Archives For November 30, 1999

GNU Octave, the free open-source application for numerical computations, released new major 9.1.0 version! Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 23.10, and Ubuntu 24.04.

The GNU website has not yet announced the new release, but it’s available in the download page.

According to the changelog, the new Octave 9.1.0 overhauled dec2base, dec2bin, and dec2hex. They now accept negative inputs and fractional inputs.

It re-architected the inputParser function to get a 60% performance improvement. And, the perms function has been made faster. The audiowrite function now supports writing to MPEG audio formats (including MP3) if the sndfile library supports it. The current directory of oruntests now changes to the directory containing the files with the tests for the duration of the test.

The release features new functions, including isenv, ismembertol, isuniform, tensorprod.

The disable_diagonal_matrix, disable_permutation_matrix, and disable_range functions have been removed! Replacements are optimize_diagonal_matrix, optimize_permutation_matrix, and optimize_range

Operators, such as .+, .+=, **, and .**= are removed. Replacements are +, +=, +=, ^, and .^=. And, following function are obsolete:

  • idx_vector::bool()
  • all_ok(const Array&) in Array-util.h.
  • octave_base_value::count


Continue Reading…

GNU Octave 7.2 was released a few days ago. Here’s unofficial Ubuntu PPA for those who prefers the classic .deb package.

The new 7.2 release of this scientific programming language contains mainly bug-fixes. See the release note for the changes.

GNU Octave 7.2.0

How to Install GNU Octave 7.2.0 in Ubuntu Linux:

The software offers official Snap package which runs in sandbox. User may simply search for and install it from Ubuntu Software. Though it’s still in v7.1 at the moment of writing, it updates automatically once new package is out.

Install Octave Snap from Ubuntu Software

It’s also available to install as Flatpak package. And, here’s the step by step tutorial shows how.

For those who prefers the classic .deb package format, here’s an unofficial PPA contains the package for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Linux Mint 21/20.

1.) First, press Ctrl + Alt + T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, paste the command below and hit run to add PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/octave

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

2.) After adding PPA, run command to refresh system package cache. This is done automatically in Ubuntu 20.04 +, but Linux Mint users need to do it manually:

sudo apt update

3.) Finally, either update the software package via ‘Software Updater’ (Software Manager):

Or, run the command below in terminal to install / update the package:

sudo apt install octave

Uninstall:

To remove the PPA as well as downgrade the Octave package to the stock version in system repository, run command:

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

To remove the programming language package, either use your system package manager (Ubuntu Software) or run command below in terminal:

sudo apt remove --autoremove octave octave-common

GNU Octave 6.1 was released a few days ago with numerous improvements, bug-fixes, and a list of new functions.

Changes in Octave 6.1 include:

  • New sorting option "stable" for intersect, setdiff, setxor, union, and unique functions.
  • Support for cookies to enable RESTful communication with the web service.
  • System web browser can be opened by web function.
  • Numerical integration has been improved.
  • New format command options: uppercase and lowercase (default).
  • Deprecated Qt4 support.
  • Completely rewritten of the legend function.
  • Updated the axis function and many other graphics backend improvements.
  • matlab compatibility improvements.
  • Remove deprecated functions and properties.
  • Add a list of new functions.

How to Get Octave in Ubuntu:

There’s no PPA repository contains the new release package at the moment of writing.

Before the official Snap package and the community maintained Flatpak package publish the new package, you can download & build GNU Octave from the source tarball:

Gnu Octave finally offers official Snap package for Linux desktops, so far in beta, which means you can now easily install the latest Octave via Ubuntu Software and always keep updated.

Octave snap is a containerized software package comes with run-time libraries bundled and auto-updates itself once a new version package is published.

UPDATE March, 2024: The GNU Octave Snap package is outdated and stuck at v7.1.0!

For Ubuntu 18.04 and higher, the snap can be directly installed from Ubuntu Software utility:

For Ubuntu 16.04, open terminal either via Ctrl+Alt+T or from application menu. When it opens, run command to install snapd daemon first:

sudo apt-get install snapd

Then install Octave via command:

sudo snap install --beta octave

Snap co-exists with legacy packages, launch it via snap run octave if both are installed.

(Optional) To remove the package, either use Ubuntu Software or run command in terminal:

sudo snap remove octave

GNU Octave 5.1.0 was announced yesterday as a new major release with Matlab compatibility improvements, and many new and improved functions.

GNU Octave 5.1.0 release highlights:

  • Adds HiDPI support
  • Requires Qt4 >= 4.8, though Qt5 is preferred.
  • Adds many new functions.
  • Printing to raster formats now uses an OpenGL-based method by default
  • New print options for PDF and PostScript
  • A new printing device produces ASCII art for plots
  • The FFTW library is now required for FFT calculations
  • The OSMesa library is no longer used.

How to Install Octave 5.1 in Ubuntu 18.04/16.04:

1. First open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and make sure Flatpak support is enabled by running command:

sudo apt-get install flatpak

For Ubuntu 16.04, you need to add the Flatpak PPA first to be able to install Flatpak framework.

2. Then add the Flathub repository, the best place to get Flatpak apps:

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

3. Finally install GNU Octave from the Flathub repository:

flatpak install flathub org.octave.Octave

It will take a few minutes downloading the flatpak package as well as dependency platform if you’re first time installing it.

Like normal applications, you can launch Octave from Gnome app launcher:

The flatpak co-exists with traditional Octave package. You can alternatively run it in command line:

flatpak run org.octave.Octave

Uninstall:

You can remove the Octave flatpak package by running command:

flatpak uninstall org.octave.Octave

And remove flatpak support if you want:

sudo apt-get remove flatpak

This quick tutorial shows you how to install the latest GNU Octave in all current Ubuntu releases via Flatpak packages.

Since there’s no stable PPA contains the latest Octave packages, Flatpak package is the easiest way to get the numerical computation software running on Ubuntu.

Similar to Snap, Flatpak is an universal Linux package format that runs in sandbox.

1. First open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and make sure Flatpak support is enabled by running command:

sudo apt-get install flatpak

Old Ubuntu 16.04 & Ubuntu 18.04 need to add the Flatpak PPA first to install Flatpak framework.

2. Then add the Flathub repository, the best place to get Flatpak apps:

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

3. Finally install most recent GNU Octave as Flatpak package from the Flathub repository:

flatpak install flathub org.octave.Octave

It will take a few minutes downloading the flatpak package as well as dependency platform if you’re first time installing it.

Like normal applications, you can launch Octave from Gnome app launcher:

The flatpak co-exists with traditional Octave package. You can alternatively run it in command line:

flatpak run org.octave.Octave

Uninstall

You can remove the Octave flatpak package by running command:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data org.octave.Octave

And remove flatpak support if you want:

sudo apt-get remove flatpak