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Install Variety Wallpaper Changer on Ubuntu, Linux Mint

Last updated: April 24, 2024

download-wallpaper

This tutorial will show you how to install Variety wallpaper changer on Ubuntu 13.10, 13.04, 12.04 & Linux Mint 13, 14, 15 via ppa repository.

UPDATE 2024: Variety is available in system repository since Ubuntu 16.04! However, some features are NO longer working since the PPA is not being updated any-more.

To try out variety in Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 18.04, and Ubuntu 16.04, press “Ctrl+Alt+T” to open terminal, then run 2 commands below one by one:

  • First refresh system package cache: 
    sudo apt update
  • Then install variety:
    sudo apt install variety

To uninstall the app, use command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove variety

Variety is an automatic wallpaper changer, downloader & manager. It makes easy to create Desktop Wallpaper Slideshows on Ubuntu & Linux Mint.

Variety changes your desktop wallpaper on a regular basis, using user-specified or automatically downloaded images. It has an indicator applet on your panel that allows to easily change wallpapers.

variety-indicator

Variety can download wallpapers from wallbase.cc, ns223506.ovh.net, wallpapers.net, flickr.com, imgur.com, deviantart.com, interfacelift.com, vladstudio.com.

To install this software, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal, then follow the below steps:

1.) Copy and paste this command and run in terminal, it add the stable ppa to your system.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:peterlevi/ppa

2.) If you’ve already installed Synaptic Package Manger, open it and click Reload button. Search for and install variety package.

If not, run this command instead:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install variety

Enjoy!

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Install Adobe Air on Linux Mint and Ubuntu

Last updated: April 24, 2024

adobe-air-logo

According to this Adobe support page, HARMAN have taken over the development and support for the Adobe AIR SDK, a cross-platform framework used by a wide range of applications and games.

It’s now a free and open-source project, with SDK support for Window, Linux, and macOS, and runtime support for only Windows and macOS.

To download AIR SDK, go to the link page below, accept the term and click download the SDK for Linux:

Download AIR SDK

Then, extract the package, go to bin sub-folder, finally use either adl or adl_linux from terminal (right-click in blank area of that folder and click “Open in Terminal”) to test an AIR application without having to package and install it.

T ocreate an Air native extension, go to this discussion page, try to download and extract the path over the top of the SDK.

for Ubuntu 20 we need to provide a build of curl and to have the runtime know to look for this in the appropriate folder first. Should be able to provide an update for this although with a few other fixes that have gone in to the Linux build just now (crashes when using Worker objects) I’m wondering about creating another release just for the Linux build of the AIR SDK…. we may do a few more bits of real-world testing with applications that folk are sending in…

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Install Adobe Reader 9.5.5 on Ubuntu 13.04, 12.04, 10.04, Linux Mint

Last updated: July 11, 2013

This tutorial shows you how to install latest Adobe Reader and keep up-to-date on Ubuntu and Linux Mint using canonical partners repository.

Canonical and their partners provide closed source third party software and updates that don’t cost any money in the Canonical Partner repository. Adobe reader (acroread) is one of them.

To enable this repository, search for and open Software & Updates from Unity Dash. Check the boxes at the other software tab.

Enable-Canonical-Partners

Then open Synaptic Package Manager (install it in Ubuntu Software Center), click Reload button to update package lists. Search and install acroread package.

adobe-reader-synaptic

Once a new version releases, you can update via Synaptic too.

To set Adobe Reader as default PDF reader in Ubuntu or Linux Mint, right-click on one of your PDF files. In Properties window, choose it and set default.

set-adobe-reader-default

Enjoy!

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Install ClipGrab on Ubuntu, Linux Mint via PPA Repository

Last updated: May 18, 2024

This tutorial shows you how to install ClipGrab video downloader and converter on Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04, and Linux Mint 20/21 via PPA.

ClipGrab is a free downloader and converter for YouTube, Vimeo, Metacafe, Dailymotion and many other online video sites. It converts downloaded videos to MPEG4, MP3 or other formats in just one easy step.

It supports HTTP and Socks5 proxy.

Clipgrab

ClipGrab has an official PPA which is however no longer updated for very long time. For the all current Ubuntu releases on amd64(Intel/AMD) and arm64/armhf, there’s an unofficial PPA available for choice.

To install this utility, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal, then follow the below steps:

1.) Run this command to add the ppa repository to your system:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xtradeb/apps

2.) Then update the package cache by running command:

sudo apt update

3.) Finally install it via:

sudo apt install clipgrab

The ClipGrab website also provides non-install version for Linux, just download, extract and make it executable in file’s Properties, finally click to run.

Uninstall ClipGrab

To uninstall ClipGrab, use command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove clipgrab

Also remove the Ubuntu PPA by running command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:xtradeb/apps
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Install Cool Reader 3 on Ubuntu, Linux Mint via PPA Repository

Last updated: July 11, 2013

This simple and brief tutorial shows how to install CoolReader 3.x on Ubuntu 13.04, 12.10, 12.04, 11.10, 10.04 and Linux Mint via PPA repository.

CoolReader is fast and small cross-platform XML/CSS based E-Book reader for desktops and handheld devices. Supported formats: FB2, TXT, RTF, DOC, TCR, HTML, EPUB, CHM, PDB, MOBI. Platforms: Win32, Linux, Android. Ported on some eInk based devices.

CoolReader3

To install it, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal, then follow the below steps:

1.) Copy and paste this command and run in terminal. It adds the ppa repository to your system:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:vovansrnd/coolreader

2.) If you’ve already Synaptic Package Manager, open it and click Reload to update package lists. Search for and install cr3:

CoolReader-Synaptic

If not, run this command instead:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install cr3

Enjoy!

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Install Nightingale Player on Ubuntu, Linux Mint via PPA Repository

Last updated: May 20, 2024

Nightingale in Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.10

UPDATE 2024: Nightingale discontinued! Try Clementine Music Player which is available to install in App Center or Ubuntu Software.

In this tutorial I’ll show you how to install the Nightingale Music Player on Ubuntu 13.04, 12.10, 12.04 and Linux Mint 15, 14, 13 via ppa repository.

As such, Nightingale’s engine is based on the Mozilla XULRunner with libraries such as the GStreamer media framework and libtag providing media tagging and playback support, amongst others. Since official support for Linux was dropped by Songbird in April, 2010, Linux-using members of the Songbird community diverged and created the project.

nightingale main window

Nightingale smart playlist

Nightingale smart playlist

Notable features of Nightingale:

  • Plugins compatible with Songbird (with one modification to the addon)
  • Multi-platform compatibility with Windows XP, Vista, 7, Linux and Mac OS X v10.5 (x86, x86-64).
  • Ability to play multiple audio formats, such as MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, Apple Lossless and WMA
  • Ability to play Apple FairPlay-encoded audio on Windows and Mac platforms via hooks into QuickTime (authorization takes place in iTunes)
  • Ability to play Windows Media DRM audio on Windows platforms
  • Media files stored on pages viewed in the browser show up as playable files in Nightingale
  • MP3 file download
  • Ability to subscribe to MP3 blogs as playlists
  • Ability to build custom mixes
  • Ability to scan the user’s computer for all audio files and add them to a local library
  • A configurable and collapsible graphical user interface similar to iTunes, and mini-player mode
  • Keyboard shortcuts and media keyboard support
  • Last.fm integration via a plugin, complete with love/hate buttons
  • Microsoft MTP compatible device support
  • Ability to edit and save metadata tags
  • Gapless playback and ReplayGain
  • Watch folders
  • Media import and export (from and to iTunes)

To install it, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal, then follow the below steps:

1.) Copy and paste this command, then run in terminal to add the ppa repository:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nightingaleteam/nightingale-release

2.) If you’ve already installed Synaptic Package Manager, open it and click Reload button. Search for and install the nightingale package:

nightingale-synaptic

If not, run the below command instead:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install nightingale

Enjoy!

UPDATE: To uninstall the software, also use Synaptic Package Manager, or run following commands in terminal:

sudo apt-get remove nightingale && sudo apt-get autoremove

The PPA can be removed via Software & Updates utility via Other Software tab.

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Easiest Way to Change Grub2 bootloader Background Wallpaper

Last updated: July 10, 2013

Grub is the default boot loader of Ubuntu Linux. Since Grub2 there’s an easy way to change its background wallpaper, without any third-party software.

All you need is the picture file you want to set as background. Supported file format: jpeg, tga, and png.

To get started:

1.) Open Nautilus as root account by pressing Alt+F2, then type gksudo nautilus and hit enter.

open-nautilus-asroot

2.) Navigate to Computer/Home/your-user-name, copy the picture and paste it into /boot/grub

boot-grub

3.) Now apply the changes by running this command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo update-grub

You’ll find “Found background image: picture-name.jpg” in the output.

Reboot and see the magic!

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How to Access VMware Guest File System on Ubuntu (non-host)

Last updated: April 23, 2024

download

This tutorial shows you how to mount / access VMware Virutal Machine File System (vmfs) on Ubuntu (non host).

VMFS is a clustered filesystem designed to store virtual machine disks for VMware ESX or ESXi Server hosts. There is a command line tool for Linux that allows to access VMFS filesystems from some other non ESX/ESXi host for e.g. maintenance tasks.

First install this tool by searching and installing the package from Ubuntu Software Center. Or run the command below:

sudo apt-get install vmfs-tools

Find you vmfs partition by running this command:

sudo fdisk -l

Then mount vmfs with this tool. For example, /dev/sdb3 is the vmfs that we want to mount. We’re going to mount it to /mnt directory. Run this command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo vmfs-fuse /dev/sdb3 /mnt/

After that, open your system file manager, and go to the new mounted folder and enjoy!

Enjoy!

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How to Connect to Ubuntu Remote Desktop using Android Phone

Last updated: July 9, 2013

In this tutorial I’ll show you how to easily connect to your Ubuntu Desktop using Android Phone.

Preparation:

  • An Ubuntu PC connected to your home network (I’m on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS).
  • An Android Phone (Mine is LG E960, Google Nexus 4).

To get started:

1.) On Ubuntu, search and open Ubuntu Sharing from Unity Dash.

desktop-sharing-unity-dash

2.) Here’s how I configured the preference to enable remote access to my desktop:

desktop-sharing-preferences

3.) Find your Ubuntu IP address by click on Network Manager icon -> Information

4.) On Android Phone, install android-vnc-viewer from Google Play for free. Then open it, type in a nickname, IP address of Ubuntu, and the password to connect:

android-vnc

That’s it. Enjoy!

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How to Play Encrypted DVDs on Ubuntu 13.10, 13.04

Last updated: July 9, 2013

This brief tutorial will show you how to install DVD decryption library to enable DVD playback on Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy, 13.04 Raring. Due to legal reasons, Ubuntu doesn’t play normal or encrypted DVDs by default.

For easy, you can install Fluendo DVD player which is specially designed to reproduce DVD on Linux. It costs $24.95.

Fluendo-DVD-player

For free, you can enable this feature by installing the libdvdcss2 package which is available in medibuntu repository. But the maintainer will stop maintaining the Medibuntu repository, the repository will stay on line as is for a while.

Legal Warning: Check with your local laws to make sure usage of libdvdcss2 would be legal in your area.

1.) Press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal, run command to install libdvdread4 and vlc:

sudo apt-get install libdvdread4 vlc

2.) Then download and install libdvdcss2 by running below script:

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

After reboot, VLC media player should play DVD movies.

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