News, Tutorials, Howtos for Ubuntu Linux
Audacity audio editor announced new major 3.6.0 release few days ago. Here are the new features and how to install guide for Ubuntu users.
The new release features new Master Effects. By clicking “Effects” button in app window, it will now show you Realtime Effects and Master Effects options for choice. While, the new Master Effects allows to apply effects to the entire project at once.
Audacious, the popular lightweight audio player, released new 4.4 version this Wednesday!
The new release of this free open-source music player restores Lyrics plugin for GTK interface, and adds new provider chartlyrics.com. Thanks to Michel Fleur, there’s now “Background Music” plugin, under “Effect” tab in the Plugin page, allows to make the sound equally loud within and between tracks.
The Scrobbler (Last.fm) plugin now also works on macOS and Windows. And, the Song Change plugin now allows to run custom command when a song is stopped.
Audacious 4.4 now defaults to GTK3 + Qt6, though Qt5 and GTK2 are still supported. It improved Wayland support for GTK interface, but the classic Winamp interface does NOT work properly on Wayland, thus users are recommended to run Audacious via XWayland (default behavior if available) therefore.
Other changes in Audacious 4.4 include:
The software website provides official .exe files for Microsoft Windows users:
For Ubuntu users, it’s available to install via Ubuntu PPA (native .deb package), Snap package, or Flatpak package (runs in sandbox environment).
If you’re OK running the audio player in sandbox environment, then Audacious is easy to install through Ubuntu Software (or App Center) as Snap package.
Most Linux can install the audio player as Flatpak package, that runs in sandbox. So far, it supports amd64 and arm64 platforms.
All current Ubuntu user can press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal and run the 2 commands below one by one to get it.
sudo apt install flatpak
flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/org.atheme.audacious.flatpakref
After installation, search for and launch it from start menu or Gnome overview. Log out and back in if app icon not visible.
For Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 23.10, and Ubuntu 24.04 users, I’ve uploaded the new release package into PPA for amd64 and arm64/armhf machines.
Changes in the PPA package:
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 visual feedback, just type in mind) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.
2. Then, update system package cache:
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
NOTE: For Ubuntu 22.04 runs into “Error opening output stream” issue, open “Settings” and set audio output plugin to “PulseAudio” output.
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.
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 by running command:
sudo apt remove audacious audacious-plugins-data
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!
This is a step by step guide shows you how to enable the event sounds (system sound or custom sound) for login and log out actions in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
When booting Ubuntu 24.04 from a live USB, it plays a sound after logged into the desktop. The sound however does no longer play after installed the system on your disk. So, here I’m going to show you how to re-enable this feature.
NOTE: This tutorial is tested and works in my case in Ubuntu 24.04. It MAY also work in old Ubuntu releases and even other Linux, but for GNOME Desktop only.
This tutorial shows how to install the popular Spotify music app in Ubuntu Linux though Snap, Deb, or Flatpak packages.
Spotify supports for Linux officially through Snap package which runs in sandbox environment, and Deb package that’s native in Debian and Ubuntu. For choice, there’s also a community maintained Flatpak package, which also runs in sandbox environment. All of them is available for only x86_64 (Intel/AMD CPUs) platform so far.
Spotify for Linux packages:
GNOME Desktop considers adding a new core application for audio playback!
It’s Decibels, a basic free open-source audio player that is supposed to fill the gap of GNOME currently not having a Core app that is designed to open single audio files.
The app has a stupid simple user interface that works in both Linux Desktop and Mobile devices. It features:
For users of Audacity 3.4.x, the popular audio editor and recorder app just announced the second update for this release series.
It’s Audacity 3.4.2 that includes following bug-fixes:
Audacity is available to install Ubuntu Linux through a few different ways. They include AppImage, Ubuntu PPA, and Flatpak. Just choose either one that you prefer.
Option 1: AppImage (official)
It provides official macOS .dmg, Windows .exe, and Linux .AppImage packages available to download at the link below:
For Linux, click expand the “Assets” section and choose download the .AppImage package.
Then, right-click on the .AppImage file and go to its ‘Properties’ dialog. Add executable permission by enable ‘allow executing file as program‘. Finally, right-click on it and select “Run” to launch Audacity.
Option 2: Ubuntu PPA
For choice, I’ve uploaded the new release package into unofficial PPA for Ubuntu 22.04, 23.04, and Ubuntu 23.10 with amd64, arm64, and armhf support.
1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When terminal opens, run command to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.
2. For Linux Mint users, you may manually update system package cache by running command:
sudo apt update
3. Finally, install Audacity 3.4.2 either by running the command below in terminal:
sudo apt install audacity audacity-data
Or, launch ‘Software Updater’ to update from an existing version:
Option 3: Flatpak
Audacity is also available to install as universal Flatpak package, that run in sandbox.
First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. Then, Ubuntu users can install Audacity as Flatpak by running the 2 commands below one by one:
sudo apt install flatpak
flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/org.audacityteam.Audacity.flatpakref
To uninstall Audacity 3.4.2 PPA package, you have 2 choices:
sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity
sudo apt remove --autoremove audacity audacity-data
Then, remove the Ubuntu PPA via command:
sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity
To uninstall the Flatpak package, use command:
flatpak uninstall --delete-data org.audacityteam.Audacity
Also run flatpak uninstall --unused to remove useless runtimes.
Audacity audio editor and recording tool announced the new major 3.4.0 release after almost 2 weeks of beta testing.
The new release features Beats and measures grid, allows to easily align audio clips to the musical tempo and rhythm. It shows you the subdivisions of each measure depending on zoom level, and you can snap clips to the nearest beat.
It also features new time stretching algorithm, allows to change the duration of your audio clips without affecting their pitch non-destructively. Just hold “Alt” (macOS: Option) while hovering over the top third of a clip edge to stretch it.
The 3.4.0 also features a new export dialog with easier access to options such as sample rate and custom mapping (for 5.1 or 7.1 audio). Additionally, the “Browse” button uses the native file browser now!
New Export dialog
Other changes include:
Option 1: AppImage (official)
It provides official macOS .dmg, Windows .exe, and Linux .AppImage packages available to download at the link below:
For Linux, click expand the “Assets” section and choose download the .AppImage package.
Then, right-click on the .AppImage file and go to its ‘Properties’ dialog. Add executable permission by enable ‘allow executing file as program‘. Finally, right-click on it and select “Run” to launch Audacity.
Option 2: Ubuntu PPA
For choice, I’ve uploaded the new release package into unofficial PPA for Ubuntu 22.04, 23.04, and Ubuntu 23.10.
NOTE: Due to bug, arm64 and armhf packages are excluded in the PPA until the bug-fix due in next point release.
1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When terminal opens, run command to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.
2. For Linux Mint users, you may manually update system package cache by running command:
sudo apt update
3. Finally, install Audacity 3.4.0 either by running the command below in terminal:
sudo apt install audacity audacity-data
Or, launch ‘Software Updater’ to update from an existing version:
Option 3: AppImage
Audacity is also available to install as universal Flatpak package, that run in sandbox.
However, it’s not updated to v3.4.0 at the moment of writing, see this page for details.
To uninstall Audacity 3.4.0, you have 2 choices:
sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity
sudo apt remove --autoremove audacity audacity-data
Then, remove the Ubuntu PPA via command:
sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audacity
For those who want to install the simple Audio Recorder application in Ubuntu 23.10 and Ubuntu 24.04, here’s new Ubuntu PPA.
Audio Recorder is a free open-source GTK3 audio recording application for Linux. It has a stupid simple user interface, while can record any sound from your computer.
Audio Recorder simple UI
This app can record sound from your speaker, microphone, music player applications, and mixed source, such as recording speaker and microphone at the same time.
Sound can be recorded into OGG, FLAV, MP3, WAV, OPUS, M4A audio formats. And, it has a timer to start/stop recording automatically on given time and/or voice, silence.
This audio recorder is one of my most favorite Linux applications. But don’t know why, it’s excluded in Debian/Ubuntu repositories. And, the official Ubuntu PPA support so far until Ubuntu 22.04.
Some users reported it does NOT install in Ubuntu 23.04, so I made a new PPA contains this software packages, with support for Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04, and Ubuntu 23.10 on amd64 (X86_64), arm64/armhf (for Apple M1/M2, Raspberry Pi, etc) CPU architecture types.
And thankfully, the new PPA package seems working good (with only minor testing). Since you may know, Ubuntu 23.04 switched to Pipewire sound server while 22.04 and earlier are using classic PulseAudio.
To add the PPA, simply press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. Then run command:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audio-recorder
Since Ubuntu 20.04, it automatically updates system package index while adding PPA. Though, some Ubuntu based systems may NOT.
Just in case, you may run command manually to refresh your system package index:
sudo apt update
Finally, install the audio recorder package by running command in terminal:
sudo apt install audio-recorder
The Audio Recorder app updates rarely, so you can remove the PPA after installation (see the bottom screenshot).
To remove the audio recorder, simply run command:
sudo apt remove --autoremove audio-recorder
And remove the PPA, either by running command in terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/audio-recorder
Or, use “Software & Updates” utility by removing the source line under ‘Other Software’ tab.
For Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 23.10, Fedora 38 and other Linux with GNOME 44 ~ 46, there’s now an extension allows to change display name of audio output devices from the top-right aggregation menu (aka Quick Settings).
By default, the speakers and headphones in the sound output sub-menu is a bit too explicit, that are not very clear to understand. To make the menu easy to read, you may rename them to just “headphones”, “built-in speaker”, or whatever that you want.
1. To install the extension, first open Ubuntu Software, search and install “Extension Manager”:
Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu 22.04+
For Ubuntu 23.10/24.04, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal and run the command below instead to install it:
sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-manager
2. Then launch “Extension Manager”, navigate to ‘Browse’ tab, finally search and install the “Quick Settings Audio Devices Renamer” extension.
For Fedora and other Linux, go to this web page and use ON/OFF switch to install the extension.
3. Once installed the extension, switch back “Installed” tab in Extension Manager (or open GNOME Extensions app). Then, click open the settings for that extension, finally click on the ‘pencil’ icon to edit the name of corresponding output device.
You can even insert emojis in the name, either by using a emoji picker or copy from “Gnome Characters” app.
Got a Logitech or SteelSeries headset? This app may help to adjust sidetone, get battery state, toggle LED, and set inactive time in Ubuntu Linux.
It’s HeadsetControl, a free and open-source application that supports:
The application is a command line tool, though it has a graphical interface for GNOME 42+ (Ubuntu 22.04 / Fedora 35 and higher).
Image borrowed from extension web page, as I don’t have a headset at hand
The app so far does not have binary package for Ubuntu Linux, though it’s not hard to build it from source. The following steps is tested and works in my case in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.
1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open a terminal window. When it opens, run command to install build dependencies:
sudo apt install build-essential git cmake libhidapi-dev
2. Then, clone the source by running the git command in terminal, and then navigate to the source folder:
git clone https://github.com/Sapd/HeadsetControl && cd HeadsetControl
3. Create ‘build’ sub-folder, navigate to that sub-folder and start building it:
mkdir build && cd build && cmake ../
4. Finally, run make and then make install to build and install the tool:
make -j4
sudo make install
Once successfully installed, it will output that ‘/usr/local/bin/headsetcontrol‘ and ‘/usr/local/lib/udev/rules.d/70-headsets.rules‘ installed.
For Ubuntu 22.04 and higher, first search for and install “Extension Manager” from Ubuntu Software.
Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu 22.04+
Then, use “Extension Manager” to search and install the ‘HeadsetControl’ extension under ‘Browse’ tab.
Once installed, it should show the indicator applet in system tray area immediately with menu options to control your headset! Other Linux can go to this page to use ON/OFF switch to install the extension.
To remove the extension, either go to the link page above and use ON/OFF switch, or use “Extension Manager” or Gnome Extensions tool.
To remove the command line application, open terminal and run command:
sudo rm /usr/local/bin/headsetcontrol /usr/local/lib/udev/rules.d/70-headsets.rules
