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Archives For November 30, 1999

How to Set Different Wallpaper for Each Workspace in Ubuntu 22.04

Last updated: May 11, 2024 — 7 Comments

UPDATE May 2024: The Extension support stuck at GNOME 42, meaning Ubuntu 22.04 only!

Want to set different wallpaper for each desktop workspace? You can now do this in Ubuntu and Fedora via a GNOME extension.

This is one of my favorite features when Ubuntu was using Unity as default desktop. After switched back to GNOME, I didn’t find an alternative method to re-implement this feature until I met this extension.

However, this method does not display different wallpapers in overview. Wallpaper applies only when you switched to that desktop (workspace). So, it may be called change wallpaper automatically when switching desktop.

Install the Extension & Set wallpapers in Ubuntu 22.04:

For Ubuntu 22.04, first search for and install “Extension Manager” from Ubuntu Software.

Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu 22.04

Next, press Super (Windows logo) key to open overview, search for and open the tool you just installed.

When it opens, navigate to “Browse” tab, search for and install “Walkpaper2” extension.

Finally, switch back to “Installed” tab, click the gear icon for the extension. In pop-up window, just click on the previous image to open dialog to set new wallpaper.

NOTE: GNOME by default has 2 desktops, and adds more dynamically. To set fixed number of desktop workspaces, go to “Settings -> Multitasking -> Workspaces”.

Set different wallpaper in other GNOME based Linux

For Fedora Workstation 36, Arch and Manjaro with GNOME, simply go the to link below and turn on the ON/OFF switch to install the extension:

Install Walkpaper2

In case you don’t see the ON/OFF switch, follow the link in that page to install web browser extension and refresh it.

To get the settings dialog, install and use “Gnome Extensions” app, either from Gnome Software or via pamac package manager.

There’s another extension with old GNOME support, however lack of versions support for Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 20.04.

In Howtos Gnome

Kdenlive 22.08 Released! How to Install in (K)Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04

Last updated: August 25, 2022 — 1 Comment

Kdenlive video editor released version 22.08 with exciting new features. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu via PPA.

Kdenlive 22.08 introduced initial support for styling subtitles, allows to modify the font, font size, font and outline colors, add shadows, set position and background color of subtitles.

The release also adds many new effects, including Shear, Scroll, Photosensitivity, Monochrome, Median, Kirsch, Exposure, EPX Scaler, Color Temperature, Color Overlay, Color Correct, Color Contrast, Chroma Noise Reduction, Contrast Adaptive Sharpen, Bilateral and VR360 Equirectangular to Stereo.

Styling subtitles

The audio recording interface has been overhauled. User can either use the record button in the track head or press Space-bar on keyboard to start recording. Space-bar can be also used to pause and resume recording, while Esc key is for exiting recording mode.

Other changes in Kdenlive 22.08 include:

Fix for NVENC and VAAPI proxy clip encoding support.
Faster render speeds with experimental Parallel Processing feature
Support AVIF, HEIF, HEIC and JPEG XL image formats, LOTTIE and RAWR animations, as well as VTT (Web Video Text Tracks) and SBV (YouTube) subtitle files.
Export guides as chapters for YouTube/PeerTube/Vimeo
Integration with Glaxnimate vector graphics animation program
Luma composition now supports video matte files.
Main effects tab now displays all audio and video effects
Improved clip-tagging system to easily add, edit and reorder tags in the project bin.
Added the ability to change the subtitle framerate.

How to Install Kdenlive 22.08 in Ubuntu:

The video editor has an official PPA contains the updated software packages for Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 20.04, and their based systems, such as Linux Mint 20/21, Pop! OS 22.04, Zorin OS 16.

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.

In Howtos video

Firefox 104 Released with Performance & Battery Optimization

Last updated: August 25, 2022 — Leave a comment

Mozilla Firefox got a new monthly update recently, with minor new features, performance improvements and some bug-fixes.

According to the release note, Firefox 104 adds one more video site, Disney+, for displaying subtitles in the pop-out videos (Picture-in-Picture).

Disneyplus.com in Firefox dark

When the browser is minimized or occluded, and for background tabs, the UI will now be throttled for better performance and battery usage. And, paste unformatted shortcut now works again in plain text contexts, such as input and text area.

Other changes in Firefox 104 include:

Support scroll-snap-stop and re-snapping properties for developers.
The Firefox profiler web app can analyze power usage of a website (Windows 11 and macOS only).
Highlight color preserved correctly in the mail composer of Yahoo Mail and Outlook.
Various security fixes and new policies

How to get Firefox 104:

For Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 20.04, Firefox 104 has already made into official repositories, simply launch Software Updater and install the updates to get it.

For Ubuntu 22.04 with pre-installed Firefox as Snap, you should now have v104. To verify, go to hamburger menu -> Help -> About Firefox.

For Ubuntu 22.04 users hate snap package, as well as old Ubuntu 16.04, the Mozilla Team PPA maintains the latest packages. See this step by step how to install guide.

In Howtos web

Enable Thumbnails for EPub / MOBI eBooks in Ubuntu 22.04 & 24.04

Last updated: July 21, 2024 — Leave a comment

Got some ePub and/or MOBI books in your PC? Debian / Ubuntu has recently includes a package in their repository for generating thumbnails for these files.

As you may know, Linux Mint 21 was released recently with a thumbnail generators for AppImage, ePub, MP3 and RAW files. Debian/Ubuntu now has similar tool called gnome-epub-thumbnailer, though it’s only for ePub and MOBI books.

With the package installed, the default file manager will no longer display the universal “e” image with green background for all ePub files. Instead, it shows thumbnail book covers.

Enable EPub / MOBI Thumbnails in Ubuntu 24.04

For Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, the package has been made into the system repositories.

Simply press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open up a terminal window. When it opens, run the command below to install the package:

sudo apt install gnome-epub-thumbnailer

NOTE: the package is only for the default GNOME Desktop! Install the Foliate eBook reader from system repository will also install it as recommend dependency package.

After that, just close Nautilus file manager and re-open it. Or, run nautilus -q command in terminal to apply.

Enable EPub / MOBI Thumbnails in Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04

For the previous Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, user can either build the package from source code, or use this unofficial PPA that supports only AMD/Intel computers.

To add the PPA and install the package, press Ctrl + Alt +T on keyboard to open terminal and run 3 commands one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

sudo apt update

sudo apt install gnome-epub-thumbnailer

NOTE: The first command will asks for password authentication, though there’s no asterisk feedback. Just type in mind and hit Enter to continue.

Enable EPub / MOBI Thumbnails in Fedora, Arch, SUSE Linux

Most other recent Linux systems have also added the package into their official repositories. If you want to get it, open terminal and run command:

For Fedora, use command:
```
sudo dnf install gnome-epub-thumbnailer
```
Arch and Manjaro Linux can install it via:
```
sudo pacman -S gnome-epub-thumbnailer
```

And, openSUSE user may run command:

sudo zypper install gnome-epub-thumbnailer

Uninstall the Thumbnails

Thumbnails generate automatically once you installed the package. If somehow you want to get rid of them, open terminal and run command:

sudo apt remove gnome-epub-thumbnailer

Also remove the PPA via command:

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

Replace apt depends your system. For Arch, use sudo pacman -R gnome-epub-thumbnailer.

Removing the package won’t clear existing thumbnail images, until you removed the content under “~/.cache/thumbnails” either from file manager or by running command:

rm -R ~/.cache/thumbnails/*

In Howtos epub, nautilus

Celluloid (Gnome MPV) Now GTK4 + LibAwaita Video Player for Linux

Last updated: August 23, 2022 — 1 Comment

By releasing v0.24, Celluloid (formerly Gnome MPV) is now a LibAwaita app. Meaning it works good on any screen sizes, including mobile or tablet devices.

Celluloid is a graphical front-end for MPV, defaults in Linux Mint. As MPV is a command line video player, Celluloid adds graphical controls and options to make the player easy to use.

Now, the app has ported to GTK4 plus LibAwaita. Which makes it look modern and stylish, and works good on small screen sizes.

MPV was just OK when it was in Ubuntu 20.04. But in Ubuntu 22.04, it lacks window border due to switch to Wayland (though there are workarounds). And, the UI looks outdated as more and more apps ported to GTK4.

If you’re going to make a switch, then Celluloid is really a good choice, especially for Gnome desktop Linux, such as Ubuntu, Fedora Workstation.

How to Install latest Celluloid in Ubuntu 22.04 / 22.10

1. Firstly, press Ctrl + Alt + T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run the command below to add the official PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xuzhen666/gnome-mpv

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

2. Then either use “Software Updater” (or Update Manager) to update the player if stock version was installed.

Or, run the command below to install/upgrade the app:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install celluloid

For other Linux, go to the project page.

Enable Hardware Acceleration

The player in my case does not use GPU rendering out-of-box. However, it’s easy to enable the features.

Simply click the hamburger menu and go to “Preferences”. Under “Miscellaneous” tab, add --hwdec in the ‘Extra MPV options’ box.

Uninstall Celluloid

To remove the software package, simply run command in terminal:

sudo apt remove --autoremove celluloid

And, remove the Ubuntu PPA either via the command below:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:xuzhen666/gnome-mpv

Or use the ‘Software & Updates’ utility under ‘Other Software’ tab:

In Howtos mpv

LibreOffice Office Suite 7.4 is Available to Download

Last updated: August 19, 2022 — 2 Comments

Ubuntu’s default LibreOffice office suite got a big updates! See what’s new and how to install guide.

LibreOffice finally added WebP image format support by releasing the 7.4 release. As well, this release features new remote grammar checker: LanguageTool API; Calc now supports sparklines and uses 16,384 columns in spreadsheets; Show Changes mode does no longer count deleted list items, instead it now shows changes in numbering correctly.

Other changes in LibreOffice 7.4 include:

New optional hyphenation settings to adjust paragraph-level text flow.
EMZ/WMZ files support.
Impress now has the start of document theme support
Writer now supports clearing breaks from Word.
Experimental dark mode support for Windows 10/11
Help pages for the ScriptForge scripting library
See release note for more.

How to Install LibreOffice 7.4 in Ubuntu:

There are a few ways to get the most recent LibreOffice package for Ubuntu Linux, including:

Flatpak package – universal Linux package runs in sandbox.
Snap package – available in Ubuntu Software and run in sandbox.
Native DEB packages – but not well integrated with Ubuntu desktop.
AppImage – no installation required, just click to run.

Except the non-install AppImage package, all others will install another copy along side the system pre-installed version. Meaning you’ll have duplicated shortcut icons.

So, the LibreOffice PPA is highly recommended. Which will update the stock packages to the latest and keep it up-to-date.

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run the command below to add PPA for all current Ubuntu releases:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa

2. Next, either open “Update Manager” to install updates, or run the command below in terminal:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

NOTE: This PPA at the moment is not updated with LibreOffice 7.4.0 package. Maintainers need time to build and test the new packages, especially for major releases.

How to Restore:

To remove the PPA as well as downgrading the office packages to stock version, run command in terminal to install ppa-purge tool and purge the PPA:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:libreoffice/ppa

In Howtos office

Toggle Conservation Mode for Lenovo IdeaPad in Ubuntu 22.04

Last updated: August 16, 2022 — 3 Comments

Running Ubuntu 22.04 or Fedora 36 on a Lenovo IdeaPad laptop? It’s super easy to turn on/off the conservation mode.

Conservation Mode is a feature of Lenovo IdeaPad to prolong life of the battery. It’s targeted for those who plug-in ac power. With the mode enabled, the battery will only charge to 55-60%.

For the GNOME 3.36+ (defaults in Ubuntu 20.04+, Fedora 35/36 and optional in Arch and Manjaro), there’s an extension to add the toggle options into system tray menu.

As well, it also provides options to turn on/off camera, Fn Lock, Touchpad, and USB Charging.

How to Install the tool:

The tool is available as a Gnome extension called “IdeaPad Mode”.

For Ubuntu 22.04, first search for and install “Extension Manager” from Ubuntu Software.

Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu 22.04

Next, search for and launch “Extension Manager” either from ‘Activities’ overview or ‘Show Applications’ screen.

When the app opens, navigate to ‘Browse’ tab and finally search for and install the extension:

As you can see, there are few other similar extensions to do the job, click install either one that you prefer.

For Ubuntu 20.04, Debian 11, Fedora and other Linux with Gnome, simply use the on/off switch in the page below to install it:

Install IdeaPad Mode

NOTE: Ubuntu 20.04 needs to first install the agent package by running the command below in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell

Also, install the browser extension if prompted and refresh the web page for the on/off switch.

In Howtos Gnome

Raider – Stupid Simple App to Shred Files in Linux Desktop

Last updated: August 15, 2022 — Leave a comment

Looking for a file shredder app for Linux? Raider is the one with a stupid simple user interface.

There are already a few good ways to securely delete files in Ubuntu Linux, such as BleachBit and Nautilus wipe extension. But for a large list of files or those do shred files frequently, this app could be more efficient.

It’s Raider, also known as File Shredder, a free open-source GTK4 application. With it, you can just drag and drop files into app window, then shred as many files as you want via single mouse click.

File Shredder with Drag and Drop support

The default remove method is ‘wipesync‘ which also sync each obfuscated byte to disk. Though, you may set it to ‘wipe‘ that first obfuscate bytes in the name, or ‘unlink‘ to delete file name from the filesystem.

It by default overwrites file with random data, which however is a clue that the file has been shredded. User can choose to overwrite with zeros instead to hide shredding.

And there are options to specify how many times to shred file over, number of bytes to shred, and whether to override the file permissions.

How to Install File Shredder

The app is available to install via the universal Flatpak package, that works in most Linux.

1. For Ubuntu users, first press “Ctrl+Alt+T” on keyboard to open terminal. Then, make sure the daemon package is installed by running command:

sudo apt install flatpak

2. Next, install the tool via command:

flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/com.github.ADBeveridge.Raider.flatpakref

Once installed, launch it by either searching from ‘Activities’ overview, or using the command below:

flatpak run com.github.ADBeveridge.Raider

How to Remove File Shredder:

To remove the software, simply run command in a terminal window:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data com.github.ADBeveridge.Raider

And clear unused libraries via flatpak uninstall --unused.

In Howtos security

The First Point Release, Ubuntu 22.04.1 is Available to Download

Last updated: August 12, 2022 — Leave a comment

The first point release of Ubuntu 22.04 is finally out! Users of Ubuntu 20.04 will receive notification to upgrade to the new LTS.

For users who are still running Ubuntu 20.04, the new LTS features Linux Kernel 5.15, GNOME 42 desktop with built-in 3-finger gestures, new screenshot UI, horizontal workspace view, and RDP remote desktop sharing, and more.

Changes in the new point release:

As usual, this point release includes many updates, high-impact bug-fixes with a focus on maintaining stability and compatibility.

The installation screen has been updated with new logo and appearance. The Ubuntu Studio 22.04 does not install issue when secure boot enabled, has been fixed by manually blacklist DKMS modules.

Besides upgrading from Ubuntu 20.04, it even supports for upgrading from Ubuntu 20.10 and Ubuntu 21.04 directly. Simply open terminal and try via do-release-upgrade -d command. See this bug for more.

For NVIDIA users, Ubuntu 22.04.1 now defaults to Wayland session for hybrid systems with Nvidia graphics drivers. For non-hybrid systems with Nvidia drivers, the classic Xorg will be default. Though, user can manually switch between Wayland and Xorg via gear button in login screen.

Other changes include:

new RISC-V platform support
Add support for VisionFive, Nezha and LicheeRV boards
Fix RDP Sharing on switch
Fix connecting to windows server over RDP
Add Intel DG2 support.
Add Xilinx ZCU111 board support
Add symlinks to enable StarFive boards AP6212 Wi-Fi module.
Add mic mute key support for HP Elite x360 series

And personally, screen flickering issue seems to be fixed in my cheap HP laptop. See full changes since Ubuntu 22.04 to 22.04.1.

Download Ubuntu 22.04.1

For those who are already running Ubuntu 22.04, just install regular updates via “Software Updater” will bring you to the new release. To verify, go to “About” page in settings.

To download the disc images, go to:

Download Ubuntu 22.04.1

For Ubuntu 20.04 users, just wait for the upgrade prompt. Or try running update-manager -c command in terminal after installing all available package updates.

In Howtos

How to Make Your Apps Start in Specified Workspace in Ubuntu 22.04

Last updated: August 11, 2022 — Leave a comment

When you try to open an application in Ubuntu, Fedora or other Linux with GNOME, it’s possible to specify in which desktop workspace the app window should start!

Most operating systems today have multiple desktops to organize unrelated ongoing projects. In Ubuntu Linux, we usually called them “workspaces”. For most common used applications, user may even let them start automatically in specified workspace to improve workflow efficiency.

For Ubuntu 22.04:

1. Firstly, search for and install “Extension Manager” from Ubuntu Software.

Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu 22.04

2. Once installed, press on Super (Windows logo key) on keyboard to open ‘Activities’ overview. Then search for and launch the tool:

3. When it opens, navigate to “Browse” tab, type ‘Auto Move Windows‘ in search box and hit Enter. Finally, click the install the extension.

4. Once installed, navigate back to ‘Installed’ tab in Extension Manager and click on the gear button for that extension you just installed.

In pop-up dialog, use ‘+’ icon to add apps and set the workspace numbers for each app.

NOTE 1: The search function in app selection dialog seems broken, you have to browse through all apps manually.

NOTE 2: GNOME desktop by default has only 2 workspaces, and adds more automatically when the last is in use.

To set workspace number to ‘3’, ‘4’, or bigger, open “Settings (GNOME Control Center) -> Multitasking”, enable “Fix number of workspaces” and set a number for it.