News, Tutorials, Howtos for Ubuntu Linux
Just few weeks after the last release, HandBrake video transcoding released new 1.9.2 version with few more fixes.
In new HandBrake 1.9.2, it now allows muxing NVENC AV1 and VCN AV1 in WebM container. It also fixed a crash that could happen when a source contains chapters with no titles.
HandBrake video transcoder released new 1.9.1 version a few days ago. Here are the changes and native .deb packages for Ubuntu users.
The new HandBrake 1.9.1 contains primarily bug-fixes. It fixed FFV1 pixel format selection when an hardware decoder is used, causing incorrect bit depth output.
Upscayl, the popular free open-source AI image upscaler, announced new 2.15 released at Christmas!
The release improved user experience for enlarging and enhancing low-resolution images by new AI module and improved module selection dialog.
Instead of choosing from drop-down box, it now shows a pop-up screen. From where you may choose between modules with image previews.
Upscayl – AI mode selection dialog
The popular FFmpeg media library released new version 7.1 a few days ago. Here are the new features and Ubuntu PPA for Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 24.04 users.
The new release of FFmpeg library added official VVC decoder support. Versatile Video Coding (VVC in short), also known as H.266, has about 50% better compression rate for the same quality compared to HEVC (aka H.265). It supports resolutions ranging from very low up to 4K, 16K, and 360° videos, as well as YCbCr 4:4:4, 4:2:2 and 4:2:0 with 8–10 bits per component, HDR, variable and fractional frame rates from 0 to 120 Hz, and more.
FFmpeg added experimental VVC decoding support since the last 7.0 version. Now, the decoder goes official and it’s compatible with DVB test content. The release also supports for decoding VVC with Intel Quick Sync Video acceleration. As well, it supports encoding VVC using libvvenc library.
This simple tutorial shows how to easily turn your Ubuntu or Debian into home media server, so that you can listen to the music, watch photos and videos that are stored in Linux PC remotely using your mobile phones and/or smart TVs.
GNOME, the default desktop in Ubuntu and Fedora Workstation, has built-in option to enable this feature. It uses Rygel home media solution as backend.
It automatically transcode media to a format compatible with the client device. And, client machines that supports DLNA/UPnP, such as Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox, smart TV, Android, iOS, can access them through the local network.
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The first point release of Kodi 20 ‘Nexus’ is out today after almost 2 months of development.
As the title said, the new Kodi 20.1 includes mainly bug-fixes. It introduced a new algorithm to look to overcome some audio issues on Android devices. Fixed DVD playback folder structures over network sources (e.g. SMB/NFS/HTTP, etc.)
Other changes include:
Kodi website provides the downloads for all supported platforms.
For Ubuntu and Linux Mint users, the official PPA repository is one of the best choices to install the media play. So far, it supports Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 22.10, Ubuntu 23.04, Linux Mint 20/21.
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 may not 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!
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
The popular FFmpeg multimedia library announced the new major 6.0 (updated to v6.1). Here are the new features and how to install guide for Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 20.04, and Ubuntu 18.04.
FFmpeg 6.0, code name “Von Neumann”, features new decoders support, including Bonk, Micronas SC-4, APAC, ViewQuest VQC, RKA, Radiance, WavArc, CBD2 DPCM and a few ADPCM formats.
There are also QSV and NVenc AV1 encoding, VAAPI and QSV decoding and encoding for 10/12bit 422, 10/12bit 444 HEVC and VP9.
Other changes FFmpeg 6.0 include:
NOTE: Upgrade FFmpeg library in Ubuntu may break other apps and/or run into dependency issue!! You must know how to restore. And don’t do it in production machine!!
As many users reported, the Rob Savoury’s PPA seems broken due to dependency issue.
So, I upload the FFmpeg 6 and its dependency libraries into this unofficial PPA for those need FFmpeg 6.
NOTE: 1. The PPA so far is for Ubuntu 22.04 only!
NOTE: 2. The packages seem working good in my case. But it may or may not work for you! Use it at your own risk!
1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open a terminal window. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/ffmpeg6
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.
2. For Linux Mint 21, you need to manually refresh package cache after adding PPA. To do so, run command:
sudo apt update
3. Finally, run the command below to either install or upgrade to FFmpeg 6.1:
sudo apt install ffmpeg
In case of in-complete installation, it’s HIGHLY recommend to run sudo apt upgrade to upgrade all the packages to the latest versions.
4. After installation, run the command below in terminal to verify:
ffmpeg --version
In case you want to downgrade the FFmpeg library to the stock version available in system repository. Open terminal and run command:
sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/ffmpeg6
NOTE: Keep an eye on terminal output before answering yes to confirm! It MAY remove some other useful app packages.
Kodi media center finally announced the new major 20.0 release! Here are the new features and how to install guide for Ubuntu/Linux Mint based systems.
Kodi 20, code-name ‘Nexus’, is a big release with 4,600 commits since the last v19. It features AV1 media decoding support for several platforms. As well, it allows add-ons using inputsream.adaptive to play AV1 streams.
For Windows user, the release has implemented the full HDR support, though it’s not available in non-Desktop, i.e. UWP Store (Xbox) versions. As well, Kodi v20 has implemented NFSv4 support.
Other changes in Kodi 20.0 include:
There are so far 2 official ways to install Kodi in Ubuntu Linux. They are Ubuntu PPA contains the native .deb packages and Flatpak package works in most Linux.
Kodi website provides the downloads for all supported platforms.
For Ubuntu and Linux Mint users, the official PPA repository is one of the best choices to install the media player. So far, it supports Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Linux Mint 20/21 on Intel/AMD platforms.
UPDATE: The Ubuntu PPA packages lag behind a bit. It contains Kodi 20.2, while the latest so far has reached v20.4. And only a few plugins have ported to v20.x.
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 may not 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!
For most Linux on amd64 (Intel/AMD), and arm64 (Apple Silicon, Raspberry Pi, etc), Kodi also is available to install as Flatpak package, though runs in sandbox.
Fedora 38/39 (with 3rd repository enabled) and Linux Mint 21 can directly search for and install it from either GNOME Software or Software Manager.
While, Ubuntu users can press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal, and run 2 commands one by one to get it:
sudo apt install flatpak
For other Linux, see the official setup guide to enable Flatpak.
flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/tv.kodi.Kodi.flatpakref
First time installing an app as Flatpak package needs log out and back in to make app icon visible.
As the Flatpak app runs in sandbox, you may also run command to install Flatseal:
flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/com.github.tchx84.Flatseal.flatpakref
Which, provides a graphical interface to manage the permissions.
For the Ubuntu PPA package, 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
For the Flatpak package, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to uninstall:
flatpak uninstall --delete-data tv.kodi.Kodi
Also, run command flatpak uninstall --unused will free up some disk space by removing useless runtime libraries.
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:
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!
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
Bomi, formerly known as CMPlayer, is a graphical user interface (GUI) player based on mpv for Linux. It aims to be easy to use and also provides various powerful features and convenience functions.
By taking the advantage of mpv and GUI, bomi provides various features:
Install Bomi player from PPA:
1. If you have CMPlayer installed on your system, you have to remove it first since it conflicts with bomi.
To do so, open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When it opens, run below command:
sudo apt-get remove cmplayer
2. Bomi has an official PPA that contains the latest packages for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10 and Linux Mint 17.1.
To add the PPA, run below command in terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:darklin20/bomi
3. Finally search for and install bomi via Synaptic Package Manager, or by running below commands one by one:
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install bomi
For those who don’t want to add PPA, grab the .deb installer directly from the PPA packages page.
