Enlightenment window manager announced new 0.26.0 release few days ago.
The new release added some new features, including DDC option to backlight control of external monitors, bigger task previews, and watermark to wl mode to indicate E is in experimental wl mode.
Enlightenment 0.26.0 also added new APIs, including new eet disk sync API to ensure config it stored, logind’s lock/unlock dbus apis, API to play sound samples and support in notifications, and new eina API for EFL libraries.
Other changes include:
Support action desktop files in EFM to add file actions
Add org.freedesktop.ScreenSaver inhibit support
Add and enabl watchdog thread by default to detect mainloop hangs
Add option to Randr X11 support to use xrandr cmdline not direct API
Be agressive about forcing E’s blank settings if apps override them
Add params to mixer actions to allow to set amount up/down
Add option for input settings for flat accel + hires scrolling
Add option to set hidden state in netwm or not
There are also EFL 1.27 changes include JXL Evas loader/saver, QOI Evas image loader/saver, LibreSSL 3.5.x, remove GNUTLS support due to in favor of openssl3, and support ecore exe terminate with parent on windows. See more in the News page.
Get Enlightenment 0.26.0
Besides building from source, there seems no PPA or any 3rd repository for installing new release in Ubuntu.
To download the source, just go to its website via the link below:
Stellarium, the free open-source planetarium software, announced new 23.4 release few days ago.
The new release added experimental support for new plugin: Lens Distortion Estimator, and new sky culture: Tibetan Lunar Mansions.
With new release, user can now change the look of GUI through normalStyle.css config file. For Windows, it added new MESA for Windows packages, and package for ARM64 CPU architecture type.
Other changes include:
Support the origins of nomenclature names
Performance improvements on macOS with ARM64
Add script “Jupiter Moons”
Add filter, based on SATCAT Operational Status in Satellites plugin
Add AppImage package based on Qt6.
more simple calendar-based time steps (esp. for RemoteControl)
wrapper for too long star names
Temporary workaround for overlapping indicator and text in lists
Optional sorting rule for Search Tool
Text wrapper for pulsar notes, Modern (H.A. Rey) SC, and long origins of nomenclature names
Ability to make observing lists directory configurable via GUI
Add dpiAwareness option to manifest and send physical viewport size to Spout
Add DSO names
Add 2 new time steps for AstroCalc/Ephemeris tool
Remote control command to change window size
And various bug-fixes. See release note for details.
How to Install Stellarium 23.4
The software provides official packages for Linux, Windows, MacOS, as well as source code, available to download at Github release page:
Ubuntu user can search for and install Stellarium from either Ubuntu Software or App Center (for 23.10), though it’s Snap package runs in sandbox.
For Ubuntu & Linux Mint users who prefer the classic .deb package, the official PPA has built the package for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 23.04, and Ubuntu 23.10.
1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:
Darkable, the popular photography app and raw developer, released new major 4.6.0 version a day ago!
The new release introduced auto-save feature for editing history. By default, it save changes every 10 seconds. User can go to ‘Preferences -> storage‘ to change the time interval, or set it to 0 to disable it.
Darktable 4.6.0 also features new rgb primaries processing module. It allows delicate color corrections and creative color grading, by moving the red, green and blue primary colors around using “hue” and “purity” controls.
Darktable 4.6.0
The release also has a big performance improvements. OpenCL is now initialized in the background to speed up the app launching. Image display speed in the map view has been increased by 25%. And, the chromatic aberrations module is now approximagely 10% faster when run on the CPU.
Other changes in Darktable 4.6.0 include:
sigmoid module now includes a new primaries section, to gracefully handle difficult lighting situations (e.g. LEDs) and tune the overall look of the image
The full uncropped image is now always shown when working with the liquify and retouch modules.
The hot pixels module now supports monochrome images.
long-running import session can now be canceled.
built-in “Display P3” color profile
And much more! See the official release note for details
How to Install Darktable 4.6.0 in Ubuntu Linux
Option 1: Snap
Darktable is easy to install as Snap package, which runs in sandbox, using Ubuntu Software (or App Center for 23.10).
Option 2: Official deb package
The developer team offers official RPM and DEB packages for Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, openSUSE, through the OBS building repository.
Also, it’s NOT updated to v4.6.0 at the moment of writing. Keep an eye on this page if you prefer the official package.
Option 3: Flatpak package
Darktable is also available to install as Flatpak package, another universal Linux package format runs in sandbox!
Linux Mint 21 user can directly search for and install the Flatpak package from Software Manager.
While, Ubuntu user can open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run the 2 commands below one by one to install the Flatpak:
Besides using the official DEB package (See Option 2), I’ve also upload the package into this unofficial PPA for Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 23.04, and Ubuntu 23.10.
NOTE: The PPA includes updated libheif (1.16.2) library for Darktable to support HEIF in Ubuntu 22.04. Please report if it’s running into conflict with other packages in your system!!
1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to add PPA:
2. Linux Mint needs to update system package cache manually after adding PPA:
sudo apt update
3. Finally, install Darktable 4.6.0 via command:
sudo apt install darktable
In addition for old Ubuntu 20.04, 18.04, & 16.04, keep an eye on this PPA. However, it has tons of updated libraries that MAY run into dependency hell and/or package conflict!
Uninstall Darktable
Depends on which package your installed, remove Darktable via one of the commands below:
For Snap package, just remove it from Ubuntu Software.
Firefox web browser announced the new monthly 121.0 release this Tuesday!
For Linux, the release finally default to Wayland session when available, meaning for Ubuntu 22.04 and higher (exclude Snap), Fedora Workstation, and other Linux with recent GNOME Desktop.
With Wayland, it has better support for touchscreen & touchpad.
User can use 2-finger swipe left/right to navigate forward and backward, and 2-finger pinch gesture to zoom in/out. It as well has per-monitor DPI settings, better graphics performance, and more.
Besides Wayland for Linux, Firefox 121.0 also adds Voice Control commands support on macOS systems, and prompts Windows users to install the Microsoft AV1 Video Extension to enable hardware decoding support.
Other features in Firefox 121.0 include:
Option to force links to always be underlined
New PDF viewer floating button to simplify deleting drawings, text, and images.
Option to disable the debugger; keyword on the current page.
Support :has() selector, the hanging and each-line keywords, balance keyword, lazy loading iframes.
tail call elimination support in WebAssembly language
Various security fixes.
How to Get Firefox 121.0
Most Linux that pre-installs Firefox, will build the latest package soon and publish into system repositories.
For Ubuntu, the snap package has been updated to v121.0. It should update to the new release automatically.
If NOT, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal, and run command to do the update manually.
snap refresh firefox
For the portable Linux tarball, as well as the official release note, go to the link below:
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.
2. After adding the PPA, you can then launch Software Updater (Update Manager) and upgrade the system pre-installed transmission package to the new release.
For Ubuntu based system without the BitTorrent client pre-installed, you may run command below to install it:
Shotwell photo viewer and organizer released new version 0.32.4 a few days ago.
The new release added basic .mpo file support, which is a stereoscopic image consisting of two overlapping 2D images in JPG format.
Besides that, the release also has improved slideshow support. It now supports for shuffled slideshows, allow setting wallpaper slideshows even if videos are selected, though videos are automatically excluded in slideshow in my case. And, fixes left/right navigation and not start issue in slideshow, when video is the first selected item.
Remove app shortcut for “Shotwell Profile Browser”. Add it as an action instead, though also available in ‘Preference’.
Simplified export conflict resolution dialog
New video meta-data handler.
Add dump of available image codecs and meta-data support
Fix showing the original photo with shift if photo was modified externally
Fix crop area jumping on scaled displays
Some crash fixes.
How to Install Shotwell 0.32.4 in Ubuntu:
Shotwell is available to install as Flatpak package, which is however not updated to the latest release at the moment of writing.
For those who prefer the classic .deb package format, I’ve upload the package into this unofficial PPA for Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 23.04, Ubuntu 23.10 on amd64, arm64/armhf CPU architecture types.
1. First, search for and open terminal from your system application menu, or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.
2. Next, launch Software Updater (Update Manager), then install the updates for the software package.
Or, run command in terminal to install/upgrade the Shotwell package:
sudo apt install shotwell heif-gdk-pixbuf
NOTE: Linux Mint user may need to run sudo apt update first to refresh package cache.
Finally, either right-click on your photo images to select open with the photo manager, or search for and launch shotwell from ‘Activities’ overview and enjoy!
Uninstall Shotwell 0.32.4
For any issue, it’s recommended to purge the Ubuntu PPA. Which, will remove PPA and downgrade shotwell to the pre-installed version.
To do so, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:
Parole, the lightweight media player for XFCE Desktop, released version 4.18.1 few days ago.
The new release updates the app icons with 32px, 64px, 96px sizes support, so it should have a cleaner look in system menus like App Finder, Whisker Menu.
The extensions icons have been updated using newer Xfce palette, and semi-transparent borders giving it a sharper look in dark themes.
The system tray icon now is disabled outside X11. And, it now supports middle click actions to control video playback:
middle click to pause/resume playback.
middle wheel scrolling over tray icon to volume up/down.
Other changes in the release include:
Allow to built without X11 support and therefore whithout XfceSMClient.
Fix critical warning and memory leak
mpris2: Properly disconnect signal handlers
honor gtk-dialogs-use-header as Xfce 4.18 is CSD opt-in.
Small UI Improvements and many translation updates
How to Install Parole 4.18.1:
At the moment of writing, there’s no binary package of Parole 4.18.1 for Ubuntu.
But it’s not hard to compile the package from the source (tested in XUbuntu 22.04):
First, open terminal and run command to install the build dependency packages:
Extract the source tarball, then right-click on the new generated folder, and select “Open in Terminal”. Finally, run the 3 commands below one by one to compile it from source:
./configure
make -j4
sudo make install
NOTE: It by default installs the parole executable to /usr/local/bin without overriding the pre-installed one. Meaning you’ll have 2 versions of the media player installed in your system, while the app icon in menu will launch the newer 4.18.1 version.
(Uninstall) By opening the source folder in terminal, you may also uninstall the media player by running command:
digiKam, KDE’s photo management software, released version 8.2.0 this Sunday.
The new release includes most recent Libraw library, updates runtime libraries to Qt 5.15.11, KDE frameworks 5.110, Exiftool 12.70, and Exiv2 28.1.
For Windows user, digiKam now has new Windows installer compiled under Windows with VCPKG tool-chain and based on Qt6 and KF6 frameworks.
Besides toolkit updates, digiKam 8.2.0 also has about 250 bug-fixes. They include slow Geolocate, tags not saving on exit, failed to database creation on MariaDB, slideshow does not prevent monitor turning off, various crashes, and other bugs. See NEWS file for more details.
Get digiKam 8.2.0
The software provides official packages for Linux, Windows, and MacOS, available to download at the link below:
It’s “hplip-3.23.12.run“. Once you downloaded the file, right-click on blank area in the ‘Downloads’ folder and select “Open in Terminal“.
When terminal opens, run the commands below one by one will start the installing process for the new driver package:
Add executable permission for the file:
chmod u+x hplip-3.23.12.run
Run the file, follow the on-screen prompt and answer some questions:
./hplip-3.23.12.run
In the terminal output, answer questions by typing ‘y’, ‘n’, etc. Until the command’s done without error, you can plug or re-plug your HP printer for the new driver to work.
Install HPLIP 3.23.12 in Ubuntu 23.10
The .run installer so far does not support Ubuntu 23.10! However, running the commands above will generate the source folder in your ‘Downloads’ folder. Right-click on that folder and select ‘Open in Terminal’, then 23.10 user can try running the commands below one by one to build from source:
1. Firstly, in the terminal window run single command to install the build dependency packages:
3. Finally, make and install by running the 2 commands below one by one:
make -j4
sudo make install
NOTE: in command -j4 will start 4 threads in parallel to speed up the process. You can skip it, or change number 4 depends on how many CPU cores you have.
After installed HPLIP 3.23.12, plug or re-plug your HP printer, then you can either refresh the driver in system ‘Printer’ settings page, or launch “HP Device Manager” to set up your printer.
Uninstall HPLIP 3.23.12
As mentioned above, running the installer will create a source folder in user ‘Downloads’ folder.
Right-click on that source folder and select “Open in Terminal”. Then run the uninstall script in pop-up terminal window to remove HPLIP:
