Howtos | UbuntuHandbook

Use Android / iPhone to Remote Control Ubuntu Desktop

Last updated: July 19, 2024 — Leave a comment

This simple tutorial shows how to use your Android or iOS Phone as remote input (e.g, touchpad, send command) for Ubuntu and other Linux Desktop.

KDE community has an popular free open-source software project called KDE Connect. It enables ability to communicate between your computer (Linux, macOS, and Windows) and mobile devices (Android and iOS) in local network.

With it, you can send photos, videos, and files between paired devices, share clipboard, and do remote actions such as:

- Send remote commands, such as log out, power-off, restart, and custom commands.
- Use your phone as touchpad for PC.
- Slideshow remote
- Remote Multimedia control

There are as well features to send SMS from PC, “Ring” your phone to help find it, and browser your files on Mobile Phone. However, the features may NOT work due to either permission issues or requirement of running mobile app in foreground.

In Howtos GSConnect, KDE Connect

Enable Top Panel for Multiple Monitors in Ubuntu 24.04 | 22.04

Last updated: July 12, 2024 — Leave a comment

Have Ubuntu computer connected with multiple monitors? Here’s how to make the top panel show in all displays!

GNOME, the default desktop in Ubuntu, so far only shows the top-panel in the primary display. There is a multi-monitors-add-on extension, allowing to make it work in all displays. However, it’s no longer in development and supports end at GNOME 3.38.

Thankfully, there’s open-source fork of that extension with GNOME from version 42 to 46 support, meaning for Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 24.04, Debian 12, Fedora Workstation, RHEL 9 , and other Linux with recent GNOME.

In Howtos Gnome

How to Easily Setup Home Media Server in Ubuntu 24.04 | 22.04

Last updated: July 10, 2024 — Leave a comment

This simple tutorial shows how to easily turn your Ubuntu or Debian into home media server, so that you can listen to the music, watch photos and videos that are stored in Linux PC remotely using your mobile phones and/or smart TVs.

GNOME, the default desktop in Ubuntu and Fedora Workstation, has built-in option to enable this feature. It uses Rygel home media solution as backend.

It automatically transcode media to a format compatible with the client device. And, client machines that supports DLNA/UPnP, such as Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox, smart TV, Android, iOS, can access them through the local network.
Continue Reading…

In Howtos multimedia, network

How to Install Dolphin Emulator 2407 in Ubuntu 24.04 | 22.04

Last updated: July 6, 2024 — Leave a comment

Dolphin, the popular free open-source GameCube and Wii emulator, announced new major 2407 release earlier this month. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu via either Flatpak or Ubuntu PPA.

It’s been 8 years since the latest major 5.0 release series. The Nintendo video game console emulator finally announced Dolphin 2407, which uses new date-based versioning scheme. 2407 means version released in July of 2024.

According to the announcement, it adopts a rolling release cycle, and will roll out new releases every few months. The development releases will have sub-numbers, for example, Dolphin 2407-144 means dev build with 144 commits after 2407. And, hotfix releases will have the addition of a suffix, so it can be Dolphin 2407a.

In Howtos Dolphin Emulator, game

Show Spotify Playback Info in Top-bar in Ubuntu 24.04

Last updated: July 2, 2024 — Leave a comment

Spotify users? Here’s an extension that can display the current track information in Ubuntu top-bar.

It’s spotify-tray, a free open-source tool available as GNOME Shell Extension, that can show title, artist, and/or album of current playing song or podcast in top-panel.

The extension is very simple and customizable. You can control:

Where (left, center, or right) to display the playback info in top-bar.
What to display, including track, artist, album, custom text, emoji (via built-in selector).
Display in static mode, or horizontally scrolling marquee.

In Howtos spotify

How to Hide GNOME Top Bar in Ubuntu 24.04, 22.04 or 20.04

Last updated: June 25, 2024 — Leave a comment

This tutorial shows how to hide (or auto-hide) the top bar in Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and/or Ubuntu 20.04 with default GNOME Desktop.

Like the left (or bottom, if you moved it to) dock panel, the top bar can be hidden in Ubuntu and other Linux with GNOME Desktop to save screen space. And, this can be done by using one of the following extensions:

Just Perfection – GNOME UI & behavior config tool with many toggle options, including hide top-bar.
Hide Top-bar – support intellihide, that hides only when app window hit screen top or maximized.
Hide Panel Lite – very light version that only hide top-bar, except in overview. However, so far supports ends at GNOME 42.
Dock Unroll – light version that support GNOME 46.

In Howtos Gnome

Enable JPEG-XL (.jxl) Image Support in Ubuntu 24.04 & 22.04

Last updated: June 20, 2024 — 2 Comments

This tutorial shows how to enable .jxl file support for system image viewer, GIMP, and some other apps in Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 20.04, and even Ubuntu 18.04.

JPEG-XL is a new image format by JPEG committee. It supports both lossy and lossless compression, and includes features such as animation, alpha channels, layers, thumbnails, and has better compression efficiency (60% improvement) comparing to JPEG.

For encoding and decoding JPEG-XL images, there’s a free open-source libjxl library available. Ubuntu has included the library in system repository since 24.04, however lacks GdkPixbuf loader plugin until Ubuntu 24.10 (still in development so far).

Meaning system default image viewer, and many other apps do not work with .jxl file in current 3 Ubuntu LTS releases out-of-the-box.

In Howtos JPEG XL, photo

PPA Updated for Installing KeePass2 2.57 in Ubuntu 24.04

Last updated: June 17, 2024 — Leave a comment

For those who are sticking to KeePass2 password manager, here’s an Ubuntu PPA contains most recent .deb package for Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 23.10, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 20.04, and Ubuntu 18.04.

Linux has a native KeepassXC password manager, though KeePass2 is still available for choice, which runs in Linux through Microsoft’s mono software framework.

Ubuntu includes KeePass2 package in system repository, but always old!

For the most recent versions, 3rd PPAs so far are the only choices besides building from the source tarball.

In Howtos password manager

Set up Lightweight Socks5 Proxy Server in Ubuntu 24.04 / Debian 12

Last updated: June 12, 2024 — Leave a comment

This is a step by step beginner’s guide shows how to install and set up a lightweight Socks5 proxy server in Ubuntu or Debian.

Due to poor network connection, I decided to set up a proxy server on my remote VPS for playing an online game. However, the tutorials on the web are mostly using Dante, which consumes too much RAM, and makes my cheap VPS server frequently run out of memory.

After digging around, I found a lightweight socks5 proxy server called Microsocks. And, here’s how to install & use it in Debian & Ubuntu.

In Howtos network, socks5

Enable & Enhance Touchpad Gestures in Ubuntu 24.04 | 22.04

Last updated: June 12, 2024 — 1 Comment

This tutorial shows how to enable (or improve) touchpad gestures in Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 22.04. Not only for the default GNOME (both X & Wayland), but also for XFCE, MATE, and other desktop environments.

GNOME introduced multi-touch gestures support since v40, however, it only works on the default Wayland session, and supports only 3 finger swipe gestures. For more gestures, GNOME on Xorg, and other desktop environments, you can choose either option below:

Gesture Improvements extension (GNOME only) – enable 4-finger swipe and pinch gestures, support both Xorg and Wayland.
Touchegg – for all desktop environments on X, including GNOME on Xorg, but not for Wayland.

In Howtos touchpad gestures