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.
Nomacs is a small and fast image viewer which handles the most common image formats including RAW images. Additionally it is possible to synchronize multiple viewers on same computer or via LAN. It allows to compare images and spot the differences (e.g. schemes of architects to show the progress).
Nomacs image viewer works on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. The latest version now is at 1.6.2 and here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Linux Mint and their derivatives via PPA repository.
New features added in Nomacs 1.6:
Grid View for Thumbnails
Image Mosaicing Tool
Gif Player (Pause Animated Images and View Frame by Frame)
WebP on all platforms
Customizable Mouse Wheel
French Translation
Video:
Install Nomacs:
Ubuntu and Linux Mint users can easily install the latest version from PPA repository.
To do so, press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run commands below one by one:
Enlightenment desktop environment 0.18 was finally released. It’s been exactly one year since the last major release of Enlightenment.
According to the announcement, the compositing window manager is more stable than E17 and now has Wayland client support along with a new teamwork module.
Enlightenment DR 0.18 also has a new music-control module, bluez4 BLuetooth module, an AppMenu DBus module, and a conf_comp module for controlling compositor settings.
Making this annual Enlightenment update more exciting is also better systemd integration, the internal theme merged into Elementary, RandR and binding config domains have been split into separate files, and many file-manager improvements. Enlightenment’s file manager improvements for version 0.18 include UDisks2 support, more accurate directory listings, and other improvements.
Install E18 via PPA in Ubuntu:
Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run commands below one by one to install e18 from PPA (coming soon) in Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 12.10 and their derivatives:
SoundKonverter, the KDE audio converter, Replay Gain tool and CD ripper now is at version 2.0.5 and 2.0.90 (2.1.0 rc1).
According to the changelog, soundKonverter 2.0.5 added Catalan, Swedish, Chinese (Taiwan), and Romanian translations. 2.0.90 added following new features:
Hide main window when started with –replaygain argument
Option to eject CD after ripping has been completed (enabled by default)
New space holder for the “meta data” naming mode that contains the source directory
Configuration options for cdparanoia
icedax ripper plugin
Copy album artist tags
Remember last folder for add files/directory/playlist dialogs
Add symlinked files to file list
SoundKonverter Features:
Convert audio files between many formats
Change sample rate and sample size during conversion
Apply effects like normalize during conversion
Convert the audio stream from video files to audio files
Convert multiple files at once
Calculate Replay Gain for many formats
Replay Gain tool for calculating and removing Replay Gain tags
Calculate Replay Gain for multiple files or file stets at once
Conversion and Replay Gain calculation is very scalable, the conversion of 10000 files or more is not a problem
Copy tags and covers when converting files (note: for ogg/METADATA_BLOCK_PICTURE, flac and asf/wma files, taglib 1.7 or higher is needed)
Rip multiple audio CDs at once
Retrieve audio CD information from CDDB and MusicBrainz
Easy to use, just choose a file format and a quality level
Detailed control, if you want to choose the conversion settings in more detail, simply switch to the “detailed” tab
Manage your preferred conversion options with profiles
Contextual help, e.g. if you don’t know what the speex format is, just click on the “info” button next to it.
Or if you want to add a file that isn’t supported, soundKonverter will tell you how to enable the format if possible.
Possibility to configure which backend shall be used for which codec – or let soundKonverter optimize that for you.
Every time you install or remove backends soundKonverter will suggest optimizations if possible.
Possibility to integrate soundKonverter in other applications or scripts by using its command line interface
Data recovery in case of a crash
Install SoundKonverter in Ubuntu Linux:
The installers for CentOS, Debian, Fedora, Mandriva, RedHat, OpenSuse, Ubuntu are available in this page.
For Ubuntu users, use the Deb package for xUbuntu 12.04 which works good in my Ubuntu 13.10 64 bit machine.
Looking for a calendar app? Besides Google Calendar, there’s a good choice for Ubuntu Linux users, called rainlendar, which a highly customizable desktop calendar that keeps your events and tasks and reminds your with alarms.
Rainlendar supports events and tasks which both are kept in separate lists.
You’ll get notified in advanced before the event is due so that you don’t forget your important events. It is also possible to snooze the alarm if you want to get reminded about it later.
Rainlendar Alarm
All the data is stored in the standard iCalendar format (RFC2445) which means it easy to transfer the events between most calendar applications.
Rainlendar comes with a few skins, you can get some from internet. There’s a link in settings page.
Install Rainlendar:
This app works on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. EXE, DEB, DMG files and source code are available in this page
Ubuntu users need to install the required package tofrodos which is available in Ubuntu Software Center.
Pipelight, a browser plugin allows to use Microsoft Silverlight in your Linux browser now get a NEW PPA which includes the required Wine packages.
The PPA supports Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty, Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy, Ubuntu 13.04 Raring, Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal, Ubuntu 12.04, Linux Mint and their derivatives.
What’s Pipelight
Pipelight consists out of two parts: A Linux library which is loaded into the browser and a Windows program started in Wine. The Windows program, called pluginloader.exe, simply simulates a browser and loads the Silverlight DLLs. When you open a page with a Silverlight application the library will send all commands from the browser through a pipe to the Windows process and act like a bridge between your browser and Silverlight. The used pipes do not have any big impact on the speed of the rendered video since all the video and audio data is not send through the pipe. Only the initialization parameters and (sometimes) the network traffic is send through them. As a user you will not notice anything from that “magic” and you can simply use Silverlight the same way as on Windows, like you can see on the following screenshot:
Install Pipelight on Ubuntu
NOTE: It is strongly recommended to close your browser before installing! Some browsers try immediately to load the plugin which might fail or crash the browser when the installation is not complete!
For those who have already installed previous version of Pipelight. It’s recommended to remove the earlier PPAs (Ctrl+Alt+T to open teminal and run):
The Linux Kernel 3.10 (Long Term Support) now is at 25th maintenance release. Linux Kernel 3.10.25 is a big released which brings several x86 improvements, numerous updated drivers (Radeon, i915, hwmon, ALSA, wireless, USB), various fixes (KVM, PowerPC, ARM, Btrfs), as well as other changes. See the changelog for details.
All users of 3.10 Kernel series are urged to upgrade as soon as possible, here’s how to do it in Ubuntu, Linux Mint and their derivatives.
Install / Upgrade Kernel 3.10.25:
The DEBs are available in Ubuntu Kernel page. Follow the steps below to download & install them if you’re on familiar with command line:
1. Download the DEB:
For 32 bit system:
cd ~/Downloads/ && wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.10.25-saucy/linux-headers-3.10.25-031025-generic_3.10.25-031025.201312201135_i386.deb
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.10.25-saucy/linux-headers-3.10.25-031025_3.10.25-031025.201312201135_all.deb
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.10.25-saucy/linux-image-3.10.25-031025-generic_3.10.25-031025.201312201135_i386.deb
For 64 bit system:
cd ~/Downloads/ && wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.10.25-saucy/linux-headers-3.10.25-031025-generic_3.10.25-031025.201312201135_amd64.deb
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.10.25-saucy/linux-headers-3.10.25-031025_3.10.25-031025.201312201135_all.deb
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.10.25-saucy/linux-image-3.10.25-031025-generic_3.10.25-031025.201312201135_amd64.deb
2. Install the DEBs:
cd ~/Downloads/ && sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-3.10.25-*.deb linux-image-3.10.25-*.deb
Restart your computer and done.
If you’re using proprietary video driver, you may need to re-build or re-install to get it work with 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 3.10.25:
The sixth maintenance release of Linux kernel 3.12 has been released recently, which brings several ARM and x86 improvements, numerous updated drivers (Radeon, i915, HID, hwmon, md, Ethernet, wireless, DVB, USB), various filesystem improvements (Btrfs, XFS, NFS), as well as sound and networking fixes. See the changelog for details.
Linux Kernel 3.12.6 is a very big release, Greg Kroah-Hartman recommended users of 3.12 kernel series upgrade to this release as soon as possible.
Install / Upgrade Kernel 3.12.6:
Users of Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 13.04, Linux Mint, and their derivatives can easily get the DEBs of this kernel from Ubuntu Kernel page. Or follow the steps below:
1. Download the Kernel DEBs:
For 32 bit:
cd ~/Downloads/ && wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.12.6-trusty/linux-headers-3.12.6-031206-generic_3.12.6-031206.201312201218_i386.deb
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.12.6-trusty/linux-headers-3.12.6-031206_3.12.6-031206.201312201218_all.deb
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.12.6-trusty/linux-image-3.12.6-031206-generic_3.12.6-031206.201312201218_i386.deb
For 64 bit:
cd ~/Downloads/ && wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.12.6-trusty/linux-headers-3.12.6-031206-generic_3.12.6-031206.201312201218_amd64.deb
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.12.6-trusty/linux-headers-3.12.6-031206_3.12.6-031206.201312201218_all.deb
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.12.6-trusty/linux-image-3.12.6-031206-generic_3.12.6-031206.201312201218_amd64.deb
2. Install the DEBs:
cd ~/Downloads/ && sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-3.12.6-*.deb linux-image-3.12.6-*.deb
Restart your computer and done.
If you’re using proprietary video driver, you may need to re-build or re-install to get it work with 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 3.12.6:
LXQt or LXDE-Qt is a NEW lightweight desktop environment, the mergence of LXDE and Razor-Qt. It uses Openbox window manager, PCManFM-Qt (qt port of PCManFM) file manager, razor-panel desktop panel, as well as other qt items as its core components. (See more at wiki page)
This project is still in development and this simple tutorial is going to show you how to install the development version of LXQt in Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10 via PPA.
LXDE-qt DE preview
To get started, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run commands below one by one:
