GIMP 2.10.34 is out! JPEG-XL Export & 3.0 Dev Backports [Ubuntu PPA]

Last updated: March 1, 2023 — 13 Comments

GIMP image editor released a new update for the 2.10 series few days ago! Here are what’s new and how to install guide for Ubuntu Linux users.

GIMP 2.10.34 is a new stable release features a lot of bug-fixes and a few enhancements. The official announcement is NOT ready somehow at the moment, though it’s released in gitlab project age. And, the source code is available to download at FTP web page.

For macOS, the DBus is now fully disabled as it in some cases could even cause app freeze. Open With feature still work fine, but other features using dbus (such as opening files or running batch commands from a separate GIMP process) won’t work. As well, check for updates function in macOS now works again.

The release also has some backports from the 2.99.x development releases. The “Canvas Size” dialog has been redesigned to use more horizontal space. And, it has new Template selector in resize dialog.

For PDF with transparent area, there’s new “Fill transparent areas with white” option which enabled by default on file import. And export dialog has “Fill transparent areas with background color” option to decide whether use transparent background.

Other changes in GIMP 2.10.34 include:

  • Symmetry dockable contents is now shown, yet deactivated, when no images are opened
  • Color scale preferences are now remembered across sessions.
  • Import JPEG-XL metadata support.
  • Export JPEG-XL support, always in 8bit lossless.
  • New header with “visible” and “link” icons in item dockables
  • Clipping layers better supported when importing PSD files
  • Paths are now exported to PSD
  • New option “Show reduced images” when loading TIFF images
  • 16-bit per channel export for raw image data

How to Install GIMP 2.10.34 in Ubuntu Linux

Option 1: Flatpak

GIMP provides official Linux packages through universal Flatpak package, though it runs in sandbox environment.

Ubuntu user can press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal, and run the following 2 commands one by one to install it:

  1. Make sure the flatpak daemon installed by running command: 
    sudo apt install flatpak

  2. Then, install GIMP as Flatpak via command: 
    flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/org.gimp.GIMP.flatpakref

Once installed, start it either from app launcher or run flatpak run org.gimp.GIMP in terminal.

Option 2: Ubuntu PPA

For those prefer the classic .deb package format. I’ve uploaded the package into the unofficial PPA, with support for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 22.10.

  1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to add PPA: 
    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/gimp
  2. Then either upgrade GIMP using Software Updater, or run command in terminal to install it: 
    sudo apt install gimp libgegl-0.4-0 libbabl-0.1-0

    For Linux mint, you may need to run sudo apt update to update package index first.

Uninstall GIMP:

For GIMP package installed as Flatpak, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to remove it:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data org.gimp.GIMP

Also run flatpak uninstall --unused to clean useless runtime.

For .deb package from PPA, open terminal and run command:

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

The command above will remove PPA and downgrade the GIMP package into stock version in system repository.

For choice, you may remove the PPA instead by running command:

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

And remove the GIMP image editor via:

sudo apt remove --autoremove gimp libgegl-0.4-0
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Control Screen Brightness for External Monitor in Ubuntu (GUI & CLI)

Last updated: November 5, 2023 — 3 Comments

Want to control screen brightness, color preset, contrast etc for your external monitor connected in Desktop PC or laptop? Here’s how to do the trick in both graphical and command line ways in Ubuntu & other Linux!

I know there are physical buttons to do the job. But for lazy men and/or software developers, few mouse clicks and/or a single command can be more effective. And ddcutil is the tool for Linux users.

ddcutil is a free and open-source tool that uses DDC/CI protocol to control settings for most external monitors. It also support some monitors (e.g. Eizo ColorEdge, Apple Cinema) through USB.

NOTE: Most modern monitors support DDC/CI protocol, but it may NOT enabled by default. Check the menu via the physical buttons.

Step 1: Install ddcutil & ddcui

The ddcutil package is available in most Linux’s system repositories, including Ubuntu, Arch Linux, Fedora, Debian. User can directly search for and install it from system App Store (Software App, Package Manager)

The package in Ubuntu repository is however always old. For the most recent version, there’s an official PPA maintained by the software developer, so far with support for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 22.10.

    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:rockowitz/ddcutil

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

    2. After adding PPA, update system package index via command: 
      sudo apt update
    3. Finally, install the command line utility and graphical interface by running command: 
      sudo apt install ddcui ddcutil

Step 2: Control brightness & other monitor settings via Graphical tool

After installation, search for and open “ddcui” from Activities overview or start menu depends on your desktop environment.

NOTE: for “error access: permission denied” issue, either start the app via sudo ddcui command, or run command to add current user to i2c group (need system restart):

sudo gpasswd --add $USER i2c

When the app starts, choose your monitor (if more than one available) from the drop-down box.

Then go to menu View -> Features. There you’ll see the options to control screen brightness, color preset, contrast, RGB colors, clock, restore factory, etc settings!

Step 3: Control Monitor Settings from Command line

For those who are familiar with Linux commands, things can be done via following steps. NOTE: sudo is NOT required after adding user into i2c group and reboot.

1. First, open a terminal window and run command to report all connected monitors:

sudo ddcutil detect

In my case, I have built-in laptop display and external “Display 1”.

2. Then query the monitor’s capabilities string, for display 1 (-d 1) in my case:

sudo ddcutil -d 1 capabilities

In the screenshot, I added grep option to filter the ‘Brightness’ and the output code 10 is what I need.

3. Get the current value of feature code 10 (“brightness” in the case) for display 1:

sudo ddcutil -d 1 getvcp 10

3. Set the brightness level (code 10) to 60 for example:

sudo ddcutil -d 1 setvcp 10 60

Besides settings brightness to custom level, you may also increase or decrease brightness via ‘+’, ‘-‘ options. For example, increase brightness (code 10) with level 5 up.

ddcutil -d 1 setvcp 10 + 5

Or decrease brightness with level 5 down:

ddcutil -d 1 setvcp 10 - 5

This can be useful for binding to keyboard shortcut for controlling your monitor brightness. For more options, read the man page by running man ddcutil command in terminal.

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Linux Kernel 6.2 Released! How to Install in Ubuntu 22.04 / Linux Mint 21

Last updated: February 20, 2023 — 12 Comments

Linux Kernel 6.2 was release this Sunday. Linus Torvalds announced it at lkml.org:

So here we are, right on (the extended) schedule, with 6.2 out.

Nothing unexpected happened last week, with just a random selection of small fixes spread all over, with nothing really standing out. The shortlog is tiny and appended below, you can scroll through it if you’re bored.

Wed have a couple of small things that Thorsten was tracking on the regression side, but I wasn’t going to apply any last-minute patches that weren’t actively pushed by maintainers, so they will have to show up for stable. Nothing seemed even remotely worth trying to delay things for
…

What’s New in Kernel 5.16

  • Initial support for NVIDIA RTX 30 “Ampere” GPU accelerated graphics with Nouveau open-source driver.
  • Intel Arc graphics support being stable and enabled out-of-the-box!
  • Raspberry Pi 4K @ 60Hz display support.
  • New PlayStaion driver with Sony DualShock 4 controller support.
  • Added OneXPlayer senser and fan driver.
  • Dell Data Vault WMI driver.
  • Google Chrome OS Human Presence Sensor support
  • RealTek RT1318 and Rockchip RK3588 support.

If you want to learn more features about Kernel 6.2, read this blog post.

How to Install Kernel 6.2 in Ubuntu 22.04+/Linux Mint 21

NOTE: The Mainline Kernel packages are not appropriate for production use. Only install it for testing purpose or for specific drivers.

The Mainline Kernel PPA has built the packages for Ubuntu and  its based systems with modern 64-bit (amd64), arm64/armhf mobile, ppc64el and s390x CPU architecture types support.

User can select download the packages from the link page below:

Download Kernel 6.2 (.deb)

For modern 64-bit PC/laptop, they are:

  1. linux-headers-6.2.0-060200-xxxxxx_all.deb
  2. linux-headers-6.2.0-060200-generic_xxx_amd64.deb
  3. linux-modules-6.2.0-060200-generic_xxx_amd64.deb
  4. linux-image-unsigned-6.2.0-060200-generic_xxx_amd64.deb

After downloading them, right click on blank area in Downloads page and select “Open in Terminal”. Finally, install the kernel packages via command:

sudo apt install ./linux*.deb

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

cd /tmp/

wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v6.2/amd64/linux-headers-6.2.0-060200-generic_6.2.0-060200.202302191831_amd64.deb

wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v6.2/amd64/linux-headers-6.2.0-060200_6.2.0-060200.202302191831_all.deb

wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v6.2/amd64/linux-image-unsigned-6.2.0-060200-generic_6.2.0-060200.202302191831_amd64.deb

wget -c https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v6.2/amd64/linux-modules-6.2.0-060200-generic_6.2.0-060200.202302191831_amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Once installed, restart your computer and verify by running uname -a command in terminal!

Uninstall Linux Kernel 6.2:

Restart your machine and select boot with the previous kernel in boot menu under ‘Grub2 -> Advanced Option for Ubuntu’. Then run command to remove Linux Kernel 6.2:

sudo apt remove --autoremove linux-headers-6.2.0-060200 linux-modules-6.2.0-060200-generic
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Parole Media Player 4.18 Released! How to Install via PPA

Last updated: February 19, 2023 — Leave a comment

Xfce’s Parole media player announced the 4.18.0 released a day ago. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 22.10 and their based systems.

Parole is a modern simple video player based on the GStreamer. It’s an free opensource app fit well in the lightweight XFCE desktop, though also works in other Linux desktops.

The new version 4.18.0 was released last night. It’s been more than 2 years since the last release, there’s however NO big changes but only bug-fixes, minor improvements, and translation updates.

Changes in Parole 4.18.0 according to the NEWS file:

  • Hovering mouse wheel over a speaker icon can also increase volume now.
  • Reduce playback control panel to stay 2 seconds when in full-screen mode.
  • Fix memory leak when loading cover image.
  • Some icon updates and translation updates.

How to Install Parole 4.18.0 via PPA in Ubuntu:

The project does not provide official binary packages. Besides building from the source tarball, XUbuntu, Linux Lite, Linux Mint, and of course other Ubuntu based systems can get it from this unofficial PPA.

NOTE: Parole seems not working good in GNOME desktop with Wayland session. Meaning Ubuntu and Fedora workstation with default desktop environment need to switch to classic Xorg for this app.

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or search for and open terminal window from start menu. 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. The PPA support for Ubuntu 20.04 and higher with both amd64 and arm64/armhf cpu architecture types.

2. Some Ubuntu based systems may need to manually update package index after adding PPA. To do so, run command:

sudo apt update

3. Finally, either upgrade the media player from an existing version (if any) using Software Updater (Update Manager), or run command in terminal to install it:

sudo apt install parole

Uninstall Parole or Restore original package

To restore the original version, run command in terminal to purge the PPA as well as downgrade the package:

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

Or, you can remove the Ubuntu PPA either via “Software & Updates” tool under “Other Software” tab, or run command:

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

To remove the media player, use command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove parole
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Add “Auto Brightness” ON/OFF Switch in Ubuntu 24.04 System Menu

Last updated: May 7, 2024 — Leave a comment

For Ubuntu 24.04, Fedora workstation 39/40, Arch, Manjaro, etc, with GNOME desktop 43 ~ 46, there’s now an extension to add “Auto Brightness” toggle button in quick settings (aka system menu).

Meaning user don’t have to open System Settings and go to Power page again and again to turn on/off the function. Just open the top-right corner system tray menu, there’ll be a toggle button to quickly turn on/off auto brightness just like on a smartphone.

NOTE: Your laptop MUST support auto brightness feature and have GPU driver properly installed. To verify, just open System Settings and find out if there’s Automatic Screen Brightness option under Power tab.

How to Install the Auto Brightness quick menu button

The extension so far supports GNOME from version 43 to 46. It is available in EGO, which however lack of update for recent GNOME versions. If you want this quick toggle button, then it’s easy to install from the source tarball.

1. First, click the link below to download the source tarball.

Download Auto Brightness Extension

For choice, you may go to the Github project page for the source code.

2. After downloaded the source package, do following steps one by one to install it:

  • Extract the downloaded package, and navigate to the extracted folder.
  • Open another file window and navigate to .local/share/gnome-shell/extensions directory.
  • Finally, drag and drop the sub-folder from extracted folder to new opened window.

Tips: .local is a hidden folder, you need to press Ctrl+H to view (and press again to hide) in file manager. The gnome-shell and extensions sub-folders may NOT exist under ‘.local/share‘ if this is the first extension you’re going to install. Just create manually.

3. Next log out and back in.

Install either GNOME Extensions or Extension Manager from App Center (filter by Debian package), and launch it. Finally, turn on the “Auto Brightness Toggle” extension for displaying the new button in top-right system status menu.

Uninstall:

As the last screenshot shows you, in “Extension Manager” window just click the up/down arrow beside the toggle switch. Then, you’ll see the ‘Remove’ button for removing the extension.

Alternatively, you may delete the theme folder under .local/share/gnome-shell/extensions directory, and log out and back in to apply.

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Audacious Music Player 4.3 Beta added PipeWire output & Opus Support

Last updated: March 6, 2023 — Leave a comment

The lightweight audacious music player announced the beta release of the next v4.3 a few days ago.

Usually, the final release will be out in next or next few months with mostly no change since beta. So far, this beta release include the following new features.

The new release added plugin support for Pipewire, which is a low latency sound server that is default in Ubuntu since 22.10.

Also, it added a plugin for Opus audio decoding support. Though it previously supports Opus through FFmpeb library compiled with --enable-libopus.

Audacious 4.3 also added again GTK3 as well as Qt6 support. In current v4.2 stable, I prefer to use Qt UI since GTK2 interface looks ugly due to incorrect icon size.

However, Qt UI lacks automatic light and dark mode switch depends on system color scheme in GNOME (default desktop environment in Ubuntu). With the new GTK3 build, it now looks good in my case in Ubuntu 22.04 with better integration.

Audacious 4.3 GTK3 UI

Other changes in Audacious 4.3 Beta include:

  • Implement Meson build system.
  • Allow copying file path in song info dialog
  • Support Ogg FLAC audio streams
  • Support reading embedded lyrics tags
  • Support new song length database format in SID plugin
  • Increased M3U file size limit from 16 MB to 256 MB
  • Support Publisher and Catalog Number tags
  • Add file filter to Export Playlist file dialog
  • Removed alarm plugin due to serious bugs

How to Get Audacious 4.3 Beta:

Audacious website provides the Windows EXE and source code for downloading at the link below:

Download Audacious

For all current Ubuntu releases, including Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 22.10, just open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run the commands below one by one to install it:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps
sudo apt update
sudo apt install audacious audacious-plugins

Uninstall:

To uninstall Audacious packages installed from PPA, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove libaudcore5 audacious-plugins-data

And remove the PPA repository via command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps
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New PPA for Installing Transmission 4.0.4 in Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04 | 23.10

Last updated: November 28, 2023 — 21 Comments

The Transmission BitTorrent client released version 4.0.0 a few days ago. Here’s PPA repository contains the package for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 23.10, Linux Mint 21/20.

According to the release note, transmission 4.0 features new C++ and gtkmm code-base, with much less CPU and memory usage than before. It also adds support for using BitTorrent v2 and hybrid torrents, support for IPv6 blocklists, and more.

How to Install Transmission 4.0.4 via Ubuntu PPA

I’ve built the new release packages into this unofficial PPA for Ubuntu 20.04 and higher. Ubuntu 18.04 is not supported due to dependency library version mis-match.

The new web user interface depends on NPM (Node.js package manager). It requires internet connection while building process, but launchpad build farm does NOT have. Meaning so far the PPA package does not include new web UI via JavaScript, but the old web user interface for remote control is stilling working in my case in Ubuntu 22.04.

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/transmission

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

2. After adding the PPA, you can then launch Software Updater (Update Manager) and upgrade the system pre-installed transmission package to the new 4.0.0 release.

For Ubuntu based system without the BitTorrent client pre-installed, you may run command below to install it:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install transmission-gtk

You may replace transmission-gtk with (or add) following package:

  • transmission-qt – Qt user interface for KDE, LXQt, etc.
  • transmission-cli – command line interface.
  • transmission-daemon – the daemon for running in background, and access via webUI

Uninstall Transmission 4.0.4

You can choose to downgrade the BitTorrent client to system pre-installed version, by running command in terminal:

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

Or, remove the software packages instead by running command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove transmission-gtk transmission-qt transmission-cli transmission-daemon

And remove the PPA repository either via “Software & Updates” tool by removing the source line under “Other Software” tab, or by running command:

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

That’s all. Enjoy!

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Prevent Screen Blank While Watching Videos in Ubuntu

Last updated: May 8, 2024 — Leave a comment

Ubuntu has an indicator applet to quickly prevent screen goes blank, lock screen, and/or automatically suspend on system idle.

It’s “Caffeine”, a more than 10 years old tool, that’s now available as Gnome Shell Extension. Which is useful when watching movies, or doing automation process that needs screen to keep alive.

Previously, it acts an indicator applet in the system tray on top-panel. By clicking on it will prevent (or allow again) screen blank and auto suspend when system idle.

Now it’s available as an extension for the default Ubuntu Desktop, which adds a button in the upper right system menu, to quickly toggle on/off system idle feature.

Besides prevent screen blank infinitely, there’s now also sub menu options to do the action in just 5, 10, or 30 minutes. Once you enable Caffeine along with one of the time options, it shows the applet with count down timer in the aggregation icons on top-bar.

As well, instead of showing notifications, it now display volume control style OSD in center of bottom screen when toggling on/off Caffeine option.

How to Install Caffeine in Ubuntu:

NOTE: Caffeine works on all current Ubuntu (Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 24.04), Fedora and other Linux with GNOME Desktop. Though, the features mentioned above are only for GNOME 43 so far.

For Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 24.04, search for and install “Extension Manager” from Ubuntu Software (or App Center).

Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu Software/App Center

Then launch it and use the tool to search and install Caffeine extension.

For old Ubuntu 18.04 and other Linux with GNOME, use the ON/OFF switch at the page below to install it:

Caffeine extension page

Caffeine also has a configuration page can be opened either via “Extension Manager” or “Gnome Extensions” app. There you can do:

  • toggle display applet or not.
  • show notification or not.
  • enable the app when there’s full-screen app.
  • set keyboard shortcut.
  • enable the app when launching custom applications.

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Transmission 4.0.0 Released with BitTorrent v2 Support

Last updated: February 11, 2023 — 3 Comments

Transmission, the default torrent downloading app for Ubuntu, announced the new major 4.0.0 release today!

The new release migrated the codebase from C to C++ programming language. And now it uses the gtkmm toolkit instead of GTK for its user interface.  With the code improvements, it can even have 50% less CPU and 70% fewer memory usage.

Transmission 4.0.0 introduced support for using BitTorrent v2 and hybrid torrents. In ‘Preferences’ ->’Network’ settings page, there’s option to set default public trackers. And in “Seeding” settings page, it allows to call a custom script when done seeding.

Other changes in Transmission 4.0.0 include:

  • New version system (v3.00 -> v4.0.0)
  • Remote control GUI now use RPC API ‘table’ mode, resulting smaller payloads and less bandwidth usage.
  • Rewrite Web app in JavaScript with fully mobile support.
  • Support IPv6 blocklists.
  • See github release page for details.

How to Install Transmission 4.0.0 in Ubuntu:

Windows and macOS users can download the new release package from the software website:

Transmission download page

For Linux user, there’s no package at the moment of writing. But as a lazy man, I use this pre-installed app to download torrents in Ubuntu frequently. If possible, I’ll make a deb package in case no PPA packages available in next few days.

UPDATE: here it is the PPA for Transmission 4.0.0 with Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 22.10 support. Sadly, new WebUI excluded but it seems working with old web interface.

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Whisper – Simple App to Listen to Microphone in Linux

Last updated: February 7, 2023 — 1 Comment

Want to hear your sound in microphone? Here’s a stupid simple tool to the job in Linux.

It’s Whisper, a new free and open-source GTK4 application, allowing listen to microphone through your speaker. Which, is useful for testing your microphone or for listening to your voice.

As the screenshot shows, the app is quite easy to use. Just select the microphone and speaker from the list, and click ‘Connect’. Then, you can say something or make some noise through microphone to see the magic.

As a GTK4 application, it follow system color scheme by switching between light and dark automatically. However, it needs both PulseAudio and Pipewire to make things work, which is default in Pop! OS 22.04, Ubuntu 22.10, Ubuntu 23.04, Fedora 35/36/37, etc.

How to Install Whisper in your Linux

As mentioned above, this application requires Pipewire audio server. For current Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, it’s NOT the default, though you can enable it by following this tutorial (NOT recommend for beginners).

Whisper is available to install as universal Flatpak package. You can install it by following the steps below one by one:

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to install Flatpak daemon:

sudo apt install flatpak

Other Linux can follow this setup guide to enable Flatpak support.

2. Then, run command to install Whisper as Flatpak package:

flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/it.mijorus.whisper.flatpakref

3. After installation, search for and launch it from start menu (Show Applications) like normal app and enjoy!

How to Remove Whisper

To remove the software package, also open a terminal window and run command:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data it.mijorus.whisper

Also run flatpak uninstall --unused to remove useless runtime libraries.

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