1 week, 4 days ago
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Ubuntu Developer Summit is a meeting where software developers gather to discuss the next Ubuntu version changes and features.
The
Ubuntu Developer Summit (uds-1305) will start tomorrow, will last for 3 days and some major possible changes will be discussed, like “
click packages“, Chromium replacing Firefox as the default web browser, Unity 8 with Mir being available for testing on the desktop and more.
So here are the possible changes in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander (remember, possible, they may or may not happen) desktop as well as Lubuntu and Xubuntu 13.10.
The discussions start tomorrow and you can watch all the UDS sessions live (Google+ Hangouts) or recorded. See http://summit.ubuntu.com/uds-1305/ for a complete UDS-1305 schedule. Ubuntu / Unity changes
In Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander, Unity 7 should get the 100 scopes / smart scopes feature that was supposed to land in Ubuntu 13.04, but was postponed
, along with an
in-dash payment system. Further more,
Compiz will probably be updated to version 0.9.10 (trunk) with the performance improvement branches merged, so users should see an even faster Unity / desktop in the upcoming Ubuntu release.
Unity 8 which will be running on top of Mir might be available as an alternative session on the desktop in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander, for testing purposes. If this will happen, Unity 8 will be able to run in parallel with Unity 7 (the main shell used by default in Ubuntu 13.10). The expected minimal capabilities include accessing local content, working networking, using some phone core apps on the desktop and a good experience navigating the shell with a non-touch device such as a touchpad or mouse. There will be no desktop features added so this will only be a reflection of what already exists for the phone.
As for the default applications, it looks like there’s only one change proposal, but a pretty major one:
Chromium might be used as the default web browser in Ubuntu 13.10, replacing Firefox. According to the
blueprint, “
Chromium has matured to being as good or better than Firefox. It will be the foundation of a lot of Ubuntu Touch code and webapps code“, this probably leading to considering it as the default browser on the desktop too.
With Ubuntu 13.10, we might also see the
locally integrated menus finally available by default. These are menus that can be displayed on the panel, as a drop-down, for maximized windows, as well as in the window decoration for unmaximized windows, and they were firstly supposed to land in Ubuntu 12.04, but were eventually delayed.
Other changes that might make it into Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander include:
- support by default the latest Nvidia drivers that come with initial Optimus support (the patches are already available, there’s little work required);
- there might be some new indicators (e.g.: for Keyboard);
- Saucy will probably ship with xserver 1.14, mesa 9.2.x and Linux Kernel 3.10 or 3.11;
- support Nvidia Prime, get Radeon UVD support, get proper radeonsi support as well as proper touch screen support for X.Org.
Possible Lubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander changes
Some interesting changes are expected to happen in Lubuntu too, the LXDE Ubuntu flavor. While Ubuntu might switch from Firefox to Chromium, Lubuntu considers the opposite: it might ship with Firefox by default instead of Chromium as the default web browser because Chromium uses too much memory for Lubuntu, which is supposed to be a lightweight Linux distribution.
Other possible changes in Lubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander include:
- remove lxkeymap in favor of the keyboard applet of lxpanel;
- Lubuntu Software Center might be replaced with something else;
- Xscreensaver might be removed and replaced with the LightDM locking system;
- Ubuntu One might be integrated by default;
- better file manager that includes support for ssh/ftp;
- FreeCiv or another game might be added by default;
- artwork changes.
Xubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander
No Xubuntu session shows up in the
UDS session list, but there are some sessions registered on Launchpad, though they don’t give too much info about Xubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander. So far, it looks like
Xubuntu 13.10 might get apt-offline by default and also, there’s going to be a
study to see if it’s feasible to integrate HUD into Xubuntu. Xubuntu Saucy might also get a new
keyboard shortcuts overlay, kind of like the one available in Ubuntu and some other minor tweaks, at least according to the
current blueprints.
Also, since Xfce 4.12 was
supposed to be released in March, but wasn’t, it’s still unsure if Xubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander will ship with Xfce 4.12 or continue with 4.10 like in Xubuntu Quantal.
There’s little or no information about Kubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME or the other Ubuntu flavors, that’s why I didn’t add any info about them.
Author: Andrew
Source:
www.webupd8.org
1 week, 4 days ago
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With a self-confessed lack of inspiration or deep thought, Mr Spaceshuttle has announced the codemane for the next release of Ubuntu (13.10) will be: ‘Saucy Salamander.’
Oh well, at least its; not in the realms of Fedora’s ‘Beefy Miracle.’
How long before it becomes know as ‘Spicy Salami’?
The release schedule and milestones are up on the Ubuntu Wiki.
Following the pattern established for Ubuntu 13.04 there will only be a single beta release for Ubuntu 13.10 itself, although the family releases can do their own thing: Ubuntu flavours, Xubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, Lubuntu, could put out as many as 3 alphas, 2 betas and a release candidate. RC
- Alpha 1 – June 20th
- Alpha 2 – July 18th
- Alpha 3 – August 1st
- Beta 1- September 5th
- Final Beta – September 26th
- Release Candidate – October 10th
- Final Release - October 17th
Image credit: An adult salamander from Wikimedia Commons. August 17, 2004. Source: Regenerating Lost Muscle: Msx1 to the Rescue. PLoS Biol 2/8/2004: e266.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0020266.
Author: Robin Catling
Source:
catlingmindswipe.blogspot.com
2 weeks ago
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Quick update: Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two and Half-Life 2: LostCoast are now available in Steam for Linux.
