UbuntuHandbook

Facebook Client with Emoji Support For Ubuntu Linux Mint

Last updated: December 26, 2013

There’s now a new Linux app which brings Facebook client on your Desktop with emoji support. It’s called Kawaii Emoji Messenger.

Kawaii Emoji Messenger is a multiplatform Facebook client based on the idea of bringing emoji on desktop.
Through Kawaii Emoji Messenger you can use a full set of emoji in you Facebook conversations and comments in the easiest way.

Facebook does not allow emoji on its web version for browsers. So this app shows you a mobile version of Facebook.

Install Kawaii Emoji Messenger

NOTE: Kawaii Emoji Messenger is currently in its beta stage so you may find it a little unstable and incomplete.

I’ve made this tool into PPA to make it easy to install. The PPA supports Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Linux Mint and other derivatives.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install kawaiiemojimessenger

Once installed, open it from Unity Dash or Menu.

If you’d like to build it from source code, run commands below one by one within the source folder:

mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr ..
make
sudo make install

Kawaii-Emoji-Messenger Home

In Howtos Emoji on Linux Desktop, facebook app

How to Install Boomaga Virtual Printer in Ubuntu Linux via PPA

Last updated: December 25, 2013

Boomaga is a virtual printer for viewing a document before printing it out using the physical printer and help you get your documents prepared a bit before printing.

The program is very simple to work with. Running any program, click “print” and select “Boomaga” to see in several seconds (CUPS takes some time to respond) the Boomaga window open. If you print out one more document, it gets added to the previous one, and you can also print them out as one.

Regardless of whether your printer supports duplex printing or not, you would be able to easily print on both sides of the sheet. If your printer does not support duplex printing, point this out in the settings, and Booklet would ask you to turn over the pages half way through printing your document.

The program can also help you get your documents prepared a bit before printing. At this stage Boomaga makes it possible to:

Paste several documents together.
Print several pages on one sheet.
- 1, 2, 4, 8 pages per sheet
- Booklet. Folding the sheets in two, you’ll get a book

Install Boomaga in Ubuntu:

The latest version (so far it is 0.3.0) is available in PPA for Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy, Ubuntu 13.04 Raring, Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal, Ubuntu 12.04 Precise, Linux Mint and their derivatives.

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

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:boomaga/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install boomaga

.

In Howtos Boomaga PPA, virtual printer

Install Poker Game PokerTH 1.1 in Ubuntu 14.04, 13.10, 13.04

Last updated: December 25, 2013

PokerTH is a poker game written in C++/QT4. You can play the popular “Texas Hold’em” poker variant against up to 9 computer-opponents or play network and internet games with people all over the world. This poker engine is available for Android, Linux, Windows, and MacOSX.

The latest PokerHT 1.1 has been released recently with following changes.

New web-based spectator mode on http://www.pokerth.net/live
New option to allow/disallow spectators when creating a game
Show list of spectators in the lobby and on the game table
Support for WebSocket connections was integrated in the server
Show server ping (“application layer ping”) in the client
Added option to disable emoticons in the chat
Avatars are no longer displayed for players which are on the ignore list
New option to “unignore” a player in the context menu
BUGFIX: context menu in connected player list was fixed
BUGFIX: “display idle players” in the lobby was fixed
BUGFIX: No longer beep if ignored player uses nickname in chat
translation updates

Install PokerHT via PPA:

This release has been made into Ubuntu 14.04 universe repository, so Trusty users can just install it from Ubuntu Software Center.

For Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run commands below one by one to install from PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pkg-games/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install pokerth

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

In Howtos Play Texas Hold’em in Ubuntu

XBMC 12.3 Released, How to Install it in Ubuntu Linux

Last updated: December 25, 2013

XBMC 12.3, the last of the “Frodo” line has been released a few hours ago with various bug fixes. This tutorial shows you how to install or upgrade it in Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Linux Mint and their derivatives.

List of fixes in this release:

OSX 10.9 Maverick fixes that appeared when it was release
update PVR addons
several PVR related bugs
memory leaks
audio channel mapping
possible crash on progress dialog
and more

See the official announcement for more information.

Install XBMC in Ubuntu:

This release has been built into PPA for Ubuntu and Linux Mint users. To install it, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run commands below one by one:

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

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install xbmc

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

In Howtos XBMC media center

Install Smuxi, IRC / Twitter / XMPP client via PPA in Ubuntu

Last updated: December 24, 2013

Smuxi is a free and user-friendly IRC / Twitter / XMPP client inspired by Irssi, available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.

Smuxi supports nick colors which are identical across channels and networks, a Caret Mode as seen in Firefox that allows to navigate through the messages using the keyboard, theming with colors and fonts, configurable tray-icon support, optional stripping of colors and formattings and convenience features like CTCP support, channel search and nickname completion. It has a tabbed document interface, tabbed user interface, and support for multiple servers.

Smuxi 0.10 was released recently with new navigation, scripting support and enhanced Twitter. See the release note for details.

Smuxi 0.10 in Ubuntu Gnome Desktop:

Smuxi 0.10 in Ubuntu Unity Desktop:

Install Smuxi 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:meebey/ppa

Then update package lists:

sudo apt-get update

Install the client:

sudo apt-get install smuxi

In Howtos Smuxi IRC client

How to Install Sublime Text 3 in Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty

Last updated: December 24, 2013

This simple tutorial shows you how to install the Sublime Text 3 in Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty LTS via PPA repository.

Sublime Text is a popular text and source code editor somewhat similar to TextMate, available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X.

The Sublime Text 3 is currently in beta. Webupd8 Team has made an installer script into PPA which automatically downloads the Sublime Text 3 archive from its website and installs it on Ubuntu. The PPA does not host any Sublime Text 3 files.

Install Sublime Text 3:

To get started, press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open a terminal window. When it opens, copy and paste below command into terminal and hit enter:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:webupd8team/sublime-text-3

Type in your password when prompts and then you’ll get this PPA (Personal Package Archive) into your system.

NOTE: you’ll see nothing when typing passwords in Linux terminal, just type in mind and hit enter to get pass.

After added the PPA, run commands to install the script:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install -y sublime-text-installer

Once installed, open the editor from Unity Dash or Menu.

To disable new version notifications, add the following to your User Preferences file (Preferences > Settings – User):

“update_check”: false

In Howtos Install Sublime Text 3 ubuntu 14.04, Sublime Text

WinAmp-Like Qmmp Music Player 0.7.4 Released, Install in Ubuntu

Last updated: December 24, 2013

Qmmp 0.7.4 (Qt-based Multimedia Player) has been announced a hour ago. This release, the WinAmp-like music player brings Windows support. As well as that, Qmmp 0.7.4 added ffmpeg 2.1 support and various bug fixes.

Changes in Qmmp 0.7.4:

added Galician translation
added ffmpeg 2.1 support
added m3u8 playlist extension
improved ReplayGain support
- fixed 24/32 bit mode
- added clipping to prevent overflow
improved cdaudio plugin
- added Windows support
- added track cache
- fixed proxy support
fixed localization of the wildmidi plugin
fixed case sensitivity while checking file extensions
fixed gcc 4.8 warnings
fixed memory leak
fixed several Windows-only bugs
fixed parsing of the m3u files with backslashes
fixed problem with absolute paths
fixed adding files from command line under Windows
fixed Meta/Win modifier in the global hotkey plugin
fixed Japanese translation.

Install Qmmp 0.7.4 in Ubuntu:

To install the latest Qmmp 0.7.4 in Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Linux Mint and their derivatives, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal and run commands below one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:forkotov02/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install qmmp qmmp-plugin-pack

Once installed, open Qmmp from Menu or Unity Dash:

In Howtos Install qmmp in Ubuntu PPA, qmmp

Instantbird 1.5 Released, How to Install it in Ubuntu

Last updated: December 24, 2013

Instantbird, the instant messaging client now is at version 1.5 which has updated to Mozilla 25 and brings various improvements. This simple tutorial is going to show you how to install Instantbird in Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, and Ubuntu 12.04.

What’s New in Instantbird 1.5

Creating a new conversation tab has been made easier.

Clicking the ‘+’ button in a conversation window shows a list of conversations that can be started with a single click.
The list is sorted with a frecency algorithm, taking into account how often and how recently you’ve talked to each contact.
This list also automatically includes the channels advertised by the IRC servers you are connected to.

New tooltips that better fit the style of Instantbird

Improved Multi-user chats user interface:

Participants now have context menus that allow you to open private conversations or add them as buddies.
Highlighted nicks in chat rooms now have tooltips and context menus.

Auto-joined chat rooms that have been put on hold will stay on hold after a restart.

A list of alternate nicks for IRC can be configured, in case your preferred nick is taken when you connect.

about: pages (e.g. about:config) can now easily be opened with the /about command (e.g. /about config).

Retina display support on Mac OS X.

Google Talk and Hangouts Android users are now shown as mobile.

Google Hangouts users will no longer appear as always typing.

Better support for displaying RTL languages in conversations.

The vKontakte protocol was removed as the vKontakte service dropped support for connecting with an XMPP client.

New for developers: New API to add tab panels with arbitrary content to conversation windows: in-code documentation.

Updated to Mozilla 25.

Various minor bugs and a few crashers fixed.

Install Instantbird in Ubuntu

Ubuntu Unity users can ALWAYS do below steps to install instantbird. If you’ve already installed a previous version, remove it.

1. Download instantbird for Linux from official website

2. Extract the downloaded package. You’ll see a result folder instantbird

3. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to copy the folder to /opt/:

sudo mv ~/Downloads/instantbird/ /opt/instantbird/

4. Now create a launcher for instantbird by:

sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/instantbird.desktop

Copy and paste below into the file and save it.

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Instantbird
Version=1.5
Encoding=UTF-8
Comment=
Exec=/opt/instantbird/instantbird
Icon=/opt/instantbird/icons/mozicon128.png
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Application;Network;InstantMessaging;

5. Now you’re able to launch instantbird from Unity Dash. For 64 bit system, you may install run below command in Ubuntu 13.10 and higher (install ia32-libs in Ubuntu 13.04 and earlier,):

sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-0:i386 libpangox-1.0-0:i386 libpangoxft-1.0-0:i386 libidn11:i386 libglu1-mesa:i386 liblibxt-dev:i386 libasound-dev:i386

In Howtos instant messaging client, instantbird

Change Your Linux Notebook To An Unsupported Screen Resolution

Last updated: December 23, 2013

Want to change your Linux notebook desktop to an unsupported resolution? Well, there’s a small Nautilus script called newrez. It provides an graphical interface and lets your type in a resolution even higher than your display’s physical dimensions!

Newrez does NOT “over-drive” the actual hardware. Instead, it defines a higher-resolution display on the netbook’s VGA port, and scales it to the LCD.

You are not restricted to “standard” resolutions. Values like 1100×730 or 1350×900 or even 1400×700 will work just fine (and a few-pixel adjustment automatically applied if needed). Setting to ‘default’ will return everything back to normal.

This script can also be run directly from the command line, as in “newrez 1280×800” or “newrez default”. This makes it a simple matter to switch to create scripts or icons that set your most common resolutions, or to include resolution changes into other scripts or launchers.

NOTE: At present, this will not work if you use the vendor-supplied Nvidia or ATI driver.

If the laptop lid is closed and re-opened, you MAY find the the mouse is constrained to an area the size of the default resolution. This is caused by xrandr. Re-execute newrez to fix this.

Download at this page

In Howtos Linux Notebook, screen resolution

Linux Mint 16 KDE & Xfce Released [Download & Upgrade Links]

Last updated: December 23, 2013

Linux Mint 16 “Petra” KDE & Xfce has been released on 22 Dec. Both releases feature Xfce 4.10 / KDE 4.11, MDM 1.4, a Linux kernel 3.11 and an Ubuntu 13.10 package base. Let’s see what’s NEW in these two release and how to upgrade from a previous version of Linux Mint.

New features in Mint 16 Xfce (complete overview):