SMPlayer, a graphical user interface (GUI) for the award-winning MPlayer, has reached release 14.3.0. This tutorial will show you how to install or upgrade to the latest SMPlayer in Ubuntu while the default Ubuntu repositories still have version 0.8.x.
Changes in SMPlayer 14.3:
The control for fullscreen mode has been rewritten and improved. Now it is displayed over the video.
(Windows) New option in Preferences -> Subtitles to enable or disable the use of the Windows font directory. Disabling this option prevents the annoying font scanning.
Some presets have been added to the audio equalizer.
(Experimental) Possibility to play (non-protected) blu-ray discs.
Better support for multimedia keys. This can help control SMPlayer with a remote control.
New option in the playlist preferences for adding automatically other files in the folder to the playlist.
The option “Move the window when the video area is dragged” has been fixed.
(Windows) Now it’s possible to open Windows shortcuts (symlinks).
Better support for Youtube.
(Windows) Better screensaver disabling.
Many bugfixes.
Possibility to compile with Qt 5.
Install SMPlayer:
Ubuntu users are recommended to get the latest SMPlayer from PPA. To do so, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run the commands below one by one:
So far, the PPA supports Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04 and their derivatives, such as Linux Mint, Elementary OS Luna, and etc.
Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, finally announced the Linux Kernel 3.14 on the night of March 30, 2014. He wrote on the lkml.org:
So we had a few fairly late changes that I could have done without, but the changelog from -rc8 is still pretty small, and I’m feeling pretty good about it all. If we did end up with any last-minute problems due to the final spurt of patches, they’ll be pretty specific, and it really didn’t make sense to me to delay the release without anything known pending. Much of the final spurt were either marked for stable or known regressions.
So 3.14 is out there, and the merge window for 3.15 is thus open. Please do spend the time to test out 3.14, though, even if you might otherwise be in a hurry to send me your pending queue for the next release.
Linus
What’s New in Linux Kernel 3.14:
This release includes the deadline task scheduling policy for real-time tasks, a memory compression mechanism is now considered stable, a port of the locking validator to userspace, ability to store properties such as compression for each inode in Btrfs, trigger support for tracing events, improvements to userspace probing, kernel address space randomization, TCP automatic coalescing of certain kinds of connections, a new network packet scheduler to fight bufferbloat, new drivers and many other small improvements.
If for some reason this kernel release doesn’t work properly for you, reboot into previous kernel (Grub -> Advanced -> select previous kernel) and run this command to remove Linux Kernel 3.14:
Linux MultiMedia Studio or LMMS, a free software digital audio workstation, has reached version 1.0.0.
LMMS is a free cross-platform software which allows you to produce music with your computer. This covers creating melodies and beats, synthesizing and mixing sounds and arranging samples. You can have fun with your MIDI keyboard and much more.
The developer has announced the v1.0.0 on github.com:
“After almost exactly 10 years of development, we proudly bump the version number to 1.0.0.”
Install LMMS:
To install LMMS 1.0.0 in Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 12.10 and their derivatives, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the command below to add the PPA:
After added one of PPAs above, run below commands to update and install the software:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install lmms
(Optional) Uninstall:
Install ppa-purge by running the below command:
sudo apt-get install ppa-purge
Purge the PPA as well as downgrade the installed app from that PPA to the default version available in Ubuntu repositories (change the ppa name in the code):
KXStitch, the cross stitch app for Linux, just got an update a few hours ago with enhancements, bug fixes, and translation updates.
KXStitch is a KDE/Qt based software that lets you create cross stitch patterns and charts. Patterns can be created from scratch on a user defined size of grid, which can be enlarged or reduced in size as your pattern progresses. Alternatively you can import images from many graphics formats which will allow you to reduce the number of colours and to restrict the conversion to full stitches or optionally use fractional stitches. You may also use an image as a background. These imported images can then be modified using the supplied tools to produce your final design.
Changes in KXStitch 1.1.0:
Added French translation and updated Italian, Czech and British translations
Fix to show translator name in About dialog
Improvements to print setup using template
Added page numbers to printer setup pattern elements
Added config option for pattern element selected color
Updated symbol library (140 symbols)
Scaled symbols to smaller size to fit better into grid
Limit import colors to number of symbols available
Stop adding flosses in palette manager when there are no more symbols
Display warning when insufficient symbols available loading files
Added size tooltip for selection areas
Updated handbook
Fixed merge function for pasting
Make grid line thicknesses an application setting
Set Mirror/Rotate makes copies as configurable option
Made default zoom factor configurable
Removed palette show symbols flag from document settings
Fix for bug #22 – Library pattern properties change
Install KXStitch:
Besides building this app from the source tarball, you can install the KDE build from the PPA repository.
To install from PPA, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the commands below one by one:
The latest Linux Kernel 3.13.7 has been released a few hours ago, March 23, by the famous kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman.
This release brings various important improvements, such as architecture updates (ARM, PowerPC, x86 and s390), and driver updates for gpu, wireless, usb and radeon, as well as other fixes. For details, see the release note.
Install/Upgrade to Kernel 3.13.7:
Ubuntu Kernel Team has built the new kernel and you can download and install them at kernel.ubuntu.com.
