Archives For November 30, 1999

opera web browser

Opera web browser 70 was released a day ago improvements to existing features and tools.

Opera 70 release highlights include:

  • The history and bookmark panels now has wider search field.
  • Search in Tabs feature now include recently-closed tabs section.
  • Search in Tabs now searches both title and content of open pages.
  • More Workspace icons

How to Install Opera 70 in Ubuntu:

Snap Package:

The Opera team offers official snap package (runs in sandbox), available to install directly from Ubuntu Software:

Deb package:

Also the native Ubuntu .deb package is available for downloading at the link below:

Download Opera for Linux

Grab the .deb package, and double-click to install it.

You may also add the official apt repository via following steps to receive future software updates.

1. Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to add the opera repository:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://deb.opera.com/opera-stable/ stable non-free" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opera.list'

2. Get the key:

wget -O - http://deb.opera.com/archive.key | sudo apt-key add -

Finally either install Opera via following command or upgrade the browser via Software Updater:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install opera-stable

Uninstall:

For the Opera snap package, simply remove it from Ubuntu Software.

For the Opera apt repository, launch Software & Updates and navigate to Other Software tab.

To remove traditional opera package, either use your system package manager or run command in terminal:

sudo apt remove --autoremove opera-stable

Mozilla Firefox web browser 79.0 was released a few hours ago with new features and various security fixes.

Firefox 79.0 release highlights include:

  • WebRender for more Windows users with Intel and AMD GPUs
  • More Pocket recommendations for users in Germany.
  • Various security fixes.
  • Several crashes while using a screen reader were fixed

How to Install Firefox 79 in Ubuntu:

Firefox 79 will be made into official Ubuntu security / updates repositories for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, and Ubuntu 20.04 in a few days!

At that time, you can upgrade Firefox via Software Updater (Update Manager) utility:

digiKam 5.6.0

digiKam photo management software 7.0 was released a few days ago with greatly improved face detection and recognition.

digiKam 7.0 was released after one year of development. It features new deep learning faces management. No learning stage is required to perform face detection and recognition. And face detection reaches 97% of true positives.

The improved face detection and recognition also supports non-human faces, blurred faces, covered faces, profiles of faces, printed faces, faces turned away, partial faces, etc.

And it supports multiple cores to speed-up computations.

Other changes include:

  • Improved HEIF image format support
  • A new tool Image Mosaic Wall.
  • The SlideShow tool ported as plugin.
  • New RAW files support including the famous Canon CR3, Sony A7R4, and more:
    • Canon: PowerShot G5 X Mark II, G7 X Mark III, SX70 HS, EOS R, EOS RP, EOS 90D, EOS 250D, EOS M6 Mark II, EOS M50, EOS M200
    • DJI Mavic Air, Osmo Action
    • FujiFilm GFX 100, X-A7, X-Pro3
    • GoPro Fusion, HERO5, HERO6, HERO7
    • Hasselblad L1D-20c, X1D II 50C
    • Leica D-LUX7, Q-P, Q2, V-LUX5, C-Lux / CAM-DC25
    • Olympus TG-6, E-M5 Mark III.
    • Panasonic DC-FZ1000 II, DC-G90, DC-S1, DC-S1R, DC-TZ95
    • PhaseOne IQ4 150MP
    • Ricoh GR III
    • Sony A7R IV, ILCE-6100, ILCE-6600, RX0 II, RX100 VII
    • Zenit M
    • and multiple smartphones…

Download / Install digiKam:

1. Non-install single executable Linux Appimage is available in the official download page.

2. digiKam is also available as Flatpak package, you can get it from flathub repository.

3. For those prefer Ubuntu PPA, keep an eye on this launchpad page.

SuperTuxKart 1.2 Release Candidate, free and open-source kart racing game, was released today with many great new features and performance improvements.

SuperTuxKart 1.2 release highlights according to the change-log:

  • Add support for IPv6 LAN server.
  • Add team chat for team games.
  • Haiku support.
  • Resizable window in game.
  • New version of Pidgin by Crystal
  • Sever creation improvements.
  • Better gamepad support.
  • Modern skin and SVG icons support.
  • Add camera settings in option screen.
  • And many other improvements.

How to Install SuperTuxKart 1.2 RC in Ubuntu:

Non-install Linux portable package are available for download at Sourceforge project page.

The kart racing game is available as SNAP package which can be installed from Ubuntu Software. Flatpak package is also available in flathub.org repository.

SuperTuxKart team PPA will build the DEB package for apt install. Check the PPA Link before getting started.

At that time, open terminal from application launcher and run following commands one by one:

1.) Run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stk/dev

Type user password, no visual feedback, when it asks and hit Enter to continue.

2.) After adding the PPA, either upgrade from an old version via Software Updater, or run commands in terminal to install the game:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install supertuxkart

Uninstall SuperTuxKart:

To remove the PPA, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:stk/dev

To remove the racing game, run:

sudo apt remove --autoremove supertuxkart supertuxkart-data

Ubuntu 19.10 Eoan Ermine Reached End of Life

Last updated: July 19, 2020

Ubuntu 18.04

Ubuntu 19.10 Eoan Ermine reached end of life on July 17 2020. Users are recommended to upgrade to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

Ubuntu 19.10 was released 9 months ago, on October 17, 2019. As a non-LTS release, it has 9 months support. Now it is no longer supported by Canonical. No more security and package updates will be accepted to 19.10.

Users are argued to upgrade to Ubuntu 20.04, a LTS release with 5-year support. To get started, do following steps one by one:

  1. Disable third-party repositories by Software & Updates -> Other Software.
  2. Launch Software Updater and install all the updates after checking for updates.
  3. You may restart your computer to complete updates.
  4. Launch Software Updater again, and you’ll see option to upgrade to Ubuntu 20.04

Full instructions and caveats for the upgrade may be found at:

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

Virtualbox

Oracle Virtualbox 6.1.12 was released a day ago as the sixth maintenance release for the 6.1 series.

Oracle Virtualbox 6.1.12 release highlights:

  • UI fixes for Log-Viewer search-backward icon
  • Fixes and improvements for the BusLogic SCSI controller emulation
  • Regression fixes in FIFO data handling
  • Experimental new type of network attachment, allowing local VM to act as if it was run in cloud
  • Improved resource management in the guest control functionality
  • Fixed command option parsing for the “snapshot edit” sub-command
  • Fix crash of ‘VBoxManage internalcommands repairhd’ when processing invalid input.
  • Guest Additions:
    • New experimental 3D GLX graphics output
    • Fixed releasing texture objects, which could cause guest crashes
    • Fixed writes to a file on a shared folder not being reflected on the host when the file is mmap’ed and the used Linux kernel is between version 4.10.0 and 4.11.x
    • Fixed the shared folder driver on 32bit Windows 8 and newer returning an error when flushing writes to a file which is mapped into memory under rare circumstances
    • Improve resize coverage for VMSVGA graphics controller
    • Fix issues detecting guest additions ISO at runtime
    • Fixed German translation encoding for Windows GA installer

How to Install VirtualBox 6.1.12 in Ubuntu:

The official .deb packages are available for download at the link below:

Download VirtualBox

If you’ve already added the Oracle apt repository for Linux, install the updates simply via Software Updater.

Or add the apt repository by running following commands one by one:

1. Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T), paste below command and run to add the repository:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian $(lsb_release -sc) contrib" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list'

For Linux Mint, you HAVE to replace $(lsb_release -sc) in the command with bionic for Mint 19.x, or xenial for Mint 18.x, or focal for Linux Mint 20.

2. Then download and install the repository key via command:

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

3. Refresh system package cache via command:

sudo apt update

4. Finally install Virtualbox 6.1:

sudo apt install virtualbox-6.1

Uninstall:

To remove it, simply run command in terminal:

sudo apt remove --autoremove virtualbox-6.1

And go to Software & Updates -> Other Software to remove apt repositories.

Python 3.8.4 was released a few days ago as the latest stable release of the Python language. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 16.04.

This is the first bugfix release that is considerably smaller than the previous three. There’s almost 20% fewer changes at 162 commits than the average of previous three bugfix releases. Detailed information about all changes made in version 3.8.4 specifically can be found in its change log. Note that compared to 3.8.3, version 3.8.4 also contains the changes introduced in 3.8.4rc1.

The deadsnakes team maintains unofficial Python packages for different Ubuntu releases. Note the PPA does not contain Python 3.8 for Ubuntu 20.04 as upstream ubuntu provides the package.

Install Python 3.8.4 in Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04:

1.) Open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard, or by searching for ‘terminal’ from system application launcher.

When terminal opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.

2.) Then run commands to refresh system package cache, and install Python 3.8:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install python3.8

3.) Once successfully installed, check your system Python versions (python –version):

4.) (Optional) To use Python 3.8 as the default python3, run commands:

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python3 python3 /usr/bin/python3.6 1

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python3 python3 /usr/bin/python3.8 2

For Ubuntu 16.04 replace python3.6 with python3.5. And you can then switch between the two Python3 versions via command:

sudo update-alternatives --config python3

NOTE: Due to known bug, terminal won’t open if you changed python3 symlink. An workaround is recreate a symlink via command (For Ubuntu 16.04 replace python3.6 with python3.5):

sudo rm /usr/bin/python3; sudo ln -s python3.6 /usr/bin/python3

Uninstall:

To uninstall the Python3.8 packages, run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove python3.8 python3.8-minimal

To remove the Deadsnakes PPA, launch Software & Updates and go to Other Software tab, then remove the repository line and close the window.

Advanced clipboard manager CopyQ 3.12.0 was released yesterday with new script function, dark mode improvements, and various bug-fixes.

CopyQ is a free open-source clipboard editor with editing and scripting features. The latest version so far is CopyQ 3.12.0 that features:

  • Unsaved data are now saved whenever application is unfocused
  • Filter field in commands can now modify menu items.
  • Application icon will no longer automatically change when there is an ongoing
    operation.
  • New preview() script function shows/hides item preview.
  • Use brighter bar for pinned items with a dark theme
  • Improved notification text line wrapping
  • Improved layout when showing many shortcut buttons
  • Fix SSL/TLS errors on Windows.

How to Install Copyq 3.12.0 in Ubuntu:

The official PPA repository has made the latest packages for all current Ubuntu releases.

1. To add the PPA, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) from application menu and run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:hluk/copyq

Type user password (no asterisk feedback due to security reason) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.

2. Then install CopyQ either via Synaptic package manager or by running commands in terminal:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install copyq

Once installed, start the clipboard manager from application menu and you’ll see the icon in system tray area.

Uninstall:

To remove the software, either use Synaptic package manager or run command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove copyq

To remove PPA repositories, launch Software & Updates and navigate to Other Software tab.

GScan2PDF, graphical to produce PDFs or DjVus from scanned documents, released version 2.8.1 a day ago.

The previous program launching issue should be fixed in the release, though it didn’t happen in my machine. Gscan2pdf 2.8.1 release highlights:

  • Pass resolution to tesseract to avoid messages like “Warning! Invalid resolution 0 dpi. Using 70 instead”
  • Cope better if data model becomes corrupted
  • Add restart option to ‘device not found’ mini-wizard & if tmp directory changed.
  • When saving a session file, note that pages have been saved to avoid ‘Some pages have not been saved. Do you really want to quit?’ message.
  • Improvements to the Crashed sessions dialog to make it more intuitive.
  • Update position of OCR text when cropping
  • Create PS level 3 instead of 1.
  • Fix check for unpaper version. (Scan fails if unpaper is not installed but selected in post processing)
  • Fix check for tesseract version. Remove support for tesseract < 3.04.00.
  • Update translations.

How to Install gscan2pdf 2.8.1 in Ubuntu:

The official Gscan2PDF PPA has made the new release packages for all current Ubuntu releases, and their derivatives, including Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 19.10, Ubuntu 20.04, Linux Mint 18.x, 19.x, and 20.

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:jeffreyratcliffe/ppa

Type user password (no asterisk feedback due to security reason) when it prompts and hit Enter.

2. For those who have a previous release installed, upgrade it through Software Updater:

upgrade gscan2pdf

Or run following command in terminal to install or upgrade the software:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install gscan2pdf

How to Remove:

To remove gscan2pdf, either use your system package manager or run command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove gscan2pdf

And the PPA can be removed via Software & Updates utility, under Other Software tab.

Audacious music player

Audacious music player 4.0.5 was released a day ago with some important bug-fixes. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 19.10, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 16.04, and derivatives.

Audacious 4.0.5 release highlights:

  • Fixed UI freeze when asterisk key (Shift+8) was pressed.
  • Fixed an exception when reading a large APE (> 1M) tag
  • Fixed album artist not being displayed for .m4a files
  • Fixed a crash on exit with a plugin settings window open
  • Fixed a crash when scrobbling with curl 7.71.0
  • Changed the default CDDB server to gnudb.org

How to Install Audacious 4.0.5 in Ubuntu:

All users of current Ubuntu releases and Linux Mint 18.x, 19.x, 20 can install the new release via Ubuntu PPA by running following commands one by one.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

Type your password (no asterisk feedback) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.

2. Then run commands one by one in terminal to install or upgrade the audio player:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install audacious audacious-plugins

Uninstall:

You can easily remove the PPA either by going to Software & Updates utility -> Other Software tab, or by running command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

To remove audacious, either use your system package manager or run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove audacious audacious-plugins