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The Shutter Screenshot Tool Finally Ported to GTK3

Last updated: May 23, 2021

By releasing version 0.96, the feature-rich screenshot application is finally ported to GTK3, making first step to get back to Ubuntu universe repository.

Shutter 0.96 does no longer depends on goocanvas, Gnome wnck, GTK2 version of image viewer widget, unique and appindicator module. Instead, it now requires GTK3 version of image viewer widget, GooCanvas2, and libwnck-3.

The release also remove the option “Captures only a section of the window”. because it didn’t work with the way how modern Qt and Gtk were drawing their windows anyway.

There are also possible issues including:

  • Multiple screens might or might not be broken
  • HiDPI screens might do screenshot of a nested menu in a wrong place

Get Shutter 0.96:

At the moment of writing no binary package is available to install, but only source tarball which is available in the link below:

Shutter in Github

For Ubuntu and Linux Mint users who like this screenshot tool, keep an eye on linuxupring PPA and xtradeb PPA, both maintains most recent Shutter packages.

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Sublime Text 4 Released! How to Install it via Official Repository

Last updated: May 21, 2021

Sublime Text 4 was officially released a day ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 21.04, Ubuntu 20.04 via apt repository.

Sublime Text 4 (Build 4107) feature multi-select tabs. Press and hold Ctrl (or Shift), then you can select tabs to view them side by side.

And now it supports for auto-switching between dark and light themes to follow system appearance.

Other release highlights include:

  • Context-aware auto complete
  • ARM64 support for Linux and macOS (Apple Silicon)
  • Python 3.8 support for plugins
  • Built-in TypeScript, JSX and TSX support
  • GPU rendering, disabled by default in Windows and Linux.
  • Wayland support for Linux.

There are also tons of other changes, see the announcement for details.

How to Install Sublime Text 4 in Ubuntu:

Open terminal from system application menu, then run following commands one by one to install Sublime Text 4 from its official apt repository.

1.) Download and install the GPG key by running command:

wget -qO - https://download.sublimetext.com/sublimehq-pub.gpg | sudo apt-key add -

Type user password when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.

Make sure https is supported by running command:

sudo apt install apt-transport-https

2.) Add the official Sublime Text repository via command:

echo "deb https://download.sublimetext.com/ apt/stable/" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sublime-text.list

3.) Finally refresh system package cache and install the text editor via commands:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install sublime-text

And you’ll receive future updates along with system updates through Software Updater (Update Manager).

How to Uninstall Sublime Text:

To remove the apt repository, launch Software & Updates and go to Other Software tab, there remove the repository line.

And to remove the Sublime Text editor, simply run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove sublime-text
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Kdenlive 21.04.1 Released! How to Install it in Ubuntu 21.04, 20.04

Last updated: May 18, 2021

Kdenlive 21.04.1, the first update for the 21.04 release is out. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 21.04, Ubuntu 20.10, Ubuntu 20.04 via PPA.

The new release of KDE’s video editor contains mainly bug fixes and improvements. Changelog in the release include:

  • Invalidate preview render on subtitle actions.
  • Fix timecode validation on settings dialog.
  • Fix proxied clip cannot be dragged from monitor to timeline.
  • Fix incorrect speed cycling with j/l keys.
  • Ensure render widget is displayed again after being minimized.
  • Fix playback speed not reset on pause.
  • Update effect zones on effect deletion.
  • Render presets: load default values properly to ui.
  • Fix spacer tool not workin on single clips (without groups).
  • Improve naming of newely created profile. Commit.
  • Archiver: Fix more bugs and crashes. Commit.
  • Archiver: Block UI while job is running.
  • Archiver: Don’t miss lumas,… on “timline only” mode, prettify code.
  • Fix several archiving issues with mlt files.
  • Archive LUT files too.
  • Appimage: use mlt v6 branch.

Install Kdenlive 21.04.1 in Ubuntu via PPA:

The kdenlive team ppa has made the latest packages for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 20.10, Ubuntu 21.04, Linux Mint 20.

1.) Add Ubuntu PPA:

Open ‘terminal’ from your system application menu, then run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kdenlive/kdenlive-stable

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

2. ) Install or Upgrade Kdenlive:

If an old version of kdenlive was installed, you can upgrade it via Update Manager:

Or simply run command in terminal to install the video editor:

sudo apt install kdenlive

NOTE for non-KDE users, Kdenlive will be installed along with a large list of KDE libraries.

Uninstall:

To purge the PPA as well as downgrade Kdenlive package, run command in terminal:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:kdenlive/kdenlive-stable

To remove the PPA only, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:kdenlive/kdenlive-stable

And to remove Kdenlive, run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove kdenlive kdenlive-data
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Kodi Media Center 19.1 Released! How to Install in Ubuntu 21.04

Last updated: May 12, 2021

Kodi 19.1, the first update for the “Matrix” series, was released with various bug-fixes.

The new release of the media player and entertainment hub contains mainly bug-fixes. It fixed HDR metadata detection issue, playback of optical DVDs in Linux, and BD-J Blu-ray chapter skipping via remotes/keyboard.

System fonts and use fonts detection for ASS subtitles, as well as rendering of semi-transparent ASS subtitles on Wayland are now fixed in the release.

Kodi 19.1 also enabled filecaching by default for network filesystems, improved reliability for HTTP and NFS network filesystems, and added support for WS-Discovery protocol to locate SMB servers and browse shared folders via SMBv3.

Other changes in the release include:

  • Fixed media flagging for DVD/BluRay
  • Fixed incorrect HDR metadata
  • Fixed green screen when playing the menu of some DVDs
  • See the release note for more.

How to Install Kodi 19.1 in Ubuntu:

The official Kodi PPA has made the packages for all current Ubuntu releases including Ubuntu 21.04.

Open terminal either from system app launcher or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, do following steps one by one.

1. Add Kodi PPA.

To add the official Kodi PPA, run command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc/ppa

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

2. Install / Update Kodi.

If you’re now running the stock version of Kodi package in Ubuntu, the Software Updater will refused to update it. So it’s recommended to use the command below to install or update the media player.

Firstly refresh system package cache, if you’re on Ubuntu 18.04, via command:

sudo apt update

Then install Kodi via command:

sudo apt install kodi

Once installed Kodi, either launch it from system app launcher or log out and select “Kodi” session to login.

How to Downgrade:

You can purge the Ubuntu PPA as well as downgrade Kodi to the stock version available in Ubuntu main repositories. To do so, run command:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:team-xbmc/ppa
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HP Printer Driver HPLIP 3.21.4 Released with HP Envy 6400 Support

Last updated: May 24, 2021

HP printer drivers for Linux, HPLIP, released version 3.21.4 today with new devices and Linux distros support.

HPLIP 3.21.4 is a small release adds HP Envy 6400 series printers support, and adds new systems LinuxMint 20.1, Debian 10.8 support. Ubuntu 21.04 is not yet supported though it has been released for a few weeks.

And it does not install in Ubuntu 20.04 in my case, though it works in Ubuntu 20.10 and Ubuntu 18.04.

Download & Install HPLIP 3.21.4:

HPLIP packages are hosted on sourceforge.net, go to link below and download the “hplip-3.21.4.run” package:

Download HPLIP (.run)

Then open Downloads folder in file manager, right-click on blank area and select “Open in Terminal”.

When terminal opens, firstly run command to add executable permission to the file:

chmod +x hplip-3.21.4.run

Then run it to start installing the driver:

./hplip-3.21.4.run

Answer some questions in terminal outputs and done.

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KeePass 2.48 Released with KDBX 4.1 File Format Support [Ubuntu PPA]

Last updated: May 9, 2021

KeePass password manager released version 2.48 a few days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 21.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 18.04 via PPA.

KeePass 2.48 introduces version 4.1 of the KDBX file format, which supports various new features, including:

  • group tags support,
  • ability to disable password quality estimation
  • remember the previous parent group when moving an entry/group into a different group
  • custom icons now have names and last modification or deletion times
  • save last modification time for custom date items.

Other changes include:

  • Add command ‘Move to Previous Parent Group’
  • Add support for loading images with Exif orientation tags.
  • Enhanced the LastPass import module to support CSV files created by the latest versions.
  • Enhanced the nPassword import module to import group tags.
  • Various user interface improvements.

How to Install KeePass 2.48 in Ubuntu via PPA:

KeePass2 is still available to install via an Ubuntu PPA. So far, the PPA supports for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 20.10, and Ubuntu 21.04.

1.) Open terminal and run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/keepass2

2.) Then refresh system package cache via command:

sudo apt update

3.) Finally install the mono based password safe package:

sudo apt install keepass2

Uninstall KeePass2:

To remove the software package, run command in terminal:

sudo apt remove --autoremove keepass2

And remove the Ubuntu PPA via command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/keepass2
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qBittorrent 4.3.5 Released! To Drop Support for Ubuntu 20.04

Last updated: May 4, 2021

qBittorrent, free and open-source Qt5 based Bittorrent client, released version 4.3.5 a few days ago.

qBittorrent 4.3.5 is the last release in the 4.3.x series. And it’s going to drop support for Ubuntu 20.04 in the next release since it has an outdated Qt5 libraries.

Users who prefer qBittorrent can still get updates for Ubuntu 20.04 through the Flatpak package, since it’s a containerised package format bundle with most run-time libraries.

Changes in qBittorrent 4.3.5 include:

  • Move cursor to the end when autofilling URL/hash in “Download from URLs” dialog
  • Sort invalid QDateTime values after valid values
  • Fix tabChangesFocus attribute in “Edit trackers” dialog
  • Update DynDNS register url
  • Handle “not enough disk space” error more graciously
  • Correctly draw progress background with stylesheet
  • WEBUI: Fix magnet url from the search facility
  • WEBUI: Revise folder monitoring functions
  • WEBUI: Fix magnet url from the browser
  • WEBUI: Allow to specify file indexes in torrents/files API
  • WINDOWS: NSIS: Allow more strings to translated
  • WINDOWS: NSIS: Update Italian, German, Estonian, Russian, PortugueseBR translations.
  • LINUX: Fix D-Bus Notification desktop-entry field
  • MACOS: Don’t use executable name as CFBundleName value
  • Lower Qt requirement to 5.11
  • Clarify that the license is GPLv2+

How to Install qBittorrent 4.3.5 via PPA:

The official qBittorrent PPA has built the new release packages for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 20.10, and Ubuntu 21.04.

1. To add the PPA, open terminal by either pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or searching for “Terminal” from application menu. When it opens, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:qbittorrent-team/qbittorrent-stable

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

2. If an old version was installed on your system, upgrade it via Software Updater,

or run following commands to install /upgrade qBittorrent in terminal:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install qbittorrent

Uninstall:

To remove qBittorrent PPA, either go to Software & Updates -> Other Software, or run command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:qbittorrent-team/qbittorrent-stable

To remove the bittorrent client, either use your system package manager or run command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove qbittorrent
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NVIDIA 465.27 for Linux Released with RTX A5000, A4000, A3000, A2000 Support

Last updated: April 30, 2021

NVIDIA graphics driver for Linux released version 465.27 a day ago with new Laptop GPUs support and a few bug-fixes.

In NVIDIA 465.27, following new GPUs are supported:

  • T600 Laptop GPU
  • T1200 Laptop GPU
  • RTX A5000 Laptop GPU
  • RTX A4000 Laptop GPU
  • RTX A3000 Laptop GPU
  • RTX A2000 Laptop GPU

There are also some fixes in the release including:

  • Fixed a bug that could prevent a system from resuming from suspend when DisplayPort activity occurred while the system was suspended.
  • Fixed a regression that prevented eglQueryDevicesEXT from correctly enumerating GPUs on systems with multiple GPUs where access to the GPU device files was restricted for some GPUs.
  • Fixed a regression that could cause system hangs when changing display resolution on SLI Mosaic configurations.
  • Fixed a bug that could result in blank displays when driving multiple displays at the same resolution using active DisplayPort dongles.

How to Install NVIDIA 465.27 in Ubuntu:

Ubuntu now builds the latest NVIDIA drivers and pushes them via its own security & updates repositories.

Just wait! It’ll be available in next few days. At that time, launch Additional Drivers utility and you’ll see the driver available to install.

If you can’t wait, go to NVIDIA website and download the .run installer package (not recommended for beginners):

NVIDIA Linux 465.27 (64-bit)
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Kdenlive 21.04 Released with Media Browser, Speech-to-Text, Typewriter Effect

Last updated: April 27, 2021

KDE’s Kdenlive video editor 21.04 was released today with lots of usability improvements and some great new features.

Kdenlive 21.04 introduced new Speech-to-Text feature which automatically transcode audio to text, and it supports for 17 languages and dialects using the official models.

The release also features new Media Browser, which can be enabled from View menu. With it, you can easily browse through file system and drag’n’drop add clips to the Bin or Timeline.

And there are new effects typewriter effect with 3 animation modes, Alpha Strobe effect to text, images, or videos, Effect Zones to apply effects to specific regions of tracks or the timeline.

Other features in Kdenlive 21.04 include:

  • Zoombars in the timeline.
  • New icons and functions for the effect’s keyframe panel.
  • New online resources widget
  • Add AV1 render profile.
  • Re-enable audio playback on reverse speed.
  • Add “unused clip” filter in Project Bin.
  • Add channel selection to audio waveform filter.
  • Add ITU 2020 colorspace in clip properties.
  • Treat GIFs as video, not as image.

How to Install Kdenlive 21.04 in Ubuntu:

The kdenlive team ppa has made the latest packages for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 20.10, Ubuntu 21.04, Linux Mint 20.

1.) Add Ubuntu PPA:

Open ‘terminal’ from your system application menu, then run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kdenlive/kdenlive-stable

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

2. ) Install or Upgrade Kdenlive:

If an old version of kdenlive was installed, you can upgrade it via Update Manager:

Or simply run command in terminal to install the video editor:

sudo apt install kdenlive

NOTE for non-KDE users, Kdenlive will be installed along with a large list of KDE libraries.

Uninstall:

To purge the PPA as well as downgrade Kdenlive package, run command in terminal:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:kdenlive/kdenlive-stable

To remove the PPA only, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:kdenlive/kdenlive-stable

And to remove Kdenlive, run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove kdenlive kdenlive-data
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Linux Kernel 5.12 Released! How to Install it in Ubuntu

Last updated: April 26, 2021

Linus Torvalds announced the release of Linux Kernel 5.12 last night. He wrote on lkml:

Thanks to everybody who made last week very calm indeed, which just makes me feel much happier about the final 5.12 release.

New Features in Kernel 5.12 include:

  • Intel VRR / Adaptive-Sync for Intel Xe.
  • Radeon RX 6800/6900 series OverDrive overclocking support.
  • Mainline support for the Nintendo 64
  • Sony PlayStation 5 DualSense controller driver.
  • CXL 2.0 Type-3 memory device support
  • Lenovo Laptop Platform Profile support.
  • Better Microsoft Surface device support.
  • And much more.

How to Install Linux Kernel 5.12:

The Ubuntu Mainline Kernel Archive provides the new kernel packages via DEB files.

For those prefer using a graphical tool, see this tool to install the latest Kernel.

To manually download the mainline kernel packages for Linux 5.12, go to the link button:

Download Kernel 5.12 (DEB)

Select generic for common system, and lowlatency for a low latency system (e.g. for recording audio):

  1. linux-headers-5.12.0-xxxxxx_all.deb
  2. linux-headers-5.12.0-xxx-generic(/lowlatency)_xxx_amd64.deb
  3. linux-modules-5.12.0-xxx-generic(/lowlatency)_xxx_amd64.deb
  4. linux-image-xxx-5.12.0-xxx-generic(/lowlatency)_xxx_amd64.deb

Alternatively you can download and install the kernel binaries via terminal commands ( open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T):

cd /tmp/

wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.12/amd64/linux-headers-5.12.0-051200_5.12.0-051200.202104252130_all.deb

wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.12/amd64/linux-headers-5.12.0-051200-generic_5.12.0-051200.202104252130_amd64.deb

wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.12/amd64/linux-image-unsigned-5.12.0-051200-generic_5.12.0-051200.202104252130_amd64.deb

wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v5.12/amd64/linux-modules-5.12.0-051200-generic_5.12.0-051200.202104252130_amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Once installed, restart your computer and enjoy!

Uninstall Linux Kernel 5.12:

Restart your machine and select boot with the previous kernel in boot menu ‘Grub2 -> Advanced Option for Ubuntu’. Then run command to remove Linux Kernel 5.12:

sudo dpkg --purge linux-image-unsigned-5.12.0-051200-generic
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