UbuntuHandbook

How to Install Emerald in Ubuntu 13.10 & Linux Mint 16

Last updated: October 21, 2013

Emerald is a custom window decorator which was shipped with Compiz. It decorates windows borders and title bars by installing and editing themes.

Emerald has been discontinued, but the latest v0.9.5 works great in all current Canonical supported Ubuntu releases. Webupd8 team has created a PPA for Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04. Here’s how to install and use Emerald in Ubuntu 13.10.

Tutorial Objectives:

Install Emerald Window Decorator in Ubuntu 13.10
Enjoy!

To get started, press Ctrl+ALt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to install the required packages:

sudo apt-get install git autoconf libtool libwnck1.0-cil-dev libwnck-dev intltool libdecoration0-dev gawk compizconfig-settings-manager

Download the source tarball:

wget cgit.compiz.org/fusion/decorators/emerald/snapshot/emerald-0.9.5.tar.gz

Uncompress and go into result folder:

tar -zxvf emerald-0.9.5.tar.gz && cd emerald-0.9.5/

Run commands below one by one to compile it:

./autogen.sh
make clean
make distclean
./configure --prefix=/usr --libdir=/usr/lib${LIBDIRSUFFIX} LIBS='-ldl -lm'
make
sudo make install

To enable Emerald:

emerald --replace &

To make Emerald permanently, install CompizConfig Settings Manager from Ubuntu Software Center. Open CCSM and navigate to Effects -> Window Decoration. In command area replace the default with emerald --replace &

After all, open Emerald Window Manager from Unity Dash. Download and install themes from compiz-themes.org

In Howtos emerald window decorator, Ubuntu 13.10

How to Install Nuvola Player 2.2 in Ubuntu 13.10

Last updated: October 20, 2013

Nuvola is a cloud music integration for your Linux desktop. It supports Google Play Music, Amazon Cloud Player, 8tracks, Grooveshark, Hype Machine, Pandora, Rido.

Although the maintainer has discontinued the development of this project, it’s still available for Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.04 and their derivatives on its PPA.

Tutorial Objectives:

Install Nuvola Player in Ubuntu 13.10
Enjoy!

To get started, press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command below to add the unstable PPA which works great on my laptop.

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

Then update system package lists:

sudo apt-get update

Install the cloud player as well as the flash plugin:

sudo apt-get install nuvolaplayer nuvolaplayer-flashplugin

In Howtos Nuvola Cloud Player, Ubuntu 13.10

How to Install Google Music Manager in Ubuntu 13.10

Last updated: October 20, 2013

This tutorial shows you how to install Google Music Manager, a simple application for adding the music files on your computer to your Google Play Music library.

Music Manager is compatible with desktop and laptop computers and is not available to download onto mobile devices. With it you can:

Upload up to 20,000 songs from your iTunes library, Windows Media Player library, My Music folder, or folders of your choice to Google Play.
Only upload what you want – choose individual songs or upload songs automatically.
Adjust the bandwidth available for uploading songs.
View your upload progress.
Download any songs that you previously uploaded to your music library, as well as songs you purchased from Google Play.

Install Google play music manager:

Press Ctrl+ALt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, follow the steps below:

1. Copy and paste below command and run to add the Google repository for Ubuntu Linux:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://dl.google.com/linux/musicmanager/deb/ stable main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-musicmanager.list'

2. Get the key:

wget -q -O - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add -

3. update package lists on your system:

sudo apt-get update

4. Now you can install the app via:

sudo apt-get install google-musicmanager-beta

In Howtos Google Music, Google Music uploader, Ubuntu 13.10

Install Hotshots screenshot & annotation app in Ubuntu 13.10

Last updated: October 19, 2013

Hotshots is a screenshot tool with some editing features. It is particularly suitable for writing documentation (as used in the following chapters) but you can use it to highlight some details on a map image or what ever you want. Because HotShots is written with Qt, it runs on Windows and Linux (MacOSX isn’t tested yet).

Current features:

Grab current screen, all monitors (in case of multi-monitors configuration), current window or a part of the desktop.

Save the screenshot in multiple formats (PNG, JPG, BMP, …).

Automatically save the screenshot to clipboard, disk or launch the editor tool.

Automatically scale the screenshot to a given size.

Use “system” shortcuts to take a screenshot.

Add automatically some “post-effects” to the screenshot (drop shadow, rotation, border, …).

Can be minimized to system tray and work in background.

Can be launch at system start-up (Windows).

Export edited image in multiple formats (PNG, JPG, BMP …).

Save/Restore edited image in proprietary format.

Send image directly to printer.

Install Hotshots via PPA:

Hotshots is available in a launchpad ppa for Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy, Ubuntu 13.04 Raring, Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal, Ubuntu 12.04 Precise and Linux Mint 13 Maya, 15 Olivia, 14 Nadia , 16 Petra and other Ubuntu derivatives.

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

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dhor/myway

After that, update package lists and install the tool:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install hotshots

In Howtos hotshots screenshot, Ubuntu 13.10

How to Install Deadbeef Music Player 0.5.6 in Ubuntu 13.10

Last updated: October 18, 2013

The DeadBeef music player now is available for Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander in its PPA repository after Canonical released the Ubuntu 13.10 Final.

As you may know, DeedBeef is a free audio player for Linux only. It has following features:

mp3, ogg vorbis, flac, ape, wv/iso.wv, wav, m4a/mp3 (aac and alac), mpc, tta, cd audio, and many more

nsf, ay, vtx, vgm/vgz, spc and many other popular chiptune formats

SID with HVSC song length database support for sid

tracker modules – mod, s3m, it, xm, etc

ID3v1, ID3v2.2, ID3v2.3, ID3v2.4, APEv2, Xing/Info, VorbisComments tag reading and writing, as well as reading many other tag/metadata formats in most supported formats

automatic character set detection for non-unicode id3 tags – supports cp1251, iso8859-1, and now chinese cp936 (optional), as well as SHIFT-JIS and MS-DOS CP866 for selected formats

unicode tags are fully supported as well (both utf8 and ucs2)

cuesheet (.cue files) support, including charset detection/conversion

clean fast GUI using GTK2 and GTK3, you pick what you like more!

no GNOME or KDE dependencies

minimization to system tray, with scrollwheel volume control, etc

drag and drop, both in playlist, and from other apps

control playback from command line

global hotkeys

multiple playlists using tabbed interface

album cover display

OSD notifications about current playing songs

18-band graphical equalizer and other DSP plugins

built-in high quality tag editor, with custom fields support

customizable groups in playlists

customizable columns with flexible title formatting

streaming radio support for ogg vorbis, mp3 and aac streams

gapless playback for correctly encoded files

lots of plugin, such as global hotkeys, last.fm scrobbler, converter, and many more, sdk is included

comes with advanced Converter plugin, which allows to transcode files to other formats

was tested on x86, x86_64, powerpc, arm, mips architectures, should work on most modern platforms

new features are being added all the time — check for updates frequently!

Install Deadbeef Music Player:

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

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:starws-box/deadbeef-player

Then you can install it from Ubuntu Software Center after checking for updates. Or run below commands instead:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install deadbeef

In Howtos deadbeef music player, Ubuntu 13.10

How to Install Vuze 5.1.0 in Ubuntu 13.10 & Linux Mint 16

Last updated: October 15, 2013

As you may know, BitTorrent protocol client that offers multiple torrent downloads, queuing/priority systems (on torrents and files), start/stop seeding options, and instant access to numerous pieces of information about your torrents. It includes an embedded tracker that is easily set up and ready to use.

Vuze in Ubuntu’s default repository is old. Here’s how to install the latest v5.1.0 in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy or Linux Mint 16 Petra using getdeb repository.

Enable GetDeb repository

For Ubuntu 13.10, 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

For Linux Mint, there’s an option under ‘Software Sources -> Additional repositories’ allows to enable the Getdeb.

Install Vuze:

After enabled the Getdeb, you can install Vuze from Ubuntu Software Center after checking for updates. Or run below commands instead:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install vuze

vuze 5.1 on Ubuntu 13.10

In Howtos bittorrent client, Ubuntu 13.10, vuze

How to Disable Laptop Camera in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy

Last updated: October 15, 2013

This simple tutorial is going to show you how to disable laptop camera in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy. Cameras are controlled by the uvcvideo kernel module, so all you need to do is block it from loading.

After this tutorial, you’ll get a blank screen in Cheese:

blank screen after disabled camera

To get started:

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to disable the camera until reboot:

sudo modprobe -r uvcvideo

You will be asked for your password, and after typing it, if there are no errors shown in the terminal, your webcam should be disabled.

To enable your webcam again, run:

sudo modprobe uvcvideo

If you want to permanently disable camera, run below command to block the kernel mode by adding to config file.

echo 'blacklist uvcvideo' | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Reboot your machine and done.

In Howtos disable camera, Ubuntu 13.10

How to install Calibre 1.6 in Ubuntu 13.10 or Linux Mint 16

Last updated: October 14, 2013

Calibre, the free and open source e-book computer software application suite has reached v1.6 with handy mark-book feature.

What’s New in Calibre 1.6:

Temporary marking of books in the library
This allows you to select books from your calibre library manually and mark them. This ‘mark’ will remain until you restart calibre, or clear the marks. You can easily work with only the marked subset of books by right clicking the Mark Books button. To use this feature, go to Preferences->Toolbars and add the ‘Mark Books’ tool to the main toolbar.
Get Books: Add Wolne Lektury and Amazon (Canada) ebook stores
DOCX Input: Handle hyperlinks in footnotes and endnotes
Driver for Sunstech reader
Allow using both uri: and url: identifiers to create two different arbitrary links instead of just one in the Book details panel
E-book viewer: Make all keyboard shortcuts configurable
Conversion: Add an option to not condense CSS rules for margin, padding, border, etc. Option is under the Look & Feel section of the conversion dialog.
calibredb: Allow setting of title sort field
ebook-meta: Add an –identifier option to set identifiers.
Fix a locking error when composite columns containing formats are used and formats are added/deleted.
EPUB Output: Do not strip <object> tags with type application/svg+xml in addition to those that use image/svg+xml.
Cover grid: Fix selecting all books with Ctrl+A causing subsequent deselects to not fully work
HTMLZ Output: Fix long titles causing error when converting on windows.
Content server: Fix OPDS category links to composite columns
E-book viewer: Fix regression that broke import/export of bookmarks
E-book viewer: Use the default font size setting for the dictionary view as well.
DOCX Input: Avoid using the value attribute for simple numbered lists, to silence the asinine epubcheck
HTML Input: Images linked by the poster attribute of the <video> tag are now recognized and processed.
DOCX Input: Fix erorr when converting docx files that have numbering defined with no associated character style.
EPUB Metadata: Implementing updating identifiers other than isbn in the epub file from calibre when polishing or exporting the epub
Amazon metadata download: Fix parsing of some dates on amazon.de

New news sources

Various Uruguayan news sources by Carlos Alves

Improved news sources

National Geographic Magazine
New York Review of Books
Focus (PL)
Carta Capital
AM 730
Ming Pao (HK)
Neu Osnabrucker Zeitung

Install / Upgrade Calibre:

For Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Linux Mint users, press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, copy and paste below codes and hit enter to run:

sudo python -c "import sys; py3 = sys.version_info[0] > 2; u = __import__('urllib.request' if py3 else 'urllib', fromlist=1); exec(u.urlopen('http://status.calibre-ebook.com/linux_installer').read()); main()"

It automatically download the source code and install it on your system.

In Howtos calibre, Ubuntu 13.10

How to Disable Overlay Scrollbars in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy

Last updated: October 14, 2013

This quick tutorial is going to show you how to disable overlay scrollbars and switch back to old fat regular scrollbars in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander.

Since Ubuntu 13.04, there’s an option in Dconf Editor allows to switch on / off this feature. Follow steps show you how:

1. Open Ubuntu Software Center. Search for and install dconf Editor.

2. Open dconf Editor, navigate to com/canonical/desktop/interface. Change the scollbar-mode to normal

If you’re familiar with command line, just run one command in terminal:

gsettings set com.canonical.desktop.interface scrollbar-mode normal

That’s it. Enjoy!

In Unity overlay scrollbars, Ubuntu 13.10

FrostWire 5.6.6 Released with important fixes, Download for Ubuntu

Last updated: October 14, 2013

The free & open-source BitTorrent client FrostWire has released v5.6.6 with important bugfixes on meta search. It’s highly recommended to update.

See what’s new in FrostWire 5.6.6:

frostwire (5.6.6) stable; urgency=high

Fixes ExtraTorrent meta search.
Polish translation 100% updated.
New support for anonymous user experience statistics.

Download FrostWire for Ubuntu / Linux Mint

Because FrostWire depends on Java, so you need to install OpenJDK from Ubuntu Software Center. Or install oracle Java via PPA. Then double-click on downloaded package to install via pop-up Ubuntu Software Center.