News, Tutorials, Howtos for Ubuntu Linux
Mozilla announced the new Firefox web browser 130.0 release this Tuesday!
The new Firefox release introduced “Firefox Labs” page in Settings, allowing to try out experimental features which are in development and evolving, which could impact how the web browser works.
So far, it includes AI chatbot allowing to chat with ChatGPT, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, HuggingChat, and Le Chat Mistral. Though few of them need login first.
This is a step by step tutorial shows how to manually remap (or disable) keyboard keys in Ubuntu without using any third-party apps.
There are a few free open-source applications that can re-map your mouse, keyboard, and other input devices keys in Linux. As far as know, they include input remmaper and AntiMicroX.
For GNOME, the default desktop for Ubuntu and Fedora Workstation, there’s popular GNOME Tweak tool (available in AppCenter/GNOME Software) with options to remap Ctrl, Alt, and Caps Lock keys.
GNOME Tweaks
This tutorial shows how to disable “Ubuntu Pro” security updates in both apt command output and Software Updater dialog in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
Ubuntu Pro is a comprehensive subscription for Extended Security Maintenance (esm in short), which also enables another 5-year support for Ubuntu LTS releases. And, it’s free for personal and small-scale commercial use on up to 5 machines.
In all current Ubuntu LTS releases, the apt upgrade command and “Software Updater” display the Ubuntu Pro updates, which is quite annoying. Rather than enable Ubuntu Pro, here’s how to get rid of the ads step by step.
Ubuntu Pro updates in Software Updater and terminal
Ubuntu announced the first point release of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS few days ago with lots of bug-fixes and performance improvements. It’s time to upgrade to the new LTS, for users who were worrying about the stability issues.
Ubuntu 24.04 is the current Long Term Support (LTS) release with 5 years of standard support until 2029, another 5 years Ubuntu Pro support until 2034, as well as legacy support until 2036. It features Linux Kernel 6.8, GNOME Desktop 46, and various other changes, see the official release note for details.
The new LTS had various upgrade issues, and stability / performance issues, for apps and hardware including Nautilus file manager, the new tiling assistant, NVIDIA on Wayland, Pipewire sound server, hybrid GPU machines, Remmina RDP client, online accounts, cursor themes, and more! They are all fixed in the release of Ubuntu 24.04.1.
Ubuntu 24.04 Desktop
Ubuntu 24.04.1, the first point release of the current Ubuntu LTS, was announced last night on Aug 29.
The release includes updated CD images. The livecd-rootfs build system re-enables ability to build HyperV desktop images, and allows to build iso installer images that would install Ubuntu Core Desktop to target device.
The new release also fixed various upgrade issues. It now prevents upgrading from desktop systems installed with TPM-backed FDE. It fixed that the upgrade breaks iptables-persistent and netfilter-persistent usage, and removed the XFS /boot upgrade check. It as well fixed many other upgrade issues, including hang due to search for obsolete software, and long time delay when installing gnome-remote-desktop 46.
This is a step by step tutorial shows how to enable zram Kernel module and use as Swap device for better system performance in Ubuntu 24.04 PC/laptop with limited RAM.
As you may know, Ubuntu usually includes a swap space. It works like MS Windows’ “virtual memory”, that uses the hard disk for additional memory when there is not enough physical RAM for all tasks request.
Swap on disk however is slow, which will slow down the overall system performance. So, Linux introduced “zram” and “zswap” kernel modules to improve performance for computers with small amount of RAM.
This tutorial shows how to enable zswap kernel module to increase usable RAM in your Ubuntu computer or laptop.
As you know, Ubuntu Linux usually includes a swap space (either disk partition or swap file) on the disk. It can be used for hibernation, and as extended memory space. When the system needs more memory resources and the RAM is going full, then the inactive pages in memory are moved to the swap space.
Swap space can be helpful for computers with limited RAM. But, it’s slow! Too much swap in use will slow down the overall system performance.
As workarounds, Linux includes 2 kernel modules: zram and zswap. Instead of moving inactive pages from memory to disk (swap space), they do similar things by compressing the data into dynamically allocated RAM space.
As the data is compressed, it takes less physical memory space which makes your RAM even more usable. While, keeping the system running smoothly because reading from compressed data in RAM is usually faster than reading from swap on disk.
This tutorial shows how to enable/disable Keyboard, Mouse, Lid Open, and/or other devices events from waking up your Ubuntu PC or laptop from sleep.
By default, open laptop lid, press any key on keyboard, or press sleep button can wake up your computer from suspend or hibernation state. If you want, you can configure Ubuntu to ignore certain wakeup triggers that you don’t want.
image from pixabay.com
This is a step by step beginner’s guide shows how to control the fan speed in Lenovo ThinkPad laptop running Ubuntu 24.04.
The fan speed control solution differs depends on computer manufacturers. For my ThinkPad T480s, fan is usually not spinning when doing the basic web browsing and other light works.
But if you want, it’s easy to set a fixed fan speed, or adjust the speed automatically according to the core temperature.
This is a step by step guide shows how to enable Wake-on-LAN feature in Ubuntu, so you can wake it up from suspend, hibernation, or shutdown state remotely using another computer or mobile phone.
Wake on LAN, WoL in short, is a protocol allows computer to be turned on or waked up from sleep using network message. It’s based on AMD’s Magic Packet Technology, and also known as wake on WAN, remote wake-up, power on by LAN, and resume by LAN.
WoL uses wired network on target computer for the communication. Though, there’s also Wake on Wireless LAN (WoWLAN) allowing to wake up wirelessly.
