News, Tutorials, Howtos for Ubuntu Linux
This simple tutorial shows how to install WeChat, QQ instant messenger and QQ Music in all current Ubuntu releases.
For those doing business or having friends / family members in China, it’s hard to avoid using these top apps. Thanks to wine and Deepin Linux, they are now easy to install in Linux without native support.
This tutorial is going to show you how to install and setup Universal Media Server in Ubuntu 20.04 Desktop and Server.
Universal Media Server, UMS in short, is a DLNA-compliant UPnP media server allows streaming media files to a wide range of devices including video game consoles, smart TVs, smartphones, and Blu-ray players.
1. Install required libraries:
Media transcoding is accomplished through packages from AviSynth, FFMpeg, MEncoder, and VLC, you have to first open terminal and run command to make sure these packages installed:
sudo apt install mediainfo dcraw vlc mplayer mencoder
2. Download Universal Media Server:
The latest tarballs are available to download at github project page. Select download (run uname -m to tell system type):
Download Universal Media Server
At the moment, the latest release is version 10.0.1. If you’re running Ubuntu Server, use this command to download it (replace URL in the command if a newer version is available):
wget -c https://github.com/UniversalMediaServer/UniversalMediaServer/releases/download/10.0.1/UMS-10.0.1-x86_64.tgz
3. Decompress the tarball
Run following 2 commands will navigate to user’s Downloads folder, then extract the UMS package /opt, and finally rename result folder from ‘ums-10.0.1‘ to ‘ums‘.
cd Downloads
sudo tar -zxvf UMS-10.0.1-x86_64.tgz -C /opt/ --transform s/ums-10.0.1/ums/
Skip cd Downloads if it was downloaded via wget command.
And replace “UMS-10.0.1-x86_64.tgz” if a newer version was downloaded, also do change version number in “ums-10.0.1“.
If everything goes well, you should be able to run the Universal Media Server via command:
/opt/ums/UMS.sh
For Ubuntu Desktop, it brings up a setup dialog to choose language, start minimized or not, choose network, and media folder etc.
Then it offers an user interface with more configurations, log view, and more.
For Ubuntu Server without UI, edit the .config/UMS/UMS.conf file for configurations. By default, it steams all files under user home. You can add “folder = /PATH/TO/MEDIA1,/PATH/TO/MEDIA2” to set media folder. For more, read the UMS.conf file under source tarball.
After starting the server go to http://server_ip:9001 in your web browser to check out if the server is working.
To make it run as systemd service, open terminal and run command:
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/ums.service
It will create an empty file and open with nano command line text editor. Paste (Ctrl+Shift+V) following lines and change ji to your user name. Also change memory limit from 500M to another value if you want.
[Unit] Description=Run UMS as Ji DefaultDependencies=no After=network.target [Service] Type=simple User=ji Group=ji ExecStart=/opt/ums/UMS.sh TimeoutStartSec=0 RemainAfterExit=yes Environment="UMS_MAX_MEMORY=500M" [Install] WantedBy=default.target
Save changes by pressing Ctrl+X, follow with Y, and hit Enter.
Finally run commands to reload systemd daemon, enable and start UMS service.
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable ums.service
sudo systemctl start ums.service
And check the service status via command:
sudo systemctl status ums.service
The new wine development version 6.1 was released with new features and dozens of bug-fixes.
Wine 6.1 release highlights:
As usual, there are many bug-fixes to applications including Dark Sector, LabVIEW 2014, Skyrim SE, The Witcher 3, Still Life 2, The Sims 3, and more.
Open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard, or by searching for ‘terminal’ from system application menu. When it opens, run following steps one by one.
1.) Run command to enable 32 bit architecture (if you don’t have it):
sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.
2.) Install the repository key by running command:
wget -O - https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key | sudo apt-key add -
3.) Add wine repository via command (for Ubuntu 20.04 and Linux Mint 20):
sudo apt-add-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ focal main'
NOTE: You may replace focal in the code with:
4.) For Ubuntu 18.04 and Linux Mint 19.x only, libfaudio0 library is required to install from a third-party repository by running command:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cybermax-dexter/sdl2-backport
5.) Finally install Wine 6.1 via command:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-devel
You may remove the PPA by launching Software & Updates utility and navigating to Other Software tab.
To remove wine 6.1, run command in terminal:
sudo apt remove --auto-remove winehq-devel
This simple tutorial shows how to install the free audio workstation Ardour 6.5 in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and / or Linux Mint 20.x via PPA.
Ardour 6.5 was released with support for plugins in Steinberg’s VST3 format, on Linux, Windows and macOS. As usual, there’s various bug fixes and improvements ranging from the minor to the extremely useful.
The new release has been made into the main repositories for next Ubuntu 21.04. For Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, a backport PPA by Ubuntu Studio packaging team now maintains the package.
1.) Open terminal either from system application launcher or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntustudio-ppa/ardour-backports
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.
2.) After adding the PPA and refreshing package cache (should be done automatically), run command to install the multichannel hard disk recorder and digital audio workstation:
sudo apt install ardour
If everything’s done successfully, launch the software from system app menu and enjoy!
To remove the software package, simply run command in terminal:
sudo apt remove --auto-remove ardour
To remove the Ubuntu PPA, open Software & Updates and go to Other Software tab. Then remove the relevant repository line.
Linux Mint introduced a Web App Manager app since v20.1, allowing users to turn any web pages into desktop applications. Like a normal application, web app has its own window, its own icon, and can be launched from system app menu.
Ubuntu used to have web apps integration when it was Ubuntu 14.04. The project was however discontinued.
For those want to try out the new Web App Manager from Linux Mint, here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 24.04.
If you just want to try it out, the DEB binary package is available to download via Linux Mint ftp download page:
Grab it and install the package either via Gdebi package installer or by running command in terminal (press Ctrl+Alt+T to open one):
sudo apt install ~/Downloads/webapp-manager*.deb
After that, you may search for and launch ‘Web Apps’ from your system app launcher and enjoy!
Previously I wrote an optional way to install the app by adding Linux Mint’s repository in Ubuntu. For better choice, there’s an Ubuntu PPA contains the Linux Mint packages for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 24.04
First, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kelebek333/mint-tools
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue
Then, run command to install the webapp manager package:
sudo apt install webapp-manager
The PPA also contains some other Linux Mint’ apps. You may re-run the last command and replace webapp-manager with one of below to install:
warpinator – local network file sharing app.sticky – sticky notes app.hypnotix – IPTV player.Thanks to Oscar, the app may run very slow due to lack of certain Python libraries. By running it from terminal will output something like below:
TypeError: Couldn't find foreign struct converter for 'cairo.Surface'
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/webapp-manager/webapp-manager.py", line 222, in data_func_surface
surface = Gdk.cairo_surface_create_from_pixbuf(pixbuf, self.window.get_scale_factor())
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In the case, simply install the python3-gi-cairo package by the running command below should fix the issue:
sudo apt install python3-gi-cairo
To remove the application, simply open terminal and run command:
sudo apt remove --auto-remove webapp-manager
To remove the Ubuntu PPA, use command:
sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:kelebek333/mint-tools
Want to install PHP 8.0 as well as many PECL extensions in your Ubuntu Server? Well there’s a well trusted PPA that contains the packages for all current Ubuntu releases.
Ondřej Surý, a Debian Developer who maintains the official PHP packages in Debian, is maintaining an Ubuntu PPA that contains the latest PHP 5.6, PHP 7.0, PHP 7.1, PHP 7.2, PHP 7.3, PHP 7.4, and PHP 8.0 packages as well as PECL extensions for all current Ubuntu releases.
1.) Simply open terminal or connect to your remote Ubuntu server, and run command to make sure software-properties-common is installed:
sudo apt install software-properties-common
2.) Then run command to add the php PPA repository by running command:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
For non-UTF-8 locales, run LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
3.) If you are using php-gearman, you need to run command to add the gearman PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/pkg-gearman
I’m using Nginx web server, and it’s recommended to add the Nginx stable PPA instead:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/nginx
If you’re using Apache2, adding the apache2 PPA is recommended:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/apache2
4.) Finally refresh system package cache and install php 8.0 packages via command:
sudo apt update sudo apt install php8.0-fpm libapache2-mod-php8.0 php8.0-mysql php8.0-xml
There are also many other packages available, e.g., php8.0-amqp, php8.0-apcu, php8.0-memcache, php8.0-memcached, and more. Just add or remove package names after “sudo apt install” depends what you need.
In all previous commands, you can replace php8.0 with php7.4, php7.3, php7.2, php7.0, or php5.6 to install a specify version of PHP packages
To remove an Ubuntu PPA, add --remove flag in adding PPA command. For instance, remove php PPA via command:
sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ondrej/php
Instead of removing Ubuntu PPA, you can also purge PPA which also downgrade installed packages to the stock version in Ubuntu repositories.
sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:ondrej/php
To remove a php package, simply run command:
sudo apt remove Package_Name_Here
The qBittorrent 4.3.3 was released a few days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 20.10, Ubuntu 18.04, and Linux Mint 19.x / 20.
This release contains mainly bug-fixes. Because Xcode doesn’t support C++17, Mac OS 10.13 (High Sierra) is no longer supported. And Ubuntu 18.04 is highly to be dropped in the next release.
qBittorrent 4.3.3 release highlights:
The official qBittorrent PPA has built the new release packages for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, and Ubuntu 20.10.
1. To add the PPA, open terminal by either pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or searching for “Terminal” from application menu. When it opens, run command:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:qbittorrent-team/qbittorrent-stable
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.
2. If an old version was installed on your system, upgrade it via Software Updater,
or run following commands to install /upgrade qBittorrent in terminal:
sudo apt update sudo apt install qbittorrent
To remove qBittorrent PPA, either go to Software & Updates -> Other Software, or run command in terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:qbittorrent-team/qbittorrent-stable
To remove the bittorrent client, either use your system package manager or run command:
sudo apt-get remove --autoremove qbittorrent
Running Ubuntu with high refresh rate monitor? You may found that the Firefox web browser does not match with your monitor’s native refresh rate.
This is a simple tip shows how to change the refresh rate of Firefox, though you have to first set the system refresh rate (Settings -> Displays) to match your monitor.
1.) Open Firefox and type about:config in address bar and hit Enter. And click the button which says ‘Accept the Risk and Continue’.
2.) Next in the filter box, type layout.frame_rate and click edit the key value to your monitor’s native refresh rate (144 in the case).
That’s it. Restart Firefox and enjoy!
via: reddit
For Ubuntu 18.04 users sticking to the PPA build of GIMP image editor 2.10.22, now the Python Script support is back.
Since old GTK2 and Python 2 libraries being removed from Ubuntu universe repositories, the Python script support was excluded due to lack of dependencies when I was uploading the GIMP packages into PPA.
Ubuntu 18.04 was neglected, though. It meets all the dependencies to build the requested feature. So I added it back. Hope it’s not too late for you :). And the package was totally built via the rules from otto-kesselgulasch’s PPA.
NOTE I do only basic image editing with GIMP, and I can’t go further test for the function though it seems working.
1.) Open terminal from system application launcher. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/gimp
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) for sudo prompts and hit Enter to continue.
2.) If an old version of GIMP .deb package was installed, upgrade it via Software Updater (need to install gimp-python manually) utility.
or run apt commands in terminal to install GIMP:
sudo apt update sudo apt install gimp gimp-gmic gimp-python
If an old version was installed, it’s recommended to run sudo apt upgrade which will also update the required babl, gegl libraries.
To restore GIMP to the stock version in main Ubuntu repository, run command to purge the PPA:
sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/gimp
For those prefer installing applications via apt method, the desktop publishing software Scribus 1.5.6 is finally made into PPA available for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 20.10, and Linux Mint 20.
Scribus 1.5.6 was released a few months ago as the latest development release for the next major version 1.6.0. It features:
Besides non-install Appimage and community maintained flatpak package, the official PPA now contains the packages for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 20.10.
1.) Open terminal from system application launcher. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scribus/ppa
2.) Then run command to install the software package:
sudo apt install scribus-ng
To remove the scribus package, simply run command in terminal:
sudo apt remove --autoremove scribus-ng
To remove the Ubuntu PPA, either run command in step 1.) with --remove flag, or open Software & Updates and remove relevant line under Other Software tab.
