UbuntuHandbook | News, Tutorials, Howtos for Ubuntu Linux

Liferea News Reader 1.14.1 Released with A Critical Security Fix

Last updated: March 15, 2023 — Leave a comment

For users of Liferea feed reader, new version 1.14.1 and 1.12.10 were released few days ago. All users are urged to upgrade due to an important security fix.

Liferea is a free open-source GTK3 feed reader that brings together all of the content from your favorite subscriptions into a simple interface. It can synchronizes with Reedah, TinyTinyRSS, and Google Reader API.

Just few days ago, it release new point releases for its 1.14 and 1.12 release series with an important security fix.

It’s CVE-2023-1350 Remote code execution on feed enrichment.

If you have enabled “Extract full content from HTML5 and Google AMP” for one or more of your feed subscriptions it is possible for a an attacker to inject a script command that would run any command on your system.

All users are recommended to upgrade to the new release with this bug-fix.

Without the upgrade, user can alternatively disable “Extract full content from HTML5 and Google AMP” for all the feeds via following steps:

Close Liferea
Open ~/.config/liferea/feedlist.opml in an editor
Replace all occurences of html5Extract="true" with an empty string

How to Install Liferea 1.14.1 in Ubuntu:

For most Linux, Liferea is available to install as Flatpak package, that runs in sandbox.

Ubuntu users can also use the unofficial PPA, which so far supports for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 22.10, Linux Mint 20/21, and their based systems.

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

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

2. Then, install the Liferea package by running command:

sudo apt install liferea

Linux Mint user may have to run sudo apt update first to update cache.

Uninstall:

The PPA also contains some other software packages, so you may remove it immediately after installed Liferea.

To do so, either run the command below in terminal, or remove the source line under “Other Software” tab in Software & Updates tool.

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

To remove the feed reader package, simply run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove liferea-data liferea

That’s all. Enjoy!

In Howtos Feed Reader

Kodi Media Center 20.1 Released with Lots of Bug-fixes

Last updated: March 13, 2023 — 1 Comment

The first point release of Kodi 20 ‘Nexus’ is out today after almost 2 months of development.

As the title said, the new Kodi 20.1 includes mainly bug-fixes. It introduced a new algorithm to look to overcome some audio issues on Android devices. Fixed DVD playback folder structures over network sources (e.g. SMB/NFS/HTTP, etc.)

Other changes include:

Assorted fixes to the new Savestate Manager to improve usability.
An assortment of OSD improvements
A number of performance improvements (memory reads, faster dialogs/savestates).
Input fixes allow resetting multitap controller inputs
Sync of some of the common controller types
Fixes various overflows when using new chrono infrastructure.
A fix for an issue on 32-bit systems that affected the sorting of items.
Resolve PVR Channel Groups to correctly show channels ordered as provided by a PVR backend.
A couple of fixes for WebVTT subtitles

How to Install Kode 20.1 in Ubuntu

Kodi website provides the downloads for all supported platforms.

For Ubuntu and Linux Mint users, the official PPA repository is one of the best choices to install the media play. So far, it supports Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 22.10, Ubuntu 23.04, Linux Mint 20/21.

1. First, open terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

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

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

2. Software Updater may not upgrade the media center if an old version was installed in Ubuntu 22.04. Instead it show ‘Partial Updates’ issue.

As a workaround, either run apt install command below:

sudo apt install kodi kodi-bin

Or run sudo apt full-upgrade to install all available updates (you may still need to install kodi-bin manually). For Linux Mint, run sudo apt update before doing updates!

How to Uninstall:

For choice, you can either run command in terminal to purge the PPA, which will downgrade Kodi to stock version in system repository:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && ppa:team-xbmc/ppa

Or manually remove the software package via command:

sudo apt remove kodi kodi-bin --autoremove

And remove the PPA via command as you prefer:

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

In Howtos multimedia

Install & Set up “Scrcpy” Android Remote Control App in Ubuntu

Last updated: September 18, 2024 — 6 Comments

This is a step by step guide shows how to install and use Scrcpy, the Android screen mirroring and remote control application, in Ubuntu desktop.

Scrcpy, pronounced “screen copy“, is a popular free open-source application works on Linux, Windows, and macOS. With it, user can mirror Android screen on computer desktop and control it with mouse, keyboard, and/or gamepad.

The Android device is connected either wired with USB cable or wirelessly through TCP/IP network protocol. Nothing needs to be installed on Android, as it uses >b<Android Debug Bridge (ADB) to implement the core features.

Besides mirroring Android screen on your desktop, it also features:

Audio mirroring or forwarding (Android 11+).
Screen recording.
Copy and paste in both directions.
Mirroring with Android screen off.
Camera mirroring.
OTG mode, that only run physical keyboard, mouse and gamepad simulation, as if the computer keyboard, mouse and gamepads were plugged directly to the Android device.

In Howtos Android

Mixxx Free DJ Software 2.3.4 Released! Ubuntu PPA

Last updated: March 9, 2023 — Leave a comment

Free DJ mixing software Mixxx announced the 2.3.4 release a few days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 22.10, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 18.04 via PPA.

The new release added controller mapping for the Traktor Kontrol S2 Mk1, and initial mapping for Numark Party Mix.

It now shows ‘date added’ as local time, supports macOS 13.0 Ventura by using portaudio 19.7.0, again allows searching in external libraries. For Ubuntu, it fixed the menu bar issue when working in full-screen mode.

There are as well many other bug-fixes in the release, see the changelog for details.

How to install Mixxx in Ubuntu via PPA

The DJ software has an official PPA for Ubuntu, Linux Mint based systems. So far, it provides the latest 2.3.4 packages for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.10, Ubuntu 22.04, and Linux Mint 20/21.

1. Add Mixxx PPA

Open terminal either from app launcher or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mixxx/mixxx

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

2. Update package cache:

For Ubuntu 18.04 and Linux Mint, users need to manually refresh the package cache after adding new software sources. To do so, simply run command:

sudo apt update

3. Install or Upgrade Mixxx:

If an old Mixxx package was installed on your system, you may try upgrading the DJ software using Software Updater:

Or just run the command below in terminal to either install or upgrade the DJ software:

sudo apt install mixxx

Uninstall Mixxx:

You can easily remove the software by running command in terminal:

sudo apt remove --autoremove mixxx

And remove the PPA repository via Software & Updates, by removing relevant line utility under Other Software tab.

In Howtos Audio

Peek Animated GIF Screen Recorder Discontinued!

Last updated: March 8, 2023 — Leave a comment

Peek, the popular animated GIF screen recorder application, has been discontinued!

It was one of my most favorite applications, that provides an easy to use interface for recording rectangle screen area into animated GIF.

The software developer announced that “With this announcement I officially declare the Peek project deprecated. This is something I should have done for a while now, but I always told myself that I will eventually do a last release, fixing some issues. As you know this never happened.”

The big reason is because of Wayland. Peek is working good in Ubuntu 20.04, though it cannot record the top-bar. But Ubuntu 22.04+, Fedora Workstation and other Linux with recent GNOME have switched to Wayland that cause problems.

Wayland session does not provide the classic way that Peek uses to determine the recording area. It’s even not working properly when running as X11 app in Wayland via XWayland. The issue can’t be resolved unless completely rewritten the app in different UI in different way, but the developer is not interested in it.

However, Peek is still working in classic Xorg session that is default so far in most other desktop environments, and optional in GNOME. Though, it may have bugs and won’t receive fixes!

Alternative apps for recording animated GIF

As far as I know, Kooha is a good alternative that can record screen as GIF and supports Wayland session. And it’s available to install as Flatpak in Flathub repository.

In Howtos desktop recorder

DeaDBeef Music Player 1.9.5 Adds PipeWire output Support

Last updated: March 7, 2023 — Leave a comment

The lightweight DeaDBeef music player got an update recently. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 20.04, and Ubuntu 18.04.

Just like Audacious did in v4.3, DeaDBeef 1.9.5 added the low-latency PipeWire sound server support. Meaning Ubuntu 22.10+, Pop! OS 22.04 and all current Fedora Linux users can select use the new sound output in ‘Preferences’ settings page.

The release also added new LibRetro resampling plugin, updated DUMB plugin with Chiptune voice muting support. Other changes include $itematindex(index,value) function to title formatting, improved drawing of spectrum analyzer, and various bug-fixes. See release note for details.

DeadBeef custom layout

How to Install DeadBeef 1.9.5

The music player website provides official packages for Linux, Windows, and macOS, available to download at the link below:

Download DeaDBeef

However, I personally prefer using the PPA repository, which provides both GTK3/2 and Qt5 user interface, as well as a few more plugins. Sadly, the PPA so far supports only Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 20.04, and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and their based systems.

Firstly, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open a terminal window. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:
```
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:spvkgn/deadbeef
```
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.
After adding PPA, update system package index by running command below, though it’s done automatically in Ubuntu 20.04+.
```
sudo apt update
```
Finally, install the music player with your favorite UI interface (GTK3 for example):
```
sudo apt install deadbeef-gtk3
```
As you see in the screenshot, you may also install the mpris2 plugin, Qt5 UI, file browser plugin, etc.

Uninstall DeadBeef

To remove the PPA, use command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:spvkgn/deadbeef

And remove the music player via:

sudo apt remove --autoremove deadbeef*

In Howtos Audio

Audacious Music Player 4.3 Released! Ubuntu PPA Updated

Last updated: March 6, 2023 — 2 Comments

Audacious music player finally announced the release of version 4.3 after a few weeks of beta testing.

As you may already know, the new release features PipeWire output plugin. Meaning Ubuntu 22.10 + users can switch sound output using the new low-level multimedia framework.

Pop! OS 22.04 (have PipeWire support out-of-the-box) and Ubuntu 20.04 that have switched to Pipewire to replace PulseAudio are also supported.

The release also added GTK3 support again, which has much better appearance in my case compare to the old GTK2 interface. It now has a new set of tool-bar icons with both light and dark mode support. Though, the icons in the Settings page are still too big.

Other changes in Audacious 4.3 include:

Native Opus decoder plugin, previously done via FFmpeg plugin.
Qt6 support goes mature, though still defaults to Qt5.
Meson built system support
Allow copying file path in song info dialog.
Support Ogg FLAC audio streams
Support reading embedded lyrics tags.
Account for album artist in Search Tool.
Support new song length database format in SID plugin.
Support Publisher and Catalog Number tags
Add file filter to Export Playlist file dialog
Remove alarm plugin.
Add Romanian translation.

How to Install Audacious 4.3 in Ubuntu:

Without building from the source, Ubuntu users can install the audio player in 2 ways: Flatpak and Deb.

1. Flatpak

Audacious 4.3 is available to install as Flatpak package, though it runs in sandbox. Linux Mint user can easily search for and install it from Software Manager.

Ubuntu user can press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal and run the 2 commands below one by one to get it.

Enable Flatpak support:
```
sudo apt install flatpak
```

Install Audacious as Flatpak:

flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/org.atheme.audacious.flatpakref

2. Ubuntu PPA

For those who prefer the classic .deb package, I’ve upload the new package into this PPA repository.

It now supports the package for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 22.10, and Ubuntu 23.04. Besides the modern PC and laptop with x86_64 architecture type, arm64/armhf devices such as Raspberry Pi are also supported!

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

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

2. Then, update system package index in Ubuntu 18.04 and Linux Mint via the command below. For Ubuntu 20.04+, it’s done automatically while adding PPA.

sudo apt update

3. If you have an old version of the music player installed, you can now update the package to the latest using “Software Updater” utility.

Or, run the command below in terminal to install or upgrade the package:

sudo apt install audacious audacious-plugins

Uninstall Audacious

Remove the Flatpak package

To remove the audio player installed as Flatpak, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and use command:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data org.atheme.audacious

Also clean up runtime library via flatpak uninstall --unused.

Remove Audacious installed from PPA

If you want to restore the music player to the stock version available in system repository. Run command below to purge PPA as well as downgrade installed packages:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

Or, simply remove the software packages, use command:

sudo apt remove audacious audacious-plugins-data libaudcore5

And remove the PPA either via “Software & Updates” under ‘Other Software’ tab or use command:

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

That’s all. Enjoy!

In Howtos Audio

Darktable 4.2.1 Released with Various Bug-fixes, New Cameras Support

Last updated: March 3, 2023 — Leave a comment

Darktable, the free open-source photography application and raw developer, released version 4.2.1 a few days ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 22.10.

Darktable 4.2.1 is a new point release. There’s no big features but minor changes. It now uses magic bytes to identify JPEG files, so even JPEG image with incorrect file extension is supported. Also, it adds ability to assign shortcuts to the “quick access” style and preset menus at the bottom of the darkroom view.

The release also added base support for Canon EOS Kiss X10/X10i, Leica M9 (dng), Nikon Z 30 (12bit-compressed, 14bit-compressed), OM System OM-1/OM-5, Panasonic DC-G95D/DC-G99D (4:3), Ricoh GR IIIx (dng).

It also adds White Balance Presets for Nikon Z 9, and noise profiles for Fujifilm GFX100S, Fujifilm X-H2/X-H2S, OM System OM-1, Sony ILCE-7SM3, Canon EOS 250D / Kiss X10 / Rebel SL3 / 200D Mark II, Canon EOS R7.

For more about Darktable 4.2.1, see the release note in github.

How to install Darktable 4.2.1 in Ubuntu via PPA

The software website refers to the OBS repository that contains native packages for Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and SUSE.

Darktable OBS repository

For choice, here’s an unofficial Ubuntu PPA contains the packages for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 22.10.

NOTE: There’s no JPEG-XL support, since the library is not available in Ubuntu repository until 23.04. And, the new release requires libheif >= 1.13.0, so HEIF support excluded in Ubuntu 22.04 and earlier. Please leave comment if you do need them.

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open a terminal window. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/darktable

2. Linux Mint use may need to run command to manually refresh package cache:

sudo apt update

3. Finally install the photography software either via the command below:

sudo apt install darktable

Or by installing package updates via Software Updater. NOTE: You are strongly advised to take a backup first.

Darktable is also available as universal Flatpak package that works in most Linux systems.

Fix no window border issue

Darktable seems not rendering its window border in Ubuntu with default Wayland session. As a workaround, either switch back to classic Xorg session, or run Darktable using X11 backend.

To do so, either open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to launch Darktable from command line:

GDK_BACKEND=x11 darktable

Or, modify the shortcut icon file via following steps:

1. Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and copy the shortcut file to local folder by running command:

sudo cp /usr/share/applications/org.darktable.darktable.desktop ~/.local/share/applications

2. Change the owner ship to current user:

sudo chown $USER:$USER ~/.local/share/applications/org.darktable.darktable.desktop

3. Edit the file with gedit text editor:

gedit ~/.local/share/applications/org.darktable.darktable.desktop

For Ubuntu 22.10 +, replace gedit with gnome-text-editor.

4. Finally, find out the line started with Exec and change it into Exec=env GDK_BACKEND=x11 /usr/bin/darktable %U. Also remove the line start with TryExec.

Uninstall:

To remove darktable, simple run command in a terminal window:

sudo apt remove --autoremove darktable

And, remove the Ubuntu PPA by either removing source line in ‘Software & Updates’ utility under ‘Other Software’ tab, or running command:

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

If you would like to revert back the stock Darktable package in system repository, just purge the PPA instead of removing it as well as the software packages and install old version back.

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/darktable

In Howtos photo

FFmpeg 6.0 Released! How to Install in Ubuntu 22.04 [New PPA Updated]

Last updated: November 13, 2023 — 20 Comments

The popular FFmpeg multimedia library announced the new major 6.0 (updated to v6.1). Here are the new features and how to install guide for Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 20.04, and Ubuntu 18.04.

FFmpeg 6.0, code name “Von Neumann”, features new decoders support, including Bonk, Micronas SC-4, APAC, ViewQuest VQC, RKA, Radiance, WavArc, CBD2 DPCM and a few ADPCM formats.

There are also QSV and NVenc AV1 encoding, VAAPI and QSV decoding and encoding for 10/12bit 422, 10/12bit 444 HEVC and VP9.

Other changes FFmpeg 6.0 include:

New audio and video filters, such as adrc, afdelaysrc, corr, showcwt, backgroundkey, a3dscope, ddagrab, ssim360, hstack_qsv, vstack_qsv and xstack_qsv filters
Radiance HDR image support
Add new mode to cropdetect filter to detect crop-area based on motion vectors and edges
WBMP (Wireless Application Protocol Bitmap) image format
LAF, SDNS demuxer
DTS to PTS reorder bsf
backgroundkey filter, showcwt multimedia filter
hstack_vaapi, vstack_vaapi and xstack_vaapi filters
MediaCodec decoder via NDKMediaCodec and encoder
oneVPL support for QSV
ffmpeg CLI new options: -stats_enc_pre[_fmt], -stats_enc_post[_fmt], -stats_mux_pre[_fmt]
media100 to mjpegb bsf
ffmpeg CLI new option: -fix_sub_duration_heartbeat
CrystalHD decoders deprecated
RKA, WavArc, XMD ADPCM, WADY DPCM decoder and demuxer
filtergraph syntax in ffmpeg CLI now supports passing file contents as option values

NOTE: Upgrade FFmpeg library in Ubuntu may break other apps and/or run into dependency issue!! You must know how to restore. And don’t do it in production machine!!

How to Install FFmpeg (6.1 Updated) via PPA in Ubuntu:

As many users reported, the Rob Savoury’s PPA seems broken due to dependency issue.

So, I upload the FFmpeg 6 and its dependency libraries into this unofficial PPA for those need FFmpeg 6.

NOTE: 1. The PPA so far is for Ubuntu 22.04 only!
NOTE: 2. The packages seem working good in my case. But it may or may not work for you! Use it at your own risk!

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open a terminal window. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/ffmpeg6

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

2. For Linux Mint 21, you need to manually refresh package cache after adding PPA. To do so, run command:

sudo apt update

3. Finally, run the command below to either install or upgrade to FFmpeg 6.1:

sudo apt install ffmpeg

In case of in-complete installation, it’s HIGHLY recommend to run sudo apt upgrade to upgrade all the packages to the latest versions.

4. After installation, run the command below in terminal to verify:

ffmpeg --version

How to Downgrade FFmpeg library:

In case you want to downgrade the FFmpeg library to the stock version available in system repository. Open terminal and run command:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/ffmpeg6

NOTE: Keep an eye on terminal output before answering yes to confirm! It MAY remove some other useful app packages.

In Howtos multimedia

Show User Name in Top-bar in Ubuntu 22.04 | 24.04

Last updated: September 2, 2024 — Leave a comment

Want to display your username in the top panel? It’s easy to do this job in Ubuntu, Fedora Workstation and other Linux with GNOME Desktop via an extension.

After following this tutorial, you’ll see your username appear in the far right corner in top panel, just like the screenshot below shows you:

1. First, open Ubuntu Software, search for and install Extension Manager app.

Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu Software/App Center

2. Then, press Super (Windows Logo) key on keyboard to open the overview screen. Search for and launch Extension Manager.

3. When the tool opens, navigate to ‘Browse‘ tab. Finally, search for and click install “Add Username to Top Panel” extension. The extension so far supports for GNOME from v3.12 to 46. Meaning almost all Linux with recent GNOME are supported!

After installation, your username should appear immediately on top panel. To remove it, go back “Installed” tab, then either turn off or remove the extension.

For other Linux, e.g., Fedora Workstation, Arch, Debian, RockyLinux with GNOME, go to this page in web browser and use the ON/OFF switch to install it.

Another Choice: The extension mentioned above, so far does NOT support placing user-name to the extreme right. As workaround, you may search & install “Whoami in top bar” extension instead. Which, supports GNOME 45/46 so far (Ubuntu 24.04, Fedora Workstation 39/40).

After installed the extension, switch back to “Installed” tab, then you may click the setting icon for that extension to configure the position to left, center, or right, as well as relative position.