UbuntuHandbook

Minecraft Alternative ‘Minetest’ 0.4.11 Available for Ubuntu 14.04

Last updated: December 28, 2014

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.

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.

In Howtos Minecraft, Minetest

Install The Diary Software ‘RedNotebook’ 1.9 in Ubuntu 14.04/12.04

Last updated: December 28, 2014

RedNotebook, a cross-platform diary and journal software, has been updated to the 1.9.0 release recently with a few improvements and bug fixes.

For those who have never heard of RedNotebook, it is a free and modern journal that includes a calendar navigation, customizable templates, export functionality and word clouds. With it, you can also format, tag and search your entries.

It features:

Tagging
Format your text bold, italic or underlined
Insert Images, files and links to websites
Links and mail addresses are recognized automatically
Spell Check on Linux
Live-Search
Automatic saving
Backup to zip archive
Word Clouds with most often used words and tags
Templates
Export the journal to PDF, HTML, Latex or plain text
The data is stored in plain text files, no database is needed
Translated into more than 30 languages

The latest 1.9.0 release was released a few hours ago with below changes:

Add #tags to cloud ignore list to remove them from the tag cloud (thanks Przemysław Buczkowski).
Remove option to start RedNotebook minimized.
Do not remove menu bar in fullscreen mode (lp:1400356).
Allow exiting fullscreen mode with ESC key.
Only allow comment signs (#) at the beginning of a line in the config file.
Fix reading configuration files.

How to Install / Upgrade to RedNotebook 1.9.0 in Ubuntu:

The official PPA repository has made this release available for Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 10.04 and derivatives

To add the PPA and install the software, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal, then run the commands below one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rednotebook/stable

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install rednotebook

If you don’t want to add the PPA, download the “rednotebook_VERSION_OS-EDITION_all.deb” package from the launchpad page. Finally double-click to package to open with Ubuntu Software Center and click install.

In Howtos Diary and Journal, RedNotebook

Remote Control Clementine Player via Your Android Phone

Last updated: December 26, 2014

Want to remotely control the desktop PC music playback via your phone? Clementine music player has a built-in feature allows to remotely control player using Android mobile over LAN (or WAN).

All you need to do is enable this feature in the desktop player and install the official app ‘Clementine Remote’ on your phone.

1. For Ubuntu 14.04 and earlier editions, you have to upgrade to the latest Clementine release by installing the package from the official link below:

Clementine Player Download Page

32-bit or 64-bit? Check it out at System Settings -> Details.

The downloaded package is .deb file, just double-click on it to open with Ubuntu Software Center and click install button to install the player.

Tip: Restart your computer if you were upgrading Clementine from a previous version.

2. Open the music player and go to menu “Tools -> Preferences”. Select Network Remote in the left pane, then do:

Enable remote control by ticking the box ‘Use a network remote control’
Depends on your need, leave the port default or change it.
Set LAN only or both LAN & WAN access
Set an authentication code, so that clients need to type the code to connect.
Tick ‘Allow downloads’ if you want to download songs from Clementine to Android.

3. Now on your Android device, install the ‘Clementine Remote’ app from Google Play.

Once installed, start the app, type in the IP of the remote machine and click connect.

That’s it. Enjoy!

In Howtos Clementine, remote access

Show or hide the Control Bar in Ubuntu 14.04 Rhythmbox Player

Last updated: December 25, 2014

Quick tutorial shows how to show or hide the play bar (control buttons and volume control) in Ubuntu’s default Rhythmbox Music Player.

As a small Christmas present to Rhythmbox v3.x users, a rhythmbox plugin developer has created a plugin allows the control toolbar to be hidden when the application starts.

The bar can be redisplayed via the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+T or the menu “View -> Show Toolbar”.

How to install this Rhythmbox Plugin:

The plugin is available in the developer’s PPA for Ubuntu 14.04 and Ubuntu 14.10.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fossfreedom/rhythmbox-plugins

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install rhythmbox-plugin-alternative-toolbar

For those who don’t want to add PPA, download & install the .deb package (“rhythmbox-plugin-alternative-toolbar_xxx_all.deb”) from the launchpad page.

Once installed, restart Rhythmbox Music Player and enable the plugin from menu “Tools -> Plugins”.

That’s it. Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

via:xpressubuntu

In Howtos rhythmbox, rhythmbox 3.0

Install Kodi 14 Stable (Formerly ‘XBMC’) in Ubuntu 14.04/12.04

Last updated: December 24, 2014

The first stable release of Kodi Media Center, formerly known as XBMC, has been released the day before Christmas Eve. The code name of Kodi 14.0 is ‘Helix Unwinds’.

Besides changing names, Kodi 14.0 uses FFmpeg 2.4.4 which means it’s now able to play back h.265 and VP9 video codecs. Also there are improvements on Kodi Library and audio playback, crashes on Linux and audio-related bug-fixes, more user controls.

More details, see the Kodi release page.

Install Kodi 14 via PPA in Ubuntu:

Kodi 14 available in its official PPA for Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 and derivatives.

Open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run the commands below one by one:

1. First install the required packages to manage repository:

sudo apt-get install python-software-properties pkg-config software-properties-common

2. Then add the Kodi PPA by running:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc/ppa

3. Reload the system package lists:

sudo apt-get update

4. Finally install Kodi as well as the encode, addon:

sudo apt-get install kodi kodi-audioencoder-* kodi-pvr-*

When done, run kodi in terminal to start the media center. For me, I need a restart to make the Kodi icon available in the Dash.

In Howtos Kodi, XBMC media center

Latest Tomahawk Player 0.8.x Available for Ubuntu 12.04

Last updated: December 23, 2014

The PPA repository for Tomahawk Music Player finally made the latest 0.8.x release available for Ubuntu 12.04 Precise. Now the PPA provides the latest packages for Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 and derivatives.

For those who have never heard of Tomahawk, it is a music player that not only plays your local collection, but also streams from SoundCloud, Beats, Spotify, Google Play Music, YouTube and many more. You can even connect Tomahawk with your friends via Jabber / GTalk and share your playlists and collections.

Tomahawk 0.8 was released a month ago with redesigned UI and new music services support and various fixes. Here’s the release highlights:

New UI and Icons
Drag and drop support for iTunes, Deezer, Beats Music, Rdio, Spotify, SoundCloud links (into Tomahawk) for playlists/tracks/artists/album links.
Added Google Play Music and Beats Music support.
Now Playing notifications
Support rtmp:// streams.
Add support for Opus codec (requires TagLib 1.9). Ubuntu 12.04 is not supported because it’s built with Taglib 1.8

For more details, see the github page.

Install Latest Tomahawk in Ubuntu:

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tomahawk/ppa

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

After that, you can upgrade your music player through Software Updater after checking for updates. Or install it by running below commands one by one:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install tomahawk

That’s it. Enjoy!

In Howtos tomahawk, Ubuntu 12.04

PPA Updates For LiVEs Video Editor 2.2.7

Last updated: December 22, 2014

The open-source video editor and VJ tool LiVEs 2.2.7 has been released recently. PPA’s ready for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Linux Mint 17, and derivatives.

What is LiVEs?

LiVES is a Video Editing System. It is designed to be simple to use, yet powerful. It is small in size, yet it has many advanced features.

LiVES mixes realtime video performance and non-linear editing in one professional quality application. It will let you start editing and making video right away, without having to worry about formats, frame sizes, or framerates. It is a very flexible tool which is used by both professional VJ’s and video editors – mix and switch clips from the keyboard, use dozens of realtime effects, trim and edit your clips in the clip editor, and bring them together using the multitrack timeline. You can even record your performance in real time, and then edit it further or render it straight away.

For the more technically minded, the application is frame and sample accurate, and it can be controlled remotely or scripted for use as a video server. And it supports all of the latest free standards.

For features, documentation and other details, see LiVEs web site.

Changes in LiVEs 2.2.7:

Add support for audio triggered generators.
Add support for projectM (milkdrop) generators.
Improvements to openGL playback plugin.
Add permanent inputs in jack and pulse audio when handling external audio.
Fix bug in chroma_blend transition.
Further code cleanup.
Fix text width for “show VJ keys” window.
Remove unnecessary deinterlacing from threaded player.
Added OSC commands /clip/selection/rte_apply, /clip/undo and /clip/redo.
Add libvisual plugins to correct submenu (regression).
Minor fixes for the rfx builder window.
Minor fixes for merge in clip editor.

Install/Upgrade to LiVEs 2.2.7 in Ubuntu:

For Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04 and Ubuntu 12.04 users, run below commands one by one to install or upgrade to LiVEs 2.2.7.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/lives

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

2. If you have a previous version installed, upgrade the editor using “Software Updater” or “Synaptic Package Manager” after checking for updates.

Or you can run below commands one by one to update packages cache and install LiVEs:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install lives

That’s it. Enjoy!

In Howtos LiVES, LiVES Video Editor PPA

Speed Up Firefox in Ubuntu 14.04 By Moving Cache to RAM

Last updated: December 21, 2014

There are a variety of ways to improve your Firefox browser’s page load times. If you have a lot of RAM to spare in Ubuntu, moving Cache to RAM can speed up Firefox since computer can access data in RAM much faster than on a hard drive.

Firefox has a built-in feature that uses the browser cache in memory instead of disk. Below I’ll you how to enable it:

1. In address bar of Firefox, type in about:config and hit Enter. Click the button says “I’ll be careful, I promise!” to pass the warning page.

2. Stop Firefox from caching to disk.

In the filter bar, type in browser.cache.disk.enable. Double-click on the result line to set value to false.

3. Enable cache to RAM and assign cache size.

To enable cache to RAM, type “browser.cache.memory.enable” in the filter bar and make sure the value of result preference is true!

To assign cache size, create a new preference:

right click on blank area -> select “New” -> Integer
type in name “browser.cache.memory.capacity” (without quotes)
type in a value, number in KB (for example, 100000 means 100,000KB or 100MB). You can set the value to -1 to tell Firefox to dynamically determine the cache size.

When everything’s done, restart Firefox and check out the cache information by going to the about:cache page.

That’s it. Enjoy!

In Howtos cache, Firefox, RAM

[Quick Tip] Enable Telnet Service in Ubuntu 14.04

Last updated: December 20, 2014

This is quick tutorial that shows you how to install and setup a Telnet server in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.

TELNET (TELetype NETwork) is a network protocol used on the Internet or local area network LAN connections. It allows one computer to access a command-line interface on a remote host.

Telnet is insecure because the communication is not encrypted, your password and all other data will be transmitted as clear text. If possible avoid Telnet, and use Secure Shell (SSH) instead.

If you really want to enable the Telnet in Ubuntu, just run the command below in text console (terminal) to install Telnet server:

sudo apt-get install xinetd telnetd

The Telnet service is started automatically once the installation is done. And you can either run telnet serverip or use a Telnet client (PuTTy, SecureCRT, etc.) to access this server.

To change the port (default is 23), edit the /etc/services file with your favorite text editor. Find out and change the number in the line below:

telnet        23/tcp

To apply changes, you have to restart the service by running the command below:

sudo /etc/init.d/xinetd restart

More configurations, see this document.

In Howtos Telnet, Ubuntu 14.04

First Alpha Of Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet Available For Download

Last updated: September 29, 2017

The first alpha of the next Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet has been released today. It features images for Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, UbuntuKylin and the Ubuntu Cloud images.

NOTE Pre-releases of the Vivid Vervet are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu flavor developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting and fixing bugs as we work towards getting this release ready.

Alpha 1 includes a number of software updates that are ready for wider testing. This is quite an early set of images, so you should expect some bugs.

Kubuntu 15.04: The Plasma 5 is now the default.
Ubuntu Gnome 15.04:
- Gnome-shell is still 3.12 for now (hopefully by Alpha 2, we shall have 3.14).
- Few applications have been updated to 3.14 (hopefully by Alpha 2, most of the applications will be 3.14).
- gnome-terminal has transparency again.
- Window control Button layouts have been reverted to upstream default (only close); use gnome-tweak-tool if you want to get back the other controls.