Archives For November 30, 1999

This simple tutorial shows you how to change the Nautilus file browser and other apps’ background & selected color if you’re boring with the default colors in Ubuntu 13.04 Raring.

It can be easily done in Nautilus 3.4.x and 3.6.x via Dconf Editor. So this tutorial will also work for Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal and Ubuntu 12.04 Precise.

In the screenshots below, I changed the background color to sky blue and selected color to black.

nautilus colors

To do it, open Dconf Editor from Unity Dash. Navigate to org/gnome/desktop/interface, add or change the value of gtk-color-scheme. So that you can change the background color, tooltips color, text color, etc.

bg_color:#C4E5F6;selected_bg_color:#000000;base_color:#888888;tooltip_fg_color:#ffffff;tooltip_bg_color:#ffffff;text_color:#000000

To restore, just remove what you added. Enjoy!

Want to block access to certain websites from your machine running Ubuntu or Linux Mint? It’s easy to do it by editing the host file.

With the hosts file, you can tell Ubuntu to redirect the specific websites to 127.0.0.1. So that the web browser returns below error:

To do so, edit the /etc/hosts with your favorite editor. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run below command to edit the hosts via gedit:

sudo gedit /etc/hosts

Add below lines to the end of the file. Exclude the “http://” and change the domain names.

# block access to certain sites
127.0.0.1 www.websites1.com
127.0.0.1 www.websites2.com
127.0.0.1 websites3.com
127.0.0.1 morewebsites.com

Save the file and re-launch your web browser. Done.

Pictoric is a simple utility for Ubuntu Unity to create a desktop slideshow out of the directory of your choice that contains either .jpg/.jpeg or .png files for a given time interval that you choose. Your desktop slideshow will then be initiated and saved to be ready to go for subsequent logins.

Just simple and efficient! To install it in Ubuntu, download and double-click to install the DEB via pop-up Ubuntu Software Center.

Download Pictoric in Launchpad

You can also install this app from the PPA. Press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal, then run below commands one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:glacier-apps/pictoric
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pictoric

Once installed, you can open it from Unity Dash or in System Settings window.

The Audacity audio editor & recorder has reached version 2.0.4. Here’s how to install or upgrade it via PPA in Ubuntu 13.04 Raring, Ubuntu 12.04 Precise, Linux Mint and Elementary OS.

Audacity 2.0.4 replaces all previous versions, with these improvements:

  • New Effect > Reverb (based on Freeverb), that replaces GVerb.
  • New View > Go to Selection Start and Go to Selection End commands.
  • New Tracks > Align End to End command to append selected tracks.
  • WAV files import/export now supports “Album Title”, “Track Number” and “Genre” LIST INFO tags and ID3 tags.
  • (Windows) New support for Windows WDM/KS host which can provide very low latencies if you reduce “Audio to Buffer” in Recording Preferences.
  • (Windows Vista and later) You can now record computer playback by choosing the new Windows WASAPI host in Device Toolbar, then a “loopback” input.
  • Bugs have been fixed, involving Keyboard Preferences, Equalization curves, and Effect > Change Pitch, and several more.

Install Audacity 2.0.4

The Audacity team PPA has reached to 2.0.5 alpha. So here I use Nate Muench’s PPA.

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run below commands one by one:

For Ubuntu 13.04 and its derivatives:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:n-muench/vlc

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install audacity

For Ubuntu 12.04 and its derivatives:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:n-muench/vlc2

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install audacity

For source code and other systems, go to this page.

Use Foto Image Viewer and Album Manager on Ubuntu

Last updated: September 9, 2013

Foto is a very simple image viewer and album manager written in Vala using Gtk3, Clutter, Cairo and Granite. Here are the screenshots:

Foto is a new project, and it’s still in early development stage. If you are interested, install it in Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04 and Linux Mint via PPA (press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:erasmo-marin/foto-daily-builds

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install foto

Or download the DEB from this page

This brief tutorial shows you how to install & use Numix Ubuntu Touch style icons on Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy and Ubuntu 13.04 Raring.

Numix is a modern flat theme with a combination of light and dark elements. It supports Gnome, Unity, XFCE and Openbox.

To install this icons, press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run commands to add the ppa:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:numix/ppa

Then update and install:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install numix-icon-theme numix-icon-theme-utouch

Or you can download the Debs from the PPA packages page if you don’t want to add the ppa.

Once installed this theme, use the theme via unity tweak tool or gnome tweal tool. To set the theme in Xfce, run the following commands in Terminal:

xfconf-query -c xsettings -p /Net/ThemeName -s "Numix"
xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/theme -s "Numix"

Want to watch live streams on Ubuntu via your favorite video player? Well, here’s how to do it using Livestreamer which supports most of the big streaming services such as Dailymotion, Livestream, Twitch/Justin.tv, YouTube Live, UStream.

