News, Tutorials, Howtos for Ubuntu Linux
This tutorial shows how to automatically reset a user account in Ubuntu after every reboot. All user files, extensions, personal app data, browsing history will be completely removed, so it just looks like it was when you created it.
It’s useful for computers for public use. Resetting user account, makes it always logs into Ubuntu with everything as default, without any leftover from last boot.
Ubuntu 23.10, code-name “Mantic Minotaur”, has reached Beta stage. See what’s new in the upcoming release of the popular Linux Distribution.
Ubuntu 23.10 will use Linux Kernel 6.5, and GNOME Desktop v45.
Ubuntu Software, aka the previous GNOME Software and current Snap Store, is really painful! It does NOT work quite often in my case.
It’s always stuck at either “Downloading Software catalog“, or the spinning loading circle.
Now, in Ubuntu 23.10, the new Google Flutter based App Center is in the place for installing/updating applications.
New App Center
Personally, I really like the new ‘App Center’. It’s fast, and just works!
The only issue so far in the development build is that it support Snap packages only… It now supports both Snap and classic .deb package since Beta.
Ubuntu 23.10 also introduced a new “Firmware Updater” application, that is available out-of-the-box.
With it, user can update hardware firmware as easy as few mouse clicks.
Ubuntu 23.10 adds experimental support for TPM based full disk encryption. Meaning passphrases will be no longer needed on supported platforms, and that the secret used to decrypt the encrypted data will be protected by a TPM and recovered automatically only by early boot software that is authorised to access the data. See HERE for more about it.
GNOME 45, developed by another group of people, is the default desktop environment in Ubuntu 23.10.
Features in GNOME 45, include new ‘workspace indicator’ in top-left to replace ‘Activities’ button, removal of current app menu in top-bar.
The top-right corner system status menu, aka Quick Settings, can now be opened/closed via Super (Windows logo key) + S shortcut key. And, it supports for toggle keyboard backlight with a flat button.
Super + S to open Quick Settings
The ‘Files’ (Nautilus File Manager) and Settings (Gnome Control Center) has been redesigned to look even more modern. To follow the steps in GNOME 44, it also redesigned the ‘About’ and ‘Privacy’ pages.
In the release of Ubuntu Desktop, it also introduced a new system extension called “Ubuntu Tiling Assistant“. It features “Tiling pop-up” and “Tiling Groups”, and allows to tile window to half or quarter screen size, either by dragging or keyboard shortcuts.
Other Gnome desktop changes include:
Don’t know why (probably due to Snap), but Ubuntu’s .iso image is getting bigger and bigger in recent releases. The 64-bit Ubuntu 18.04 image is only 2.3G, while 22.04 & 23.04 now take about 4.6G.
To lose weight, Ubuntu Team proposed to drop some applications from the default install, by introducing new “Default” option.
The change does not apply to Ubuntu 23.10, instead, the Ubuntu installer choose “Minimal” installation by default. It’s still called “Default Installation”, but excludes many applications, such as LibreOffice, Thunderbird. Though, the old default “Full” installation is still available for choice.
Ubuntu PPA now uses deb822 .sources files instead of the classic .list files in ‘/etc/apt/sources.list.d’. And, it includes the key code directly in the source file instead of saving as a separated file.
The network manager now uses Netplan as it’s default settings storage backend. All the config files are located in /etc/netplan now.
The pre-installed Firefox now uses Wayland by default instead of XWayland, which has better touchpad / touch-screen user experience.
New fonts-ubuntu-classic package for those who prefer system font in Ubuntu earlier than 23.04.
For more about Ubuntu 23.10, see the official release note, though it’s not finished yet.
Ubuntu 23.04 has been released! Besides installing from new .iso image, here’s a step by step guide shows how to upgrade from Ubuntu 22.10.
NOTE: The Upgrade process may fail! So it’s HIGHLY recommended to backup your important data first!! And, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS can even follow this tutorial twice to upgrade to 22.10 first, and then to 23.04.
Backup! Backup! Backup! The most important thing to do first is to backup your important data! The upgrade process could fail due to various reasons, such as power interruption, network issue, or even poor software packages on your system.
1. Before getting started, search for and open “Software & Updates” utility. When it opens, navigate to “Other Software” tab, then disable or remove all third-party PPAs.
2. Also, in “Software & Updates” utility, navigate to “Additional Drivers” tab. Then, select and apply open-source driver, if a proprietary driver is in use.
3. In “Software & Updates“, switch to “Updates” tab. Then, select “For any new version” for “Notify me of a new Ubuntu version” drop-down box.
4. Also, search for and launch “Extension Manager” or “Gnome Extensions” app depends on which one you installed, and disable all user-installed Gnome Shell Extensions to avoid compatibility issues.
Now, search for and open “Software Updater” from either overview or ‘Show Applications’ screen. When it opens, install all available package updates.
When done, restart your computer if it prompts to.
Finally, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. And, run command to start software updater and check distribution upgrade!
update-manager -c
If all package updates are properly installed, and useless packages removed, then it should prompt that Ubuntu 23.04 is available.
Just click on “Upgrade” button. Then it will open the release note dialog for Ubuntu 23.04. In my case, it shows a blank page, though it’s not a big deal.
Click “Upgrade” button again. Then it opens the wizard to download and setup the software sources.
When done “Setting new software channels”, it will ask for confirm again. Before clicking “Start Upgrade” button, it’s the last chance to cancel the upgrading the process!
Once you clicked “Start Upgrade” button, it starts downloading and installing all required packages. It can take quite a few minutes depends on your network speed and computer specs.
Before “Cleaning up”, you need to do one more mouse click to confirm.
If everything’s going well, it will ask to restart computer when done.
After all, verify your Ubuntu edition, either by opening “Settings” and navigate to ‘About’ page, or run command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):
cat /etc/issue
That’s all. Enjoy!
The Ubuntu Team announced the Ubuntu 23.04 yesterday!
Ubuntu 23.04, code-name “Lunar Lobster”, is a short term release with 9-month support until January 2024.
The release is powered by the latest Linux Kernel 6.2. The Ubuntu Kernel supports for building and running external kernel modules using Rust programming language.
The desktop edition features GNOME 44, with following changes:
The release also introduced new installer. It’s a flutter app that has a fast response and modern look and feel. The old installer is still available in case of issues with the new installer.
Lunar new installer wizard
Other changes in Ubuntu 23.04 include:
The iso images for Desktop, Server and Network install are available for download at the link below:
For cloud, loT, and other images, go to the official download page.
Ubuntu 22.10 users can now upgrade to Ubuntu 23.04. Just install all available updates via “Software Updater“, restart if asked, and finally run update-manager -c command to check distribution upgrades.
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS just got a new point release with hardware enablement stacks for use on newer hardware.
The new Ubuntu 20.04.5 features Kernel 5.15 backported from Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, which enables newer hardware support.
It also updates the NVIDIA 390, 470, 510 driver series, as well adds initial support of NVIDIA 515 driver. For HP machines, it adds mic mute key support for HP Elite x360 series, and adds more hp dmi to unblock intel-hid event. Also, add HP EliteBook 630/830 13 inch dmi string to intel-hid allowlist.
The system hangs and display mode switching issues when external HDMI is plugged have been fixed. Firefox should be possible to open downloads folder when AppArmor enabled. And, many OEM meta packages have been added for Lenovo Thinkpad laptops.
For more changes about Ubuntu 20.04.5, see the change summary in this page.
If you’re already running Ubuntu 20.04 in your machine, just check out the “About” page in System Settings, as you should have the new point release.
Or, run the single command in terminal to verify:
cat /etc/issue
To download Ubuntu 20.04.5 (though 22.04.1 is recommended now), go to:
Ubuntu is always not ready for use out-of-the-box, because every user has his/her own preferences. And, here’s a list of things I did after installing Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.
To speed up the installing process, I never enable the network connection in Ubuntu’s installer wizard. So, the media codecs is not installed and audio/video player does not work out-of-the-box.
Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. And, refresh the package cache if you’ve not done that.
sudo apt update
Then, install the codecs for audio, video playback, Microsoft fonts, rar support, and so forth via this command:
sudo apt install ubuntu-restricted-extras
Thanks to @Stephen, the command will output a TTF EULA message asks you to click ‘OK’ to confirm. In case you don’t know how to continue, press Tab to highlight the button and hit Enter.
I use Firefox to install Gnome Extensions regularly. But the pre-installed Firefox is a Snap package that does not support the feature.
It’s easy to remove the Firefox Snap by running command (back your data first!) in terminal:
sudo snap remove --purge firefox
However, Firefox Deb package in 22.04 repository is just a wrapper that links to Snap. Except the official Linux Tarball, there are only third-party repositories (though really trustworthy): Ubuntuzilla and “Mozilla Team” team PPA.
I personally prefer the “Mozilla Team” team PPA. And, simply run the commands below one by one will install Firefox Deb package from that repository:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/ppa
sudo apt install -t 'o=LP-PPA-mozillateam' firefox
After installation, you need to set higher PPA priority to prevent Ubuntu from installing the Snap back. See here for details.
Ubuntu 22.04 introduced 10 accent colors in “Appearance” settings page. It allows you change the color of slider bar, on/off switch, check-box, highlight text background, input box border, and even folder icon.
Choose favorite accent color
Click to minimize, minimize the app window when click on its icon on the dock by running command:
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock click-action minimize
Shorten the left panel and move it to the bottom using system settings under “Appearance” page:
And, remove mounted and network volumes from the dock via “Configure dock behavior” setting options.
Most extensions are available to install from https://extensions.gnome.org/. Ubuntu however does not ready for it out-of-the-box.
After switching Firefox Snap to another package (or another browser), you need to press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal and run command to install required packages:
sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell gnome-shell-extension-prefs
It installs the agent to be able to install Gnome Extensions from web browser, as well as the “Gnome Extensions” app to manage all available extensions on your system:
Manage Gnome Extensions
Started in Ubuntu 22.04, there’s a cool new graphical tool made into official repositories. It’s “Extension Manager“, which allows to search, install, remove and manage Gnome Extensions.
With the tool, you do not have to remove the pre-installed Firefox or use another browser any more.
Search extensions
To install the Extension manager, open terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard and run command:
sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-manager
For more configuration options about desktop appearance and behavior, Gnome Tweaks and Dconf Editor are highly recommended.
And, they are both available to install either from Ubuntu Software or by running the command below in terminal:
sudo apt install gnome-tweaks dconf-editor
Gnome’s (the default desktop) core weather app will add weather condition about the next few hours in the clock menu.
Simply install the app by running the command below in terminal:
sudo apt install gnome-weather
Then launch it from the ‘Activities’ overview screen. Setup your location and see the daily or hourly weather forecast. The clock menu will display hourly forecast automatically after that.
There are many great Gnome extensions. Here are few of them that are highly recommended:
There are tons of Gnome Shell themes available to change the look and feel of the top-bar, dock, and system menus.
To be able to apply one of these themes, you have to first install the ‘User Themes extension’:
Then, use “Gnome Tweaks -> Appearance” page to select an installed theme for Shell use.
Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish now is in final beta stage! Here’s how you can upgrade to the new LTS from Ubuntu 20.04!
NOTE: the steps below now will upgrade to Ubuntu 22.04 Beta at the moment. Though, the beta will be upgraded to the final stable release automatically in next month by running regular updates.
The new Ubuntu 22.04 LTS features Linux Kernel 5.15 and GNOME 42 desktop. It’s a long term support release with 5 years support. The Final Beta was announced with changes including:
Before getting started, there are some things need to do first! They are important to prevent upgrade failure.
1.) Backup! Backup! Backup! The upgrade process may fail due to different reasons. So, it’s important to back your data, bookmarks, etc.
2.) Disable third-party PPAs. This can be done by launching ‘Software & Updates’ utility and navigate to ‘Other Software’ tab.
If possible, I’d recommend to purge PPAs which also downgrade these third-party software packages. Especially for ffmpeg, mesa, etc.
Disable or remove 3 party PPAs
3.) Also in ‘Software & Updates’ tool, navigate to ‘Updates’ tab. There choose ‘Notify me of a new Ubuntu version: For long term support versions‘.
4.) Remove proprietary drivers from ‘Additional Drivers’ tab, and use an open-source driver instead. You may skip this step if your PC does not have a dedicated GPU.
5.) Remove other Desktop Environments! If you have other desktops (e.g., KDE, XFCE, Cinnamon), it’s better to remove them, so to speed up the upgrade process.
6.) Disable User Extensions. Disable user installed Gnome Extensions via Gnome Tweaks tool!
NOTE: The upgrade process may fail! If you can’t afford to have a broken system, please do a clean install instead of upgrading it!
1.) Firstly, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run the command below to install all available system updates:
sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade
install all available system updates
And, restart your computer if you have not run system updates for a long time.
2.) Next, in terminal run the command below to run update manager to check distribution update:
update-manager -d -c
If there are still available updates or removals, click on ‘Install Now’ and re-run the command.
3.) Once you see the prompt for Ubuntu 22.04. Click on “Upgrade” button, and confirm in the next ‘Release Notes’ dialog.
4.) It will pop-up another dialog asks to confirm via ‘Start Upgrade’ button. Once you click on it, the ‘Distribution Upgrade’ wizard will pop-up indicates the upgrading process.
5.) Don’t go far away from your computer!! There will be a few more confirm dialogs, so you have to keep an eye on the screen.
If everything goes well, there will be a dialog asks to “Restart” to complete the upgrade.
Sadly, I went out when it was ‘Getting new packages‘. And the upgrade process failed at blank screen when I was back! So there’s no screenshot for this step.
There may be various reasons that the upgrade failed. Here are the issues in my case.
As mentioned, the upgrade failed in my case and the laptop run into blank screen. And, I did following steps that successfully finish the upgrade.
1.) Force reboot and login. Press Ctrl+Alt+F2 (F3 ~ F6) and type username, then password to log into tty console if GDM (login screen) does not start. Or, select boot “Advanced -> recover mode -> drop root shell prompt” from boot-loader if Ubuntu refused to boot!
2.) Once logged in, try running command to configure unfinished packages:
sudo dpkg --configure -a
3.) And, try to fix broken dependencies via command:
sudo apt -f install
In my case, some third-party packages (e.g., libfilezilla12 from xtradeb PPA, and libreoffice-common from LibreOffice Fresh PPA) break the dependencies! And, the command failed with something look like:
trying to overwrite ‘…’, which is also in package libfilezilla12 0.27.1~extradeb1
Errors were encountered while processing:
…
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code(1)
To fix the issue, just remove the package via command (replace package name ‘libfilezilla12’ accordingly):
sudo dpkg -P libfilezilla12
Then re-run the sudo apt -f install until it’s done successfully without error!
4.) Install all available system updates via command:
sudo apt full-upgrade
If everything goes well, clean up via command:
sudo apt remove --autoremove
And finally restart computer via reboot command.
5.) Some packages are however missing in my case after restart. They were fixed by manually installing the packages via the commands below.
sudo apt install gdm3 && sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm3
sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock gnome-shell-extension-appindicator gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-ng
Want GCC 4.8 with c++11 complete feature? Well here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.10 via the PPA.
The PPA provides both GCC 4.7.3 and GCC 4.8.1 for Ubuntu users. In this tutorial, you can follow below steps to upgrade gcc version in your system.
1.) Press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run below commands to add the ppa:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test
2.) Then install gcc 4.8 and g++ 4.8:
sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install gcc-4.8 g++-4.8
3.) Once installed, run following commands one by one to use gcc 4.8 instead of previous version.
sudo update-alternatives --remove-all gcc sudo update-alternatives --remove-all g++ sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.8 20 sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/g++ g++ /usr/bin/g++-4.8 20 sudo update-alternatives --config gcc sudo update-alternatives --config g++
Now you have the gcc 4.8 with c++11 complete feature in your system. Check out by:
gcc --version
gcc (Ubuntu 4.8.1-2ubuntu1~13.04) 4.8.1
Copyright (C) 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
R Package is available in Ubuntu Software Center by default, but it’s old. This tutorial will install the latest verson – so far it is 3.0.1 – in Ubuntu via the via official repository.
Search for and open Software & Updates from unity dash home.
Navigate to Other Software tab, click Add and paste below line in pop-up window.
For Ubuntu 12.04:
deb http://cran.stat.ucla.edu/bin/linux/ubuntu precise/For Ubuntu 13.04:
deb http://cran.stat.ucla.edu/bin/linux/ubuntu raring/For Ubuntu 12.10:
deb http://cran.stat.ucla.edu/bin/linux/ubuntu quantal/For Ubuntu 10.04:
deb http://cran.stat.ucla.edu/bin/linux/ubuntu lucid/
You can change “cran.stat.ucla.edu” to other mirrors.
After added the repository, press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run below command to get the key:
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys E084DAB9
Finally, you can use Synaptic Package Manager (install it from Ubuntu Software Center) to install R Package.
Gdebi is a lightweight deb packages installer which was the default in Ubuntu Desktop. Now Ubuntu uses Ubuntu Software Center which is slow and frequently gives me ‘The package is of bad quality’ error.
You can easily install Gdebi package installer (default in Linux Mint) and set it as default deb installer by this tutorial.
Go to Ubuntu Software Center, search for and install GDebi Package Installer (gdebi) package:
Then, open your file manager and go to Properties window of one deb package by right-clicking on it. Under open with tab, highlight Gdebi package installer and click Set as default button.
That’s it. Enjoy!
