UbuntuHandbook

Install Latest Tomahawk Social Player in Ubuntu 15.04

Last updated: March 19, 2015

Tomahawk team finally made the latest Tomahawk social music player into its official PPA with support for the upcoming Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid.

Tomahawk is a free multi-source and cross-platform music player. An application that can play not only your local files, but also stream from services like Spotify, Beats, SoundCloud, Google Music, YouTube and many others. You can even connect with your friends’ Tomahawks, share your musical gems or listen along with them.

Now the Ubuntu 15.04 users can install the latest player (Tomahawk 0.8.2 so far) by running below commands one by one in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tomahawk/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install tomahawk tomahawk-dbg

Above command adds the Tomahawk PPA into your system and you can receive future updates along with System Updates via Software Updater.

In Howtos social media player, tomahawk

Papyrus – Free Note Manager App Focus On Security

Last updated: March 21, 2019

Papyrus is a free, open-source, and modern note manager focused on privacy, socials, and better user interface.

Papyrus is developed by Aseman Land, the team behind Cutegram telegram client. It’s a fork of Kaqaz project by sialan labs and works on Linux, Windows, Mac, Android and iOS soon.

The software provides both desktop and touch version and features:

Notes management by means of labels and categories
Sorting notes by day
Advance and Smart searching in notes
To-Do papers
Backing up notes
Encrypted synchronization via Dropbox among all your devices
Supporting left-to-right and right-to-left languages
Sharing papers with other applications
Assigning password for protecting notes
Attach map and weather to note informations automatically
Attaching photos, audio files and folders to any note
Search on papers by location
Capability of running and sync data on all operating systems (Android, Windows, Linux, Mac and soon other operating systems)
Canvas for painting
Search on papers using weather and temperature, your notes wrote.
Can move data to sd-card (on old phones)
Status and statistics page for notes
Synchronizing files

Install Papyrus in Ubuntu/Linux Mint:

The note manager has an official PPA with supports for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Linux Mint 17 so far.

Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run below commands one by one to add PPA and install the app:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:aseman/desktop-apps

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install papyrus

An alternative way is to download Linux Installer from the bottom of ~~its homepage~~. Give executable permission and run the installer wizard:

Select download the installer that matches your OS type, 32-bit or 64-bit
In terminal navigate to Downloads page by cd ~/Downloads
make the installer executable by command chmod +x FILENAME
Finally start the install via ./FILENAME

In App Review note-taking app, Papyrus

How to Restore The Default Login Screen in Ubuntu 14.04

Last updated: March 17, 2015

After installing another desktop environment (e.g. KDE, MATE, Cinnamon) in Ubuntu Unity, the default login screen may be replaced after restart.

Here’s the quick tip for those who want to restore the default login screen, Unity Greeter, in Ubuntu 14.04 and/or Ubuntu 14.10, so it looks like:

1. By default, Ubuntu Unity uses Lightdm display manager to handle its login screen. But installing Gnome Shell or Cinnamon Desktop also installs the GDM or MDM display manager.

So you may first run below command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) to make sure LightDM is in use by choosing it from the prompt:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm

2. LightDM also supports “themes”, some DEs use LightDM-GTK-greeter instead of the default Unity-Greeter as its theme.

The easiest way to restore LightDM theme is:

Open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command to edit (or create) /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf:

gksudo gedit /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

If need, install gksu from Ubuntu Software Center

When the file opens, change its content to (or paste below content):

[SeatDefaults]
greeter-session=unity-greeter

Save the file and you’ll see the default login screen at next boot.

In Howtos lightdm, LightDM GTK+ Greeter, unity

Color UI – An Elegant Simple Theme for XFCE Desktop

Last updated: March 17, 2015

Color UI is a new simple and good looking theme project includes support for Xfwm4, Unity, Cinnamon, GTK3, GTK2, Metaciy, Mutter, Openbox.

Color UI was made with maximum usability in mind, from the window borders to the color scheme, Color UI was made for the user who wants an elegant simple theme that does not look broken. If any part of Color UI has any problems in any of the things I listed as this theme supporting, please notify me in the comments and I will try to fix it ASAP! Feedback is always appreciated, if it was not for feedback how else would Color UI improve.

Below is the screenshot of Color UI theme in Xfce Desktop, along with Numix-icon-light and Pen Tool Wallpaper.

Wanna try this theme? Do the steps below:

1. Download the theme from right pane of the project page.

2. Unpack the theme package, copy & paste Color UI folder to /usr/share/themes. You may do the copy and paste thing by running below command in terminal:

cd ~/Downloads/Color-UI-* && sudo cp -r Color-UI /usr/share/themes

3. Change the theme folder permission:

sudo chmod -R 755 /usr/share/themes/Color-UI

4. For XFCE, apply the theme at Settings Manager -> Appearance -> Style, and Icons tab. Also change the window border by going to Settings Manager -> Window Manager -> Style.

In Xfce gtk themes, xfce4

Install The Latest EasyTag Audio Tag Editor in Ubuntu 14.04

Last updated: March 13, 2015

Install the most recent release of EasyTag Audio tag editor in Ubuntu from PPA, while Ubuntu repositories provide an old version.

EasyTag is a simple audio tag editor written in C and GTK+. It supports MP3, MP2, MP4/AAC, FLAC, Ogg Opus, Ogg Speex, Ogg Vorbis, MusePack, Monkey’s Audio, and WavPack files. And works under Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X.

While Ubuntu repositories provide the old 2.1.10 release for 14.04 LTS, the latest stable 2.2.6 was released recently with

Fix crash when saving FLAC tags
Fix more CDDB search dialog memory leaks
Fix memory leaks when loading and saving Speex and Ogg files
Fix a crash when renaming files
Fix Ctrl-clicking to toggle file selection
Fix stripping the disc number from ID3v2.4 tags
Support album artist fields in WavPack tags
Improve validation of Vorbis artwork and MIME types
Several improvements to WavPack tag support
Relicense all code under the GNU GPL version 2 or later
Fix menu items used for tag field case conversion
Marek Černocký’s Czech translation
Christian Kirbach’s German help translation

Install/Upgrade EasyTag in Ubuntu 14.04/Linux Mint 17:

To install the latest EasyTag and receive future updates as part of system update, run below command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) to add its official ppa:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:amigadave/ppa

Then update system cache and install the editor:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install easytag

Or upgrade the software through Software Updater or Updater Manager if you have an previous release installed.

In Howtos audo tag editor, easytag

Opera Browser 28 Available for Download / Upgrade

Last updated: March 12, 2015

The latest stable Opera browser for Linux has reached the 28 release. The new release features bookmark synchronization on all devices.

Opera team recently announced the bookmark syncing feature by releasing the Opera Stable 28, which is available on Opera for computers, Opera Mini for iOS and Opera for Android. To use this feature, you need an Opera Account and login from either Setting page or the little figure icon.

In addition, Opera 28 also brings:

a better integration with Mac OS, as “vibrancy” of the address field and improved Mac fullscreen mode have been added
a bundled themes selection has been updated
For more, see the changelog.

Install / Upgrade Opera in Ubuntu:

If you have an previous Opera release installed, the Opera Stable Repository should be added on your system. (Go to Software & Updates -> Other Software tab, and check it out)

Then you can upgrade Opera through Software Updater after checking for updates.

Or you can download Opera browser directly from its Linux download page.

In News Opera

Network File Transfer Software ‘NitroShare’ Is Alive

Last updated: March 11, 2015

NitroShare, a cross-platform network file transfer app, now is under active development since the previous 0.2 release was announced 2 years and a half ago.

Nitroshare is a cross-platform network file transfer application designed to make transferring any file to any device as painless as possible. It features:

Runs on Windows / Mac OS X / Linux
Automatic discovery of devices on the local network
Simple and intuitive user interface
Transfer entire directories
Completely free and open-source

NitroShare 0.2 in Ubuntu 14.04

Nitroshare project has been moved to Github.com. The developers are now working on the 0.3 release which features:

updating to Qt 5 from Qt 4
simplification of discovery
removal of limitation on file size during transfers

Install NitroShare:

The 0.3 release is still under development, it may contain bugs and uncompleted features. Besides building from the source via the description in project page, Ubuntu users can get it from the daily build PPA.

