Quick tutorial shows how to save current session status so that Ubuntu remembers and automatically restores the current running applications at next login.
This can be done by a simple graphical configuration tool called Dconf-Editor. So first click the link below to bring up Ubuntu Software Center and install the tool:
Once installed, launcher dconf-editor from the Dash or the Launcher.
When it opens, navigate to org -> gnome -> gnome session in the left pane. Then enable ‘auto-save-session’ by checking the box.
That’s it! Next time you login, the current running applications will be restored automatically.
Picty is a free, open-source, and lightweight manager for large photo collections. It is designed around managing metadata and a lossless approach to image handling.
metadata: descriptive and other information about images (created by you, your camera or the programs you use) that are embedded inside image files alongside the pixels.
lossless: by only ever writing information about images, including image processing instructions, as metadata, the original image pixels are never altered allowing you to preserve the images as they were taken on your camera.
Picty is lightweight and has a snappy interface. All the heavy lifting is done on background threads or external processes to ensure the UI never blocks. User is informed of what is going on in the background with progress notifications etc.
Picty Features:
Supports big photo collections (20,000 plus images).
Open more than one collection at a time and transfer images between them.
Collections are:
Folders of images in your local file system.
Images on cameras, phones and other media devices.
Photo hosting services (Flickr currently supported).
picty does not “Import” photos into its own database, it simply provides an interface for accessing them wherever they are. To keep things snappy and to allow you to browse even if you are offline, picty maintains a cache of thumbnails and metadata.
Reads and writes metadata in industry standard formats Exif, IPTC and Xmp
Lossless approach:
picty writes all changes including image edits as metadata. e.g. an image crop is stored as any instruction, the original pixels remain in the file
Changes are stored in picty’s collection cache until you save your metadata changes to the images. You can easily revert unsaved changes that you don’t like.
Basic image editing:
Current support for basic image enhancements such as brightness, contrast, color, cropping, and straightening.
Improvements to those tools and other tools coming soon (red eye reduction, levels, curves, noise reduction)
Image tagging:
Use standard IPTC and Xmp keywords for image tags
A tag tree view lets you easily manage your tags and navigate your collection
Folder view:
Navigate the directory heirarchy of your image collection
Multi-monitor support
picty can be configured to let you browse your collection on one screen and view full screen images on another.
Customizable
Create launchers for external tools
Supports plugins – many of the current features (tagging and folder views, and all of the image editing tools) are provided by plugins
Written in python – batteries included!
How to Install Picty in Ubuntu:
The developer maintains a PPA repository contains the latest Picty packages for Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 10.04, and derivatives (Linux Mint 13/17/17.1).
To add the PPA, open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T. When it opens, run command:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:damien-moore/ppa
Type in your password when it asks and hit Enter to continue.
After you added the PPA, update package cache and install the software by running below two commands one by one:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install picty
For basic raw processing, video thumbnailing, flickr collection, and geotagging support, run command to install below packages:
The Gnome-Pie project now goes alive by releasing the version 0.5.6, since the last release was announced in March 2013.
For those who have never heard of Gnome-Pie. It is a circular application launcher which is made of several pies, each consisting of multiple slices. The user presses a key stroke which opens the desired pie. By activating one of its slices, applications may be launched, key presses may be simulated or files can be opened.
See how it works:
The developer announced the 0.5.6 release recently with some fixes and planed to drop any GTK2 support and update Gnome-Pie fully to current software versions (GTK 3.14, Vala 0.27, etc.)
Changes in Gnome-Pie 0.5.6:
Transparency under Gnome 3.10+ (thank you, Raphaël Rochet)
Pie hotkeys start numbering with one (instead of zero, since the zero key is really hard to press)
option windows are now resizable since they are too small with certain window managers (e.g. Gala)
Install Gnome-Pie 0.5.6 in Ubuntu:
The binary packages have been made into PPA repository, available for Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 14.04, and Ubuntu 14.10.
To add the PPA, open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command:
Once installed, start Gnome-Pie from the Dash. From the indicator applet on panel start its settings window and configure keyboard shortcuts and pie items.
Caffeine is a simple indicator applet on Ubuntu panel that allows to temporarily prevent the activation of the screensaver, screen lock, and the “sleep” powersaving mode.
It’s helpful when you’re watching movies. Simply click active option inhibits Ubuntu desktop idleness. Works on Ubuntu Unity, Ubuntu Gnome, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Lubuntu.
Install Caffeine in Ubuntu 14.04:
The developer has made the latest release (2.8.2 so far) into PPA repository available for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.
To add the PPA, open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T. When it opens, run command:
support for X.Org xserver ABI 19 (xorg-server 1.17)
support for decoding VP8 video streams using the NVCUVID API on GPUs with VP8 hardware decode support.
new EGL extensions support: EGL_EXT_device_base, EGL_EXT_platform_device, EGL_EXT_output_base
support for NVENC on GeForce GPUs.
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.
accelerated support for r8g8b8a8, r8g8b8x8, b8g8r8a8 and b8g8r8x8 RENDER formats.
support in nvidia-settings for a GTK+ 3 user interface on x86 and x86_64.
added the nvidia-settings option –use-gtk2 to force the use of the GTK+ 2 UI library
There are also numerous fixes and improvements, see the release highlight.
How to Install NVIDIA 346.35 in Ubuntu:
Before the xorg-edgers PPA updates for this driver, you can download & install the official NVIDIA package by following below steps:
1. Select download the official installer from links below:
32-bit or 64-bit? Check your OS type by going to top-right corner shutdown menu (gear button) and clicking ‘About This Computer’
2. To be able to install the new driver, you have to remove the previous driver by running below command in a terminal window (Open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard):
blacklist nouveau
blacklist lbm-nouveau
options nouveau modeset=0
alias nouveau off
alias lbm-nouveau off
4. You can also disable the Kernel Nouveau by running below commands one by one:
echo options nouveau modeset=0 | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/nouveau-kms.conf
sudo update-initramfs -u
5. Finally reboot your computer and when you’re at the login prompt press Ctrl+Alt+F1 (or F2 ~ F6) to switch to command console. Login with your username and password.
6. When you’re at the black & white text console, the graphics session is still there and you can switch back by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F7. You have to kill the graphics session by running below command:
sudo stop lightdm
Replace lightdm with gdm, mdm, or kdm for GNOME, Linux Mint, or KUbuntu.
7. At last give permission to the downloaded package and run it:
cd ~/Downloads && chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-*-346.35.run && sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-*-346.35.run
Follow the on screen prompts and when everything’s done reboot your computer. In next boot after log in, run sudo nvidia-xconfig to save your new nvidia configuration.
(Optional) To remove the driver, re-do step 5 & 6 and run:
cd ~/Downloads && sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-*-346.35.run --uninstall
The lightweight Pragha music player has reached the 1.3.2 release. PPA updated for Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, and Linux Mint 17/17.1.
For those who have never heard of Pragha, see the description below:
Pragha is a Lightweight Music Player for GNU/Linux, based on Gtk, sqlite, and completely written in C, constructed to be fast, light, and simultaneously tries to be complete without obstructing the daily work. ;)
A tiny history of the project:
Consonance, An excellent player emerged in the archlinux forums, was discontinued. The author, Sacamano said in his blog:
“Which doesn’t mean that it won’t be maintained. I would still be fixing bugs, but major feature additions are not in the pipeline, because I have completed all that I wanted to see in Consonance. It has been a fun project. :)”
Well.. Dissonance is the project to continue developing Consonance, and its result is Pragha Music Player. A New reproducer of music.. ;)
Pragha 1.3.2 was released a few a hours with following new features:
Add optional client-side-decorators support trying to follow Gnome3 HIG.
Can hide menubar and then append a gear menu on toolbar.
Add a infobar when some change on prefrences need restart.
Also there are a few UI improvements, various bug fixes, translations updates in this release. See the release page for details.
How to Install Pragha Music Player in Ubuntu:
The binary packages has been made into my personal ppa, available for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and Ubuntu 14.10 (Due to broken dependencies, the 12.04 build has been removed).
To add the PPA, open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run:
Quick tutorial shows how to install the latest qBitTorrent client in Ubuntu 14.04 and keep it up-to-date while the default Ubuntu repositories provide an old version.
qBitTorrent is a free cross-platform BitTorrent client written in C++ and Qt. Its optional search engine is written in the Python programming language. It aims to provide a Free Software alternative to µtorrent.
While Ubuntu universe repositories provide the 3.1.8 release for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, the latest qBitTorrent release has reached version 3.1.11. For the latest features, fixes and other changes see its news page.
Install/Upgrade qBitTorrent in Ubuntu:
To install the latest version of this Bittorrent client and receive future updates via Software Updater, add the official PPA by running below command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):
Type in user password when it asks and hit Enter to continue. Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 15.04, Linux Mint 13/17 are supported so far.
After that, start Software Updater and install updates to upgrade qBitTorrent. Or install it by running below commands one by one:
Mozilla Firefox has reached the 35 release which brings improved “Hello” video chat tool, built-in support for H.264 on OS X via native APIs, improved high quality image resizing performance, support for the CSS Font Loading API, updated PDF.js, and numerous other changes.
Firefox Hello with new rooms-based conversations model
New search UI improved and enabled for more locales
Access the Firefox Marketplace from the Tools menu and optional toolbar button
Built-in support for H264 (MP4) on Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) and newer through native APIs
Use tiled rendering on OS X
Improved high quality image resizing performance
Improved handling of dynamic styling changes to increase responsiveness
Implemented HTTP Public Key Pinning Extension (for enhanced authentication of encrypted connections)
Added support for the CSS Font Loading API
Resource Timing API implemented
CSS filters enabled by default
Changed JavaScript ‘let’ semantics to match the ES6 specification
Support for inspecting ::before and ::after pseudo elements
Computed view: Nodes matching the hovered selector are now highlighted
Network Monitor: New request/response headers view (more info)
Added support for the EXT_blend_minmax WebGL extension
Show DOM Properties context menu item in inspector
Reduced resource usage for scaled images
PDF.js updated to version 1.0.907
Non-HTTP(S) XHR now returns correct status code
Various security fixes
Upgrade Firefox in Ubuntu:
For Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 14.04, and Ubuntu 14.10, Firefox 35 will be soon made into the official Ubuntu repositories, available for upgrade through the Software Updater:
OpenJDK Java 8 has been made into official Ubuntu repositories for 14.10 Utopic and higher. For Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, and Linux Mint 17 users here’s how to install it from PPA.
OpenJDK 8 was released in March 2014. It’s available in Ubuntu Software Center for Ubuntu 14.10 and Ubuntu 15.04. Someone has reported in launchpad asking for packaging openjdk-8 in Ubuntu 14.04, but no luck so far.
As a workaround, you can install OpenJDK 8 from a PPA repository:
1. Open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T. When it opens, run the command below to add PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:openjdk-r/ppa
Type in user password when it asks and hit Enter to continue.
2. After that, update system package cache and install OpenJDK 8:
