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How to Simulate “The Matrix” Screen Display in Ubuntu 20.04

Last updated: July 22, 2020

Paper GTK3 and Icon themes

Want to display a scrolling “The Matrix” like screen in Ubuntu desktop? You can do the job easily via a command line tool called cmatrix.

CMatrix is based on the screensaver from The Matrix website. It shows text flying in and out in a terminal like as seen in “The Matrix” movie. It can scroll lines all at the same rate or asynchronously and at a user-defined speed.

1. To install cmatrix, simply open terminal from application launcher and run command:

sudo apt install cmatrix

2. Once installed, run cmatrix command to start the display:

cmatrix

You can press F11 to toggle on (off) terminal FULL-SCREEN mode. And press Ctrl+C (or q) to stop the process.

3. (Optional) There are some command line options. You can get them by running command:

cmatrix -h

Note to use the Linux mode -l option, you need to switch to TTY console (Ctrl+Alt+F3).

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Tauon Music Box – Modern Streamlined Music Player for Linux Desktop

Last updated: July 7, 2020

Touan Music Box is a modern, comfortable and streamlined music player for the playback of your music collection.

The software is written in Python, and uses GStreamer or optionally BASS Audio Library for playback.

Touan Music Player features:

  • Fast and responsive UI
  • Drag and drop importing tracks & creating playlists
  • Large album art and gallery displays!
  • Support for gapless playback.
  • Seamless support for CUE sheets.
  • Batch transcode folders of music.
  • Last.fm scrobbling with track love support
  • Download cover art function.
  • Edit tags with MusicBrainz Picard (when also installed).
  • Linux desktop integration with MPRIS2.
  • Built-in topchart generator.
  • Background radio broadcasting. radio satellite (Bass only)
  • Stream music from your PLEX, koel or Subsonic API compatible server.
  • Import and control playback of Spotify tracks. (Requires Spotify Premium)

How to Install Tauon Music Box in Ubuntu:

SNAP Package:

The music player is available to install in Ubuntu Software via Snap package.

You may also run command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) to install the snap:

snap install tauon

Flatpak Package:

Tauon is also available in Flathub repository as flatpak package.

Linux Portable:

The github releases page offers Linux.zip package.

Grab the package, extract, and run the tauon.py file to launch the music player:

python3 tauon.py

Tips: 1. Go into the folder that contains tauon.py file, right-click on blank area and select ‘Open in Terminal’, finally run the previous python3 tauon.py.

2. The portable package requires python3, python3-musicbrainzngs, and maybe other python libraries, install them via apt command.

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Strawberry – A Fork of Clementine Music Player & Organizer

Last updated: June 21, 2020

Strawberry is an open-source fork of Clementine music player aimed at music collectors and audiophiles.

Strawberry is written in C++ with Qt 5 toolkit. The development started in 2018 while Clementine was not in active development (now development of Clementine revives).

Strawberry music player and organizer features:

  • Play and organize music
  • Supports WAV, FLAC, WavPack, DSF, DSDIFF, Ogg Vorbis, Speex, MPC, TrueAudio, AIFF, MP4, MP3, ASF and Monkey’s Audio.
  • Audio CD playback
  • Native desktop notifications
  • Playlists in multiple formats
  • Advanced audio output and device configuration for bit-perfect playback on Linux
  • Edit tags on music files
  • Fetch tags from MusicBrainz
  • Album cover art from Last.fm, Musicbrainz, Discogs and Deezer
  • Song lyrics from AudD
  • Support for multiple backends
  • Audio analyzer
  • Audio equalizer
  • Transfer music to iPod, iPhone, MTP or mass-storage USB player
  • Scrobbler with support for Last.fm, Libre.fm and ListenBrainz
  • Subsonic streaming support

How to Install Strawberry in Ubuntu 18.04, 20.04:

The software offers Snap package (runs in sandbox) which can be installed simply from Ubuntu Software.

Also the official Strawberry PPA maintains the latest .deb packages for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.10, Ubuntu 20.04, Linux Mint 19.x, and their derivatives.

1.) Open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or by searching for ‘terminal’ from ‘Show Applications’ menu. When it opens, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jonaski/strawberry

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

2.) After adding the PPA, run commands to refresh package cache and install the music player:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install strawberry

Uninstall Strawberry:

To remove the PPA repository, either go to Software & Updates -> Other Software:

or run command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:jonaski/strawberry

To remove the music player and music collection organizer:

sudo apt remove --autoremove strawberry
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CoBang – Native GTK QR Code Scanner for Linux Desktop

Last updated: June 7, 2020

CoBang is a new QR code scanner for Linux, which is written with Python 3 and GTK+ and support Wayland session.

The name is “Cỏ bàng” (Lepironia articulata), in Vietnamese. Compare to QtQR, Qt QR code generator and decoder, CoBang features:

  • Work in both X and Wayland.
  • Scan from webcam (embedded webcam video).
  • Scan from image:
    • drag and drop support.
    • copy and paste image into app window
    • open remote image (http, ftp)
    • open via file browser.

It is however lacks the feature to generate QR code so far.

How to Install CoBang in Ubuntu:

For Ubuntu 18.04 and higher, the tool is available as Flatpak package in Flathub repository.

For Ubuntu 20.04 only, the developer has made the package into the PPA repository.

1.) Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) from ‘Show Applications’ menu. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ng-hong-quan/ppa

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

2.) Then install the QR code scanner via command:

sudo apt install cobang

Uninstall CoBang:

To remove the PPA, either open Software & Updates and remove repository line under Other Software tab, or run command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ng-hong-quan/ppa

And remove the scanner via command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove cobang
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How to Install My Weather Indicator in Ubuntu 20.04

Last updated: January 2, 2022

Looking for a desktop weather application for Ubuntu desktop? My Weather Indicator is one of the great choices.

My Weather Indicator is an application especially designed for Ubuntu. It’s written in Python 3 and works on Plasma, GNOME, MATE, Xfce, etc.

The software displays current weather and the weather forecast via system tray indicator applet and desktop widget. Supported weather services include: OpenWeatherMap, Yahoo, wunderground.com, and World Weather Online.

To install the weather application, open terminal from your system application menu and run following commands one by one.

1.) Add the developer’s PPA by running command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/atareao

Type your login password (no asterisk feedback) for sudo prompt and hit Enter to continue.

2.) Refresh package cache and install the software:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install my-weather-indicator

3.) The first launching My Weather Indicator will bring up the settings dialog. There you can setup your location, widget theme, weather services, auto-start, refresh frequency, etc.

Note: after clicking OK button, it can take a few seconds to show the desktop widget.

Uninstall:

To remove the PPA, either open Software & Update > Other Software or run command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:atareao/atareao

To remove the weather application, run command:

sudo apt remove my-weather-indicator
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Superpaper – Advanced Multi Monitor Wallpaper Manager for Linux

Last updated: January 6, 2021

Superpaper is a cross-platform wallpaper manager that focuses on multi-monitor support. It features pixel density correction that spans an image flawlessly across displays of different shapes and sizes, and bezel correction and perspective correction.

Other Superpaper features include:

  • Set a single image across all displays
  • Set different image on every display
  • Manual pixel offsets for fine-tuning
  • Desktop Slideshow with configurable file order from local sources
  • Command-line interface
  • Hotkey support
  • Align test tool

How to Install Superpaper in Ubuntu:

You can try the wallpaper manager without installing it on your system via Appimage, which is available to download at:

Superpaper releases

Right-click on the Appimage package, go to Properties -> Permissions -> enable ‘Allow executing file as program’, and finally run it to launch the wallpaper manager.

Superpaper also available to install from PyPI, open terminal and run following commands one by one:

1.) Run command to install wxPython:

sudo apt install python3-wxgtk4.0 python3-pip

2.) Then download and install the wallpaper manager as well as dependencies via command:

pip3 install --user -U superpaper

Once installed, launch it from your system application menu (may need to reboot first) and enjoy!

Uninstall superpaper:

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

pip3 uninstall superpaper
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Wavemon – Display Live WiFi Signal Strength in Terminal

Last updated: March 23, 2020

wifi hotspot

Looking for a wireless network manager? Wavemon is a command line ncurses-based wireless network monitoring application for Linux.

Wavemon displays live signal and noise levels, packet statistics, device configuration and network parameters of your wireless network hardware. It should work with all devices supported by the Linux kernel.

Wavemon is available in Ubuntu universe repositories. Simply open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to install it:

sudo apt install wavemon

Then run wavecom to start the monitor. For more information run man wavemon.

While the software packages in Ubuntu repositories are always old. You can get the latest release from the link below:

Wavemon in Github

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SameBoy – Powerful Game Boy Emulator Available as Snap

Last updated: March 19, 2020

The latest version of SameBoy, powerful Game Boy Emulator, available to install via Snap package in Ubuntu 18.04 and higher.

SameBoy is an open-source user friendly Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Super Game Boy emulator for macOS, Windows and Unix-like platforms.

SameBoy is extremely accurate and includes a wide range of powerful debugging features, making it ideal for both casual players and developers.

In addition to accuracy and developer capabilities, SameBoy has all the features one would expect from an emulator – from save states to scaling filters.

SameBoy is available to install in Ubuntu 18.04 and higher via Snap (runs in sandbox) pacakge. Simply search for and install it from Ubuntu Software.

You can also run command instead to install the Game Boy Emulator in terminal:

snap install sameboy

Once installed, launch it from your system application menu and enjoy!

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Fill Ubuntu Console With Hollywood Melodrama Technobabble

Last updated: March 17, 2020

Want to make your Ubuntu look like a busy-looking console? Hollywood is a utility that will split your console into a multiple panes of genuine technobabble, perfectly suitable for any Hollywood geek melodrama. It is particularly suitable on any number of computer consoles in the background of any excellent schlock technothriller.

Hollywood is open source software, created by Dustin Kirkland in 2014 and has been used by NBC News, on Saturday Night Live, in cybersecurity commercials for Experian, Full Frontal by Samantha Bee, Map Men, and magazine articles such as this one from Texas A&M University.

How to Install Hollywood in Ubuntu:

Hollywood is available in Ubuntu main repositories, though it’s always old.

The Hollywood PPA contains the latest packages for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.10, and Ubuntu 20.04.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:hollywood/ppa

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

2.) Then refresh system package cache and install the utility via following 2 commands:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install --install-recommends hollywood

To start hollywood, run command hollywodd either in terminal (toggle fullscreen mode vi F11) or TTY console (Ctrl+Alt+F3). And stop it via Ctrl+C.

Uninstall:

To remove the PPA, either use Software & Updates utility or run command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:hollywood/ppa

To remove Hollywood utility, run command:

sudo apt remove hollywood
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Internet Radio Player Shortwave 1.0 Released (Howto Install)

Last updated: March 15, 2020

Shortwave, an internet radio player desktop application for Linux, released its first stable version 1.0 today. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 18.04 and higher.

Shortwave is a new desktop radio app for Linux built with Rust. It provides access to a station database with over 25,000 stations. It features:

  • Create your own library where you can add your favourite stations
  • Easily search and discover new radio stations
  • Automatic recognition of songs, with the possibility to save them individually
  • Responsive application layout, compatible for small and large screens
  • Play audio on supported network devices (e.g. Google Chromecasts)
  • Seamless integration into the GNOME desktop environment
  • Import stations from Gradio.

How to install Shortwave in Ubuntu:

For Ubuntu 18.04 and higher, Shortwave radio player can be easily installed via Flatpak from flathub repository.

First do following steps to setup flathub repository if you’re first time installing a flatpak package in Ubuntu:

1.) Open terminal either from system application menu or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command:

sudo apt install flatpak

2.) Add the flathub repository which hosts the flatpak package:

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

Then install Shortwave flatpak package via command:

flatpak install flathub de.haeckerfelix.Shortwave

Once installed, launch the internet radio player from your system application menu and enjoy!

(Optional) To remove Shortwave, simply run command in terminal:

flatpak uninstall de.haeckerfelix.Shortwave
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