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How to Install Alacritty Terminal Emulator via PPA in Ubuntu 20.04/22.04

Last updated: December 30, 2023

This simple tutorial shows how to install the fastest terminal emulator, Alacritty, in Ubuntu 20.04, Linux Mint 20 via PPA. UPDATED: Ubuntu 22.04 & Linux Mint 21 also supported.

Alacritty is a cross-platform, GPU-accelerated terminal emulator works on macOS, Linux, BSD, and Windows. It’s free and open-source software that strongly focus on simplicity and performance. And it features Vi mode, search, Vi search etc.

To install the software, there’s a PPA repository contains the latest packages for Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 22.04. Also an old version is available for Ubuntu 18.04.

1. Open terminal from your system application launcher. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:aslatter/ppa

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) for sudo prompts and hit Enter to continue.

2. While adding the PPA will also automatically refresh system package cache, run apt command to install the terminal emulator:

sudo apt install alacritty

Once installed, either open it either from system application launcher or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard.

Uninstall Alacritty:

To remove the terminal emulator, run command:

sudo apt remove --auto-remove alacritty

To remove the Ubuntu PPA, either run command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:aslatter/ppa

or open Software & Updates and remove the repository line under Other Software tab.

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How to Install Panorama Stitcher Hugin 2020 in Ubuntu 20.04

Last updated: December 16, 2020

Hugin, free open source panorama photo stitching and HDR merging program, finally released version 2020.0.0.

Hugin 2020.0.0 release highlights include:

  • Fixes fast preview on HiDPI screens under GTK+3 and MacOS.
  • Make fast preview screen zoom-able with mouse wheel.
  • Make hugin_hdrmerge aware of cropped intermediate images.
  • Several improvements for command line tools (pto_var, pto_move, pto_gen, autooptimiser).
  • More checks in GUI for strange user input.
  • Fixes for several bugs, and translation updates.

How to Install Hugin 2020.0.0 in Ubuntu:

Hugin 2020.0.0 is available as universal Linux Flatpak package, which runs in sandbox, and you can get it from flathub repository.

For those prefer an Ubuntu PPA, the new release package is available in the unofficial PPA for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, and Ubuntu 20.10. The package was backported from official Ubuntu 21.04 build and there’s known issues, e.g., loading copyright file in about page and “An assertion failed!” dialog when launching calibrate_lens_gui.

1. Open terminal either via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching for ‘terminal’ from app launcher. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

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

2. Then run commands to check updates and install Hugin:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install hugin

or upgrade it via Software Updater if a previous release was installed.

Uninstall:

To remove Hugin panorama stitcher, run command in terminal:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove hugin hugin-tools

To remove PPA, launch Software & Updates and navigate to ‘Other Software’ tab.

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How to Install Linux Kernel 5.10 LTS in Ubuntu / Linux Mint

Last updated: April 24, 2024

Linux Kernel 5.10 was released a day ago as the latest LTS (Long Term Support) release. Here’s how to install in Ubuntu & Linux Mint.

Linus Torvalds announced the release of Kernel 5.10: “Ok, here it is – 5.10 is tagged and pushed out. I pretty much always wish that the last week was even calmer than it was, and that’s true here too. There’s a fair amount of fixes in here, including a few last-minute reverts for things that didn’t get fixed, but nothing makes me go “we need another week”. Things look fairly normal.”

Kernel 5.10 features include:

  • New hardware support including Intel Rocket Lake and Alder Lake
  • AMD Zen 3 temperature monitoring support.
  • Raspberry Pi VC4 support
  • The Creative Labs SoundBlaster AE-7 sound card support.
  • Nintendo Switch controller support
  • Initial support for NVIDIA Orin.
  • AMDGPU DC display support for GCN 1.0 (Southern Islands) GPUs.
  • And much more other changes.

How to Install Linux Kernel 5.10 in Ubuntu:

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

For a graphical tool to install mainline kernel packages, try Ubuntu Mainline Kernel Installer.

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The mainline kernel packages for Linux 5.10 (64-bit) are now available for download at the link below:

Download Kernel 5.10

Select generic for common system, and lowlatency for a low latency system (e.g. for recording audio):

  1. linux-headers-5.10.0-xxxxxx_all.deb
  2. linux-headers-5.10.0-xxx-generic(/lowlatency)_xxx_amd64.deb
  3. linux-modules-5.10.0-xxx-generic(/lowlatency)_xxx_amd64.deb
  4. linux-image-xxx-5.10.0-xxx-generic(/lowlatency)_xxx_amd64.deb

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

cd /tmp/

wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.10/amd64/linux-headers-5.10.0-051000_5.10.0-051000.202012132330_all.deb

wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.10/amd64/linux-headers-5.10.0-051000-generic_5.10.0-051000.202012132330_amd64.deb

wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.10/amd64/linux-image-unsigned-5.10.0-051000-generic_5.10.0-051000.202012132330_amd64.deb

wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.10/amd64/linux-modules-5.10.0-051000-generic_5.10.0-051000.202012132330_amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Once installed, restart your computer and enjoy!

Uninstall Linux Kernel 5.10:

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 5.10:

sudo dpkg --purge linux-image-unsigned-5.10.0-051000-generic
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[Quick Tip] Remove ‘Window is Ready’ Notification & Focus Window Immediately

Last updated: April 24, 2024

In the default Gnome desktop when you trying to open an application, the app window sometimes does not get into focus immediately, instead it pops up ‘xxx’ is ready notification and opens the window behind the current focused window.

This usually happens when another window is getting focused during the process of launching a desired application.

To get rid of the ‘Window is ready’ notification and focus window immediately, I think a quick enough system response should fix the problem. Besides, you can install “Focus my window” Gnome extension.

1.) Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to install chrome-gnome-shell package if you don’t have it.

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell

2.) Then go to the extension web page in your browser. Turn on the toggle icon and install it.

NOTE: The old extension is no longer exist. The new one supports only GNOME 45 and 46 so far, meaning for Ubuntu 23.10 and Ubuntu 24.04!.

Don’t see the toggle icon? Click the link “Click here to install browser extension” and finally refresh the page.

That’s it. Enjoy!

(Optional) If you want to remove the gnome shell extensions, either turn off the toggle icon in the web page, or use either Extensions or GNOME Extensions Manager (both available in the new App Center app) utility.

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XFE – A Lightweight Windows File Explorer Like File Manager for X

Last updated: April 24, 2024

XFE (X File Explorer) is a lightweight Windows File Explorer or Commander like file manager for Unix / Linux X.

It’s small memory footprint, very fast, and only requires the FOX library to be fully functional, and aims to light desktop users.

XFE features include:

  • UTF-8 support
  • Commander/Explorer interface with four UI modes
  • Horizontal or vertical file panels stacking
  • Integrated text editor (xfwrite), image viewer (xfimage)
  • Integrated RPM or DEB packages installer / uninstaller (xfpack).<.li>
  • Custom shell scripts (like Nautilus scripts)
  • Search files and directories
  • Disk usage command
  • Mount/Unmount devices (for Linux only)
  • Color, control, and icon themes (GNOME, KDE, Windows, …)
  • Create and extract archives (tar, compress, zip, gzip, bzip2, xz, lzh, rar, ace, arj and 7zip formats are supported)
  • File comparison (through external tool)
  • Thumbnails image previews
  • Configurable key bindings

To install XFE in Ubuntu, simply open terminal and run command:

sudo apt install xfe

Refresh package cache by running sudo apt update if the package somehow is not found.

Once installed open the file manager from your system application launcher and enjoy!

(Optional) To remove XFE, run command in terminal:

sudo apt remove --autoremove xfe
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OpenRGB – An Open Source RGB Lighting Control App for Linux

Last updated: April 24, 2024

OpenRGB, formerly OpenAuraSDK, is a free open-source RGB lighting control that doesn’t depend on manufacturer software.

OpenRGB supports ASUS, ASRock, Corsair, G.Skill, Gigabyte, HyperX, MSI, Razer, ThermalTake, and more (See supported devices).

While every manufacturer has their own app, proprietary and Windows-only, some even require online accounts, OpenRGB aims to control all of your RGB devices from a single app, on both Windows and Linux.

OpenRGB features include:

  • Set colors and select effect modes for a wide variety of RGB hardware
  • Save and load profiles
  • Control lighting from third party software using the OpenRGB SDK
  • Command line interface
  • Connect multiple instances of OpenRGB to synchronize lighting across multiple PCs
  • Can operate standalone or in a client/headless server configuration
  • View device information
  • No official/manufacturer software required
  • Graphical view of device LEDs makes creating custom patterns easy

How to Get OpenRGB:

The source code, Windows binary, universal Linux Appimage package, and Deb package for Ubuntu / Debian are available to download at the gitlab releases page:

Download OpenRGB

For Ubuntu users, either grab the Appimage package and run to open the software (after adding executable permission), or,  download the Deb package (Debian Buster amd64 for 20.04 and earlier, Debian Bullseye amd64 for later) and click install via Gdebi (Gdebi is available in Ubuntu Software/App Center) package installer.

(Optional) To remove OpenRGB deb package, run command in terminal:

sudo apt remove --auto-remove openrgb
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RedNotebook 2.21 Released, How to Install in Ubuntu 20.10

Last updated: December 7, 2020

RedNotebook, modern desktop diary and personal journal software, released version 2.21 today.

RedNotebook 2.21 features updated MathJax to version 3, resulting in much faster rendering / preview times; The release also fixed date references in CEF-based HtmlView.

How to Install RedNotebook 2.21 via PPA:

The official RedNotebook PPA has been updated for Ubuntu 20.10. For Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 20.04, just wait for PPA update or install the package for Ubuntu 20.10.

1.) Open terminal and run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rednotebook/stable

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) for sudo prompts and hit Enter to continue.

2.) Then install the daily journal app via command:

sudo apt install rednotebook

Uninstall RedNotebook:

To remove the PPA repository, either go to Software & Updates -> Other Software tab, or run command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:rednotebook/stable

And remove the desktop diary app via command:

sudo apt remove rednotebook
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How to Install IntelliJ IDEA 2020.3 via Official Linux Tarball in Ubuntu

Last updated: April 24, 2024

This simple tutorial shows how to install IntelliJ IDEA 2020.3 via its official Linux tarball via PPA.

For those don’t like Snap and Flatpak packages, IntelliJ IDEA offers official Linux tarball in its download page. You can download the package, extract, and run the executable file to launch the IDE.

To make things easy, an installer script was made to automatically download the tarball from Jetbrains website, extract the source to /opt/ directory for global use, and finally create an app shortcut so you can launch the program from system application menu.

And there’s an Ubuntu PPA contains the latest installer scripts for IntelliJ IDEA 2020.3 both community and ultimate editions.

UPDATE: The PPA has been updated to contain script to install “IntelliJ IDEA 2024.1” for Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 18.04, and Ubuntu 16.04.

1.) Open terminal from system application menu. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mmk2410/intellij-idea

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) and hit Enter. The PPA supports all current Ubuntu releases and derivatives.

2.) Then refresh package cache and install the script:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install intellij-idea-community

Replace intellij-idea-community with intellij-idea-ultimate for ultimate edition.

If everything goes OK, you’ll be able to launch the IDE from application launcher.

How to Remove the Package:

To remove the PPA, either go to Software & Updates > Other Software, or run command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:mmk2410/intellij-idea

And to remove IntelliJ IDEA, run command to remove the installer script which also removes the IDE packages:

sudo apt remove intellij-idea-community intellij-idea-ultimate
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Free up Disk Space – Clear Systemd Journal Logs in Ubuntu 24.04 | 22.04

Last updated: January 19, 2025

Going to free up Ubuntu system disk space? Try clearing the systemd journal logs, it may free up a few GB of space.

NOTE: This tutorial is tested and works in my case in Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 20.04

By using the Disk Usage Analyzer tool, I found that /var/log/journal takes more than 4 GB system space in my Ubuntu 20.04.

Systemd has its own logging system called the journal, and the log files are stored in /var/log/journal. As long as I don’t need the logs for any debugging, it’s safe to delete these files. And following steps will show you how.

1. First open terminal from system app launcher, and you may run command to check out the current disk usage of all journal files:

journalctl --disk-usage

2. If you decide to clear the logs, run command to rotate the journal files. All currently active journal files will be marked as archived, so that they are never written to in future.

sudo journalctl --rotate

3. Now clear the journal logs by choosing one of following commands:

  • Delete journal logs older than X days: 
    sudo journalctl --vacuum-time=2days
  • Delete log files until the disk space taken falls below the specified size: 
    sudo journalctl --vacuum-size=100M
  • Delete old logs and limit file number to X: 
    sudo journalctl --vacuum-files=5

4. You can also edit the configuration file to limit the journal log disk usage (100 MB for example).

Run command in terminal to edit the file via Gedit text editor (For 24.04+, replace gedit with gnome-text-editor or use nano that works in most desktops):

sudo -H gedit /etc/systemd/journald.conf

When the file opens, un-comment (remove # at the beginning) the line #SystemMaxUse= and change it to SystemMaxUse=100M.

Finally, save the file (for nano, press Ctrl+S then Ctrl+X) and reload systemd daemon via command:

systemctl daemon-reload

That’s all, Enjoy!

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Remove ‘Show Applications’ Icon From the Dock in Ubuntu 20.04/22.04

Last updated: April 24, 2024

This is a beginner’s guide shows how to remove the ‘Show Applications’ app menu icon from the dock in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04

Why to remove the icon:

The default ‘Show Applications’ app launcher is always a bit slow when I clicking on the 9 dots icon on left dock to show the app menu, even after disabled animation and changed privacy settings.

And I only use it to search for and open applications, which can be done alternatively via the top-left Activities button.

In brief, it’s slow and I use Activities button to search for and open applications.

How to Remove it:

If you’re familiar with Linux command, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal and run command:

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock show-show-apps-button false

That’s it.

You can alternatively open Dconf Editor (install via Ubuntu Software if you don’t have it) and navigate to “org/gnome/shell/extensions/dash-to-dock”.

Then turn off the toggle for the key ‘show-show-apps-button’.

(Optional) To restore the change, either use Dconf Editor or run command:

gsettings reset org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock show-show-apps-button
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