Looking for ways to get quick look at your files in Ubuntu, Fedora, or other Linux with GNOME? Try Sushi file previewer!
It’s a free open-source project present more than 10 years. I’ve almost forgotten about it, until I saw that Ubuntu desktop team proposed to install Sushi by default in 23.04 release
GNOME Sushi runs as a DBus-activated service. With it, user may hit Space Bar on keyboard to quick preview selected file in a pop-up window. And, hit the Space Bar again will close it.
It supports previewing photo images, audio, video, plain documents, PDF, XML, and SVG files.
I did remember it also preview selected folder with the basic information, including total size, contained items, modified time etc. However, it does not work in my case in Ubuntu 22.04 may be due to GTK4 port.
Sushi can be efficient when you have a large list of files to preview. Just hit Space-bar to open preview window, use arrow keys (←, →) allow to quickly preview next or previous files.
How to Install GNOME Sushi
Firstly, open terminal either by searching from ‘Activities‘ overview screen or by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T on keyboard.
When terminal opens, run the command below to install it:
sudo apt install gnome-sushi
Fedora user may run sudo dnf install sushi command to get the package
After installation, it should run silently at background. Just open ‘Files’ (aka Nautilus file manager), highlight your file and hit Space bar to try out!
Ubuntu automatically checks and updates all installed Snap packages 4 times every day. Here’s how you can delay or assign a certain time period for the automatic update.
Snap is an Ubuntu developed universal package format that runs in sandbox. Few core apps (such as Ubuntu Software and Firefox in 22.04) and many software in Ubuntu Software are Snap packages. Unlike classic .deb package, snap updates all the packages automatically in the background silently without user intervention.
If you didn’t block the Snap package, you must have some installed on your Ubuntu machine. And, to avoid conflict to daily work (e.g., online meetings, data backup), you may tell Snap when to do the updates.
Check when Snap will do updates:
By default, snap check (and install if any) updates 4 times per day. You may verify it by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal and run command:
snap refresh --time
Besides the time period and frequency, it also tells when the last done and next will occur.
Hold or Completely Disable Automatic Updates
The developer team finally added the --hold parameter, so user can hold updates for either certain app or all snaps for given time or indefinitely.
NOTE: the commands below work only for edge channel of snapd daemon at the moment of writing.
Simply open terminal and run command, and run command to hold updates for 24 hours via command:
snap refresh --hold=24h firefox
Or completely disable automatic updates for firefox via:
snap refresh --hold firefox
To disable automatic updates for all snap applications, run command:
snap refresh --hold
To re-enable automatic updates, use command to unhold all:
snap refresh --unhold
Or unhold specified app via command:
pre>snap refresh –unhold firefox
Specify time period for Snap update
To tell when and how often to check updates, it can be done by running a single command in terminal to set the value of “refresh.timer”.
For example, to allow only between 4.00am and 6.00am, and 9.00pm and 12.00pm, use command:
sudo snap set system refresh.timer=4:00-6:00,21:00-24:00
Or, only check/install updates twice in weekend via command:
sudo snap set system refresh.timer=sat,sun,0:00-24:00/2
Other examples include between 10.00pm and 11.00pm from Monday to Wednesday, and between 9.00am and 11.00am on Friday.
sudo snap set system refresh.timer=mon-wed,22:00-23:00,,fri,9:00-11:00
Or second Monday of the month between 9:00 and 11:00 via command:
sudo snap set system refresh.timer=mon2,9:00-11:00
Delay the update
Ubuntu supports to delay snap updates by specifying a value to “refresh.hold” up to 90 days.
1. Firstly, in case you don’t know your time zone short name, run command:
date
It will output the current date and time, as well as time zone (e.g., NST, AST, EST, PST, CST).
2. Next, use the command below to convert your desired time (e.g., July 7, 2022) to the right format:
date --date="CST 2022-07-07 18:22:00" +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%:z
Replace the time zone, date and time in bold. And, copy the output time for use in next command.
3. Finally, delay snap refresh until the given date and time.
sudo snap set system refresh.hold=2022-07-07T18:22:00+08:00
To verify the change, use command:
sudo snap get system refresh.hold
Prevent update when on metered connections
If you’re running Ubuntu on a metered network connection. Which mean you have limited amount of data per month or day. You can prevent Snap from doing updates by running command:
The popular Vim text editor released new major 9.0 version few days ago with many new features and large number of new features.
