Howtos | UbuntuHandbook

How to Set Your Video as Animated Wallpaper in Ubuntu 24.04

Last updated: October 22, 2024 — 1 Comment

This tutorial shows how to easily set your video playback as animated desktop wallpaper in Ubuntu and other Linux!

I’ve written about how to do the job in Ubuntu using Komorebi and Gpu Video Wallpaper. However, both seems no longer being actively development.

So here I’m going to introduce you Hidamari, a free open-source video wallpaper application written in Python. Which, provides an easy to use interface to play local video, steam online video (e.g., YouTube), or set a web page as desktop wallpaper.

play local video as wallpaper in Ubuntu

In Howtos animated wallpaper

How to Install Inkscape 1.4 in Ubuntu 24.04 | 22.04

Last updated: October 21, 2024 — Leave a comment

This tutorial shows how to install Inkscape, version 1.4 so far, in Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04, and Ubuntu 24.10.

Inkscape is a popular free open-source vector graphics editor, that works in Linux, Windows, and macOS. It uses SVG as default file format, and can also import/export various other file formats, including AI, EPS, PDF, PS and PNG.

The software is widely used for both artistic and technical illustrations such as cartoons, clip art, and logos. So far, the latest version is v1.4 that was released a week ago.

In Howtos image editor, Inkscape

Set Ubuntu PC/Laptop Speaker as AirPlay Audio Player

Last updated: October 19, 2024 — Leave a comment

This tutorial shows how to set up Ubuntu Linux as AirPlay receiver, so your PC speaker can play audio streamed from iPhone, iTunes, iOS devices and third-party AirPlay sources.

For Linux, there’s a popular free open-source app called Shairport Sync. It’s a AirPlay and AirPlay 2 audio player forked from the original Shairport (discontinued).

Shairport Sync offers full audio synchronisation. It means that audio is played on the output device at exactly the time specified by the audio source.

In Howtos airplay

How to Install GNU Octave 9.2.0 in Ubuntu 24.04 | 22.04

Last updated: October 17, 2024 — Leave a comment

This tutorial shows you how to install the latest GNU Octave (version 9.2.0 so far) in all current Ubuntu releases, including Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 24.04.

GNU Octave is a free open-source scientific programming language, primarily intended for numerical computations. It features powerful mathematics-oriented syntax with built-in 2D/3D plotting and visualization tools, cross-platform, and drop-in compatible with many Matlab scripts.

The latest version of the programming language has reached version 9.2.0. Features in the 9.x release series include:

Overhauled dec2base, dec2bin, and dec2hex. They now accept negative inputs and fractional inputs.
Re-architected the inputParser function to get a 60% performance improvement.
The perms function has been made faster.
New functions, including isenv, ismembertol, isuniform, tensorprod.
Removed disable_diagonal_matrix, disable_permutation_matrix, and disable_range functions. Replacements are optimize_diagonal_matrix, optimize_permutation_matrix, and optimize_range
Operators, such as .+, .+=, **, and .**= are removed. Replacements are +, +=, +=, ^, and .^=.
And, following function are obsolete: idx_vector::bool(), all_ok(const Array&) in Array-util.h, octave_base_value::count
Support Qt6.
Deprecate FLTK backend, in favor of Qt.

See the news page for more about Octave 9.

In Howtos programming

How to Open Certain URL Links in Specific Web Browsers

Last updated: October 15, 2024 — Leave a comment

This tutorial shows how to configure Ubuntu or other Linux to redirect certain URLs or domains to specific web browser, while leaving all others open in the default browser.

When clicking an URL in email reader, chat app, and other apps, it by default opens the linked page in system default web browser. However, some users may prefer to open certain websites in non-default browser. For example, use Google Chrome for watching YouTube, while using Firefox as default.

In Howtos web

How to Install qBittorrent 5.0.0 in Ubuntu

Last updated: October 13, 2024 — Leave a comment

This tutorial shows how to install the most recent qBittorrent 5.0.0 in all current Ubuntu releases, including Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04, and Ubuntu 24.10.

qBittorrent announced new major 5.0.0 release few weeks ago, with many new features, including create .torrent with larger piece size, support for Mark-of-the-Web, ability to pause/resume entire BitTorrent session, option to set BitTorrent session shutdown timeout.

The webUI now supports dark theme, and supports running concurrent searches. The web API can now send binary data with filename and mime type specified, support SSL torrents, and allow to download .torrent file using search plugin.

For Linux, qBittorrent 5.0.0 now supports systemd power management. For Windows 10+, it uses Fusion style, which has better compatibility with dark mode. And, the app in macOS now displays download/upload speed in dock icon. See HERE for more about the release.

In Howtos qbittorrent

How to Completely Disable Suspend/Hibernate in Ubuntu 24.04 | 22.04

Last updated: October 8, 2024 — 3 Comments

This tutorial shows how to completely disable suspend and/or hibernate function, so your Linux computer will never go to sleep.

Linux can automatically go to sleep when system is idle or laptop lid is closed, though user can configure to disable that behavior via either graphical options or logind.conf configuration file.

But, if you never want to sleep your computer, e.g., for server, then you can completely disable this function. So even the suspend option in power-off menu or the corresponding Linux command won’t work!

image from pixabay.com

In Howtos hibernate, suspend, systemd

Auto-run Custom Actions When Waking up Your Ubuntu from Sleep

Last updated: October 8, 2024 — Leave a comment

This tutorial shows how to automatically run custom command, script, or other actions after resuming your Linux PC/laptop from suspend or hibernate.

As you may know, there are quite a few ways to run something automatically at Ubuntu startup. You can use “Startup Applications” utility to run apps or custom commands at login, use crontab to schedule startup jobs, udev rules to auto-configure devices on detection, and systemd-tmpfiles service to auto create, delete, and write configuration files.

But what if your computer does not function properly, or some personal settings do not persist after waking up from sleep?

Without waiting for upstream fixes, you can workaround by creating custom systemd services, to auto-restart the function, or re-configure the settings, and trigger it automatically when waking up from sleep.

In Howtos hibernate, suspend

Configure Audio Input/Output via WirePlumber in Ubuntu 24.04

Last updated: October 1, 2024 — 1 Comment

As you know, Ubuntu uses PipeWire as replacement of PulseAudio for its default sound server since Ubuntu 23.04. And, it now uses WirePlumber to manage pipewire session and policy.

With WirePlumber, you may configure more about your sound output and input. You can use Linux command to switch default audio input/output device, change volume level, and mute/un-mute sound and microphone.

As well, you may change the audio bit depth, sample rate, resample quality, and other properties for certain sound device.

In Howtos Audio, pipewire

How to Disable the Touchpad in Ubuntu 24.04 | 22.04

Last updated: September 28, 2024 — Leave a comment

This tutorial shows how to disable the touchpad in Ubuntu with GNOME, XFCE, MATE, and any other desktop environments.

Most desktops today have an option to “disable touch while typing”. But if you always have your computer with a mouse connected and rarely use the touchpad, then it can be a good choice to disable the touchpad to avoid mis-operation.

And, here’s how to do the job in Ubuntu either by using desktop setting options, or globally by using Linux command or config file.

In Howtos touchpad