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System Restore App ‘TimeShift’ Adds LUKS-encrypted Partition Support

Last updated: December 10, 2022

system restore app for Ubuntu Linux

TimeShift, the open-source System Restore software, has reached the 1.7.x release recently. The new release added new command line options to restore, list and delete snapshots, added backup and restore support for LUKS-encrypted partitions.

Never heard of it? TimeShift for Linux is a application that provides functionality similar to the System Restore feature in Windows and the Time Machine tool in Mac OS. It takes snapshots of your system files and settings. User files such as documents, pictures and music are excluded. Your files remains unchanged when you restore your system to an earlier date.

The 1.7 version brings command line options to restore, delete snapshots. For example:

timeshift --restore    #interactive

timeshift --restore --snapshot "2015-01-21_19-28-43" --backup-device /dev/sda2 --target-device /dev/sda1 --skip-grub

timeshift --delete    #interactive

timeshift --delete --snapshot "2015-01-21_19-28-43"

timeshift --delete-all    #completely remove all snapshots

If your system is installed on a LUKS-encrypted partition then you can now restore snapshots both online (from running system) and offline (from another system / LiveCD).

How to Install/Upgrade TimeShift:

TimeShift is available in the developer’s PPA for Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, and Ubuntu 12.04.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:teejee2008/timeshift

After that, update package cache and install the software by running below two commands one by one:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install timeshift

For BTRFS filesystem, replace the last command with this one:

sudo apt-get install timeshift-btrfs

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VirtualBox 4.2.28 Released With Kernel 3.19 & X11 Fixes

Last updated: January 22, 2015

Still using the VirtualBox 4.2 series? Oracle has recently released an update, VirtualBox 4.2.28, with various Linux related bug fixes, including Linux Kernel 3.19 fixes, Gnome Session crashes, etc.

Below is the full list of changes:

  • VMM: fixed a potential misbehavior after restoring the A20 state from a saved state
  • VRDP: fixed a rare crash when using remote audio input
  • Floppy: fixed read errors and guest memory corruption when running under control of QEMM
  • Storage: fixed data corruption when resizing VHD images under certain circumstances
  • NAT: fixed handling of the RFC 1533 DHCP PAD option
  • X11 hosts: Made the extra key on Brazilian Thinkpads work (bug #8745)
  • X11 hosts: fixed a problem of input focus cycles and immediately released key presses in full screen mode (bug #13238)
  • Linux guests: fix a crash in gnome-session (bug #13335)
  • Linux Additions: fixed a potential use-after-free when unloading the VBoxGuest module
  • Linux Additions: Linux 3.19 fixes (#13741)
  • X11 Additions: support X.Org Server 1.15 (bug #12623)
  • X11 guests: Add support for X.Org Server 1.16 (bug #13207)
  • X11 guests: fixed a wrong parameter in the video driver which caused problems with full-screen X11 clients (bug #2748)
  • X11 guests: fix a bug handling video driver display properties w

To install Virtualbox 4.2.28, download the installer from the link below (for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux systems):

Download VBox 4.2.28

For Debian/Ubuntu based system, you can also install/upgrade Vbox from its official repository. To do so:

1. Open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command to add vbox repository:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian $(lsb_release -sc) contrib" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list'

2. Then install the keyring:

wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

3. Finally update package cache and install or upgrade vbox 4.2.x:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.2

Support for Ubuntu 8.04, Ubuntu 10.04, Ubuntu 11.04, …, up to Ubuntu 14.10.

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Planetarium App ‘Stellarium’ 0.13.2 Fixed Over 70 Bugs

Last updated: January 22, 2015

Free planetarium software Stellarium has reached 0.13.2 release with over 70 bug-fixes and new nice features – like visualization of the zodiacal light and new sky cultures.

Stellarium is a free and open source planetarium software that uses OpenGL to render a realistic projection of the night sky in real time. It works in Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

According to the changelog, the new release fixed below important bugs:

  • The orbits of Neptune’s moons are not rendered correctly
  • fail to start stellarium compiled by Qt5.3.1
  • No disk in station F on start
  • Mac OS X Yosemite 10.10 mouse bug
  • Unable to select objects after zoom.
  • The textures of Hyperion (Saturn VII) fails to render.
  • Wrong value of proper motion for some stars
  • Memory leak in 64-bit version
  • Visual artifacts on the Moon
  • Insufficient OpenGL version for 0.11.96.MESA-win32

Other bug fixes and installer for Windows and OS X are available at launchpad page.

Install / Upgrade Stellarium in Ubuntu:

For Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 15.05 and Linux Mint 17 users, latest Stellarium packages are available in PPA repository.

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

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

After that, you can upgrade Stellarium by running Software Updater and installing updates. Or run below command to install the software:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install stellarium
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How to Remember and Restore The Last Session in Ubuntu 14.04

Last updated: January 21, 2015

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.

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How to Install PhotoQt Image Viewer in Ubuntu 14.04

Last updated: January 20, 2015

PhotoQt is an open-source Qt based image viewer designed to be fast, simple, good looking, yet powerful and highly configurable.

This full screen image viewer features:

  • Based on Qt5
  • Support of many image formats (use of GraphicsMagick)
  • Rotating, flipping, zooming images – no permanent changes
  • Scaling images – permanent change
  • Basic File Management (Renaming, Deleting, Moving, Copying)
  • Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts
  • Set-as-Wallpaper function
  • Slideshow feature
  • Exif information
  • Highly Adjustable to your custom preference
  • Interface that doesn’t get into your way
  • Very fast and flexible
  • Thumbnail Cache
  • System Tray Usage
  • Command Line Options
  • Several translations available
  • and much more…

Install PhotoQt in Ubuntu:

The most recent release PhotoQt 1.2 brings XCF and PSB/PSD support. It’s available in PPA for Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04 and Linux Mint 17.

To install it, open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, do:

1. Run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:samrog131/ppa

Type in your user password when it asks.

2. Update system package cache by running command:

sudo apt-get update

3. Finally install the image viewer:

sudo apt-get install photoqt

If for some reason you want to remove PhotoQt as well as the PPA repository, run below command in terminal:

sudo apt-get remove photoqt && sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:samrog131/ppa

That’s it.

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How to Install Picty Large Collections Photo Manager in Ubuntu

Last updated: January 19, 2015

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:

sudo apt-get install dcraw totem python-gdata python-flickrapi python-osmgpsmap

(Optional) To remove the photo manager as well as PPA repository, run command:

sudo apt-get remove picty && sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:damien-moore/ppa && sudo apt-get update
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Gnome-Pie Application Launcher Sees A New Release

Last updated: January 18, 2015

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:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:simonschneegans/testing

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

After you added the PPA, update system package cache and install the app launcher by running below two commands one by one:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gnome-pie

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.

In Howtos
 

How to Install Caffeine Indicator 2.8 in Ubuntu 14.04

Last updated: January 18, 2015

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:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:caffeine-developers/ppa

After that, update package cache and install the indicator by running below two commands one by one:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install caffeine

If you don’t want to add PPA, grab and install the ‘caffeine_2.8.2_all.deb’ from this page.

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How to Install NVIDIA 346.35 Stable Driver in Ubuntu 14.04

Last updated: February 25, 2015

NVIDIA 346.35, the first stable release of the 346.xx series driver, has been released with new features, improvements, and numerous bug fixes.

Instead of NVIDIA 340.xx series, the new driver becomes the Latest Long Lived Branch version of NVIDIA Linux drivers.

The 346.35 driver brings:

  • new GPUs support: GeForce 800A, GeForce 800M, GeForce GTX 970M, GeForce GTX 980M.
  • 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 Linux | 64-bit Linux | 32-bit ARM Linux

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):

sudo apt-get remove nvidia* && sudo apt-get autoremove

3. You should also blacklist the open source nouveau driver by running below command to edit the config file:

gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf

Add below lines to the end and click save.

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

Also undo the step 3 & 4 by removing the

cd /etc/modprobe.d/ && sudo rm blacklist-nouveau.conf nouveau-kms.conf && sudo update-initramfs -u

Good luck!

In Howtos ,
 

Pragha Music Player 1.3.x Available in Ubuntu 14.04

Last updated: January 16, 2015


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:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/pragha

After that, check for updates and install the player via:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install pragha

If you don’t want to add PPA, download & install the .deb package directly from the PPA page.

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