News | UbuntuHandbook

Archives For News

Free open-source software updates and Linux news

Ubuntu 14.04.5 Released with Kernel 4.4 and 16.04 X Stack

Last updated: August 5, 2016

The Ubuntu Team has announced the release of Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS. It’s the fifth and final point release that includes new hardware enablement stack (HWE) from Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.

The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the release of Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS (Long-Term Support) for its Desktop, Server, Cloud, and Core products, as well as other flavours of Ubuntu with long-term support.

We have expanded our hardware enablement offering since 12.04, and with 14.04.5, this point release contains an updated kernel and X stack for new installations to support new hardware across all our supported architectures, not just x86.

As usual, this point release includes many updates, and updated installation media has been provided so that fewer updates will need to be downloaded after installation. These include security updates and corrections for other high-impact bugs, with a focus on maintaining stability and compatibility with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.

Upgrade to Ubuntu 14.04.5:

Ubuntu 14.04 users can easily upgrade to the 14.04.5 point release by running a regular system update via Software Updater.

Or run the commands in terminal:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Note that the updated hardware enablement stack, Kernel 4.4 and X graphics stack from 16.04, will be available through the update only for those who installed Ubuntu 14.04 using the 14.04.2 or newer disc image.

Those who installed Ubuntu 14.04 from the original or 14.04.1 disc image will keep the original Trusty stack. Anyone wishing to opt into the new Kernel and X graphics stack may do so by running the command below in terminal:

sudo apt-get install --install-recommends linux-generic-lts-xenial xserver-xorg-core-lts-xenial xserver-xorg-lts-xenial xserver-xorg-video-all-lts-xenial xserver-xorg-input-all-lts-xenial libwayland-egl1-mesa-lts-xenial

For Sever edition, run this command instead:

sudo apt-get install --install-recommends linux-generic-lts-xenial

In News Ubuntu 14.04

Howto-Upgrade: Firefox 48 Released, Multi-Process Enabled

Last updated: August 3, 2016

Mozilla Firefox 48.0 was released on Tuesday. The biggest change is that Electrolysis (E10S), the multiple processes architecture, is beginning to be enabled by default.

Electrolysis is the project name for Mozilla’s efforts to split Firefox into multiple processes to improve responsiveness, stability, and security. The first phase of this work was to split Firefox into a UI process and a content process.

Besides enabling E10S for some users. Firefox 48 also features:

Download Protection: potentially unwanted software and uncommon downloads.
Add-ons that have not been verified and signed by Mozilla will not load
Better Canvas performance with speedy Skia support for Linux
WebRTC embetterments:
- Delay-agnostic AEC enabled
- Full duplex for GNU/Linux enabled
- ICE Restart & Update is supported
- Cloning of MediaStream and MediaStreamTrack is now supported
Searching and various security improvements, and more at release page.

How to upgrade to Firefox 48 in Ubuntu:

The new Firefox release will be made into Updates/Security repositories very soon, available for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 14.04, and Ubuntu 12.04. (Check out THIS PAGE)

At that time, just launch Software Updater and install available updates after checking for updates.

If for some reason you don’t receive the updates for Firefox 48, launch Software & Updates and:

select Download from “Main Server” in first tab.
make sure the security and updates repositories enabled in Updates tab.

In Howtos, News Firefox

Ubuntu 16.10 Alpha 2 Available for Download

Last updated: September 29, 2017

Ubuntu 16.10 Yakkety Yak now reaches the Alpha 2 release, features images for Lubuntu, Ubuntu MATE and Ubuntu Kylin.

The second alpha of the Yakkety Yak (to become 16.10) has now been released!

This milestone features images for Lubuntu, Ubuntu MATE and Ubuntu Kylin.

Pre-releases of the Yakkety Yak are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu flavor developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting and fixing bugs as we work towards getting this release ready.

Alpha 2 includes a number of software updates that are ready for wider testing. This is still an early set of images, so you should expect some bugs.
…

Ubuntu 16.10 Alpha 2 release highlights:

This Yakkety Yak snapshot still includes the v4.4 kernel
Lubuntu still uses LXDE since LXQt is still in development
MATE Tweak adds option to enable Heads-Up Display (HUD)
new Ubuntu MATE start page.
MATE Dock Applet drag and drop icons support

Ubuntu 16.10 Release Schedule:

June 30th	Alpha 1 (for opt-in flavors)
July 28th	Alpha 2 (for opt-in flavors)
August 18th	Feature Freeze, Debian Import Freeze
August 25th	Beta 1 (for opt-in flavors)
September 22nd	Final Beta
October 6th	Final Freeze, Release Candicate
October 13th	Final release of Ubuntu 16.10

Download Ubuntu 16.10:

Lubuntu 16.10: cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/yakkety/

Ubuntu Mate 16.10: cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-mate/releases/yakkety/

UbuntuKylin 16.10: cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntukylin/releases/yakkety/

In News Ubuntu 16.10

How to Install Linux Kernel 4.7 in Ubuntu 16.04/14.04

Last updated: July 25, 2016

Linus Torvalds finally announced the release of the Linux Kernel 4.7. He wrote on lkml.org:

So, after a slight delay due to my travels, I’m back, and 4.7 is out.

Despite it being two weeks since rc7, the final patch wasn’t all that big, and much of it is trivial one- and few-liners. There’s a couple of network drivers that got a bit more loving. Appended is the shortlog since rc7 for people who care: it’s fairly spread out, with networking and some intel Kabylake GPU fixes being the most noticeable ones. But there’s random small noise spread all over.

Kernel 4.7 release highlights:

open source support for Radeon RX 480 GPUs
async discard support by the core block code
support for upgrading firmware using the EFI Capsule
New Linux Security Module (LSM) “LoadPin”
support for generating virtual USB Device Controllers in USB/IP
numerous drivers updates and lots of bug-fixes.

How to Install / Upgrade Kernel 4.7 in Ubuntu:

Not recommended for common users, unless there’s must upgrade reasons and you know exactly what you’re doing and how to solve problems.

Ubuntu Kernel Team has made the binary packages for the new kernel release, available for download at the link below:

Download Kernel 4.7 Packages [.deb]

Depends on your OS type, grab and install the packages below one by one:

linux-headers-4.7.0-xxxxxx_all.deb
linux-headers-4.7.0-xxx-generic(/lowlatency)_xxx_amd64(/i386).deb
linux-image-4.7.0-xxx-generic(/lowlatency)_xxx_amd64(/i386).deb

Select generic for common system, and lowlatency for a low latency system (e.g. for recording audio), amd64 for 64bit system and i386 for 32bit system.

You may also download these .deb packages in terminal / command console by running following commands one by one:

For 64-bit system:

cd /tmp/

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.7/linux-headers-4.7.0-040700_4.7.0-040700.201607241632_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.7/linux-headers-4.7.0-040700-generic_4.7.0-040700.201607241632_amd64.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.7/linux-image-4.7.0-040700-generic_4.7.0-040700.201607241632_amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

For 32bit system:

cd /tmp/

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.7/linux-headers-4.7.0-040700_4.7.0-040700.201607241632_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.7/linux-headers-4.7.0-040700-generic_4.7.0-040700.201607241632_i386.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.7/linux-image-4.7.0-040700-generic_4.7.0-040700.201607241632_i386.deb

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Finally restart your computer.

Uninstall Kernel 4.7:

For any reason you want to remove this Kernel, start/restart your machine and select boot with the previous kernel in Grub2 -> Advanced menu. Then remove the 4.7 kernel via Ubuntu Tweak, or just follow this tutorial.

In Howtos, News Linux Kernel

Ubuntu 16.04.1 Released with Hardware support Updates & Fixes

Last updated: July 21, 2016

The first point release of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS was released today with so many fixes, improvements, and Kernel and hardware support updates.

Updated CD images for Ubuntu 16.04.1 are available for download, including fixes for many hardware-specific bugs.

According to the change summary, Ubuntu 16.04.1 brings:

Some apt, systemd, dpkg and xinit bugs has been fixed in this release to fix upgrade issues.
some LibreOffice crash fixes.
Lots of fixes and improvements to Gnome Software (Ubuntu Software)
Enable the Snappy back-end for Gnome Software (Ubuntu Software)
Many many fixes to Unity, Unity Settings Daemon, compiz, lightdm display manager, oxide-qt browser engine, etc.
See the change summary for more details.

How to Upgrade to Ubuntu 16.04.1:

For Ubuntu 16.04, running a regular system update using Software Updater will bring you to Ubuntu 16.04.1.

Or run commands in terminal via:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

For Ubuntu 15.10 and Ubuntu 14.04, you may follow this guide to upgrade to 16.04.1.

You can upgrade directly from 14.04 to 16.04.1. Just make sure you have selected to notify LTS only in Software & Updates settings:

In Howtos, News Ubuntu 16.04

Cumulus – Desktop Weather App based on StormCloud

Last updated: July 20, 2016

StormCloud, a stylish desktop weather app, now is resurrected! And it’s called Cumulus.

Cumulus is forked from Typhoon which is a community version forked from StormCloud 1.1. While Typhoon is not in active development, Daryl Bennett resurrect the weather app with the help of Typhoon developer in their spare time and its Cumulus.

Cumulus so far features:

temperature & wind speed support.
custom background color
adjust opacity
Unity Launch count that shows current temperature.

Known Bugs:

There are a few grey clouds spoiling an otherwise bright first run, including some opacity issues on first-run, dead links, broken support pages, and credits panel that credits the old developers.
Cumulus so far does not save location settings.

Download Cumulus:

The 64-bit .deb installer is available in the link below (PPA and snap package may be available in near future):

Download Cumulus Desktop Weather App

Click install the .deb package via Ubuntu Software and launch Cumulus from Unity Dash.

For those who have problem launching the app, try the command below to install gir1.2-webkit-3.0 in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo apt install gir1.2-webkit-3.0

via: OMG!Ubuntu!

In Howtos, News stormcloud, typhoon, weather widget

GIMP 2.8.18 Released with Security Fix to XCF

Last updated: July 14, 2016

GIMP image editor 2.8.18, a new point release in the stable branch, has been released to fix a vulnerability in the XCF loading code. With special XCF files, GIMP can be caused to crash, and possibly be made to execute arbitrary code provided by the attacker.

Besides this security fix, GIMP 2.8.18 also brings following changes:

Fix “GIMP is not responding” on initial startup on Windows and OS X.
Fix GUI crashed on OS X
Fix gamut warning color for lcms display filter
Fix unbolding of bold font on edit
Decrease installer size by changing compression settings
Many other fixes, translation and documentation updates.

How to Install GIMP 2.8.18 in Ubuntu:

GIMP does not provide official Linux binary package. But Otto Meier is maintaining a PPA with most recent packages. So far, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 15.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 and their derivatives are supported.

Check the PPA web page before starting following steps. It can take a little time to make the latest release into PPA.

1. Add the PPA.

Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp

2. Upgrade GIMP using Software Updater.

Or run the command below one by one:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install gimp

3. (Optional) For any reason, you want to downgrade to stock version of GIMP in your Ubuntu. Install ppa-purge and purge the PPA:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp

In Howtos, News gimp, image editor

Virtualbox 5.1 Released, How to Install in Ubuntu 16.04

Last updated: July 13, 2016

Oracle Virtualbox has just reached a new major 5.1 release. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 16.04.

Virtualbox 5.1 ports its UI to Qt5, brings better Python 3 support, HDA (High Definition Audio) support for newer Linux guests, various VMM and other improvements and fixes.

Virtualbox release highlights:

VMM: new APIC and I/O APIC implementations that result in significantly improved performance in certain situations
VMM: added support for Hyper-V paravirtualized debugging of Windows guests
VMM: emulate even more MMIO and shadow pagetable exits without going back to user mode
GUI: overall migration to Qt5
GUI: passive API event listener improving the VM GUI performance and response time
Audio: added HDA (High Definition Audio) support for newer Linux guests
Audio: added on-demand timers which should improve the overall performance and reduce the CPU consumption
Audio: more fine-grained volume control for the AC’97 emulation, which now also takes the master volume control into account
better support for Python 3
For more details, see the ChangeLog.

How to install Virtualbox 5.1 in Ubuntu:

1. The 5.1 release conflicts with the old 5.0 or 4.x releases, so first open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to remove the previous VBox installation:

sudo apt remove virtualbox virtualbox-5.0 virtualbox-4.*

2. Download Virtualbox 5.1 for your OS (i386=32bit, amd64=64bit):

Download Virtualbox for Linux

Then click install via Ubuntu Software.

3. For those who want to install VBox 5.1 from official Linux repository and receive future updates via Software Updater. Run the commands below one by one in terminal:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian xenial contrib" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list'

wget -q https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox_2016.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

sudo apt update

sudo apt install virtualbox-5.1

According to your Ubuntu codename, replace xenial with wily, trusty, or precise.

In Howtos, News Virtualbox

Support for Ubuntu 15.10 Ends on July 28

Last updated: July 7, 2016

Ubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf will reach the end of its life on July 28, 2016.

The Ubuntu 15.10 desktop users will receive no more security notices, critical fixes, or updated packages from the main Ubuntu archives as of this July 28th. Ubuntu announced in fridge.ubuntu.com:

Ubuntu announced its 15.10 (Wily Werewolf) release almost 9 months ago, on October 22, 2015. As a non-LTS release, 15.10 has a 9-month month support cycle and, as such, the support period is now nearing its end and Ubuntu 15.10 will reach end of life on Thursday, July 28th. At that time, Ubuntu Security Notices will no longer include information or updated packages for Ubuntu 15.10.

Users of Ubuntu 15.10 can choose upgrade to Ubuntu 16.04 or install Ubuntu 14.04, both Long-Term Support release with 5-year support cycle.

how to upgrade to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (works for final release though the title said for beta).
Download Ubuntu Images.

In News end, Ubuntu 15.10

How to Install digiKam 5.0 in (K)Ubuntu 16.04 via PPA

Last updated: April 24, 2024

After two years of development, digiKam 5.0 stable was finally released one day ago with fully Qt5 port.

In addition to code porting, digiKam 5.0 now uses many Qt dependencies instead of KDE dependencies. To provide a pure Qt5 version of digiKam in the future, around 80% of KDE dependencies have been removed, 10% become optional for Linux Desktop. This simplifies the porting job and code maintenance on Windows, OS X, and other operating systems.

Other changes in digiKam 5.0:

remove KIO-slaves, instead a multi-threaded implementation is used to query the database
use virtual trash folder, accessible from album tree, instead of KDE desktop trash
improve metadata workflow in digiKam with a new Lazy Synchronization Tool
port kipi-plugins to Qt5
The whole database code has been reviewed, polished, cleaned, and documented.
database configuration panel rewritten
possible to setup MySQL datebase at first run

For more details, read the official release note.

How to Install digiKam 5.0 in (K)Ubuntu:

Philip Johnsson is maintaining a PPA with digiKam binary for Ubuntu. Now digiKam 5.0 is available in the PPA for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 15.10, and derivatives.

1. Add PPA.

Open terminal emulator and paste the command below and run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:philip5/extra

Type in your password when it asks. There’s no visual feedback on password typing, so just type in mind and hit Enter.

2. Now search for and install digikam5 using your package manager after refresh package caches.

Or just run the commands below one by one in terminal:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install digikam5

The digiKam5 packages is independent of previous digiKam 4.x. You may have both version installed at the same time.

In Howtos, News digikam, photo manager

Archives For News

Upgrade to Ubuntu 14.04.5:

How to upgrade to Firefox 48 in Ubuntu:

Newsletter