes, check them out at this page.

Install / Upgrade Double Commander in Ubuntu:

For non-install version, download DC for Linux 64-bit or 32-bit and run the executable from in the result folder.

Download Double Commander (non-install version)

To install Double Commander from its PPA and receive future updates, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run below commands one by one (GTK version):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:alexx2000/doublecmd

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install doublecmd-gtk rabbitvcs-core

For choice, replace the last command to install the Qt version:

sudo apt-get install doublecmd-qt rabbitvcs-core

The PPA supports Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10, and Ubuntu 15.04 so far.

In Howtos Double Commander, Two panel file manager in Ubuntu

How to Upgrade to Linux Kernel 3.19 in Ubuntu 14.04/14.10

Last updated: February 10, 2015

The first stable release of Linux Kernel 3.19 was released yesterday by Linus Torvalds. He wrote on the Linux Kernel Mailing List:

So nothing all that exciting happened, and while I was tempted a couple of times to do an rc8, there really wasn’t any reason for it.

Just as an example, Sasha Levin used KASan and found an interesting bug in paravirtualized spinlocks, but realistically it’s been around forever, and it’s not even clear that it can really ever trigger in practice. We’ll get it fixed, and mark it for stable, and tempting as it was, it wasn’t really a reason to delay 3.19.

And the actual fixes that went in (see appended shortlog) were all fairly small, with the exception of some medium-sized infiniband changes that were all reverting code that just wasn’t ready.

So it’s out there – go and get it. And as a result, the merge window for 3.20 is obviously also now open.

What’s new in the Linux Kernel 3.19:

SI/CI SMC fan control support within the Radeon driver. Should reduce the fan noise on systems with a higher default fan profile.
Initial GM204 GPU support (NVIDIA GeForce 900 series) in Nouveau driver
RAID 5 and RAID 6 level support is better off in the Btrfs file-system
LZ4 Compression Support for SquashFS
multi-touch for more Logitech devices
New keyboard backlight support in DELL laptop. ThinkPad ACPI driver reworked to simplify sound muting. Toshiba ACPI driver improvements
The initial hardware enablement for Skylake, Intel’s successor to Broadwell
AMD HSA open-source support is closer to reality
and more ….

How to Install / Upgrade to Kernel 3.19 in Ubuntu:

The Ubuntu Kernel Team has made the binary packages for this kernel release, available for download at link below:

Download Linux Kernel 3.19 (.deb)

First check out your OS type, 32-bit (i386) or 64-bit (amd64), then download and install the packages below in turn:

linux-headers-3.19.0-031900_xxx_all.deb
linux-headers-3.19.0-031900-generic_3.19.0-031900.xxx_i386/amd64.deb
linux-image-3.19.0-031900-generic_3.19.0-031900.xxx_i386/amd64.deb

If you need a low latency system (e.g. for recording audio) then replace the second and third packages with:

linux-headers-3.19.0-031900-lowlatency_3.19.0-031900.xxx_i386/amd64.deb
linux-image-3.19.0-031900-lowlatency_3.19.0-031900.xxx_i386/amd64.deb

For Ubuntu Server without an UI, you may run below commands one by one to download & install the kernel debs.

For 64-bit system, run:

cd /tmp/

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.19-vivid/linux-headers-3.19.0-031900-generic_3.19.0-031900.201502091451_amd64.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.19-vivid/linux-headers-3.19.0-031900_3.19.0-031900.201502091451_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.19-vivid/linux-image-3.19.0-031900-generic_3.19.0-031900.201502091451_amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-3.19.0-*.deb linux-image-3.19.0-*.deb

For 32-bit system, run:

cd /tmp/

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.19-vivid/linux-headers-3.19.0-031900-generic_3.19.0-031900.201502091451_i386.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.19-vivid/linux-headers-3.19.0-031900_3.19.0-031900.201502091451_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.19-vivid/linux-image-3.19.0-031900-generic_3.19.0-031900.201502091451_i386.deb

sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-3.19.0-*.deb linux-image-3.19.0-*.deb

When done, restart your computer.

Tip: For Desktop machine running with a proprietary video driver, you may have to re-build/re-install the driver for the new kernel.

If for some reason, the new kernel does not work properly for you, reboot with the previous Kernel (Grub boot loader -> Advanced -> select previous kernel) and run below command to remove the Linux Kernel 3.19:

sudo apt-get remove linux-headers-3.19.0-* linux-image-3.19.0-* && sudo update-grub

In Howtos Linux Kernel, Linux Kernel 3.19 series

How to Install or Upgrade to LXQt 0.9 in Ubuntu 14.04/14.10

Last updated: February 8, 2015

LXQt 0.9, the lightweight desktop environment (merge between LXDE and Razor-qt), was released this Sunday. The new release drops Qt4 and now requires Qt5.

Besides enforcing Qt5, LXQt 0.9 comes a new LXQt Frost theme, lots of UI and internal polishing and several new features. See the official release note.

Install / Upgrade LXQt 0.9 in Ubuntu:

For (L)Ubuntu 14.04, (L)Ubuntu 14.10, and upcoming (L)Ubuntu 15.04 users, LXQt 0.9 has been made into PPA. Just follow below steps to install or upgrade it.

1. Open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command to add lubuntu daily build PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:lubuntu-dev/lubuntu-daily

2. After that, update system package cache and install LXQt by running below two commands one by one:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install lxqt-metapackage lxqt-panel openbox

Once the installation finished, log out and log in back with “LXQt Desktop” session and enjoy!

In Howtos LXQt

Enable Client-side Decorations for Rhythmbox in Ubuntu 14.04/14.10

Last updated: February 7, 2015

For Rhythmbox users who are using Gnome Shell, now there’s a plugin to make it look like a real Gnome application by enabling the GTK3 Client-side Decorations (Header bar).

Thanks to david mohammed, with this alternative-toolbar plugin Rhythmbox in Gnome looks like:

For non-gnome desktops, this plugin doesn’t use the CSD header bar by default. But there’s also a little changes:

If you really want the CSD header bar, non-gnome user cat get it in the plugin preferences.

How to install the plugin for Rhythmbox:

For Ubuntu 14.10 and Ubuntu 14.04, the plugin is available in the developer’s PPA.

Open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run below commands one by one to add the PPA, update system cache, and install the plugin:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:fossfreedom/rhythmbox-plugins

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install rhythmbox-plugin-alternative-toolbar

If you don’t want to add PPA, grab and install the .deb package directly from this page. Once installed, enable it by going to Tools -> Plugins.

For other systems and issues, go to the plugin’s project page.

In Howtos client side decorations, rhythmbox

HP Printer Drivers ‘HPLIP’ Adds Python 3, New Distro’s Support

Last updated: February 6, 2015

HPLIP, HP print, scan and fax drivers for Linux, has recently reached the 3.15.2 release with new Linux distributions support, Python 3 support, and a few bug fixes.

For the Python 3 support for HPLIP, there are some limitations:

Doesn’t support Fax Cover Page in Python 3 environments
XSane installation failed message on Debian, type ‘n’ to continue installation when HPLIP tools ask to retry xsane installation
Cannot launch hp-toolbox for Python less than version 3.4
Dependent package installation fails on Fedora

New Distro’s added support in HPLIP 3.15.2: