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Archives For November 30, 1999

Enlightenment 0.26.0 Released with New Features & Lots Bug-fixes

Last updated: December 25, 2023 — Leave a comment

Enlightenment window manager announced new 0.26.0 release few days ago.

The new release added some new features, including DDC option to backlight control of external monitors, bigger task previews, and watermark to wl mode to indicate E is in experimental wl mode.

Enlightenment 0.26.0 also added new APIs, including new eet disk sync API to ensure config it stored, logind’s lock/unlock dbus apis, API to play sound samples and support in notifications, and new eina API for EFL libraries.

Other changes include:

  • Support action desktop files in EFM to add file actions
  • Add org.freedesktop.ScreenSaver inhibit support
  • Add and enabl watchdog thread by default to detect mainloop hangs
  • Add option to Randr X11 support to use xrandr cmdline not direct API
  • Be agressive about forcing E’s blank settings if apps override them
  • Add params to mixer actions to allow to set amount up/down
  • Add option for input settings for flat accel + hires scrolling
  • Add option to set hidden state in netwm or not

There are also EFL 1.27 changes include JXL Evas loader/saver, QOI Evas image loader/saver, LibreSSL 3.5.x, remove GNUTLS support due to in favor of openssl3, and support ecore exe terminate with parent on windows. See more in the News page.

Get Enlightenment 0.26.0

Besides building from source, there seems no PPA or any 3rd repository for installing new release in Ubuntu.

To download the source, just go to its website via the link below:

Download Enlightenment
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Stellarium 23.4 Added Lens Distortion Estimator Plugin, Tibetan Lunar Mansions

Last updated: December 25, 2023 — Leave a comment

 

Stellarium, the free open-source planetarium software, announced new 23.4 release few days ago.

The new release added experimental support for new plugin: Lens Distortion Estimator, and new sky culture: Tibetan Lunar Mansions.

With new release, user can now change the look of GUI through normalStyle.css config file. For Windows, it added new MESA for Windows packages, and package for ARM64 CPU architecture type.

Other changes include:

  • Support the origins of nomenclature names
  • Performance improvements on macOS with ARM64
  • Add script “Jupiter Moons”
  • Add filter, based on SATCAT Operational Status in Satellites plugin
  • Add AppImage package based on Qt6.
  • more simple calendar-based time steps (esp. for RemoteControl)
  • wrapper for too long star names
  • Temporary workaround for overlapping indicator and text in lists
  • Optional sorting rule for Search Tool
  • Text wrapper for pulsar notes, Modern (H.A. Rey) SC, and long origins of nomenclature names
  • Ability to make observing lists directory configurable via GUI
  • Add dpiAwareness option to manifest and send physical viewport size to Spout
  • Add DSO names
  • Add 2 new time steps for AstroCalc/Ephemeris tool
  • Remote control command to change window size
  • And various bug-fixes. See release note for details.

How to Install Stellarium 23.4

The software provides official packages for Linux, Windows, MacOS, as well as source code, available to download at Github release page:

Download Stellarium (under ‘Assets’)

Ubuntu user can search for and install Stellarium from either Ubuntu Software or App Center (for 23.10), though it’s Snap package runs in sandbox.

For Ubuntu & Linux Mint users who prefer the classic .deb package, the official PPA has built the package for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 23.04, and Ubuntu 23.10.

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stellarium/stellarium-releases

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.

2. Linux Mint users need to manually refresh the package cache after adding PPA:

sudo apt update

3 Finally either update Stellarium using Software Updater (Update Manager) if an old version was installed.

Or, run command in terminal to install it for the first time.

sudo apt install stellarium

Uninstall

To remove the planetarium software software, simply open terminal and run command:

sudo apt install --autoremove stellarium

And, remove the Ubuntu PPA either by running command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:stellarium/stellarium-releases

or use “Software & Updates” to remove source line under ‘Other Software’ tab.

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Chatterino – Twitch Chat Client with Enhanced Features [Ubuntu PPA]

Last updated: December 24, 2023 — Leave a comment

This simple tutorial shows how to install Chatterino, a Twitch Chat app with enhanced features, in Ubuntu 22.04, 20.04, 23.10 via PPA.

Chatterino is a free and open-source chat app for Twitch.tv. With it, you can connect as many channels as you like to, either in tabs or in single tab side-by-side.

The client supports features, such as Chat Replies by right-clicking a message and choose “Reply to message”.

Left clicking a user will open dialog for user info, message history, as well as buttons to block, ignore highlight, etc. And, right-click on user allows to @ mention him/her in message.

It supports emotes from BetterTTV, FrankerFaceZ, and 7TV, allows to drag’n’drop image or paste image from clipboard to upload to custom service, such as imgur.com, though not enabled by default.

Other features include:

  • Hotkeys (customizable)
  • Link preview (not enabled by default)
  • Ignore or highlight messages
  • Search, filters, regular expressions
  • And more.

How to Install Chatterino via Ubuntu PPA

The app provides Windows .exe, macOS .dmg, Ubuntu .deb and Linux .AppImage packages for downloading in its Github releases page.

For Ubuntu/Linux Mint users, the official PPA is a better choice to keep the app up-to-date. Which, so far supports Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 23.04, & Ubuntu 23.10 on amd64 (Intel/AMD) and arm64/armhf (Apple M1/M2, Raspberry Pi) devices.

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. Then, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:chatterino/chatterino2

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.

2. Then, run command to install the chat client:

sudo apt install chatterino

Linux Mint user needs to run sudo apt update first to refresh system package cache.

After installation, you can launch the app from start menu, app grid, or Gnome overview depends on your desktop environment. And, use “Software Updater” (Update Manager) to receive updates.

Then, you can join Twitch channel by their names (the part after www.twitch.tv/ in channel URL). And, see the wiki for more usage.

Uninstall:

To uninstall the Twitch chat app, simply open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove chatterino

Also remove the Ubuntu PPA, either by running command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:chatterino/chatterino2

Or, use “Software & Updates” to remove source line under “Other Software” tab.

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Darktable 4.6.0 Released! Auto-Save, rgb primaries Module [Ubuntu PPA]

Last updated: April 2, 2024 — Leave a comment

 

Darkable, the popular photography app and raw developer, released new major 4.6.0 version a day ago!

The new release introduced auto-save feature for editing history. By default, it save changes every 10 seconds. User can go to ‘Preferences -> storage‘ to change the time interval, or set it to 0 to disable it.

Darktable 4.6.0 also features new rgb primaries processing module. It allows delicate color corrections and creative color grading, by moving the red, green and blue primary colors around using “hue” and “purity” controls.

Darktable 4.6.0

The release also has a big performance improvements. OpenCL is now initialized in the background to speed up the app launching. Image display speed in the map view has been increased by 25%. And, the chromatic aberrations module is now approximagely 10% faster when run on the CPU.

Other changes in Darktable 4.6.0 include:

  • sigmoid module now includes a new primaries section, to gracefully handle difficult lighting situations (e.g. LEDs) and tune the overall look of the image
  • The full uncropped image is now always shown when working with the liquify and retouch modules.
  • The hot pixels module now supports monochrome images.
  • long-running import session can now be canceled.
  • built-in “Display P3” color profile
  • And much more! See the official release note for details

How to Install Darktable 4.6.0 in Ubuntu Linux

Option 1: Snap

Darktable is easy to install as Snap package, which runs in sandbox, using Ubuntu Software (or App Center for 23.10).

Option 2: Official deb package

The developer team offers official RPM and DEB packages for Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, openSUSE, through the OBS building repository.

Also, it’s NOT updated to v4.6.0 at the moment of writing. Keep an eye on this page if you prefer the official package.

Option 3: Flatpak package

Darktable is also available to install as Flatpak package, another universal Linux package format runs in sandbox!

Linux Mint 21 user can directly search for and install the Flatpak package from Software Manager.

While, Ubuntu user can open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run the 2 commands below one by one to install the Flatpak:

  • Enable flatpak support: 
    sudo apt install flatpak
  • Install Darktable as Flatpak package: 
    flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/org.darktable.Darktable.flatpakref

Option 4: Ubuntu PPA

Besides using the official DEB package (See Option 2), I’ve also upload the package into this unofficial PPA for Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 23.04, and Ubuntu 23.10.

NOTE: The PPA includes updated libheif (1.16.2) library for Darktable to support HEIF in Ubuntu 22.04. Please report if it’s running into conflict with other packages in your system!!

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to add PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/darktable

2. Linux Mint needs to update system package cache manually after adding PPA:

sudo apt update

3. Finally, install Darktable 4.6.0 via command:

sudo apt install darktable

In addition for old Ubuntu 20.04, 18.04, & 16.04, keep an eye on this PPA. However, it has tons of updated libraries that MAY run into dependency hell and/or package conflict!