The new release introduced Vim9 script with drastic performance improvements. The execution speed can be increased via 10 to 100 times faster. However, function must be defined with def, and the argument and return types must be specified to benefit from the speed-up.
Legacy scripts will keep working as before. The new script syntax now looks a lot more like most programming languages. Line continuation does not require using a backslash; Function calls do not require call, assignments are done without let and expressions are evaluated without eval. And, comments now start with #.
Instead of the ‘wildmenu’ option, now a popup menu can be used in Vim 9 by setting “wildoptions’ to “pum”. Which, allows for showing many more command line completion matches. The updated colorschemes are also included in the release.
New options in the release including:
'autoshelldir' change directory to the shell’s current directory
'cdhome' change directory to the home directory by “:cd”
'cinscopedecls' words that are recognized by ‘cino-g’
'guiligatures' GTK GUI: ASCII characters that can form shapes
'mousemoveevent' report mouse moves with
'quickfixtextfunc' function for the text in the quickfix window
'spelloptions' options for spell checking
'thesaurusfunc' function to be used for thesaurus completion
'xtermcodes' request terminal codes from an xterm
There are as well new ex commands, functions, variables and operators. See more about Vim 9 via its news page.
How to Get Vim 9 in Ubuntu Linux
Vim offers official AppImage package, along with the source tarball they are available to download at the link below:
There’s another universal Flatpak package available, though not updated at the moment of writing. For Windows, MacOS and other sources, go to vim.org/download.php
The free cross-platform Deluge BitTorrent client released version 2.1.0 one day ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04.
Deluge is a fully-featured torrent downloading app with GTK, web UI, and command line interfaces. The app features protocol encryption, DHT, Local Peer Discovery (LSD), Peer Exchange (PEX), UPnP/NAT-PMP, web seeds, stream torrent and more.
The new 2.1.0 was released with minimum libtorrent requirement increased to v1.2. Python 2 is no longer supported! And, Python 3.6 is the minimum requirement of the programming language.
New features in Deluge 2.1.0 include:
Add context menu option to copy magnet URI.
Add support for IPv6 in host lists.
Add systemd user services, though I didn’t see them in PPA packages.
Add is_interface and is_interface_name to validate network interfaces.
Add support for pygeoip dependency for location lookup.
Add plugin keys to get_torrents_status
Add support for SVG tracker icons.
Hide passwords in config logs.
There are as well various bug-fixes, see the release note for details.
How to Install Deluge 2.1.0 in Ubuntu:
The software offers official binary packages for downloading at its website.
For Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop! OS, etc, there’s an official Ubuntu PPA contains the packages for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 21.10, Ubuntu 22.04, and other Linux based on them.
1.) Add the PPA.
Firstly, search for and open terminal from system start menu (“Activities” overview). Or, just press Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut keys on keyboard.
When terminal opens, paste the command below into it and hit Enter to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deluge-team/stable
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.
2.) Install / Update Deluge
If you have an old version of the software package installed on your system, simply open “Software Updater” should prompt you the updates of the BitTorrent Client:
If not, run commands below one by one to refresh package cache and install the software packages:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install deluge
For choice, you may replace deluge with deluged for server, deluge-console for command line interface, or deluge-web for web UI.
After installation, open the app from system start menu (or search in “Activities” overview) and enjoy!
How to Remove Deluge:
To remove the Ubuntu PPA, either run the command below in a terminal window:
Then, open your Downloads folder, right-click on blank area and select “Open in Terminal“. It will open terminal and automatically navigate to the folder as working directory.
When terminal opens, run following commands one by one to add executable permission, and run installer script:
chmod u+x hplip-3.22.6.run
./hplip-3.22.6.run
In the terminal screen, it will ask you a few questions during the installation process. Except for password authentication, it’s OK to hit Enter to answer default for all questions!
After installation, plug or re-plug your printer/scanner and open the HP device manager application to get start:
Uninstall HPLIP 3.22.6
While running the installer script in terminal, it automatically creates “hplip-3.22.6” folder in your user Downloads directory!
Right-click on that folder in your file manager and select “Open in Terminal”, finally run the uninstall script via command:
sudo ./uninstall.py
If you’ve already removed that folder, re-run the .run installer will generate the folder again.
Mozilla Firefox 102 is available to download now. See what’s new and how to install the browser package.
For Linux users, Firefox 102 now support Geoclue if available for geolocation. The release also added subtitles and captions display in Picture-in-Picture (pop-out video) for more websites, including HBO Max, Funimation, Dailymotion, Tubi, Disney+ Hotstar, and SonyLIV.
For those boring with the drop-down download panel, that automatically opens every time you start a download. User may now right-click on the download icon (before Hamburger menu button), and un-check “Show Panel When Download Begins” to disable it.
Firefox 102 is the new Extended Support Release (ESR) for enterprise and/or school use. The previous Firefox 91 ESR will end support on September 20, 2022.
Other changes in Firefox 102 include:
Improve PDF reading in high contrast mode
Filter style sheets in the Style Editor tab of our developer tools
Support Content-Security-Policy (CSP) integration with WebAssembly.
Mitigate query parameter tracking when navigating sites in ETP strict mode.
Improved security by moving audio decoding into a separate process with stricter sandboxing.
Various bug fixes and new policies
Download / Install Firefox 102:
Ubuntu will publish the new browser packages in its universe repositories. So, just keep your system up-to-date by installing updates (via Software Updater) regularly, you’ll get Firefox 102 automatically in next few days ago.
For Ubuntu 22.04 user prefer native .deb over the pre-installed Snap package, the Mozilla Team PPA has already build the package. So this how to tutorial to switch from Firefox Snap to Deb.
For the release note (not ready yet) as well as official Linux tarball, go to the link below:
Ubuntu’s default Rhythmbox music player got new release updates a few days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu via PPA.
Rhythmbox released version v3.4.5 last month and v3.4.6 days ago after more than 2 years of development. Compare to previous Rhythmbox 34.4, Soundcloud plugin and mmkeys plugin have been removed since they are no longer work / useful. DAAP plugin now supports libdmapsharing 4 API, but no longer enabled by default.
The new release has rewritten podcast downloader with better resume and retry, uses podcast episode GUIDs to handle episode URL changes, preserves original order of episodes in podcasts even if episodes have the same publication date. And, crossfading player backend now works much better with network streams. There are as well many bug-fixes and translation updates.
Install / Update Rhythmbox in Ubuntu
The latest Rhythmbox package is available to install as Flatpak package, which runs in sandbox.
For those prefer the pre-installed .deb package, here’s how to update it via the unofficial PPA.
1. Add PPA
First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to add the PPA. So far, Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 20.04 are supported.
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks for sudo authentication and hit Enter to continue.
2. Install / Update Rhythmbox
After adding the PPA repository, search for and launch “Software Updater” from Activities overview. It should show you the updates for the music player. Simply click on “Install” to get them and enjoy!
Or, you may run the single command in terminal to install/update the music player package:
sudo apt install rhythmbox
How to Restore:
If you found any issue for the package installed from PPA, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:
The command will install the ppa-purge tool and purge the Ubuntu PPA you just added, which also downgrade all installed packages from that PPA to the stock versions in your Ubuntu system repository.
Want to configure the top-bar, dock, overview and other Gnome shell components with more settings? Shell Configurator is now updated with GNOME 41 & 42 support.
It’s an extension for add, remove, configure, and customize GNOME Shell with advanced settings. With it, you can:
Select login into blank desktop, overview or app grid.
Hide or auto-hide top bar.
Show/hide panel elements, e.g., Activities, clock, app menu, system menu (aggregate menu).
Change height size of top-bar.
Move top-bar to bottom.
Enable/disable Dash (the dock).
Remove the separator in dock between favorite and running apps.
Show or hide search in overview.
Set how many rows and columns in app grid.
Change looking glass size and postion.
Change notification bubble, OSD position and time out.
Show the new screenshot UI in top.
How to Install Shell Configurator:
For Ubuntu 22.04, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal and run the command below to install Extension Manager:
sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-manager
Then, click “Activities” on top bar, search for and open the app:
Finally, navigate to ‘Browse’ tab, search and click install the “Shell Configurator” extension:
To open the settings dialog, switch back to “Installed” tab in Extension Manager and click on the gear button for the extension.
For other Ubuntu edition as well as Fedora, Debian with GNOME, use the on/off switch to install extension in the link page below, after installed the chrome-gnome-shell agent:
For those don’t like to have the ‘date and time’ menu in the center of top panel, here’s how to move it to either left or right in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.
Ubuntu, definitely the GNOME desktop, does not have option to configure the clock menu position. But, there are a few extensions can do the job. And, here I’m going to show you how to install and use them.
Tip: Extensions introduced in this tutorial should work on all Linux uses GNOME 42, e.g, Fedora 36, Arch Linux, Manjaro.
Step 1: Enable ability to install Gnome Extensions
Usually, we install Gnome shell extensions by visiting extensions.gnome.org and use the ON/OFF switch to install or remove an extension. Since Ubuntu 22.04, there’s also an “Extension Manager” app is available in system repository to make life easy.
Option 1: Prepare for installing extension through web browser
NOTE: the pre-installed Firefox in Ubuntu 22.04 is a snap package, which so far does not support this thing. You may either use another browser and go “Option 2”.
Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to install the agent to enable the ability to install Gnome Extension via browser, and the app for managing them.
For the first time, you need to go to exensions.gnome.org and follow the “Click here to install browser extension” link to install the browser extension.
Option 2: Install Extension Manager
The Extension Manager app allows to search for, install, and manage extensions all in one. To install it in Ubuntu 22.04, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal and run command:
sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-manager
After that, click on top left “Activities”, then search for and open the app to get start.
Step 2: Select install Extension to move Clock
There are a few extensions can do the trick in GNOME. Choose one from the options below that you prefer!
Option 1: Just Perfection
This is a tweak tool to customize GNOME Shell, change the behavior and disable UI elements. They provides many useful toggle options, including moving the clock menu position.
To install the extension, either search for and click install it via “Extension Manager”:
Or, use the ON/OFF switch by visiting the web page below in your browser:
After installed it, open its ‘settings’ dialog either via “Extension Manager” under Installed tab or use “Gnome Extensions” app. Scroll down, and you’ll find the option to move clock position via “Customize” tab.
Option 2: Left Clock or Sur Clock
Just Perfection is a bit heavy if you don’t need the other options. There are a few other extensions that designed specially for moving clock position:
“Clock Left” or “Left Clock” – Move clock to left and replace “Activities”.
Sur Clock – Move clock to left or right via preference option.
To install one of the extension, simply search for and click install in “Extension Manager”:
NONE of the previous extensions will move clock to far right corner. If you insist, try “Top Bar Organizer”.
This extension is designed to organize all items on top-bar. It was created for GNOME 40, but no longer updated!! However, it works on current GNOME 42 desktop with few tweak.
1.) First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. And, run command to disable version validation, since it does not support Ubuntu 22.04:
gsettings set org.gnome.shell disable-extension-version-validation true
2.) Then, either search for and install it in “Extension Manager”:
Or, turn on the slider icon in the link page below to install it from web browser:
3.) The Extension preference does not work for GNOME 42. However, the dconf editor options do work.
First, run command to install dconf editor:
sudo apt install dconf-editor
Then, search for and launch “Dconf Editor” from the overview screen. And, navigate to org/gnome/shell/extensions/top-bar-organizer.
To make clock menu show in right corner, write ‘dateMenu‘ as value of right-box-order. And, put it to the end for far right.
NOTE: The change will persist even after removed the extension. To restore, erase the keys in Dconf Editor and restart GNOME Shell (log out and back in)
Would like to display digital clock and date in your desktop? Desktop Clock is a new extension to do the job in GNOME 42.
It’s an extension that so far works on Ubuntu 22.04, Fedora 36, Arch and Manjaro Linux. With it, you have the date and time display on desktop with customisable appearance.
It supports border and background with user selected color, border width and corner radius. Allows to change time and data color and font size, as well as shadow color and offset. All colors can set to has an alpha channel (RGBA), which specifies the opacity.
And, the date is customisable with format codes, to display as whatever style as you want. See the all code here.
How to Install Desktop Clock in Ubuntu 22.04 / other Linux
Ubuntu 22.04 user may first press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When terminal opens, run command to install extension manager app:
sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-manager
Then, click top-left ‘Activities’ and search for and open the tool from overview screen:
Finally, navigate to ‘Browse’ tab in extension manager, search for and install “Desktop Clock”:
NOTE: It support drag moving clock position, however you need to disable “Desktop Icons NG” extension temporarily for the action, then re-enable it. The developer is working to fix the conflict.
For Fedora and other Linux, the extension is available to install via the toggle icon in the web page below:
