UbuntuHandbook

Upgrade / Install LibreOffice 4.3 via PPA in Ubuntu 14.04/12.04

Last updated: August 3, 2014

LibreOffice, the default office suite in Ubuntu, has finally reached version 4.3 with a large number of improvements and new features.

The packages has been made into 4.3 series PPA – available for Ubuntu 14.04 and Ubuntu 12.04 – which will provide future minor release updates (4.3.1, 4.3.2, 4.3.3 …).

What’s New in LibreOffice:

Better OOXML interoperability, and support of legacy Mac file formats
Better comment management, and highly intuitive spreadsheet handling
3D models in Impress, and support for “monster” paragraphs
LibreOffice 4.3 also support “monster” paragraphs exceeding 65,000 characters
See the release note for details

Upgrade to LibreOffice 4.3 in Ubuntu:

1. Add the 4.3 series PPA, available for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 and their derivatives.

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, paste the command below and hit enter to run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/libreoffice-4-3

2. Open Software & Updater from Unity dash. After checking for updates, you’ll see the latest LibreOffice packages available in the update list. Click the Install Now to install updates.

You can also run the commands below to do the upgrade process:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get upgrade

That’s it. Enjoy!

In Howtos LibreOffice, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 14.04

Texmaker 4.3 Released, Install it in Ubuntu 14.04/12.04

Last updated: August 2, 2014

Texmaker, an open source LaTeX editor with an integrated PDF viewer, has finally reached v4.3 with new features and translation updates.

Texmaker is entirely a Qt app that works on Windows, Linux and Macos. The editor includes full unicode support, inline spell checking, auto-completion, code folding and rectangular block selection. Regular expressions are also supported for the find-and-replace actions.

The latest Texmaker 4.3 was released on August 1st, 2014 with below changes:

a visual diff view has been added to the “source viewer” (differences between the current files loaded in the editor and in the “source viewer”) based on jsdifflib from Chas Emerick (BSD license)
when a command fails, the command is now displayed with the error message “Could not start the command”
an “reload all documents from file” option has been added to the “File” menu (users request)
if a “completion.txt” file is found in the same directory than texmaker.exe on windows, in the “/usr/share/texmaker/” folder on linux and in the “Resources” subdirectory of the .app package on macosx, all items from this file will be added automatically for the autocompletion (the syntax must be the same than for the .”Customize completion” option of the “User” menu.
an option to launch the “Clean” tool when exiting the program has been added (users request)
a texmaker man page and a texmaker.menu file have been added in the “utilities” directory of the source (thanks to Bernd Warken for the man-page)
the cs, el, es, hu and se translations have been updated (thanks to all the translators)

Install Texmaker 4.3 in Ubuntu:

The official website provides .deb installer available for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, and Ubuntu 12.10.

First check out your OS type, 32-bit (i386) or 64-bit (amd64), by going to System Settings -> Details.

Then download the package that matches your Ubuntu edition and os type:

Download Texmaker

Finally double-click the package in file browser to open it with Ubuntu Software Center and click install.

In Howtos LaTeX editor, texmaker, Ubuntu 14.04

Skype 4.3 Now Is Available in Canonical Partners Repository

Last updated: August 2, 2014

The latest skype for Linux 4.3 was released in the middle of June with updated UI, new cloud-based Group chat experience. Now it’s available in the Canonical Partners repository for Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 and their derivatives.

From now on, enable Canonical Partners repository via Software & Updates utility, then you are able to upgrade to Skype 4.3 by running regular system updates via Software Updater

What’s New in Skype 4.3:

An updated UI
Our new cloud-based Group Chat experience
More reliable file transfer support when using multiple devices at once
Greater accessibility by blind and visually impaired users
PulseAudio 3.0 and 4.0 support
Lot of bug fixes
Skype 4.3 release note.

Install / Upgrade to Skype 4.3:

1. Open Software & Updates or Software Sources from Unity Dash, go to Other Software tab and enable Canonical Partners repository.

