Blender, a professional free and open-source 3D graphics software, has reached the 2.76b release. The ‘b’ release brings a few bugfixes to the 2.76 release which was released a month ago.
For Blender 2.76 new features see HERE, and the 2.76b fixed:
Thomas Schiex is maintaining a PPA with latest Blender packages, support for Ubuntu 15.10 and Ubuntu 14.04 so far. Follow below steps to add PPA and install/upgrade Blender.
1. Add PPA.
NOTE: As an unofficial PPA, you may first check the PPA page for the current Blender packages and supported Ubuntu editions.
Open terminal from Unity Dash, App Launcher, or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut key. When it opens, run below command to add PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:thomas-schiex/blender
Type your password when it asks (type in mind and hit enter, there’s no display when typing password).
2. If you have a previous installed via Ubuntu Software Center or PPA, launch Software Updater and upgrade Blender after checking for updates.
Or, install it via Software Center (check updates needed), Synaptic Package Manager, or via commands:
Mozilla Firefox 42.0 was finally released one day ago. Now it’s available in Ubuntu official repositories for Ubuntu 15.10, Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, and their derivatives, e.g., Linux Mint 13/17, and Elementary OS Freya/Luna.
Firefox 42.0 features:
Private Browsing with Tracking Protection blocks certain Web elements that could be used to record your behavior across sites
Control Center that contains site security and privacy controls
Indicator added to tabs that play audio with one-click muting
WebRTC improvements:
IPV6 support
Preferences for controlling ICE candidate generation and IP exposure
Hooks for extensions to allow/deny createOffer/Answer
Improved ability for applications to monitor and control which devices are used in getUserMedia
Login Manager improvements:
Improved heuristics to save usernames and passwords
Edit and show all logins in line, Copy/Paste usernames/passwords from the Context menu
Migration imports your passwords to Firefox from Google Chrome for Windows and Internet Explorer; import anytime from the Login Manager
Improved performance on interactive websites that trigger a lot of restyles
HTML5
Implemented ES6 Reflect
Support ImageBitmap and createImageBitmap()
Media Source Extension for HTML5 video available for all sites
DEVELOPER:
View HTML source in a tab
Remote website debugging over WiFi (no USB cable or ADB needed)
Asynchronous call stacks now allow web developers to follow the code flow through setTimeout, DOM event handlers, and Promise handlers.
Configurable Firefox OS Simulator in WebIDE, to simulate reference devices like phones, tablets, even TVs
CSS filter presets in the Inspector
Ability to save filter presets inside CSS Filter Tooltip
And also various security fixes.
How to Upgrade Firefox:
To upgrade the browser in Ubuntu, just launch Software Updater (or Update Manager for Linux Mint).
After checking for updates, you should see Firefox Web Browser available in the list.
PyAudioSelector, an open-source project written in Python, is a GTK3 indicator applet for Ubuntu users to easy switch between audio devices for all or some of the audio sources.
With the indicator applet, you can even set the different audio sources to different output devices.
How to Install:
The project is now under early development stage. An Ubuntu PPA will be created to make it easy to install. And before that, follow below steps to install a git release.
Open terminal from the Unity Dash, App Launcher, or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut key. When it opens, run below commands one by one:
1. Install git if you don’t have it.
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install git
2. Grab the source:
cd /tmp/ && git clone https://github.com/agustinmista/PyAudioSelector.git
3. Navigate to the source folder and run the install script:
cd /tmp/PyAudioSelector && sudo sh install.sh
Once installed, it starts automatically at next login.
How to Uninstall:
There is not an uninstall script at the moment, but you can easily remove the applet by running below commands one by one:
Linus Torvalds finally announced the release of Linux Kernel 4.3 at LKML last night. He wrote:
So it *felt* like the last week of the rc series was busy, to the point where I got a bit worried about the release. But doing the actual numbers shows that that really was just my subjective feeling,
probably due to the kernel summit and travel back home from Korea. It wasn’t actually a particularly busy week, it’s just that the pull requests were more noticeable in the last couple of days.
We had a network update and a late fix for a x86 vm86 mode bug introduced by the vm86 cleanups, but other than that it’s just a collection of various small oneliners all over. Ok, the vm86 mode thing was a one-liner too, it was just slightly more nerve-wracking because it looked scarier than it was before people (Andy) figured out what was going on.
The changes from rc7 are dominated by the network stuff, but as you can tell from the appended shortlog it’s not anything particularly scary.
So on the whole, this remains a rather calm release cycle until the very end. And with the release of 4.3, obviously the merge window for 4.4 is open, and let’s keep our fingers crossed that that will be an equally calm release. Especially since apparently Greg has decided ahead of time (as an experiment brought on by discussion at the kernel summit) that 4.4 will be another LTS release …
What’s New in Kernel 4.3:
Intel Skylake Graphics enabled by default.
Initial support for AMD Radeon R9 Fury
OpenGL 3.3 support for VMware.
Rework of the open-source NVIDIA/Nouveau driver
Remove EXT3 driver since existing EXT3 file-systems can be handled by the EXT4 driver
Many fixes for XFS, EXT4, F2FS, Btrfs RAID 5/6 and TRIM.
How to Install Kernel 4.3 in Ubuntu:
Ubuntu Kernel Team has made the binary packages for the new Kernel release, available for download at:
The latest Kodi Media Center, formerly known as XBMC, now is available for Ubuntu 15.10 users through its official PPA repository.
The current version is Kodi 15.2 ‘Isengard’ which was released in the middle of this month. For those who want to install this release and receive future updates via Software Updater, follow below steps.
1. Add Kodi PPA
Open terminal from the Unity Dash, App Launcher, or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut key. When it opens, run below command to add PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc/ppa
2. If you’ve installed an old release from Software Center. Run Software Updater to upgrade to Kodi 15.2.
Or run below commands one by one in terminal to install or upgrade the software:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install kodi
Once installed, log with Kodi session at next login or launch it from the Unity Dash at next boot.
3. (Optional) To remove Kodi PPA, go to the Software & Updates -> Other Software tab or run below command in terminal:
Still need flash to view some websites in Firefox? Ubuntu users now can choose between the old Adobe Flash 11.2 and Google’s Pepper Flash with newer features.
Flash plugin for Linux provided by Adobe stopped at version 11.2. For Chrome and Chromium users there’s a Pepper Flash plugin but it’s not supported by Firefox. In Ubuntu 15.10 and 16.04, there’s now a new project called browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash which makes the Pepper Flash working in Firefox.
1. Open Ubuntu Software Center, search for and install the package named browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash
For those who prefer Linux command. Run below command in a terminal instead to install the package:
The command should installs the recommended package pepperflashplugin-nonfree, which automatically downloads Chrome from Google and unpacks it to make the included Pepper Flash available for use with Chromium.
Then installs browser-plugin-freshplayer-pepperflash, which works as a wrapper to make the unpacked Pepper Flash working in Firefox.
2. After installation, restart Firefox browser and enjoy!
Minimize an application window by single clicking on its icon on system taskbar or dock app launcher is a common used functionality.
This ‘minimize on click’ behavior for Unity’s Left Launcher is not ready in Ubuntu out-of-the-box. So this simple tutorial is going to tell you how to enable this handy feature in Ubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf.
1. Install Unity Tweak Tool.
Search for and install unity tweak tool via Ubuntu Software Center:
2. Launch Unity Tweak Tool once installed. Then click the first icon that says ‘Launcher’ to go to its configuration page.
3. Check the box says ‘Minimize single window applications on click’ and done.
Quick tutorial that shows beginner how to install the Skype 4.3 client for Linux in Ubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf.
This just is a rewritten of one my old tutorial when the 4.3 release was released to make the installation more clear and easy to understand!
Skype Audio/Video Call
1. Enable Canonical Partners repository.
The partner repositories offer access to proprietary and closed-source software and are not enabled by default, e.g., adobe-flashplugin, google-cloud-sdk, and skype.
To add the repository, launch Software & Updates and then go to Other Software tab. Check first two boxes as shown below:
2. Refresh package cache and install Skype
For graphical way, install Synaptic Package Manager in Software Center. Then launch the software to refresh your system repositories, search for and install skype.
For those who prefer Linux commands, launch terminal from the Unity Dash, App Launcher, or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut key. When it opens, run below commands one by one:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install skype
Finally, launch the client from the Dash/Launcher and Enjoy!
QupZilla web browser 1.8.8 was released a few hours ago. Official builds are now using Qt 5, which bring HTML5 Audio/Video support and a lot of fixes for bugs and crashes for Windows Vista+.
QupZilla 1.8.8 is still using QtWebKit. It’s a bug-fix release that feathers:
added interface for extensions to show action in Tools menu
add option to use TabManager as main tabbar replacement
fix build with Qt 5.5.1
fix crash when unloading plugin with visible sidebar
fix possible crash when accessing last active window
fix sometimes incorrectly loading background non-restored tab
fix showing speed dials in bookmarks icon
fix showing messages in statusbar in RTL mode
fix crash when application style is externally changed
fix labels color in access keys navigation with dark style
fix position of autoscroll indicator with site notification visible
Windows: fix setting as default browser
Windows: better toolbar background for Windows 10
How to Install QupZilla 1.8.8 in Ubuntu:
Ubuntu packages are now also using Qt 5, and they are available in its official PPA for Ubuntu 15.10, Ubuntu 14.04, and Ubuntu 15.04.
1. Add QupZilla PPA.
Open terminal from the Unity Dash, App Launcher, or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut key. When it opens, run below command in terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:nowrep/qupzilla
2. If have a previous release installed, run Software Updater (or Update Manager) and upgrade the browser by installing the updates in the list.
Or, run below commands one by one in terminal to refresh system repository cache and install/upgrade the browser:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install qupzilla
For those who don’t want to add PPA, select download the .deb package directly from THIS PAGE.
Linux Mint’s Desktop Environment Cinnamon 2.8 now is available for upgrade. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 15.04 via PPA.
Cinnamon 2.8 will be officially released and announced at the end of October. Currently known changes in the 2.8 release:
Better sound applet:
The track info and media controls are now part of a new overlay which sits on top of the cover art. For supported players, a flat position bar is displayed underneath.
Input controls, applications and output devices moved to the right-click context menu. Output devices now show their origins when multiple sound devices are detected (credits go to Cobinja for that).
Battery vendor/model info – display the presence of manufacturer data in the power settings and applet.
a couple of fixes to box pointers
The workspace switcher applet now shows a visual representation of your workspaces, with little cubes for the windows inside of them
Install Cinnamon 2.8 in Ubuntu:
There’s a PPA repository that contains Cinnamon 2.8 for Ubuntu 15.04. Ubuntu 15.10 should be support soon once it’s officially released. Check out the PPA page.
1. Add PPA.
Open terminal from the Dash, App Launcher, or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut key. When it open, run command:
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:moorkai/cinnamon
2. Update and install the DE via below commands one by one:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cinnamon
Once installed, log out and select log back with Cinnamon session.
