Archives For November 30, 1999

Szyszka is a new batch file renaming tool written in Rust programming language with GTK+ 3 toolkit. And it works on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS.

The name, Szyszka, is Polish word which means Pinecone. The tool has a very simple user interface, simple click “Add Entries”, press and hold Shift, or Ctrl to select your desired files. Add folder is not supported in the first 1.0 release, it is however marked as planned feature.

You can then add multiple rules which can be freely combined:

  • Replace text
  • Trim text
  • Adding text
  • Adding numbers
  • Purge text
  • Change letters to big/small
  • Use custom rule

While adding rules, it shows example at bottom with before and after change which is extremely helpful for beginners.

How to Get Szyszka in Ubuntu:

The tool is available in Ubuntu Software as Snap package. Before installing it, you can try the .Appimage package which is available to download in the releases page:

Once you get it, right-click and go to file ‘Properties’ dialog. Then check “Allow executing file as program” in Permissions tab. Finally right-click and select ‘Run’ the Appimage.

As a new project, there may have bugs. Please report issue at the Github page.

Make Some Noise in Ubuntu Linux with Blanket

Last updated: April 16, 2021

Want to make some ambient sounds? Try Blanket, an open-source tool with modern user interface.

Blanket is a GTK application allows to play some ambient sounds including:

  • Birdsong
  • Summer night
  • Rain, storm, wind.
  • Coffee shop, fireplace.
  • White noise, pink noise.
  • Train, boat, and city.

Each sound has a volume control, so that you can get mixed sounds.

And the app supports playing even more sounds by adding your own audio files.

How to Install Blanket in Ubuntu:

The software has an official Ubuntu PPA, which so far offers packages for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 20.10, and Ubuntu 21.04.

1.) Open terminal from your system app launcher. When terminal opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:apandada1/blanket

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

2.) After that, run apt command to install it:

sudo apt install blanket

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

Uninstall Blanket

To remove the PPA, either go to Software & Updates -> Other Software or run command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:apandada1/blanket

To remove the ambient noise player, run command:

sudo apt remove --auto-remove blanket

Quiet Audio Fade (aka Quite AF) is a small applet slowly reduces the volume on your computer over time, letting you find the quietest level that works.

It’s f.lux for your ears!

The tool is written in Go programming language, and it works in Windows, Linux, and Mac OS.

It works as a system tray indicator with only a few menu options. The first option shows the current tool status (ACTIVE or PAUSED) along with the volume level in number.

When it’s in ACTIVE mode, it slowly decreases your system volume bit by bit with time interval set in “Speed” option. Higher intervals mean a longer, more subtle decrease.

Eventually you’ll notice the sound is a tad too low and you’ll increase the volume, which will disable Quiet AF and leave your volume at the perfect level – not too loud, not too quiet!

How to Get Quiet Audio Fade in Ubuntu:

Besides building from source tarball, the applet offers single executable file in its project page:

Grab the package for Ubuntu, and give executable permission in file’s Properties dialog.

You’re finally able to start it via command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

./Downloads/QuietAF_Ubuntu

If you prefer the applet, you can move the executable file to /usr/local/bin, manually create app shortcut, or add it as startup application.

Myxer is a modern new volume mixer application for the PulseAudio sound server. It’s a lightweight and powerful replacement for your system Volume Mixer written in Rust with GTK toolkit.

Myxer can manage audio devices, streams, and even card profiles. And it offers option to show individual audio channels.

As a GTK tool, the software adapts to your selected app theme so that it fits seamlessly into your stock applications.

How to Get Myxer in Ubuntu:

The app so far offers only single executable file, along with the source tarball, which can be downloaded from the link below:

Just grab the file, and add executable permission in file’s Properties dialog.

And finally run command to launch the tool (In the case, the file is saved in user’s Downloads folder).

./Downloads/Myxer

If you like Myxer, you can move the file to system bin folder, so that you can simply run Myxer command anywhere to launcher it.

sudo mv ~/Downloads/Myxer /usr/local/bin/

(Optional) To remove it,simply run command:

sudo rm /usr/local/bin/Myxer

CPUFetch is a simple command line tool, a bit similar to Neofetch, but for fetching CPU architecture in Linux, Windows, macOS, and Android.

The tool outputs the manufacturer logo (e.g., Intel, AMD) along with basic CPU info, including:

  • CPU name.
  • Micro-architecture.
  • The semiconductor technology in nanometer (nm).
  • Max frequency.
  • Number of cores and threads.
  • Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX)
  • Fused-Multiply-Add (FMA)
  • L1, L2, L3 cache sizes.
  • Peak performance.

It supports custom colors and offers a few styles (themes). With it, you can easily take screenshot of the CPU information and share with your friends.

How to Install CPUFetch in Ubuntu:

CPUFetch so far do not offer an Ubuntu binary package. However, it’s easy to compile it in Linux.

1.) Firstly open terminal from system app launcher. When it opens, run command to clone the source:

git clone https://github.com/Dr-Noob/cpufetch

Install git via sudo apt install git command if you don’t have it.

2.) Then navigate to the source folder via cd command, and compile it via make:

cd cpufetch && make

3.) You are finally be able to run the tool via ./cpufetch command in this directory!

To be able to run via cpufetch command anywhere in terminal, copy the executable file to /usr/local/bin:

sudo mv ~/cpufetch/cpufetch /usr/local/bin/

Uninstall:

To remove the source folder, run command:

rm ~/cpufetch -rf

And remove the executable file via command:

sudo rm /usr/local/bin/cpufetch

Czkawka is a simple, fast and easy to use software to remove unnecessary files from your machine.

Czkawka is a free and open-source software written in memory safe Rust. It works on Linux, Mac, and Windows. Due to advanced algorithms and multi-threading, it is amazingly fast!

With it, you can scan your specified folder directories for:

  • Duplicates files based on file name, size, hash, first 1 MB of hash
  • Empty folders / empty files.
  • Big files.
  • Temporary files
  • Similar images.
  • Zeroed files
  • Invalid symbolic links
  • Broken files.

And it offers a few select buttons to select and remove your desired files from the output.

How to Get Czkawka in Ubuntu Linux:

The software offers official binary packages available to download at the github releases page:

For Linux users, grab the .appimage package. Make it executable from file properties dialog, and finally run it to launch the software.

UPDATE: Install Czkawka via Ubuntu PPA:

There’s now an unofficial PPA that contains the software packages for Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 20.10 so far.

Open terminal and run following commands one by one to add the PPA and install Czkawka via apt:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xtradeb/apps

sudo apt install czkawka

Macchina is another command line tool to fetch basic system information in Linux, similar to Neofetch, but focus on performance and minimalism.

The software is written in Rust, and it displays basic system information, including hostname, manufacturer, kernel version, uptime, desktop environment, processor, memory / battery status, and more. Macchina is pretty fast, it runs 8.53 ± 0.72 times faster than neofetch!

Macchina is a new project in active development. By adding --theme or -t flag, you can specify one of the supported themes. They are so far: default, alt, and long.

And you can specify the key color (--color / -c), the separator color (--separator-color / -C), let it show palette (-p) and display memory usage and battery percentage as bars (-b).

It also has options to change left padding and spacing.

How to Install Macchina in Ubuntu:

The software so far is available to install via crates.io.

1. Firstly open terminal and run command to install cargo:

sudo apt install cargo

2. Then install the tool via command:

cargo install macchina

Once installed, you can run ~/.cargo/bin/macchina with your desired flags.

If you prefer to use command macchina instead, run command to edit user’s profile:

gedit ~/.profile

And add following lines to add “.cargo/bin” directory to your PATH:

# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
if [ -d "$HOME/.cargo/bin" ] ; then
    PATH="$HOME/.cargo/bin:$PATH"
fi

Log out and back in to apply the new PATH.

Uninstall Macchina:

To remove the software via cargo, run command:

cargo uninstall macchina

If you don’t use cargo, simply remove it via command:

sudo apt remove --purge cargo

Want to create web apps into the portable Appimage package format? Appnativefy is a simple tool to do the job.

Appnativefy is a simple command line tool to make executable AppImage files from any website, it uses the Nativefier API in the backend, with AppImageKIt.

Appimage is an universal Linux package format. Different to other packages, you don’t need to install it. Just make it executable and run to launch program!

How to use appnativefy:

With Appnativefy, you can run a simple command to turn a website into single executable Appimage:

appnativefy --name "TYPE_PACKAGE_NAME" --url "URL_ADDRESS"

For instance, you can make youtube.com into appimage via command:

appnativefy --name "YouTube" --url "https://youtube.com"

You can add more flags at the end of the command to enable more options, for instance:

  • --services enables to sign-in using services such as Microsoft 365 and Google.
  • --favicon forces to use the favicon of the site while making the AppImage.
  • --widevine adds Widevine support to enable playing DRM enabled content.
  • For more, run appnativefy -h

For example, run below command will create appimage for Spotify with Widevine support, sign-in services enabled, and using the favicon.

appnativefy --name "Spotify" --url "https://open.spotify.com" --services --widevine --favicon

The app will create an appnativefy folder in users home directory that contains all generated Appimage packages.

How to install Appnativefy:

The software is available as a NPM package. To install it, firstly open terminal and run command to install dependencies:

sudo apt install nodejs npm wget

Then install the tool via npm command:

sudo npm install -g appnativefy

How to Remove Appnativefy:

To remove the command line tool, simply run command:

sudo npm uninstall -g appnativefy

If you don’t use nodejs and npm, remove them to free up a few dozens of MB disk space:

sudo apt purge --auto-remove nodejs npm

TV-Lite is a free open-source IPTV player with Sopcast and Acestream handling capabilities, which runs in Linux and Windows.

TV-Lite aims to be a replacement for the older TV-Maxe. It so far uses VLC for media playback, and need Acestream and / or Sopcast for this program to be able to handle the respective stream types.

UPDATE Jan 2024: the app has NOT been updated for a period of time. And PPA support ends for Ubuntu 22.10 at the moment.

How to install TV-Lite in Ubuntu via PPA:

There’s an Ubuntu PPA maintains the software packages for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 20.10, and Linux Mint 20.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tv-lite/ppa-git

2.) You can then install the player via command:

sudo apt install sp-auth tv-lite

Once installed, open the player from system app menu and you can add following line into Menu -> “Manage subscriptions” for free TVs.

https://is.gd/freeiptvall

How to Remove TV-Lite:

To remove the IPTV player, open terminal and run command:

sudo apt remove sp-auth tv-lite

And remove the Ubuntu PPA via command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:tv-lite/ppa-git

UPDATE 2024: The app seems DISCONTINUED! The last update was about 3 years ago

Youtubedl-gui is a simple new graphical interface for the popular command-line YouTube downloader youtube-dl.

The tool is quite simple to use, just paste the video URL, select audio quality and format, video resolution and format, and click download! And of course, there’s an option to change the destination folder of your downloads.

Once you click download, a small dialog will pop up with the process bar.

How to Install Youtubedl-gui in Ubuntu:

The software developer maintains an Ubuntu PPA contains the packages for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 20.10, and Linux Mint 20.

Open terminal from system application launcher and do following steps one by one:

1.) Run commands one by one to install the latest youtube-dl if you don’t have it:

sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl

sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl

2.) Add the developer’s PPA by running command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mordec13/youtubedl-gui

3.) Finally install the tool:

sudo apt install youtubedl-gui

Uninstall Youtubedl-gui:

For any reason, you can remove the software easily via command:

sudo apt remove youtubedl-gui

And remove the Ubuntu PPA either via Software & Updates -> Other Software or by running command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:mordec13/youtubedl-gui