Archives For November 30, 1999

Linux Kernel 3.17.4

The fourth update of the latest stable Linux Kernel 3.17 was released recently. Greg Kroah-Hartman announced this kernel release and urged all users of Kernel 3.17 series to upgrade as soon as possible.

According to the release note, this kernel release brings various important improvements, such as architecture updates (ARM, and x86), and driver updates for wireless, ethernet, i915 and radeon, as well as other fixes. For details, see the official changelog.

Install / Upgrade to Kernel 3.17.4:

The Ubuntu Kernel Team has made the .deb installers of the kernel release, available for download at the link below:

Download Kernel 3.17.4 Debs

Depends on your OS type, 32-bit = i386 or 64-bit = amd64, download & install the .deb packages in below orders:

  1. linux-headers-3.17.4-xxxxxx_all.deb
  2. linux-headers-3.17.4-xxx-generic_i386/amd64.deb
  3. linux-image-3.17.4-xxx-generic_i386/amd64.deb

For Ubuntu Server without graphical user interface, run below commands to download & install the new kernel:

For 32-bit system:

cd /tmp/

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.17.4-vivid/linux-headers-3.17.4-031704-generic_3.17.4-031704.201411211317_i386.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.17.4-vivid/linux-headers-3.17.4-031704_3.17.4-031704.201411211317_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.17.4-vivid/linux-image-3.17.4-031704-generic_3.17.4-031704.201411211317_i386.deb

sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-3.17.4-*.deb linux-image-3.17.4-*.deb

For 64-bit system:

cd /tmp/

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.17.4-vivid/linux-headers-3.17.4-031704-generic_3.17.4-031704.201411211317_amd64.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.17.4-vivid/linux-headers-3.17.4-031704_3.17.4-031704.201411211317_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.17.4-vivid/linux-image-3.17.4-031704-generic_3.17.4-031704.201411211317_amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-3.17.4-*.deb linux-image-3.17.4-*.deb

When done, restart your machine. Note that for proprietary graphics drivers, you may re-build (or re-install) the driver to make it work with the new kernel.

If for some reason this kernel release doesn’t work properly for you, reboot into previous kernel (Grub -> Advanced -> select previous kernel) and run the command below to remove Linux Kernel 3.17.4:

sudo apt-get remove linux-headers-3.17.4-* linux-image-3.17.4-* && sudo update-grub

Vuze BitTorrent Client

Vuze BitTorrent Client, previously Azureus, has recently reached 5.5.0 release with new features and enhancements. Here’s how to install or upgrade it in Ubuntu.

Vuze is written in Java, and uses the Azureus Engine. In addition to downloading data linked to .torrent files, Azureus allows users to view, publish and share original DVD and HD quality video content. Content is presented through channels and categories containing TV shows, music videos, movies, video games, series and others. Additionally, if users prefer to publish their original content, they may earn money from it.

Vuze Bittorrent in Ubuntu

What’s New in Vuze 5.5.0:

According to the release note, the new release brings:

  • A new visual guide
  • Additional tips and suggestions are provided for using Vuze.
  • Allow blocking of local DNS resolution attempts for trackers hosts when using a SOCKS proxy.
  • Shortcut implemented for download location using CTRL+ to save torrents
  • Additions of various console-UI commands to improve usability
  • Added Speed Limit Scheduler features.
  • Configuration pages now have shortcuts to access specific settings quickly

For more, see the Vuze blog.

Install Vuze 5.5.0 in Ubuntu:

For non-install version, download the official package from vuze.com, extract and finally run the executable from the result folder.

Or you can install Vuze from the Getdeb repository, just download below packages from the link page:

  • “azureus_5.5.0.0-1~getdeb1_all.deb”
  • “vuze_5.5.0.0-1~getdeb1_all.deb”

Vuze packages in Getdeb repository

Once downloaded, open the package via Ubuntu Software Center and click the install button one by one.

LightTable IDE

The Light Table IDE got a fairly major update a few hours ago by releasing the Light Table 0.7.0. And the 0.7.1 release was out just one hour later with few bug fixes.

Light Table 0.7.0 is a big clean up release with lots of little fixes, but there are a number of big changes that warranted it being a more significant version increase:

  • moved to the latest node-webkit and are now able to track nw’s progress directly since the menu changes made it upstream.
  • All plugin metadata is now hosted on github, this means that asking to remove/rename/change urls etc for plugins is just a matter of sending a PR.
  • Instead of having a disconnect between settings and plugins (which are really the same), every user now has a user plugin. This gives you a place to quickly create commands, tabs, behaviors, or whathaveyou without needing to jump through a bunch of hoops. This also means that your complete configuration with plugins and all can be zipped up and sent to someone.
  • Along with the user plugin, we’ve also changed the syntax of behavior and keymap files to make them much easier to both read and share. No more hunting for the right place to paste some behavior you’ve copied from someone else.

via: Light Table blog.

