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Free open-source software updates and Linux news

Nuvola Player 3

Linux cloud music player Nuvola Player 3 finally goes stable. Its official repository is ready for Ubuntu 15.10, Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.04, and derivatives.

Nuvola Player 3 supports various services such as Google Play Music, 8tracks, Amazon Cloud Player, Bandcamp, Deezer, Jango, KEXP Live Stream, Logitech Media Server, Mixcloud, Plex Music, Spotify, TuneIn, Yandex Music.

Nuvola Player 3 supported services

The new release has been rewritten from scratch and contains plenty of improvements over Nuvola Player 2. It features:

  • built on top of WebKit2Gtk+ so it doesn’t need any hacks to support Flash plugin
  • run multiple services side-by-side, the software creates a desktop application shortcut when a particular service starts
  • official repositories for Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora.
  • GTK header bar, client-side-decorations in Gnome.
  • and more at the release page.

How to Install Nuvola Player 3 in Ubuntu:

Open terminal from Unity Dash, Application Launcher, or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut key. When it opens, run below command one by one.

1. Add the official repository.

Paste below command in terminal and hit run:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb https://tiliado.eu/nuvolaplayer/repository/deb/ wily stable" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tiliado-nuvolaplayer.list'

Type in your password (no visual feedback so just type in mind) when it asks and hit enter.
nuvola-player-repository

Here you may replace wily in the code with:

  • wily — for Ubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf
  • vivid — for Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet
  • trusty — for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Linux Mint 17.x, Elementary OS Freya, etc.

2. Add GPG key to trust the repository packages.

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys 40554B8FA5FE6F6A

3. Finally install Nuvola Player 3 via either Synaptic Package Manager after clicking Refresh, or below commands one by one:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install nuvolaplayer3

For those who hate Linux commands, try the graphics installer available at this page.

Mixxx 2.0

The Mixxx team finally announced the release of its free, open-source DJ software Mixxx 2.0 after years of development.

Mixxx 2.0 comes with so many new features and below is a few of them:

  • Dynamic, resizable skins to fit whatever size screen you have.
  • Support the latest DJing techniques
  • New effect processing system
  • Cover art support
  • Improved, expanded support for DJ controllers
  • upgraded libraries and much more.

For more details, go to the release page.

Mixxx 2.0

How to install Mixxx 2.0:

Mixxx has an official PPA repository, which contains the binaries for Ubuntu 15.10, Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, and derivatives.

1. Add the PPA.

Open terminal from Unity Dash, App Launcher, or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut key. When it opens, paste below command and hit run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mixxx/mixxx

Type in your password (no visual feedback just type in mind) when it asks and hit enter to continue.

mixxx-ppa

2. Install or upgrade the software.

If you have a previous release installed, launch Software Updater after added the PPA to check for updates and upgrade Mixxx.

Or, run commands below one by one in terminal to do the update and install things:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install mixxx

3. (Optional)

After installation, you may keep the PPA for receiving future updates, or disable/remove PPA via either Software & Updates -> Other Software tab, or command:

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

SuperTux 0.4.0

SuperTux, a classic Super Mario-like 2D jump ‘n run sidescroller game, has reached the 0.4.0 release, a new STABLE release since 0.1.3 after more than 10 years of development.

supertux-040

Compared to 0.1.3, this release features:

  • a nearly completely rewritten game engine based on OpenGL, OpenAL, SDL2, …
  • support for translations
  • in-game manager for downloadable add-ons and translations
  • Bonus Island III, a for now unfinished Forest Island and the development levels in Incubator Island
  • a final boss in Icy Island
  • new and improved soundtracks and sound effects
  • new badguys, bonuses and power-ups (air-, earth- and ice-flower)
  • a halloween tilemap
  • new graphic effects (glowing objects, particles, …)
  • levels and worldmaps are scriptable using squirrel
  • much more game objects: trampolines, switches, portable stones, wind, moving platforms, … – most of them have scripting APIs
  • improved statistics
  • many invisible changes, like unit tests, efficiency improvements and more bugfixes
  • much more..

Compared to the latest beta, 0.3.5a, SuperTux 0.4.0 features updated translations, many bugfixes, more levels, and much more. See the release notes for details.

How to Install SuperTux 0.4.0 in Ubuntu:

For Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, the new release has been made into the official Ubuntu repositories, just search for and install the game via Software Center.

For Ubuntu 15.10, Ubuntu 14.04, and Mint 17.x, run below commands one by one in terminal to install it from third-party PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install supertux supertux-data

For those who don’t want to add PPA, grab the .deb packages from links below:

1. First download and install supertux-data for both 32-bit & 64-bit:

supertux-data for Ubuntu 15.10

supertux-data for Ubuntu 14.04

2. Then install the .deb package for supertux:

supertux for Ubuntu 15.10: 32-bit | 64-bit

supertux for Ubuntu 14.04: 32-bit | 64-bit

Firefox 43.0 Released, How to Upgrade in Ubuntu

Last updated: December 16, 2015

Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox web browser has reached the 43 release on Tuesday, available for upgrade in Ubuntu 15.10, Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 and their derivatives.

What’s new in Firefox 43:

  • Private Browsing with Tracking Protection offers choice of blocking additional trackers
  • Improved API support for m4v video playback
  • Firefox 64-bit for Windows is now available via the Firefox download page
  • Users can choose search suggestions from the Awesome Bar
  • On-screen keyboard displayed on selecting input field on devices running Windows 8 or greater
  • Firefox Health Report has switched to use the same data collection mechanism as telemetry

Also various security fixes and developer improvements are included in this release. See the release note.

How to Install / Upgrade:

Canonical has made the new release into the updates & security repositories for all current Ubuntu releases.

To install it, just run Software Updater and click install available updates after checking for updates:

Firefox 43 available for upgrade

Don’t see it in the list? Launch Software & Updates, select download from ‘Main Server’ and make sure the security and updates repositories are enabled in Updates tab.

KeePassX 2

KeePassX, a native Linux port of KeePass password manager, finally reached the 2.0 release after several years of development.

KeePassX 2 has been rewritten from scratch. It uses the new .kdbx (same as KeePass 2) database format. You can import your .kdb database from 0.4 series from menu Database > Import KeePass 1 database.

New features include:

  • Multiple attachments per entry
  • Add custom key/value pairs to entries
  • Open multiple database in one window

For more details, see official release note.

KeePassX 2

How to Install KeePassX 2 in Ubuntu:

The official KeePassX PPA does not update at the moment, but a third-party PPA has built the KeePassX 2.0 for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, Ubuntu 15.04, and Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.

1. Add PPA

Open terminal from Unity Dash, App Launcher, or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut key. When it opens, paste below command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:eugenesan/ppa

keepassx-3thparty-ppa

Update: The 14.04 package so far is broken in the eugenesan/ppa. Use this PPA instead with yubikey support:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:hda-me/keepassx2-yubico

Type in your password when it asks (no visual feedback just type in mind) and hit Enter to continue.

2. After that, upgrade KeePassX by running Software Updater. Or run below commands one by one in terminal:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install keepassx

For those who don’t want to add PPA, grab the .deb installer directly from HERE.

3. (Optional) As a third-party PPA, it also contains many other applications. You may remove the PPA after installation by either using Software & Updates -> Other Software tab, or running below command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:eugenesan/ppa && sudo apt-get update

mupdf-icon

MuPDF, a free, open-source, and lightweight PDF and XPS viewer, now reaches the 1.8 release with new features, improvements and various fixes.

MuPDF is a lightweight PDF viewer and toolkit written in portable C, which also reads XPS, OpenXPS and EPUB documents. It works on Windows, Android, and Linux.

The renderer in MuPDF is tailored for high quality anti-aliased graphics. It renders text with metrics and spacing accurate to within fractions of a pixel for the highest fidelity in reproducing the look of a printed page on screen.

