Archives For November 30, 1999

Pandora Radio Client for Ubuntu Linux

This tutorial shows how to install Pithos, a native Pandora Internet Radio client, in Ubuntu 14.04 or Ubuntu 14.10 via its PPA repository.

Pandora Radio is a music streaming and automated music recommendation service which is only available in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. The service plays musical selections of a certain genre based on the user’s artist selection.

Pithos is an open source Pandora Radio client for Linux. It’s much more lightweight than the Pandora.com web client, and integrates with desktop features such as media keys, notifications, and the sound menu.

Pandora Radio Client in Ubuntu

The client features:

  • Play / Pause / Next Song
  • Switching stations
  • Remembering user name and password
  • Cover Art
  • Thumbs Up / Thumbs Down / Tired of this song
  • Notification popup with song info
  • Launching pandora.com song info page and station page
  • Reconnecting when pandora session times out
  • Editing QuickMix
  • Creating stations
  • Media Key support
  • Proxy support
  • Last.fm scrobbling

The latest release has reached v1.0.1, you can get the detailed changes from the github page.

Install Pithos in Ubuntu 14.10 / 14.04:

The developers have created a PPA repository that provides the latest packages for Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04 and their derivatives such as Linux Mint 17.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pithos/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install pithos

Install Pithos Pandora client

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

How to Install Adobe Reader in Ubuntu 14.10

Last updated: October 2, 2014

adobe reader ubuntu 14.10

Adobe Reader for Linux is no longer available for download from Adobe website. But we can still install it in Ubuntu through the old Canonical Partners repository.

Adobe has recently removed the Linux support from its official download page. Actually the latest “AdbeRdr9.5.5-1_i386linux_enu.deb” package is still available in the official repository, but it might be removed in near future.

If you still want this PDF reader, below is how to install Adobe Reader (Acroread) 9 in Ubuntu 14.10 from the Canonical Partners repository for Precise (12.04).

1. Open up terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, paste the command below and hit enter to add the repository:

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.canonical.com/ precise partner"

Type in your user password when it asks. Note that there’s no visual feed back when you typing a password.

2. After you added the repository, update package lists and install the acroread package by running below commands one by one:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install acroread

Install Adobe Reader in Ubuntu 14.10

Once installed, you should be able to open it from Unity dash or Application menu.

3 After properly installed Adobe Reader, don’t forget to remove the Canonical Partners repository for Precise:

sudo add-apt-repository -r "deb http://archive.canonical.com/ precise partner"

sudo apt-get update

4. How to Set Adobe Reader as default PDF reader:

Run command below in terminal to edit the config file:

sudo gedit /etc/gnome/defaults.list

When the file opens, do:

  • Find out and change the line

    application/pdf=evince.desktop

    into:

    application/pdf=acroread.desktop

  • Add below line into the end:

    application/fdf=acroread.desktop
    application/xdp=acroread.desktop
    application/xfdf=acroread.desktop
    application/pdx=acroread.desktop

Finally save the file and restart nautilus (run command nautilus -q in terminal) to apply changes.

Enable SSH in Ubuntu 14.10 Server / Desktop

Last updated: September 30, 2014

enable ssh ubuntu 14.10

Secure Shell (SSH) is a protocol for securely accessing remote machine, it allows you to run command line and graphical programs, transfer files, and even create secure virtual private networks over the Internet.

Ubuntu does not provide the ssh service out-of-the-box. But you can easily enable it by installing the OpenSSH server package.

To enable SSH:

Search for and install the openssh-server package from Ubuntu Software Center. Or run command below in console if you’re on Ubuntu Server without GUI:

sudo apt-get install openssh-server

Once installed, the SSH service should be started automatically. If necessary, you can start (or stop, restart) the service manually via command:

sudo service ssh start

To edit settings:

To change the port, root login permission, you may edit the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file via:

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

After you changed the configurations, press Ctrl+X followed by typing y and hitting enter to save the file.

Finally restart the SSH service to apply the changes:

sudo service ssh restart

Usage and Tips:

1. Normally, we can access remote machine through SSH via command:

ssh username@remote-ip

For the port that is not the default 22:

ssh username@remote-ip -p NUMBER

2. For desktop Ubuntu, root user need to be enabled first so that remote machines can SSH to it via root:

Run command below to set a password for root:

sudo passwd root

Then execute command to unlock the root account:

sudo passwd -u root

Edit the config file /etc/ssh/sshd_config, change the line

PermitRootLogin without-password

into:

PermitRootLogin yes

When done, restart the SSH service.

For more, read the community documents.

