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Archives For November 30, 1999

Display Wireless Mouse/Keyboard Battery Percentage on Ubuntu 22.04 Panel

Last updated: May 8, 2024 — Leave a comment

Got wireless mouse, keyboard, or controller connect to your PC? You can have a glance at the battery level of them in top-bar of Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 24.04, Fedora 36/37, Arch/Manjaro with GNOME desktop!

This can be done via a Gnome Shell extension based on upower power management daemon.

Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 24.04 user can get the extension simply by following the steps below one by one.

1. First open Ubuntu Software (or App Center), then search for and install the Extension Manager tool.

Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu Software/App Center

2. Then, press Super (Windows Logo) key on keyboard to open Activities overview, search for and open the Extension Manager.

3. When the tool opens, navigate to ‘Browse’ tab. Finally, search for and install either extension below:

  • UPower Battery. – it just works but no configuration (also support Ubuntu 24.04).
  • Battery Indicator (upower) – with option to toggle which device to display on panel and manually refresh.

The applet should be there in system tray area immediately after installation, though it can be empty if no wireless device detected.

For Fedora, Arch/Manjaro Linux with GNOME 42/43, just open the link Battery indicator or UPower Battery and use ON/OFF switch to install it. And install Gnome Extensions app from Gnome Software for configuring extensions.

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Linux Mint 21.1 Released! New Cursor Icons & Better Flatpak Support

Last updated: December 21, 2022 — 3 Comments

The first point release of Linux Mint 21 is out! Code-name ‘Vera’, Kernel 5.15, Ubuntu 22.04 package base, and Cinnamon 5.6, MATE 1.26, XFCE 4.16 for each desktop edition.

The default theme for mouse pointer in Linux Mint 21.1 now is Bibata-Modern-Classic, a modern black and rounded edge bibata cursors. Though, user can easily choose another one from System Settings -> Themes. For those like it, the cursor theme is available in the github page.

New default Bibata Modern Classic cursor theme

The default icon theme Mint-Y now has always yellow folders with different accent colors. The previous default icons are now Mint-Y-Legacy available in Themes selection page. The accent colors are also revamped in this release, compare to the legacy ones they look more vibrant.

New default Icons

The release also improved the Flatpak package format support. Update Manager utility can now update Flatpak applications as well as the run-time libraries just like classic .deb packages. And, Software Manager now provides an option to choose between Flatpak and Deb if an app is available to install in both formats.

For 3rd repositories, Linux Mint 21.1 now follows Debian’s (rather than Ubuntu’s) new policy! When adding an Ubuntu PPA, it automatically install the key into ‘/etc/apt/keyrings‘ and adds signed-by section in source file, so the GPG key can only be used for that PPA repository.

Other changes in Linux Mint 21.1 include:

  • Hide Home, Computer, Trash and Network icons from desktop by default.
  • New sounds come from Material Design V2
  • New icons pre-installed: Breeze, Papirus, Numix, Yaru
  • Replace ‘Show Desktop’ panel applet with Microsoft Window style button in bottom right corner.
  • Add dummy hardware device, dummy packages in Drive Manager for debugging.
  • Add right-click menu option to verify ISO file checksum (sha256sum).

Get Linux Mint 21.1:

For the release note, as well as download link for the new ISO images, go to Linux Mint website:

Linux Mint Blog

For Linux Mint 21 user, it’s possible to upgrade to new 21.1 release via ‘Update Manager’ utility.

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MuseScore 4 Released! New Mixer, Accent Colors & Muse Sounds Plugin

Last updated: December 20, 2022 — Leave a comment

Free and open-source music notation software MuseScore 4 is out after more than 2 year since the last major release.

MuseScore 4 now have a modern look UI with both light and dark mode, as well as 7 accent colors. It provides a setup dialog to choose between them on first launch, though user can re-configure them along with fonts, background and paper colors by going to Preferences -> Appearances.

The app window now has a Home tab, for managing account, recent scores, plugins and watching video tutorials. The Mixer has been redesigned. Saving to cloud on MuseScore.com is now working. And, there’s now new online course, and new orchestral plugin: Muse Sounds.

Other changes in MuseScore 4.0 include:

  • Simple toggle for switching between playback profiles
  • New system for horizontal spacing, slurs and ties
  • New system for beaming and cross-staff beaming
  • Customisable ‘Tempo Lines’ that work with playback
  • Scrollbars on the score
  • A new tuplets toggle
  • New articulation buttons
  • New toggle for cross staff beaming

Sadly, there are also features in MuseScore 3 that are not implemented in this release, see HERE for details.

How to Get MuseScore 4.0

MuseScore provides official binary package for downloading at the link below:

Download MuseScore

For Linux user, just download the AppImage package, right-click and add executable permission in its properties dialog. Finally, run it to launch the music writer software:

There’s also an Ubuntu PPA though NOT update at the moment of writing for the new release, keep an eye on this page.

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Hugin 2022.0.0 Released! How to install it in Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04

Last updated: December 18, 2022 — 3 Comments

The Hugin panorama photo stitcher finally announced the 2022.0.0 release! Ubuntu PPA updated for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 22.10.

One year per release! The 2022 release is finally here, though there’s not so many changes!

  • Add simple edge fill option to fill black edges in panorama with homogenous color.
  • Simplified the assistant page with only the necessary GUI controls to make it more clear for beginners and casual users.
  • Several improvements to control points tab (e.g. magnifier displays now warped image for better judgement of wide angle/fisheye images).
  • Improved handling of duplicate control points when running cpfind.
  • Extended command line tools pto_mask (--delete-mask) and pano_modify (allow specifying crop relative to canvas size).

There are as well some bug-fixes in the release, including fulla flatfield extremely dark, high DPI display support for Windows, and Hugin Calibrate Lens launch issue on Debian Testing Cinnamon.

How to install Hugin 2022.0.0 in Ubuntu:

For the source tarball as well as Windows msi packages, go the sourceforge download page.

For all current Ubuntu releases, including Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 22.10, and their based systems, I’ve made the unofficial package into this PPA repository.

I also sync the packages into the apps PPA, use either one as you prefer.

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:ubuntuhandbook1/hugin

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.

2. Update system package cache for Ubuntu 18.04 and Linux Mint, though it’s done automatically while adding PPA in Ubuntu 20.04+:

sudo apt update

3. Finally, either run the command below in terminal to install the panorama photo stitcher:

sudo apt install hugin

Or, upgrade the software (if an old version was installed) via Software Updater (Update Manager) app:

Uninstall hugin:

To remove the software package, simply run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove hugin hugin-data

And, remove the PPA either by running command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/hugin

Or remove the source line from ‘Software & Updates‘ utility under Other Software tab.

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How to Install in XFCE 4.18 (X)Ubuntu 22.04

Last updated: April 1, 2024 — 3 Comments

The popular lightweight desktop environment XFCE4 got a new major release after 2 years of development. Here’s how to install it in (X)Ubuntu 22.04, Linux Mint 21, and/or Linux Lite 16.x.

The new release, XFCE 4.18, focuses on improving its Thunar file manager. They include image preview, Undo/Redo option, customize toolbar, highlight files with different background and filename colors.

In the List View mode, it shows how many files contained for directories, and supports for displaying ‘file creation date’ column. Other changes include split view, recursive search, new ‘Bookmark’ menu, as well as:

  • “Recent” in left pane for quick access recently used files.
  • Trash option ‘Restore and Show’
  • Custom action menu option can now have sub-menu entries.
  • Show file thumbnail for only limited size.
  • Verify file checksum on copy.
  • Restore tabs on startup.

There are as well new features for other part of the desktop, including new Clock plugin (the original DataTime and the Clock plugin combination), option to hide window decorations, new shortcut editor for Thunar file manager, Xfce4-terminal and Mousepad text editor.

It also improved UI scaling, and added support for thumbnail sizes x-large and xx-large, for better Hi-DPI displays support. Settings Editor now has a search function support. All header bars of Xfce Windows and Dialogs now rendered by default by the XFCE4 window manager. And, there’s now option to hide window decorations.

How to Install XFCE 4.18 via PPA

The Xubuntu Developers team has built the packages for (X)Ubuntu 22.04, and their based systems into this PPA repository.

NOTE 1: Ubuntu 20.04 and earlier are NO longer supported via this PPA!

NOTE 2: As PPA description said, the packages were built for testing purpose! Do NOT install in production machine!!

1. Add the PPA

First, open a terminal window either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or by searching from ‘Activities’ overview or start menu depends on your system.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xubuntu-dev/staging

Type user password when it asks while no asterisk feedback, then hit Enter to continue.

2. Refresh package cache

Ubuntu 22.04+ should automatically refresh system package cache while adding PPA, though it might not for some based systems.

To manually update the cache, run command:

sudo apt update

3. Install or upgrade to XFCE 4.18

Finally, either run the command below to install all available package updates:

sudo apt upgrade

or launch Software Updater (Updater Manager) and click install updates to upgrade to XFCE 4.18. Finally, restart your computer and enjoy!

For non-XFCE users, run the command below to install the whole desktop environment on your Ubuntu based system:

sudo apt install xubuntu-desktop

How to Restore:

For XUbuntu 22.04, Linux Mint XFCE edition, and/or Linux Lite 16.x, install ppa-purge and purge the PPA will downgrade all installed package into stock versions in system repository.

To do so, open terminal and run commands:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:xubuntu-dev/staging
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Put single task/goal or Jot Something Down in Top-bar in Ubuntu 22.04

Last updated: December 16, 2022 — Leave a comment

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:

One Thing extension

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!

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Kdenlive video editor 22.12 is out! PPA updated with Ubuntu 22.10 Support

Last updated: December 13, 2022 — Leave a comment

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.

Other changes in Kdenlive 22.12 include:

  • New ‘Remove All Spaces After Cursor‘ and ‘Remove All Clips After Cursor‘ options.
  • Hamburger menu (‘≡’ icon) in tool-bar when menu bar hidden.
  • More explanation text in tool-tip when pressing Shift.
  • Custom cache size limit.
  • Cleanup the software configuration page.
  • Initial Qt6 and KDE Frameworks 6 support.
  • New Pixabay Video provider
  • Add option to disable countdown on audio capturing.
  • Add Pipewire as SDL output
  • audio level visualization filter, audio spectrum filter, audio wave form filter

How to Install Kdenlive 22.12 via PPA in Ubuntu:

The official PPA has updated the packages for Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 22.10, and their based systems.

Add the PPA

To add the Ubuntu PPA, either press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or search for and open terminal (konsole) from start menu.

When terminal opens, run command to add PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kdenlive/kdenlive-stable

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:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:kdenlive/kdenlive-stable

Or use “Software & Updates” utility to remove the source line under “Other Software” tab.

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Install get-iplayer to Download BBC TV Programmes in Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04

Last updated: December 12, 2022 — Leave a comment

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:: 
    get_iplayer https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04n9p9c
  • Or use PID, which is usually the random characters in URL address: 
    get_iplayer --pid b04n9p9c

    Also, it supports downloading via multiple PIDs: get_iplayer --pid id1 id2 id3 ...

The tool also has many other command line options, run man get_iplayer in terminal to read more.

Uninstall get-iplayer

To remove get-iplayer from Ubuntu/Linux Mint, open terminal and run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove get-iplayer

Also, remove the Ubuntu PPA repository by running command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:m-grant-prg/utils

That’s all. Enjoy!

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OpenShot 3.0.0 Released! Multi Clips Export, 4K Support [Ubuntu PPA]

Last updated: December 12, 2022 — Leave a comment

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.

Other changes in the release include:

  • Blender 3.3 support.
  • Display for real-time performance metrics
  • Export Animated GIF, MP3 (audio only)
  • New YouTube 2K, YouTube 4K, MKV (h.264) presets
  • And various other changes, see here for details.

How to Install OpenShot 3.0.0 in Ubuntu Linux

The video editor now provides official packages for Linux with both AppImage and PPA repository.

1. AppImage

AppImage is a non-install portable package that works in most Linux. It’s available to download at the link below:

Download Openshot (AppImage)

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:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:openshot.developers/ppa

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.

2. Then run command to refresh package cache (done automatically in Ubuntu 20.04+):

sudo apt update

3. Finally, either run command to install openshot:

sudo apt install openshot-qt python3-openshot

Or, launch ‘Software Updater’ and install the package updates if an old version was installed.

After installed the app, search for and launch it either from ‘Activities’ overview or system start menu depends on desktop environment, and enjoy!

Uninstall Openshot:

To remove the video editor from Ubuntu based system, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove openshot-qt python3-openshot

And remove the Ubuntu PPA, either via command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:openshot.developers/ppa

Or by removing the source line via ‘Software & Updates’ utility under Other Software tab.

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How to Install Timeshift in Ubuntu 24.04, 22.04 to backup whole system

Last updated: May 24, 2024 — 5 Comments

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:

sudo apt remove timeshift

And remove the Ubuntu PPA via command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:teejee2008/timeshift

In case you already removed the software package, but left the backup snapshots on disk. You may try to remove them to free up disk space via command:

sudo rm -R /timeshift/

That’s all. Enjoy!

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