Livestreamer is a Command Line Interface that pipes video streams from various services into a video player, such as VLC, Mplayer. The main purpose of Livestreamer is to allow the user to avoid buggy and CPU heavy flash plugins but still be able to enjoy various streamed content.

There is also an API available for developers who want access to the video stream data.

It’s very easy to use this tool. Let’s say you want to watch the stream located on http://twitch.tv/day9tv, just run below command in terminal (press Ctrl+Alt+T to open it).

livestreamer twitch.tv/day9tv

[cli][info] Found matching plugin justintv for URL twitch.tv/day9tv
Found streams: 240p, 360p, 480p, 720p (best), mobile_high, mobile_low (worst)

It will find out what streams are available and print them out for you to choose from. Simply give livestreamer the stream as the second argument and playback will start in your video player of choice.

In this case the best stream is a reference to the stream that is considered to be of highest quality, e.g 720p. The –player argument will specify the video player (It will open VLC as the default player if not specified).

livestreamer twitch.tv/day9tv best --player mplayer

Install Livestreamer in Ubuntu, Linux Mint

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens run below commands to install pip installer:

sudo apt-get install python-pip

Then install Livestreamer via pip:

sudo pip install livestreamer

This will work on all current supported Ubuntu releases, include Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 10.04 and their derivatives such as Linux Mint and Elementary OS.

The Linux Kernel 3.10.11 has been released. All users of the 3.10 LTS kernel series are urged to upgrade as soon as possible. Here’s how to install or upgrade in Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04 and Linux Mint.

This maintenance release introduces ARM, x86, and PowerPC fixes, as well as many updated drivers, including Nouveau, i915, iSCSI, and a few wireless ones. See the official announcement.

Install / Upgrade Kernel 3.10.11:

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run below commands to download the DEBs.

for 32-bit system:

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.10.11-saucy/linux-headers-3.10.11-031011-generic_3.10.11-031011.201309080217_i386.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.10.11-saucy/linux-headers-3.10.11-031011_3.10.11-031011.201309080217_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.10.11-saucy/linux-image-3.10.11-031011-generic_3.10.11-031011.201309080217_i386.deb

for 64-bit system:

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.10.11-saucy/linux-headers-3.10.11-031011-generic_3.10.11-031011.201309080217_amd64.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.10.11-saucy/linux-headers-3.10.11-031011_3.10.11-031011.201309080217_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.10.11-saucy/linux-image-3.10.11-031011-generic_3.10.11-031011.201309080217_amd64.deb

Then install them via below command:

sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-3.10.11*.deb linux-image-3.10.11*.deb

If you’re not comfortable with command line. Download & install the Debs from the kernel ppa.

As you may know, FrostWire is a free and high quality BitTorrent client. The latest version 5.6.4 fixed a few bugs and updated translations.

  • Fixes issues parsing some cloud urls.
  • Fixes issues with soundcloud meta search.
  • Spanish translation updated.
  • French translation updated. Thanks @jeromemorignot.
  • Portuguese translation updated. Thanks @tati110.
  • Brazilian Portuguese translation updated. Thanks @tati110.
  • Arabic translation updated. Thanks @nisrmasr.
  • Turkish translation updated. Thanks @Serrae.

Interested? Here’s how to install or upgrade in Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04 and their derivatives.

Before getting started, you need to install OpenJDK from Ubuntu Software Center or install Oracle Java via ppa

1.) You can always download the latest Debs for Ubuntu based system from the official download link:

Download FrostWire for Ubuntu

Then double click to install the Deb via pop-up Ubuntu Software Center.

2.) The other way to install FrostWire is using the GetDeb repository. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run below commands one by one:

wget http://archive.getdeb.net/install_deb/getdeb-repository_0.1-1~getdeb1_all.deb

sudo dpkg -i getdeb-repository_0.1-1~getdeb1_all.deb

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install frostwire

As you may know, Aegisub is a free, cross-platform open source tool for creating and modifying subtitles. Aegisub makes it quick and easy to time subtitles to audio, and features many powerful tools for styling them, including a built-in real-time video preview.

Aegisub is available in Ubuntu Software Center since Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal, but it’s old. At the moment, the latest version is 3.0.4 and it’s available for downloading at the below links:

aegisub_3.0.4-1_i386.deb

aegisub_3.0.4-1_amd64.deb

Or you can check out all Debs from the official ftp download page.

Once downloaded, you can install it in Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.04 and their deviratives such as Linux Mint and Elementary by running below commands in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/aegisub_*.deb; sudo apt-get -f install

Or you can directly double-click to install the Deb if there’s no dependency problem.