Have an important task to do in next few hours, or you have to write something down hurriedly? Here an extension allows to write one thing into the top-bar in Ubuntu, Fedora, and other Linux with GNOME Desktop.
It’s ‘One Thing‘, a gnome shell extension allows to write any word into top panel, to remind you something important!
With it, user can simply click the original text on panel to open the input box, type anything, and hit Enter to make it display in panel. And, it so far works in GNOME 3.36, 3.38, 40, 42, and 43, meaning for Ubuntu 20.04 | 22.04 | 22.10, Fedora 36/37, Debian 11, Rocky Linux 9, Arch and Manjaro Linux with GNOME.
How to Install this extension:
For Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 22.10, first search for and install ‘Extension Manager’ from Ubuntu Software.
Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu 22.04+
The launch and use ‘Extension Manager’ to search and install the ‘One Thing’ extension under Browse tab.
For Ubuntu 20.04 and other Linux, just go to the extension web page and use ON/OFF switch to install it:
Install browser extension and refresh the page if you don’t see the toggle icon! And for Ubuntu 20.04, make sure the agent package is installed by running command in a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) window:
sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell
After installed it, an example text should appear immediately on top-panel. Click it and type your own text and enjoy!
KDE’s Kdenlive video editor released version 22.12 this Monday! See what’s new and how to install guide for Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 22.10.
The new release of the video editor overhauled the whole guide/marker system. The new ‘Guides’ dock is available to seek, search, sort and filter all marker and guide.
Kdenlive 22.12 also improved support for Glaxnimate integration. It now sends the content of the timeline to Glaxnimate (need version >= 0.5.1) which then shows it as background, which makes it much easier to create animations that play together with your videos.
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.
Install / Update Kdenlive
After adding PPA, user can either open Software Updater (or Update Manager) to update the software package from an installed version:
Or run the command below to install or update the video editor:
sudo apt install kdenlive
NOTE: Linux Mint user has to run sudo apt update first to manually refresh package cache
And, if you got overwriting files issue due to the old dependencies: libmlt-data and melt, run command to remove them and then re-run the apt command above:
sudo dpkg -r melt libmlt-data
Once installed, press Super (Windows logo key) to open ‘Activities’ overview or start menu, and search for and open Kdenlive.
Uninstall Kdenlive
To remove Kdenlive, either use your system package manager or run the command below in a terminal window:
sudo apt remove --autoremove kdenlive
And remove the Ubuntu PPA either by running command in terminal:
This simple tutorial shows how to install get-iplayer and use it to download TV and radio programmes from BBC iPlayer/BBC Sounds for offline playback.
get-iplayer is a free and open-source app for Windows, macOS, and Linux. With it, you can searches and downloads your favorite BBC TV / radio programmes. Then play locally and legally in 30 days.
NOTE: For legal reason, you need a TV licence to download BBC TV/radio programmes! And, you have to delete them after 30 days of legal play!
Install get-iplayer in Ubuntu/Linux Mint
The project release page offers Windows and macOS installer. For Ubuntu and its based systems, it refers to a PPA repository, which so far supports Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 22.10.
1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:m-grant-prg/utils
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.
2. Then, run command to install the app package:
sudo apt install get-iplayer
For old Ubuntu and Linux Mint, run sudo apt update first to refresh package cache.
Use get-iplayer to download TV programmes
This is a command line tool! After installing it, run following commands at any time in a terminal to search and/or download your favorite programmes.
To search for something, use command:
get_iplayer 'keyword here'
NOTE: get_iplayer can only search for programmes that were scheduled for broadcast on BBC linear services within the first 30 days! Those present more than 30 days can be downloaded directly via PID or URL
To start downloading a programme, use command:
get_iplayer --get NUMBER_HERE
Replace NUMBER_HERE with the number in the search result. And, you can download more programmes at same time via multiple numbers. For example:
get_player --get 2708 3501 3680
You may also download directly via an URL address, for example::
Openshot video editor announced the new major 3.0.0 release this weekend. Here’s the new features and how to install guide for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 22.10.
Openshot 3.0.0 added ability to export multiple video clips into their own video files, in their original profile / format, though I didn’t find out how to do this trick in the Linux build 😄.
The new release fixed many stability issues, reduced memory footprint, and improved video preview to have smoother video preview and fewer freezes and pauses during previewing. Also, it improved the icons, cursors, logos, as well as the maths to add fully supports high DPI displays and monitors, such as 4K monitors. User guide has been improved with updated screenshots and PDF output support.
Once you got the package, right-click and add executable permission in file ‘Properties’ dialog. Finally, click run AppImage to start the video editor.
NOTE: Ubuntu 22.04+ does not support AppImage out-of-the-box. Run sudo apt install libfuse2 command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) to enable it.
2. Ubuntu PPA
For those who prefer the native .deb package, Openshot official PPA now builds the latest package for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 22.10, and even next Ubuntu 23.04 and their derivatives.
1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run the command below to add the PPA:
This simple tutorial shows how to install the latest version of TimeShift, to backup your Ubuntu system by creating ‘system store‘ points.
Timeshift is a popular system backup tool originally developed by Tony George. It’s now a project maintained by Linux Mint, though the original developer is still one of the top contributors.
And, he is maintaining a PPA repository contains the latest packages so far for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04 and their derivatives.
Install Timeshift
Timeshift is available in Ubuntu system repository, though it’s old! User can either choose to install the old package from Ubuntu Software, or run the commands below one by one to get the latest version from PPA.
1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open a terminal window. When it opens, run command to add its official PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:teejee2008/timeshift
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.
2. Then, either run command below to install the package:
sudo apt install timeshift
The sudo apt update command might be required to run first in some Ubuntu based systems to refresh package cache.
Or, use Software Updater to upgrade the tool if an old version was installed.
Backup your system (Create Restore points)
After installing the tool, search for and open it either from system start menu or ‘Activities’ overview depends on your desktop environments.
On the first launch, the setup wizard will ask you to choose snapshot type, destination location, setup daily backup, whether to backup user files (excluded by default). And, it’s OK to use Default options, since there’s ‘Settings’ page to re-configure them later.
After setup wizard, click on “Create” button on the main UI to start creating the first restore point!
The first backup can take quite a few minutes and dozens of GB disk space (Make sure you have enable free space for saving the first snapshot)! The 2nd, 3rd, … backups can be faster and smaller, because it shares common files between snapshots to save disk space.
After created backups, they are listed in the main UI window. Simply highlight one, then you can browse its content, copy and save it into another storage device if want.
And, just click ‘Restore‘ will revert your system to the status it was when you created that snapshot, without touching user documents, music, videos, etc, unless you included them in setup Wizard.
Uninstall Timeshift
Before removing the software, you may choose to remove all the backup snapshots that you don’t need anymore to free up disk space.
Then, open terminal and run command to remove the app package:
PHP finally released 8.2.0 release after 7 release candidates. Here are the new features and how to install guide for all current Ubuntu LTS.
PHP 8.2.0 allows to mark a class as readonly, which will add the readonly modifier to every declared property, and prevent the creation of dynamic properties. Moreover, using the AllowDynamicProperties attribute on readonly class will trigger a compile-time error.
Other release highlights in PHP 8.2.0 include:
Disjunctive Normal Form (DNF) Types
New stand-alone types: null, false, and true
New “Random” extension
Constants in traits
Deprecate dynamic properties
There are as well numerous bug-fixes and other changes in the release. See the changelog for details.
How to Install Php 8.2 in Ubuntu:
Not recommended for beginners. Only install PHP 8.2 for web developing purpose or there’s specific feature or bug-fix you need in this release.
The popular Ondřej Surý’s PPA has built the package for all current Ubuntu LTS: Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 22.04.
1. First, open terminal or connect to your Ubuntu server and run command to add the PPA:
Run sudo apt install software-properties-common in case the command does not exist. And, type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.
2. Then, install Php packages accordingly. For example, install apache2 module and mysql module via command:
For Ubuntu 18.04, run sudo apt update first to refresh package cache.
After installed it, remember to configure your http server (apache 2 or nginx) for the new PHP package, and configure php8.2 via files under ‘/etc/php/8.2/’.
Want to change system power mode between Performance, Balanced, and Power Saver automatically when plug / un-plug power supply?
Here’s an extension can do the job for Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04, Fedora 38/39, Debian 12, Arch and other Linux with GNOME from version 42 to 46.
GNOME introduced setting options to switch power mode since v40. For laptop running on AC power supply, user may use ‘Performance’ mode for gaming or doing heavy work. To prevent from draining power fast after un-plug AC power, it’s better to switch to ‘Balanced’ mode, or even ‘Power Saver’ mode when battery level is low. To automate this work, ‘Power Profile Switcher’ extension was born. Continue Reading…
Unlike Windows, Ubuntu so far does not have real-time GPU usage info displayed in its system monitor application. If you want to check how much your graphic card is in use, then this simple tutorial may help!
Method 1: Use Mission Center (Graphical App)
A graphical app is always good choice for beginners. And, Mission Center is the one that provides a Windows Task Manager look like interface for monitoring system resource usage.
It supports monitoring overall GPU usage, video encoder and decoder usage, memory usage and power consumption. With the power of nvtop, it supports AMD, Apple, Huawei, Intel, NVIDIA and Qualcomm GPUs.
To install Mission Center, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open up a terminal window. Then, run the commands below one by one to install the Flatpak package.
First, run command to enable Flatpak support:
sudo apt install flatpak
Then, install Mission Center flatpak package via command:
If this is the first app installed as Flatpak package, you may need to log out and back in to make app icon visible in start menu (or Gnome app grid).
(Optional) To uninstall Mission Center, open terminal and run command:
Also run flatpak uninstall --unused to clear useless runtime libraries.
Method 2: Monitor GPU usage from Command Line
For Ubuntu server and those who prefer to the job from command line, there are few tools can do the job. They include intel-gpu-tools for Intel GPU, and nvtop for Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA.
Check Intel GPU usage in Ubuntu:
For the integrated Intel graphics card, there’s a command line tool intel_gpu_top can do the job.
1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on terminal to open a terminal window. When it opens, run command to install the package:
sudo apt install intel-gpu-tools
Type user password when it asks (no asterisk feedback) and hit Enter.
2. Then, run command to start it:
sudo intel_gpu_top
As you can see, it shows real-time IMC read and write speed, power usage, as well as percentage usage of 3D/Render, Blitter, Video, and VideoEnhance.
Monitor AMD/NVIDIA GPU usage in Ubuntu
For NVIDIA and AMD graphics card, there’s a htop like task monitor called nvtop (Neat Videocard TOP).
It shows real-time GPU and GPU Memory usage in both total and per process basis, along with temperature, power usage, and graph information.
nvtop, image from https://github.com/Syllo/nvtop
nvtop also supports Intel GPU, however, it does not work in my case with i5-4590 (HD4600), and i3-6006U (HD 520).
Install nvtop in Ubuntu:
The tool is available in Ubuntu system repository, but old for Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 20.04. For the latest version, it has an official PPA contains the most recent package.
1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. Then, run command to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:flexiondotorg/nvtop
For Ubuntu 24.04, skip the PPA, just the command below to install. Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.
2. Then, run command to install the tool:
sudo apt install nvtop
For Linux Mint, run sudo apt update first to refresh package cache.
Finally, either search for and launch it from ‘Activities’ overview (or start menu), or run nvtop command to start monitoring your GPU.
(Optional) Remove nvtop
To remove the PPA repository, open terminal and run command:
The free open-source Inkscape vector graphics editor got a new maintenance release for the 1.2 series.
The is the second update for Inkscape 1.2, which finally makes OpenClipart import available for Windows and Linux user using AppImage. And, Color extensions works on patterns again.
For macOS, spellchecking finally works and undo/redo options are back in the menu. For Linux, the snap package is no longer possible to install with --classic option. Meaning the snap won’t be able to access data outside of user’s home directory.
Other changes in Inkscape 1.2.2 include:
no longer freezes when rotating objects with snapping activated under certain conditions
Dithering now disabled by default due to performance loss.
Several fixes to the DXF14 export
TIFF export now supports transparency
DPI attribute is preserved for JPG and TIFF raster export
Correct PNG file permission in Linux.
Measure tool now indicates correct positions and sizes for shapes
There are as well various other bug-fixes and improvements, see the release note for details.
How to Install Inkscape 1.2.2 in Ubuntu & other Linux
Inkscape website offers official Windows, macOS, Linux, and source tarball, available to download at the link below:
For Linux, it’s available to install via AppImage, Snap, and deb (through PPA), and Flatpak.
Option 1: Snap
Snap is an universal package that runs in sandbox. Ubuntu 20.04 and higher can simply search for and install Inkscape as Snap from Ubuntu Software:
Install inkscape as Snap from Ubuntu Software
Option 2: AppImage
AppImage is a portable package works in most Linux. No installation required, just grab the package (via link above), enable ‘Allow executing file as program‘ in file Properties dialog. Finally, click Run the package to launch the editor.
Option 3: Ubuntu PPA
For the native .deb package, it has an official stable PPA contains the latest package for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 22.10. Not only for modern 64-bit OS, the PPA now also supports for arm64/armhf architecture types.
1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:inkscape.dev/stable
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.
2. Then either install the image editor as native .deb package via:
sudo apt install inkscape
NOTE: Linux Mint user need to refresh package cache via sudo apt update first.
Or use ‘Software Updater’ to upgrade from an old version:
Option 4: Flatpak
Flatpak is another universal package format that runs in sandbox. Different to previous package formats, Inkscape as Flatpak is maintained by the open-source community.
Ubuntu 20.04 and higher and follow the steps below to install Inkscape as Flatpak package:
1. First, open terminal and install Flatpak daemon via command:
sudo apt install flatpak
2. Then install Inkscape as Flatpak using command:
This simple tutorial shows how to fix the launching issue for TypeCatcher in Ubuntu 22.04 or other Linux with Python 3.9 & higher.
TypeCatcher is a simple GTK application to download and install Google webfonts for off-line use. The app is available to install in Ubuntu Software for all current Ubuntu releases. However, it does not launch in Ubuntu since 21.10.
TypeCatcher, download & install Google Fonts
When trying to launch it from command line, it outputs something like this:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/typecatcher_lib/Application.py”, line 30, in on_activate
self.window = TypeCatcherWindow.TypeCatcherWindow()
File “/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/typecatcher_lib/Window.py”, line 47, in __new__
builder = get_builder(‘TypeCatcherWindow’)
File “/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/typecatcher_lib/helpers.py”, line 44, in get_builder
builder.add_from_file(ui_filename)
File “/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/typecatcher_lib/Builder.py”, line 86, in add_from_file
ele_widgets = tree.getiterator(“object”)
AttributeError: ‘ElementTree’ object has no attribute ‘getiterator’
The issue is because of the removal of getiterator() methods from xml.etree.ElementTree module in Python 3.9, which was deprecated since Python 3.2.
As the announcement indicates, simply use iter() method instead will fix the issue.
Methods getchildren() and getiterator() of classes ElementTree and Element in the ElementTree module have been removed. They were deprecated in Python 3.2. Use iter(x) or list(x) instead of x.getchildren() and x.iter() or list(x.iter()) instead of x.getiterator().
1. First, search for and open a terminal window from either start menu or ‘Activities’ overview depends on your desktop environment.
2. When terminal opens, run command to edit the file that contains the ‘getiterator()’ method (see the first screenshot). In the case, it’s “/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/typecatcher_lib/Builder.py”.
replace gedit to your favorite text editor, or use nano command line editor that works in most Linux.
3. When files opens, find out and replace tree.getiterator with tree.iter.
For Gedit text editor, just go to menu, click open ‘Find and Replace’ dialog. Finally, insert tree.getiterator as ‘Find’, and ‘tree.iter‘ as ‘Replace with’, then click on ‘Replace All’ button.
For nano text editor, press Alt+R when the file opens in terminal window. Then type tree.getiterator when it indicates ‘Search (to replace)’, hit Enter, and insert tree.iter when prompts ‘Replace with’. Finally, hit Enter and type y. Or, just use arrow keys to find and replace the keyword (there are 2) manually. And, press Ctrl+x, type y, and hit Enter to save changes.
After saving the file, try to launch it either from ‘Activities’ overview or command line, and enjoy!