What’s New in MuPDF 1.8:

Headline changes:

  • New OpenGL-based barebones desktop viewer.
  • New URW fonts with greek and cyrillic.
  • 64-bit file support.
  • Ghostscript proofing mode (source only; not in shipped binaries).

EPUB improvements:

  • User style sheets.
  • GIF images (also for CBZ).
  • Table of contents.
  • CJK text.
  • Page margins.
  • Many bug fixes.

Bug fixes:

  • Updated FreeType to version 2.6.1.
  • Various font substitution bug fixes.
  • Fix setjmp/longjmp behaviour which could cause optimizing compilers to misbehave.

In addition, mudraw has been merged into mutool, use mutool draw to use mudraw.

How to Install MuPDF 1.8 in Ubuntu:

There are Android, Windows installers, and source tarball available in its official download page.

For Ubuntu and derivatives, you can either build the viewer from the source or use my personal binaries in PPA.

Method 1:

Open terminal from Unity Dash, App Launcher, or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut key. When it opens, run below commands one by one to add my PPA and install MuPDF:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install mupdf mupdf-tools

Method 2 For those who don’t want to add PPA:

Depends on your Ubuntu edition (e.g., 15.10, 15.04, 14.04, and 12.04), and OS type (i386.deb for 32-bit and amd64.deb for 64-bit)

select download the .deb packages for mupdf and mupdf-tools from the link below:

MuPDF in PPA page

Finally click install the packages via Ubuntu Software Center.

How to Use:

The PDF viewer doesn’t have a launcher. To use it, right-click on the file and select it from the “Open With” option.

mupdf

To set default, go to file’s context menu -> Properties -> Open With tab -> select MuPDF from list -> finally click ‘Set as default’ button.

For mouse behavior and key bindings run man mupdf command in terminal.

Uninstall:

You may remove the PPA by launching Software & Updates and then navigate to Other Software tab. Also remove MuPDF via Ubuntu Software Center if you want.

Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox 42.0 was finally released one day ago. Now it’s available in Ubuntu official repositories for Ubuntu 15.10, Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, and their derivatives, e.g., Linux Mint 13/17, and Elementary OS Freya/Luna.

Firefox 42.0 features:

  • Private Browsing with Tracking Protection blocks certain Web elements that could be used to record your behavior across sites
  • Control Center that contains site security and privacy controls
  • Indicator added to tabs that play audio with one-click muting
  • WebRTC improvements:
    • IPV6 support
    • Preferences for controlling ICE candidate generation and IP exposure
    • Hooks for extensions to allow/deny createOffer/Answer
    • Improved ability for applications to monitor and control which devices are used in getUserMedia
  • Login Manager improvements:
    • Improved heuristics to save usernames and passwords
    • Edit and show all logins in line, Copy/Paste usernames/passwords from the Context menu
    • Migration imports your passwords to Firefox from Google Chrome for Windows and Internet Explorer; import anytime from the Login Manager
  • Improved performance on interactive websites that trigger a lot of restyles
  • HTML5
    • Implemented ES6 Reflect
    • Support ImageBitmap and createImageBitmap()
    • Media Source Extension for HTML5 video available for all sites
  • DEVELOPER:
    • View HTML source in a tab
    • Remote website debugging over WiFi (no USB cable or ADB needed)
    • Asynchronous call stacks now allow web developers to follow the code flow through setTimeout, DOM event handlers, and Promise handlers.
    • Configurable Firefox OS Simulator in WebIDE, to simulate reference devices like phones, tablets, even TVs
      CSS filter presets in the Inspector
    • Ability to save filter presets inside CSS Filter Tooltip
  • And also various security fixes.

How to Upgrade Firefox:

To upgrade the browser in Ubuntu, just launch Software Updater (or Update Manager for Linux Mint).

software-updater

After checking for updates, you should see Firefox Web Browser available in the list.

firefox-42

Install it and done!

QupZilla Qt web browser

QupZilla, an open-source Qt web browser, has reached the 1.8.7 release with enhancements and various bug-fixes.

QupZilla 1.8.7 is still using QtWebKit. New version QupZilla 2.0 will be using QtWebEngine, and it’s now under development. Changes in the 1.8.7 release:

  • save pinned tabs per-window when set to restore session
  • Shift+Left click on links now opens link in new window
  • show web inspector action now toggles inspector
  • add button to create new userscript in GreaseMonkey
  • add “Anti-Adblock Killer” AdBlock subscription
  • add Ctrl+G and Ctrl+Shift+G shortcuts in search toolbar
  • fix enabling select all and find actions in menu
  • fix searching for strings with special whitespaces from locationbar
  • fix build with KF5 KWallet, Qt 5.5 and gcc 4.9.
  • fix crash when blocking popup window with AdBlock
  • fix icon animation when blocking popup window with AdBlock
  • fix incorrectly accepting some cookies
  • fix creating new config directory
  • fix saving settings without changing pages in SpeedDial
  • fix center dials option in SpeedDial
  • fix not escaping characters for (file, ftp) dir listings
  • fix not showing restore page when opening new url from cli
  • fix adding search engine from form on page with Qt 5
  • fix saving homepage/new tab urls from preferences
  • Linux: use run-time detection of X11 platform

QupZilla in Ubuntu 14.04

How to Install / Upgrade QupZilla in Ubuntu:

For all current Ubuntu releases, there’s an official PPA repository for QupZilla browser. Follow below steps to add the PPA and install/upgrade the latest browser:

NOTE: The new release is not ready for upgrade at the moment. CHECK OUT THE PPA PAGE.

1. Add QupZilla PPA.

Open terminal from the Unity Dash, App Launcher, or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut key. When it opens, run below command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:nowrep/qupzilla

qupzilla-ppa

2. If have a previous release installed, run Software Updater (or Update Manager) to upgrade the browser once a new release is out and made into PPA.

Or, run below commands one by one in terminal to refresh system repository cache and install/upgrade the browser:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install qupzilla

Final Beta of Ubuntu 15.10 Available for Download

Last updated: September 29, 2017

Ubuntu 15.10 Wily

The final beta of Ubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf was released a few hours ago, features images from not only the Ubuntu Desktop, Server, Cloud, and Core products, but also the Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Kylin, Ubuntu Studio, and Xubuntu flavours.

The final release of Ubuntu 15.10 is planned for release on 22 October. It will be supported for 9 months for Desktop, Server, along with all other flavours.

Ubuntu 15.10 Beta2 include Kernel 4.2.1 and features:

  • Kubuntu: Plasma 5 and KDE Applications 15.08
  • Lubuntu: another bug fixes for LXQt, replace iBus with Fcitx.
  • Ubuntu Gnome: Gnome 3.16, experimental wayland session available (install gnome-session-wayland)
  • Ubuntu MATE: Migration MATE 1.10 is complete.
  • See more at fridge.ubuntu.com

Upgrade to Ubuntu 15.10 from Ubuntu 15.04:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WilyUpgrades

Download Ubuntu 15.10 and flavors:

Ubuntu 15.10: http://releases.ubuntu.com/15.10/

Kubuntu 15.10: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/15.10/

Lubuntu 15.10: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/15.10/

Ubuntu Gnome 15.10: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-gnome/releases/15.10

UbuntuKylin 15.10: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntukylin/releases/15.10/

Ubuntu MATE 15.10: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-mate/releases/15.10/

Xubuntu 15.10: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/15.10/

Ubuntu 15.10 Wily

The default desktop wallpaper for Ubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf, next Ubuntu release coming in October, has been released on launchpad by Will Cooke.

The wallpaper is made from Alex Milazzo in the Design team. It looks not all that different from the previous 15.04’s wallpaper.

Ubuntu 15.10 default wallpaper

Ubuntu 15.10 default wallpaper

Below is the Ubuntu 15.04 default wallpaper:

Ubuntu 15.04 default wallpaper

Ubuntu 15.04 default wallpaper

The wallpaper image, png8 and png24 in 4096 x 2304 available for download at the link below:

Ubuntu 15.10 default wallpaper