To install NitroShare 0.2 (stable release), download and install the binaries for Windows, Mac OS, Ubuntu, and/or OpenSUSE/Fedora from the left pane in the link below:

Download NitroShare 0.2

For Ubuntu:

1. you may first checkout the OS type, 32-bit (i386) or 64-bit (amd64), by going to top-right corner shutdown menu and clicking “About This Computer” option.

2. Then grab the “nitroshare_0.2_amd64.deb” or “nitroshare_0.2_i386.deb” depends on your OS type.

3. Finally click open the package with Ubuntu Software Center and install it.

In Howtos file transfer, nitroshare

How to Enable Hot Corners in XFCE Desktop [Quick Tip]

Last updated: July 2, 2015

This is a quick tip that shows you how to enable and tweak hot corners actions in (X)Ubuntu Xfce Desktop.

Brightside is a gnome support hot corners app which also works in Xfce Desktop. It allows you to assign configurable actions to occur while you rest the mouse in a corner of the screen.

Currently available actions comprise:

Fade out volume
Prevent screensaver starting
Start screensaver
Enter DPMS standby mode
Enter DPMS suspend mode
Enter DPMS off mode
Toggle showing desktop.
Custom action

Brightside can be installed via Ubuntu Software Center or by running below command in terminal:

sudo apt-get install brightside

Once installed, run brightside-properties (see previous pic.) command to start its configuration window and setup your hot corners actions.

To make brightside daemon start at login, go to Session and Startup window and add it under Application Autostart tab. See the picture below:

via:lffl.org

UPDATE 2015-7: There’s now a native Xfce plugin to set hot corners actions, see this post.

In Howtos hot corners, xfce4

Handbrake Video Transcoder Sees A New Release

Last updated: March 10, 2015

The open source video transcoder Handbrake 0.10.1 was released recently with various fixes. The developers are working on the next major release Handbrake 1.0.

In an attempt to move away from our yearly release cycle, we have decided to start publishing interim fix releases. 0.10.1 marks the first of these releases. It’s focus is to fix some common bugs rather than introduce the new features we are working on in the background for 1.0.

Release highlights in Handbrake 0.10.1:

Various bug fixes for all platforms and the core engine.
Updated x265 to 1.5 which brings numerous bug fixes and some performance improvements.

Install or Upgrade to Handbrake 0.10.1 in Ubuntu:

The developer has made the binaries into PPA, available for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10, and/or Linux Mint 17/17.1.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stebbins/handbrake-releases

After that, upgrade Handbrake through Software Updater. Or install it by running below commands in terminal:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install handbrake-gtk

In News handbrake, media converter

Webby: A GTK3 Browser Specially For Creating Web Apps in Ubuntu

Last updated: March 9, 2015

Webby is an open-source project similar to Fogger, it allows to use Facebook, Youtube, or any web app as a normal desktop app in Ubuntu.

Chrome, Firefox, Opera, IE… all these are web browsers with a big toolbar and tabs. In the new era of web apps, it doesn’t makes any sense. Webby allow to use Facebook, Youtube or any web app as a regular desktop apps, integrated with the OS, without tabs and using the default system launcher.

With Webby browser, you can turn any web page into a regular desktop app via 4 steps:

paste or type in the url
give a name
set a launcher icon.
finally click the Create app button.

Once Webby successfully created the app, you are able to launch it from the Unity Dash or App Menu immediately.

Below are the GMail and Facebook web apps created by Webby:

How to Install Webby in Ubuntu:

The developer has created an official PPA for this web app browser, currently available for Ubuntu 14.10 and Ubuntu 14.04.

Open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run commands below one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:erasmo-marin/webby-browser

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install webby-browser

NOTE for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS user: Since the app depends on GTK >=3.12, 14.04 Trusty needs Gnome 3 PPA and Gnome 3 Staging PPA (might broken your desktop) for the dependencies.

If you still want to try this browser in Ubuntu 14.04, run below commands to add the PPAs before running previous 3 commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3-staging

Once Webby is properly installed, remove Gnome 3 staging PPA to avoid issues:

sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3-staging

In Howtos web apps

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