UbuntuHandbook | Author Archives

Archives For November 30, 1999

Install / Setup Barrier to Share Mouse & Keyboard Between Your Computers

Last updated: December 12, 2023

Working with multiple computers at your desk? To make it clean, you can use single mouse and keyboard to control all the machines via Barrier.

Barrier is a free and open-source solution forked from Synergy. It makes it easy to share mouse & keyboard, over local network, between machines running Windows, Linux, Mac OS, FreeBSD. Either wired, wireless, or laptop’s built-in keyboard and touchpad can be shared with the software.

NOTE: This tutorial is tested in following machines:

Two Windows 10 machines, both wired network – working so far so good!
Ubuntu 22.04 (server, wireless network), and Windows PC (wired network) – sometimes works, sometimes NOT

1. How to Install Barrier

Barrier is a popular software that most Linux Distros have it in the main repositories. So you can install it in Linux either via system package manager or Distro’s own command line installer (e.g., apt install, dnf install, and pacman -S)

For Ubuntu 20.04/22.04 & higher, Linux Mint 20/21, and current Debian releases, open terminal and run command to install it:

sudo apt install barrier

Since Ubuntu 20.04 has version 2.3.2, you can alternatively install most recent version using the Flatpak or Snap package.

For Windows and Mac OS, the latest packages are available to download at the link below:

Download Barrier

2. Setup Barrier server and client.

After installed Barrier in all the machines, launch it, choose your language and then select either Server or Client.

Select “Server” on the machine that connected with the mouse and keyboard. And all others set to “Client”.

Setup the server.

On the server computer, click on “Configure Server…” button.

In the screen configuration page, you have to drag and drop small “computer” icon into the grid to add clients.

The center one is the current server screen.
Drag & drop ‘computer’ icon to create client screens.
Double-click to rename client screen name (according to the name show in Barrier app in client machines).
Move client screens around the server (left, right, top, bottom) as you prefer.

In the case (as picture shows), when I move the mouse cursor to the left screen edge in server, the mouse & keyboard will take control of “fedora” machine. In “fedora”, move to the right screen edge will go back to server machine.

As well, move the cursor to the right edge in server will go to “Desktop-PC”.

In the “Hotkeys” tab, you can configure keyboard shortcut to switch screens.

First click ‘New’ and create a shortcut key.
Second highlight the key you created.
Click ‘New’ in right to specify an action to perform.

And you can get optional settings in the ‘Advanced server settings’ page. They include:

switch time delay.
dead corners.
transfer and share files between machines.

Setup the client.

It’s easy to configure the clients since it supports ‘auto config’. Just click start, it will automatically connect to the server if available, and prompt you to trust the fingerprint if SSL enabled.

By disabling ‘Auto config’, you can type server IP manually. And a dialog will pop-up indicates you connected successfully.

For connecting issues, check the log from menu. As well, you can change the listening port, toggle SSL via settings menu.

NOTE: for better working, try disable “Enable SSL” in both server and clients machines.

3. Start Sharing

After setup both server and clients, click ‘Start’ button in both machines. Then, try moving mouse cursor to screen edge to switch machine, or use the keyboard shortcut you set.

In Howtos share mouse keyboard

How to Enable / Configure Multi-Touch Gestures in Ubuntu 20.04

Last updated: June 12, 2024

This simple tutorial shows how to enable & configure the multi-touch gestures in Ubuntu 22.04 using touchegg.

NOTE: This tutorial also works in Ubuntu 22.04, but only on Xorg session. In login screen, select username, and click bottom right gear button to make switch.

For those running Ubuntu on laptop or PC with external touchpad, multi-finger gestures enable users with more actions to control your system.

Since Ubuntu does not offer a utility to configure multi-touch functions, touchegg is a free open-source tool to enable this feature for you. And it supports for both global gestures or gestures for Firefox, Chromium, Google Chrome only.

Touchégg Enables Touchpad Gestures include:

Swipe up, down, left, and right with 3 fingers and/or 4 fingers.
Pinch in / out with 2, 3, and/or 4 fingers.
Tap with 2, 3, 4, and/or 5 fingers.

Actions you can set for touchpad gesture:

Minimize, Maximize, Restore, Close a window.
Tile a window.
Toggle full-screen.
Switch desktop.
Show desktop.
Execute a command.
Specify a keyboard shortcut, e.g., to open terminal, switch workspace, toggle activities overview.

Step 1: How to Install Touchégg Service in Ubuntu via PPA:

The software has an official PPA which so far supports for Ubuntu 20.04, Linux Mint 20, and higher.

1.) Firstly open terminal from system application launcher and run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:touchegg/stable

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

2.) Next run command to install the touchegg service via command:

sudo apt install touchegg

The service should run automatically once you installed it. To verify the status, run command:

systemctl status touchegg.service

It should show you ‘active (running)‘. If not, try to enable and start the service:

systemctl enable touchegg.service && systemctl start touchegg.service

Step 2: Install Graphical Configuration tool: Touché

UPDATE (Nov 2021): It’s not a good idea in my own opinion, but they did it. The project does no longer provide native DEB package for the graphical configuration tool ‘Touché‘, though still maintains Ubuntu PPA with the package for the Touchégg system service. Some user do not like Flatpak since it requires hundreds of MB runtime libraries, while the app itself is only few dozen MB. For choice, you may use the GNOME Extension instead, see the link in bottom!

Now the project offers the graphical tool via universal Flatpak package runs in sandbox.

1.) Firstly, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to install the flatpak daemon first:

sudo apt install flatpak

2.) Next, run command to install the configuration tool via Flatpak:

flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/com.github.joseexposito.touche.flatpakref

Finally restart your system is required to make multi-touch work!

Step 3: Enable/Configure Multi-Touch Gestures

After restarted your system, search for and launch touché from Activities overview. When it opens, enable one or more finger gestures as you prefer. Then choose an action from the drop-down box.

Turn on the slider icons as you prefer, and select an action to do from the drop-down box. You may also simulate a keyboard shortcut, such as “Super” key to toggle overview and “Super+Pageup/Pagedn” to switch workspace.

The changes in touche apply immediately. And there’s also Gnome Extension to enable multi-touch gestures on X11. For more, see touchegg on github.

Step 4: Install Extension (for GNOME only)

For the default GNOME desktop with Xorg session, you also need to install an extension to make the multi-touch gestures work.

To do so, first open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to install the agent package:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell

Then, go to the link page below, and use ON/OFF switch to install the extension for X11.

X11 Gestures

If you don’t see the toggle switch, install browser extension (it should prompt you via link in the page) and refresh.

Finally, log out and back in, or restart computer to apply change.

Uninstall Touchégg:

To remove the Touchégg service, open terminal and run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove touchegg

And remove the Ubuntu PPA via command:

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

For the graphical configuration tool Touché, remove it via command:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data com.github.joseexposito.touche

You may also run flatpak uninstall --unused to clean up disk space.

In Howtos touchpad gestures

How to Get Windows 11 Style System Panel in Ubuntu 20.04, 21.04

Last updated: July 17, 2021

The upcoming Windows 11 has leaked online a few days ago. Here’s how to implement the new look and feel in Ubuntu 20.04, and/or Ubuntu 21.04.

Gnome has a large collection of extensions to get additional and optional functionality. You can use dash to panel to combine the top-bar and the left dock into single. And Arc Menu extension is available to replace the default system app launcher.

So your Ubuntu Desktop can be customized to look like the picture shows:

Install Dash To Panel to get single system panel:

1.) Install Dash to Panel extension:

For Ubuntu 21.04, simply press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal and run command to install the extension:

sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-dash-to-panel

For Ubuntu 20.04, though the previous command works I recommend to do following steps instead to get the newer version:

a. First run command to install required tools for installing & managing Gnome extensions:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell gnome-shell-extension-prefs

b. Next go to Dash-to-Panel web page and turn on the slider icon to install it:

Install Dash-to-Panel

If you don’t see the toggle icon, install browser extension via “Click here to install browser extension” link and refresh the web page.

Enable & Configure Dash to Panel:

Once installed the extensions, restart Gnome Shell by pressing Alt+F2, type r in popup ‘Run a Command’ box, and hit Enter.

Or just log-out and back in if you’re running on Wayland session.

Next enable the extension via either Gnome Extension app or Gnome Tweaks tool.

Finally right-click on blank area of the new panel, and go to ‘Dash to Panel Settings’. There do:

Toggle off ‘Show Applications’ button.
Change the position of ‘Left box’, ‘Taskbar’, and ‘Center box’. Use ‘Centered’ or ‘Monitor Center’ depends on your display.
Change panel background opacity, icon size, etc in next tabs.

Install Arc Menu as Start Menu:

Though the Arc Menu is available to install via apt command, I recommend to install it from your web browser. That’s because the one in apt repository is the un-maintained versions though it still works in current releases.

1.) First run command to install the required tools, if you didn’t do it in previous step:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell gnome-shell-extension-prefs

Next go to Arc Menu web page and turn on the slider icon to install it:

Install Arc Menu

If you don’t see the toggle icon, install browser extension via “Click here to install browser extension” link and refresh the web page.

You may need to press Alt+F2, type r, and hit Enter to restart Gnome Shell, or log out and back in to enable the extension. If you don’t see the new start menu, enable Arc Menu via either Gnome Extension app or Gnome Tweaks tool.

Finally right-click on new start menu and open settings. Under ‘Menu Layout’, choose the Modern Menu Layouts and select “Eleven”.

That’s it.

How to Restore:

Simple turn off or remove the two extensions via Gnome Extension App will restore your desktop appearance. If not, restart Gnome Shell via Alt+F2 run command box or log out and back in.

In Howtos windows 11

Fotoxx – Photo Editor & Large Collection Manager while Super Fast

Last updated: April 22, 2024

Looking for a lightweight photo editor and management app for Linux? Try Fotoxx, a free and open-source software which is super fast.

Fotoxx is a GTK application to organize and manage a large image collection, edit and optimize photos, and perform batch operations.

Unlike other image editor, Fotoxx has app menus in the left pane with ability to toggle file view, and edit photos. While providing many functions to meet the needs of serious photographers, it remains fast and easy to use.

The software can view and edit most image formats including RAW files. It works internally with 24-bits/color, and outputs 8 or 16 bits/color JPEG, PNG, or TIFF.

The image editing functions include:

Select object or area, select hairy or irregular edge, find gap.
Rotate, crop, retouch, resize, and paint.
Blur, sharpen denoise, adjust color.
Apply effects, e.g., sketch, cartoon, line drawing and more.
image warp, unwarp, transform.
Composite image: HDR, HDF, panorama, etc.
Batch convert, RAW conversion.
View and edit meta data.
Zoom in/out, redo/undo, and more.
Use GIMP, Rawtherapee, etc as plugins

How to Install The Latest Fotoxx in Ubuntu via PPA:

The software offers only source tarball available to download at the link below:

Download Fotoxx (Source Tarball)

Ubuntu has the photo manager in the Software App, however it’s always old.
To install the latest Fotoxx, use the Ubuntu PPA which so far supports for Ubuntu 20.04, Linux Mint 20, and Ubuntu 22.04.

1.) First open terminal from system app launcher. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xtradeb/apps

Type user password, no asterisk feedback, for sudo prompt and hit Enter to continue

2.) Next run command to install the photo management software:

sudo apt install fotoxx

Once installed, open it from system app launcher and enjoy!

Remove Fotoxx as well as the PPA:

To remove the Ubuntu PPA, simply open Software & Updates utility and navigate to Other Software tab. There highlight the relevant line and remove it.

To remove Fotoxx, run command:

sudo apt remove --auto-remove fotoxx

In App Review lightweight photo manager

How to Install The Latest Sigil EPUB Ebook Editor 1.6.0 in Ubuntu 20.04, 21.04

Last updated: March 8, 2022

UPDATE March, 2022: The PPA package is outdated! Use the Flatpak package instead.

For those sticking to the latest Sigil ebook editor, here’s Ubuntu PPA maintains the 1.6.0 release packages for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 21.04, Linux Mint 19 & 20.

Sigil is a free and open-source ebook editor designed to edit books in ePub format (both ePub 2 and ePub 3). The software offers official binary packages only for Windows and Mac OS.

The editor in Ubuntu repositories is always old. And no Flatpak or Snap package for Sigil. So far, using a third-party PPA is the only way besides compiling from the source tarball.

Install Sigil via Ubuntu PPA

So far, this can be the only PPAs that maintain the most recent Sigil packages. Unlike others, the guy maintains the packages for each Ubuntu releases individually.

Which means you have to find out your Ubuntu edition either from About settings or via cat /etc/issue command. Then select a command below to add the PPA.

1.) First, open terminal either from system app launcher or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When terminal opens, run command to add the PPA:

For Ubuntu 18.04 and Linux Mint 19.x run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xiota/stuff-18.04

And for Ubuntu 20.04, Linux Mint 20, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xiota/stuff-20.04

For Ubuntu 21.04, use command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xiota/stuff-21.04

2.) Next run command to install the ebook editor:

sudo apt install sigil

Ubuntu 18.04 needs to run sudo apt update first to refresh package cache.

Once installed, open the epub editor from system app launcher and enjoy!

How to Remove Ubuntu PPA and/or Sigil:

The Ubuntu PPAs also contains other software packages, e.g., Foliate ebook reader, Geeqie image viewer, Xournal, Xournal++, etc.
You can remove it by opening Software & Updates utility, then remove relevant line under Other Software tab.

To remove Sigil ebook editor, run command in terminal:

sudo apt remove --auto-remove sigil sigil-data

In Howtos sigil epub editor

How to Hide All The User Accounts in Ubuntu 20.04, 21.04 Login Screen

Last updated: June 17, 2021

Ubuntu lists all the available user accounts in the GDM login screen. You can however remove them to protect your privacy.

Gnome, the default desktop environment, has a hidden option to force users to type the username and then password to login. If you’re working on public places, it will be good to enable this option for privacy concern.

1.) Firstly open terminal either from system app launcher or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. Because the login screen is handled by gdm, you have to firstly run command to allows it to make connections to X server.

xhost SI:localuser:gdm

Though it says for X, you also need to run the command in Wayland session to avoid error to disable user list.

2.) Now run gsettings command to disable user list via user gdm:

sudo -u gdm gsettings set org.gnome.login-screen disable-user-list true

Type user password, no asterisk feedback, for sudo prompt and hit Enter.

In next boot, you will no longer see the user accounts. Instead, you need to type username and then password to login.

How to Reset:

To restore the login screen setting, also run both xhost and gsettings commands in a terminal window.

To be lazy, I’ll combine the two commands into single, so it will be:

xhost SI:localuser:gdm && sudo -u gdm gsettings reset org.gnome.login-screen disable-user-list

In addition for more Login Screen settings, e.g, disable ‘Power Off’ menu option, toggle authentications, you can open Dconf Editor (install it first from Ubuntu Software) via user gdm:

xhost SI:localuser:gdm && sudo -u gdm dconf-editor

In Howtos GDM

How to Wipe Files / Free Space to Protect Against Recovering in Ubuntu

Last updated: June 15, 2021

This simple tutorial shows beginners how to easily wipe files, folder, and/or free disk space to protect your files from recovering in Ubuntu.

As you may know, any deleted files can be easily restored from the trash can. Even after you emptied the trash, files can still be recovered. So to prevent information leakage and protect privacy, you have to ‘wipe’ or ‘shred’ files.

1.) Firstly, open terminal either from system app launcher or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard.

2.) When terminal opens, run command to install nautilus-wipe:

sudo apt install nautilus-wipe

The package adds ability to wipe files, folders, and free disk space via context menu.

3.) Finally restart Nautilus file browser via command to apply change:

nautilus -q

After that, you can right-click on any file or folder to ‘wipe’ or ‘wipe available disk space’.

NOTE ‘wipe available disk space’ will overwrite the free space in your system disk, so your data will not recoverable. And the process can take quite a few minutes slowing down your system.

In addition to protect your privacy, you can use BleachBit to clear caches. As well, the tool offers options to shred files, folders, and wipe free space.

In Howtos security

How to Enable ‘Global Menu’ (App Menus in Top-bar) in Ubuntu 20.04, 21.04

Last updated: July 12, 2023

Though it’s not perfect, Global menu is still possible in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 21.04 with the default Gnome Desktop.

It used to have a Gnome Global Menu extension to enable focused app menus (e.g., File, Edit, View, Help, etc.) in the top panel. It is however discontinued because GTK+ development is blocking the uniform support for the global menu to the Gtk+ applications.

Users can still use Fildem global menu to get the function in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 20.10, and Ubuntu 21.04, though it does not work with most Gnome Apps.

NOTE: The Extension is NO longer updated! It won’t work in current Ubuntu 22.04 and higher.

1.) Install Fildem global menu extension.

Firstly, open terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When terminal opens, run commands to install the packages for installing and toggling Gnome Extension:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell gnome-shell-extension-pres

Next, go to extension web page and turn on the slider icon to install it.

Download Fildem global menu

If you don’t see the toggle icon, click the top ‘Click here to install browser extension’ link to install browser extension and refresh the web page.

2.) Install and Configure the External App

To make the function work, you have to install the external app.

a.) Download and double-click to install the “fildem_x.x.x_all.deb” package from the link below:

Download Fildem (.deb)

Or install the package via sudo apt install ~/Downloads/fildem_*_all.deb command.

b.) Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to edit the .gtkrc-2.0 file.

gedit ~/.gtkrc-2.0

When the file opens, add gtk-modules="appmenu-gtk-module" to the end.

c.) Next edit the .config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini file via command:

gedit ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini

And also add gtk-modules="appmenu-gtk-module" line to the end. Also, add [Settings] line before it if not exist.

3.) Start Global Menu:

Finally in a terminal window, run command fildem &.

Search for and open Extensions utility. When it opens, click on the gear button to configure the Gnome Extension:

Toggle off ‘Show menu only when the mouse is over the panel’ option.
Change the Button padding as you prefer.

Now global menu should work for apps, e.g., Google Chrome, Chromium, GIMP, Audacious, Shutter, LibreOffice, etc.

Sadly, most Gnome Apps as well as Firefox does not work with global menu. If you intend to get it work with Firefox, install the one from Ubuntu 18.04 repository (all current Ubuntu releases has the latest Firefox packages).

4.) Auto-start Fildem global menu:

To make the function work on startup, search for and open ‘Startup Applications‘ utility. Then click on Add button to add:

Type fildem in command box.
Type Name and Comment as you prefer.

How to Remove Fildem global menu:

To remove fildem package, open terminal and run command:

sudo apt remove python3-fildem --autoremove

And remove the extension via Extensions utility.

To remove the auto-start service, just remove which you created in step 4.

In Howtos Global Menu

How to Open iOS HEIC Photos or Convert to JPG/PNG in Ubuntu 20.04 | 22.04

Last updated: May 31, 2023

Got .HEIC photo images import from your iPhone? You may found that Ubuntu does not open the file format out-of-the-box.

It’s however easy to either enable this file format support or convert it to JPG or PNG image.

Enable HEIF/HEIC Support for the Default Image Viewer

In Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 22.04, you can easily enable the HEIF / HEIC file format support via libheif libraries.

1.) Simply search for and open terminal from system app launcher (or press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard).

2.) When terminal opens, run command to install the library:

sudo apt install heif-gdk-pixbuf

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

Now, double-click to open the .heic (or right-click -> Open with Other Application -> select Image Viewer) photo and enjoy!

For Ubuntu 18.04 / Ubuntu 16.04 users, the library is not available in system repositories. You have to add the third-party PPA by running command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:strukturag/libheif

Then refresh package cache via:

sudo apt update

And finally run the command in step 2.) to get it installed.

Convert HEIF/HEIC to JPEG or PNG

It’s also quite easy to convert the photo to another format in Ubuntu Linux.

Simply open the photo via either GIMP or Krita image editor (both available in Ubuntu Software), then select Export to JPG / PNG.

Too many HEIC photos to convert? Using heif-convert command will be more effective.

1.) Firstly open terminal and run command to install heif-convert tool:

sudo apt install libheif-examples

2.) Next you can convert a HEIC file to JPEG via command:

heif-convert -q 85 input.HEIC output.JPG

Here -q 85 specifies the output quality level. You can skip it to use default value 92.

To batch convert HEIC photos to JPEG, firstly navigate to the photo folder in file manager and select ‘Open in Terminal’ from context menu:

Finally run command:

for file in *.HEIC; do heif-convert $file ${file%.HEIC}.jpg; done

NOTE: Linux commands are case sensitive! If your HEIC photos have file extension in lower-case, replace HEIC with heic in the last command.

For instance, convert all .HEIC photos to jpg with quality 100%, run command:

for file in *.HEIC; do heif-convert -q 100 $file ${file%.HEIC}.jpg; done

Updates for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS:

The powerful Imagemagick package in Ubuntu 22.04 repository has support the HEIC/HEIF image format!

First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal and run command to install the tool:

sudo apt install imagemagick

Then, open the folder that contains the photo images, right-click on select “Open in Terminal” and finally use command to convert:

convert input.HEIC -quality 95 output.JPG

Change the number in -quality 95, or skip it to use default 90. To convert a batch of files (from .HEIC to .jpg), use command:

for file in *.HEIC; do convert $file ${file%.HEIC}.jpg; done

That’s all. Enjoy!

In Howtos HEIF

Easily Toggle Dark / Light Mode in Ubuntu 20.04, 21.04 via This Extension

Last updated: July 2, 2021

This simple tutorial shows how to add a system tray menu option to switch between Dark and Light system mode in Ubuntu.

By default, the System Settings -> Appearance page offers options to choose Standard, Light, and Dark window colors. It however only apply the app theme.

For system menu, notifications, date and time menu, etc, you have to install user themes extension, and change the Gnome Shell theme individually via Gnome Tweak Tool.

Here I’m going to introduce a new Gnome Shell Extension called ‘Ubuntu Appearance‘. With it, you can toggle fully dark and light mode easily via a few clicks.

The extension features:

Integrate Light, Dark, Standard option into system tray menu.
Toggle fully dark / light mode, not only app window colors but also system theme (e.g., system menu, calendar, notifications.).
Option name vary according to current system mode.
The user themes extension is not required.

Install Ubuntu Appearance extension:

1.) Firstly, open terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When terminal opens, run command to install required packages:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell gnome-shell-extension-prefs

2.) Secondly, go to the extension web page and click on the slider icon to install it.

Though the extension says for Gnome 40, it works well in my Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 21.04 machine.

Install Ubuntu Appearance Extension

Don’t see the toggle icon? Click the link ‘Click here to install browser extension’ to install browser extension 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.

In Gnome Shell dark mode