1. Home/
    2. Archives / Ji m

Archives For jimingkui

Enable Nautilus File Preview in Ubuntu 14.10 / 14.04

Last updated: January 8, 2015

Ubuntu-tips

Want to enable Nautilus file quick preview in Ubuntu? There are two Nautilus add-ons, Gnome Sushi and Gloobus Preview, allow you to preview Audio, Video, Picture, Document files quickly by tapping the Space key and close preview by hitting the Space again.

Gnome Sushi

Gnome Sushi quick previewer is available in Ubuntu universe repositories by default. It can be easily installed by clicking the link below to bring up Ubuntu Software Center and clicking install button.

Click install Gnome Sushi

The previewer works immediately once installed. If not, restart Nautilus by nautilus -q commands.

Sushi folder preview

Sushi Audio Preview

Sushi Document Preview

Gloobus Preview:

Gloobus Preview supports even more file formats and looks a little better than Gnome Sushi previewer. Thanks to György Balló and Alin Andrei, the software now available in PPA for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10 and Linux Mint 17.

Install Gloobus Preview in Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10:

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run below commands one by one to install the software from Webupd8 PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gloobus-preview gloobus-sushi unoconv gnumeric

For Linux Mint, install nemo-gloobus-sushi instead of gloobus-sushi in the previous code.

After installation restart Nautilus by running the command below:

nautilus -q

Note that you have to install media codecs to make audio/video preview work.

Gloobus Folder Preview

Gloobus Picture Preview

Gloobus Video Preview

In Howtos ,
 permalink

Blender 2.73 Released [How to Install it in Ubuntu]

Last updated: January 8, 2015

Install Latest Blender in Ubuntu

Blender, the popular 3D graphics and animation software, has reached the 2.73 release with numerous improvements, stabilization and bug fixes.

A major upgrade was given to the Grease Pencil tool, which inter alia brought the ability to edit and animate strokes. The first developments from the Gooseberry Project like a Sequencer Backdrop, Cycles viewport world background and others were added. Cycles got various improvements and speedups, as well as support for cameras inside volumes, the UI got a new ‘minimalistic’ fullscreenmode and Input Method Editor support for textbuttons (used for complex Chinese and Japanese character input), the Knife-tool was improved, Freestyle got a SVG exporter, and many more features which are worth checking out!

For the detailed changes in Blender 2.73, see the official release note.

Blender 2.73 in Ubuntu 14.04

How to Install Blender 2.73 in Ubuntu:

Blender download page provides the binary packages for GNU/Linux, while there’s no PPA contains the latest built of Blender packages you can follow this step by step how to guide to install Blender in Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10 from the official package.

In Howtos
 permalink

Install Variety Automatic Wallpaper Changer 0.5 in Ubuntu 14.04

Last updated: January 7, 2015

automatic wallpaper changer

Variety automatic wallpaper changer has reached the 0.5 release a few hours ago. Here’s what’s new and how to install it in Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 15.04 and Ubuntu 12.04

For those who have never heard of Variety, see the below description from the launchpad page

Variety changes the desktop wallpaper on a regular basis, using user-specified or automatically downloaded images.

Variety sits conveniently as an indicator in the panel and can be easily paused and resumed. The mouse wheel can be used to scroll wallpapers back and forth until you find the perfect one for your current mood.

Apart from displaying images from local folders, several different online sources can be used to fetch wallpapers according to user-specified criteria.

Variety can also automatically apply various fancy filters to the displayed images – charcoal painting, oil painting, heavy blurring, etc. – so that your desktop is always fresh and unique. Applying a heavy blurring filter for example is a great way to get abstract-looking and unobtrusive, yet colorful wallpapers, similar in spirit to the default one in Ubuntu.

Video Demo:

http://vimeo.com/50978057

Release Highlights of the v0.5:

  • Added Reddit support
  • Show Next and Previous in main menu only in non-Unity DEs (Unity supports indicator scroll, no need for them there)
  • Adding Wallhaven.cc support
  • More details at launchpad.net/variety/trunk/0.5.0

Install / Upgrade Variety in Ubuntu:

The packages have been made into the official PPA, available for Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 10.04, Linux Mint and derivatives.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:peterlevi/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install variety

Don’t want to add PPA? Download the package “variety_0.5.0_all.deb” at:

Download Variety .deb Package

Once downloaded, click to open it with Ubuntu Software Center and finally install the software.

NOTE: if you have a previous version installed, you need to remove the config files under user’s “.config/variety” folder (press Ctrl+H to view hidden folders) to use Wallhaven.cc instead of Wallbase.cc.

In Howtos ,
 permalink

How to Install ‘MATE Tweak’, Configuration Tool for MATE Desktop

Last updated: July 28, 2015

Ubuntu Mate Graphical Configuration Tool

The MATE Desktop now has a graphical configuration tool called ‘MATE Tweak’, developed by Martin Wimpress – co-founder and project lead for Ubuntu MATE.

The MATE Desktop 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 is the community Ubuntu flavor uses the MATE Desktop. So far, it has released Ubuntu MATE 14.04 LTS and Ubuntu MATE 14.10.

MATE Tweak is a simple configuration tool written in Python. It’s a fork of mintdesktop that removes the Mint specific configuration options.

As a new project, the tool only provides a few options, see the screenshots (from lffl.org) below:

MATE Tweak

MATE Tweak

MATE Tweak

How to Install MATE Tweak:

The developer has made the packages into his Ubuntu MATE PPA, available for test in Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04 and Linux Mint 17.

To add the PPA and install MATE Tweak, press Ctrl+Alt+T and run below commands one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mate-dev/trusty-mate

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install mate-tweak

Don’t want to add PPA? You can download & install the .deb package directly from the launchpad page.

In Howtos ,
 permalink

OS X Yosemite Like Theme for Elementary OS 0.2 Luna

Last updated: January 6, 2015

Elementary OS theme in OS X Yosemite Style

For Elementary OS users now there’s an OS X Yosemite like GTK theme for the 0.2 Luna desktop.

Some guys have created a new project called yellowstone, which is an OS X Yosemite like ElementaryOS Luna theme based on the excellent Elementary default theme.

Screenshots:

yosemite theme for elementary os

To install the theme:

1. Downloads Yellowstone theme at the link below:

Yellowstone master.zip

2. Open file browser and press Ctrl+H on keyboard to view hidden file folders. Create a new folder called .themes folder if not exist.

3. Open the downloaded package via Archive Manager and select extract to the .themes folder.

To apply the theme:

1. Install Elementary Tweaks by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal and then running below commands one by one:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:versable/elementary-update

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install elementary-tweaks

2. Go to System Settings -> Tweaks, select Yellowstone theme from the drop-down list:

apply-yellowstone-theme

That’s it. Enjoy!

In Howtos ,
 permalink

How to Remotely Access Graphical Desktop of Ubuntu 14.04 Server

Last updated: January 5, 2015

remote access ubuntu 14.04 server

Want to remotely access your Ubuntu Server with a graphical interface? Well, here’s a simple guide shows you how to do it with X2Go, an implementation of NX remote desktop protocol.

All you need to do is install X2Go Server package as well as the Desktop Environment in remote server side and install X2Go client in the client side.

On Ubuntu Server Side:

The latest X2Go server is available in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS via PPA. Just connect to your Ubuntu server and run below commands to add the PPA and install the server packages:

Before adding the PPA, you have to install add-apt-repository:

sudo apt-get install python-software-properties software-properties-common

To add PPA, run:

sudo apt-add-repository -y ppa:x2go/stable

Refresh system package lists:

sudo apt-get update

Install X2Go Server:

sudo apt-get install x2goserver x2goserver-xsession

In this case I’m going to access the XFCE4 Desktop of remote Ubuntu server, so also install the Xfce4:

sudo apt-get install xfce4

Finally restart the server by running reboot command.

If you have not set a hostname in your Ubuntu server, run below command to set it up, or you’ll get error connecting to the Ubuntu server. Replace plato with the hostname of your choice

echo "plato" > /etc/hostname

hostname -F /etc/hostname

On Client Side:

For Windows and/or Mac OS X, see this how to install wiki.

For Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 10.04, Ubuntu 14.04, and Ubuntu 14.10 you can get the latest client from PPA by running below commands one by one in a terminal window (or you can install an old version directly from Ubuntu Software Center):

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:x2go/stable

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install x2goclient

The first time you start the client, it prompts you to create a session with:

  • a session name of your choice
  • an icon of your choice
  • remote server ip
  • the login name
  • ssh port (default is 22)
  • select session type (XFCE in the case)

x2go create session

After that, you can see the session available in the right pane of the client window. Go to menu session -> new session if you have more that one remote server to connect.

x2go client window

Click a session from the right pane and type in remote user password to connect:

x2go Login

Once connected, you can operate on the remote desktop in a new window:

remote-ubuntu-server-desktop

That’s it. Enjoy!

In Howtos
 permalink

Qt Audio Player Qmmp 0.8.3 Released with Important Fixes

Last updated: January 5, 2015

Qmmp Audio Player Logo

Qmmp audio player has reached the 0.8.3 release a few hours ago with fixes for skin, equalizer, auto-play, and crash issues.

Qmmp is a free and open-source audio player written in C++ and Qt. It started 7 years ago in 2007 and officially supports the operating systems Linux, FreeBSD and Microsoft Windows. It is the only audio player not featuring a database that uses the Qt library.

It features:

  • A simple, intuitive user interface. XMMS and Winamp 2.x skins support
  • Ogg Vorbis, FLAC and MP3 music playback support
  • Automatic album-cover fetching
  • Support for embedded ID3v2 album images
  • ReplayGain support
  • Support for multiple artist and performer tags per song
  • A system tray icon
  • Plugin support
  • Translations into many languages

Qmmp Audio Player in Ubuntu

The 0.8.3 release brings below changes:

  • Reduced time of the ‘Randomize List’ and “Remove Duplicates” operations
  • Fixed ffmpeg 2.5 support
  • Fixed 24/32 bit modes in the equalizer
  • Fixed skin parsing
  • Fixed autoplay when playlist was opened from command line
  • updated Portuguese translation
  • updated Czech translation

Install / Upgrade to Qmmp 0.8.3:

Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 and derivatives users can install or upgrade this player from PPA. Just open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard, then run below commands one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:forkotov02/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install qmmp qmmp-plugin-pack

That’s it. Enjoy!

In Howtos
 permalink

How to Fix Broken Packages in Ubuntu [Quick Tip]

Last updated: January 4, 2015

Ubuntu-tips

If a package installation fails in Ubuntu, it can cause a package manager to freeze or become locked. When you start Ubuntu Software Center, it asks you to press button to repair broken packages in your system, but it does not always work.

Fix Broken Packages in Ubuntu

Here are a few tips show you how to fix broken packages in command line. To get started, open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard:

1. If a package installation fails due to dependencies issue, run below command in terminal:

sudo apt-get -f install && sudo dpkg --configure -a

The command either solves the dependencies, or removes the package (if dependencies unavailable) automatically.

2. If a problem occurs with MergeList, appearing as a missing “Package: header” error:

E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList…
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

Then remove the package lists and recreate one:

sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/* -vf

sudo apt-get update

3. If a problem occurs with a lock on the apt cache, for example:

E: Could not get lock /var/cache/apt/archives/lock – open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable)

Then delete the locks by running below commands one by one:

sudo fuser -cuk /var/lib/dpkg/lock 

sudo rm -f /var/lib/dpkg/lock

sudo fuser -cuk /var/cache/apt/archives/lock

sudo rm -f /var/cache/apt/archives/lock

If you have some more tips to fix broken packages in Ubuntu Linux, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment here.

In Howtos
 permalink

Plank Dock 0.8.0 Released With New Features & Various Fixes

Last updated: January 3, 2015

Plank Dock

Plank, the simplest OS X-style dock launcher, has reached the 0.8.0 release recently with new feature and bug fixes.

“May” is our new feature and bug-fix release on the way to 1.0.

Yet again bunch of more or less subtile bug-fixes and design adjustments. The major feature addition is the integrated settings dialog which is suppose to ease configuring plank and obsolete the need for 3rd party settings tools. Besides that some HiDPI fixes and possible crasher fixes.

Plank Dock Launcher

For the list of fixed bugs:

  • the “folders disappeared and can’t be added again” issue in Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon 2.4
  • Plank crashes intermittently when quitting Thunderbird Mail
  • Elementary OS 0.3 Freya: item-positions not updated in panel-mode
  • Plank cannot handle GVFS URIs on drag-and-drop
  • default window icon in dock is ugly
  • Display “close” in context menu instead of “close all” when single instance is open
  • Don’t show a window list when single instance is open
  • Look for theme data in /usr/share/themes too
  • Use selected-focused background-color for indicators

Install / Upgrade to Plank 0.8.0:

The binary packages have been made into PPA, available for Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 and their derivatives.

To add the PPA repository, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal and run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ricotz/docky

After that, refresh your system package cache by running:

sudo apt-get update

Finally install or upgrade Plank:

sudo apt-get install plank

That’s it. Enjoy!

In Howtos ,
 permalink

‘Go For It’, A Stylish To-Do List App with Built-in Timer

Last updated: January 3, 2015

Go For It To-Do List App

Go-For-It is a new and open-source to-do list application available for both Windows and Ubuntu Linux. It features a simple and stylish UI with built-in productivity timer.

To-do lists are stored in the Todo.txt format. This simplifies synchronization with mobile devices and makes it possible to edit tasks using other front-ends.

Go For It To-Do List App in Ubuntu 14.04

The developer has created a Youtube video that describes the workflow of this application:

How to Install ‘Go For It’:

The developer, mank319, has built this app into PPA, available for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 15.04 and derivatives.

To add the PPA and install the app, open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T. When it opens, run the commands below one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mank319/go-for-it

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install go-for-it

Or you can simply download & click install the .deb package via Software Center (i386 for 32-bit, amd64 for 64-bit) the matches your OS edition at the PPA packages page.

For Windows version, go to the Go-For-It website.

NOTE: Due to the bug related to Unity Overlay Scrollbars, the background sometimes looks like broken. As a workaround, run command below to edit the app’s shortcut file:

gksudo gedit /usr/share/applications/go-for-it.desktop

When the file opens, edit the ‘Exec’ line so that it looks like:

Exec=env LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0 go-for-it

This disables the overlay scrollbars for the single app.

Disable Overlay Scrollbars for single application

In App Review, Howtos ,
 permalink