How to Install μTorrent (uTorrent) on Ubuntu 14.10

Last updated: September 30, 2014

Install utorrent ubuntu 14.10

µTorrent (or uTorrent) is a free, closed source, and most widely used BitTorrent client available in Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. The program was designed to use minimal computer resources while offering functionality comparable to larger BitTorrent clients such as Vuze or BitComet.

µTorrent for Linux is composed of a µTorrent server and a web based client. Below I will show you how to install it in Ubuntu step by step, tested in a fresh 64-bit Ubuntu 14.10 installation.

1. Download the official package from the link below:

Download uTorrent Server

You may first check out your OS type from shutdown menu (top-right gear button) -> About This Computer. Then select download “µTorrent Server for Ubuntu 13.04 – 32-bit or 64-bit”.

2. Once the downloading process finish, go to the Downloads folder in file browser and extract the package through its context menu.

extract-utserver

Tip: If you want other users on the Ubuntu system to be able to use the uTorrent server, extract the package to /opt/ directory. To do so, open Archive Manager as root/admin by running sudo file-roller in terminal, then open and extract the package.

3. Navigate to the result folder and run utserver from its context menu:

run-utorrent-server

That’s right you see nothing happens because the server is running as a background program.

Tip: If you don’t see the Run option in its right-click menu, do:

Go to Properties in its right-click menu, check the box where it says “Allow executing file as program” under Permissions tab.

4. Finally in your web browser go to http://localhost:8080/gui/. When it asks, type in:

username: admin
password: leave it empty.

utorrent client in firefox

That’s it. Enjoy!

install multimedia codecs, enable dvd playback

Due to legal constraints in many countries, Ubuntu does not include multimedia codecs to play mp3, movies, and DVDs out-of-the-box.

This quick tutorial will show you how to manually install the multimedia codecs to enable playback audio, video, DVDs in Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic.

Install Multimedia Codecs:

There is a package “Ubuntu restricted extras” available in Ubuntu Software Center. Installing it will pull in support for MP3 playback and decoding, support for various other audio & video formats such as mp4, avi, rmvb, wmv and more, Microsoft fonts, Flash plugin, LAME (to create compressed audio files), and DVD playback.

To install the package, just click the link below to bring up Ubuntu Software Center and click the install button:

install ubuntu-restricted-extras

During the installing process, you will be asked to accept the EULA license terms.

Tip: If you get a warning dialog says “to install ubuntu restricted extras, these items must be removed”, just click the ignore because -extra versions of these libraries will be installed instead, to provide additional functionality.

Enable DVD Playback:

After installed the package above, you should be able to play normal DVDs. But for playing encrypted DVDs, libdvdread4 and libdvdcss2 are also required.

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, paste the commands below to install libdvdread4:

sudo apt-get install libdvdread4

The package provides a simple script to download & install libdvdcss2, to run the script:

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

If you can’t get the libdvdcss2 package from the script, download & install,

  • libdvdcss2_1.2.13-0_amd64.deb for 64-bit Ubuntu.

  • libdvdcss2_1.2.13-0_i386.deb for 32-bit ubuntu.

from the page: download.videolan.org/ubuntu/utopic

When done, you should be able to playback (and navigate DVD menus) in most video applications, including the default Totem and VLC media player..

remove white dots, guest session

This is a quick tutorial that shows you how to remove the Guest session and the white dots from Unity’s login screen in Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic.

1. To remove the Guest session:

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

sudo gedit /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-ubuntu.conf

Type in your user password when it asks. Note that there’s no visual feed back when typing password.

Remove Guest session in Unity

As the picture shows, when the editor opens, add a new line into the end and save the file

allow-guest=false

That’s it. You won’t see the Guest next time Ubuntu boots up.

2. To Remove white dots:

There is a graphical tool dconf-editor which provides options to change the login screen background and remove the white dots (draw grid).

a.) To install dconf-editor, click the link below to bring up Ubuntu Software Center and click the install button:

Click install dconf-editor

b.) To configure Unity login screen, you need the lightdm user privilege to launcher dconf-editor. To do so:

Press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal. When it opens, run commands to get root privilege:

sudo -i

Type in your user password when it asks.

Allow user lightdm to create a connection to the X server:

xhost +SI:localuser:lightdm

Switch to user lightdm in this terminal window:

su lightdm -s /bin/bash

Finally start dconf-editor:

dconf-editor

c.) When the dconf-editor opens, navigate to com –> canonical –> unity-greeter in left. Then disable the value for both draw-grid and draw-user-backgrounds.

Remove White Dots

Done. You’ll see the changes in next boot.

Install Java Ubuntu 14.10

This quick tutorial shows you how to easily install Oracle Java JDK 6, JDK 7 and/or JDK 8 (includes JRE) in Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic via PPA.

Thanks to Webupd8 Team for providing the installer scripts in PPA that automatically downloads Oracle Java package from its official site and installs it on your system.

1. To add the PPA, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, paste the command below and hit enter.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java

Type in your user password when prompts. Note that there’s no visual feed back when typing your password.

2. After added the PPA, run commands below one by one to install Java (you may replace number 8 in the code with 6 or 7):

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install oracle-java8-installer

Install Java in Ubuntu

If you have two or more Java versions installed on your system, run command below to set Oracle Java to default (you may replace number 8 with 6 or 7):

sudo apt-get install oracle-java8-set-default

Finally, check out java version via:

java -version

You’ll see something like this:

java version “1.8.0_20”
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_20-b26)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.20-b23, mixed mode)

Turn off error reporting

This quick tutorial is going to show you how to turn off the Apport error reporting system in Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn.

Apport is a system which gathers potentially useful information about the crash and the OS environment. If any process in the system crashes, a dialog pops up and asks user to send error report to help fix the problem.

Error Report Dialog

Reporting bugs is important, it helps improving system stability, but if you’re constantly getting crash report popups, you may want to disable it.

To get started, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, paste the command below and run to edit the config file:

sudo gedit /etc/default/apport

You can use gksudo to replace sudo, but install gksu first from Ubuntu Software Center.

When the file opens, change the value of ‘enable’ from ‘1’ to ‘0’ and save it.

Turn off error reporting

After that, stop the Apport process so you don’t have to restart your computer:

sudo service apport stop

That’s it.

Ubuntu 14.10 Beta 2

Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn Beta 2 and its official flavors are now available for download.

This Beta features images for Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu Gnome, UbuntuKylin, Ubuntu Studio, Xubuntu, and Ubuntu Cloud.

The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the final beta release of Ubuntu 14.10 Desktop, Server, Cloud, and Core products.

Codenamed “Utopic Unicorn”, 14.10 continues Ubuntu’s proud tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution. The team has been hard at work through this cycle, introducing new features and fixing bugs.

This beta release includes images from not only the Ubuntu Desktop, Server, Cloud, and Core products, but also the Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, Ubuntu Kylin, Ubuntu Studio and Xubuntu flavours.

The beta images are known to be reasonably free of showstopper CD build or installer bugs, while representing a very recent snapshot of 14.10 that should be representative of the features intended to ship with the final release expected on October 23rd, 2014.

see the official release note.

According to Ubuntu 14.10’s release schedule, there will be:

  • Kernel Freeze on October 9th
  • Final Freeze and Release Candidate on October 16th
  • Final Release of Ubuntu 14.10 (Stable) on October 23rd

What to expect in the Ubuntu 14.10 Final:

  • Both Unity 8 (Mir) and Unity 7 (X.org) available.
  • Ubuntu 14.10 will bring better 3G mobile modems.
  • Kubuntu 14.10 will be using KDE Plasma 5.

Download Ubuntu 14.10 Beta 2:

For Unity: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/14.10/
For Kubuntu: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/14.10/
For Lubuntu: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/14.10/
For Ubuntu Gnome: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-gnome/releases/14.10/
For UbuntuKylin: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntukylin/releases/14.10/
For UbuntuStudio: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/14.10/
For Xubuntu: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/14.10/
For Ubuntu Cloud: http://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/utopic/

Ubuntu MATE 14.10 Beta 2 Available for Download

Last updated: September 25, 2014

Ubuntu Mate 14.10

Ubuntu MATE 14.10, an unofficial Ubuntu flavor maintained by Ubuntu community, has just reached its second beta release.

What’s Ubuntu MATE?

Ubuntu MATE is a new Ubuntu flavor started a few months ago. The first release will be Ubuntu MATE 14.10, Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic integrated with MATE Desktop Environment.

Ubuntu MATE is a Ubuntu community project developed by the core MATE Desktop development team, and maintained by the heroes from the Debian packaging team.

At the moment, Ubuntu MATE is not an official Ubuntu “flavor”. The team are working towards that.

MATE Desktop Environment is the continuation of classic GNOME 2. It provides an intuitive and attractive desktop environment using traditional metaphors for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems.

Ubuntu MATE

Ubuntu MATE

The Beta2 release has been focused on fixing broken things and improving what was already present in Beta1. See the official release note for details.

Download Ubuntu MATE at: https://ubuntu-mate.org/download/