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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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How to Install Oracle Java 14 in Ubuntu 18.04, 20.04

Last updated: March 29, 2020

Oracle Java 14 was released more than a week ago. For those want to install it in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.10, Ubuntu 20.04, Linux Mint 18.x, 19.x, and their derivatives, an installer script is available in PPA.

For new features and other changes in Java 14, see the announcement.

An Webupd8 team based installer script has been made into the “Linux Uprising” team ppa, which automatically downloads and installs Oracle JDK 14, and sets Java 14 as the default Java version (setting JAVA_HOME, etc.) on 64-bit Ubuntu based machine.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:linuxuprising/java

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

2.) Then check updates and install the script via 2 commands:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install oracle-java14-installer oracle-java14-set-default

Skip / remove oracle-java14-set-default in the command if you don’t want to set Oracle Java 14 as default.

3.) Check the result via command: java --version

(Optional) You can remove the PPA repository via Software & Updates utility under Other Software tab.

And remove Java 14 if you want via command:

sudo apt-get remove oracle-java14-installer
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qBittorrent 4.2.2 Released! How to Install it via PPA

Last updated: March 26, 2020

qBittorrent

qBittorrent torrent client 4.2.2 was released a few days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.04, and Ubuntu 19.10.

qBittorrent 4.2.2 comes with new features, web UI improvements, and various bug-fixes. And python2 support is removed in the search function.

Changes in the new release include:

  • Allow transfer list text color changes through QSS.
  • Option to show console when external program is run.
  • Change the defaults of some settings.
  • Refactored Transfer List code to allow theming.
  • Reorganize UI theme selection.
  • Show any multiple connections from the same IP in peer list.
  • Add stalled filters to GUI and Web API/UI.
  • Use IP geolocation database by DB-IP instead of MaxMind.
  • Allow to save downloaded metadata as torrent file.
  • Allow single app instance per configuration.
  • Option to start qBittorrent on Windows start up.

How to Install qBittorrent 4.2.2 in Ubuntu:

The official qBittorrent PPA has built the new release packages for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.04, and Ubuntu 19.10.

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,

upgrade qBittorrent

or run following commands to install /upgrade qBittorrent in terminal:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install qbittorrent

Uninstall:

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
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How to Install Code::Blocks 20.03 in Ubuntu 18.04, 19.10

Last updated: March 25, 2020

Code Blocks IDE

Code::Blocks, open-source C, C++, and Fortran IDE, released version 20.03 a few days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.10, and derivatives.

Code::Blocks 20.03 was available for a few days, though it’s not officially announced in its website. The Code::Blocks Developers Team PPA has made the packages for all current Ubuntu releases.

To install the new IDE version, open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or by searching for ‘terminal’ from application menu. When it opens, do following steps one by one.

1.) Run command to add the PPA repository:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:codeblocks-devs/release

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 commands one by one in terminal to install the IDE:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install codeblocks codeblocks-contrib

Once installed, launch it from your system application menu and enjoy!

Uninstall Code::Blocks

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

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:codeblocks-devs/release

And remove Code::Blocks if you want via command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove codeblocks codeblocks-contrib
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