Like the other two titles Valve has made available for Linux last week: Left 4 Dead 2 and Portal, the Half-Life 2 games are in beta for now and they don’t show up in the Linux section on Steam but if you didn’t purchase them already, you can simply search for them in the All Items section and they should install on Linux. Or you can click the links below:
Remaining Source engine games that still need to be ported to Linux include Portal 2, Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and of course,
Dota 2.
Author: Andrew
Source:
www.webupd8.org
2 weeks, 3 days ago
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Five months after the first beta, elementary OS Luna beta 2 has been released yesterday. Based on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, Luna beta 2 comes with improved multi-monitor support, updated default applications and artwork and more.
elementary OS Luna beta 2 video
Even though there aren’t any major visual changes, except for the improved artwork, I’ve decided to make a video anyway so you can see the beautiful effects and the overall desktop feel of this beautiful Linux distribution. And obviously, you can also check out some of the changes in the latest Luna beta 2.
(direct video link)Changes in elementary OS Luna beta 2
Changes / new features in elementary OS Luna beta 2 since beta 1:- Switchboard (system settings) now includes two new Keyboard and Power sections as well as an option to switch dock (Plank) themes;
- improved multi-monitor support for Plank and Wingpanel;
- improved elementary theme (both GTK and icon theme), including brand new folder icons, file manager icon and emoticons set;
- Shotwell, Midori, Noise (now called Music), Geary and Pantheon Terminal have received various enhancements and bug fixes:
- Geary email client now includes multiple account support, “collapsed” messages in conversations, “important” folder support, option to mark emails as spam and many bug fixes;
- Midori, the default elementary OS web browser has received a customizable new tab page behavior, a new Cookie Security Manager extension, improved extension loading, a reworked downloads backend, etc.
- Noise is now called “Music” and the latest version comes with duplicate-detection, some design updates, improved external device support and more.
- better translations support;
- many bug fixes;
- more.
Below you can see some elementary
OS Luna beta 2 screenshots:
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| System Settings (Switchboard) |
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| New Power settings |
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| New Keyboard settings |
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| New Keyboard settings |
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| Pantheon Dock (Plank) settings |
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| Plank - switching between themes |
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| Plank - switching between themes |
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| Geary email client |
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| elementary OS desktop / Calendar indicator |
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| Pantheon Files (Marlin) and the new elementary OS icon theme folder icons |
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| Midori web browser |
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| Music (Noise) |
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| Expose (Super + W) |
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| Workspace switcher (Super + S) |
For more about elementary
OS Luna, see our
beta 1 article.
Download elementary OS Luna Beta 2
If you’ve installed elementary OS Luna beta 1 or a daily build and have all the packages up to date (e.g.: updated using Update Manager, “apt-get upgrade”, etc.), you already have the latest beta 2 so there’s no need to reinstall.
To read the official release notes, see how you can contribute or download elementary OS Luna beta 2, see announcement @ elementaryos.org Author: Andrew
Source:
www.webupd8.org
3 weeks, 3 days ago
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Lightworks, a professional video editing and mastering software, is finally available for Linux, as a public beta.
Lightworks has been used in renowned Oscar and Emmy Award award-winning films, including The King’s Speech, The Departed, Mission Impossible, Pulp Fiction or Braveheart.
Lightworks Beta for Linux has only been tested on Ubuntu 12.04 and 12.10, Mint 13 and 14 and Lubuntu 13.04. There are some unofficial Fedora rpm files but this is not an officially supported distribution. Also, there’s a pretty big list of known issues and limitations for now, including:
- support for only Nvidia and ATI graphics;
- 64bit builds only;
- no AVI and H.264 MOV export option;
- AVI files may play back incorrectly with black flashing frames and there might be no audio for some uncompressed AVI files;
- PNG Image Sequences are slow to export;
- the record tool, playout tool will not be available in the current Linux Beta build of Lightworks. They will be added in a future Linux Beta build;
- no SDI or Firewire support;
- more.
You can take a look at all these known issues on the Lightworks Beta for Linux downloads page.
Lightworks is free to use, but if you want extra codecs and support, you need to purchase a $60/year PRO license.
To be able to download Lightworks Beta for Linux, you need to register and agree to the Terms and Conditions:
Submit feedback or bug reports for the Linux beta,
HERE.
Author: Andrew
Source:
www.webupd8.org
3 weeks, 3 days ago
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As you probably know, the latest Adobe Flash Player versions are available on Linux only through Google Chrome, while other browsers are stuck with version 11.2. If you want to use Chromium browser instead of Google Chrome, here’s an easy way to install Pepper Flash Player.
The latest Adobe Flash Player that’s bundled with Google Chrome doesn’t work with browsers like Firefox for instance, because it requires an API called “Pepper” that’s only available in Google Chrome and Chromium. A while back we wrote about using Pepper Flash from Google Chrome in Chromium browser by installing Google Chrome and manually adding the Pepper Flash plugin but here’s an easier way to do it under Ubuntu: by using a PPA.
In case you’re wondering what are the differences between Google Chrome and Chromium (besides the logo), here are a few:
- Google Chrome is not open source (and thus not available in the official distribution repositories) while Chromium is;
- Google Chrome is tested by the Chrome developers while Chromium may be modified by distributions; for instance, Chromium in Ubuntu is modified to support the WebApps feature while Google Chrome, being closed source, doesn’t come with these modifications and thus doesn’t support WebApps;
- Google Chrome comes with optional user metrics;
- Google Chrome comes with proprietary plugins such as a PDF viewer and Adobe Flash Player (Pepper).
Install Pepper Flash for Chromium in Ubuntu
The Pepper Flash Installer available in the PPA automatically downloads Google Chrome, extracts the Pepper Flash files and installs only those files. Google Chrome itself won’t be installed.
The package is just an installer and doesn’t not contain any Google Chrome / Adobe Flash files, like the official flashplugin-installer or out
oracle-java-installer.
To add the PPA and install Adobe Pepper Flash from Google Chrome in Ubuntu, use the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:skunk/pepper-flash
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pepflashplugin-installer
Once installed, there’s
one more step to get Chromium to use the Google Chrome Pepper Flash Player: you need to open
/etc/chromium-browser/default as root with a text editor (e.g.: gedit - which I’ll use in the command below):
gksu gksu gedit /etc/chromium-browser/default
(“gksu” is used twice to avoid a bug with Gedit opening a blank file next to our file)
and in that file,
paste the followng line at the bottom of the file (after the CHROMIUM_FLAGS=”” line):
. /usr/lib/pepflashplugin-installer/pepflashplayer.sh
(yes, there’s a dot in the beginning of the line, then a space!)
That’s it. Now restart Chromium browser, visit
chrome://plugins and check the Adobe Flash Player version (it’s possible you have two, there’s no need to disable the old one because Pepper Flash will be used by default since it’s newer) - it shouldn’t be 11.2.x but a newer version (e.g.: 11.7.700.x at the time I’m writing this article).
Arch Linux users can install Pepper Flash for Chromium basically in the same way, by using
THIS AUR package.
Author: Andrew
Source:
www.webupd8.org
3 weeks, 4 days ago
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Liquid Prompt is an adaptive, smart prompt for Bash and Zsh. It can display various useful information on the shell prompt, only when it’s needed, like the battery status when it’s discharging over a given threshold, an up arrow if using an
HTTP proxy, the number of detached sessions (screen or tmux) and more.
Liquid Prompt can be configured so if you don’t want some info to show up either because you don’t need it or because Liquid Prompt displays too much information for your taste, you can easily disable some from showing up by editing its configuration file.
Here’s some of the info Liquid Prompt may (depending on the configuration and if it’s needed in a given context) display:
- the average of the processors load, if it is over a given limit, with a colormap that becomes more and more noticeable with increasing load;
- the error code of the last command, if it has failed in some way;
- a green ⏚ if the battery is charging, above the given threshold, but not charged, a yellow ⏚ if the battery is charging and under threshold, a yellow ⌁ if the battery is discharging but above threshold, a red ⌁ if the battery is discharging and under threshold;
- the current directory in bold, shortened if it takes too much space, while preserving the first two directories;
- a green colon if the user has write permissions on the current directory, a red one if he has not;
- current time as numerci values or an analog clock;
- the number of detached sessions (screen or tmux), if there are any;
- the number of attached sleeping jobs (when you interrupt a command with Ctrl-Z and bring it back with fg), if there are any;
- the number of attached running jobs (commands started with a &), if there are any;
- the current host, if you are connected via a telnet connection (in bold red) or SSH (either a blue hostname or different colors for different hosts);
- a green @ if the connection has X11 support, a yellow one if not;
- an up arrow if an HTTP proxy is in use;
- the name of the current branch if you are in a version control repository (git, mercurial, subversion, bazaar or fossil), in green if everything is up to date, in red if there is changes, in yellow if there is pending commits to push;
- the number of added/deleted lines (git) or files (fossil), if changes have been made and the number of pending commits, if any;
- a red star if there is some untracked files in the repository;
- the current user, in bold yellow if it is root, in light white if it is not the same as the login user;
- a tag associated to the current shell session (you can easily add any prefix tag to your prompt, by invoking prompt_tag MYTAG);
- a smart mark: ± for git directories, ☿ for mercurial, ‡ for svn, ‡± for git-svn, ⌘ for fossil, $ or % for simple user, a red # for root;
Below you can see more examples of what Liquid Prompt can display (image via Liquid Prompt GitHub page):
Install Liquid Prompt
1. To install Liquid Prompt, firstly install Git. In Ubuntu / Debian, use the following comand:
sudo apt-get install git
Then get
the code and install Liquid Prompt using the following commands:
git clone https://github.com/nojhan/liquidprompt.git ~/.liquidprompt
cp ~/.liquidprompt/liquidpromptrc-dist ~/.config/liquidpromptrc
Alternatively, if you cannot use Git for some reason (behind a firewall that doesn’t allow this, etc.), you can download the code from
HERE - extract it in your home directory, rename it to “.liquidprompt” (don’t forget the dot in front of the folder name) and then run the last command above to copy the configuration file into
~/.config.
2. Then, open ~/.bashrc (or ~/.zshrc for Zsh) with a text editor - I’ll use Gedit for the command below:
gedit ~/.bashrc
And at the bottom of the file, add this:
. ~/.liquidprompt/liquidprompt
Note: for battery info, you need to install “acpi” (in Ubuntu / Debian: sudo apt-get install acpi).
That’s it.
3. Optional: If you want to configure various aspects of Liquid Prompt, enable / disable some info, open
~/.config/liquidpromptrc with a text editor and change the settings to suit your needs.
If you want to undo the changes, remove the “
. ~/.liquidprompt/liquidprompt” line from
~/.bashrc (or
~/.zsh) and to remove the Liquid Prompt files, use the following commands:
cd && rm -rf ".liquidprompt"
rm ~/.config/liquidpromptrc
For more information, see the Liquid Prompt GitHub page.Author: Andrew
Source:
www.webupd8.org
3 weeks, 4 days ago
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Bumblebee 3.2 has been released a few days ago but there was an issue and it didn’t work on a lot of setups o version 3.2.1 has been released to fix this. The new version also fixes the Primus backend for Ubuntu 13.04 and adds some new options.
Bumblebee is an unofficial tool that brings Nvidia Optimus GPU switching to Linux. It’s useful to increase battery life by only switching the dedicated GPU (Nvidia) on when needed. Nvidia has added initial Optimus support in their latest 319.12 beta drivers, but it doesn’t have GPU switching yet.
Bumblebee 3.2 comes with the following changes:
- new option: “-b” to disable injection of any render offloading bridge (primus or VirtualGL). Use this to invoke nvidia-settings (optirun -b none nvidia-settings -c :8);
- new option: “—no-xorg” for optirun to disable starting secondary X server. Use this to run CUDA or OpenCL applications that do not need the graphics rendering capabilities. Implies “-b none”;
- Bumblebee no longer depends on the primusrun script anymore for the Primus backend. However, “primusrun” and “optirun -b primus” have different behaviors: the first one powers on the discrete GPU when needed while the second one will immediately do this; the difference in behavior is most noticeable with WebGL content in Firefox;
- Added support for passing -configdir to X, defaulting to /etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.d, —xconfdir option added to bumblebeed and XorgConfDir added to bumblebee.conf; this finally fixes a long-standing annoyance with SNA config option for the Intel driver;
- the BusID is added automatically on Ubuntu 13.04 so users no longer need to do this manually. Without this, Bumblebee failed to work on Ubuntu 13.04;
- fix: added /usr/$LIB/mesa/libGL.so.1 to default primus libGLd for supporting Ubuntu 13.04;
- fix: fixed a “buffer overflow” issue in bumblebeed;
- fix: removed accesses to PCI config space from the daemon process.
Also,
Bumblebee Configurator GUI, a tool that allows you to easily setup Bumblebee, has been updated recently with support for the latest Bumblebee 3.2. The latest version also adds an option to install Bumblebee in Ubuntu.
Install Bumblebee Configurator GUI in Ubuntu
To install Bumblebee Configurator GUI in Ubuntu, use the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:alessandrofac93/bumblebee-config-gtk-dev
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bumblebee-config-gtk
Then, you launch the application and use it to install and set up Bumblebee. Or, if you want to manually install Bumblebee, see the instructions below.
Report any Bumblebee Configurator
GUI bugs you may find @
Launchpad.
Install Bumblebee in Ubuntu
To add the stable Bumblebee PPA and install the latest Bumblebee in Ubuntu, use the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bumblebee/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bumblebee
To use the new Primus backend, you’ll also have to install Primus:
sudo apt-get install primus
On 64bit, also install primus-libs-ia32:
sudo apt-get install primus-libs-ia32
To configure Bumblebee you must decide if you want to use Nouveau or the proprietary Nvidia drivers. If you want to use the proprietary Nvidia drivers, take a look at the version you’ve installed (e.g.: “nvidia-304”), then, open the bumblebee configuration file as root with a text editor:
gksu gksu gedit /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf
And in this file, change:
- “Driver” to “Driver=nvidia”
- “KernelDriver” to “KernelDriver=nvidia-VERSION” (e.g.: “nvidia-304)
- “LibraryPath” to “LibraryPath=/usr/lib/nvidia-VERSION:/usr/lib32/nvidia-VERSION” (e.g.: “LibraryPath=/usr/lib/nvidia-304:/usr/lib32/nvidia-304”)
- “XorgModulePath” to “XorgModulePath=/usr/lib/nvidia-VERSION/xorg,/usr/lib/xorg/modules” (e.g.: “XorgModulePath=/usr/lib/nvidia-304/xorg,/usr/lib/xorg/modules”)
Report any Bumblebee issues you may find @
GitHub.
For Debian, Arch Linux, Gentoo or Mandriva, see the Installing Bumblebee page.Using Bumblebee
To run a game or application using the dedicated GPU (Nvidia), use the following command:
optirun APP-EXECUTABLE
replacing “
APP-
EXECUTABLE” with the application (or game) executable.
To use the Primus backend (note: you’ll only get about 60 frames / sec in glxspheres but this backend should actually work better than Primus) without changing the Bumblebee configuration, use:
optirun -b primus APP-EXECUTABLE
This will immediately turn on the dedicated
GPU.
Or:
primusrun APP-EXECUTABLE>
This will only power the discrete
GPU on when needed.
Author: Andrew
Source:
www.webupd8.org
3 weeks, 5 days ago
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For better results, adjust your Quicktime settings to prepare videos for Internet streaming. For more information, visit our Help Centre. Which would be great, except I’m using Linux and I don’t have Quicktime. Duh.
But out of interest, I hit the Help link and got this:
Help home: The information you’ve requested isn’t currently available in your language, but you can select from the list below to view this help topic in another language or download Google Toolbar, which can instantly translate websites in 42 languages.Double fail.
YouTube. Bleeaagh!
RCAuthor: Robin Catling
Source:
catlingmindswipe.blogspot.com
4 weeks ago
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The Ubuntu team is very pleased to announce the release of Ubuntu 13.04 for Desktop, Server, Cloud, and Core products.
Codenamed “Raring Ringtail”, 13.04 continues Ubuntu’s proud tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution…
To get Ubuntu 13.04In order to download Ubuntu 13.04, visit:
http://www.ubuntu.com/downloadAlong with performance improvements to Unity, updates to common desktop packages, and updated core and toolchain components, Ubuntu 13.04 also includes the new Friends service, to consolidate all social networking accounts via Ubuntu Online Accounts. Also included is a tech preview of Upstart’s new user session feature.
Read more about the new features of Ubuntu 13.04 in the following press releases:
http://ubunt.eu/1304Server http://ubunt.eu/1304ClientMaintenance updates will be provided for Ubuntu 13.04 for 9 months, through January 2014.
Thanks to the efforts of the global translation community, Ubuntu is now available in 42 languages. For a list of available languages and detailed translation statistics for these and other languages, see: #
http://people.canonical.com/~dpm/stats/ubuntu-13.04-translation-stats.html#
The newest Kubuntu 13.04, Edubuntu 13.04, Xubuntu 13.04, Lubuntu 13.04 and Ubuntu Studio 13.04 are also being released today. More details can be found in their announcements:
This release cycle, we welcome two new flavours to the Ubuntu archive, Ubuntu
GNOME and UbuntuKylin. For more information about each, see their wiki pages, and welcome them to the family:
Users of Ubuntu 12.10 will be offered an automatic upgrade to 13.04 via Update Manager. For further information about upgrading, see:
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/upgradeAs always, upgrades to the latest version of Ubuntu are entirely free of charge.
We recommend that all users read the release notes, which document caveats, workarounds for known issues, as well as more in-depth notes on the releaseitself. They are available at:
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotesFind out what’s new in this release with a graphical overview:
http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/featuresIf you have a question, or if you think you may have found a bug but aren’t sure, you can try asking in any of the following places: #ubuntu on
irc.freenode.net http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users http://www.ubuntuforums.org http://askubuntu.com #
Help Shape UbuntuIf you would like to help shape Ubuntu, take a look at the list of ways you can participate at: #
http://www.ubuntu.com/community/get-involved
About UbuntuUbuntu is a full-featured Linux distribution for desktops, laptops, netbooks and servers, with a fast and easy installation and regular releases. A tightly-integrated selection of excellent applications is included, and an incredible variety of add-on software is just a few clicks away. #
Professional services including support are available from Canonical and hundreds of other companies around the world. For more information about support, visit:
http://www.ubuntu.com/supportMore Information You can learn more about Ubuntu and about this release on our website listed below:
http://www.ubuntu.comTo sign up for future Ubuntu announcements, please subscribe to Ubuntu’s very low volume announcement list at:
http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-announceOn behalf of the Ubuntu Release Team, Adam Conrad
Author: Robin Catling
Source:
catlingmindswipe.blogspot.com
4 weeks, 1 day ago
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Ubuntu 13.04 will be available for download in a few hours and since many of you will be installing it as soon as it’s released, here are 7 useful things you can do right after the installation.
1. Tweak Unity.
Unity Tweak Tool is a pretty new application that’s available in the Ubuntu 13.04 repositories, which you can use to tweak Unity: change various aspects of the Unity interface such as auto-hide behavior, change the Unity Launcher icons size, color, and more, set up hotcorners, tweak the Dash search, change the
GTK, icon theme or fonts and much more.
Click the button below to install Unity Tweak Tool:
Or use the following command in a terminal:
sudo apt-get install unity-tweak-tool
If you use
GNOME Shell, install
GNOME Tweak Tool instead.
2. Privacy settings.
By default, Dash may display private files but there’s an easy way to prevent this: open System Settings > Privacy and here, you can:
- delete recent history
- blacklist applications or folders / partitions from showing up in Dash
Here, you can also set Dash not to include online search results. This will disable the controversial Shopping Lens along with the other online searches performed by the Friends lens or the Photo lens.
If you don’t want the Shopping Lens but want to be able to use the other online scopes / lenses, you can simply uninstall the Shopping Lens:
sudo apt-get remove unity-lens-shopping
And finally, if you constantly change the privacy settings (e.g.: often disable Zeitgeist logging; Zeitgeist is used to log the files that show up in Dash), you can use
Privacy Indicator which lets you clear the Zeitgeist (and thus, Dash) logs, clear the recent files list (which shows up in the Nautilus “Recent” sidebar item for example), and quickly enable/disable Zeitgeist logging or the online search results.
To install Privacy Indicator in Ubuntu 13.04, use the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:diesch/testing
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install indicator-privacy
3. Solution for popular missing features: weather and calendar indicators.
Two features that Ubuntu lacks in my opinion are weather and calendar indicators. Hopefully, the Ubuntu developers will have some time to implement these popular feature requests soon, but until then we can use some third-party indicators that work great.
There’s a weather indicator available in the official Ubuntu 13.04 repositories / Ubuntu Software Center, but it doesn’t work properly so we’ll use My Weather Indicator instead. To install it in Ubuntu 13.04, use the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/atareao
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install my-weather-indicator
My Weather indicator supports OpenWeatherMap and Yahoo weather services out of the box and you can also use Wunderground or World Weather Online if you sign up to get your own
API (see how to do that,
HERE). Besides a cool indicator that gives you quick access to the current weather, weather forecast and a forecast map, the application also comes with (optional)
desktop widgets:
Another feature that at least in my opinion, Ubuntu is lacking, is a proper calendar. I use Google Calendar and if you use it too, you’ll love
Google Calendar Indicator, an application that can be used to easily add new Google Calendar events, display your current events with notifications, browse your calendars and so on.
Install Google Calendar Indicator using the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/atareao
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install calendar-indicator
For more indicators, check out our
AppIndicator tag.
4. Improve battery life, other important tweaks
Jupiter used to be one of the first things install after a fresh Ubuntu installation, but unfortunately the application has been discontinued and the old version doesn’t work properly in Ubuntu 13.04.
But, if battery life is what you’re interested in, you can use TLP, a tool that’s you install and then forget about it because it automatically tweaks your system for increased power usage / battery life.
To install TLP in Ubuntu 13.04, use the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:linrunner/tlp
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install tlp tlp-rdw
sudo tlp start
More about
TLP.
If you’re using an Nvidia Optimus laptop, also install Bumblebee or else both your graphic cards will be powered on all the time, even though the Nvidia graphics card isn’t used:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bumblebee/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bumblebee bumblebee-nvidia
Currently, there’s a bug with Bumblebee 3.1 and Ubuntu 13.04 (and version 3.2 which fixes this has been released a couple of days ago, but then removed from the PPA because it has a nasty bug and doesn’t work at all in Raring, no fix has been found yet) and trying to use “optirun”, you’ll get an error similar to the one below:
[ 28.507128] [ERROR]Cannot access secondary GPU - error: [XORG] (EE) No devices detected.
[ 28.507158] [ERROR]Aborting because fallback start is disabled.
So to get Bumblebee to work in Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail, do the following:
a) Run the following command to find out the BusID for your Nvidia graphics card:
lspci | grep NVIDIA
The BusID is the number in the beginning of the line returned by the command above. Here’s how the output for the command above looks like on my laptop:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF116M [GeForce GT 555M/635M] (rev a1)
The BusID is the number in bold, “01:00.0” in my case.
b) Now we’ll have to add the BusID to
/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia and for this, we’ll open the file as root with a text editor (I’ll use Gedit in the command below):
gksu gksu gedit /etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia
(using “gksu” twice is used intentionally and is used so Gedit doesn’t open a blank tab next to our file)
And in this file, in the “Device” section, add the following:
BusID "PCI:YOUR_BUS_ID"
Replacing “YOUR_BUS_ID” with the BusID returned by the command used under step a). For me (remember, for you, the BusID may be different), this line looks like this:
BusID "PCI:01:00:0"
Then, restart your system and Bumblebee should work so when you want to run an application or game on your Nvidia card, use:
optirun APP_OR_GAME
Where “APP_OR_GAME” is the game or application executable.
To test the performance with Bumblebee, use:
optirun glxspheres
If it still doesn’t work, try restarting your system and make sure you’ve correctly configured Bumblebee to use the installed Nvidia drivers (you can use
Bumblebee Configurator GUI for this).
More about Bumblebee, using the Primus backend, etc.
This doesn’t have anything to do with battery life is an important tweak nevertheless:
if you’re using a SSD, it’s pretty important to enable TRIM so its performance doesn’t decrease over time. There are quite a few steps to achieve this so I won’t add instructions for how to do this in this post - you’ll find them
HERE instead.
5. Fix Google Chrome, Skype.
Google Chrome has a bug and can’t be installed on fresh Ubuntu 13.04 installations. The bug currently affects Google Chrome Stable and Beta (has already been fixed in Google Chrome Dev) and until Google fixes it (it’s not an Ubuntu bug), you can easily get Google Chrome to install by downloading and installing the deb below:
Then, Google Chrome Stable or Beta should install in Ubuntu 13.04.
Skype currently crashes on start for Ubuntu 13.04 users that have installed the proprietary Nvidia drivers. The bug also affects some AMD / ATI proprietary graphics drivers users and some of them have reported that the fix below works for them too.
To fix this issue with proprietary Nvidia drivers (and possibly AMD) and Skype, use the following command:
sudo sed -i 's/^Exec=skype./Exec=bash -c "export LD_PRELOAD=\/usr\/lib\/i386-linux-gnu\/mesa\/libGL.so.1 \&\& skype %U"/' /usr/share/applications/skype.desktop
In case you want to revert the change made by the command above, use the following command:
sudo sed -i 's/^Exec=bash./Exec=skype %U/' /usr/share/applications/skype.desktop
6. Migrate / upgrade PPAs (advanced users)
If you’ve upgraded from Ubuntu 12.10 to Ubuntu 13.04, all your PPAs were disabled in the process. Ubuntu 13.04 already has the latest version for most packages, but there are some that aren’t the latest version or you may want to install some applications that aren’t available in the official repositories / Ubuntu Software Center.
Y PPA Manager can help you with this: it can automatically re-enable the PPAs that work with Ubuntu 13.04, leaving the others disabled. For this, open Y
PPA Manager (installation instructions below) and under “Advanced”, select “Re-enable working PPAs after Ubuntu upgrade” and wait until Y
PPA Manager scans all your PPAs, checks if they work with Ubuntu 13.04 and if they do, it enables them.
We have a tip for fresh installs too regarding this: if you’ve backed up the PPAs you had on an older Ubuntu version (e.g. using Y PPA Manager), you can restore the backup in Ubuntu 13.04 and use Y PPA Manager to update the PPAs to Ubuntu 13.04, but only for the PPAs that actually work on Ubuntu 13.04, leaving the others as they are so you don’t get any 404 errors. To do this, in Y PPA Manager > Advanced, select “Update release name in working PPAs”, under “Current Ubuntu version” enter: “raring” (without the quotes) and under “Previous Ubuntu version” enter the Ubuntu version from which you’ve copied the PPAs from (e.g.: quantal), then click OK and wait for the application to scan all your PPAs and upgrade to Raring those that support it.
To install Y
PPA Manager, use the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/y-ppa-manager
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install y-ppa-manager
7. Install codecs, Java.
To be able to play most audio and video formats, install Ubuntu Restricted Extras by clicking the button below:
Or install it using the following command:
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras
I suggest to also install the unrestricted versions of libavformat and libavcodec so you don’t encounter issues with missing codecs when trying to use some video editors or transcoders - install them by clicking the button below:
Or by using the following command:
sudo apt-get install libavformat-extra-53 libavcodec-extra-53
You may also need Java, but you must figure out what you need. Most users will only need OpenJRE and the Java browser plugin which you can install by clicking the button below:
Or by using the following command:
sudo apt-get install icedtea6-plugin openjdk-7-jre
For development, you’ll also want OpenJDK which you can install by using the button below:
Or by using the following command:
sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jdk
If for various reasons, you need Oracle Java (the package includes
JDK,
JRE and the browser plugin), you can install
Oracle Java 7 by using the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install oracle-java7-installer
Now it’s your turn. What are the first things you install or tweak after installing Ubuntu?
