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Paint.NET Clone Pinta 2.1 Released! WebP & Google Drive Support

Last updated: January 4, 2023 — Leave a comment

The free and open-source Paint.Net 3.0 clone, Pinta image editor got a new major release after 1 year of development.

The new Pinta 2.1 came with some exciting new features, including WebP image support via webp-pixbuf-loader library, and updated icons with improved support for dark theme and HiDPI displays.

The Gradient tool now has a ‘Transparency Mode‘. The release also adds support for loading files from network drive, meaning user can now open pictures from Google Drive folder.

Other changes in Pinta 2.1 include:

Update screenshot tool to make it work in Wayland.
Support images with unknown extension but valid contents.
Improve canvas rendering performance
Improve .ora files support.
Update to .NET7, though .NET6 also supported.
Various bug-fixes.

How to Install Pinta 2.1 in Ubuntu Linux

Pinta offers official Linux package through both Snap and Flatpak package. Choose either one that you prefer.

NOTE: Both packages now do NOT support for WebP images. Try to build it from source by yourself if you like this feature.

Option 1: Snap package

Ubuntu 20.04 | 22.04 and higher user can easily install the package from Ubuntu Software. NOTE: There are 2 Pinta packages in Software Center, choose the one from Snap Store.

Option 2: Flatpak package

Pinta is also available to install as another universal Flatpak package format. Just press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal, then run commands below one by one to install it.

First, install the daemon package in case you don’t have it:
```
sudo apt install flatpak
```
For the old Ubuntu 18.04, add this PPA first before installing Flatpak.

Then, install Pinta as flatpak by running command:

flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/com.github.PintaProject.Pinta.flatpakref

Tip: if you’ve already installed Pinta as Flatpak, run the command below to check updates:

flatpak update com.github.PintaProject.Pinta

Uninstall Pinta:

For the Pinta Snap package, just remove it either using Ubuntu Software app or by running command in a terminal window:

snap remove pina

To remove the Flatpak package, run command:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data com.github.PintaProject.Pinta

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

In Howtos image editor

How to Disable Event Sound in Ubuntu 24.04 & 22.04

Last updated: May 8, 2024 — 2 Comments

Ubuntu by default play a short alert sound when you plug in/out USB drive, power supply, or hit tab function key in terminal.

This is useful for indicating certain type of system messages and events, but it’s easy to mute these type of sounds in case you don’t like them. And, here’s the quick tutorial show you how.

Single command to disable event sound

There’s a dconf database option to toggle on/off this feature for GNOME and Cinnamon desktop.

Simply, press Ctrl+Alt+T key combination on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.sound event-sounds false

Not only for Ubuntu, this command should also work for Fedora workstation, Debian, Arch and other Linux with GNOME desktop.

For Linux Mint cinnamon desktop, use the command below instead:

gsettings set org.cinnamon.desktop.sound event-sounds false

Disable event sound via Dconf Editor (graphical way)

In case for those who hate Linux commands, there’s an advanced configuration tool Dconf Editor, that provides a graphical interface to do the job.

1. Firstly, search for and install Dconf Editor from Ubuntu Software (or App Center for 24.04).

2. Then launch Dconf Editor, and navigate to org/gnome/desktop/sounds. Finally, turn off the option for ‘event-sounds’.

Similarly, navigate to org/cinnamon/desktop/sounds or org/mate/desktop/sounds and set the key depends on your desktop environment.

That’s all. Enjoy!

In Howtos Audio

QQ for Linux 3.0 is out! Wine no longer Required for this Chinese Chat App

Last updated: January 1, 2023 — 1 Comment

For Chinese users or those who have friends or business in China, native QQ app is finally working well in Linux by releasing the 3.0 version!

QQ is one of the top popular instant messaging apps in China. It has an official Linux client since 2019, which was however old, crash often, and not suitable for daily use.

By releasing 3.0, QQ for Linux finally got a modern UI powered by its QQNT framework. Similar to the Windows app, it has the user avatar and a few navigation buttons in far left pane, friends and group chats in center, and messages in right.

QQ for Linux 3.0

Except for voice and video chat, it includes the most common used features, such as emoji picker, Ctrl+Alt+A screen capture, send files/images, chat history, add, remove, and search friends, as well as most group chat functions.

As well, there’s light and dark mode support, and system tray indicator to toggle app UI and online status.

In short, if you rarely do voice/video chat, the new official QQ client for Linux is now really great for daily use! Though, it seems available in Chinese language only.

Download QQ for Linux 3.0

The app is available for both modern 64-bit PC and ARM devices. Just click the link below to go to its website:

QQ for Linux

Select x64 for modern PC/laptop or arm64 for mobile devices, deb for Debian/Ubuntu/Linux Mint, or rpm for Fedora, Rocky Linux, openSUSE, etc. And, just double-click on the package should open the installer in today’s Linux.

The universal AppImage package is also available for choice. Grab it, add executable permission (in file ‘Properties’ dialog), and finally click run the package will open the QQ chat app.

That’s all. Enjoy!

In Howtos chat

This Extension Adds Audio Visualizer on Desktop in Ubuntu 22.04

Last updated: May 8, 2024 — Leave a comment

Want to display audio/music visualizer on the desktop? This extension can do the job for Ubuntu 22.10, Fedora 37, Arch/Manjaro Linux with GNOME.

It’s “Sound Visualizer” extension for Gnome Shell based on Gstreamer specially for Wayland. And, it’s working good in my case in Ubuntu 22.04, though it’s said for Gnome v43.

Besides for music playback, it works when any sound play from your computer. And, it has a right-click menu to switch between input/output audio sources. Meaning, it supports sounds input from microphone.

How to Install this “Sound Visualizer” desktop widget

1. (For Ubuntu 22.04 only) As mentioned, the extension supports GNOME v43 at the moment of writing. If you want to try it out in 22.04, first disable extension version validation.

To do so, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run command (no longer required):

gsettings set org.gnome.shell disable-extension-version-validation true

2. Next, open Ubuntu Software. Search for and install ‘Extension Manager‘ tool for installing and managing Gnome Shell extensions. Or, run command in terminal in case the Software App does not work.

sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-manager

Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu 22.04+

3. Finally, launch ‘Extension Manager‘, and navigate to ‘Browse‘ tab. Search for and install the ‘Sound Visualizer‘ extension. (For Ubuntu 22.04, just click on Unsupported button)

For Fedora 37, Arch and Manjaro Linux with GNOME, visit this page in web browser and use the ON/OFF switch to install it.

4. After installation, try playing some sounds and see your desktop for the result. To move the widget, you have to temporarily disable “Desktop Icons NG (DING)” under ‘Installed’ tab in Extension Manager.

You can also adjust the visualizer size by opening the extension preferences either via widget’s context menu or by clicking the gear button for that extension in Extension Manager.

In Howtos Audio

HandBrake 1.6.0 Released! How to Install in Ubuntu 22.04 | 22.10

Last updated: December 29, 2022 — 1 Comment

HandBrake video transcoder and DVD ripper announced new major 1.6.0 release today. Here are the new features and how to install guide for Ubuntu Linux users.

HandBrake 1.6.0 is a big release with new AV1 video encoding support. They are SVT-AV1 (software) and Intel QSV AV1 (hardware) video encoders.

This release as well introduced high bit depth and color depth support to various encoders and filters, including VP9 10-bit, NVENC HEVC 10-bit, and VCN HEVC 10-bit encoders.

Other change include:

4K AV1 General, QSV (Hardware), and MKV (Matroska) presets
4K HEVC General presets
H.264 levels 6, 6.1, and 6.2 for the x264 encoder
H.264/H.265 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 profiles for the x264 and x265 encoders
H.265 4:2:2 profile for VideoToolbox encoder on Apple Silicon
Support for Intel Deep Link Hyper Encode
Fixed longstanding issue where slowest NVENC encoder preset caused encoding failures
Bwdif deinterlace filter
Remove VP8 presets, the VP8 video encoder is now deprecated
Remove support for Intel CPUs older than 6th generation (Skylake) when using Intel Quick Sync Video
Require .NET 6 for Windows.
See more details in the project releases page.

How to Install HandBrake 1.6.0 in Ubuntu:

NOTE: Please backup custom presets and preferences first if you’re trying to upgrade the software from an existing package.

HandBrake offers official Linux package through Flatpak, an universal package format runs in most Linux. For Ubuntu, simply follow the steps below one by one to install it.

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to make sure the daemon package installed:

sudo apt install flatpak

For the old Ubuntu 18.04, add this PPA first.

2. Then, either run command to install the video transcoder as Flatpak from Flathub repository by running command:

flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/fr.handbrake.ghb.flatpakref

The package in this repository is not updated to v1.6.0 at the moment of writing, check the link page to before running the command.

Or, download the flatpak package file from the official website:

Download HandBrake

Finally, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T), navigate to ‘Downloads folder’ via command:

cd ~/Downloads

And, install the local Flatpak file (change file-name in command accordingly) via:

flatpak install ./HandBrake-1.6.0-x86_64.flatpak

NOTE: If it refuses to install due to old version already installed. Remove it first via description below.

Duplicated shortcut icons:

The Flatpak package won’t override the native Deb package installed from Ubuntu Software. If you have both versions installed, you’ll have duplicated app icons.

As a workaround, either remove the old Deb package via Ubuntu Software, or launch HandBrake as Flatpak using the command in terminal:

flatpak run fr.handbrake.ghb

Uninstall HandBrake

To remove the video transcoder installed as Flatpak, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data fr.handbrake.ghb

Also remove the QuickSync plugin (if installed) via command:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data fr.handbrake.ghb.Plugin.IntelMediaSDK

Finally, clear unused run-time libraries via flatpak uninstall --unused.

In Howtos video

This App Enhance your Photo Images to 4K Resolution or Higher

Last updated: December 27, 2022 — Leave a comment

Got photo images but not clear enough? Or you want to convert them into 4K resolution without losing quality? This app can help!

It’s upscayl, a free and open-source app for Linux, Windows, and macOS. It uses AI modules to upscale single or batch of photo images into 7680×5120 (or double resolution 15360×10240). Supported AI modules so far include:

Real-ESRGAN
REMACRI
ULTRAMIX BALANCED
ULTRASHARP

The app has a quite easy to use user interface, which has a few buttons in left pane and image preview in right. Just follow the steps in the UI to select your Photo Image/Images, choose AI module, where to save output image, and finally click upscale.

There are as well advanced options to choose output image format: PNG, JPG or WEBP, change the app theme, and specify GPU ID for machine with multiple graphic cards. As you can see in screenshot above, output image and original one will be displayed side by side when process done, allowing to see the difference intuitively.

How to Install Upscayl in Ubuntu & other Linux

NOTE: The app needs Vulkan compatible GPU to upscale images. And, the upscale process can take long time depends on your machine.

The app offers official packages in it Github releases page available to download at the link blow:

Download Upscayl

For Linux, either download the non-install AppImage package. Right-click and go to file ‘Properties’, and enable ‘Allow executing file as program’ in Permissions tab. Finally click run AppImage at anytime to launch it. NOTE: Ubuntu 22.04+ need to enable AppImage support first by running sudo apt install libfuse2 in terminal.

For Debian/Ubuntu based systems, grab and click install the .deb package for choice. And, Fedora based systems can download and install the .rpm package instead.

Uninstall Upscayl

In case you installed the app using .deb or .rpm package, and you can’t find it in the Software app. Open a terminal window, and run command to remove it in Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt remove upscayl

For Fedora, just replace apt with dnf, so the command will be:

sudo dnf remove upscayl

In Howtos photo

Kodi 19.5 Released! How to Install in Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04 | 22.10

Last updated: December 25, 2022 — Leave a comment

Happy Christmas and happy new year to my dear readers! Kodi, the popular home media center software, release 19.5 version to celebrate the holidays.

It’s the last point release for the 19.x release, while Kodi 20 now is in RC2 stage. And, this release mainly include bug-fixes and improvements backport from dev release. They are:

Update controller add-ons.
Fix wrong player playlist with playlist files.
Prevent crash on app quit in macOS.
Fix memory leak while zapping from channels to channels on live streams.
Expands the use of PasswordManager so that it is used for dav://, davs://, http://, https://, ftp://, and ftps:// protocol schemes.
Fix Ubuntu PPA packaging for Matrix.
Fix CC condition for valid captions [subtitles].
Fix refresh rate not switch back to 60Hz/GUI after HDR toggle in Windows.
Fix incorrect window position for Windows, which switching from full-screen.
Fixe some specific H265 Full HD videos crashes because needs more decoding surfaces.
Fix Xbox needs 10 bit swapchain to output true 4K resolution.
Fix bluray playback start from the simplified menu.
Fix adjust refresh rate start/stop settings behavior.
Fix subpar quality HQ convolution scalers.
Let the context menu action propagate through window.
Fix audio player to correctly start playback at given offset or percentage of track duration.
Fix incorrect colors in some AMD graphics when used 10bit in SDR
Fix last character corruption on AMD RX 6000 series.
Add support for ppc64le.
Fix EPG search genre matching.
Limit max width for long text cases.
Make sure we populate playerstate when it’s available from db.
Fix crash related to DXVA2 decoding of H264 SD interlaced videos
Fix window origin in multiscreen setup for macOS.
Fix crash when resuming from contextmenu and close contextmenu on playback started
Fix crash on open of Guide window.
Improves/fix 48000 Hz sample rate detection.
Fix colour management ICC profile/3DLUT parameters are not applied for Windows.
Fix GUI controls not loading if cloned after window load.
Remove unused function.

Install Kodi 19.5 in Ubuntu via PPA

If you found there’s important fixes for you, you can easily install or update to the new release by using its official PPA.

So far, the PPA contains the latest packages for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 22.10 and Ubuntu 23.04. Though Ubuntu has include the new 20 RC release in the official repositories for 22.10+, the PPA should update your package into 19.5 due to higher packaging version.

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 won’t 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

Display Wireless Mouse/Keyboard Battery Percentage on Ubuntu 22.04 Panel

Last updated: May 8, 2024 — Leave a comment

Got wireless mouse, keyboard, or controller connect to your PC? You can have a glance at the battery level of them in top-bar of Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 24.04, Fedora 36/37, Arch/Manjaro with GNOME desktop!

This can be done via a Gnome Shell extension based on upower power management daemon.

Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 24.04 user can get the extension simply by following the steps below one by one.

1. First open Ubuntu Software (or App Center), then search for and install the Extension Manager tool.

Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu Software/App Center

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

3. When the tool opens, navigate to ‘Browse’ tab. Finally, search for and install either extension below:

UPower Battery. – it just works but no configuration (also support Ubuntu 24.04).
Battery Indicator (upower) – with option to toggle which device to display on panel and manually refresh.

The applet should be there in system tray area immediately after installation, though it can be empty if no wireless device detected.

For Fedora, Arch/Manjaro Linux with GNOME 42/43, just open the link Battery indicator or UPower Battery and use ON/OFF switch to install it. And install Gnome Extensions app from Gnome Software for configuring extensions.

In Howtos battery

Linux Mint 21.1 Released! New Cursor Icons & Better Flatpak Support

Last updated: December 21, 2022 — 3 Comments

The first point release of Linux Mint 21 is out! Code-name ‘Vera’, Kernel 5.15, Ubuntu 22.04 package base, and Cinnamon 5.6, MATE 1.26, XFCE 4.16 for each desktop edition.

The default theme for mouse pointer in Linux Mint 21.1 now is Bibata-Modern-Classic, a modern black and rounded edge bibata cursors. Though, user can easily choose another one from System Settings -> Themes. For those like it, the cursor theme is available in the github page.

New default Bibata Modern Classic cursor theme

The default icon theme Mint-Y now has always yellow folders with different accent colors. The previous default icons are now Mint-Y-Legacy available in Themes selection page. The accent colors are also revamped in this release, compare to the legacy ones they look more vibrant.

New default Icons

The release also improved the Flatpak package format support. Update Manager utility can now update Flatpak applications as well as the run-time libraries just like classic .deb packages. And, Software Manager now provides an option to choose between Flatpak and Deb if an app is available to install in both formats.

For 3rd repositories, Linux Mint 21.1 now follows Debian’s (rather than Ubuntu’s) new policy! When adding an Ubuntu PPA, it automatically install the key into ‘/etc/apt/keyrings‘ and adds signed-by section in source file, so the GPG key can only be used for that PPA repository.

Other changes in Linux Mint 21.1 include:

Hide Home, Computer, Trash and Network icons from desktop by default.
New sounds come from Material Design V2
New icons pre-installed: Breeze, Papirus, Numix, Yaru
Replace ‘Show Desktop’ panel applet with Microsoft Window style button in bottom right corner.
Add dummy hardware device, dummy packages in Drive Manager for debugging.
Add right-click menu option to verify ISO file checksum (sha256sum).

Get Linux Mint 21.1:

For the release note, as well as download link for the new ISO images, go to Linux Mint website:

Linux Mint Blog

For Linux Mint 21 user, it’s possible to upgrade to new 21.1 release via ‘Update Manager’ utility.

In Howtos Linux Mint

MuseScore 4 Released! New Mixer, Accent Colors & Muse Sounds Plugin

Last updated: December 20, 2022 — Leave a comment

Free and open-source music notation software MuseScore 4 is out after more than 2 year since the last major release.

MuseScore 4 now have a modern look UI with both light and dark mode, as well as 7 accent colors. It provides a setup dialog to choose between them on first launch, though user can re-configure them along with fonts, background and paper colors by going to Preferences -> Appearances.

The app window now has a Home tab, for managing account, recent scores, plugins and watching video tutorials. The Mixer has been redesigned. Saving to cloud on MuseScore.com is now working. And, there’s now new online course, and new orchestral plugin: Muse Sounds.

Other changes in MuseScore 4.0 include:

Simple toggle for switching between playback profiles
New system for horizontal spacing, slurs and ties
New system for beaming and cross-staff beaming
Customisable ‘Tempo Lines’ that work with playback
Scrollbars on the score
A new tuplets toggle
New articulation buttons
New toggle for cross staff beaming

Sadly, there are also features in MuseScore 3 that are not implemented in this release, see HERE for details.

How to Get MuseScore 4.0

MuseScore provides official binary package for downloading at the link below:

Download MuseScore

For Linux user, just download the AppImage package, right-click and add executable permission in its properties dialog. Finally, run it to launch the music writer software: