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Security – Ubuntu Stores You Wi-Fi Password in Clear Text

Last updated: December 27, 2013

Wifi Security problem in Ubuntu

A user has pointed out on the mailing list that the Wi-Fi passwords in Ubuntu are not encrypted because they are stored in a folder outside of Home, which can be encrypted during the installation of the operating system.

I recently stumbled over the fact, that NetworkManager by default stores Wifi profiles *including clear text passwords* under ‘/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/’.

I think that is not what one expects when he/she turns on home folder encryption and should because of that be corrected somehow.

If you’re using the default Wi-Fi settings in Ubuntu Linux, open Nautilus file browser with root (Press Alt+F2 -> type gksudo nautilus, hit enter). Then you’ll see list of available Wi-Fi connections under Computer -> etc -> NetworkManager -> system-connections

Ubuntu WIFI clear password

The password is shown as clear text in your Wi-Fi connection file.

A Ubuntu developer has explained that this issue is caused by the fact that the option “All users may connect to this network” is enabled by default. Which means, untick “All users may connect to this network.” under network indicator -> Edit connections -> Select network -> Click edit -> General tab will fix this issue.

Fix Ubuntu Wifi Clear Password issue

softpedia

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KDE Audio Converter CD Ripper soundKonverter 2.0.5 & 2.0.90 released

Last updated: December 22, 2013

KDE sound converter cd ripper

 

SoundKonverter, the KDE audio converter, Replay Gain tool and CD ripper now is at version 2.0.5 and 2.0.90 (2.1.0 rc1).

According to the changelog, soundKonverter 2.0.5 added Catalan, Swedish, Chinese (Taiwan), and Romanian translations. 2.0.90 added following new features:

  • Hide main window when started with –replaygain argument
  • Option to eject CD after ripping has been completed (enabled by default)
  • New space holder for the “meta data” naming mode that contains the source directory
  • Configuration options for cdparanoia
  • icedax ripper plugin
  • Copy album artist tags
  • Remember last folder for add files/directory/playlist dialogs
  • Add symlinked files to file list

soundKonverter audio convert

soundKonverter CD ripping

SoundKonverter Features:

  • Convert audio files between many formats
  • Change sample rate and sample size during conversion
  • Apply effects like normalize during conversion
  • Convert the audio stream from video files to audio files
  • Convert multiple files at once
  • Calculate Replay Gain for many formats
  • Replay Gain tool for calculating and removing Replay Gain tags
  • Calculate Replay Gain for multiple files or file stets at once
  • Conversion and Replay Gain calculation is very scalable, the conversion of 10000 files or more is not a problem
  • Copy tags and covers when converting files (note: for ogg/METADATA_BLOCK_PICTURE, flac and asf/wma files, taglib 1.7 or higher is needed)
  • Rip multiple audio CDs at once
  • Retrieve audio CD information from CDDB and MusicBrainz
  • Easy to use, just choose a file format and a quality level
  • Detailed control, if you want to choose the conversion settings in more detail, simply switch to the “detailed” tab
  • Manage your preferred conversion options with profiles
  • Contextual help, e.g. if you don’t know what the speex format is, just click on the “info” button next to it.
    Or if you want to add a file that isn’t supported, soundKonverter will tell you how to enable the format if possible.
  • Possibility to configure which backend shall be used for which codec – or let soundKonverter optimize that for you.
    Every time you install or remove backends soundKonverter will suggest optimizations if possible.
  • Possibility to integrate soundKonverter in other applications or scripts by using its command line interface
  • Data recovery in case of a crash

Install SoundKonverter in Ubuntu Linux:

The installers for CentOS, Debian, Fedora, Mandriva, RedHat, OpenSuse, Ubuntu are available in this page.

For Ubuntu users, use the Deb package for xUbuntu 12.04 which works good in my Ubuntu 13.10 64 bit machine.

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FrostWire 5.6.9 Gets Faster Cloud Search & Memory Optimizations

Last updated: December 9, 2013

frostwire 5.6.9

FrostWire, a free and open source BitTorrent client recently released v5.6.9 with big improvements. See the changelog:

  • Insanely faster cloud search results.
  • Significant memory optimizations on search result parsing and display.
  • Removed jDownloader libraries, less complexity, lighter app.
  • Cloud audio downloads are much smaller, no audio demuxing necessary from video services.
  • Cloud video DASH download support.
  • Smarter playlist name suggestion algorithm takes into account ID3 tags.
  • Fixes bug where new playlists wouldn’t be saved if default name was used.

frostwire faster cloud, memory optimization

If you use Frostwire on Ubuntu Linux as your Bittorrent client, it’s strongly recommended to upgrade to this release. To do so, just go to the official webpage, download and install the the DEB package.

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Xfce4 Whisker Menu updates with fixes & improvements [PPA]

Last updated: November 20, 2013

xfce4 whisker menu

The Whisker Menu for Xfce recently released version 1.2.1 with bug fixes and improvements.

As you may know, Whisker Menu is an alternate application launcher for Xfce. With it, you can browser, search, and marked as favorites through all of your installed applications. Changes in version 1.2.1:

  • Fix incorrect comparison for checking icon sizes
  • Add window title to allow identifying menu window
  • Add tips to README for popup script and compiz workaround
  • Improve build system files
  • Translation updates: Asturian, Catalan, Chinese (Taiwan), Czech, German, Estonian, French, Hungarian, Indonesian, Persian, Russian, Spanish, Turkish
whisker menu in Ubuntu 13.10 Xfce4

whisker menu in Ubuntu 13.10 Xfce4

For Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Linux Mint and their derivatives you can easily install or upgrade to this release by running commands below one by one in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gottcode/gcppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin

For Arch Linux, OpenSUSE, Debian, Fedora, and other Linux, get the Whisker Menu from its website

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TORCS 1.3.5 released with a new 4 speed stock car added

Last updated: November 17, 2013

Torcs 1.3.5 ubuntu

TORCS, The Open Racing Car Simulator recently released versiono 1.3.5. The most important changes in 1.3.5 are:

  • the ability to modify/store/load car setups during practice and qualifying sessions (screen reachable when you hit escape, “Car Setup, Restart” or during a pit stop, “Setup”)
  • improved content (totally reworked racetrack e-track-2, improved e-track-6 and wheel-2)
  • the ability of robots to change the car setup during a pit stop
  • new Robottools API calls for handling car setups
  • improvements to the simulation engine (1.5 way LSD, third element)
  • adjustments to the car categories and physical models
  • a new 4 speed stock car and category
  • improvements to the TORCS Racing Board
  • many little improvements and bug fixes.

Full lists of changes can be found at Torcs 1.3.5 release note

So far, the only way to get Torcs 1.3.5 running on Ubuntu is build from the source code.

Or you can install the old version from Ubuntu Software Center.

torcs-splash-3d

TORCS-The-Open-Racing-Car-Simulator

preview-garage_obj-test

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BleachBit 1.0 released, Download Link for WIndows & Linux include

Last updated: November 17, 2013

BleachBit 1.0 Ubuntu

BleachBit, the disk space cleaner & privacy manager recently released version 1.0. It makes it easier to shred any file; adds three cleaners; improves cleaners for Google Chrome and Adobe Flash; has a digitally signed installer for Windows; and more.

These are the changes since version 0.9.6:

  • The command line option –shred now shreds arbitrary files.
  • Add Octave cleaner
  • Add Warzone 2100 cleaner
  • Clean recently played in VLC (thanks to nolme/Vincent DUVERNET – Nolmë Informatique)
  • Google Chrome: Fix errors “Favicons is version 26” and “DatabaseError: no such column: full_path”
  • Google Chrome: delete more cache
  • Remove auto-hide option. (Before, it was a default.)
  • Specific to Linux
    • Coming soon: .deb package for Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander).
    • Coming soon: .rpm package for openSUSE 11.4.
    • Add SQLite3 cleaner
    • Adobe Flash: clean NativeCache
  • Specific to Windows
    • The BleachBit executable and Windows installer are cryptographically signed, so you are sure no one has tampered with them. Windows should NOT give you the unknown publisher warning.
      bleachbit-10-user-access-control-signed
    • Register verb (shortcut menu item) for shredding files.

      bleachbit10-shred-verb2

    • When updating winapp2.ini, automatically load changes without GUI restart
    • Delete more system logs
    • Clean more Adobe Flash
    • Fix error “The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process” when cleaning .ini with overwrite.

For more details, see official announcement.

For Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.04, OpenSuse, Fedora, Debian, CentOS installers and Windows EXE are available in official download page.

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Cinelerra 4.5 Released, Install it in Ubuntu or Linux Mint

Last updated: October 27, 2013

cinelerra 4.5

Cinelerra, a professional video editing and compositing software designed for the GNU/Linux now reached v4.5. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy, Ubuntu 13.04 Raring, Ubuntu 12.04 Precise, Ubuntu 12.10 and Linux Mint.

What’s New in Cinelerra 4.5:

  • Speed curves mainly for video & in degraded quality for audio.
  • Some control over whether automation follows edits.
  • Ability to transfer keyframes between audio and video tracks.
  • Motion temporaries are stored in /tmp/m and /tmp/r files.
  • Time Avg clears the accumulator on keyframes.

Install Cinelerra 4.5:

The DEB installer for Ubuntu is available at this page. Download & installed the cinelerra-data_4.5-dmo1_all.deb & cinelerra_4.5-dmo1_amd64 (or i386).deb

You can also download and build the source code.

If you’d like to install Cinelerra CV (community version of Cinelerra which adds new enhancements to the official source code.), run commands below in terminal one by one (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cinelerra-ppa/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install cinelerra-cv
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Kid3 3.0 added command-line interface and GStreamer 1.0 support

Last updated: October 24, 2013

kid3 command line interface

Kid3 Audio Tag Editor has reached v3.0 with new features and improvements. It adds command-line interface kid3-cli and supports GStreamer 1.0.

If you want to easily tag multiple MP3, Ogg/Vorbis, FLAC, MPC, MP4/AAC, MP2, Opus, Speex, TrueAudio, WavPack and WMA files (e.g. full albums) without typing the same information again and again and have control over both ID3v1 and ID3v2 tags, then Kid3 is the program you are looking for.

With Kid3 you can:

  • Edit ID3v1.1 tags
  • Edit all ID3v2.3 and ID3v2.4 frames
  • Convert between ID3v1.1, ID3v2.3 and ID3v2.4 tags
  • Edit tags in MP3, Ogg/Vorbis, FLAC, MPC, MP4/AAC, MP2, Speex, TrueAudio, WavPack, WMA, AIFF and WAV files
  • Edit tags of multiple files, e.g. the artist, album, year and genre of all files of an album typically have the same values and can be set together.
  • Generate tags from filenames
  • Generate tags from the contents of tag fields
  • Generate filenames from tags
  • Rename and create directories from tags
  • Generate playlist files
  • Automatically convert upper and lower case and replace strings
  • Import from freedb2.org, MusicBrainz, Discogs, Amazon and other sources of album data
  • Export tags as CSV, HTML, playlists, Kover XML and in other formats

What’s New in Kid3 3.0:
New:

  • Command-line interface kid3-cli.
  • Use common shared libraries for KDE, Qt-only and CLI versions.
  • Plugins for metadata libraries and importers.
  • Support Opus files with TagLib 1.9.
  • Support GStreamer 1.0.
  • Support libavresample 0.0.3.

Improved:

  • Editing without leaving the keyboard.
  • When saving a file fails, tell user if it is not writable.
  • Escape metacharacters in HTML export.
  • Updated Czech translation.
  • Updated Finnish translation.
  • Cleaned up configuration option sections.

Fixed:

  • Crash when saving non-FLAC file with flac extension.
  • Support minimum Mac OS X version 10.5.
  • Load Qt libraries only from bundle on Mac OS X.

DEBs for Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 13.10 and installer for MAC OS, Windows are available in Kid3 homepage

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Wayland 1.3 Final Released, Download link included

Last updated: October 11, 2013

wayland 1.3

Wayland is a protocol that specifies the communication between the display server (called Wayland compositor) and its clients. It is intended as a simpler replacement for X.

Wayland and Weston 1.3 has been released a few hours ago. See what’s new in this release:

  • More pixel formats for wl_shm (Tomeu Vizoso). We can now create RGB565 (and many more) shm surfaces and a compositor can indicate which ones it supports.
  • Doc work (Peter Hutterer, Bryce Harrington, Aaron Faanes). Much work on the doc build system from Peter and general wording and grammer improvements all around.
  • Multi resource support (Rob Bradford). Rob added support for dealing with lsits of resources which the weston side multi-resource fix builds on.
  • Support for language bindings (Jason Ekstrand). After a long time and many detours into fixing other parts of Wayland and Weston, Jason finally landed the language binding support. This feature lets you bind a higher level language to libwayland-client/server by providing custom dispatch functions.
  • Release requests for wl_pointer, wl_keyboard and wl_touch (Rob Bradford). We don’t have a way for a client to deregister its interest in receiving input events, we just drop them on the client side when the client destroys the proxy. With the release requests, we now have a way to stop the server from sending them in the first place.
  • Install the wayland.xml protocol defintion (Jason Ekstrand). We now install the core Wayland XML protocol definition in a public location. Language bindings can parse this to generate code or bind dynamically. This also introduces a well known protocol directory where other projects can install protocol files.
  • Very few bug fixes in this release. There was only a couple of actual bug fixes this time around, which again is a sign that core wayland is settling down.

See official announcement.

Download source tarball: weston-1.3.0.tar.xz.

Check out Wayland download page: wayland.freedesktop.org/releases/

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Banshee 2.9.0 Released, Now It’s based on GTK3

Last updated: October 9, 2013

banshee 2.9

Banshee 2.9.0, the first release of the 2.9 development series has been released. Now it’s based on GTK3.

What’s New in Banshee 2.9:

Banshee 2.9.0 is the first release using the 3.x version of GTK+, thanks to work that has been done in Gtk# to bind this version.

Banshee can now sync media to Symbian devices like Nokia N95. Please help testing this new feature so we can mention more Symbian devices in our release notes for Banshee 3!

Other Enhancements:

  • Add basic AppData file for inclusion in open source app stores
  • Add keywords to .desktop entry for easy find in Unity & GNOME Shell (bgo#700524)
  • Main UI: make Search textbox remember its size (bgo#653819)
  • Lastfm: avoid unnecessary wait when submitting successful scrobbles
  • DatabaseImportManager: Add .amr to import whitelist
  • PlayerEngine: Add support for accurate seek
  • GSettings: implement new, still unused, SchemaExtractor for GSettings
  • build: use the gui-thread-check profiler module by default when debugging
  • configure: better guess for the C# compiler available
  • AppleDeviceSource: use progressUpdaters for all sync operations

Bugfixes:

  • SourceManager: avoid warnings when shutting down
  • prevent wrong inclusion of null artwork_id in cache
  • libbanshee: Only call volume set callback on Mac
  • Feed: Avoid loop when podcast has date values in the future
  • PrimarySource: fix crash if 1st track had a Dap transcoding error
  • MtpSource: prevent a freeze when dealing with Windows Phone
  • Handle all values from a rowid database column as long
  • Gio: prevent a freeze when mounting a LVM volume
  • InternetRadio: refresh UI after editing station
  • StatisticsPage: Fix crash when no tracks are selected
  • DapPropertiesDialog: Make sure progress bar value is valid
  • PlaylistFileUtil: Only import playlist items that are files
  • Avoid race when using GConf and DBus with threads
  • ListView: when initializing a11y, disable instead of hanging
  • LastFM: display progress for multiple-track scrobbles
  • build: Improve MSBuild experience without autotools
  • DatabaseTrackInfo: don’t default to MusicFilePattern when null
  • Audioscrobbler: avoid 414 Request-URI Too Large
  • PrimarySource: Allow cancelling track delete job
  • InternetRadio: Previous should never mean a restart
  • InternetRadio: UI to correctly update status indicator columns
  • Dap: better check for the playing track before ejecting
  • PrimarySource: prevent AddTrackJob respawn if cancelled
  • LastFm: Avoid crashing if scrobbling response is not JSON
  • Dap.MassStorage: not import dirs twice for case-insensitive drives
  • configure: stop using obsolete AutoMake macro
  • build: test dmcs before gmcs when trying to find the compiler
  • RescanPipeline: warn about removal of many tracks
  • Mtp: Fix file type in sync with libmtp > 1.1.0
  • Dap: Settings of DAP sources are not remembered between sessions
  • Dap: Use Unicode codes for quotation marks
  • build: Make gio-hardware be enabled by default
  • build: make GIO backend be enabled by default
  • YouTube: advice about –disable-youtube configuration flag
  • configure: earlier check for glib
  • LastFm: Null check for scrobble parameters
  • Add GTK category in .desktop files to comply with spec

Known issue:

Unfortunately the major architectural change to GTK3 caused some problems:

  • No alternating colors in the ListView
  • ListView header decoration do not match regular TreeView
  • Drag and drop crash banshee on gtk3 branch
  • Ubuntu: No text on the main (left) source switching pad when selecting a source (fixed already in Ubuntu 13.10). To fix this manually in Ubuntu version 13.04 (or older?), do: 
    cd /usr/share/themes &&  wget -O - -o /dev/null http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-art-pkg/ubuntu-themes/trunk/diff/311 | sudo patch -p0

Read the release note.

Source Tarball: banshee-2.9.0.tar.xz

How to Build on Linux, Windows & Mac: banshee.fm/download/development/

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