Uninstall Darktable

Depends on which package your installed, remove Darktable via one of the commands below:

  • For Snap package, just remove it from Ubuntu Software.
  • For Flatpak package, run command: 
    flatpak uninstall --delete-data org.darktable.Darktable

    Then run flatpak uninstall --unused to remove unused runtime libraries.

  • To remove official package or PPA package, run command: 
    sudo apt remove --autoremove darktable

    And remove the Ubuntu PPA repository if you want via command:

    sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/darktable
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How to Install iTunes in Ubuntu 22.04 | 24.04 (Step by Step)

Last updated: May 4, 2024 — 2 Comments

This is a step by step beginner’s guide shows how to install iTunes in Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

Windows app is easy to install in Ubuntu & other Linux, thanks to Wine. However, it’s not so easy for beginners to install & setup Wine.

So, here I’m going to show how to install iTunes using Bottles (a wine runner) to make things as easy as possible.

NOTE that, iTunes running with wine does NOT detect iPhone, at least not for me. But, it’s OK for syncing music via iCloud! For just transferring music files, VLC is a good alternative.

iTunes 12.8.0.150 in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

NOTE 1: This tutorial is tested and works in Ubuntu 22.04. Though, it should work in most other Linux!

NOTE 2: In this tutorial I installed iTunes 12.8.0.150! Newer versions either crash frequently or run into blank window.

Step 1: Install Bottles

As mentioned above, Bottles is a wine runner to make running Windows apps in Linux super easy. The only downside could be that it’s only available as Flatpak runs in sandbox.

Firstly, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to enable Flatpak support:

sudo apt install flatpak

Other Linux can follow official setup guide to enable Flatpak support.

Then, install Bottles as Flatpak by running command:

flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/com.usebottles.bottles.flatpakref

This command may have more than a thousand MB download due to run-time libraries. Don’t be worried about it. Installing Wine directly from its website will also has quite a few hundred MB files to download.

 

Step 2: Setup Permission for Bottles

Bottles is installed as Flatpak which runs in sandbox. By default, it has only file access to your user ‘Downloads‘ folder.

If you want to make apps, that are installed through Bottles, visible in start menu and/or dock, and access music files in other folders (such as ‘Music’ folder), then you have manually grant permissions.

Option 1: Use command to grant file access permission:

To allow Bottles to add apps into start menu, run command in terminal:

flatpak override com.usebottles.bottles --user --filesystem=xdg-data/applications

To allow Bottles (iTunes) to access your user Music folder, use command:

flatpak override com.usebottles.bottles --user --filesystem=xdg-music

Option 2: Use Flatseal, graphical tool.

Flatseal is a popular graphical tool to manage permissions for Flatpak applications.

First, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to install Flatpseal:

flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/com.github.tchx84.Flatseal.flatpakref

After installed the tool, launch it. Choose “Bottles” from left, and click add “Filesystem -> Other files” permission for:

  • xdg-music
  • xdg-data/applications

Step 3: Download iTunes (exe)

Apple website only shows the download for the latest version of iTunes, which is NOT working good (even not work so far) with current version of Wine.

For the old versions, there’s a 3rd party website that provides a large list of downloads. All download URLs in that page are official (point to apple.com), the website only lists them out for you.

Download iTunes (old versions)

In my tests, iTunes 12.9.x is the most recent version that installs, which however CRASH quite often. The iTunes 12.8.0.150 is the last that’s working good.

NOTE: Wine and Bottles keep updating with new features and bug-fixes. So, newer iTunes versions might be working in future when you see this tutorial. Try for your self.

Step 4: Install iTunes

Now, search for and launch “Bottles” from start menu or ‘Activities’ overview depends on your desktop environment.

NOTE: first time installing a Flatpak app, need a log out and back in to make app icon visible in start menu. For choice, you may run flatpak run com.usebottles.bottles command to start it from terminal.

In the first launch, follow the wizard to run the initial setup.

When done, click either “Create New Bottle…” button or the top-left “+” icon to get started.
Then, in next window type a name (‘iTunes’ in the case), select “Application” as environment type, and click “Create”.

Next, it automatically generate configuration and config Wine for the new ‘Bottle’ you just created.

When done, click to open the ‘Details’ page for the new bottle you just created. Click on “Run Executable” button, then browse and choose the “iTunes64Setup.exe” file you downloaded in last step.

Note in the file chooser dialog, you may need to switch bottom filter to “All Files“, so to make the .exe file visible.

After that, the installer wizard for iTunes should start. Just follow to install it until done.

Step 5: Launch iTunes

To launch iTunes, either go to ‘Details’ page for the Bottle in Bottles, and click the triangle icon “▸”.

Or, click the 3 dots “⋮” icon right after it, and select “Add Desktop Entry” menu option (need to done Step 2 first).

After that, you can start iTunes from start menu, just like other apps installed from Ubuntu Software.

Uninstall

To remove iTunes only, simply launch ‘Bottles’ and go to Details page for iTunes. Then use the top-right corner “⋮” menu option to delete bottle.

To remove Bottles app, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data com.usebottles.bottles

In command, skip --delete-data will keep the apps installed through Bottles

After removing Bottles, also run the command to remove useless run-times to free up disk space:

flatpak uninstall --unused

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How to Easily Transfer Music from Ubuntu Linux to iPhone

Last updated: December 21, 2023 — 1 Comment

Got local music files in your Ubuntu PC/laptop? Here’s how to transfer them to your iPhone.

It’s NOT hard to install iTunes in Ubuntu using Wine in today’s Linux. However, iTunes running in wine does not detect my iPhone, at least in my case in 22.04.

If you just want to transfer music from PC to your iOS device, then you don’t have to struggle with iTunes in Linux. There are easy alternatives! And, VLC is a very popular one of them.

This tutorial is tested on iPhone with iOS 16.1.1, and Ubuntu 22.04 with default GNOME.

Transfer Music from PC to iOS via VLC

1. First, go to “App Store” and install the free open-source VLC media player in your iPhone or other iOS device.

VLC media player in App Store

2. Not sure if it required, but you may launch VLC in iOS for the first time to generate app folder.

3. Now, connect your iPhone or other iOS device into Ubuntu. Then, open “Files” and go to the mounted folder from left panel.

In my case, it’s a phone icon with text “Document on iphone”. In that folder, click VLC icon. Finally, drag’n’drop your music files into the VLC sub-folder.

When done, you can now open VLC in iphone/iOS, and find out the local music files under “Audio” bottom tab.

4. (Optional) If you want to use Apple Music or other app for music playback, then you can save songs to files.

First, navigate to “Songs” tab in VLC. Then, tap top right “circle with 3 dots” icon, and click “Select” to choose all the files.

Finally, use the bottom right icon to open menu to “Save to Files” for all selected music files.

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Firefox 121.0 Finally Defaults to Wayland When Available

Last updated: December 25, 2023 — 2 Comments

 

Firefox web browser announced the new monthly 121.0 release this Tuesday!

For Linux, the release finally default to Wayland session when available, meaning for Ubuntu 22.04 and higher (exclude Snap), Fedora Workstation, and other Linux with recent GNOME Desktop.

With Wayland, it has better support for touchscreen & touchpad.

User can use 2-finger swipe left/right to navigate forward and backward, and 2-finger pinch gesture to zoom in/out. It as well has per-monitor DPI settings, better graphics performance, and more.

Sadly, this feature does NOT enabled for Firefox Snap in my case for Ubuntu. User can choose to either install Firefox as .deb package, or manually enable Wayland support for the Snap pacakge.

Besides Wayland for Linux, Firefox 121.0 also adds Voice Control commands support on macOS systems, and prompts Windows users to install the Microsoft AV1 Video Extension to enable hardware decoding support.

Other features in Firefox 121.0 include:

  • Option to force links to always be underlined
  • New PDF viewer floating button to simplify deleting drawings, text, and images.
  • Option to disable the debugger; keyword on the current page.
  • Support :has() selector, the hanging and each-line keywords, balance keyword, lazy loading iframes.
  • tail call elimination support in WebAssembly language
  • Various security fixes.

How to Get Firefox 121.0

Most Linux that pre-installs Firefox, will build the latest package soon and publish into system repositories.

For Ubuntu, the snap package has been updated to v121.0. It should update to the new release automatically.

If NOT, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal, and run command to do the update manually.

snap refresh firefox

For the portable Linux tarball, as well as the official release note, go to the link below:

Firefox 121.0 Release Note
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How to Install Firefox Beta in Ubuntu / Debian [New Official Repository]

Last updated: January 29, 2024 — Leave a comment

This simple tutorial shows how to install Firefox Beta, Firefox Developer Edition, or Firefox Nightly in Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, using the new official repository.

Mozilla announced new official apt repository for Debian and Ubuntu users few months ago, which contains the .deb package for Firefox Nightly build.

Now, the repository also contains packages for Firefox Beta and Firefox Developer Edition! And, here’s step by step guide shows how to use it to install the latest packages in your system.

NOTE 1: Ubuntu also has an official PPA contains Firefox Beta package. Though, it’s maintained by members from Ubuntu Team.
NOTE 2: This tutorial is tested and works in Debian 12, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 23.10.

Step 1: Install the Repository Key

To add the new repository, you need to first download & install the key, so your system will trust the packages from it.

First, open terminal either from start menu or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard.

When terminal opens, run command to make sure ‘/etc/apt/keyrings’ exist for storing the keys.

sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings

Then, download & install the key by running the single command below in terminal:

wget -q https://packages.mozilla.org/apt/repo-signing-key.gpg -O- | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc > /dev/null

If ‘wget’ command not found, run sudo apt install wget to install it.

After that, you can verify the new key file by listing the content of that directory: ls /etc/apt/keyrings.

Step 2: Add Mozilla’s Official Repository

Also in a terminal window, run the single command below will create a config file and write the source repository.

echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/packages.mozilla.org.asc] https://packages.mozilla.org/apt mozilla main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mozilla.list > /dev/null

When done, you may verify by running cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mozilla.list to print the source file content.

Step 3: Install Firefox Stable, Beta, Dev, or Nightly

After adding the apt repository and key, run the command below to refresh system package cache:

sudo apt update

Finally, install Firefox Beta by running command:

sudo apt install firefox-beta

The repository also contains Firefox Stable, Development, and Nightly versions! Replace firebox-beta in last command with firefox, firefox-devedition, or firefox-nightly according which version you want to install. For STABLE version,  you however NEED to set higher PPA priority.

Non-English user may also install the language package by running command:

sudo apt install firefox-beta-l10n-xx

Replace xx with the shortcode for your language. Also, replace beta for dev or nightly version accordingly.

Step 4: (Optional) Change the App Name to Differ from Firefox Stable

The new Firefox Beta uses same logo to Firefox Stable, and it also displayed as “Firefox” in start menu.

If you have more than one edition of Firefox packages in system, then you may have to differ them from each other by changing the name.

To do so, first launch terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to copy the .desktop config file from system to local directory:

sudo cp /usr/share/applications/firefox-beta.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/

Then, change the app name to “Firefox Beta” by running command:

desktop-file-edit --set-name="Firefox Beta" ~/.local/share/applications/firefox-beta.desktop

The change should apply automatically in few seconds. If not, run sudo update-desktop-database to update the database manually.

If you also want to differ the icon, use --set-icon='/path/to/new/icon' in last command.

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This App can Show Live Captions on Your Ubuntu Desktop

Last updated: December 18, 2023 — 2 Comments

 

For people who are hard-of-hearing, and/or for better understanding audio, here’s a live captions app that provides real-time automatic subtitles on Linux desktop.

The app displays a wide flat window on desktop, showing real-time (may have few hundred milliseconds delay) subtitles for voice come from either speaker or microphone.

It’s free and open-source, and captioning locally without network permission with the power of deep learning. And, there’s no API keys, no proprietary services/libraries, no telemetry, no spying, no data collection.

The only thing you need is a somewhat-decent CPU that can perform real-time captioning. It’s tested and working good in my i5-10400, and following CPUs mentioned in project page:

  • Intel i7-2670QM
  • Intel i7-7820HQ
  • Intel i5-8265U
  • AMD Ryzen 5 1600
  • Steam Deck

How to Install the Live Captions app

The Live Captions app is available as Flatpak package that works in most Linux desktop!

Linux Mint 21 and Fedora 38+ (with 3rd party repository enabled) can directly search for and install “Live Captions” from either Software Manager or Gnome Software.

1. For Ubuntu, first press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to enable flatpak support:

sudo apt install flatpak

Other Linux can follow this official setup guide to enable Flatpak.

2. Then, run command to install the app through Flatpak package:

flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/net.sapples.LiveCaptions.flatpakref

As running in sandbox, it may have hundred MB downloads for run-time libraries.

After installation, launch it from start menu or ‘Activities’ overview depends on your desktop environment.

If you’re first time installing an app through Flatpak, then you may need to log out and back in to make app icon visible. Or, run command below to start it from terminal:

flatpak run net.sapples.LiveCaptions

Start Live Captions

The first launch of the app will guide you to perform a short benchmark for your CPU. You need at least 1.0 score for running this app.

As it noticed, the live captions may not be accurate. It may make mistakes, including when it comes to numbers. Please do not rely on the results for anything critical or important.

When done, it starts into a blank window. There click the gear button to open ‘Preferences dialog’ to configure the window width, background opacity, text font, etc.

The built-in model so far support only English. Though, there are few more models available to download, which makes it work for Polish and French language.

To make the window always on top, just right-click on it and click “Always on Top” option.

When done configuration, just start live chat, or play something with voice, the app window should automatically show you the real-time subtitles in few seconds.

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Single Command to Edit .desktop file in Ubuntu & other Linux

Last updated: December 15, 2023 — Leave a comment

 

This simple tutorial shows how to edit .desktop files, the config files for your apps shown in start menu (app launcher), in Linux via single command.

In most Linux, the app icons (and their names) you see in dock & launcher are handled by .desktop files. If need, user can edit them by using either text editor or even third-party apps.

For software developing, scripting, or editing multiple .desktop files at the same time, there’s a command line tool that can help!

What you can do by editing .desktop file for your app:

The .desktop files are usually stored in following locations:

  • /usr/share/applications – for system wide.
  • $HOME/.local/share/applications – for current user only.
  • /var/lib/flatpak/exports/share/applications – for Flatpak apps (system wide).
  • $HOME/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share/applications – for Flatpak apps (current user).
  • /var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications/ – for Snap apps.

By editing a .desktop file that is associated with your app can do following things:

  • Change app icon
  • Change the app name in start menu.
  • Hide app
  • Group app icon in different categories.
  • Associate with different file types.
  • And more.

Find out the .desktop file for your app

If you don’t know where is the .desktop file, then try following steps to find it out.

First, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to install plocate (or mlocate for old Ubuntu):

sudo apt install plocate

Then, update the database by running command:

sudo updatedb

Finally, try searching the desktop file for your apps (Firefox for example):

locate "*firefox*desktop"

In last command replace firefox with the keyword for yours (case sensitive). And, copy the path-to-file for the one in the location mentioned above.

Single command to edit the .desktop file

As far as I know, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Manjaro, and their based systems have desktop-file-edit tool out-of-the-box for edit .desktop entries.

Option 1: To change app name, use command:

desktop-file-edit --set-name=NEW_NAME /path/to/file.desktop

In command, sudo is required for .desktop file in system directories.

For example, change the pre-installed Firefox (Snap version) in Ubuntu to “My Web Browser”:

sudo desktop-file-edit --set-name="My Web Browser" /var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications/firefox_firefox.desktop

Option 2: To change app icon, use command:

desktop-file-edit --set-icon=/path/to/icon /path/to/file.desktop

For icon file under /usr/share/icons, or .local/share/icons, just replace /path/to/icon-file with file-name without extension (e.g., .png, .svg).

For example, change the icon for my Firefox browser:

sudo desktop-file-edit --set-icon='/home/ji/Pictures/icons/myfirefoxicon.png' /var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications/firefox_firefox.desktop

Option 3: To add/remove category or mime type, use command:

desktop-file-edit --add-category=VALUE_HERE /path/to/file.desktop

Replace --add-category with one of the options below depends on which action you want to do:

  • --remove-category
  • --add-mime-type
  • --remove-mime-type

See list of well known categories.. And, right-click on a file and go to its ‘Properties’ to check “Type”.

Option 4: To add/edit other keys.

Use “–set-key=KEY_NAME –set-value=KEY_VALUE” option. You can add more than one pair of the options in single command.

For example, hide Firefox from app launcher by setting “NoDisplay=true“. It will add the key ‘NoDisplay’, if not exist.

sudo desktop-file-edit --set-key=NoDisplay --set-value=true /var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications/firefox_firefox.desktop

Option 5: To remove a key, use “–remove-key=KEY_NAME” option.

For example, un-hide Firefox by deleting “NoDisplay=true” from the .desktop file:

sudo desktop-file-edit --remove-key=NoDisplay /var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications/firefox_firefox.desktop

Option 6: Edit multiple desktop files

You can edit more than one files using for loop.

For example, hide all the Waydroid Android app icons associated with the .desktop files under .local/share/applications directory.

for file in $Home/.local/share/applications/waydroid.*.desktop; do desktop-file-edit --set-key=NoDisplay --set-value=true $file; done

In addition, the desktop-file-edit command will automatically validate the .desktop file after done editing it. It will output errors if validation not passed. For more, see its man page.

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