Archives For Howtos

This tutorial shows how to add (or remove) the “proposed” repository to install (or downgrade) the pre-released packages/updates in Ubuntu.

As you may know, Ubuntu has an area called proposed for updates that are being tested before publication. It’s recommended for developers and users who are interested in helping to test updates and provide feedback.

The proposed repository is disabled by default. If you want, here’s how to enable it in all current Ubuntu releases.

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This is a beginner’s guide shows how to enable the experimental HDR feature in Ubuntu, Fedora Workstation, and other Linux with recent GNOME.

HDR is a technology allowing to transmit high dynamic range videos and images to compatible displays. KDE has HDR support in Plasma 6, and GNOME is going to add HDR toggle option in next v48 release.

GNOME to add HDR toggle option in next v48

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This is a step by step beginner’s guide shows how to configure Nginx to block certain IPs or IP range from accessing your website, and block all others while only you (and specified IPs) can access the wordpress login pages.

This site was under attack a few days ago. Someone made tens of thousands of constant requests that slowed down the server response. And, here’s what I did to manually block attacker’s IPs and restrict access to the login page.
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Want to install Kodi home theater software v21.2 “Omega” via native .deb package? Here’s a PPA for Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, though unofficial.

Kodi has an official Ubuntu PPA, which has not been updated for long time. The official package for Linux now is Flatpak that runs in sandbox environment.

For those who don’t like Flatpak or have issue running the software in sandbox, here’s an unofficial PPA available for Ubuntu 24.04 and Linux Mint 22 users.


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This tutorial shows how to search and print which files contain your specified text or string in Ubuntu and other Linux in command line, with examples.

Search file or file content is an important skill for Linux administrator. I’ve shown how to use locate command to search files through the keyword in its file-name, path, and file type.

Here I’m going to show you how to search files if you know any text or string they contain.

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Want to beatify your Steam app window in Ubuntu or other Linux. Here’s a free open-source project to do the job in GNOME.

It’s Adwaita for Steam, a skin to make Steam look more like a native GNOME app. With it, the title and tool bars will be merged into a compact GNOME Client-Side Decoration style header bar.

Along with rounded window corners extension, it will look just like a native app.

Steam with Adwaita skin

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This is a step by step guide shows how to set the priority of certain packages, launchpad PPAs, and/or other apt repositories in Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint, and their based systems.

Besides using the default system repositories, we can also install additional packages from third-party or software’s own repositories.

For example, user may update LibreOffice office suite via the Ubuntu PPA, install Spotify, Google Chrome, Edge from their own repositories, or install tons of media apps from deb multimedia repository in Debian.

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This tutorial shows how to install the most recent Apache NetBeans IDE v24 in Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 24.10, and Debian 12 Bookworm, and their based systems, such as Linux Mint 22/21.

NetBeans is a free open-source (Apache License 2.0) Java IDE, that also supports other languages like PHP, C, C++, HTML5, and JavaScript via extensions.

NetBeans IDE 24

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This is a step by step beginner’s guide shows how to install the most recent Arduino IDE (2.3.4 so far) in Ubuntu, Debian, and Linux Mint.

Arduino IDE is free open-source AVR development board IDE from Arduino CC. It’s available in Debian and Ubuntu repositories, but stuck at version 1.8.19, probably because the 2.x versions require internet connection.

If you want to get the 2.x release series, then there are 3 choices: Flatpak, AppImage, and portable Linux Zip archive that work in most Linux distributions.

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This is a step by step guide shows how to compile the Kdenlive video editor 24.12.0 from source tarball in Ubuntu 24.10.

The popular Kdenlive video editor dropped native .deb package support for Ubuntu since version 24.02. It now provides official Flatpak package and AppImage for universal Linux support.

If you don’t like running it in sandbox environment, then you may choose to build it from source by yourself! And, here’s how to do the job for the most recent 24.12.0 release.

Kdenlive Video Editor

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