Archives For Howtos

The JoliCloud Desktop Environment finally is available for Ubuntu 12.04 Precise, 13.04 Raring and 12.10 Quantal. Here’s how to install it via ppa repository.

jolicloud ubuntu

As you may know, JoliCloud Desktop Environment puts a HTML5 launcher with shortcuts to popular websites and services front and center, such as Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Wikidedia, Angry birds, and more.

Install JoliCloud Desktop

To get started, press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run below command to add the JoliCloud official ppa repository:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jolicloud-team/ppa

add jolicloud desktop ppa

After that, update the package lists to make it avaiable and finally install the session. To do so, run below command:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install jolicloud-desktop-environment

install jolicloud ubuntu

Once installed, log out current session. Click on the gear icon and choose Jolicloud for Ubuntu login.

jolicloud unity login

This simple tutorial shows how to install latest Komodo edit on Ubuntu 13.04 Raring, 12.10 Quantal, 12.04 Precise via ppa repository.

komodo ubuntu

Komodo Edit, based on the award-winning Komodo IDE, offers sophisticated support for all major scripting languages, including in-depth autocomplete and calltips, multi-language file support, syntax coloring and syntax checking, Vi emulation, Emacs key bindings. It provides dynamic language expertise for Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Tcl, plus JavaScript, CSS, HTML, and XML, and template languages like RHTML, Template-Toolkit, HTML-Smarty and Django.

Install Komodo Edit

A PPA repository has been created for Ubuntu users. So far it supports Ubuntu 13.04, 12.04 and 12.10.

To add the repository, press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run below commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mystic-mirage/komodo-edit

After that, update your package lists and install this tool via command below:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install komodo-edit

Once installed, open it by running komodo command. You may need to manually create launcher shortcut

This simple tutorial shows you how to install the latest RawTherapee 4.0.11 on Ubuntu 13.04 Raring, 12.10 Quantal, 12.04 Precise using PPA repository.

RawTherapee main window

RawTherapee is a cross-platform raw image processing program written in C++, using a GTK+ front-end and a patched version of dcraw for reading raw files. It is notable for the advanced control it gives the user over the demosaicing and developing process.

“The 4.0.11 release includes a number of new features which you can read about below, but just as importantly it contains a large number of speed improvements and bug fixes, so we recommend you update straight away!”

New features:

  • CIECAM02 “Adaptation scene luminosity” now calculated automatically
  • CIECAM02 hot/bad pixel fixer to prevent bright pixels from appearing
  • The Defringe tool is now able to target a range of specific colors without touching others
  • New bundled processing profiles
  • New keyboard shortcuts to apply rank and color labels and a new direct popup menu for color labels, all in the File Browser
  • “Profile Fill Mode” button controls whether to replace missing processing profile values with default ones or not
  • Keyboard shortcuts to open the next/previous image and to synchronize the File Browser strip with the currently opened image
  • New demosaicing algorithms for noisy photos:
    • LMMSE
    • IGV
  • More zoom levels
  • Redesigned save window
  • New functionality of the minima/maxima control points curves editor, see the RawTherapee Manual
  • Support for TIFFfiles with alpha channels
  • Support for 32-bit TIFF files (HDR)
  • Preferences/Batch processing options: all to ‘Add’ and all to ‘Set’
  • Support for
    • Nikon D5200
    • Nikon D7100
    • Nikon COOLPIX A
    • Panasonic Lumix DMC-G5

Install RawTherapee:

The latest release is available for Ubuntu 13.04 Raring, 12.10 Quantal, Ubuntu 12.04 Precise from the ppa repository.

To add the ppa, press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open a terminal window. When it opens, run below command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dhor/myway

Then update package lists and install via Synaptic Package Manager. Or you can run below command instead:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install rawtherapee

RawTherapee unity dash

In this tutorial I’ll show you a lightweight sticky notes software for Ubuntu users. It’s indicator-stickynotes which allows you to jot down thoughts, lists, and reminders on your desktop. This simple tool works on Unity, Gnome Shell, XFCE/Xubuntu, with partial support for KDE/Kubuntu and Linux Mint (MATE and Cinnamon).

Sticky-Notes-indicator

Objectives:

  • Install Indicator Stickynotes on Ubuntu and Linux Mint.
  • Enjoy!

To get started, add the ppa repository which supports Ubuntu 13.04 Raring, 12.10 Quantal, 12.04 Precise and Linux Mint 13 Maya, 14 Nadia, 15 Olivia. To do so, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open a terminal window, run below commands:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:umang/indicator-stickynotes

Then update the package lists and install the software:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install indicator-stickynotes

Sticky-Notes-indicator-unity-dash

Enjoy!

As you may know, RemoteBox is an open source VirtualBox Client with Remote Management feature. It allows you to administer an installation of VirtualBox residing on another machine such as a server, as if it was installed locally. You can also interact with the displays of the guests. This allows you to treat VirtualBox much more like an installation of Xen, KVM or VMware ESX. A summary of some of the features of RemoteBox are listed below.

In this brief tutorial I’ll show you how to install RemoteBox 1.5 on Ubuntu 13.04 Raring or Linux Mint.

To get started, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open a terminal window for running commands:

Linux Mint Terminal

Then run commands to install required packages:

sudo apt-get install libgtk2-perl libsoap-lite-perl rdesktop

Then download RemoteBox 1.5 (VirtualBox 4.2.X required):

RemoteBox-1.5.tar.bz2

Decompress the downloaded package, and it should result a new folder called RemoteBox-1.5. In terminal, navigate to this folder:

cd ~/Downloads/RemoteBox-1.5

Then start RemoteBox:

./remotebox

You can right-click on the icon from Unity Launcher and choose ‘Lock to Launcher’ to make it easy to launch next time. Or you can manually add it into Unity Dash.

lock-to-launcher

This is the main window of RemoteBox:

RemoteBox1.5

VDrift is an open source driving simulation made with drift racing in mind. It was available for Ubuntu and Linux Mint users from PlayDeb repository.

Vdrift

For recent Ubuntu releases, there’s a popular xtradeb games PPA contains the game package for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04, and Linux Mint 21/22. Not only for amd64 (Intel/AMD CPUs), it also support arm64/armhf (e.g., raspberry pi) platforms.

Objectives:

  • Install VDrift on Ubuntu and Linux Mint
  • Enjoy!

To get started, first press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open up a terminal window. Then run command below to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xtradeb/play

It will automatically refresh cache after adding PPA in Ubuntu, though Linux Mint user needs to do it manually by running command:

sudo apt update

Finally, install the game package by running command:

sudo apt install vdrift

(Optional) To uninstall the car racing game, use command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove vdrift vdrift-data

Then, use command below to remove the PPA repository:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:xtradeb/play

Want to install and use Google Sketchup on Ubuntu 13.04 Raring? Well, this simple tutorial will show you how to do it. With the help of Wine software, you can install and use Windows software easily in Ubuntu.

Wine is a compatibility layer capable of running Windows applications on several POSIX-compliant operating systems, including Ubuntu Linux. It’s free and open-source software. Wine now is getting a lot better at handling Windows software on Linux systems.

To get started with installing Sketchup 2013 in Ubuntu, download the lastest version of wine. To do that, press Ctrl + Alt + T on your keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the commands below to add its PPA.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa

Then run below command to update package lists and install wine1.5 (Now the latest wine1.7 is recommended):

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install wine1.5

Once wine is installed, run below command to configure it so that Sketchup could be installed. You may need to log out and log back:

winecfg

Next, navigate to Libraries tab, then select ‘Riched20’ library from the drop-down list and add it. When done, click OK

wine-configuration

Download Google Sketchup from http://sketchup.google.com/intl/en/download/gsu.html. Then navigate to the Downloads folder and right-click on the EXE to ‘Open with Wine Windows Program Loader’.

open-with-wine

Follow the setup wizard and finally you’ll get the shortcut on the desktop and Unity dash.

sketchup

That’s it. Enjoy!

UPDATE: If Sketchup hangs after choosing a template, try launching it with /DisableRubyAPI as a workaround. Or read the new post about install Sketchup 2014 in Ubuntu 14.04.

Install Cuckoo Alarm Clock on Ubuntu 13.04

Last updated: July 17, 2013

Cuckoo is a simple alarm application that is designed specifically for Ubuntu. It supports the Ubuntu Unity Launcher, HUD, and Indicator interfaces which allows for you to control Cuckoo faster.

Objectives:

  • Install Cuckoo Alarm Clock app on Ubuntu
  • Enjoy!

Since cuckoo is no longer available in Ubuntu Software Center, you can install it from the ppa repository. Press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal.

Open Terminal to run commands

Then run below 3 commands one by one to install cuckoo:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:john.vrbanac/cuckoo

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install cuckoo

If you don’t want to add the ppa, download the DEB from the link below:

cuckoo_1.0.8-1~raring_all.deb

Then install it via:

sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/cuckoo_*.deb; sudo apt-get -f install

cuckoo-alarm

Install uTorrent on Ubuntu 13.10

Last updated: November 3, 2013

This tutorial shows you how to easily install uTorrent sever on Ubuntu and Linux Mint. There’s no command, just a few clicks!

First, download uTorrent server: http://www.utorrent.com/downloads/linux. Check 32-bit or 64-bit by top-right corner shutdown menu (gear icon) -> About This Computer.

download-utorrent

After downloading, navigate to the package in Nautilus file browser. Then decompress it.

Go into the extracted folder, right-click on utserver and select Properties.

utserver-executable

Make sure that the box before “Allow execute as a program” is checked.

utserver-executable1

Before starting this service, search for and install libssl0.9.8 (SSL shared libraries) from Ubuntu Software Center.

NOTE: If you’re on 64-bit Ubuntu, press Ctrl+Alt+T and install the libssl0.9.8 with command below in terminal to fix utserver not launching problem:

sudo apt-get install libssl0.9.8:i386

Then double click utserver to start uTorrent server (or run ~/Downloads/utorrent-server-v3_0/utserver command to start it). That’s right you see nothing happens because the server is running as a background program.

Launch your web browser and go to http://localhost:8080/gui/. Type:

username: admin
password: leave password empty

You’re done!

utorrent client in firefox