News, Tutorials, Howtos for Ubuntu Linux
Dash-to-panel, the popular GNOME Shell Extension, got a update few days ago with the latest GNOME 46 support.
For those who don’t know about dash-to-panel, it’s a free open-source extension for GNOME, which replaces the default panel and dock with a single bottom bar. Along with ArcMenu, user can easily customize the desktop to Windows 10 or Windows 11 style layout.
Ubuntu 24.04 with Dash to panel and ArcMenu
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:
GNOME, the popular Linux desktop environment, announced new 46 stable release this Wednesday!
The new GNOME 46, code-name“Kathmandu”, will be default desktop for Ubuntu 24.04 and Fedora 40 planned for next month, and optional for Arch, Manjaro, etc.
The Files, aka Nautilus, in the release features new global search, that can be triggered either by Ctrl+Shift+F or top-left search icon. It supports searching multiple locations simultaneously, including locations outside user home. Other changes for ‘Files’ include:
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For Ubuntu, Fedora Workstation, and other Linux with GNOME Desktop, there’s an extension to help you focus on reading on the screen.
It’s Reading Strip, a free and open-source app written in JavaScript. With it, a horizontal (and/or vertical) strip will be displayed and follow around your mouse cursor.
By settings its background color and opacity, it can highlight the sentence to help focus on reading for people affected by dyslexia.
It also supports focus strip mode, that hides (blurs) the previous and next ones on screen. Which, is great for helping children focus on reading very well.
ReadingStrip Focus mode
As mentioned above, reading strip is available as an extension for GNOME Desktop. It so far supports for GNOME from version 3.36 to 44. Sadly, GNOME 45 is not supported due to bug. Meaning it works for all current Ubuntu LTS (20.04 and 22.04), Fedora 37/38, Debian 12, RHEL 9.
For Ubuntu 22.04, first search for and install “Gnome Shell Extension Manager” from Ubuntu Software.
Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu 22.04+
Then, launch the tool and use it to search & install “Reading Strip” under Browse tab.
For Ubuntu 20.04 and other Linux with GNOME, just open web browser and go to the extension page via the link button below:
Install the browser extension if it prompts, refresh, and finally use the ON/OFF switch that page to install the GNOME Shell Extension.
NOTE: Debian and Ubuntu may also needs to open terminal and run command sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell to install the agent package first.
After properly installed the extension, an indicator applet should appear in top-right system tray area.
By clicking on the applet icon or using Ctrl + Super (Windows Logo) + Space key combination can toggle on/off the feature.
To change the strip size, background opacity, color, and/or enable focus mode, just install either Gnome Extensions or Extension Manager from either Ubuntu Software or Gnome Software.
Then, click on setting for the Reading Strip extension and do the changes as you want.
That’s all. Enjoy!
GNOME 46, the default desktop for Ubuntu 24.04 and Fedora 40, will finally have the option to enable Variable Refresh Rate.
Variable Refresh Rate, VRR in short, is a feature for TV, monitor, and other displays, allowing to adjust refresh rate on the fly to match the frame rate of the graphics card. Which, is useful for smoother viewing experience, and reducing screen tearing.
GNOME has the feature request for VRR support 3 years ago. It’s finally merged and planned for GNOME 46, which will be released later this month!
According to this request, it’s an experimental feature. User needs to enable it first either via Dconf Editor or gsettings tool via the command:
gsettings set org.gnome.mutter experimental-features "['variable-refresh-rate']"
Then, log out and back in. Gnome Control Center, aka Settings, will have the option in “Displays” panel, when you click expand the “Refresh Rate”.
image from gitlab.gnome.org
Once enabled the feature, and selected your preferred value, the Refresh Rate will be displayed as “Variable (up to xxx.xx Hz)”.
Loupe is the core image viewer app for GNOME since version 45, but it’s so far not made default in Ubuntu.
It’s a fully adaptive image viewer that supports mobile form factors. It’s touch-friendly that supports 2-finger swipe left/right to navigate, 2-finger pinch/stretch to zoom out/in, and 2-finger gestures to rotate images.
Other features of Loupe include fast GPU accelerated image rendering, tiled rendering for vector graphics, sandboxed image decoding, and more.
GNOME 46, the default desktop environment for next Ubuntu 24.04 and Fedora 40, now is in Beta stage. It’s now the best time for developers to test their applications and shell extensions.
Gnome 46 features explicit Global Search for the Files, redesigned Privacy settings page, added new System panel in Gnome Control Center, and support headless remote login. See more new features about GNOME 46.
The Beta release was announced few days ago, and it marks the start of the UI, feature and API freezes. The changes in the release include:
Songs view, and drop old-style selection modeFor more about the beta release and installer image for testing purpose, see the official announcement. And, the final release of GNOME 46 will be available in next month, see the Wiki page for schedule.
This simple tutorial shows how to get rid of the “Mobile Broadband” menu option from the upper right system status menu in GNOME Desktop.
GNOME, the default desktop in Ubuntu and Fedora Workstation, has built-in support for mobile broadband. If your computer (usually laptop) has a built-in SIM card slot, then it will show you the “Mobile Network” page in Settings and “Mobile Broadband” option in upper right menu.
For those who rarely use this feature, the option is useless but makes the menu longer. So, it’s a good choice to completely disable it!
This simple tutorial shows how to install and enable the Classic Gnome 2 style desktop session in Ubuntu 22.04 and/or Ubuntu 24.04.
Though the title said for Ubuntu, this tutorial also works in Debian 12 & 11. Fedora, Arch, and their based systems also have corresponding packages for the similar job.
As far as I know, there are 3 ways to get back the classic Gnome 2 layout. They include:
gnome-flashback -traditional desktop session based on GNOME technologies.gnome-shell-extensions – Classic Gnome 2 layout through some Gnome Shell extensions.MATE Desktop – a free open-source fork and continuation of Gnome 2 Desktop.
GNOME 46 reached UI, ABI/API, and feature freeze stage today. Let’s see the top new features in this popular desktop environment.
GNOME 46 will be the default desktop environment for Fedora 40 Workstation, Ubuntu 24.04, and optional in Arch, Manjaro, etc Linux.
It continues polish the desktop appearance by redesigning the improving the core app experiences.
GNOME Files, aka Nautilus, to have explicit Global Search mode, allowing to find files and folders in all search locations. And a “Search Settings” button is available to filter search results.