If you’re familiar with Linux command line, you can also follow the steps below to download & install this kernel:
1. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the commands below one by one to download the DEB packages.
NOTE: Proprietary video driver may need a re-build or upgrade to get it work with the new kernel.
If for some reason this kernel release doesn’t work properly for you, reboot into previous kernel (Grub -> Advanced -> select previous kernel) and run this command to remove Linux Kernel 3.13.7:
This quick tutorial is going to show beginners how to changes an application icon in Ubuntu Unity. It’ll work on Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 12.04 and future Ubuntu releases if Unity still to be the default desktop environment.
In Unity Desktop, application launchers are actually files stored in your computer, with a ‘.desktop’ extension. So besides changing the icon theme, you can edit the ‘.desktop’ to change the launcher icon for an specific application.
Below are the steps to change the application icon, Firefox Web browser as example, in Ubuntu 13.10 Unity:
1. Edit the ‘firefox.desktop’
The ‘.desktop’ files are usually stored in “/usr/share/applications/”. For some applications that are installed in user’s directory, you may find the .desktop files in “~/.local/share/applications/” directory.
To edit the firefox.desktop, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run:
cd /usr/share/applications
sudo gedit firefox.desktop
It will navigate to /usr/share/applications/ directory and open the firefox.desktop file via gedit editor. You can run ls |more to list all available files in that directory.
2. Change the value of Icon
In gedit window, scroll down to find out the line that starts with “Icon=” and change its value to the exact path to your NEW icon file. The image is usually .png file in 64×64 or 128×128.
3. After saved the changes, open the unity dash and search the launcher and see the result:
Indicator Stickynotes is a simple application similar to Windows Sticky Notes that allows you to jot down thoughts, lists, and reminders.
Indicator Stickynotes is meant for Ubuntu’s Unity interface. It has also been tested on the GNOME Shell, XFCE/Xubuntu, KDE/Kubuntu, MATE/Mint, and Cinnamon/Mint interfaces, but support for these platforms is not guaranteed.
Install Indicator Stickynotes:
This simple app is hosted on Launchpad.net. The developer has created a PPA that provides the app packages for Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.10 and Ubuntu 12.04.
To install it, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the command below to add the PPA:
Yorba Team has announced the 0.18 release of its shotwell photo manager recently with various bug fixes and translation updates.
According to the release note, Shotwell 0.18 contains below changes:
Tumblr publishing fixed
Fixed resource leak when importing videos
Improved searching for event comments and diacritics
Various bug fixes
Compile and install translated help files
Updated translations
Install Shotwell:
Yorba’s Stable PPA only provides the update for Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy. To install it, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the commands below one by one:
NOTE: As the Daily PPA’s description says, “This PPA contains daily builds of Yorba’s software, including Shotwell Photo Manager and Geary. Because these builds correspond to the current state of the development source tree, they are untested and highly volatile. Us it at your own risk!”
NetBeans IDE 8.0 was finally released on March 18, 2014, which provides out-of-the-box code analyzers and editors for working with the latest Java 8 technologies.
Besides the Java 8 support, the IDE also has a range of new enhancements that further improve its support for Maven and Java EE with PrimeFaces; new tools for HTML5, in particular for AngularJS; and improvements to PHP and C/C++ support. See the release note for more details.
Install NetBeans IDE 8.0:
1. Download the installer:
NetBeans IDE 8.0 works better and faster with JDK distribution, so you can download the oracle’s Co-bundled package from the links below. You may check your OS type 32-bit (x86) or 64 bit (x64) via System Settings -> Details.
UPDATE: SyncWall is NO LONGER in active development since 2014!!
SyncWall, a wallpaper changer with multi-monitor support, is now at version 2.0.0. In this tutorial I will show you how to install or upgrade it in Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 12.10, or Ubuntu 12.04.
As you may know, SyncWall is quite a basic wallpaper changer with the ability to synchronize wallpaper change between several workstations with a basic (and unsecured) client/server protocol. Another interesting feature is a simple multi-monitor support. Because SyncWall is written with Qt, it runs on Windows and Linux.
Changes in SyncWall 2.0.0:
Autostart on linux
Direct synchronization of wallpapers across network (sharing the same file is no more used)
Add Romanian translation. Thanks to jaff.
Change default location of translation file on linux (“/share/hotshots/locale” instead of “/share/locale”)
Ability to keep wallpaper system settings (on Windows)
Add MacOSX target
Add debian package files
Bug fixes:
find the correct path for translation files on linux in some cases
incorrect display on multiple screen configuration in some cases
incorrect display of splashscreen on linux in some cases
incorrect decoding of image parameters during synchronization
incorrect clipping with horizontal center alignment
relaunch scheduler when wallpaper is changed manually
invalid lock of UI in server mode
incorrect behavior with fixed time scheduling
compilation error on quite old CentOS platform
Install SyncWall in Ubuntu:
The Webupd8 Team PPA, maintained by the popular Ubuntu Linux blog webupd8.org, provides the latest build of SyncWall for all current support Ubuntu releases.
To add the PPA, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the command below:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
Then update and install the wallpaper manager via:
