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Archives For November 30, 1999

Add, Remove, Purge Ubuntu PPAs Graphically with Y PPA Manager

Last updated: January 6, 2014

Launchpad PPA, (Personal Packages Archive) is a common way to install apps that are not available in Ubuntu default repositories. For beginners, it’s a little complicated to manage the PPAs via the default “Software & Updates” utility. So here’s a handy tool called Y PPA Manager.

Y PPA Manager is a graphical tool developed by Webupd8 Team. With it, you can easily add, remove, purge PPAs, list packages and install them.

Add a PPA box will do the same thing as below terminal command does:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

Manage PPAs window lists enabed PPAs. With it you can:

Remove a PPA will disable the ppa repository. The installed packages from this ppa are still there.

Purge a PPA will disable the ppa as well as downgrade installed packages to default version available in Ubuntu default repositories.

Update package lists after adding or removing a ppa repository.

Edit source allows you edit the config file with text editor.

Lists packages will display available packages in selected ppa.

Y PPA Manager also allows to search PPA, install a package with a given name, backup /restore repositories, and even more.

Install Y PPA Manager:

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, add the webupd8 PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/y-ppa-manager

Then update and install the tool:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install y-ppa-manager

Works on Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Linux Mint 13/14/15/16.

In Howtos Y PPA Manager

Ubuntu 14.04, 13.10: Boot into Text Mode / Console / Command Line

Last updated: November 14, 2014

This simple tutorial will show you how to boot your Ubuntu system directly into command line (text mode or console). If you just want a console for temporary use, press Ctrl+Alt+F1 on keyboard will switch your desktop to tty1.

Update: Thanks to August Karlstrom, before getting started, make a backup by running the command below:

sudo cp -n /etc/default/grub /etc/default/grub.orig

If for some reason you want to revert to original settings, just run command below in terminal:

sudo mv /etc/default/grub.orig /etc/default/grub && sudo update-grub

To get started, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal. When it opens, follow the below steps:

1. Copy and paste below command into terminal and hit enter:

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

This opens Grub boot loader config file with text editor.

2. Do below changes:

Comment the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash”, by adding # at the beginning, which will disable the Ubuntu purple screen.
Change GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=”” to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=”text”, this makes Ubuntu boot directly into Text Mode.
Uncomment this line #GRUB_TERMINAL=console, by removing the # at the beginning, this makes Grub Menu into real black & white Text Mode (without background image)

3. After saved the changes, update grub via command:

sudo update-grub

Restart your computer and see the result.

In Howtos Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu boot into Command Line

Minetest 0.4.9 Release, How to Install it in Ubuntu Linux Mint

Last updated: January 5, 2014

Minetest, free and open-source Minecraft-like sandbox game has reached version 0.4.9. This release brings several new features as well as various bugs fixes.

What’s New in MineTest 0.4.9:

Logistic changes:

SQLite rollback (Mario Barrera & ShadowNinja)
Implement HTTPFetch (kahrl)
Replace SimpleThread with JThread (sapier)

Visual changes:

Shaders rework (RealBadAngel)
Add configurable font shadow (xyz)
Directional fog + horizon colors (Taoki)

Other things:

Implement modstore search tab and version picker (sapier)

Bug Fixes:

Fix line_of_sight() (sapier)
Fix modstore/favourites hang by adding asynchronous Lua (sapier)
Fix LevelDB maps (sfan5)
Fix Lua mapgen override param handling (kwolekr)
Fix leak and possible segfault in minetest.set_mapgen_params (kwolekr)
Fix segfault in indev cave generation due to uninitialized variable (kwolekr)
Check if width, height or start index of a list[] is negative (PilzAdam)
Fix single character formspec field labels (BlockMen)
Handle Lua errors in on_generate callbacks instead of throwing SIGABRT (kwolekr)
Update mapgen params in ServerMap after Mapgen init (kwolekr)

Modding-related Changes:

Add area parameters back to calc_lighting() and set_lighting() (kwolekr)
Add get_light_data() and set_light_data() to LuaVoxelManip (kwolekr)
Add minetest.swap_node (Novatux)
Assume a selection box for fences (0gb.us)
Decoration: Add schematic Y-slice probability support (kwolekr)
Add sneak and sneak_glitch in set_physics_override() (PilzAdam)
Use a table in set_physics_override() (PilzAdam)
Add ‘on_prejoinplayer’ callback (kaeza)
Make line_of_sight return blocking node position (stujones11)
Remove support for optdepends.txt (ShadowNinja)
Add map feature generation notify Lua API (kwolekr)

Minetest ChangLog

Install Minetest:

The Minetest PPA will update soon, available for Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Linux Mint and their derivatives.

To add the PPA, run command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:minetestdevs/stable

After that, install or upgrade the game via Synaptic Package Manager, or run below commands:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install minetestc55

Once installed, open the game from Menu or Unity Dash and enjoy!

In Howtos Minecraft similar game, Minetest

How to Install Xnoise Media Player in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Last updated: January 4, 2014

Xnoise, a GTK media player with intuitive user interface and great speed now is available for Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty in its PPA.

Xnoise allows listening to music and playing video in a very intuitive way: You can easily search the library and drag each artist, album or title to the tracklist (to any position in any order).

Xnoise has a whole lot of features. Among these are:

Simple GUI without clutter

Fast(!) searchable media library

Album Art view for a convenient view on album cover images

Music and Video support

Equalizer with sound presets

Automatic media folder monitoring

Integrated ID3/Xiph/Wma/Ape/… tag editing

Automatic album art fetching

Android device and other media player support

‘Now playing’ pane

State restore

Can play virtually all media via GStreamer

Media key support

Lightweight and speedy!

Optional Ubuntu unity integration (Quicklists, HUD, ..)

Plugins for MPRIS, Magnatune, LastFm (album art and scrobbling), Lyrics fetching, Notifications, Ubuntu Soundmenu, …

Available for a lot of different languages

&nsb;
Screenshot:

Install Xnoise:

Add the PPA to get the latest version of Xnoise. To get started, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it open run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:shkn/xnoise

After that, install the media player after checking for updates:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install xnoise

In Howtos Install Xnoise Ubuntu 14.04, xnoise

Install QuiteRSS News Reader via PPA in Ubuntu Linux Mint

Last updated: January 3, 2014

QuiteRSS is an open-source RSS/Atom news feeds reader available for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, OS/2. It’s written in Qt/С++, aims to be quite fast and comfortable.

QuiteRSS has below features:

Feed and news filters: new, unread, starred, deleted (for news until restart application)
User filters
Proxy configuration: automatic or manual
Feed import wizard: Search feed URL if site URL was entered
Embedded browser (Webkit core)
Mark news starred
Automatic update feeds: on startup, by timer
Automatic cleanup on close using criterias
Enable/Disable images in news preview
Ability to quickly hide feed tree (for comfortable viewing)
Open feed or news in own tab
Quick news filter and quick search in browser
Sound / Popup notification on new news
Show new or unread news counter on tray icon
Minimize on system tray: on start, on close, on minimize
Import/Export feeds (OPML-files)
Portable (Windows)
Free working set (Windows)
Shortcuts
Open-source

So far, this latest release is QuiteRSS 0.14.2 (30 Dec 2013), which contains below changes:

Added: Option “Options->Browser->Load images”
Added: Feed option “Disable update”
Added: Shortcuts for main browser actions
Added: Setting for text and background colors of focused feed
Added: Language: Finnish
Changed: Load feed’s favicon from main webpage
Changed: Process “dc:date” while parsing feed
Changed: Mouse gestures. Jump to news description if there is no previous page on back-action
Changed: Address bar appearance
Changed: Send whole new’s text when share news by e-mail
Fixed: Adding feeds that contains “amp;”
Fixed: Parsing of some feeds
Fixed: Action “Next unread news”
Fixed: Recounting and displaying counters in categories tree
Fixed: Manual run of filter when option “Store DB in memory” is disabled
Fixed: Displaying focused feed, while switching tabs with enabled filter
Fixed: Taking account of filter text when switching news filter

Install QuiteRSS:

For Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Linux Mint and their derivatives, we can easily install QuiteRSS from PPA.

To do so, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal and run commands below one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:quiterss/quiterss

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install quiterss

For Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty LTS, you can search & install this app in Ubuntu Software Center.

For Windows, FreeBSD, other Linux and source code, go to QuiteRSS Download page

In Howtos Feed Reader, QuiteRSS PPA

Install Codimension – Open Source Python IDE via PPA in Ubuntu

Last updated: January 3, 2014

Codimension is yet another free experimental Python IDE licensed under GPL v3. It aims to provide an integrated system for traditional text-based code editing, and diagram-based code analysis.

Many Python developers will find codimension useful as-is, even though not all of its features have been implemented yet.

Codimension currently has belw features (major only, no certain order):

Ability to work with standalone files and with projects

Remembering the list of opened files (and the cursor position in each file) separately for each project

Editing history support within / between files

Ability to hide / show tab bars

Recently edited files list support for each project separately

Recent projects list support

Automatic watching of the project directories for deleted / created files and nested directories

Template supports for new python fies for each project separately

Editor syntax highlight

Imports diagram for a file, a directory (recursively) or for a whole project with jumps to the code

Simple line counter

Hierarchical python files content browser with quick jumps to the code

Hierarchical classes / functions / globals browsers with filtering and quick jump to the code

Object browsers support showing docstrings as items tooltips

File outline tab

Running pylint with one click and quick jumps to the code from the produced output

Running pymetrics with one click and quick jumps to the code from the produced output where possible

Ability to run pylint / pymetrics for a file, a directory (recursively) or for a whole project

Table sortable representation of the McCabe cyclomatic complexity for a file or many files

Ability to have pylint settings file for each project separately

Opening file imports using a hot key; jumping to a definition of a certain imported item

Incremental search in a file

Incremental replace in a file

Search in files

Search for a name (class, function, global variable) in the project

Search for a file in the project

Jumping to a line in a file

Pixmaps viewer

Editor skins support

Detecting files changed outside of codimension

Code completer

Docstring and calltip search for the current editor word

Jump to the definition of the current word

Finding occurrences of the current word

Jumping to the beginning of the current function or class

Main menu

PythonTidy (python code beautifier) integration and diff viewer

Unused classes, functions and global variables analysis

Disassembling for classes and functions

Table representation of profiling results

Graphics representation of profiling results (side effect: shows a call graph)

Debugger

PyFlakes integration

Calltips

Plugin support

SVN support

Install Codimension:

It’s easy to install this IDE in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy, Ubuntu 13.04 Raring, Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal, Ubuntu 12.04 Precise, Linux Mint and their derivatives.

Just press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run commands below one by one to install it from PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:isloginov/codimension

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install codimension codimension-parser

Codimension Homepage

In Howtos Codimension PPA, Python IDE

Netflix Desktop 0.8.7 Released, How to Install it via PPA

Last updated: January 3, 2014

Netflix Desktop app for Ubuntu Linux now is at 0.8.7. This release works around a problem with upstream Wine 1.7.9, it is highly recommended that anyone working off of the latest Wine also upgrade Netflix Desktop.

As you may know, Netflix Desktop provides a convient tool that downloads and installs all of the components necessary to run Netflix Watch Instantly under Wine, including the Windows version of Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Silverlight. The project package also includes some convience settings to integrate Netflix into Firefox in such a way that everything feels like a native Ubuntu application.

Netflix Desktop 0.8.7 gets below changes:

Fixed a mistake in the wine-mpg2splt-installer installation script.
Fixed a problem with missing download files.
Updated the British English, French, Uyghur, Turkish translations.
Added a workaround for Wine Bug #35181.
Fixed xattr python script on newer Ubuntu releases.
Updated Silverlight 5.1 to include the fix for MS13-087.
Blacklisted hardware acceleration for nVidia driver 310.44.
Turn GPU acceleration on for Nouveau and Tungsten Graphics drivers.

Install Netflix Desktop:

For Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 10.04, Linux Mint and their derivatives, Netflix Desktop can be easily installed from PPA.

Just press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run commands below to add the Netflix Desktop ppa:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pipelight/stable

Then you can get the latest packages after checking for updates:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install netflix-desktop wine-compholio

In Howtos netflix desktop app, netflix for ubuntu linux

How to GraphicsMagick 1.3.19 via PPA in Ubuntu Linux Mint

Last updated: January 2, 2014

After nine months of hard work, the developer finally announced the GraphicsMagick 1.3.19. This release brings dozens of bugfixes, several feature and performance improvements, and also below new features:

JPEG: Add support for writing ‘XMP’ profile.
PNM: As a simple non-standard extension to the standard PNM and PAM formats, support writing and reading 32-bit sample depth. Writing such files is only supported by the Q32 build although they may be read by any build.
WebP: Now supports reading and writing Google’s WebP format. This feature is not currently supported by the Windows Visual Studio build.

See the official release note.

Install GraphicsMagick via PPA:

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run commands below to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dhor/myway

After that, check for updates and install the app via Synaptic Package Manager, or just run commands below one by one:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install graphicsmagick

In Howtos GraphicsMagick, GraphicsMagick PPA

Install F-IRC, IRC Client for Console/Terminal in Ubuntu

Last updated: January 2, 2014

Looking for a command-line IRC client? Well, there’s a good app called F-IRC. Its goal is to be as user friendly as possible with easy navigation and keyboard shortcuts for quick navigation. The learning curve should be as shallow as possible.

The developer wrote this app because:

I wrote it because I had too many problems with irssi. For a lot (most?) people irssi is perfect but I wanted an easy, clear interface like XChat and mIRC usable from within a terminal window (and compatible to GNU screen). I wanted easy channel select navigation, a pop-up menu for actions and easy to configure. There was no such thing at that time.

Install F-IRC:

I’ve build this app into PPA for Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty, Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy, Ubuntu 13.04 Raring, Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal, Ubuntu 12.04 Precise, Linux Mint and their derivatives.

To add the ppa, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

Then install the irc client via:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install f-irc

Go to F-IRC homepage for source tarball if you would like to build it yourself.

In Howtos IRC client, IRC client for command line

How to Install PlayOnLinux 4.2.2 in Ubuntu Linux Mint

Last updated: January 1, 2014

PlayOnLinux, the graphical front-end of Wine has reached version 4.2.2. As you may know, PlayOnLinux provides a clean, user friendly interface for Linux users to install and use Windows applications and games.

PlayOnLinux is a free software based on wine and you don’t have to own a Windows® license to use it. The latest version 4.2.2 was released on 31 Dec 2013. ChangeLog is available in the source code.

PlayOnLinux main window, installed app listed here

PlayOnLinux lists all available apps

Install PlayOnLinux:

To get PlayOnLinux working, we must install wine:i386 for Ubuntu 12.04 and higher.

Install Wine:

To install the stable version of wine, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal and then run below command:

sudo apt-get install wine:i386

If you would like to install Wine with latest new features, run below commands one by one in terminal to install Wine 1.7 from PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install wine1.7:i386

Install PlayOnLinux

Two ways:

1. Download and install the package:

PlayOnLinux_4.2.2.deb

2. Or run below commands one by one to get it from repository:

wget -q "http://deb.playonlinux.com/public.gpg" -O- | sudo apt-key add -

sudo wget http://deb.playonlinux.com/playonlinux_precise.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/playonlinux.list

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install playonlinux

Change precise (Ubuntu 12.04) to your system release code name, such as saucy (Ubuntu 13.10), raring (Ubuntu 13.04).

PlayOnLinux Homepage

In Howtos PlayOnLinux, PlayOnLinux repository