Light Table 0.7.1 in Ubuntu 14.10

How to Install Light Table in Ubuntu:

The official website provides the binary packages for Linux. Here is how to install it in Ubuntu Unity. Tested in Ubuntu 14.10, should also work in Ubuntu 14.04 and Ubuntu 12.04.

1. Download the Light Table package from the link below:

Light Table Web Page

Depends on your OS type, select download Linux 32-bit or 64-bit package.

2. Once the downloading process finished. Press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal, and then run the command below to open the Downloads folder as root (Administrator), so that you have the privilege to extract the package to /opt/ for global use.

gksudo nautilus ~/Downloads

You need to install gksu from Ubuntu Software Center if you don’t have it installed.

extract-lighttable

When the folder opens, right-click on the package and select “Open With Archive Manager”.

3. Once the package opens, click the Extract button and select extract to Computer -> /opt/.

Extract Light Table to opt

When done, close the Archive Manager and the Downloads folder.

Now you should be able to launch Light Table via command below:

/opt/LightTable/LightTable

4. If everything’s OK, let’s create an app shortcut so that you can launch it from the Unity Dash or Menu.

Run command below in terminal to create .desktop file and open it with Gedit text editor:

gksudo gedit /usr/share/applications/light-table.desktop

When the file opens, paste below into it and click the save button.

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=Light Table
GenericName=Text Editor
Exec=/opt/LightTable/LightTable
Terminal=false
Icon=/opt/LightTable/core/img/lticon.png
Type=Application
Categories=GTK;Utility;TextEditor;Application;IDE;Development;

Create Light Table Launcher

Finally start Light Table IDE from the Unity Dash or Menu and enjoy!

Budgie Desktop Session

The Evolve OS Budgie Desktop session released version 0.8 recently. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 14.10 and Ubuntu 14.04.

Budgie is the flagship desktop of the Evolve OS Linux Distribution. It’s designed with the modern user in mind, it focuses on simplicity and elegance. A huge advantage for the Budgie desktop is that it is not a fork of another project, but rather one written from scratch with integration in mind.

Budgie desktop is nearly one year old and now it works very well in Ubuntu. See the screenshots in Ubuntu 14.10:

Budgie desktop in Ubuntu 14.10

Budgie Desktop in Ubuntu 14.10

Budgie Desktop in Ubuntu 14.10

How to install Budgie Desktop:

The developer has created an official PPA repository that contains Budgie binaries, available for Ubuntu 14.04 and Ubuntu 14.10.

To add the PPA and install the session, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal. When it opens, run the commands below one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:evolve-os/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install budgie-desktop

Or you can grab the .deb installer directly from the link below if you don’t want to add the PPA.

Budgie Desktop packages in Launchpad Page

Depends on your Ubuntu release edition and OS type, download & install the .deb package with:

  • trusty (or utopic) in name for Ubuntu 14.04 (or Ubuntu 14.10).
  • amd64 (or i386) in name for 64-bit (or 32-bit) system.

Once installed, log out and select login with Budgie session.

Corebird  GTK+ 3 Twitter Client

Corebird, Linux native GTK+ 3 twitter client has reached version 0.9 with great perfermance improvements. PPA’s ready for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10, and Linux Mint 17.

Corebird Twitter Client in Ubuntu 14.10 Corebird Twitter Client in Ubuntu 14.10

What’s new in Cordbird 0.9:

  • Mentions, hashtags and links now get highlighted directly in the compose window
  • You can now click the avatar to edit and change the user account.
  • You can now toggle the “autostart” switch in each user account’s settings window.
  • The setting regarding the dark theme is gone (existing configurations will keep working).
  • When viewing an image of a tweet with multiple images/videos attached, you can now use the cursor keys to navigate between them.
  • Avatars in tweets and profiles now show if the user is verified.
  • Lots of the application should now react better to missing network connections.
  • Some things now get immediately applied instead of needing a restart
  • Add a back button in the top of window.
  • UI improvements.

For more, see the release page (Click the suspension points after the version number to view changes).

Install Corebird in Ubuntu:

While there’s no binary packages available for Ubuntu, I’ve made the latest Corebird into my PPA repository, available for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Ubuntu 14.10, and Linux Mint 17.

Corebird depends on GTK+ >=3.12, so Ubuntu 14.04 users need to add the Gnome 3 and Gnome 3 staging PPA for the dependencies and that might broken your desktop, do it at your own risk!

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

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

Once Corebird is properly installed, remove the Gnome3 Staging PPA via:

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

To install it, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run the commands below one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/corebird

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install corebird

Install Corebird Twitter Client from PPA

If you don’t want to add the PPA, grab the .deb installer directly from this page.

As a workaround to fix the background transparency bug, I’ve edited the .desktop file so that Corebird window uses the old fat scroll bars instead of the overlay scroll bars.

(Optional) To remove Corebird:

To remove the twitter client as well as the PPA repository:

sudo apt-get remove corebird

sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/corebird

If you’ve added the Gnome 3 PPA, install ppa-purge from Ubuntu Software Center. Then purge the PPAs via commands below:

sudo ppa-purge ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3

sudo ppa-purge ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3-staging

Nvidia 346.16

NVIDIA recently introduced the 346.xx graphics driver series for Linux with the release of the 346.16 beta driver. Xorg-Edgers PPA has made the binary packages available for Ubuntu 14.10 and Ubuntu 14.04

According to the release highlights, the new driver added below new features:

  • Added support for GeForce GTX 970M and GeForce GTX 980M GPUs.
  • Added support for decoding VP8 video streams using the NVCUVID API on GPUs with VP8 hardware decode support.
  • Added the ability to increase the operating voltage on certain GeForce GPUs in the GeForce GTX 400 series and later. Voltage adjustments are done at the user’s own risk.
  • Added accelerated support for r8g8b8a8, r8g8b8x8, b8g8r8a8 and b8g8r8x8 RENDER formats.
  • Added support for the EGL_EXT_device_base, EGL_EXT_platform_device, and EGL_EXT_output_base extensions.
  • Added support in nvidia-settings for GTK+3 UI, an option --use-gtk2 available to force the use of GTK+2 library.
  • Support for the latest Linux Kernel 3.17 / 3.18 series.
  • Performance improvements and various bug fixes.

For more changes and supported products, see the Nvidia page.

How to Install Nvidia 346.16 in Ubuntu:

Besides using the official installer package, you can install the new driver in Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, or Linux Mint 17 from the xorg-edgers fresh X crack ppa.

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, paste the command below and hit run to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa

2. Update the package lists and install the new driver:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install nvidia-346 nvidia-settings

(Optional) To purge the PPA:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa

To remove the Nvidia 346 driver:

sudo apt-get remove nvidia-346

How to Install Brightness Indicator in Ubuntu 14.10

Last updated: November 17, 2014

Indicator Brightness

The Fn brightness control doesn’t work on your Ubuntu Laptop? Try indicator-brightness, an applet on panel to set your screen brightness, which also supports keyboard shortcuts.

The indicator-brightness is inspired by the original Gnome brightness applet, it allows the Unity users to set screen brightness by using the indicator menu or the scroll wheel of your mouse over the indicator icon. With it, you can assign custom keyboard shortcuts to control brightness with your keyboard.

brightness-indicator-ubuntu1410

Install Brightness Indicator Ubuntu 14.10:

It’s easy to install the applet though the developer doesn’t update the package for Ubuntu 14.10. And it works good on my laptop.

To install it, click the link below to go to the developer’s PPA package repository and download the .deb installer for Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty.

Download indicator-brightness

Select download the “indicator-brightness_0.4~bzr11~ubuntu14.04.1_all.deb”. Once downloaded, double-click the package to open it with Ubuntu Software Center and finally click the “install” button.

Once installed, start the applet from the Unity Dash and enjoy!

To add custom shortcuts to control screen brightness:

Open System Settings and navigate to “Keyboard -> Shortcuts tab -> Custom Shortcuts”.

Click the plus sign to add two new shortcuts with:

  • name: Brightness up
    command:

    /opt/extras.ubuntu.com/indicator-brightness/indicator-brightness-adjust --up
  • name: Brightness down
    command:

    /opt/extras.ubuntu.com/indicator-brightness/indicator-brightness-adjust --down

Assign shortcut keys to them and done!

Add Brightness Control Shortcuts

Speed Up the Unity Dash response

This quick tutorial shows how to improve your Ubuntu experience by speeding up the Unity Dash (search utility) response in Ubuntu 14.10 or Ubuntu 14.04.

The Unity Dash

1. Remove undesired search results

By default, the Dash displays Unity lens, scopes, Amazon online search results, and records file and application usage. You can disable some of them via below tips:

  • Disable online search results:

    Launch System Settings and go to Security & Privacy, under “Search” tab turn off the switch which says “When searching in the Dash: include online search results”

    Disable Online Search Results

  • Stop recording file and app usage:

    Also launch System Settings and go to Security & Privacy, under “Files & Applications” tab first clear records and then turn off the switch:

    Stop recording file and app usage

  • Remove unwanted Unity lens, scopes:

    Open Ubuntu Software Center and search for unity-scope. In the results, check the information of installed scopes and remove the scopes you don’t need.

    unity-scopes

    Do same to Unity lens by searching unity-lens.

2. Reduce Graphics Settings.

First click the link below to bring up Ubuntu Software Center and click install Compiz Config Settings Manager.

Click to install CCSM

Then launch CCSM from the Unity Dash and do below changes:

  • Go to Ubuntu Unity Plugin page under the Desktop category. Select No Blur from the drop-down box for Dash Blur.

    No Dash Blur

  • Go back and then go to OpenGL settings page under General category. Select Fast from the drop-down box for Texture Filter.

    texure-filter-fast

    Note that this change would affect the whole Ubuntu System graphics and not Unity alone.

To apply all the changes, restart your computer. Enjoy!

Midori Broswer 0.5.9 Ballet

The Midori Browser 0.5.9 “Ballet” was released recently with various important bug fixes. The developer announced in the blog post:

Seven months of sweat and tears… oh well, not quite so dramatic. In any event Midori 0.5.9 is out!

We’re already scheming… I mean planning for the next cycle. We want to go WebKit2 and GTK+3 only now and do away with the fourfold compatibility setup. Anyone who finds this thrilling is more than welcome to join in; the fun is going to start soon.

Midori Broser in Ubuntu

According to the changelog, the 0.5.9 release brings below changes:

  • Fix the problem that Downloads do not work with WebKit2
  • about:new in urlbar for new tabs has been fixed.
  • Fix visibility of SpeedDial, Toolbar, Bookmarkbar context menu items
  • Fix crash right-clicking forms on local pages
  • Fix crash when activating the edit menu
  • Fix “open all in tabs” for bookmarks
  • Fix crash when saving with associated resources
  • Fixes tab history undo
  • Fix a few simple leaks
  • Show search menu upon left icon click in location bar
  • Connect bookmarks-db singleton correctly to fix menus
  • Make middle clicking reload button duplicate the current tab, similar to other browsers

For the detailed changes, read the ChangeLog file from the Source Code page.

How to Install / Upgrade to Midori 0.5.9:

The 0.5.9 release is not yet now available in the official PPA. If you really want to install or upgrade to the new release, use the Development PPA. Ubuntu 14.10 and Ubuntu 14.04 are supported so far.

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal. When it opens, run commands below to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:midori/ppa && sudo apt-get update

2. After added the PPA, install the package via below command:

To install the GTK+2 version:

sudo apt-get install midori

To install the GTK+3 version:

sudo apt-get install midori-gtk3

3. (Optional) To remove the PPA as well as midori:

sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:midori/ppa

sudo apt-get remove midori

Windows Like Start Menu

Quick tutorial that shows you how to install and use Whisker Menu, a Windows like Start Menu for Linux, in (X)Ubuntu Xfce4 Desktop.

Whisker Menu is an alternate application launcher for Xfce Desktop. It is the default app launcher in Linux Mint Xfce edition since Mint 15 Olivia. With it, you can search for and browse through all of your installed applications.

Whisker Menu in Xfce4

Install Whisker Menu:

For (X)Ubuntu 15.04, (X)Ubuntu 14.10, and (X)Ubuntu 14.04, just click the link below to bring up Ubuntu Software Center and click the install button.

Click to Install Whisker Menu

For (X)Ubuntu 12.04, install it from the developer’s PPA by running the commands below one by one in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gottcode/gcppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin

To add the menu to panel:

  1. Right-click on panel and navigate to panel -> panel preferences …
  2. When the preferences window opens, navigate to Items tab
  3. Click on the green plus sign to add new item.
  4. Search for and add Whisker Menu to the Items list.
  5. Finally click the arrow button to move it to the top.

Add Whisker Menu to Launcher

Set Windows (Super) key to launch Whisker Menu:

  1. Start Settings Manager from the menu, and navigate to Keyboard
  2. When the Keyboard utility opens, navigate to Application Shortcuts tab.
  3. Add new shortcut with command xfce4-popup-whiskermenu
  4. Press the Super/Windows key when it prompts.

xfce4-launcher-key

Theming Whisker Menu: See the developer’s post.