2. To install Skype, just search for and install it from Ubuntu Software Center.

To upgrade Skype, open Software Updater, after checking for updates, you’ll see Skype 4.3 available for update:

If you are familiar with command line, just run:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install skype

In Howtos skype, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10

Webilder – Wallpaper Changer With Photos from Flickr & Webshots

Last updated: August 1, 2014

There are a few applications for Linux desktop that change the wallpaper automatically. Webilder is one of them that rotates your wallpaper with photos directly downloaded from flickr and webshots.com.

The application provides an indicator applet for Ubuntu Unity and GNOME that allows you to downloads the most interesting photos from Flickr, browser photo collection, and select next photo (as wallpaper).

In its preferences window, you can set Webilder to automatically download photos every day, download Flickr photos that match your given tags, view and download Webshots photos with an account.

Features:

downloads the most interesting photos from Flickr.
view Webshots photos on your Linux desktop (requires Webshots account).
downloads Flickr photos that match tags (for example: beach,party)
downloads photos from Flickr users of your choice.
automatically downloads new photos for you every day.
change your wallpaper every few minutes.
import webshots collections (wbz or wbc formats).
photo collection browser that will let you view the images in fullscreen, or set them as a wallpaper.
browser integration for Webshots – downloaded images are automatically added to your collection.
command-line photo downloader webilder_downloader

Install Webilder in Ubuntu:

The website provides the .deb package for Ubuntu and its derivatives, download it from the link below and double-click to open with Ubuntu Software Center and finally click install:

Download Webilder (webilder_xxx.deb)

Once installed, open Webilder indicator form Unity Dash or app menu. It will start automatically the next time you log in.

In Howtos Flickr, Ubuntu 14.04, wallpaper changer

XT7-Player – Best Video Player for Kubuntu / KDE

Last updated: January 23, 2015

XT7-Player is currently one of the best multimedia video player for KDE / Kubuntu. Here are the main features and how to install it.

Xt7-Player is an open source gui to mplayer. While there are plenty out there, it’s hard to find one which gives access to all mplayer options. This is what Xt7-Player aims to be, a complete graphical interface to mplayer, focusing on usability.

Among the main features of XT7 player include support for video playback from DVD, DVB-T support for allowing us then to be able to watch TV channels through a PCI card or USB for digital terrestrial connected to our personal computers. XT7-Player enables us to search and play videos from YouTube (also support for multiple playlists and offline mode for playback of favorite videos even when you’re not connected to the Internet by accessing the happy cached Flash system), we can also manage and play web radio, podcasts, and also there is also the Media Info section with details about our media files.

Simple and functional, XT7 Player has many customizations as well as a useful video and audio equalizer, support for Karaoke mode and the introduction of custom filters, there is also the shutdown mode that allows us to Turn off the PC after playback of a playlist or video in progress and much more.

Install XT7-Player in Kubuntu via PPA:

So far, the latest release is available in PPA for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 10.04 and their derivatives.

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, paste below command and hit enter to add the gambas3 PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gambas-team/gambas3

Then paste the command below to add the XT7-Player PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xt7-player-dev-team/daily

Finally update and install the player:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install xt7-player

In Howtos Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 14.04

Install App Grid – Lightweight Alternative to Ubuntu Software Center

Last updated: July 31, 2014

App Grid is an Ubuntu Software Center alternative that aims to be lightweight, fast, clean and simple.

Every day we use USC (Ubuntu Software Center) to install, remove, buy, and manage applications, but it works really slow and freezes frequently in my old laptop.

App Grid provides a clean and simple interface and delivers stunning startup speed, and swift reactions throughout. It has almost all features that USC provides: install, launch, remove button, screenshots, a short description along with user comments, Ubuntu One login and more.

Install App Grid in Ubuntu:

This project provides an official PPA for Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, and Ubuntu 12.04.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:appgrid/stable

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install appgrid

If you don’t want to add the PPA, grab the .deb package directly from Launchpad Page.

In Howtos Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu Software Center Alternative

Get Digital TV Guide in Ubuntu with TV-Browser

Last updated: April 23, 2024

TV-browser is a free and open-source app which gets the daily TV program from the internet and shows it clearly arranged – like a printed TV guide. An internet connection is only necessary during the data update. It provides more than 1000 TV stations and 100 radio channels.

TV-browser works on Windows, Linux, MacOS, OS/2 with Java runtime minimum version 6.0. And, its features include:

Electronic TV guide
More than 1000 (mostly German and European) TV stations
More than 100 radio channels
Remote control of hard- and software
Extensible with plug-ins
Configurable with skins, icon sets and many options

The latest release at the moment of writing is ersion 4.2.7. According to the release note in its website. It’s a bug-fix release, also include a feature that it will now automatically keep Reminders for programs for which the start time has changed by a couple of minutes during a data update.

Install TV-browser in Ubuntu:

The app is easy to install in Ubuntu now, since it provides an official .deb package for Debian and Ubuntu users.

To download it, just go to the link below:

Download TV Browser

Select the latest version, then click download the package with .deb extension.

After downloaded the package, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open up a terminal window, then use the command below to install it:

sudo apt install drag'n'drop-deb-file-here

Once installed, search for and launch it from either start menu or GNOME’s overview screen. And, first time launching the app, you need to follow the wizard to download plugins that you need.

Uninstall TV-Browser

To uninstall the software package, also open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove tvbrowser

In Howtos Digital TV Guide, Ubuntu 14.04

Install Speed Dreams Racing Simulator 2.1 in Ubuntu 14.04

Last updated: April 4, 2019

Speed Dreams, an open source motorsport simulation and racing game, now is at v2.1 with new physics engine, more cars and tracks.

Speed Dreams is initially forked from TORCS, it has now reached a clearly higher realism level in visual and physics simulation, thanks to its active development team and growing community.

Features:

3D real-time motorsport simulator for gamers and researchers
Accurate physics targeting maximum possible realism
High Quality graphics
Many more cars and tracks available from the community
2 first class AI opponents for thrilling races
Fully open to any research, study or teaching work (physics, AI, graphics, …)
Support for many input devices (keyboard, joypad, joystick, wheel/pedal …)
Runs under Windows and Linuxes (WIP on Mac OS X)

According to the announcement, the 2.1 release includes a new physics engine (V4), with a choice of 33 cars from ‘Super-cars’, 1930’s racers and high speed ‘open-wheelers’. There are 25 tracks including Grand-Prix circuits, road courses and stadium ovals. Practice sessions let you hone your skills before competing in a Quick Race, Challenge Race or a ‘full-on’ Endurance Race.

Install Speed Dreams 2.1 in Ubuntu 14.04:

The 2.1 release is available in Playdeb repository for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and Linux Mint 17. Follow below steps to install it:

1. Add Playdeb repository:

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

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.getdeb.net/ubuntu trusty-getdeb games"

wget -q -O- http://archive.getdeb.net/getdeb-archive.key | sudo apt-key add -

2. Open Synaptic Package Manager (install it from Software Center), then do:

Click Reload button to update package lists.
Search speed-dreams in the Quick filter box.
Right click on the results and select “Mark for installation”
Finally click the green check mark button to apply changes

If you don’t want to add the repository, you can grab the Speed Dreams related packages from ~~THIS PAGE~~.

In Howtos speed dreams, Ubuntu 14.04

How to Mount Partitions Automatically on Start Up in Ubuntu 14.04

Last updated: July 26, 2014

This quick tutorial will show you how to make your Ubuntu mount partitions automatically on start up.

1. Search and open Disks utility from Unity dash.

2. When it opens, choose the hard disk and highlight the partition your want to mount automatically. Then click the gear icon and select “Edit Mount Options…”

3. In next window do:

Turn on “Automatic Mount Options”
Due to bug, un-check “Show in user interface”. Also leave “Display Name, Icon Name, Symbolic Icon Name” empty.
(Optional) Edit Mount Point, usually we can use “/mnt/xxx” or “/media/USER_NAME/xxx” or “/media/xxx”.
Filesystem Type: find it in the above picture.

Re-do previous steps on other partitions and done!

In Howtos auto mount, Ubuntu 14.04

Ubuntu 14.04: How to Change Drives Name in Nautilus File Browser

Last updated: July 26, 2014

This quick tutorial is going to show you how to change the display name of drives, partitions (under Devices) in the left pane of Nautilus file browser.

Besides Ubuntu 14.04, I have 4 other partitions in my laptop. However, the Nautilus file manager only displays them as “x GB Volume” and I was always annoyed to find out which is which!

See the result first: