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Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS Released (How to Install HWE Stacks)

Last updated: March 3, 2018

Ubuntu 17.04

A new point release of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS was released last night for its Desktop, Server, and Cloud products, as well as other Ubuntu flavors.

Lukasz Zemczak announced in the Ubuntu Release mailing list:

“Like previous LTS series’, 16.04.4 includes hardware enablement stacks for use on newer hardware. This support is offered on all architectures except for 32-bit powerpc, and is installed by default when using one of the desktop images. Ubuntu Server defaults to installing the GA kernel, however you may select the HWE kernel from the installer bootloader.

As usual, this point release includes many updates, and updated installation media has been provided so that fewer updates will need to be downloaded after installation. These include security updates and corrections for other high-impact bugs, with a focus on maintaining stability and compatibility with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.“

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

To upgrade from a previous Ubuntu 16.04 release, either run Software Updater and install all available updates or run command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt):

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Then check result via command:

cat /etc/issue

How to Install HWE Stacks in previous Ubuntu 16.04:

The new point release ships with an updated kernel and X stack (HWE Stacks) by default for the desktop in its ISO images.

These HWE Stacks were released in the LTS point releases as a means to enable newer platforms and components.

For those upgrading from a previous release, you need to manually install the stacks via command:

sudo apt-get install --install-recommends linux-generic-hwe-16.04 xserver-xorg-hwe-16.04

For any reason, you can uninstall HWE stacks by following this tutorial.

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Parole Media Player 1.0 Released! Install it in Ubuntu 17.10

Last updated: March 1, 2018

Xfce’s Parole media player reached the 1.0 stable series earlier today! Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 17.10 and Ubuntu 18.04.

Xfce 1.0.0 brings a new feature and following bug-fixes:

  • Added “Automatic” video output option. This uses the autoimagesink to provide the best available video sink for the environment, eliminating the dreaded ‘Could not initialise Xv output’ error.
  • Fixed 32-bit crashes when using the MPRIS2 plugin
  • Fixed crash on “Clear History” button press
  • Fixed appdata validation
  • Fixed full debug builds and resolved implicit-fallthrough build warning
  • Replaced stock icon by freedesktop.org compliant option

How to Install Parole 1.0.0 in Ubuntu 18.04, 17.10:

Ubuntu 18.04 includes the new release package in its main repository archive, just search for and install ‘parole’ in Ubuntu Software.

For Ubuntu 17.10, you can install or upgrade to the new release via an unofficial PPA. No updates for Ubuntu 16.04, since Parole now requires GTK+ >=3.20.

1. Open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching for “Terminal” from app launcher. When it opens, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

Type in your password (no visual feedback when typing due to security reason) when it prompts and hit Enter.

parole ppa for zesty

2. Then upgrade the media player via Software Updater utility:

upgrade parole media player

or run following commands to install / upgrade it:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install parole

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

Uninstall:

Run following command to purge the PPA repository which also downgrade installed packages to the stock version in your Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps
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VirtualBox 5.2.8 Released with Linux Kernel 4.15 Support

Last updated: April 18, 2018

Virtualbox

Oracle VirtualBox 5.2.8 was released a day ago. For Linux guests, Kernel 4.15 now is supported and black screen issue when 3D enabled is fixed.

Changes in Virtualbox 5.2.8 include:

  • Added support for FSGSBASE, PCID, INVPCID CPU features for guests
  • fixed EMM386 issue with detecting suitable page frame base
  • Linux: prevent VM window from jumping and auto-resizing to tiny size after resizing it on HiDPI screen
  • Linux: fixed seamless regression caused by wm_class functionality
  • Front end: switched to https downloads
  • Fixed crash while opening New machine wizard
  • Added support for distinguishing recording sources in the PulseAudio mixer on the host when multiple VMs are running
  • Various fixes for the DirectSound backend
  • Added better file seeking support and fixed playback of recorded files with certain players (e.g. Firefox)
  • Various fixes for Windows guest surround setups and HDA emulation
  • Fixed an issue where the serial port parameters in the emulation and host serial port got out of sync
  • Fixed overwriting certain INQUIRY data for the DVD/CD drive attached to a AHCI controller
  • Fixed handling VMDK images created by Amazon EC2 VM export
  • Fixed PXE boot regression in e1000
  • Added a workaround for older guests which do not enable bus mastering for the virtio PCI device
  • 3D: add environment variable to configure presenting 3D content on main thread
  • Windows hosts: fixed indiscriminate binding of NDIS5 bridged driver, that caused PPPOE malfunction
  • Windows guests: fixed incorrect function error when using shared folders in certain applications
  • Linux 4.15 support, fixed black screen when 3D enabled in Linux guests
  • Linux guests: suppress setuid and setgid in shared folders

How to Install Virtualbox 5.2.8 in Ubuntu:

1. If you’re still running with VirtualBox 5.1.x, open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or from application launcher. Remove old Virtualbox via command:

sudo apt-get remove virtualbox virtualbox-5.1

2. Download & install the latest Virtualbox package from the link below:

Download VirtualBox for Linux

3. If you’ve added the Oracle VBox repository, you can directly install the 5.2 release from Synaptic Package Manager or via apt command, after removing the old version.

To add the repository, do:

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

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian $(lsb_release -sc) contrib" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list'

for Linux Mint 18.x, replace $(lsb_release -sc) with xenial in the code.

Virtualbox Official Linux repository

Setup the keyring so to trust the updates from the repository:

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

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

Finally install virtualbox 5.2 via commands:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-5.2

With the repository added, you can simply install the future 5.2 series updates via Software Updater.

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MKVToolNix 21.0.0 Released, mkvinfo’s GUI Portion Removed

Last updated: January 4, 2019

Free and open-source Matroska software MKVToolNix v21.0.0 was released days ago. The biggest change is that mkvinfo’s GUI portion has been removed.

New features and enhancements in MKVToolNix 21.0.0:

  • mkvmerge: track statistics tags: the TagDefault element will not be written anymore as it was always set to the default value 1 anyway.
  • mkvmerge, MKVToolNix GUI: JSON files can now contain C++-style line comments outside of strings (e.g. something like this: // this is ignored). Such comments, even though not part of the official JSON specifications, are now ignored when reading JSON files.
  • MKVToolNix GUI: chapter editor: opening a Matroska file without chapters in it will now open the file in an empty chapter editor instead of showing an error message.
  • MKVToolNix GUI: an “info” tool has been added, replacing the functionality of mkvinfo’s GUI. The functionality is not on par yet but will be for release v22.

For the bug-fixes and other changes, see the release note.

How to Install MKVToolNix 21.0.0 in Ubuntu:

The official apt repository offers the latest packages for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.10 so far.

Open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching it from app launcher. When it opens, do following steps:

1. Run command to add the repository:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb https://mkvtoolnix.download/ubuntu/ $(lsb_release -sc) main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bunkus.org.list'

Replace $(lsb_release -sc) with xenial for Linux Mint 18.x. And input your password (no visual feedback while typing) when it prompts and hit Enter.

2. Then install the key:

wget -q -O - https://mkvtoolnix.download/gpg-pub-moritzbunkus.txt | sudo apt-key add -

3. Finally either upgrade the software via Software Updater (Update Manager):

or run command to install the software packages:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install mkvtoolnix mkvtoolnix-gui

Uninstall:

To remove the repository, launch Software & Updates utility and navigate to Other Software tab.

To remove MKVToolNix, use Synaptic Package Manager or run following command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove mkvtoolnix mkvtoolnix-gui
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Install Panorama Stitcher Hugin 2018 in Ubuntu 16.04, 17.10

Last updated: February 24, 2018

Hugin panorama stitcher has reached the 2018.0.0 release. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.10.

Hugin 2018.0 is mainly a bug fix release and introduce some minor new features.

  • Several improvements for optimizer tabs:
    • mark deselected images
    • allow changing optimizer variables for all selected images at once
    • option to ignore line cp
  • hugin_stacker: New tool to stack overlapping images with several averaging modes (e.g. mean, median).
  • Added option to disable auto-rotation of images in control point and mask editor.
  • Nona, verdandi and hugin_stacker can now write BigTIFF images (for files >4 GB). The output of BigTIFF has to manually activated on the command line.
  • Added expression parser to GUI: This allows to manipulate several image variables at once.
  • Add user-defined assistant and expose it in the GUI. It allows to set up different assistant strategies without the need to recompiling.

How to Install Hugin 2018.0 in Ubuntu:

The new release has been made into Ubuntu 18.04 main archive. For Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 17.10, you can install it temporarily via following steps while Hugin PPA is not updated.

1. Open terminal either via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching ‘terminal’ from app launcher. When it opens, run command to add PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

Input your password (no visual feedback while typing) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.

2. Then run commands to check updates and install Hugin 2018:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install hugin

or upgrade it via Software Updater if a previous release was installed.

Uninstall:

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

To remove Hugin panorama stitcher, run command in terminal:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove hugin hugin-tools
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Audacity 2.2.2 Released! (How to Install / Upgrade)

Last updated: February 22, 2018

Audacity audio editor 2.2.2 was released two days ago with some improvements and several bug-fixes. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.10, and Ubuntu 18.04.

Audacity 2.2.2 release highlights:

  • Easier zooming in and out with mousewheel, new Zoom Toggle command, and context menu for vertical rulers.
  • Easy access to change keyboard bindings of menu commands by holding Shift key
  • Detection of dropout errors while recording with overburdened CPU
  • Improved contrasts in Light and Dark themes
  • Half-wave display option
  • Several bugs/annoyances in 2.2.1 are now fixed
  • See Release Notes for details.

How to Install Audacity 2.2.2 in Ubuntu:

The Audacity team does not offer pre-compiled Linux binaries. Other than building from source, a third-party PPA is available with Audacity 2.2.2 packages for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.10, and Ubuntu 18.04.

1. Open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching for ‘terminal’ from app launcher. When it opens, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity

Input your password (no visual feedback while typing) when it prompts and hit Enter to add the PPA.

audacity ppa

2. If you have a previous version installed, you can upgrade Audacity via Software Updater after adding the PPA.

upgrade audacity

or run following commands one by one to check updates and install (or upgrade) audacity 2.2:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install audacity

Uninstall:

To remove the PPA repository, launch Software & Updates utility and navigate to ‘Other Software’ tab.

To remove Audacity audio software, either use system package manager or run command in terminal:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove audacity audacity-data
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OnlyOffice Desktop Editors Available as Snap For Testing

Last updated: February 20, 2018

ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors can now be installed in Ubuntu easily via Snap package, the universal Linux app packaging format, though it’s in candidate channel for testing so far.

ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors are free open-source office editors for text documents, spreadsheets and presentations working offline. The software features:

  • Work with all popular formats – DOC, DOCX, ODT, RTF, TXT, PDF, HTML, EPUB, XPS, DjVu, XLS, XLSX, ODS, CSV, PPT, PPTX, ODP, FODS, FODT, FODP.
  • View, create and edit documents of any size and complexity.
  • Extend editing capabilities with the pre-installed plugin set (e.g. insert special symbols, YouTube videos, ClipArt, create templates and more).
  • Automate your routine activities with macros.
  • Ability to switch to online mode to collaborate with your teammates in real time.

1. For Ubuntu 16.04 users never installed a snap, you need to install snapd first via command:

sudo apt-get install snapd snapd-xdg-open

Input your password (no visual feedback while typing) when it prompts and hit Enter to continue.

2. To install the office suite, open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching it from app launcher, and run command:

snap install --candidate onlyoffice-desktopeditors

The snap has been tested on Ubuntu 16.04, Solus OS, and Fedora 27. For any issue, report on Github page.

Uninstall:

To remove the snap, run command in terminal:

snap remove onlyoffice-desktopeditors
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SMPlayer 18.2.2 Allows to Select Opacity of Subtitles Background

Last updated: February 18, 2018

SMplayer

SMPlayer media player 18.2.2 was released earlier today. It has been made into PPA repository for all current Ubuntu releases.

SMPlayer 18.2.2 features:

  • The option Open -> URL can now also load YouTube playlists.
  • New option in Preferences -> Subtitles to select the opacity of the background of the subtitles (available when the “border style” is set to “opaque box”).
  • The options to select the preferred number of track for audio and subtitles are back.
  • (mpv) Now the direct3d is the default video output for Windows, since some users reported problems with the gpu output.

SMPlayer with Mac skin

How to Install SMPlayer 18.2.2 in Ubuntu:

For Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.10, Ubuntu 18.04, and derivatives, do following steps to install or upgrade SMPlayer via PPA.

1. Search for and launch “terminal” from application launcher. When it opens, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rvm/smplayer

Input your password (no visual feedback while typing) when it asks and hit Enter.

Smplayer PPA

2. Then upgrade SMPlayer using Software Updater (or Update Manager):

upgrade smplayer

or run commands in terminal to install (or upgrade) the media player:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install smplayer smtube smplayer-themes

Uninstall:

To remove SMPlayer, run command in terminal:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove smplayer smtube smplayer-*

And remove the PPA via “Software & Updates” utility under Other Software tab.

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qBittorrent 4.0.4 Released! How to Install it in Ubuntu

Last updated: February 16, 2018

qBittorrent

qBittorrent 4.0.4 was released earlier today with numerous bug-fixes. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.10, Ubuntu 18.04.

qBittorrent 4.0.4 contains a few new features and lots of bug-fixes include:

  • Add source field in Torrent creator.
  • Torrent creator: raise maximum piece size to 32 MiB
  • Add a force reannounce option in the transfer list context menu.
  • Fix sorting of country flags column in Peers tab.
  • Fix natural sorting when the common part of 2 strings ends partially in a number which continues in the uncommon part.
  • Fix application of speed limits on LAN and μTP connections.
  • Make peer information flags in peerlist more readable.
  • Fix gui issues on high DPI monitor.
  • Fix dialog and column size on high DPI monitors.
  • Fix constant status of ‘[F] Downloading’.
  • Fix translation context.
  • Separate subnet whitelist options into two lines.
  • Don’t set application name twice.
  • Set default file log size to 65 KiB and delete backup logs older than 1 month.
  • And see more changes for web UI, RSS, Windows and Mac OS editions.

How to Install qBittorrent 4.0.4 in Ubuntu

The official PPA has built the new release packages, available for install/upgrade in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.10, Ubuntu 18.04, and derivatives.

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

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

qbittorrent PPA

2. To upgrade from a previous release, launch Software Updater and you’ll see qBittorrent available for upgrade after checking for updates.

upgrade qBittorrent

Or run commands below to install /upgrade it from terminal:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install qbittorrent

3. (Optional) To uninstall the 4.0.4 release and revert to the stock version of qBittorrent in Ubuntu repository, do:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:qbittorrent-team/qbittorrent-stable

Thanks for reading. Happy new year!

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Plasma 5.12.1 Released with Numerous Bug-Fixes (PPA)

Last updated: February 14, 2018

KDE Plasma 5.10

The first bug-fix release for KDE Plasma 5.12 LTS was released a day ago. And it can be installed in (K)Ubuntu 17.10 via PPA.

Plasma 5.12.1 adds a one week’s worth of new translations and fixes from KDE’s contributors. The bugfixes are typically small but important and include:

  • System Settings: Fix crash when searching.
  • Fixed mouse settings module crashing on Wayland.
  • Show a beautiful disabled icon for updates.

How to Install Plasma 5.12.1 in (K)Ubuntu 17.10:

Kubuntu backports PPA has just built the packages for (K)ubuntu 17.10.

1. Open terminal via Ctrl+Alt+T or by searching for “Terminal” from start menu. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

Type in your password when it prompts and hit Enter.

kubuntu backports ppa

2. Then upgrade your system to get the latest Plasma Desktop via either Update Manager or command:

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade

After the upgrade process has completed, and assuming everything went well, reboot your computer.

For non-Kubuntu user, you may first install the kubuntu-desktop package either from Ubuntu Software or by running below command before doing the upgrade.

sudo apt update && sudo apt install kubuntu-desktop

How to Uninstall:

To undo the changes and restore to the stock version of Plasma Desktop in your main Ubuntu repository, purge the PPA via command:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports
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