Keystroke is a Qt based keystroke visualization tool for Linux. This is a new KDE project just created a few days ago. It is helpful when creating screencasts where you want to show what you are typing. E.g. when using vim.
See the video:
This keystroke visualization tool only works on K Desktop Environment (KDE). For Ubuntu users, you can easily install it by running the commands below one by one in terminal (Press Ctrl+Alt+T to open the terminal):
DeaDBeeF music player has recently released a new version with lots of bug fixes. This is the first update after deadbeef added the gui layout designer.
Deadbeef 0.6.1 changelog:
fixed crash in AAC plugin when mp4 file reports 0 samples (e.g. radio rips)
fixed libsupc++ linking issues
fixed support for gcc<4.5
changed description of hotkeys plugin in configure
fixed 100% CPU load issues with certain hotkeys
fixed opening files from command line into default playlist
don’t allow spawning multiple instances of converter
fixed EQ drawing past the bottom margin
fixed progress dialog while loading playlists
fixed M3UINF parser
reverted MP3 bugfixes which introduced incorrect duration calculation
fixed ungrabbing deleted global hotkeys
added config option to help debug buffering/streaming
ffmpeg plugin can now handle dynamic data format changes
fixed rare buffering problem which was causing stuttering for some users
fixed running without X and/or without GUI plugin
fixed mp3 duration rounding bug
fixed incorrect scroll/cursor after deleting playlists
added support for loading plugins from ~/.local/lib{32|64}/deadbeef, depending on running deadbeef build version
fixed bug imposing 256 byte limit on file pathes in archives
fixed column autoresize issues
removed libstdc++ hacks from C++ plugins
fixed “Remove from disk” menu item not being hidden by corresponding option
fixed applying “Pin group titles” config on startup (patch from Christian Boxdörfer)
improved charset detection in CUE files, not longer allowing invalid utf-8 to go through
paused network streams don’t attempt to prebuffer until played
unpausing network streams always restarts them
prevent loading playlists from archives (treat them like folders)
hide the “Hotkeys” tab from preferences if hotkeys plugin is not available
don’t build shellexecui if not building shellexec
fixed memleak when drag-dropping pls/m3u playlists from file managers
prevent passing non-utf8 filenames to progress dialog
fixed crash when opening invalid VTX files
fixed crash when opening invalid WMA files
don’t delete replaygain info from FLACs when writing tags
fixed really old buffer overflow bug in dnd handler (kudos to Megabaks)
Install DeadBeef:
Deb, Arch, and source packages are available at official download page.
You can also run the commands below one by one in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) to install it from PPA. Supports Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 12.10 and their derivatives.
Want to emulate Nexus, Galaxy, or other Android Phone/Tablet on Ubuntu Desktop? Well, you may already know the handy tool Genymotion.
Genymotion is a complete set of tools that provides a virtual environment for Android. It can be very useful for developers, testers, salesman or even gamers. Genymotion is free for personal use. For full features, you need to buy a license.
Features:
OpenGL acceleration to achieve the best 3D performance
Enable full screen option and improve your experience
Be precise in your UI development with the “pixel perfect” functionality
Start multiple virtual device at the same time
Override virtual device identifiers
Directly command virtual devices sensors with Genymotion Shell
Fully compatible with ADB. You can control your virtual device from the host
Manage sensors: Battery level / status, GPS, Rotation, Camera
Since 2.1:
supports copy/paste from the host to the virtual device, or from the virtual device to the host using Android builtin copy/paste feature.
Android 4.4 support
Screenshots:
Install Genymotion:
1. This Android Emulator requires Virtualbox, so first search for and install virtualbox in Ubuntu Software Center.
3. Download the installer after your login the website. Not sure Linux 32 bits or 64 bits? Go to System Settings -> Details and you’ll see the OS type:
4. If you save the installer in the default Downloads folder, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal. When it opens, run below commands one by one:
cd ~/Downloads/
chmod +x genymotion-2.1.0_x64.bin
./genymotion-2.1.0_x64.bin
It first navigate to Downloads folder, then give executable permission, and finally start the installer. Of course you need to change the file-name to yours.
5. According to the previous picture genymotion has been installed to “/home/handbook/Downloads/genymotion”.
If you have an Apple mobile device and want to charge it through the USB port in Ubuntu Linux machine, you’ll find a little app called ipad_charge which was originally developed by Ondrej Zary from Rainbow-Software.
This simple app supports following devices:
iPad / iPad2 / iPad3 / iPad4 / iPad Mini
iPod Touch 2G/3G/4G
iPhone 3GS/4/4s/5
The developer of super-wingpanel has done a little tweak on the code so that iPad air is supported now. This build has been made into PPA for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Linux Mint and their derivatives.
Install ipad-charge:
Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run below commands one by one:
After that, your iPad should be automatically detected and charging enabled when you plug it in. However, if it’s not you may have to troubleshoot.
Troubleshooting:
If the udev rules are not automatically enabling charging when you plug in your device, you can run the program manually.
ipad-charge
If your iPad is still not charging you can find the device IDs of all Apple products with this command.
ipad-charge -l
If more than one is listed, you may have to run it with your iPad unplugged, then plugged in to find the correct ID. Once you determine the ID, report the ID to the links below.
Fotoxx, a free and open source photo editing software has reached version 14.02 recently with improvements and bug fixes.
As you may know, Fotoxx is a Linux program for photo editing and collection management. The goal is to meet most user needs while remaining fast and easy to use.
Version 14.02 changelog:
Index Image Files (aka Synchronize) runs faster. Intermixing image files with
100K other files under /home/user/… has little effect on speed.
Startup time is also faster for the normal case of few new image files.
Retouch Combo: sliders were added for fast adjustment of overall brightness,
contrast and color. The curves can then be hand-tuned if needed.
Slide Show: a new transition type simulates turning a book page.
Slide Show: images are clipped to exactly fit the monitor if the difference
in aspect ratio is less than a predefined limit.
Slide Show: optionally show captions/comments above each image.
The batch Rename and Convert functions were combined for convenience.
Batch Convert has a new option to automatically sharpen images.
Paint/Clone: a “shadow” paintbrush tracks the source of copied pixels.
Retouch Combo, Trim/Rotate and Resize can recall prior settings for easier application to multiple images needing similar treatments.
Mashup: resizing/rotating an overlay image with the mouse is smoother.
Editing in a selected area: edge blending was made a bit smoother.
Search Images: select a gallery (thumbnails) report or a tabular report for
listing desired metadata along with a thumbnail image.
Block metadata edits for image types not supporting this (e.g. bmp, gif).
Bugfix: Texture function converted RGB 0/0/0 pixels into illegal values.
Bugfix: Bogus error message about exceeding geotag limits.
Bugfix: Trim function left temporary image remnants on the window.
Download:
The official download page provides the DEB packages for Ubuntu and its derivatives.
This is a beginners’ guide about how to install or upgrade to the latest official build of LibreOffice in Ubuntu or Linux Mint.
As you may know, the open-source office suite LibreOffice 4.2 has been released recently which is focusing on performance and interoperability, and improving the integration with Microsoft Windows. See what’s new in LibreOffice 4.2
To install LibreOffice 4.2 in Ubuntu:
1. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the command below to remove the previous installation:
sudo apt-get remove --purge libreoffice*
2. Check out your system type, 32 bit or 64 bit, by going to System Settings -> Details
Greg KH has announced the first update of Linux Kernel 3.13. If you are using the first release in the Linux kernel 3.13.x branch, you should consider an update to this build.
Linux Kernel 3.13.1 is a very small release. See the changelog:
staging: comedi: fix result of memdup_user for user chanlist
GFS2: Increase i_writecount during gfs2_setattr_chown
ALSA: hda – Explicitly keep codec powered up in hdmi_present_sense
mm: Make {,set}page_address() static inline if WANT_PAGE_VIRTUAL
extcon: gpio: Request gpio pin before modifying its state
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 3.13.1:
Luminance HDR, an open source graphical user interface application that aims to provide a workflow for HDR imaging, now is at version 2.4.0.
This release introduces a few new features: automatic anti-ghosting, FITS support, integration with Windows Task Bar, improved I/O with TIFF 32 bit (which will make possible to export to third party software for high-quality post processing), redesigned merge algorithms.
To install this build in Ubuntu 13.10 or Linux Mint 16, press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run below commands one by one:
Aptik is a new tool to simplify re-installation of packages after doing a clean installation of an Ubuntu-based distribution. It can be used while re-installing or upgrading to the next Ubuntu/Linux Mint release.
With this simple tool, you can backup & restore:
Software Sources (PPAs.)
Software selections (list of installed packages)
Downloaded Packages (APT Cache)
Themes and Icons
How to Use Aptik:
Plug-in your pen drive and create a new folder on it named ‘backups’. Start Aptik and select the new folder as the backup directory.
1. Backup PPAs:
Click on the Backup button and you’ll see a list of third-party PPAs as well as the installed packages from PPAs.
PPAs with a green icon are active and have some packages installed.
PPAs with a yellow icon are active but unused (no packages installed).
Select the PPAs to backup and click the Backup button. A file named ‘ppa.list’ will be created in the backup directory.
2. Backup Software Selections:
Click on the Backup button will display a list of installed top-level packages. These packages are top-level packages. Dependency packages will not be listed.
All packages that are a part of the Linux distribution are un-selected by default. For example, Firefox is a package that is installed by default on most Linux distributions. Since it came with the distribution, it will be un-selected by default. It can be selected if required.
A file named ‘packages.list’ will be created in the backup directory after you clicked no the backup button.
3. Click the Backup button for Downloaded Packages will paste packages from your system cache (/var/cache/apt/archives) to backup folder.
4. Similarly, all themes and icons from the directories /usr/share/themes and /usr/share/icons can be zipped and saved in the backup folder.
To restore backups:
Connect your pen drive to the new system. Install and then start Aptik and select the backup folder on the pen-drive as the backup directory. Click on the Restore buttons and select packages, PPAs, themes and restore them one by one.
About the “Fix Ownership of Home folder”:
The home folder can be manually copied to another location and then restored after doing a fresh install. However, it can sometimes cause problems if the user’s login name or UID is different from the previous one. Click the Take Ownership button to change ownership of files in your home directory to your current login ID. This is same as running the following command:
sudo chown username -R /home/username
How to Install Aptik:
Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run below commands one by one:
