The latest Long Term Support Linux Kernel 3.10.28 has been released a few hours ago. This is a small release which brings improvements to ARM and x86 architectures, updated i915 driver as well as other fixes. See the announcement.
All users of the 3.10 kernel series must upgrade. Here’s how to do it in Ubuntu, Linux Mint and their derivatives.
1. Download the .deb packages for this kernel from Ubuntu Kernel Page, or via below commands in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):
If you’re using a proprietary video driver, you may need to re-build or re-install 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 commands to remove Linux Kernel 3.10.28:
HotShots is a Qt based screen capture software available for Windows, Linux and FreeBSD. It allows to capture screens and save them in a variety of image formats as well as add annotations and graphical data (arrows, lines, texts, …).
It is kinda similar to Shutter, but HotShots has few dependencies and takes small memory usage. The current release 2.0.1 brings below changes:
Features:
Enhanced shortcut editor
Add portable settings support (–portable option)
Add valid debian package files
Bugs:
Correct invalid freehand and region grabbing on linux (multi monitor)
Install:
If you would like to try this screen capture tool, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run below commands one by one:
Since Linux Kernel 3.11, the open source AMD Radeon driver got dynamic power management (DPM) feature support. If you have already installed the Kernel 3.11 or higher and have a Radeon HD 2000 (R600) series or newer graphics card, you may wish to enable DPM feature by below steps (DRM will probably be enabled by default in Ubuntu 14.04).
1. Download the updated firmware from this directory. You need the *_smc.bin files, choose the one that matches your graphics card codename.e
The *_smc.bin files can be installed by running below command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):
cd ~/Downloads/ && ./FILENAME_smc.bin
2. If you have Linux Kernel 3.11 or higher installed, now you can enable DPM by adding the radeon.dpm=1 parameter.
In terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T), run command to edit grub:
sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
Find the line that says “GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash”. Add the parameter so that it will look like:
Both Light Table IDE 0.6.1 and 0.6.2 were released yesterday which bring various bug fixes and a few improvements.
Light Table is a new interactive IDE developed by Chris Granger, it lets you modify running programs and embed anything from websites to games. It provides the real time feedback we need to not only answer questions about our code, but to understand how our programs really work.
Light Table IDE is now open source since version 0.6.0. The current releases are the first updates and below is the changelog:
##0.6.2
FIX: styling bug that caused light themes to be unusable
##0.6.1
FIX: build instructions for all platforms. Add in build scripts for each.
FIX: active line in solarized theme (Gozala)
FIX: re-enable workspace behavior diffs
FIX: Plugins should not say they need an update if there’s no version available on the server
FIX: Read keymaps safely so that errors are reported.
FIX: remove readlink -f from the mac startup script
FIX: provide skin/theme shold work correctly now (joshuafcole)
FIX: Catch errors while walking the file system (zoranzaric)
FIX: look in 64bit dirs first in the linux64 run script and add other dirs to fix openSUSE (wesleywiser)
FIX: line-endings were not being added correctly to the ends of files.
FIX: set the default screen size to be smaller so that LT doesn’t open off screen
FIX: type in plugin dialog (rmunn)
FIX: Add SQL file type back in
FIX: External browsers don’t disconnect correctly
FIX: remove inconsistencies in the plugin manager
FIX: pmeta in :- keymaps didn’t work
FIX: better error handling in the local client
FIX: make functions return correctly from external browser connections
FIX: add LightTable.app to .gitignore (DomKM)
FIX: dramatically better line numbering styles for the default theme
FIX: line numbers now correctly size and stay right-aligned.
FIX: remove use of rtl that causes very weird file name display behavior in navigator.
CHANGE: Auto-complete is now auto-show by default
ADDED: lt.objs.plugins/find-plugin for use in finding the current plugin dir
ADDED: `Console: set buffer size`
ADDED: Code folding with `Editor: fold code at cursor` command (efuquen)
ADDED: travis-ci (sieben)
ADDED: set the save dialog’s first location to a sensible path (can3p and ndr-qef)
ADDED: .zsh and .zshrc file extensions
ADDED: `App: Disable metrics` behavior
ADDED: LiveScript file type
ADDED: platform specific startup scripts
ADDED: typing : in a keymap or behavior file will now complete based on the command/behavior id
ADDED: `Editor: Toggle line wrapping` command for one off wrapping
ADDED: Tabsets are now styled as active
ADDED: The body gets an “active” class when the window is focused
UPDATED: Latest codemirror
UPDATED: CLJS 2138
Install:
1. Download the IDE at lighttable.com. You may check out your OS type by going to System Settings -> Details
2. Extract the Linux package in your file browser and you’ll see the result folder LightTable in Downloads directory.
3. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run below command to move LightTable to /opt/:
Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr, the next Long Term Support hits alpha 2 release. Though regular Ubuntu doesn’t take part in the alphas , the following flavours are participating in this second round of alphas:
Edubuntu
Kubuntu
Ubuntu GNOME
Ubuntu Kylin
Xubuntu
Ubuntu Cloud
Download Links: releases.ubuntu.com
Ubuntu Gnome 14.04 Alpha2
Kubuntu 14.04 Alpha2
Edubuntu 14.04 Alpha2
Ubuntu Cloud 14.04 Alpha2
Xubuntu 14.04 Alpha2
Ubuntu Kylin Alph2
If you’re on Ubuntu 13.10, you can also upgrade to Ubuntu 14.04 Alpha to help testing this development release via this post. Note that don’t do this on production machines.
The Ubuntu 14.04 will hit its first beta release at next month, see the release schedule:
#
# background = Background file to use, either an image path or a color (e.g. #772953)
# theme-name = GTK+ theme to use
# icon-theme-name = Icon theme to use
# font-name = Font to use
# xft-antialias = Whether to antialias Xft fonts (true or false)
# xft-dpi = Resolution for Xft in dots per inch (e.g. 96)
# xft-hintstyle = What degree of hinting to use (none, slight, medium, or full)
# xft-rgba = Type of subpixel antialiasing (none, rgb, bgr, vrgb or vbgr)
# show-language-selector (true or false)
# show-indicators = semi-colon “;” separated list of allowed indicator modules (e.g. libsoundmenu.so)
# show-clock (true or false)
# clock-format = strftime-format string, e.g. %H:%M
# keyboard = command to launch on-screen keyboard
#
[greeter]
background=/usr/share/backgrounds/mate/nature/Blinds.jpg
theme-name=Numix
icon-theme-name=LoginIcons
default-user-image = /usr/share/pixmaps/griffon_icon.png
font-name=Ubuntu 11
xft-antialias=true
xft-dpi=96
xft-hintstyle=slight
xft-rgba=rgb
show-language-selector=true
This simple tutorial is going to show you how to disable disk write caching in Ubuntu to prevent data loss when you may experience power failure.
Enable write caching improves disk performance, but a power outage or equipment failure might result in data loss or corruption. It’s recommended only for disks with a backup power supply.
Some third-party programs require disk write caching to be enabled or disabled. If your disk are used for Event Store databases, it’s highly recommended to disable disk caching to help ensure that data is durable when the machine might experience a power, device or system failure.
In Ubuntu, it’s easy to check out whether disk caching is enabled on your disk or not by running below command:
sudo hdparm -i /dev/sda
Replace /dev/sda with your device and you’ll see below similar outputs:
The words in red, WriteCache=enabled, means caching is enabled! To disable it, edit the “/etc/hdparm.conf” with your favorite editor, here I use vi as example:
sudo vi /etc/hdparm.conf
Uncomment the line “#write_cache = off” (without quotes) by removing the # at its beginning. So it looks like:
# -W Disable/enable the IDE drive’s write-caching feature
write_cache = off
After that, restart your computer and check out the write caching status again to make sure it’s disabled.
This simple tutorial shows how to upgrade your system from Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy to Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr for both Desktop and Server editions.
Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty is scheduled to be released on April 17th. At the moment of writing this article, the alpha release is available to upgrade in Saucy’s updater for testing purpose.
Important: Production machines please wait until the Ubuntu 14.04 final is released. By then, we can follow below steps to upgrade our systems.
Before starting any upgrades, you need to:
Backup important files, documents, bookmarks and other data.
If you’ve manually installed proprietary drivers directly from the manufacturer’s website, then before upgrading I recommend removing these drivers first and reverting to the open-source drivers
Open Software & Updates utility from Unity Dash. Disable all third-party repositories under Other Software tab.
Desktop Upgrade:
Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the commands below to update your system:
sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Now start the updater via -d option:
sudo update-manager -d
The Software Updater will open and tell you your system is up to date and a new release Ubuntu 14.04 is available.
Click on the Upgrade button and confirm again in next window. Software Updater will fetch and install the files and prompt you to remove unnecessary applications.
Finally you’ll be asked to restart your computer to finish the upgrade. That’s it.
Upgrade Ubuntu Server:
NOTE: Please backup your configuration files if you’re running any services on Ubuntu server.
For Ubuntu Server edition, we need to install the update-manager-core first by executing the command below:
sudo apt-get install update-manager-core
Then edit the config file:
sudo vi /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades
Make sure there’s a line that says “Prompt=normal” or “Prompt=lts”.
QtWebKit browser QupZilla 1.6.0 has been released a few days ago. Here’s how to install it via PPA in Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Linux Mint and their derivatives.
This release comes with new TabBar implementation that supports scrolling through all tabs when tabs don’t fit at all into TabBar. So it means, no more overflowing of tabs!
LocationBar received new completion feature – inline completion. You can now write only first letter and the most used domain will be completed. Once you see the completion, you can just press Enter and load the site.
For details, see the changelog:
added support for Proxy Auto-Config (PAC)
added option to open another private window from private window
added option to detach tabs from window
added delete action in edit context menu on page
added possibility to remove EasyList from AdBlock
added inline domain completion to urlbar
added KWallet password backend plugin
added Gnome-Keyring password backend plugin
added StatusBar Icons plugin that adds extra icons to statusbar
added support for POST method in search engines manager
added context menu for translating webpage
added possibility to export bookmarks to html file
great performance improvement for matching basic rules in AdBlock
themes can now be loaded from profile directories
pagescreen can now save output into number of formats, including PDF
proxy exceptions now supports wildcards (*, ?)
cancel upload when trying to upload non-readable files
select previous / next engines with ctrl+up/down in websearchbar
ask user first before closing all but the current tab from tabbar
last 2 sessions are now backuped in profile directory
always show tab previews after a small delay
GreaseMonkey: added icon in statusbar
GreaseMonkey: added support for GM_Settings
GreaseMonkey: fixed userscripts when first loading plugin
GreaseMonkey: run userscripts in all frames on page
oxygen: set rounded corners for tooltips
oxygen: workaround for transparent background of tooltips
X11: Set correct WM_CLASS property to windows
fixed: size of preferences dialog on low-res screens
fixed: loading plugins with relative paths in portable build
fixed: displaying a lot of RSS feeds in RSS widget in locationbar
fixed: enabling disabled rules in AdBlock now works everytime
fixed: parsing OpenSearch files with XML declaration
fixed: don’t show urls multiple times in url completer
fixed: drag & drop moving folders under bookmarks toolbar
fixed: files with relative paths can now be opened from command line
fixed: issues with overflowing tabs, it is now possible scroll through all tabs
Install QupZilla Browser:
Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run commands below one by one:
Linus Torvalds finally announced the Linux Kernel 3.13 on Jan 19, 2014. In this tutorial you’ll see what’s new in this kernel release and how to install / upgrade to Linux Kernel 3.13 in Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Linux Mint and also Ubuntu 14.04 daily build.
Linus Torvalds wrote on the mailing list (read the announcement):
The release got delayed by a week due to travels, but I suspect that’s just as well. We had a few fixes come in, and while it wasn’t a lot, I think we’re better off for it. At least I hope so – I’ll be very disappointed if any of them cause more problems than they fix..
Anyway, the patch from rc8 is fairly small, with mainly some small arch updates (arm, mips, powerpc, s390, sparc, x86 all had some minor changes, some of them due to a networking fix for the bpf jit). And drivers (mainly gpu and networking). And some generic networking fixes. The appended shortlog gives more details.
Anyway, with this, the merge window for 3.14 is obviously open.
What’s New in Linux Kernel 3.13:
Below exciting new features comes from phoronix.com:
The multi-queue block layer (blk-mq) was merged. It provides better disk (SSD) performance and with lower disk latencies by allowing I/O load to now be balanced across multiple CPU cores, supporting multiple hardware queues, etc. The multi-queue block layer can scale much better and developers have reported improvements in the range of 3.5 to 10 times greater IOPS and a 10 to 38x reduction in latency.
The AMD hardware on the open-source driver now supporting the reading of ELD audio information, 7.1 channel audio support on capable hardware, and DTS HD-MA and TrueHD audio support. The Radeon HDMI driver is now enabling HDMI audio support by default where as on earlier kernels it required a special kernel command-line switch due to some users experiencing problems.
AMD has published open-source Hawaii GPU support to allow the Radeon R9 290 series to work on Linux without Catalyst. Besides needing Linux 3.13, you will also need other new code in user-space.
For users of the open-source Radeon driver there is now dynamic power management being enabled by default. It allows AMD GPUs to dynamically adjust their clock speeds and voltages based upon load, allowing for lower heat output and energy consumption while idling.
There’s now NFTables as the eventual replacement to IPTables.
New power management and re-clocking code for the open-source NVIDIA (Nouveau) driver. With the new power management code is now fan management being enabled by default. The re-clocking work does include support for GeForce 400/500 “Fermi” and GeForce 600/700 “Kepler” GPUs, but this re-clocking support isn’t yet ready for use or enabled by default.
There’s now an Armada DRM driver in the mainline kernel along with PRIME and Render Nodes improvements to the MSM driver, overall continuing to improve the open-source ARM graphics landscape on Linux.
There’s ongoing work with Btrfs performance tuning.
Samsung’s F2FS supports new features as the promising Flash-Friendly File-System.
In making the Linux power efficiency and performance competitive, there’s been a number of changes to ACPI and power management, including more hardware having CPUfreq drivers.
While part of the power management work, Linux 3.13 introduces a Linux Power-Capping Framework and Run-Time Average Power Liming driver from Intel. The RAPL driver allows limiting power consumption of certain components from exceeding defined thresholds.
Intel’s open-source Direct Rendering Manager driver now supports HDMI Stereo/3D. This support is for the HDMI specification’s handling of a standardized stereoscopic 3D display format since version 1.4.
Install / Upgrade Kernel 3.13:
The Ubuntu Kernel Team has made the deb packages available in this page. If you’re comfortable with command line, follow below steps to download & install this kernel.
Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens:
1. Download DEBs for this kernel:
For 32-bit Ubuntu, Linux Mint and alternatives run commands below one by one:
If you’re using a proprietary video driver, you may need to re-build or re-install 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:
