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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!

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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!

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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.

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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!

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‘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

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Advanced Clipboard Manager ‘CopyQ’ 2.4.3 Released

Last updated: July 28, 2015

CopyQ clipboard manager

CopyQ is an advanced clipboard manager available for both Windows and Linux. It allows you to browse, search, and edit clipboard history in text, HTML, images and any other custom format.

The software provides a customizable system tray menu, supports a variety of system-wide shortcuts (e.g. show main window or tray, edit clipboard, copy next/previous, paste as plain text), sorts items in tabs or tree, and provides advanced command-line interface and scripting.

CopyQ clipboard manager in Ubuntu 14.04

The latest 2.4.3 release brings new plugins and a few fixes:

  • Plugin for tagging items
  • Plugins can provide script functions and commands
  • Improved automatic commands execution
  • Fixed gradients, transparency and other style improvements
  • Fixed decryption with newer version of GnuPG
  • Fixes for Qt 5 version

How to Install CopyQ:

Source tarball and installers for Windows, Debian, Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, and Fedora are available for download at the github release page:

Download CopyQ clipboard manager

For Ubuntu user, select download the i386.deb for 32-bit system or amd64.deb for 64-bit system. Finally click to open the package with Ubuntu Software Center and install the software:

Install CopyQ

That’s it. For documentation, see the CopyQ wiki page.

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Ubuntu based Linux Distro ‘Deepin 2014.2’ (Final) Released

Last updated: March 21, 2019

Linux Deepin 2014.2

The final release of Deepin 2014.2, an Ubuntu 14.04 based Linux Distro, is out today!

Deepin is a Chinese Linux Distro that officially supports over 20 languages, it uses its own Deepin Desktop Environment developed based on HTML5 technology, with Deepin Music, Deepin Movie, Deepin Store and other Deepin system software. In addition, deepin comes with media codecs, Adobe Flash Player, Google Chrome, and other software pre-installed under license by the relevant manufacturers.

Deepin Linux 2014.2

A great new feature in this release is that a deepin special version of CrossOver is pre-installed, allows to run Windows applications with CrossOver for free.

For Chinese users, the 2014.2 release brings QQ6.7, 360 security guard for Linux, and the latest versions of WPS, Google Chrome, and more.

System Requirements:

  • minimum system requirements: Intel Pentium IV 2.0GHz CPU, 1GB RAM, 10GB Hard Drive.
  • recommended requirements: Intel Core 2 2.0Ghz CPU, 2GB RAM, 20 GB Hard Drive.

NOTE: It’s not recommended to run Deepin OS as a guest OS since Compiz Window Manager has poor performance in virtual machines.

Download Deepin Linux:

Deepin 2014.2 32-bit and 64-bit ISOs are available for download in SourceForge

Install:

See the Youtube Video:

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Small Fixes to Faenza Icons 1.3.1 in Ubuntu 14.04 and Higher

Last updated: December 30, 2014

Ubuntu-tips

Using Faenza icons on your Ubuntu desktop? If you’re a perfectionist, you may already have found that this icon theme set lacks the wireless mouse icon and the tiny calendar icon under time & date menu in Ubuntu 14.04.

Faenza icons is one of the most popular icon theme sets for Gnome. It’s created by Matthieu James and last updated two years ago in 2012. A guy from Ubuntu forum has recently added fixes to the source so that below icons work in Ubuntu 14.04 & higher:

  • the wireless mouse icon
  • the tiny calendar icon under time & date menu
Fix to Faenza icon

Fix to Faenza icons

No screenshot for the wireless mouse icon because I don’t have one, sorry…

I’ve repack the Faenza Icon 1.3.1 with the fixes into PPA and the .deb package available for download at the link below:

Faenza Icon 1.3.1 with fixes

Just click download the package and then double-click to open it with Ubuntu Software Center and finally click install.

Finally apply the theme in Unity Tweak Tool -> Icons and done.

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Lollypop – A New GNOME Music Player Available in PPA

Last updated: December 2, 2015

Lollypop Gnome music playing application

Lollypop is a new Gnome music playing application written in Python and Gtk3. It’s a free and open-source project hosted on github.

The music player features:

  • mp3/4, ogg and flac.
  • Genre/Cover browsing
  • Genre/Artist/Cover browsing
  • Search
  • Main playlist (called queue in other apps)
  • Party mode
  • Replay gain
  • Cover art downloader
  • Context artist view

The screenshots:

Lollypop in Gnome

Lollypop in Gnome

Lollypop in Unity

How to Install Lollypop Music Player in Ubuntu:

The developer has built the latest packages into his PPA, available for Ubuntu 14.04 (tested in Ubuntu 14.04 but it doesn’t work), Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 15.04 and derivatives.

1. To add the PPA, open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run the command below:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnumdk/lollypop

Type in your user password when it asks and hit Enter to continue.

2. After added the PPA, run command to reload system package cache:

sudo apt-get update

3. Finally install the player from Synaptic Package Manager, or by running below command:

sudo apt-get install lollypop

4. [Fixed in Ubuntu 15.10 and higher] Due to an Ubuntu related bug, you have to disable the overlay scrollbars for better experience.

To do this for this single application, run command to edit the .desktop file:

gksudo gedit /usr/share/applications/lollypop.desktop

Add a parameter so that the ‘Exec’ line will be:

Exec=env LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0 lollypop

disable overlay scrollbars for single application

Save the file and done.

(Optional) To remove the player as well as the PPA repository, run below command in a terminal window:

sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:gnumdk/lollypop && sudo apt-get remove lollypop
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Minecraft Alternative ‘Minetest’ 0.4.11 Available for Ubuntu 14.04

Last updated: December 28, 2014

Minecraft Alternative Minetest

Minetest, the popular open-source game alternative to Minecraft, has reached the 0.4.11 release recently.

The 0.4.11 release adds new game-play options, provides various visual changes, boasts build system improvements, provides various performance optimizations, and offers a lots of bug-fixes. For a complete list of changes, see the minetest web page.

Minetest 0.4.11 in Ubuntu 14.04

Install Minetest 0.4.11 in Ubuntu:

While Ubuntu repository provide an old version of the game package, the Minetest Stable PPA has made the new release available for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (also contains the 12.04 build, but failed so far).

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:minetestdevs/stable

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install minetest

If you don’t want to add the PPA, grab the .deb installer from Launchpad page. Depends on your OS type, 32-bit or 64-bit, select download:

  • “minetest_xxx~ubuntu14.04.1_amd64.deb” for Ubuntu 14.04 64-bit
  • “minetest_xxx~ubuntu14.04.1_i386.deb” for Ubuntu 14.04 32-bit.

Once downloaded, double-click to open the .deb package via Ubuntu Software Center and click install.

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