UbuntuHandbook | News, Tutorials, Howtos for Ubuntu Linux

Gcolor3 – A GTK+ 3 Color Selector and Picker for Linux

Last updated: April 24, 2024

Gcolor3 is a color selector and picker written in GTK+ 3. It is much alike Gcolor2, but uses the newer GTK+ version to get better integrate into modern desktop.

Gcolor3 enables you to pick the color from any pixel on your screen. It also offers a palette, so that you can easily mix and match a couple of colors together.

When you have found the perfect combination of colors, naturally you want to save them. Gcolor3 allows you to conveniently save and retrieve colors.

By releasing version 2.4.0, Gcolor3 now is “Color Picker” with a new maintainer, a new icon, lots of new improvements, and many translation updates.

How to get Gcolor in Ubuntu:

The latest Gcolor so far is available as Flatpak package. You can either download the package from the link below:

or open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run following commands one by one to install the package:

sudo apt install flatpak

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

flatpak install flathub nl.hjdskes.gcolor3

To uninstall the software, run command:

flatpak uninstall nl.hjdskes.gcolor3

Prefer deb to the containerized flatpak package?

Gcolor3 has been made into the universe repository of Ubuntu 20.10.

For Ubuntu 20.04, you can grab the .deb package for 20.10 from the launchpad page.

In App Review color picker

LaTex Editor TeXstudio 3.0.0 Released [How to Install]

Last updated: August 25, 2020

TeXstudio 3.0.0, an open-source cross-platform LaTex editor, was finally released after some alpha, beta, and rc tests.

According to the changelog, TeXstudio 3.0.0 features:

speed up document parsing, should result in faster document load times
spell checking is done asynchronously
custom verbatim/math env highlighting abandoned for a cwl based approach
better dark-mode support
qt4 support abandoned

How to get TeXstudio 3.0.0 in Ubuntu Linux:

The new release source code, as well as Windows, Mac OS, and Linux packages are available to download at:

The official PPA also made the new release packages for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Linux Mint 19.x, 20, and their derivatives.

1. Open terminal either by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or by searching for ‘terminal’ from software launcher. When it opens, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:sunderme/texstudio

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to add the PPA.

2. If an old version was installed in your system, remove the texstudio-doc, texstudio-l10n (if any) package before upgrading the software:

sudo apt-get remove texstudio-doc texstudio-l10n

3. After adding the PPA, you can either upgrade it via Software Updater:

or run commands in terminal to install or upgrade the software:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install texstudio

Uninstall:

To remove the LaTeX editor, run command in terminal:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove texstudio

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

In News LaTeX editor

4 Nifty Grub Themes for Your Linux Boot Menu

Last updated: April 24, 2024

Boring with the default boot menu in purple? Try installing some themes for this Grub boot-loader.

There’s an open-source project maintains 4 modern design themes for Grub2. They are Vimix, Stylish, Tela, and Slaze.

First take a look at the screenshots:

It’s easy to install the themes as the maintainer offers an installer script. First go to link below and download the source code:

Download Source Code

Then do following steps to install the grub themes:

1. Go to Downloads folder, extract the source tarball, and go into source folder.

2. Right click on blank area and select ‘Open in Terminal’

3. When terminal opens, run command to install a theme:

sudo ./install.sh --boot --vimix

For another theme, replace --vimix in command with --stylish, --tela, or --slaze.

You may use more flags, e.g.,

--white, install white color icons.
--ultrawide, install 2560×1080 background image – not available for slaze theme
--2k, install 2k(2560×1440) background image
--4k, install 4k(3840×2160) background image

Once installed, restart your machine and enjoy!

(Optional) To remove the Grub theme, re-do the first 2 steps and run command:

sudo ./install.sh --remove --vimix

You may replace --vimix in command with --stylish, --tela, or --slaze to remove one of them.

In Howtos grub theme

Free Image Enlarger SmillaEnlarger 0.9.1 Ported to Qt5

Last updated: August 22, 2020

Free open-source image enlarger SmillaEnlarger sees first update in over 10 years.

SmillaEnlarger is small graphical tool, based on Qt, to resize, especially magnify bitmaps in high quality. The used algorithm is an invention of the developer’s own.

SmillaEnlarger 0.9.1 is the first release in over 10 years, features Qt 5 port.

Get SmillaEnlarger:

The source tarball as well as Mac OS package are available to download in the link below:

It’s easy to compile the software, simply do:

Grab the source tarball, open Downloads folder and extract the tarball.
In file browser, navigate to the source “smillaenlarger-0.9.1” folder.
Right-click on blank area and select “Open in terminal”

When terminal opens, run following commands one by one to build the image enlarger:

qmake ImageEnlarger.pro

make

Finally launch the software within the terminal window via command:

./SmillaEnlarger

That’s it.

In App Review image enlarger

Kaidan – Modern XMPP Chat Client for Linux

Last updated: April 24, 2024

Kaidan is a simple, user-friendly chat client that uses the open communication protocol XMPP (Jabber) and runs on Linux, Mac OS, Android, Plasma Mobile and Ubuntu Touch.

The software is written in C++ with Qt and the Qt-based XMPP library QXmpp. Unlike other chat apps, you are not dependent on one specific service provider.

Kaidan features: supported XEPs / RFCs and planned XEPs. The latest release so far is Kaidan 0.5 that contains QR code scanning and generation, message search, and more.

Get Kaidan chat client:

Source code, APK, Appimage, and Mac os packages are available for download at the link below:

For Linux, grab the .appimage package, make executable in file’s Properties > Permissions. And finally run it to launch the chat app.

As an alternative, Kaidan is also available in flatpak package:

In App Review XMPP

KeePassXC 2.6.1 Released with Xfce Screensaver Support [PPA]

Last updated: August 20, 2020

KeePassXC, a community fork of KeePassX password manager, released version 2.6.1 today with some new features, improvements, and various fixes.

KeePassXC 2.6.1 release highlights:

Add option to Auto-Type just the username or password
Automatic database locking with Xfce screensaver.
Add command for retrieving current TOTP
Add OARS metadata
Substitute tilde with USERPROFILE on Windows
Change actions for F1, F2, and F3 keys
Improve man page, and password generator UI / UX
And various bug-fixes, see here for more details.

How to Install KeePassXC 2.6.1 in Ubuntu:

The official upstream PPA has made the packages of the password manager for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, and derivatives.

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:phoerious/keepassxc

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

2.) Then either update the software package using Software Updater

or run command to install the software:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install keepassxc

Uninstall:

You can run the PPA repository simply by running command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:phoerious/keepassxc

And if you want, remove keepassxc password manger via command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove keepassxc

In Howtos KeePassXC

Display Current Weather in Clock Menu in Ubuntu 20.04

Last updated: April 24, 2024

Want to get more information in the clock menu underneath the calendar? You can get the current weather condition via an extension.

Weather in the clock is a simple extension based on Gnome Weather that adds an icon representing the current weather condition and the current actual temperature to the clock in the panel.

If you like it, do following steps one by one to install it on Ubuntu 20.04.

1.) First open terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command to install Gnome Weather:

sudo apt install gnome-weather

2.) Then search for and launch weather from ‘Show Applications’ menu and setup your location:

3.) Finally install the gnome shell extension.

Run command to install chrome-gnome-shell if it’s not installed:
```
sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell
```
Then go to extensions.gnome.org, turn on the toggle and install the extension.
If you don’t see the toggle on icon, follow the link to install browser extension, then refresh the web page.

In Howtos weather in clock

NVIDIA 450.66 Released with Matrox D1450 D1480 Support

Last updated: August 18, 2020

NVIDIA for Linux driver 450.66 was released today as the latest long lived branch version.

NVIDIA 450.66 fixed triple buffering support of Vulkan X11 swapchains when applications are syncing to vblank.

It also added following GPUs support:

EIZO Quadro MED-XN31LP
EIZO Quadro MED-XN50LP
EIZO Quadro MED-XN51LP
EIZO Quadro MED-XN70
EIZO Quadro MED-XN71
EIZO Quadro MED-XN72
EIZO Quadro MED-XN90
EIZO Quadro MED-XN91
EIZO Quadro MED-XN92
Matrox D-Series D1450
Matrox D-Series D1480

How to Get Nvidia 450.66 in Ubuntu:

The “Graphics Drivers” team PPA is a reliable source that contains most recent Nvidia packages for Ubuntu. Check the PPA link before getting started as it’s not updated to 450.66 at the moment of writing.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa

Type user password for sudo prompt (no asterisk feedback) and hit Enter to continue.

2. Then launch Additional Drivers utility, choose Nvidia 450 and apply changes.

Sorry I can’t see these drivers as I don’t have a discrete graphics card in my laptop :(

(Optional) To remove the PPA repository, either go to Software & Updates > Other Software, or run command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa

In News nvidia

Kdenlive 20.08 Released with New Interface Layouts [Ubuntu PPA]

Last updated: August 17, 2020

Kdenlive, KDE Non-Linear Video Editor, released version 20.08 today with nifty new features, stability and interface improvements.

Kdenlive 20.08 release highlights:

New interface layouts.
Multiple audio stream support
A new cache management interface to maintain / control the size of cached and proxied files as well as backup-ed data.
Zoom bars in the Clip Monitor and Effects Panel
Some new keyboard shortcuts.
Performance boost to audio thumbnail generation as well as JPG image sequence playback
And miscellaneous improvements

See the video about the new Kdenlive video editor:

How to Install Kdenlive 20.08 in Ubuntu 20.04:

The software offers single executable Appimage which is available in files.kde.org.

For those prefer native .deb packages, the kdenlive team ppa has built the packages for Ubuntu 20.04 and derivatives.

1.) Open ‘terminal’ from your system application menu, and 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. ) If an old version of kdenlive was installed, 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

In News KDE Video Editor, Kdenlive

FetchCord – Display Your System Info as Discord Rich Presence

Last updated: April 24, 2024

FetchCord is a simple tool grabs your system information and displays it as Discord Rich Presence.

FetchCord is written in Python 3 and relies on Neofetch for your basic system information. With the handy tool, you’ll see your system info inside Discord user’s profile.