Archives For November 30, 1999

Linux Kernel 3.16

The latest Linux Kernel 3.16 has been released. Linus Torvalds wrote in the Linux Kernel Mailing List (lkml.org):

So nothing particularly exciting happened this week, and 3.16 is out there.

And as usual (previous release being the exception) that means that the merge window for 3.17 is obviously open. And for the third time in a row, the timing sucks for me, as I have travel coming up the second week of the merge window. Many other core developers will be traveling too, since it’s just before the kernel summit in Chicago.

So we’ll see how the next merge window goes, but I’m not going to worry about it overmuch. If I end up not having time to do all the merges, I might delay things into the week of the kernel summit, but I’ll hope to get most of the big merging done this upcoming week before any travel takes place, so maybe it won’t come to that. So this is just a heads-up that the merge window *might* be extended.

Anyway, back to the changes since -rc7: it’s really fairly small stuff randomly all over, with a third being architecture updates, a third drivers, and a third “misc” (mainly mm and networking). The architecture stuff is small ARM updates (mostly DT), some x86 Xen fixups, some random small powerpc things. The shortlog gives a good idea of what kind of stuff it all is, but it’s really just 83 commits (plus merges and the release commit) and about a third of them are marked for stable.

So while 3.16 looked a bit iffy for a while, things cleared up nicely, and there was no reason to do extra release candidates like I feared just a couple of weeks ago.

What’s New in Linux Kernel 3.16:

  • Samsung Exynos multi-platform support so that the Samsung ARM SoC kernel support is on-par with many other ARM SoCs and the ability to have a single kernel image support multiple ARM devices.
  • Better upstream Jetson TK1 ARM development platform support.
  • Broadwell support within Intel’s P-State driver.
  • Dell free-fall driver support to see if your Latitude laptop is falling.
  • A new Synaptics input driver.
  • Blk-mq is nearly feature complete as the multi-queue block layer implementation.
  • For those still with an old Nokia N900 smart-phone, the modem is now supported by the mainline Linux kernel.
  • Initial GK20A support as the NVIDIA Kepler-based GPU within the Tegra K1 SoC. The ARM hardware support in general has improved a fair amount with this new kernel.
  • Nouveau support for Kepler GPU re-clocking albeit the support varies and there’s more improvements to be made.
  • Intel Cherryview support for the upcoming Intel Atom SoC succeeding Bay Trail / Valley View graphics.
  • AMD Radeon graphics are faster with DRM improvements made in this latest kernel release.

via: phoronix

Install / Upgrade to Kernel 3.16 in Ubuntu:

Be aware that proprietary drivers may or may not work correctly with this kernel version. You need to rebuilt (or install) your video driver after kernel update.

The Ubuntu Kernel Team has made the .deb installers which are available at:

Check your OS type (32-bit = i386, 64-bit = amd64) via System Settings -> Details and download the generic or low latency packages and install them in below orders:

  1. linux-headers-3.16.0-xxxxxx_all.deb
  2. linux-headers-3.16.0-xxx-generic / lowlatency-xxx_i386/amd64.deb
  3. linux-image-3.16.0-xxx-generic / lowlatency-xxx_i386/amd64.deb

For command line, you can run below commands one by one to download and install the new kernel:

1. For 32-bit system:

cd /tmp/

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.16-utopic/linux-headers-3.16.0-031600-generic_3.16.0-031600.201408031935_i386.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.16-utopic/linux-headers-3.16.0-031600_3.16.0-031600.201408031935_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.16-utopic/linux-image-3.16.0-031600-generic_3.16.0-031600.201408031935_i386.deb

sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-3.16.0-*.deb linux-image-3.16.0-*.deb

2. For 64-bit system:

cd /tmp/

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.16-utopic/linux-headers-3.16.0-031600-generic_3.16.0-031600.201408031935_amd64.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.16-utopic/linux-headers-3.16.0-031600_3.16.0-031600.201408031935_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.16-utopic/linux-image-3.16.0-031600-generic_3.16.0-031600.201408031935_amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-3.16.0-*.deb linux-image-3.16.0-*.deb

Reboot and done.

If for some reason this kernel release doesn’t work properly for you, reboot into previous kernel (Grub -> Advanced -> select previous kernel) and run this command to remove Linux Kernel 3.16:

sudo apt-get remove linux-headers-3.16.0-* linux-image-3.16.0-*

Finally update grub menu:

sudo update-grub


 
LibreOffice, the default office suite in Ubuntu, has finally reached version 4.3 with a large number of improvements and new features.

The packages has been made into 4.3 series PPA – available for Ubuntu 14.04 and Ubuntu 12.04 – which will provide future minor release updates (4.3.1, 4.3.2, 4.3.3 …).

What’s New in LibreOffice:

  • Better OOXML interoperability, and support of legacy Mac file formats
  • Better comment management, and highly intuitive spreadsheet handling
  • 3D models in Impress, and support for “monster” paragraphs
  • LibreOffice 4.3 also support “monster” paragraphs exceeding 65,000 characters
  • See the release note for details

Upgrade to LibreOffice 4.3 in Ubuntu:

1. Add the 4.3 series PPA, available for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 and their derivatives.

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, paste the command below and hit enter to run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/libreoffice-4-3

2. Open Software & Updater from Unity dash. After checking for updates, you’ll see the latest LibreOffice packages available in the update list. Click the Install Now to install updates.

You can also run the commands below to do the upgrade process:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get upgrade

That’s it. Enjoy!

XT7-Player is currently one of the best multimedia video player for KDE / Kubuntu. Here are the main features and how to install it.

Xt7-Player is an open source gui to mplayer. While there are plenty out there, it’s hard to find one which gives access to all mplayer options. This is what Xt7-Player aims to be, a complete graphical interface to mplayer, focusing on usability.

Among the main features of XT7 player include support for video playback from DVD, DVB-T support for allowing us then to be able to watch TV channels through a PCI card or USB for digital terrestrial connected to our personal computers. XT7-Player enables us to search and play videos from YouTube (also support for multiple playlists and offline mode for playback of favorite videos even when you’re not connected to the Internet by accessing the happy cached Flash system), we can also manage and play web radio, podcasts, and also there is also the Media Info section with details about our media files.

Simple and functional, XT7 Player has many customizations as well as a useful video and audio equalizer, support for Karaoke mode and the introduction of custom filters, there is also the shutdown mode that allows us to Turn off the PC after playback of a playlist or video in progress and much more.

Install XT7-Player in Kubuntu via PPA:

So far, the latest release is available in PPA for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 10.04 and their derivatives.

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, paste below command and hit enter to add the gambas3 PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gambas-team/gambas3

Then paste the command below to add the XT7-Player PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xt7-player-dev-team/daily

Finally update and install the player:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install xt7-player

Pragha is a Lightweight Music Player for GNU/Linux, based on Gtk, sqlite, and completely written in C, constructed to be fast, light, and simultaneously tries to be complete without obstructing the daily work.

History of Pragha:

Consonance, An excellent player emerged in the archlinux forums, was discontinued. The author, Sacamano said in his blog:

“Which doesn’t mean that it won’t be maintained. I would still be fixing bugs, but major feature additions are not in the pipeline, because I have completed all that I wanted to see in Consonance. It has been a fun project. :)”

Well.. Dissonance is the project to continue developing Consonance, and its result is Pragha Music Manager. A New reproducer of music.

Features:

  • Full integration with GTK+3, but always completely independent of gnome or xfce.
  • Two panel desing inspired on Amarok 1.4. Library and current playlist.
  • Library with multiple views, according tags or folder structure.
  • Search, filtering and queue songs on current playlist.
  • Playing and edit tag of mp3, m4a, ogg, flac, asf, wma, and ape files. Limited only by codecs installed and taglib version used.
  • Playlist management. Exporting M3U and read M3U, PLS, XSPF and WAX playlists.
  • Play audio CDs and identifies this with CDDB.
  • Playback control with command line and MPRIS2.
  • Native desktop notifications with libnotify.

Install Pragha in Ubuntu via PPA:

Seems that there’s no apt repository for Ubuntu users to make it easy to install the player, so I built the latest v1.2.2 into my PPA, available for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 14.10 and their derivatives.

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the commands below one by one to add the PPA and install the player:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/pragha

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install pragha

UPDATE: Remove Ubuntu 12.04 support due to broken packages in gstreamer PPA. Add Ubuntu 14.10 Support.

If you’re running on Ubuntu 12.04, add below PPA to get gstreamer 1.0 before running sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install pragha

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gstreamer-developers/ppa

Sorry that the Ubuntu 12.04 build excludes libglyr (>= 1.0.1) which allows to get lyrics and artist bio over many internet services, and download missing album cover art from Last.fm. Please email me if you know how to build libglyr for Ubuntu 12.04 Precise.

via: Pragha on Github

QuiteRSS RSS/Atom news feeds reader got an update recently with a few improvements and bug fixes. Now it allows you to share news to LinkedIn, Blogger, Printer Friendly.

QuiteRSS is an open-source cross-platform RSS/Atom news feeds reader which aims to be quite fast and comfortable to user. It features embedded browser (Webkit core), feed and news filters, adblock, click to flash, import/export feeds (OPML-files), and more.

The latest v0.16.1 was released recently with below changes:

  • Added: Ability to filter news by link
  • Added: Share news – LinkedIn, Blogger, Printer Friendly
  • Added: Color adjustment of the feeds with disabled update
  • Added: Color adjustment of the alternating rows background of the news list
  • Fixed: Operating in some unix OS
  • Fixed: Display all columns if the new list despite of settings
  • Fixed: Parsing some feeds
  • Fixed: Application crash while shutdown

So now the reader allows users to share news to Evernote, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, LiveJournal, Pocket, VK, LinkedIn, Blogger, Printer Friendly, or via Email.

Install / Upgrade QuiteRSS n Ubuntu:

The official Ubuntu PPA provides the latest builds for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 12.04 and their derivatives.

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the commands below one by one will add the PPA and install the reader:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:quiterss/quiterss

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install quiterss

If you have already added the QuiteRSS PPA, you can receive updates via Software Updater by running regular Ubuntu updates.

 
This quick tutorial shows you how to make your VLC media player remember the position of the last played files with a plugin called srpos.

srpos plugin works for VLC 2.1.x in Windows and Linux. It allows you to automatically save and restore up to 100 last played files position.

How to install this plugin:

For Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Linux Mint 17 and their derivatives, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run commands below one by one to install it from PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:samrog131/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install vlc-srpos-plugin

For Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 13.10 and their derivatives, you may consider upgrading VLC to the stable release v2.1.4 as the 2.0.x in their repositories are not supported. To do so, run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:djcj/vlc-stable

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install vlc

After that, download .deb package from: Launchpad Page

  • download vlc-srpos-plugin_0.3~trusty~ppa1_amd64.deb for 64-bit system.
  • download vlc-srpos-plugin_0.3~trusty~ppa1_i386.deb for 32-bt system.

Ubuntu 14.10 and Ubuntu 14.04 user can also download & install the .deb directly from the launchpad page if you don’t like Ubuntu PPAs.

How to Use the Plugin:

Once the plugin installed:

1. Re-open VLC, and go to menu Tools -> Preferences.

2. Under bottom left corner, select show All settings.

3. Navigate to Interface -> Control Interface on left sidebar.

4. Check the box where it says “Save/restore position of the last played files”

5. Save and close VLC. The plugin will work the next time you launch it.

Plugin website.

The latest Nvidia proprietary driver for Linux has reached v331.89. According to the changlog, the new release added a new GPU support and fixed a few bugs

  • Added support for the following GPU: GeForce GT 730
  • Fixed a race condition in the NVIDIA kernel module that caused some GPUs to sporadically become unresponsive.
  • Updated the error reporting in the NVIDIA kernel module to include the GPU serial number, when available, in error messages written to the system log.
  • Fixed a bug that caused blank screens when transforming or rotating displays in an SLI Mosaic layout.
  • Fixed a bug that corrupted certain software rendering on 32-bit systems.

Below is how to install Nvidia 331.89 in Ubuntu 14.04 or Ubuntu 12.04:

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the commands below:

sudo apt-get purge nvidia*; sudo apt-get install nvidia-331-updates-dev

It will remove previous installed proprietary driver and install the latest updates-dev package.

2. Restart your computer. When you’re back, download the official package:

32 bit Linux | 64 bit Linux | 32 bit ARM

Check out if your GPU is in the support list at the release page.

3. Switch to command console by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1 (or F2 ~ F6). Then log in with your username and password.

4. Stop the graphical session:

sudo service lightdm stop

For Gnome GDM or Linux Mint MDM, you may replace lightdm with gdm or mdm in the command.

5. Now give executable permission and run the official package:

chmod +x ~/Downloads/NVIDIA-Linux-*-331.89.run && sudo sh ~/Downloads/NVIDIA-Linux-*-331.89.run

Follow the onscreen prompt and you’re done.

Keep the installer file so that you can remove this driver via below command if for some reason it does not work properly:

sudo sh ~/Downloads/NVIDIA-Linux-*-331.89.run --uninstall

Linux desktop music player Nuvola has reached v2.4.1 with support for Amazon Music Prime streaming.

Nuvola is a free and open-source music player that brings many cloud music services, such as Amazon, Bandcamp, Deezer, 8tracks, Goolge Play Music, Grooveshark, Hype Machine, Logitech Media Server, Pandora, Rdio, and This is my Jam.

Changes in Nuvola 2.4.1:

  • Disabled test suite failing under Fedora’s mock tool.
  • Added a work-around to get rid of ABOUT protocol source missing dialog.
  • Fixed a memory leak in Media Player Remote Interface and optimized metadata property.
  • Added support for Amazon Music Prime streaming.
  • Updated translations.

Install Nuvola 2.4.1 in Ubuntu:

This player is available in the developer’s PPA for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 12.04 and their derivatives.

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run below command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nuvola-player-builders/stable

After that, update and install the player as well as the flash support:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install nuvolaplayer nuvolaplayer-flashplugin

If you don’t like Ubuntu PPAs, directly grab the .deb packages from HERE.

Natron is a free and open source video compositing software, similar in functionality to Adobe After Effects or Nuke by The Foundry.

It features:

  • 32 bits floating point linear colour processing pipeline.
  • Colorspace management handled by the famous open-source OpenColorIO library.
  • Dozens of file formats supported: EXR, DPX,TIFF, JPG, PNG…thanks to OpenImageIO.
  • Support for many free and open-source OpenFX plugins: TuttleOFX, OpenFX-IO, OpenFX-Misc, OpenFX-Yadif deinterlacer, OpenFX-Vegas SDK samples, OpenFX samples
  • Support for commercial OpenFX plugins: Furnace by The Foundry, KeyLight by The Foundry, GenArts Sapphire, Other GenArts products
  • Currently almost all features of OpenFX v1.3 are supported
  • Intuitive user interface
  • real-time feedback
  • Multi-task: Natron can render multiple graphs at the same time
  • Recover easily from bugs: Natron sometimes crashes.
  • Project format written in XML and easily editable by human.
  • Fast & interactive Viewer
  • Real-time playback: Natron offers a real-time playback with best performances
  • Low hardware requirements: All you need is an x86 64 bits or 32 bits processor, at least 3 GB of RAM and a graphic card that supports OpenGL 2.0 or OpenGL 1.5 with some extensions.
  • Animate your visual effects
  • Command line tool for execution of project files.
  • Rotoscoping support
  • Multi-view workflow: Natron saves time by keeping all the views in the same stream.

Install Natron on Ubuntu 14.04 / 12.04:

So far, the Linux binaries are only available for 64-bit OS.

1. Download the package “Natron_Linux_x86_64bits_x.x.tar.gz” from the link below:

2. Extract the downloaded package in your file browser.

3. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, install required package and run the installer script from the result folder:

sudo apt-get install libegl1-mesa

cd ~/Downloads/Natron-* && sudo ./Install.sh

The Install.sh script will automatically install Natron into /opt/, create a launcher icon and symbolic link to the executable. So that you can launch the software from Unity Dash or by running Natron in terminal.

4. (Optional) To remove the software, run the Uninstall script from that folder:

cd ~/Downloads/Natron-* && sudo ./Uninstall.sh

Natron website: natron.inria.fr

This quick tutorial shows you how to install the latest Bluefish editor (2.2.6 so far) in Ubuntu 14.04 / Ubuntu 12.04 and keep it up-to-date via its official PPA.

Bluefish is a free and open source advanced text editor with a variety of tools for programming in general and the development of dynamic websites. It supports development in (among others) HTML, XHTML, CSS, XML, PHP, C, C++, JavaScript, Java, Google Go, Vala, Ada, D, SQL, Perl, ColdFusion, JSP, Python, Ruby and shell.

Bluefish is available in Ubuntu universe repositories, but it’s always a little old. Below is how to add Bluefish’s official PPA repository and receive future updates by running regular Ubuntu updates via Software Updater.

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, paste below command and hit enter. It will add the PPA into your system after typing your password (If you’re asked).

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:klaus-vormweg/bluefish

If you’re running on non-GTK3 environment like simple window managers, use the GTK2 PPA instead:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:klaus-vormweg/bluefish-gtk2

2. Update the package lists so that you can install the editor from that repository:

sudo apt-get update

3. Finally you can install the latest Bluefish through your package manager, or run:

sudo apt-get install bluefish

If you have a previous version installed, upgrade it through Software Updater after checking for updates: