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Split and Merge PDF files in Ubuntu via PDF Mix Tool

Last updated: March 14, 2025

Want to split, merge, rotate, and/or delete pages in your PDF files? Here’s a tool make it easy to do the job in Ubuntu Desktop.

It’s PDF Mix Tool, a free and open-source tool written in C++ and depends only on Qt 6 and PoDoFo.

The app provides stupid simple user interface to operate PDF files in Linux. Simply choose an action you want to do in the left, then open/import PDF files, finally click Save/Extract/Generate button, and done!

So far, it support following actions:

  • Merge multiple PDF files into single.
  • Extract PDF pages into single or mutiple files.
  • Delete PDF pages.
  • Rotate PDF.
  • Edit PDF metadata.
  • Change PDF size, layout, margins, etc.
  • Extract PDF to Images.

PDF Merge

How to Install PDF Mix Tool

Some Linux Distributions (e.g., Fedora, Arch Linux, openSUSE) have made the app package into system repositories.

For Ubuntu, users may choose to install it via either Snap or Flatpak package.

Option 1: Snap package

NOTE: The Snap seems not working good in my case in Ubuntu 24.04 with Xorg.

The Snap package is quite easy to install, simply launch App Center (or Ubuntu Software) then search and install ‘PDF Mix Tool’.

Option 2: Flatpak package

For choice, the app can be also installed via Flatpak package that works in most Linux.

  • First, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal and run command to install Flatpak daemon: 
    sudo apt install flatpak
  • Then, install the app as Flatpak package via command: 
    flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/eu.scarpetta.PDFMixTool.flatpakref

After installation, just search for and launch it from either GNOME overview or start menu depends on your desktop environment.

If the app icon is not visible, either log out and back in, or try running the command below to start it from terminal:

flatpak run eu.scarpetta.PDFMixTool

Uninstall PDF Mix Tool

To uninstall the software package, either use Ubuntu Software (or App Center) for the Snap package.

Or run the command below to uninstall Flatpak package:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data eu.scarpetta.PDFMixTool

Optionally, you may also run flatpak uninstall --unused to remove useless runtime libraries.

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Flameshot – Another Great Screenshot Tool for Ubuntu Linux

Last updated: March 14, 2025

Flameshot is a simple yet powerful screenshot tool with annotation feature. Other than Shutter, it’s another of my favorite screen capturing tools for Ubuntu desktop so far.

Flameshot is written by C++ with Qt5 framework. It offers a system tray icon with ‘Take Screenshot’ and ‘Configuration’ menu options.

While selecting a screen area to capture, many editing tool buttons appear at the bottom. And you can press right-click to show color picker, and Space to open the side panel.

Other software features include:

  • Customizable appearance.
  • DBus interface.
  • Upload to Imgur.

How to Install Flameshot in Ubuntu:

The software is available in all current Ubuntu system repositories. Simply launch Ubuntu Software (or App Center), then search and install the package.

NOTE: the screenshot tool is available in App Center for both Snap (run in sandbox) and native Debian package formats. Choose either one that you prefer.

For choice, the software provides official packages for Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, AppImage, and Flatpak, available to download under “Assets” in the link below:

Download Flameshot (under Assets)

Uninstall:

To uninstall the tool, either use Ubuntu Software (App Center) or open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run the command below instead:

  • For Debian package: 
    sudo apt remove --autoremove flameshot
  • For Snap package: 
    sudo snap remove flameshot
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UKTools – Another Tool to Install the latest Linux Kernels in Ubuntu

Last updated: March 14, 2025

There’s already a graphical tool called Ukuu which make it easy to install the latest Linux Kernels in Ubuntu and Linux Mint.

UPDATE 2025: UKTools has NOT been updated for a few years!

Today I’m going to show you a new command line tool called UKTools which provides:

  • uktools-upgrade, one command to install the latest Linux kernel (stable) from kernel.ubuntu.com.
  • uktools-purge, one command to remove old kernels, the first and the last two are excluded.

The tools also support cron jobs to automatically run upgrade and/or purge scripts.

How to Install UKTools in Ubuntu:

The application does not has any Ubuntu binary at the moment. However, it’s easy to compile it from the source.

1. Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and clone the source via command:

git clone https://github.com/usbkey9/uktools && cd uktools

2. Then compile and install it via command:

make

The setup runs automatically if it’s installed successfully.

Uninstall:

Keep the uktools folder in your user root directory, so you can re-run UKTools setup, or remove the command line tool via command:

cd ~/uktools/ && make uninstall
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4 Best Automatic Wallpaper Changer For Ubuntu 18.04

Last updated: July 14, 2018

Looking for how to create desktop slideshow in Ubuntu 18.04? Here I’ll show you some best wallpaper changing software for Ubuntu Linux.

1. Shotwell

For just the basic automatic wallpaper changing feature, you don’t need to install any software.

Just launch the pre-installed Shotwell photo manager, choose the pictures you need (you may need to import them first), then go to Files -> Set as Desktop Slideshow.

Finally set the time interval in next dialog and done!

2. Wallch

Wallch was my favorite wallpaper changing software though it’s not under active development. Besides changing local wallpapers, Wallch also features:

  • Display live earth as desktop background.
  • Download and display picture of the day (wikipedia).
  • Wallpaper clocks
  • Live website as desktop background.

Wallch can be easily installed in Ubuntu Software:

3. Variety

Variety is an open-source wallpaper changer that use local images or automatically download wallpapers from Unsplash and other online sources, allows you to rotate them on a regular interval, and provides easy ways to separate the great images from the junk. Variety can also display wise and funny quotations or a nice digital clock on the desktop.

Variety can be easily installed in Ubuntu Software. For the latest release, go to Variety website.

4. Wallpaper Downloader

This is a wallpaper downloading software that automatically downloads pictures from Devianart, Bing daily wallpaper, Wallhaven.cc, etc., with given keywords, resolution, time interval. And of course, it provides ability to change wallpaper every x minute.

Wallpaper Downloader can be installed easily in Ubuntu Software.

These are the applications that I’ve ever used to create desktop slideshows in Ubuntu desktop.

If you know any other great wallpaper changing software, feel free to tell me in the comment.

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Cronopete: Mac OS Time Machine-like Backup Tool for Linux

Last updated: March 14, 2025

For those looking for Time Machine like backup software, Cronopete is a Linux backup utility modeled after Apple’s time machine.

“The name comes from anacronopete (“who flies through time”), which is a time machine featured in the novel from Enrique Gaspar y Rimbaud, and published in 1887 (eight years before than H.G. Wells’Time Machine).”

Install Cronopete backup tool in Ubuntu:

The software project page so far offers packages for Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 24.10, Linux Mint, Fedora, Debian, and Arch Linux, available to download via the link below:

Download Cronopete

Select download the package depends on your OS edition. If you don’t even know which OS is currently running, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run cat /etc/os-release command to tell.

Then either double the downloaded package to open with system package manager (App Center) then install, or open terminal and use the command below to install the .deb package for Ubuntu:

sudo apt install drag-and-drop-deb-file-here

Enable store backups in a folder:

When you click ‘Change destination’ button to choose a folder to save backups, you’ll be prompted to enable folder backend. And this can be done by:

  1. Install Dconf Editor via App Center.
  2. Launch Dconf Editor and navigate to /org/rastersoft/cronopete
  3. Scroll down and enable enable-folder-backend

Uninstall:

To remove Cronopete backup tool, open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T and run command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove cronopete
In App Review , ,
 

Download and Change Wallpaper Automatically via ‘WallpaperDownload’

Last updated: February 25, 2018

Wallpaper Downloader is a java software to automatically download you favorite wallpapers from internet and set as desktop background every few minutes.

With the software, you can:

  • Automatically download wallpapers from:
    • Wallhaven.cc
    • Devianart
    • Bing daily wallpaper
    • Social Wallpapering
    • WallpaperFusion
    • DualMonitorBackgrounds.
  • Download wallpapers with given keywords.
  • Download wallpapers with given time interval
  • Changes desktop wallpaper with given time interval.
  • Single click to move favorite wallpapers to another directory.

How to Install Wallpaper Downloader in Ubuntu:

1. For users (Ubuntu 16.04 only) never installed a snap package, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to install snapd:

sudo apt-get install snapd snapd-xdg-open

2. As a snap package, you can search for and install the package in Ubuntu Software:

or run single command to install the snap package:

snap install wallpaperdownloader

(Optional) If you don’t like the software, simply run command to remove the snap:

snap remove wallpaperdownloader

In addition, the software also has an official PPA with traditional deb packages for all current Ubuntu releases.

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PyRadio – Command Line Internet Radio Player for Ubuntu

Last updated: January 18, 2018

PyRadio is an open-source curses based internet radio player that runs in command console. The software is implemented in Python, and uses mplayer or VLC for media playback.

The community has recently made the snap package for PyRadio to make it easy to install the tool in Ubuntu 16.04 and higher either via Ubuntu Software:

or by running command in terminal:

snap install pyradio

Since snap app contains most required libraries and dependencies, the installation file is kinda large.

To start the radio player, run command:

pyradio --play

And here are keyboard shortcuts:

  • Up/Down/j/k/PgUp/PgDown Change station selection
  • Enter Play selected station
  • -/+ Change volume
  • m Mute
  • r Select and play a random station
  • g Jump to first station
  • <n>G Jump to n-th station
  • Space Stop/start playing selected station
  • Esc/q Quit
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Download TV/Radio from BBC iPlayer via get-iplayer in Ubuntu

Last updated: November 16, 2024

Get-iplayer is a command line tool for downloading TV and radio programmes from BBC iPlayer. The tool features:

  • Downloads TV and radio programmes from BBC iPlayer
  • Allows multiple programmes to be downloaded using a single command
  • Indexing of most available iPlayer catch-up programmes (not BBC Three, Red Button or iPlayer Exclusive)
  • Caching of index with automatic updating
  • Regex search on programme name
  • Regex search on programme description and episode title
  • Filter search results by channel
  • Direct download via programme ID or URL
  • PVR capability (may be used with cron or Task Scheduler)
  • HTTP proxy support
  • Perl 5.10.1+ required, plus LWP, LWP::Protocol::https, XML::LibXML and Mojolicious modules
  • Requires ffmpeg for conversion to MP4 and AtomicParsley for metadata tagging
  • Runs on Linux/BSD (Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenBSD and others), macOS (10.10+), Windows (7/8/10 – XP/Vista not supported)

Install get-iplayer

There are so far 2 ways to install the software package in Ubuntu. They include:

  • Snap package – runs in sandbox environment.
  • Native .deb package through Ubuntu PPA.

Choose either one that you prefer.

Option 1: Snap package

For the latest get-iplayer Snap package, either launch Ubuntu Software or App Center, then search & click install it.

get-iplayer in App Center

Or, you may also open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run the following command instead to install the snap package:

snap install get-iplayer

Option 2: Ubuntu PPA

For those who prefer the native .deb package, there’s an PPA repository that contains the most recent package for Ubuntu 24.10, Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 20.04. Even the old Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 18.04 are also supported.

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:m-grant-prg/utils

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

2. Then, install the .deb package via command:

sudo apt install get-iplayer

Linux Mint users may need to run sudo apt update first to manually refresh package cache, while this is done automatically while adding PPA in Ubuntu.

3. The PPA also contains many other software packages. You may run the command below to remove the PPA after installed get-iplayer in case of any package conflict.

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:m-grant-prg/utils

For Linux Mint, also run sudo apt update to update cache.

Usage / examples:

As mentioned, this is a command line tool. You need to open terminal and run any command below to use it.

  • List all TV programmes with long descriptions: 
    get_iplayer --long ".*"
  • List all radio programmes: 
    get_iplayer --type=radio ".*"
  • List all TV and radio programmes with “doctor who” in the name: 
    get_iplayer --type tv,radio "doctor who"
  • List all BBC One programmes: 
    get_iplayer --channel="BBC One" ".*"
  • List Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra programmes with “Book at Bedtime” in the title: 
    get_iplayer --type=radio --channel="Radio 4" "Book at Bedtime"
  • Record TV programme number 208 (index from search results) in HD, with SD fallback if HD not available: 
    get_iplayer --get 208

    [default is to download best available]

    OR

    get_iplayer --get 208 --tvmode=best
  • Record TV programme number 208 and download subtitles in SubRip (SRT) format: 
    get_iplayer --get 208 --subtitles
  • Record multiple TV programmes (using index numbers from search results): 
    get_iplayer --get 208 209 210
  • Record a TV or radio programme using its iPlayer URL: 
    get_iplayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01sc0wf/Doctors_Series_15_Perfect/
  • Record a TV or radio programme using the PID (b01sc0wf) from its iPlayer URL: 
    get_iplayer --pid=b01sc0wf

Uninstall get-iplayer

For any reason, you may remove the get-iplayer .deb package by running command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove get-iplayer

Or, remove the Snap package using either Ubuntu Software / App Center, or the snap remove get-iplayer command.

In App Review
 

‘Komorebi’ Display Clock & Animations on Ubuntu Desktop

Last updated: June 15, 2017

Komorebi is a Linux wallpaper manager that provides fully customizable backgrounds, e,g., show date and time on desktop.

Wallpapers included by default range from animated ones, still, and gradients! See screenshots below.

A settings dialog is available to launch by right-clicking on desktop and choose what to display.

Wallpapers are located in /System/Resources/Komorebi/, you can create your own wallpapers easily by following this tutorial.

Starting by opening terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T and run command to open the wallpaper folder:

gksudo nautilus /System/Resources/Komorebi/

Install Komorebi:

Download the .deb package from the link below, then click install via Ubuntu Software or Gdebi:

(Optional) To uninstall Komorebi, either use you system package manager or run command:

sudo apt-get remove komorebi

In addition, the software so far is in beta stage. I’ve tested on Ubuntu 16.04. The configuration dialog works on launch, but changing wallpaper sometimes not work a few minutes later.

In App Review
 

‘Ubuntu Cleaner’ – Ubuntu Tweak Alternative for Computer Janitor

Last updated: December 9, 2016

Ubuntu Cleaner is an open-source tool makes it easy to clean up your Ubuntu system. It’s a Ubuntu Tweak fork for the Computer Janitor feature.

The tool offers a similar interface to Ubuntu Tweak, allows to clean up:

  • App (browser) caches.
  • Thumbnail cache.
  • Old kernels.
  • Apt cache
  • Package configs and unneeded packages

How to Install Ubuntu Cleaner in Ubuntu:

The developer offers .deb packages in a PPA repository, available for download at the link below:

Download the latest package and click install via Ubuntu Software.

For those want to add the PPA for Ubuntu 16.04 and 14.04, run the commands below one by one in terminal (Ctr+Alt+T):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gerardpuig/ppa

sudo apt update

sudo apt install ubuntu-cleaner

Uninstall:

To remove Ubuntu Cleaner, simply run command in terminal:

sudo apt remove ubuntu-cleaner && sudo apt autoremove

The PPA can be removed by going to System Settings -> Software & Updates -> Other Software tab.

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