To verify downloaded packages, we do hash checks. And Hashbrown is a simple graphical tool to generate or verify file hash in Linux Desktop.
Software developers often provide cryptographic hashes along with downloads, for users to ensure the file or program matches the source. Usually, they are MD5, SHA-1, and SHA-256 hashes.
Ubuntu provides SHA256 hashes in its ISO download pages.
Ubuntu comes with md5sum, sha1sum, sha256sum and a few other tools to do hash check from command line. For beginners or those hate Linux commands, then “Hashbrown” may help by providing a modern GTK user interface:
Compare package and shasum file
By opening a file via the tool, it generates the MD5, SHA-1, and SHA-256 hashes with buttons to copy to clipboard, though it takes quite a few seconds in my case to handle large file.
And it allows to compare / verify download using either a file or the hash code in different tabs.
How to Install Hashbrown in Ubuntu Linux:
The software is available to install as universal Flatpak package.
1. Install Flatpak daemon
Open terminal by either searching from activities overview or pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command to install the daemon:
sudo apt install flatpak
For Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 16.04, you may need to add this PPA first.
2. Add flathub repository:
Next add the flathub repository that hosts the software packages, by running command:
3. Install Hashbrown as Flatpak:
Finally run command in terminal to install the app via Flatpak:
flatpak install flathub dev.geopjr.Hashbrown
Like normal apps, open it by searching from activities overview after installation.
Uninstall Hashbrown:
To remove the software package, use command in terminal:
Using Flatpak apps in Linux? You may found that Flatpak app appearance does not change when toggling light & dark mode or switching to another app theme.
As more and more apps publish Linux packages via Flatpak, I have a few of them installed in my Ubuntu laptop. However, the apps stick to the light theme whenever I switches to dark mode in Appearance settings.
Since Flatpak runs in sandbox and does not have permission to access the “/usr” directory, it does not use system theme according to the document. So, some popular GTK themes are packaged as Flatpaks. And, it detects the current system app theme and tries to install the Flatpak version of the theme if available during app installation or update.
I’m working with default Yaru theme in the most time, so it automatically installs Yaru theme flatpak package but leaves Yaru Dark not installed. When I switching to Yaru Dark, it can’t find the match theme so falls back to the default Adwaita.
Install GTK Themes in Flatpak:
As all I said, the solution is install the themes you use as Flatpak packages.
For Ubuntu 20.04 and higher that use the default Yaru app theme, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal and run command:
There are also elementary stylesheet, Deepin GTK theme, Linux Mint’s Mint-Y in different colors, Arc, Numix, and other themes in Flatpak package format. You can find more themes via command:
flatpak search gtk3theme
Then install your prefer theme via “flatpak install flathub app-id” command.
After that, change app theme via Gnome Tweaks or System Settings to see the magic!
Make theme working for Qt apps:
Though I don’t have Qt applications as Flatpaks, according to the document, you need to open terminal and run following commands one by one to install the required runtime libraries:
After installed the new Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 24.04, one of the top things to do is tweaking the left dock panel.
Via “System Settings -> Appearance”, you may change the panel position to bottom, adjust icon size, and enable auto-hide. However, the 9 dots ‘Show Applications’ (or ‘Show Apps’) icon sticks to the bottom which is not movable.
Move ‘Show Applications’ button to the Top:
Though you can not drag moving the icon, Ubuntu has hidden option to change the position. And you may run single command in terminal to do the trick.
Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, paste the command below and hit Enter:
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock show-apps-at-top true
The icon goes to top (or left if you moved dock to bottom) immediately after running the command. So it will look like:
Shorten the Dock Panel:
The dock launcher is easy to move to the bottom, but Appearance setting does not has option to make it compact, so to have Mac OS style short bottom panel.
To shorten Ubuntu Dock, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal and run command:
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock extend-height false
After that, it will look like:
Configure Ubuntu Dock via Dconf Editor:
For those hate Linux commands, there’s an advanced configuration tool ‘Dconf Editor’ available to do the trick.
Search for and install the tool from Ubuntu Software if you don’t have it.
Next, open Dconf Editor by searching from activities overview screen. Then navigate to “org/gnome/shell/extensions/dash-to-dock“. There you’ll see a list of options to configure the dock panel, including moving ‘Show Applications’, ‘extend-height’, ‘click to minimize’, and more.
For those having Ubuntu or other Linux server (e.g., Debian, CentOS and Fedora) remotely, here’s how to login without password using SSH key authentication.
Compare to user password login, SSH key authentication is more secure because only the person who has the key allows to connect, and the keys are well encrypted by different algorithms. It also make SSH connection simple by login without password.
1. Enable SSH Service (Do it in server side):
In case you don’t have enabled the SSH service in remote server. You need to first connect to the server, and run command to install openssh:
sudo apt install openssh-server
For CentOS and Fedora server, use sudo dnf install openssh-server command instead.
After installation, enable and start the service via command:
And finally verify the SSH service status by running command:
sudo system status ssh
If you see the service is active and running, you may start connecting the server via SSH remotely using the command below in local computer:
ssh user@server_ip
Replace user and server_ip. And use -p port_number to specify the port number if it’s not the default 22.
2. Enable SSH Key Authentication (Run commands in local PC):
The authentication keys are generated in local computers. They are usually consists of private key and public key. By uploading the public key into remote Linux server, you’ll be able to SSH login using the private key in local machine.
NOTE: this tutorial is tested on Ubuntu local computer, though it should work on most Linux, including Debian, Fedora, CentOS, and Arch Linux.
1. Install OpenSSH Client:
The OpenSSH client is installed out-of-the-box mostly. In case you don’t have it, run this command in local computer to install it:
sudo apt install openssh-client
For CentOS and Fedora, use sudo dnf install openssh openssh-clients instead.
2. Generate SSH Key Pair:
The ssh-keygen command allows to generate a SSH key pair via RSA, ECDSA, and ED25519 algorithms. While RSA is widely used and best supported, ED25519 offers better security and good performance.
a.) Firstly, create and navigate to the .ssh directory in local computer terminal window:
In the code, you may replace “ed25519” with your prefer encryption algorithm. And “-f linode_ed25519” specifies the key name, “-C “root@linode”” is the optional comment.
c.) For security reason, it’s highly recommended to set none permission (even not readable) for other users except for yourself:
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/linode_ed25519*
Change “linode_ed25519” to the key name you set in last step. And there’s an asterisk “*” in the end so it also applies to the “linode_ed25519.pub” file.
3. Upload the public key to host server (Do in local PC):
Now upload the public key (“linode_ed25519.pub” in my case) from local computer to remote server, using command:
cd ~/.ssh && ssh-copy-id -i linode_ed25519.pub user@server_ip
Don’t remember to add ‘-p number‘ if the listening port is not default 22. And you need to type remote user password for uploading the key.
After that, try SSH login again in local computer will ask for the key password you set in b.):
ssh user@server_ip
If you select Cancel, it will instead ask for user password authentication.
4. Enable No Password SSH Key Login (Do in local PC):
You can tick ‘Automatically unlock this key whenever I’m logged in‘ and type the password only for one time in the last screenshot. However, some desktop environments may not provide this friendly feature. So ‘ssh-agent’, OpenSSH authentication agent, is present to do the job for your.
Firstly run ‘ssh-agent’ via shell command:
eval 'ssh-agent'
Next, add the SSH key to the agent:
ssh-add linode_ed25519
After that, SSH command will login without typing the authentication key password.
5. Disable SSH user password login (Do in server side):
After successfully setup the key authentication, you may disable the user password login, so no one else can access the server!
Firstly, connect to the remote server and run command to edit the ssh daemon config file:
sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config
Next, un-comment the “#PasswordAuthentication yes” line and set its value to no, so it will be:
PasswordAuthentication no
And then press Ctrl+X, type y and hit Enter to save the file.
This simple tutorial shows how to install the latest version of Kodi media center in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 21.04, and their based systems, e.g., Linux Mint 20, Elementary OS 6 and Zorin OS 16.
Kodi, formerly XBMC, is now at version 19.2 “Matrix”. It fixed some possible crashes caused by missing timer type, missing channel icons, accessing invalid PVR channel, or switching monitors, toggling on/off HDR from Windows 10 display settings.
The big one in the release it that Kodi 19.x now is available on the Xbox, along with swap chain and HEVC DXVA2 decoder performance improvements, and 4k resolution and HDR video playback fixes. For more, see the release note.
How to Install Kodi 19.2 in Ubuntu:
Kodi has an official Ubuntu PPA. It usually contains the latest packages for all current Ubuntu releases.
1. Add Kodi PPA.
Firstly, open terminal either by searching from the activities overview screen or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard.
When terminal opens, paste the command below into it and hit Enter to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc/ppa
Type user password when it asks, while no asterisk feedback, and hit Enter to continue.
2. Install / Upgrade Kodi.
If you’re now running the stock version of Kodi package in Ubuntu, the Software Updater may refuse to update it. So it’s recommended to use the command below to install or update the media player.
Firstly refresh system package cache for old Linux, e.g., Ubuntu 18.04, by running command:
sudo apt update
Next, install or upgrade Kodi via command:
sudo apt install kodi
Once installed, you may open Kodi like normal apps by searching from the overview screen. Or log out and select login via Kodi session.
The PPA also provides more audio encoder and PVR add-ons packages. Install them as you need via either apt command or synaptic package manager.
How to Downgrade:
You can purge the Ubuntu PPA as well as downgrade Kodi to the stock version available in Ubuntu main repositories. To do so, run command:
This simple tutorial shows how to compile and install Python 3.11, Python 3.10, or other certain Python version in Ubuntu.
For Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, there’s well trusted “deadsnakes” team PPA that maintains all the Python packages. For non-LTS releases, you may build the programming language package manually from the source tarball.
NOTE: This tutorial is tested and works in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 23.04 in my case.
1. Preparation:
Before getting started, you need to install some essential packages for building the computer language package.
Open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or by searching from start menu. When it opens, run the command below to install the dependencies:
For other Python version, go and download via web browser in this page. And, change the version number in command accordingly.
And uncompress the tarball either by right-click and selecting ‘Extract Here‘ in file manager, or by running command in terminal:
tar -Jxf Python-3.11.0.tar.xz
3. Configure the source:
Depends on how you grab the source tarball, either right-click on it in file manager, extract, and open the source folder in terminal via context menu option:
Open Python 3.11 source folder in terminal
If you just did the tar command above, then you may navigate to source folder via:
cd Python-3.11.0/
The command varies depends on which Python version you downloaded.
When you’re in source directory, run command to configure the source with expensive, stable optimizations (PGO, etc.):
./configure --enable-optimizations
4. Build and install Python:
Finally compile and install it into “/usr/local/bin” by running command:
sudo make -j4 && sudo make altinstall
Here -j4 will start 4 threads to speed up the job. Depends on your CPU, you may increase the number or just skip it. And, when make command done, it will ask you to type password for running make install with sudo privilege.
5. Verify
If everything’s done successfully without error, you may verify by running command:
python3.11 --version
python3.11 -m pip --version
It should output the language version as well as the pip package manager version for you
5. Make Python 3.11 default
IMPORTANT: Change default Python3 in Ubuntu MAY cause issues!!! Do it at your own risk.
After installation, you may set it as default by creating symbolic links to /usr/bin/python3:
In the first command change system default python3.10 to python3.8 if you’re on Ubuntu 20.04. Finally, run command below at any time to select which Python to use as default:
sudo update-alternatives --config python3
Uninstall Python 3.11:
Until you removed the source directory, you may first either navigate to that folder in terminal or right-click and select open folder in terminal, finally run make uninstall command to remove Python 3.11:
sudo make uninstall
If you’ve already removed the source, or the previous command does not work for you, try removing all the installed libraries manually via:
This tutorial shows all the ways to install the 3D creation software Blender in Ubuntu, including Snap, Flatpak, native Deb packages, and compile from source tarball.
Blender is a free open-source software for creating animated films, visual effects, computer games. It’s available to install in Ubuntu via a few different package formats. Here you may choose the one that you prefer.
1. Blender Snap package:
The software developer team offers official snap package that works on Ubuntu and most other Linux distributions. Snap is an universal Linux package format developed by Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu.
The Snap package features:
Easy to install.
Auto update.
Maintained by Blender Foundation.
Works on 64-bit modern PC only.
Run in box with snapd daemon, though pre-installed out-of-the-box.
Take more disk space than native deb package.
Install Blender Snap package:
The package is easy to install as mentioned. Simply open Ubuntu Software, search for and install Blender. From both package details and header bar, it’s marked as Snap package.
2. Blender in Ubuntu Universe repository:
Ubuntu has the 3D creation software in its official repositories. Though it’s always old, it has multi-arch support!
stock Blender package features:
Easy to install.
Official package by Ubuntu, but no update anymore.
Works on 64-bit PC, arm64 (Apple Silicon, Raspberry Pi), armhf, ppc64el, and s390x processors.
The stock deb package is also available to install in Ubuntu Software, though it sucks and may not work! Instead, users may open terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard, and run apt command instead:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install blender
And to uninstall the package, use sudo apt remove --autoremove blender command in terminal.
3. Blender Flatpak package:
Flatpak is another universal Linux package format that was developed as part of the freedesktop.org project. Blender is available as Flatpak package in the flathub repository.
The Flatpak package features:
Auto update.
Maintained by the community.
64-bit modern PC only.
Run in box with flatpak daemon.
Take more disk space than native deb package.
Install Blender Flatpak package:
To install the package, open terminal either by searching from activities overview screen or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When terminal opens, run following commands one by one.
And it can be easily removed via flatpak uninstall org.blender.Blender command.
4. Blender Portable Linux Tarball:
The Blender website provides Linux Tarball in its download page. Just grab the package, extract in your file manager, and right-click run the executable file from generated folder will launch the program.
No installation required, but only works for Linux on 64-bit modern desktop PC and laptop.
5. Install Blender from Ubuntu PPA:
Some Ubuntu users do NOT like the Snap and Flatpak packages. Besides portable Linux tarball, third-party PPAs is one of the choices.
The PPA package features:
Native deb packges.
Able to upgrade through “Software Updater”.
Maintained by unofficial third-parties.
Blender PPAs:
There are quite a few Ubuntu PPAs contains the 3D creation software package. You can find them in THIS PAGE.
So far, the Rob Savoury’s PPA contains the most recent Blender 2.93.4 (check the link) packages for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04 and higher for 64-bit PC. However, it was built with updated FFmpeg libraries that might break other package dependencies in your system.
To install Blender from the PPA, open terminal and run the commands below one by one:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:savoury1/ffmpeg4
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:savoury1/blender
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install blender
And to remove the PPA packages, run following commands one by one in terminal to purge the PPA repositories which will also downgrade the installed packages:
The software is also available as single Appimage binary package, though it seems not being updated regularly.
The Appimage is a non-install package works on most Linux systems. Users just have to add executable permission in file’s Properties dialog, then right-click and select run to launch the program.
The Appimage package features:
64-bit PC only.
no installation required.
Runs in most Linux, like Snap and Flatpak.
Unofficial.
The Blender Appimage is available to download at THIS PAGE and it’s v2.90 at the moment.
7. Compile Blender from the Source:
If none of the previous methods meet your need, you can build the software package from source code, though it’s not recommended for beginners.
Build from the source features:
Not beginner friendly.
Works on all processor architecture, though Blender 2.8+ need GPU with OpenGL 3.3+ support
Build whatever version with optional functions as user prefer.
Build process may fail due to “unknown” reason, and need technical support.
How to Compile Blender from source tarball.
Firstly, download the source tarball from the link page below:
1.) After downloaded the source tarball, extract it in the file manager. Then right-click on source folder and select ‘Open in Terminal‘
Blender 2.9x has an ‘install-deps.sh’ script that automatically install the build depends both from system repositories and by download and building others from source.
2.) When terminal opens after clicking the previous menu option, first run command to install essential packages:
NOTE: the script may fail building dependencies from source tarballs. You may skip and/or specifies what to build via flags. And, find out the command options via:
The command will generate “CMakeCache.txt” in “build” folder under source. You can edit the file to change build options.
5.) Finally build Blender if everything goes OK. Depends on how many CPU core that you have, you may change -j4 (4 threads) to -j8 to speed up the process.
make -j4
And finally install Blender via sudo make install if make succeed.
Summary:
For Ubuntu users, there are quite a few ways to get Blender running. The easiest and official way is search for and installing the SNAP package from Ubuntu Software. However, the old .deb package in universe repository support more processors, e.g., Apple Silicon, Raspberry Pi and other Mobile devices. To test without installing, there’s Linux portable tarball present in official download page. And third-party Ubuntu PPAs maintains most recent packages in native .deb format. Also, advanced users may build it from source with free options.
The well trusted “deadsnakes” team PPA has made the packages for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 18.04, and derivatives, e.g., Linux Mint 20, Elementary OS 6 and Zorin OS 16.
1.) Firstly, open terminal by either searching from overview screen or pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa
2.) Then refresh system cache and install the language via command:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install python3.10
Use Python 3.10 as default Python3:
It’s possible to make Python3 in Ubuntu to be Python3.10 via following commands. However, it causes issues, such as Gnome Terminal refuses to launch. Do it at your own risk!
Check current Python3 version:
python3 --version
Use update-alternatives to create symbolic links to python3 (replace python3.8 in Ubuntu 16.04 with ):
Mozilla Firefox 93.0 was officially released today. The release features AVIF image support and further security improvements.
The AV1 image format (AVIF) is an image file format for storing images or image sequences compressed with AV1 in the HEIF file format. It offers significant file size reduction compare to JPEG, PNG and WebP. Google Chrome added it support since version 85. By releasing v93.0, Firefox now has AVIF image support.
Some PDF files have interactive fields to fill in data. Since Firefox 83, the built-in PDF viewer supports filling fields such as text, check boxes, and radio buttons. In the new release, it adds more forms (XFA-based forms, used by multiple governments and banks) support.
Firefox PDF viewer filling forms
To protect against potentially malicious or unsafe downloads, Firefox now blocks insecure HTTP downloads on a secure HTTPs web page, and blocks downloads in sandboxed iframes, unless the iframe is explicitly annotated with the allow-downloads attribute. Though, an option is available to select download anyway.
Other changes in Firefox 93 include:
Automatically unload tabs on Windows, when system is running out of memory.
Prompt to finish installation for macOS users first time running Firefox from a mounted .dmg file.
Improved SmartBlock and new Referrer Tracking Protections.
Fixed working with Orca screen reader.
And various security fixes.
How to Get Firefox 93.0:
Ubuntu will build and publish the latest Firefox packages through the security & updates (main) repository in next few days (check the launchpad build page). The best choice is just wait and upgrade Firefox using “Software Updater” once available.
For the release note, as well as download link for the portable tarball that contains non-install executable file to launch Firefox, go to:
The graphical auto shutdown app KShutdown released version 5.90 with feature to reboot from Linux into another OS automatically.
KShutdown is a free open-source app that provides a simple Qt based user interface. It allows users to automatically shutdown, restart, hibernate, sleep, log-out, or run a command on certain time, after a period of time, on user inactivity or other event.
The app is getting more and more powerful. The latest 5.90, beta for next 6.0 release, introduced experimental multi-booting support. User can now automatically reboot from Linux into another OS, such as Windows, from Grub menu entries.
KShutdown reboot into another OS
The new feature needs administrator user privilege to get access ‘/boot/grub/grubenv’. The app however does not apply it properly so far, and user need to start it manually via sudo kshutdown from command line.
And it does not read the Grub menu automatically, though it can be set manually in ‘Tools -> Configure KShutdown -> Restart’. Use the app ‘Grub Customizer’ to get the menu entries.
Manually write Grub Menu entries (from grub-customizer)
