Since version 89, the free and open-source Firefox web browser makes use of the new ‘Proton’ UI design.
For those who do not like the new Firefox appearance, the configuration options to re-enable the old style interface is still available in the 89 release.
Revert to old UI Design in Firefox 89:
Firstly, type about:config in the address bar and hit Enter. Click on the ‘Accept the Risk and Continue‘ button when it prompts.
Next type browser.proton in the search box. Then click on the double arrow icons to disable the values of:
browser.proton.contextmenus.enabled
browser.proton.doorhangers.enabled
browser.proton.enabled
browser.proton.modals.enabled
The Firefix UI will change immediately after the settings. And you can reset these settings to get back the new ‘Proton’ UI design.
In addition, the previous settings is going to be removed in next release according to this bug. So using a browser theme could be a good choice for long time solution.
Working with PDF files regularly in Ubuntu Linux? QPDF Tools is a nifty tool to manage your PDF documents.
It’s a free and open-source software, easy to use Qt based user interface for Ghostscript and Stapler, with ability to compress, split, merge and rotate your pdf documents.
The main window is simple and works with 4 buttons. Click the action you want to do for the PDF documents. Then select the PDF along with a few options and click the button to go.
The Compress a PDF file option will change the resolution for printing, Ebooks, or screen optimized. It also reduce the file size depends on the option you choose.
It however may stuck a few seconds when you clicking ‘Save‘ button on exporting file dialog.
While ‘Merge PDF files‘ option allows to add multiple PDF files, arrange them, and convert them into single, the ‘Spile a PDF file‘ option allows to extract all PDF pages or export from one page to another. And ‘Rotate a PDF file‘ can rotate left or right with live preview.
How to Install QPDF Tools:
The DEB package for Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint, as well as the source tarball are available to download at the link below:
The software developer also maintains an Ubuntu PPA that support all current releases, e.g., Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 20.10, and Ubuntu 21.04. The packages for old releases, e.g., Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 14.04, and Ubuntu 16.04 are also available.
1.) Open terminal from system app launcher. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:silash35/qpdftools
2.) Then refresh package cache (optional for Ubuntu 20.04 & higher) and install the tool via commands:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install qpdftools
Once installed, open the tool from your system application launcher and enjoy!
Uninstall QPDF Tools
While the Ubuntu PPA is used to install or upgrade the software package, you can safely remove it either by running command in terminal:
This simple tutorial shows how to install the NVIDIA proprietary driver in Ubuntu 22.04 and switch between dedicated and integrated GPU.
Since Ubuntu provides the proprietary driver packages via its restricted repositories, user may install NVIDIA driver as easy as a few clicks.
Install NVIDIA Driver
1.) Firstly, click on top-left corner ‘Activities‘, and then search for and open ‘Softwre & Updates’ utility.
When the tool opens, make sure the “Proprietary drives for devices (restricted)” is enabled.
Make sure ‘restricted’ repository enabled
2.) Next, navigate to ‘Additional Drivers‘ tab. There it should list all available graphics drivers.
If it shows nothing, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal and run command sudo apt update to refresh package cache. Then re-launch the ‘Software & Updates’ utility.
Choose one of the drivers from the list and click on ‘Apply Changes‘ to install it. There will be a little bar indicates the installing process. When done, restart your computer!
Switch between NVIDIA and Intel Graphics:
After restart, your machine will be on performance mode with the dedicated GPU. To switch GPU mode, search for and open ‘NVIDIA X Server Settings‘.
When the app opens, navigate to ‘PRIME Profiles‘. Then you’ll see three options available in the right:
NVIDIA (Performance Mode) – use dedicated NVIDIA GPU to render Ubuntu desktop.
NVIDIA On-Demand – use integrated graphics to render desktop, but possible to offload specific apps via dedicated GPU.
Intel (Power Saving Mode) – use integrated graphics to render Ubuntu desktop.
In my case, the “Intel (Power Saving Mode)” is somehow grayed out. As a workaround, choose Intel graphics card by running sudo prime-select intel in terminal.
Changing GPU mode however needs log out and back in to apply changes.
Run certain apps via NVIDIA GPU while rendering desktop via integrated graphics
By setting GPU mode to “NVIDIA On-Demand”, you may run certain apps via NVIDIA GPU, while others handled by the integrated GPU.
1.) For CUDA apps, you need to run command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) to install the nvidia-cuda-toolkit package.
sudo apt install nvidia-cuda-toolkit
Then there’ll be application-specific menu to tell it which device to use.
2.) For other apps, just use the following environment variables.
To make it easy to switch between your GPUs, there’s a Gnome Extension available to add options into system tray menu.
1.) To get the menu option, you need to first install the open-source EnvyControl tool. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal, and run the command below one by one:
NOTE 1: The pre-installed Firefox does not support this stuff so far! Use another browser, or install back Firefox as classic deb package.
NOTE 2: If you don’t see the on/off switch in that page, click the ‘click here to install browser extension‘ to install extension for your web browser and refresh the page.
The menu option should appear immediately after successfully installed the extension. If not, press Windows (Super) key on keyboard or click “Activities” on top panel, and then search for and open the “Gnome Extensions” app to manage your extension.
OBS Studio, the free and open-source software for video recording and live streaming, released version 27.0.0 a few days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 21.04 via PPA.
OBS Studio 27.0.0 features native Wayland support, includes new PipeWire capture source for Ubuntu 21.04+. Also, it adds undo/redo support either from ‘Edit’ menu or via Ctrl+Z /Ctrl+Shift+Z keyboard shortcuts.
Other changes in the release include:
Display Capture on laptops now allows for capturing displays on different GPUs
Added a missing files warning when loading scene collections
Added service integration and browser dock support to macOS and Linux
(Windows only) Added support for NVIDIA Noise Removal in the Noise Suppression filter
Added a Track Matte mode to stinger transitions
Added support for SRGB texture formats
How to Install OBS Studio 27.0 via PPA:
The official Ubuntu PPA has made the packages for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 20.10, Ubuntu 21.04, and their derivatives.
1. Open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or by searching for “terminal” from app launcher. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:obsproject/obs-studio
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it prompts and hit Enter.
2. Then either upgrade OBS Studio from an existing version using Software Updater, or run command in terminal to install the software:
I used to create bootable Ubuntu USB installer with UNetbootin, then with Ubuntu’s built-in USB creator. Now Ventoy is a good choice that I use often to try different operating systems.
Why Ventoy:
Different to other USB creators, you don’t need to format your USB stick again and again to write data from ISO images. With Ventoy, it just format your USB one time, create a small (34 MB in my case) EFI partition, and leave all other spaces free in another partition.
Without extracting, just drag and drop to move ISO images into USB drive, and it will boot them! Like normal USB drive, you can put your photos and other data along with ISO images. Ventoy will find what to boot and show them all in startup menu.
Ventoy features:
Ventoy is a free and open-source tool written mainly in C. It features:
Just copy ISO to USB and boot it! No extraction needed.
Mutil-boot support. As many ISO images as your USB stick can store.
Save all other data along with ISO images, just like a normal USB driver.
700+ ISO files supported (Windows, Linux, WinPE, Unix, Vmware, Xen).
Windows auto installation supported
Also support Local Disk, SSD, NVMe, SD Card
and more.
How to Install Ventoy:
The software provides ISO image as well as installers for Windows and Linux. Download them from the link below:
The software now provides graphical user interface for Linux since version 1.0.52. Both GTK and Qt are supported. And it runs in either modern 64-bit PC, old 32-bit machine, ARM64 OS like Phytium/Kunpeng, and mips64el Loongson 3A MIPS OS.
Simply download the “linux.tar.gz” tarball from the above button, extract, and right-click on the executable to “Run” it will bring up the UI:
Same to the Windows app and Web UI, plug your USB into computer and select it from the app window (click Refresh if you don’t find it). And use either “Install” or “Update” button to install /upgrade Ventoy to the USB drive.
From the “option” menu, it’s possible to enable Secure Boot support, select partition to MBR for compatibility or GPT for most modern PCs. You may also preserve some space at the end of the disk.
NOTE: Installing Ventoy will format the USB stick. All data will be lost. Make a backup before getting started!
After installation, copy and paste some system discs (iso images) into the USB stick. Then start or re-start your machine, and select boot the USB. It will bring you into menu of iso image entries, like the picture shows:
b.) Install Ventoy in Linux from command line:
Also download the “linux.tar.gz” tarball. Then extract, and right-click on blank area in generated folder to open the directory in terminal via ‘Open in Terminal’ menu option.
When terminal opens, copy and paste the command below into it and hit Enter to install Ventoy to USB:
sudo ./Ventoy2Disk.sh -i /dev/sdb
If your machine boot with UEFI mode, also add -s flag for secure boot support, so the command will be:
sudo ./Ventoy2Disk.sh -i -s /dev/sdb
Though the device name of your USB stick is mostly “/dev/sdb”, check the terminal output, or use gparted, mount command, etc to confirm.
If you want to use GTP partition table instead of MBR, add “-g” flag, so the command will be sudo ./Ventoy2Disk.sh -i -g /dev/sdb.[/ac-box]
Type ‘y’ to confirm twice. If everything’s done successfully, it will prompt ‘Install Ventoy to /dev/sdb successfully finished.‘
c.) Install Ventoy in Windows or Linux via Web UI
The software also has a Web UI which has same appearance to the Windows app.
As the previous step did, download ‘linux.tar.gz‘, extract and go to source folder. Then right-click on blank area to select ‘Open in Terminal‘.
When terminal opens, run command to start the Web UI service:
sudo ./VentoyWeb.sh
Next in web browser go to “http://127.0.0.1:24680” will open the web installation page:
In the web UI, select your USB device and click ‘Install’. Also for UEFI mode enable ‘Secure Boot‘ under options.
When everything’s done, you’ll find the USB driver mounted with name “Ventoy”, put ISO images into it and boot it when required. As mentioned, you may treat it as normal USB disk by storing photos, documents, etc, along with disc images.
Mozilla Firefox 89.0 was officially released today with the focus on redesigned and modernized user interface.
Firefox 89 has a simplified browser chrome and toolbar. It uses floating tab design with rounded corners for active tab. Less toolbar buttons present, and bookmarks, history and downloads are merged into single menu button.
The main menu content has been reorganized and prioritized. Menu items no longer have icons at beginning.
The new release also introduced new ‘Pocket’ icon in left side of the menu button. It allows to save any archive, video or page from Firefox. And it provides buttons to sign in/up pocket, so to view your saved content on any device any time.
Other changes in Firefox 89.0 include:
Native context menus on Mac OS with dark mode support.
Reduced number of alerts and messages, so you can browse with fewer distractions.
Update private browsing mode with even more privacy.
Smart Zoom support via double-tap with two fingers, or single finger on your Magic Mouse.
Various security and other fixes.
Event Timing API Support.
How to Get Firefox 89:
As usual, Ubuntu will publish the Firefox 89 packages through the security & updates repositories in next few days.
You can just wait until it being available to update in Software Updater:
Alternatively, see the release note and download the portable package from Firefox website:
The font size of startup boot menu is too small or too large? It’s easy to fix by setting an appropriate screen resolution for the Grub boot-menu in Ubuntu.
1.) Tell which video modes your graphics card support.
Before starting to configure the Grub bootloader, you firstly need to know which video modes are supported.
a.) The hwinfo command has an option to display the information. It however show me nothing. You can try it by opening terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:
sudo apt install hwinfo && hwinfo --framebuffer
b.) If howinfo does not work, use videoinfo instead which however runs in Grub command console.
Firstly restart your machine. When you’re at Grub boot-menu, press c to get into command console.
Next run command videoinfo to list supported video modes.
Take a picture of the output, or write down your desired resolution, e.g., 1024x768x32 and 1280x1024x32.
Finally run exit to get back boot menu.
2.) Set a custom screen resolution for Grub boot menu:
Now boot into Ubuntu, open terminal from system app launcher, and run command to edit the Grub configuration file:
sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
Next set a screen resolution by changing value of “GRUB_GFXMODE”. For instance, set 1024x768x32 (32 means 32-bit color) via:
GRUB_GFXMODE=1024x768x32,auto
Multiple resolutions can be specified, the default is auto.
Without running command, you can also set it via Grub Customizer under its ‘Appearance settings’ page.
3.) Update grub to apply change:
If changed the solution via Grub Customizer, simply click on “Save” button. Or, open terminal and run command to update grub:
This tutorial shows how to mount the VirtualBox virtual disk image in Ubuntu, so you can access the Guest OS file system with read and write permission, if it does not boot.
After misconfigured my VirtualBox Guest OS, it does not longer work. I know how to correct the issue to make it boot again, but firstly accessing to the file system is required!
Since the VBox user manual does not work, here’s what I did in Ubuntu 20.04 host with VirtualBox 6.1.x:
1.) Firstly open terminal from system application launcher. When it opens, run command:
vboximg-mount --list
vboximg-mount is a utility to make VBox disk images available to the host. With --list, it list all Disk Images as well as the UUID.
In the case, I have all Guest OSes on single Disk Image (.vdi). And the uuid is: “3db5fd91-fd56-46af-a2d2-98cd62b05ea3”
2.) Next perform a FUSE mount of the virtual disk image:
First create a folder as mount point, vbox_sysdisk for instance:
mkdir vbox_sysdisk
Then mount it via command (remember to change the UUID to yours):
NOTE: You may need to edit the “/etc/fuse.conf” to make the -o allow_root flag work. To do so, run command sudo gedit /etc/fuse.conf and enable (remove # at its beginning) “user_allow_other” line.
3.) As the previous picture shows, I have 5 disk partitions: vol0, vol1, …, vol4. Now mount either partition (vol4 for instance) to /mnt via command:
sudo mount vbox_sysdis/vol4 /mnt
Finally go to /mnt directory and there you are.
Unmount:
To un-mount the guest os file system, run command:
sudo umount /mnt
To un-mount the VBox disk image, run command:
umount ~/vbox_sysdisk
And you may finally remove that folder either from file manager or by running command in terminal:
Totally new to Linux, and want to give a try? Here are some of the Linux Distributions friendly to beginners.
Linux is a family of open-source operating systems based on Linux Kernel. As there are so many distributions available, I’ll list the top 8 that are easy to use for beginners.
NOTE: Ranking and opinions expressed here are solely my own! As an Ubuntu user for more than 15 years, I’m not new to Linux but may be new to those in the list. So this could be a Linux review via a beginner!
8. Solus
Solus, formerly known as Evolve OS, is an independently developed OS for 64-bit processor. The system provides 4 desktop editions: Budgie, GNOME, MATE (abandoned), XFCE, and KDE Plasma.
Its own Budgie Desktop provides the classic Windows look-like desktop appearance, along with settings utility to change themes, fonts, and manage panel items. And it also has a Gnome style ‘System Settings’ to configure many other settings.
Solus ships with a variety of software out of the box. Besides its own package repository, it also support Snap and Flatpak with more choices.
7. Pop!_OS
Pop!_OS is a free open-source Linux Distribution based on Ubuntu. It’s powered by American Linux computer manufacturer System76, for computers built by System76, but also free to download and install on other machines.
Pop!_OS features customized GNOME Desktop Environment named COSMIC. It comes with a few built-in themes for better desktop and window management. Without Snap, the system focuses on native Deb and Flatpak packages support out-of-the-box.
As well, it has out-of-the-box support for AMD and NVIDIA GPUs, provides default disk encryption, and the most recent release also have packages that allow for easy setup for TensorFlow machine learning and NVIDIA CUDA.
6. Zorin OS
Zorin OS is another Ubuntu based system designed especially for those new to Linux.
The system has 4 editions in the download page. While “Ultimate” need to play for downloading, the core, lite, and education editions are free.
It features a customized GNOME desktop, aims to be the alternative to Windows and macOS. Zorin OS is clean and polished. And it has an appearance dialog to change the desktop layout with single click.
Thanks to Wine and PlayOnLinux, many Windows applications can be easily installed on Zorin OS via simply a few clicks.
5. Deepin Linux
Deepin is a Debian based Linux distribution that focuses much of its attention on intuitive design.
Deepin is the most beautiful Linux system as far as I can see. It features Deepin Desktop Environments with its core applications.
Deepin Linux is developed by a company from China. It ships with its own WPS Office with full MS Office file support, as well as CodeWeavers’ CrossOver, the paid, commercialized version of Wine.
Installing Windows apps, e.g., WeChat, QQ, is quite easy in Deepin. It’s the best Linux OS for users from China.
4. Fedora
Fedora is a Linux distribution developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and owned by Red Hat, a subsidiary of IBM.
Same to Ubuntu, Fedora announces new releases every year in April and October. However, each release has only 9-month support. And Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, uses Fedora as his main Linux Distro.
Due to the close relationship between Gnome and Fedora, Fedora Workstation (the desktop edition) is always the first to benefit from the latest Gnome Shell releases.
Fedora Workstation is bleeding edge. It’s always the first to get the new technologies, drivers and package updates. And the desktop appearance is easy to configure via System Settings, Gnome Tweaks, Dconf Editor, as well as Gnome Shell Extensions. However, installing proprietary drivers is not easy for beginners.
3. Manjaro
Manjaro is a Linux Distro based on Arch Linux. It focuses on user-friendliness and accessibility.
Different to other Linux, Arch Linux and Manjaro uses a “rolling release” system. Which means you don’t have to re-install or upgrade the whole system again and again.
It features three desktop editions with XFCE, KDE, and GNOME. The system looks modern and works out-of-the-box with a variety of pre-installed software.
The XFCE and KDE editions has the classic Windows like style layout. And Gnome defaults to top panel with left dock. It however has a settings dialog to the UI layout.
The package manager ‘pamac’ is great, it enables ability to get the latest software packages from either main repository, AUR (Arch User Repository), flathub, or snap store all in one. As well, it has built-in utilities to install the latest Kernels, and proprietary NVIDIA drivers.
2. Ubuntu:
Ubuntu is the top popular Linux Distribution ranked by Google Trends. Not only for the Desktop, but also popular as Linux Server and for clouding computing.
Like Fedora, Ubuntu announces new releases every 6 months. Versions released in April of even-year (e.g., 16.04, 18.04, 20.04) are LTS with 5-year support. All others has only 9-month support.
Ubuntu is based on Debian, and uses GNOME as the default Desktop Environment. The Desktop is not perfect out of the box, the Software Center sucks, media codec is not pre-installed, clicking app icon on dock does not minimize the opened window, and more and more.
However, there are tons of tutorials and answers on the web shows you how to tweak Ubuntu. And you can ask on https://askubuntu.com/.
Ubuntu contains a wide range of software packages. Though the packages in default repositories are always old, many software developers (e.g., LibreOffice, Inkscape) and third-party maintainers maintain PPAs (Personal Package Archive) with most recent packages for Ubuntu users. And Flatpak and Snap is also available for choice.
Ubuntu is not the best for those totally new to Linux, but it has the largest community base actively participates and provides support to its users.
1. Linux Mint
Linux Mint is the most friendly Linux system for beginners in my own opinion.
It is based on Ubuntu LTS, and feature three desktop editions: Cinnamon, MATE, and Xfce. Linux Mint includes a variety of pre-installed software and it’s ready to use out-of-the-box.
All the settings for desktop users are easy to access via all-in-one ‘System Settings‘ tool, including desktop appearances, account, privacy, display, power management, printers, driver, firewall, and more.
Along with Ubuntu package base, Linux Mint also has its own package repository. Apps are easy to install either via Synaptic or System package manager. Kernels are easy to install via its update manager. PPAs and apt repositories are easy to manage via its ‘Software Sources’ utility. Thanks to Ubuntu, the latest NVIDIA drivers are also easy to apply.
As a fast growing Linux Distribution, Linux Mint is a stable, safe, reliable, and extremely easy to use.
At Last
Since there are so many Linux Distributions, I can’t try all of them one by one. Feel free to leave comment if you found a better one.
Inkscape, free open-source vector graphics editor, release new major version 1.1 a few days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 21.04, Linux Mint 20.x.
Inkscape 1.1 features a new welcome screen with ability to choose canvas colors, keyboard shortcut style, and toggle dark mode.
By different tabs, it also shows you how to contribute, and options to open recent files, set size of documents.
The release also introduced a new display mode, outline overlay, made by Jabier Arraiza.
It displays a muted view (opacity) of your drawing behind the object outlines that are click-sensitive, so you can make sure everything is in order.
New “Command Palette”, open it by pressing ? on keyboard.
Revamped Dialog Docking System
Copy, cut and paste a selection of nodes with the Node tool
New ‘Export PNG Image’ dialog to export JPG, WebP and TIFF, optimized PNG.
New ‘Extension Manager’ in beta.
How to Install Inkscape 1.1 in Ubuntu:
The easiest way to install the editor is using the official Snap package.
Also, non-install Appimage is available in official download page. Download it, make executable via file’s “Properties -> Permissions” dialog, finally click run to launch the program.
For those prefer the classic apt method, Inkscape team has official Ubuntu PPAs.
1. Open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or by searching for ‘terminal’ from system application menu. 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 prompts and hit Enter.
2. Then run command to install or upgrade the vector graphics editor:
sudo apt install inkscape
or upgrade it via Software Updater
Uninstall:
To remove the PPA repository, open Software & Updates and navigate to Other Software tab. Then remove the relevant repository line:
To remove Inkscape, either use Synaptic package manager or run command in terminal:
