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Audacious Audio Player 4.0.2 Released with Qt UI Fixes [Ubuntu PPA]

Last updated: April 16, 2020

Audacious music player

The second bug-fix release for Audacious 4.0 was released a day ago. Here’s how to install it in all current Ubuntu releases.

While the first bug-fix release brings KDE Plasma 5.18 compatibility, Audacious audio player 4.0.2 includes mainly bug fixes and tweaks for the Qt interface:

  • Fixed a regression where the Enter key did not work in the playlist.
  • Fixed the seek bar changing width as the time counter increments.
  • Fixed the title bar getting stuck showing “Buffering”.
  • Added a workaround to ensure that the toolbar is not hidden on startup.
  • Fixed the Composer field not being saved when updating ID3v2 tags.

How to Install Audacious 4.0.2 in Ubuntu:

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

1. Open terminal by either pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or searching for ‘terminal’ from application menu. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

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

2. Then run commands one by one in terminal to install or upgrade the audio player:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install audacious audacious-plugins

Uninstall:

The PPA repository also contains some other applications. You may remove the PPA either by going to Software & Updates utility -> Other Software tab, or by running command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

To remove audacious, either use your system package manager or run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove audacious audacious-plugins
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[Quick Tip] Add ‘Open as Administrator’ in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

Last updated: April 13, 2020

gnome shell

This simple tutorial shows how to add ‘Open as Administrator‘ option to file browser right-click menu in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

Need to open or edit files with Administrator (root) user privilege directly from file browser in Ubuntu desktop? There’s an extension nautilus-admin can do the job in the default Gnome desktop.

1. Open terminal by either pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or searching for ‘terminal’ from application menu.

2. When terminal opens, run command to install the extension:

sudo apt install nautilus-admin

You may replace nautilus-admin with caja-admin or peony-admin if you’re running with MATE or UKUI desktop.

Once installed, run command nautilus -q or log out and back in to apply changes.

Note the extension only adds Administrator privilege to open folders or edit files. There’s no ‘Run as Administrator’ option to run program as super user privilege.

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How to Change Default OS Entry in Ubuntu 20.04 Dual-Boot

Last updated: April 12, 2020

Ubuntu 18.04

Dual-boot or multi-boot Ubuntu 20.04 with other operating systems? This tutorial will show beginners how to change the default OS entry in Ubuntu 20.04 desktop.

This is a graphical tool to configure the default Grub boot-loader in Ubuntu. It’s Grub Customizer, and available in Ubuntu universe repositories for Ubuntu 19.04 and higher.

1. Either install Grub Customizer via Ubuntu Software, or open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and install the tool by running command:

sudo apt install grub-customizer

2. Then search for and launch the tool from application menu.

3. When Grub Customizer opens, do:

  • navigate to General settings tab.
  • Select an OS entry as default from the drop-down box after ‘predefined’
  • You may also change other settings: menu timeout, kernel parameters, font, background image, etc.
  • Finally click the Save button to apply changes.

That’s it. Enjoy!

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Celluloid (Formerly Gnome MPV) 0.19 Released [Ubuntu PPA]

Last updated: April 11, 2020

Celluloid, a GTK+ frontend for mpv formerly called Gnome MPV, released version 0.19 a few days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.10, and Ubuntu 20.04.

Celluloid 0.19 release highlights include:

  • Retain window maximization state across sessions.
  • Retain loop state across sessions.
  • Implement playlist search.
  • Update the list of shortcuts in Keyboard Shortcuts dialog.
  • Deprecate --mpv-options.
  • Add support for configuring dead zone
  • Make window sizing work correctly with HiDPI displays.
  • Translation updates and other changes.

How to Install Celluloid in Ubuntu via PPA:

Celluloid media player is available to install via Flatpak package in Flathub repository.

For those prefer native Ubuntu .deb package, the formerly Gnome MPV PPA now maintains the Celluloid packages for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.10, and Ubuntu 20.04.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xuzhen666/gnome-mpv

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

2.) Then install the MPV frontend via command:

sudo apt install celluloid

For Ubuntu derivatives, you may need to run sudo apt update to refresh package cache first.

Uninstall Celluloid:

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

sudo apt remove celluloid

And remove the PPA repository via command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:xuzhen666/gnome-mpv
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Mozilla Firefox 75.0 Released with Flatpak Support

Last updated: April 7, 2020

Mozilla Firefox 75.0 was released today. Ubuntu security & updates repositories has published the packages for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, and Ubuntu 19.10.

Mozilla Firefox 75.0 comes with revamped address bar, which brings clean search experience. On Linux, the behavior when clicking on the Address Bar and the Search Bar changes: a single click selects all without primary selection, a double click selects a word, and a triple click selects all with primary selection.

The new release also brings official Flatpak support, improves HTTPS compatibility, and various security fixes. See release note for details.

Install Firefox 75 in Ubuntu:

For all current Ubuntu releases and derivatives, Firefox 75.0 has been made into the security & updates repositories.

Simply launch Software Updater (Update manager) and install available package updates.

For Ubuntu 20.04, Firefox 75.0 package now is available as pre-release updates for testing. It will go stable soon.

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How to Enable Dark Gnome Shell Menus, Calendar in Ubuntu 20.04

Last updated: April 6, 2020

gnome shell

Ubuntu 20.04 introduces new dark mode in the Settings utility. It is however not full dark when you turn it on in Gnome Shell.

System tray menu, top-bar calendar, notification popups, and desktop context menu are not dark but always light when you switching between light, dark, and standard modes.

Enable Full Dark Theme in Ubuntu 20.04:

1.) First install user themes Gnome Shell extension.

It was able to install the extension simply via Ubuntu Software when I was in Ubuntu 18.04. Ubuntu 20.04 however shows me “No Application Found” when I searching for user themes in the new Ubuntu Software (Snap Store).

  • As a workaround, open Firefox web browser and go to https://extensions.gnome.org:

    Click the link text “click here to install browser extension” and follow the pop-ups to install the browser extension:

    shell browser extension

  • Then open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T and run command: 
    sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell

  • Finally go to https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/19/user-themes/.

    Turn the switch on and then select install the Gnome Shell extension:

    User Themes extension

2.) Install Gnome Tweaks if you have it.

sudo apt install gnome-tweaks

3.) Finally launch Gnome Tweaks and navigate to Appearance in the left pane, choose Yaru-dark as the Shell theme and done!

And of course select Dark in System Settings -> Appearance to get dark applications if you don’t have it.

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Fix unknown filesystem type ‘exfat’ in Ubuntu 18.04

Last updated: April 5, 2020

ubuntu bootable usb

Today when I plugged my new USB flash drive into Ubuntu 18.04 laptop, I got an error pop up that said ‘Unable to access “125GB Volume”. Error mounting /dev/sdb1 at /media/xxx/xxx: unknown filesystem type ‘exfat’‘

After a little search on the packages.ubuntu.com, I found Ubuntu main repositories offer exfat-fuse to read and write exFAT driver for FUSE, and exfat-utils to create, check, label and dump exFAT filesystem.

Open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or by searching for ‘terminal’ from application menu.

When terminal opens, run command to install the two packages:

sudo apt install exfat-fuse exfat-utils

Once installed successfully, Ubuntu 18.04 should mount exfat USB drive automatically next time you plugged it in.

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Fre:ac Audio Converter 1.1 Released with Dark Mode Support

Last updated: April 1, 2020

fre:ac audio converter

Fre:ac audio converter 1.1 was released a few days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 18.04 and higher.

Fre:ac 1.1 is a new major release with tons of new features. Highlights include:

  • Official Linux, Mac OS, and 64-bit Windows binaries.
  • Support for dark mode on Windows and macOS
  • A reworked conversion engine with support for multi-threading and parallel processing
  • An integrated tag editor with support for cover images
  • An extension for simultaneous output to multiple formats
  • Support for new codecs including Opus, Apple Lossless, Monkey’s Audio, WavPack and others
  • Support for DSP filters and lossless file verification
  • Support for multi-channel audio
  • Support for managing multiple configurations
  • Support for writing log files

How to Install Fre:ac 1.1 in Ubuntu:

For Ubuntu 18.04 and higher, simply search for and install freac snap package (runs in sandbox) via Ubuntu Software:

For Ubuntu 16.04, the official .AppImage is available to download in github releases page:

fre:ac releases

Grab the .appimage, i686 for 32-bit os and x86_64 for 64-bit os, then make it executable via file Properties -> Permissions -> ‘Allow executing file as program’, and finally run it to launch the audio converter.

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How to Install Stellarium 0.20.0 in Ubuntu 20.04, 18.04

Last updated: March 31, 2020

Free-software planetarium Stellarium 0.20.0 was released a few days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.10, and Ubuntu 20.04.

Stellarium 0.20.0 brings GUI refactoring and updating, code refactoring (related to Solar system), and many improvements in the code of plugins.

Changes in the release include:

  • Added Almagest skyculture
  • Added support INDIGO for Telescope Control plugin
  • Added displaying last updated TLE for users
  • Added a SIMBAD lookup name query to the Search Dialog
  • Added Cross-origin (CORS) support to Remote Control plugin
  • Slightly improves rendering of Saturn viewed from Pan
  • Allows arbitrary viewpoints by keyboard action
  • Added new nomenclature items
  • Added new type of planetary feature
  • Added German set of navigational stars
  • Added comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) as potential superbright comet (a Great Comet)

There are also tons of other new features and bug-fixes. See release note for details.

How to Install Stellarium 0.20.0 in Ubuntu:

1. Open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or by searching ‘terminal’ from application menu. When it opens, run command to add the official PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stellarium/stellarium-releases

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

2. Then either upgrade Stellarium from an old version with Software Updater utility:

Or run following commands to install or upgrade the software from terminal:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install stellarium

Uninstall:

To remove the software, either use your system package manager or run command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove stellarium

And remove the PPA via “Software & Updates” utility under Other Software tab.

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How to Install Kernel 5.6 in Ubuntu / Linux Mint

Last updated: March 30, 2020

upgrade Linux Kernel

Linux Kernel 5.6 was officially released. Linus Torvalds announced:

So I’ll admit to vacillating between doing this 5.6 release and doing another -rc.

This has a bit more changes than I’d like, but they are mostly from davem’s networking fixes pulls, and David feels comfy with them. And I looked over the diff, and none of it looks scary. It’s just slightly more than I’d have preferred at this stage – not doesn’t really seem worth delaying a release over.

So about half the diff from the final week is network driver fixlets, and some minor core networking fixes. Another 20% is tooling – mostly bpf and netfilter selftests (but also some perf work).

…

Linux Kernel 5.5 features WireGuard VPN support, and a lot of other notable improvements, including initial USB 4 support, Amazon’s Echo smart speaker, new Intel, AMD, and Arm hardware enablement.

How to Install Linux Kernel 5.6 in Ubuntu:

The mainline kernels do not include any Ubuntu-provided drivers or patches. They are not supported and are not appropriate for production use

The mainline kernel packages for Linux 5.6 are now available for download at the link below:

Download Kernel 5.6

Depends on your OS type, download and install the packages in turns:

  1. linux-headers-5.6.0-xxxxxx_all.deb
  2. linux-headers-5.6.0-xxx-generic(/lowlatency)_xxx_amd64.deb
  3. linux-modules-5.6.0-xxx-generic(/lowlatency)_xxx_amd64.deb
  4. linux-image-xxx-5.6.0-xxx-generic(/lowlatency)_xxx_amd64.deb

Select generic for common system, and lowlatency for a low latency system (e.g. for recording audio), amd64 for 64bit system, or armhf, arm64, etc for other OS types.

Alternatively you can download and install the kernel binaries via terminal commands ( open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T):

For 64-bit OS:

cd /tmp/

wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.6/linux-headers-5.6.0-050600_5.6.0-050600.202003292333_all.deb

wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.6/linux-headers-5.6.0-050600-generic_5.6.0-050600.202003292333_amd64.deb

wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.6/linux-image-unsigned-5.6.0-050600-generic_5.6.0-050600.202003292333_amd64.deb

wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.6/linux-modules-5.6.0-050600-generic_5.6.0-050600.202003292333_amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Once installed, restart your computer and enjoy!

Uninstall Linux Kernel 5.6:

Restart your machine and select boot with the previous kernel in boot menu ‘Grub2 -> Advanced Option for Ubuntu’. Then run command to remove Linux Kernel 5.5:

sudo dpkg --purge linux-image-unsigned-5.6.0-050600-generic
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