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!
Ability to search, install, and delete Conda packages through the Python Packages tool window
New Settings Sync plugin
export DataFrames in various formats (for professional only)
The Quick Documentation popup now displays the Attributes section of the class docstrings
Support await keyword in the built-in Python Console.
Experimental asyncio support for the debugger.
Vitest support (for professional only)
New project templates for Next.js and Vite (for professional only)
Redis support (for professional only)
How to Install PyCharm 2022.3 in Ubuntu Linux
There are 3 ways to install the Python IDE in Ubuntu and other Linux: Snap, Flatpak, and portable tarball. Just choose the one that you prefer.
Option 1: PyCharm Snap package
The easiest way to get the IDE is using the official Snap package. It is a containerized software package that run in sandbox, and updates automatically.
For Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04 and higher, simply search for ‘PyCharm’ then install either community or professional edition from Ubuntu Software.
Or, run command in terminal to install the Snap package:
sudo snap install pycharm-community --classic
Replace pycharm-community with pycharm-professional for the professional edition.
Option 2: PyCharm Portable package (tar.gz)
The website also provides official tar.gz package for downloading at the link below:
The last command should open an empty text editor window. There paste the lines below and save it.
[Desktop Entry]
Name=PyCharm Community Edition
Comment=Lightweight IDE for Python & Scientific development
Exec=/opt/pycharm-community/bin/pycharm.sh
Icon=/opt/pycharm-community/bin/pycharm.svg
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Development;IDE;
StartupWMClass=jetbrains-pycharm
After saving the file, you should be able to search for and launch PyCharm IDE from start menu or ‘Activities’ overview, depends on your desktop environment.
Option 3: PyCharm Flatpak
The open-source community also maintains the PyCharm packages as Flatpak package, which is also containerized package runs in sandbox.
First, open terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T keys on keyboard. When it opens, run command to install the daemon package:
sudo apt install flatpak
Next, run command to install PyCharm Community as Flatpak:
Remember Midori? The lightweight web browser that was default in Elementary OS and Bodhi Linux revived!
Midori was a popular lightweight web browser used the WebKitGTK rendering engine and GTK UI toolkit. The development of the project was however discontinued more than 3 years ago. And, Ubuntu even removed it from system repository since Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.
According to the Wikipedia, the Midori project has been merged with the Astian Foundation in 2019. And, Astian announced a week ago that Midori browser is still alive!
It’s now Chromium Firefox based web browser features both desktop edition for Linux, macOS, and Windows, and mobile edition for Android.
The browser still aims to be lightweight, fast and free. It’s still an open-source app, with the source code host in this Github page.
Midori web browser next generation
The new Midori browser so far features:
New logo.
Adblock integration, block ads out-of-the-box.
Incognito mode support.
Chromium based, without Google services and low resources usage
Fast and highly customizable UI.
Partial Chrome extensions support.
To use its own open-source AstianGO search engine. Though, it so far uses DuckDuckGo as default. While Google, Bing, and Ecosia available for choice.
How to Install New Midori web browser in Ubuntu & other Linux
Astian offers official Midori packages for Linux through AppImage and .deb package.
Option 1: AppImage
AppImage is a portable package format without installation required. Just select download it from its website:
Then, right-click on AppImage in file manager. Open ‘Properties’ dialog and grant ‘execute as program’ permission. Finally, click run the package to launch the web browser.
Option 2: Deb package
It also provides official .deb packages for modern 64-bit computers, available to download via the link button below:
NOTE: The Debian (.deb) package seems broken at the moment of writing. It won’t install in my case in Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 11 either via double-clicking or using apt install command. So please try AppImage until Astian fixed the issue.
This tutorial shows how to install the latest version of RawTherapee (5.11 so far) in all current Ubuntu releases!
RawTherapee, the free open-source raw image converter and digital photo processor, released version 5.11 recently on August 25. See
RawTherapee 5.9 features new “Spot Removing Tool” under Details tab for removing dust specks and small objects; Local Adjustments tool under Local tab for performing a wide range of operations on an area of the image determined by its geometry or color; Preprocess White Balance tool under Raw tab to specify whether channels should be balanced automatically or whether the white balance values recorded by the camera should be used instead; and a new Perspective Correction tool which includes an automated perspective correction feature.
Other changes include:
include CAM16 in Color Appearance & Lighting tool
new automatic white balance method “temperature correlation” for White Balance tool.
new waveform, vectorscope and RGB parade modes for the Main Histogram.
new dual-demosaicing methods in the Demosaicing tool
add saturation adjuster for Haze Removal tool
RawTherapee 5.9
There are as well many new and improved Cameras support, including Canon EOS 100D / Rebel SL1 / Kiss X7, Canon EOS 2000D / Rebel T7 / Kiss X90, Nikon D6, Nikon Z 6II, Nikon Z 7II, and more. See the release note for details.
How to Install RawTherapee (5.11 Updated):
Option 1: AppImage
The software provides official Linux package via AppImage, which is available for downloading at the link below:
Once you got the package, right-click on it to open file ‘Properties’ dialog and add ‘executable as program’ permission. Finally, click the file to launch the photography processor.
NOTE: Ubuntu 22.04+ does not support AppImage out-of-the-box. In case it doesn’t work for you, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal and run command sudo apt install libfuse2 to enable it.
Option 2: Flatpak
RawTherapee is also available as Flatpak package that runs in sandbox environment. The package works in most Linux on amd64 and arm64 CPU platforms.
1. First, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and make sure the daemon package is installed by running command in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04 and higher:
sudo apt install flatpak
Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 16.04 user can get the package from this PPA.
2. Then, install Rawtherapee as Flatpak by running command:
Like normal package, you can search for and launch the flatpak app from either ‘Activities’ overview or system start menu depends on desktop environment.
Option 3: Ubuntu PPA
For those who prefer the native .deb packages, there’s also an unofficial PPA contains the packages for Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 24.04. Also, the package support amd64, arm64 and armhf CPU architecture types.
NOTE: due to outdated system library, librsvg-2.0 in the case, the Ubuntu 20.04 build is stuck at version 5.10.
1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:
Want to measure your application launch time in Linux? There’s an extension can do the job for GNOME desktop.
Meaning Ubuntu, Fedora workstation, and other Linux with GNOME desktop can easily tell how much time it takes for launching an application, which is useful for benchmark and/or software developing purpose.
With the extension enabled, every time you launching an application, an on-screen display pops up shows the loading time in millisecond. Not only for native .deb/.rpm, but also for Snap and Flatpak applications.
How to Install the App Start Time Measure extension
For Ubuntu 22.04, first search for and install “Extension Manager” from Ubuntu Software.
Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu 22.04+
Then launch “Extension Manager” and use it to search & install ‘application start time measure’:
For Ubuntu 20.04, first press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to install the agent package:
sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell
Then, go to extension page in the link below and use ON/OFF switch to install it:
Install the browser extension if prompted via link in that page and refresh if you don’t see the ON/OFF switch.
After installing the extension, it should be enable automatically (verify via ‘Gnome Extensions’ or ‘Extension Manager’). You can then launch something and see the magic!
qBittorrent got a new major release this weekend. Here’s the new features and how to install guide for Ubuntu 22.04
qBittorrent 4.5.0 features new icon theme, new color theme, better startup time, and export torrent support. And, it now uses libtorrent 2.0.x in the default binary packages.
Other changes include:
Add ‘View’ menu option to show/hide filter sidebar.
Add Auto resize columns functionality
Allow to use Category paths in Manual mode
Allow to disable Automatic mode when default “temp” path changed
Add right click menu for status filters
Allow setting the number of maximum active checking torrents
Allow to set working set limit on non-Windows OS
Allow to use POSIX-compliant disk IO type
Add Filter files field in new torrent dialog
Add file name filter/blacklist
Add support for custom SMTP ports
Add ability to run external program on torrent added
Add infohash and download path columns
Allow to set torrent stop condition
Add a Moving status filter
Add a Use proxy for hostname lookup option
Introduce a change listen port cmd option
Implement Peer ID Client column for Peers tab
Add port forwarding option for embedded tracker
As well, there are various bug-fixes in the release. See more in the news page.
How to install qBittorrent 4.5.0 in Ubuntu 22.04
UPDATE: Due to requirement of Qt6 >= 6.5.0, the PPA will no longer update for Ubuntu 24.04, 22.04, and 20.04. For newer releases, see this tutorial for other installation methods.
The software has an official Ubuntu PPA which however updates the latest package so far only for Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 23.10, Linux Mint 21 and their based systems.
1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open a terminal window. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:
Type user password when it asks (no asterisk feedback) and hit Enter to continue.
2. Then, either run software updater (Update Manager) to update the bittorrent client if an old version was installed.
Or install it using command:
sudo apt install qbittorrent
For Linux Mint, either use Software Manager after refreshing package cache, or run sudo apt update before running the command above.
Uninstall/Restore:
Option 1: If you want to downgrade qBittorrent package to stock version in system repository, install ppa-purge tool and purge the PPA by running command in terminal:
Got an application, but you want to make it in-visible from start menu, app grid, app launcher and dock? Here’s how to do the trick in Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 20.04, though it should also work in most other Linux.
It’s easy to do the trick by adding a rule into the ‘.desktop’ file for that application. It’s:
NoDisplay=true – hide app icon from app launcher, but still visible from associated files’ “Open With” dialog.
Hidden=true – complete hide the app, unless launching from command line.
For GNOME, the default desktop environment for Ubuntu, there’s also an extension can do the job by adding option to app icon’s right-click menu.
Method 1: Hide App Icon by Configuring the .desktop Shortcut file
1. Locate the .desktop shortcut file
First, you have to find out where and the file-name of the shortcut file for your application.
To do so, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When terminal opens, run command to install plocate (or mlocate for Ubuntu 20.04):
sudo apt install plocate && sudo updatedb
Then, run command to locate the shortcut file for your app (mpv for example):
locate "*mpv*desktop"
In this command, it will output any file-name that contains “mpv” (change the keyword depends on your app name) in between, and ends with ‘desktop’.
The command may output multiple files, choose one according to file PATH:
for native .deb apps, the shortcut files are usually installed to:
/usr/share/applications
/usr/local/share/applications
or .local/share/applications
for Snap apps, looking for /var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications directory.
for Flatpak apps, they are usually installed to:
/var/lib/flatpak/exports/share/applications/
or .local/share/flatpak/exports/share/applications/
2. One command to hide the app icon
Once you found out the app shortcut file, hide it simply by running command:
replace NoDisplay with Hidden to also hide it from ‘Open With’ dialog.
replace “/usr/share/applications/mpv.desktop” according to last step.
skip sudo for the shortcut located in .local/ sub-directories.
Besides using desktop-file-edit command, you may edit the shortcut file using your favorite text editor, for example, run:
sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/mpv.desktop
Replace gedit with gnome-text-editor for 24.04. Then, add either NoDisplay=true or Hidden=true under “[Desktop Entry]”.
The app icon should disappear a few seconds later. If NOT, try refreshing the database by running command sudo update-desktop-database.
Step 2: Use Extension to Hide App Icon (GNOME Only)
For Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04, and other Linux with GNOME 42 and higher, there’s an extension to make the process easier.
1. First, search for and install “Extension Manager” from either Ubuntu Software or App Center.
Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu Software/App Center
2. Then, launch “Extension Manager”. Navigate to “Browse” tab, then search & install “App Hider” extension.
Other Linux can go to extension web page, and use ON/OFF switch to install it.
3. After installation, right-click on desired app icon in the “Show Applications” screen and select “hide”.
Right-click app icon to hide
For choice, user can launch “Gnome Extensions” or “Extensions Manager” to open the Preferences dialog. There, it lists all hidden apps as well as un-hide options.
