For command line users want to search on DuckDuckGo, ddgr is the free open-source tool to search from Linux terminal.
It’s a tiny tool written mostly in Python3. And it’s quite easy to use. For instance, run the command below will search ‘Windows 11’ and output 10 results per page.
ddgr Windows 11
You can then type n / p / f and hit Enter to go next page, previous page, or to the first page.
By typing o 1 will open the first result, and c 1 will copy the first URL into clipboard. And you can type ? to get more actions in the search output.
Result number per page can be set via --num. And you can specified website to search via --site flag.
For example, search Ubuntu 21.10 on Ubuntu.com with 3 results per page, run:
ddgr --num 3 --site ubuntu.com ubuntu 21.10
To automatic open the first result in web browser, use -j or --ducky flag. For example:
ddgr --ducky Windows 11
For Ubuntu Server without desktop UI, you can firstly specify text-based web browser, w3m in the case, easily via:
export BROWSER=w3m
Other features include:
DuckDuckGo Bangs
Search and option completion scripts (Bash, Fish, Zsh)
Search file type: filetype:mime
HTTPS proxy support
Do Not Track set by default
How to Install ddgr in Ubuntu:
The nifty tool is available in Ubuntu repositories. You can install it simply by running command in terminal:
sudo apt install ddgr
As Ubuntu does not provide the software updates, you can always get the latest .deb package from the link below:
Want to automatically power off Ubuntu after given time? Here’s an Extension adds the option to top-right system menu.
Yes, you can do this either via a graphical shutdown application, or shutdown command with few parameter. However, for beginners or those hate Linux command, life will be easier with the ShutdownTimer extension.
The extension adds an option under Power Off/Log Out menu. With it, you can just move the slider to change time delay, and turn on the toggle icon to automatically shutdown your computer.
A setting dialog is available by clicking on the gear icon. There you can set the minimum and maximum time value, and use Automatic Suspend instead of shutdown.
As some running apps/services might prevent user shutdown, “Root mode” is available to perform the action via super user privilege. However, you need to type user password every time you enable automatic shutdown.
How to Install the ShutdownTimer extension:
The extension supports all current Ubuntu releases running with default Gnome Desktop. As well, GNOME 40 is supported.
1.) Firstly, open terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When terminal opens, run command to install the required packages:
Don’t see the toggle icon? Install browser extension via ‘Click here to install browser extension’ link and refresh the web page.
Once you installed the extension, the option should appear in system menu immediately. Log out and back in or restart Gnome Shell if you don’t see the option.
After more than two years of development, free open-source DJ software Mixxx 2.3.0 released as the big stable release with a total of 7477 changes over 1 million lines of code since the last release.
The new release introduced hotcue colors and custom labels. Hotcues can now have individual colors to make them visually distinguishable. And it’s now possible to see the hotcue labels on the overview waveforms, as well edit them by right-clicking.
For Rekordbox or Serato users, switching to Mixxx is easier. And it can now play tracks directly from USB drives that contain Rekordbox and Serato libraries.
The 2.3.0 also added Opus and HE-AAC streaming and recording support, as well as out-of-the-box support for:
For those dual boot Windows 11 with Ubuntu or other Linux, you’ll find different time display in each system. And usually Windows shows the incorrect clock time.
There are two time standards, localtime and Coordinated Universal Time (UTC, aka GMT). The local time standard is dependent on the current time zone, while UTC is the global time standard that is independent of time zone.
By default, Windows uses localtime, but Ubuntu uses UTC. So you get the different time in the dual boot. And the solution is set the same time standard in the two systems.
Method 1.) Set RTC to local time zone in Ubuntu:
Though it’s not recommended, set the Real Time Clock (RTC) to use local time zone just works.
Firstly, open terminal either from system app launcher or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command:
timedatectl set-local-rtc 1 --adjust-system-clock
Then you can check system clock status via command:
timedatectl
And “RTC in local TZ: yes”, where TZ means time zone, tells localtime standard is in use.
As I said “it’s not recommended“, it warns that localtime standard may cause various problems with time zone changes and daylight saving time adjustments.
You can restore UTC time standard and do method 2 instead by running command:
timedatectl set-local-rtc 0
Method 2.) Enable UTC time in Windows 11:
If you’re now running Windows 11, you can easily enable the UTC / GMT time standard via following steps.
1. Firstly, click on ‘Search’ icon on task bar. Then search for and right-click on ‘Command Prompt’ and select ‘Run as administrator’.
2. When command prompt opens, copy and paste the command below and hit run:
The command creates a registry key to tell Windows to use universal time standard.
Refresh the display time to apply change:
If Windows 11 shows the incorrect date and time, search for and open “Settings” from start menu. Then go to “Time & Language” from left pane, click “Date & time” and finally disable and re-enable ‘Set time automatically’ option will correct your system time.
For Ubuntu users, it may also display incorrect time when “Automatic Date & Time” not enabled. Simply enable or refresh the option in System “Settings -> Date & Time” will do the trick.
By releasing version 3.0.3 RC1, Audacity digital audio editor finally adds official Linux binary support!
It’s the 64-bit Appimage package that runs in most Linux Distributions. Without installing, it’s a single executable that launches the software via double-click.
Other changes in Audacity 3.0.3 so far includes:
switch to 64-bit Windows binary, and drop Windows XP support.
Improved default spectrogram colors
Fix user interface display issue on HiDPI display in Linux.
Fix that font size scales incorrectly.
Fix crashes with Macros on files when the macro-output folder is in an unwriteable location
No error message when attempting to save to SMB drive
Linux Kernel 5.13 was officially released. Linus Torvalds wrote on lkml:
So we had quite the calm week since rc7, and I see no reason to delay 5.13. The shortlog for the week is tiny, with just 88 non-merge commits (and a few of those are just reverts). It’s a fairly random mix of fixes, and being so small I’d just suggest people scan the appended shortlog for what happened.
Kernel 5.13 features include:
Initial and early support for Apple M1.
New “Landlock” Linux security module.
Initial graphics support for Alder Lake S.
AMD FreeSync HDMI support.
New Intel cooling driver
Realtek RTL8156 and RTL8153D support
New drivers support for Amazon’s Luna game controller.
Touchpad & keyboard support for recent Microsoft Surface laptops.
How to Install Linux Kernel 5.13:
The Ubuntu Mainline Kernel Archive provides the new kernel packages via DEB files.
For those prefer using a graphical tool, see this tool to install the latest Kernel.
To manually download the mainline kernel packages for Linux 5.13, go to the link button:
Select generic for common system, and lowlatency for a low latency system (e.g. for recording audio):
Restart your machine and select boot with the previous kernel in boot menu ‘Grub2 -> Advanced Option for Ubuntu’. Then run command to remove Linux Kernel 5.13:
Microsoft has announced Windows 11. Besides online upgrading, here’s how to burn Windows 11 as an USB installer in Ubuntu Linux.
The official Windows 11 iso image will be available to download soon in next week. Though it has leaked! And you can easily install it using an USB stick.
Requirements:
Before getting started, you need a 6 GB+ USB drive, as well as a computer or laptop with:
1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor.
4GB+ RAM.
60GB+ hard disk.
Graphics with DirectX 12 or later compatible.
UEFI, Secure Boot capable.
TPM 2.0 (Some succeed on old machines via WinPE).
Option 1: Boot Windows 11 iso via Ventoy:
It has been tested that Ventoy works for Windows 11. Simply install Ventoy on your USB stick and then copy the iso and boot it! See the link for more:
WoeUSB is a free and open-source Microsoft Windows® USB installation media preparer for GNU+Linux.
1. Install WoeUSB in Ubuntu:
For all current Ubuntu releases, including Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 21.04, you can install the tool from the PPA repository.
First, search for and open terminal from system app launcher.
Next, run command to add the PPA. Type user password, no asterisk feedback, when it asks and hit Enter.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tomtomtom/woeusb
Finally, install WoeUSB via command:
sudo apt install woeusb woeusb-frontend-wxgtk
For Ubuntu 18.04, Linux Mint, you need to run sudo apt update command to refresh package cache first.
2. Burn Windows 11 iso image:
Now plug-in your USB drive! Search for and open WoeUSB from system app launcher.
When it opens, select ‘From a disk image (iso)’ and choose your ISO image. Then highlight the USB device from ‘Target device’. Finally click on ‘Install’ button.
NOTE you have to unmount the USB or it will pop-up an error dialog. To do so, search for and open Disks utility.
Select your device in left pane, and click on the square icon to unmount it.
Next go back to WoeUSB, click refresh and select the USB device. After clicking on the Install button, it starts to wipe USB and burn Windows 11 into it.
When everything’s done successfully, it will prompt that installation succeeded. Close it and boot the USB to get start installing Windows 11!
Audacity audio editor and recorder is easy to install in Ubuntu Software via Snap package. For those prefer the classic deb package, the Ubuntu PPA has updated for the latest Audacity 3.0.2.
Since Audacity 3.0, it requires the development branch of wxWidgets toolkit 3.1.x. However, Ubuntu provides only the stable v3.0 series packages.
Thanks to Pascal de Bruijn, I’ve successfully built wxWidgets 3.1.3 for Audacity. So the audio editor packages updated for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 21.04, and Linux Mint 20.
Known issues:
There are however known issues in the PPA build. When starting Audacity in Ubuntu 21.04 or Linux Mint 20, it will popup “An assertion failed” dialog, which indicates:
./src/widgets/FileConfig.cpp(98): assert “mDirty == false” failed in ~FileConfig().
Just click on “continue” button, and the software should start.
Another issue is that the app window slow to open. It takes a few seconds to start due to AlSA issues and warning. However, it works once app window opens!
Install Audacity 3.0.2 via PPA:
Open terminal either from system application menu or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When terminal opens, run following commands one by one:
1.) Run command in terminal to add the Ubuntu PPA:
Type user password (no asterisk feedback due to security reason) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.
2. Then either upgrade from an old release (if exist) via Software Updater, or run following commands one by one to check updates and install (or upgrade) audacity 3.0.2:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install audacity
Uninstall:
To remove the PPA repository, launch Software & Updates utility and remove relevant line under ‘Other Software’ tab. Or simply run command in terminal:
Kid3 3.8.7 was released as the latest version of the KDE’s audio tag editor. You can install it easily in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 21.04, Linux Mint 20 via PPA.
Kid3 is a free open-source tool to edit tags in MP3, Ogg/Vorbis, FLAC, MPC, MP4/AAC, MP2, Opus, Speex, TrueAudio, WavPack, WMA, WAV and AIFF files.
It can edit ID3v1.1 tags, all ID3v2.3 and ID3v2.4 frames, and edit tags for multiple files. As well it can convert between ID3v1.1, ID3v2.3 and ID3v2.4 tags.
Version 3.8.7 is a minor release added Russian handbook as well as following bug-fixes:
ID3v2: wrong numeric strings for genres Fast Fusion, Fok, Folk Rock, Folklore, Funk, Fusion.
ID3v1: Genres Avant-Garde, Beat Music, Bebop, Britpop, Dancehall, Dark Wave, Euro House, Eurotechno, Fast Fusion, Folk Rock, Hip Hop, Jazz-Funk, Pop-Funk, Synth-Pop, Worldbeat cannot be set with TagLib version
Memory leak in the rare case where the file type is detected not by the extension but by the contents.
CLI: fields (sub-elements of a frame) with a non-string value cannot be set with id3lib.
How to Install Kid3 3.8.7 in Ubuntu via PPA:
The official Kid3 PPA has made the new packages for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, and Ubuntu 21.04.
1. Open terminal either from application launcher or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ufleisch/kid3
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.
2. If an old version was installed, upgrade Kid3 using Software Updater:
or run commands one by one in terminal to install or upgrade to the latest tag editor:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install kid3-qt
You may replace kid3-qt with kid3 in the code for KDE integration, and/or with kid3-cli for the command-line interface.
Uninstall
To remove the PPA repository, either open Software & Updates -> Other Software tab and remove the relevant line, or run command:
This simple tutorial shows how to search for, install, remove, and manager Flatpak apps in Ubuntu Linux.
Flatpak is an universal Linux package format developed by an independent community. Like snap, it runs in sandbox and bundles most runtime libraries.
Flatpak is supported out-of-the-box in many Linux Distros, e.g., CentOS, Fedora, Linux Mint. And it’s available in the most Linux repositories. Since many software developers publish binary packages via flatpak, it’s a good choice to install external apps in Ubuntu Linux.
1. Install Flatpak daemon in Ubuntu:
Unlike Snap, the flatpak daemon is not pre-installed in Ubuntu. You have to first open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to install it:
sudo apt install flatpak
For Ubuntu 18.04, you have to first add this PPA repository before running this command.
Flathub.org is the de facto standard for getting applications packaged with Flatpak. You can browse flatpak apps directly in the web browser via the link below:
If you use Gnome Software instead of Snap Store in Ubuntu, installing gnome-software-plugin-flatpak package will make Flatpak apps available in Software Center.
As well, you can search for an app via flatpak search TEXT. For instance, searching for an radio app via command:
flatpak search radio
NOTE the first time running this command takes quite a few seconds to update database.
3. Install Flatpak package:
If you find an app using the flathub.org web page, then there are 3 ways to install it in Ubuntu.
Option 1. Click on the “INSTALL” button to download the installer file. Then open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to install it:
flatpak install /PATH/TO/FILE
Since downloaded files mostly save to Downloads folder. Type ~/Downloads/ and hit TAB key twice will show you available flatpak files.
Option 3. In each app page, user can click the Down Arrow icon beside the “Install” button, where it provides the commands to install and run the Flatpak package.
If you found an app use flatpak search command, copy the App ID, then install it via:
flatpak install flathub App-ID
In the case the command can be:
flatpak install flathub com.spotify.Client
4. List installed flatpak apps:
For all the installed apps, you can simply run command to list them all:
flatpak list
To make it clean, only list apps via command:
flatpak list --app
And you can list installed runtime libraries, e.g., GNOME, KDE, QT platforms, via command:
flatpak list --runtime
5. Uninstall a flatpak package:
To remove a flatpak, you need to firstly get the App-ID via the previous steps. Then run command:
flatpak uninstall --delete-data App-ID
For instance, remove GIMP as the previous picture shows via command:
flatpak uninstall --delete-data org.gimp.GIMP
Removing flatpak apps WILL NOT remove the independent runtime libraries (QT, GNOME platforms, etc). You can run this command to get rid of them to free up disk space:
flatpak uninstall --unused
And to remove everything your installed, run:
flatpak uninstall --all
In addition for managing flatpak app permissions, try Flatseal.