Author: Andrew
Source:
www.webupd8.org
1 month ago
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BitTorrent Sync, a free to use (but not open source) tool that can be used to automatically synchronize files between computers using the BitTorrent protocol, is now available for all as public alpha. The application runs on Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and NAS.
The tool is advertised as “a simple tool that applies p2p protocol for direct live folder sync with maximum security, network speed and storage capacity“.
And indeed, BitTorrent Sync is a great way of syncing and sharing files between computers, even confidential files that you usually wouldn’t trust with cloud sync tools such as Dropbox: besides the files being transferred directly between the users (so your files don’t end up on some cloud server), the connection is encrypted with a AES cyper and a 256-bit key created on the base of your Secret, a random 20 byte or more string. For increased security, there’s also an option to generate a Secret that expeires after a day.
Basically, this peer-to-peer (p2p) sync tool can be compared with cloud sync services such as Dropbox or Ubuntu One, but no server is involved which also means that the sync can be faster than such services and there are no space restrictions (except your HDD). This also means the computers need to be online for the sync to work, obviously.
How to use BitTorrent Sync on Linux
Arch Linux users can install BitTorrent Sync via AUR. To use BitTorrent Sync (or “BtSync”) on Linux, download and extract the binary for your architecture (Ubuntu users: use the “Linux i386” or “Linux x64” links on the left; don’t download the “glib 2.3” binaries), extract it and to run it, simply type the following in a terminal (assuming you’ve extracted the “btsync” binary in your home folder):
cd
./btsync
To see a list of available options, type:
./btsync --help
And if you want to stop BitTorrent Sync, use:
killall btsync
BitTorrent Sync doesn’t come with a GUI for Linux, but it can be configured through a web interface so once you’ve started BtSync like we’ve explained above, open a web browser and enter the following URL: http://localhost:8888/gui/
Now let’s add a folder to sync. To do this, click “Add folder”, then browse for a folder you want to sync and also click “Generate” to generate a Secret for this folder. Then click “Add” to add the folder:
If you want to connect to other devices / synchronize a folder from a remote computer on your machine, follow the same steps as above, but instead of clicking “Generate” for the Secret, paste the Secret generated for the folder from the remote computer.
On Linux, most of the settings aren’t available in the web interface. Instead, you can run:
./btsync --dump-sample-config > sync.conf
Which will create a new “sync.conf” file with a sample configuration file. Modify the settings in this file to suit your needs and then run BtSync using the following command (which will make BtSync use the newly created configuration file):
./btsync --config sync.conf
For more on how to use BitTorrent Sync on Linux but also on Windows and Mac OS X, see the User Guide PDF file.Download BitTorrent Sync for Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and NAS.Author: Andrew
Source:
www.webupd8.org
1 month ago
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The first Audacious 3.4 beta version is available for download. Audacious is a fast, lightweight music player which comes with numerous plugins and two interfaces: a Winamp-like interface (it even supports Winamp 2.x skins) and a GTK interface.
Audacious GTK interface:
Audacious Winamp Classic interface:
Changes in Audacious 3.4 beta 1:- The old scrobbler plugin has been replaced by a new one that uses the latest Last.fm Scrobbling 2.0 API;
- The ModPlug plugin has a new preferences window;
- An alternate sample rate converter plugin has been added;
- When search terms are too generic, the search tool now shows the first 100 results instead of showing no results as in previous versions;
- Audtool can now seek with sub-second precision;
- Album art fetching is done in the background so it doesn’t make the UI unresponsive;
- New command line option: ”—quit-after-play”;
- You can configure a global hotkey to enable/disable “stop after current song”;
- You can now automatically remove duplicate entries from a playlist;
- Repeat only a portion of a song;
- The playlist columns can now be resized - according to the official changelog, this requires a patched version of GTK3 and will work with GTK3.8 without any patches. In my test, this did work in Ubuntu 13.04 (which has GTK 3.6.4);
- Other changes and fixes.
Install Audacious 3.4 Beta 1 in Ubuntu
The latest Audacious 3.4 beta 1 is available in our Unstable PPA. Since this is beta quality software, you might find bugs (and so are all the packages in this PPA), so use it at your own risk.
To add the WebUpd8 Unstable PPA and install Audacious 3.4 beta 1 (with patched ffaudio so it works with the ffmpeg / libav version available in the Ubuntu repositories) in Ubuntu 13.04, 12.10 and 12.04, use the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/unstable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install audacious
Audacious 3.4 will only be available in our Unstable PPA while in beta. The final release will be available in the main WebUpd8 PPA.For other Linux distributions, download the Audacious 3.4 beta 1 source code from its
download page.
Author: Andrew
Source:
www.webupd8.org
1 month ago
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XnRetro is a tool available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X (as well as iOS and Android) that allows you to easily apply various vintage effects, borders and more to your images.
There are many applications you can use to apply effects to your photos but XnRetro is one of the easiest to use, comparable to Instagram I’d say: you simply select an image and the effect you want to apply (you can use multiple effects if you want) and you immediately get a preview. You can then save the image or share it on websites such as Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, Imgur and so on:
The application also allows you to tweak the effects by adjusting various settings such as the brightness, contrast, exposure, saturation, noise, rotate the picture and so on.
Please note that in my test under Ubuntu 13.04, XnRetro failed to upload images to some websites, such as Imgur or Imageshack, so this feature is a bit buggy for now, at least on Linux.
XnRetro features:- 20 color effects;
- 15 light effects;
- 5 Vignette effects;
- 28 frame borders;
- adjustable contrast, gamma, saturation and so on;
- share the resulted image on Flickr, Picasa, Facebook, Imgur, Tumblr, ImageShack, YFrog, GlowFoto or TwitPic.
Download XnRetro
Download XnRetro for Linux, Windows, MacOS X from HERE. Or get the iOS or Android app. Note for Linux users: there’s only a 32bit binary but it should work on 64bit (I’ve tested it under Ubuntu 13.04 64bit). To run it, extract the downloaded archive and double click “xnretro.sh”, then select “Run”. You can also run it by double clicking “XnRetro” but that might not work on all Linux distributions.
thanks to Satya for the tip! Author: Andrew
Source:
www.webupd8.org
1 month ago
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Setting up MythTV involves a little pain, but once it’s set up, it’s pretty great. And you don’t have to spend lots of money on a DVR from the cable company. With my modest hardware specs, playback is smooth and clear, however Picture in Picture is too jittery to be useful. Here’s what I did to get my MythTV DVR running on my Ubuntu machine.
Parameters
Install the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1250 TV tuner card
Put the card in the computer. Connect the TV antenna to the card.
Check the TV tuner card is recognized
Ubuntu 12.04 includes drivers for the Hauppauge 1250 TV tuner card, so I did not need to install any drivers.
$ cat /var/log/dmesg
[ 15.211985] cx23885 driver version 0.0.3 loaded
[ 15.214279] cx23885 0000:03:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
[ 15.214492] CORE cx23885[0]: subsystem: 0070:2259, board: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR1255 [card=20,autodetected]
[ 15.214600] IR NEC protocol handler initialized
[ 15.230936] IR RC5(x) protocol handler initialized
[ 15.235576] MCE: In-kernel MCE decoding enabled.
[ 15.237132] IR RC6 protocol handler initialized
[ 15.237703] EDAC MC: Ver: 2.1.0
[ 15.238256] AMD64 EDAC driver v3.4.0
[ 15.242493] IR JVC protocol handler initialized
[ 15.246743] IR Sony protocol handler initialized
[ 15.250908] IR MCE Keyboard/mouse protocol handler initialized
[ 15.256862] lirc_dev: IR Remote Control driver registered, major 250
[ 15.257125] IR LIRC bridge handler initialized
[ 15.284735] lp0: using parport0 (interrupt-driven).
[ 15.361892] tveeprom 0-0050: Hauppauge model 22111, rev E2F5, serial# 8323201
[ 15.361895] tveeprom 0-0050: MAC address is 00:0d:fe:7f:00:81
[ 15.361897] tveeprom 0-0050: tuner model is NXP 18271C2 (idx 155, type 54)
[ 15.361899] tveeprom 0-0050: TV standards NTSC(M) ATSC/DVB Digital (eeprom 0x88)
[ 15.361901] tveeprom 0-0050: audio processor is CX23888 (idx 40)
[ 15.361903] tveeprom 0-0050: decoder processor is CX23888 (idx 34)
[ 15.361904] tveeprom 0-0050: has no radio, has IR receiver, has no IR transmitter
[ 15.361906] cx23885[0]: hauppauge eeprom: model=22111
[ 15.361909] cx23885_dvb_register() allocating 1 frontend(s)
Install MythTV
$ sudo apt-get install mythtv
Set up the MythTV backend
Run mythtv-setup to select your TV tuner card and scan for channels.
$ mythtv-setup
Click “Yes” to add your user to the “mythtv” group.
Click “Yes” to restart your login session.
Change the following options:
- 2. Capture cards -> (New capture card) -> Card type: DVB DTV capture card (v3.x) -> Finish
- 4. Video sources -> (New video source) -> Video source name: FOOBAR, Listings grabber: North America (SchedulesDirect.org) (Internal), User ID: blank, Pass: blank
- 5. Input connections -> [DVB: /dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0] -> Video source: FOOBAR -> Scan for channels
After running mythtv-setup, it will ask you if you want to start the backend. Select yes to start the backend. It will also ask you if you want to run mythfilldatabase. Select yes to run mythfilldatabase. This may take a while.
Ensure mythv backend is running
After running mythtv-setup, the mythtv backend should start running.
To check that the backend is running, run:
$ ps -ef | grep myth
If the mythtv backend is not running, start it using the following command:
$ sudo service mythtv-backend start
Troubleshooting mythbackend
If mythbackend doesn’t stay running, there may be some configuration that is broken.
Check /var/log/syslog. If that does not have enough information, run the backend with the —verbose option:
$ mythbackend --verbose
Run the MythTV frontend
$ mythfrontend
Some keyboard shortcuts
- P - pause/play
- SPACE - set/clear bookmark
- LEFT/RIGHT ARROW - skip back/forward
- M - menu
- D - delete
Other stuff
- You may want to change the theme. I chose the TintedGlass 2.43 theme.
- To get schedule information, I ended up signing up for a membership at www.schedulesdirect.org. It is $25/year (or ~$2/month). It seems to be the recommended way to get schedule information.
How to watch your recorded videos on your Android phone over the internet
See also:
How to control your DVR from your Android phone
- Configure your MythTv Frontend on your PC:
- Setup -> General -> Hit “Next” 6 times -> Check “Enable Network Remote Control”
- Setup -> Appearance -> Hit “Next” 3 times and
- Check “Enable LCD device”
- Check “Display time”
- Check “Display menus”
- Check “Display music arstist and title”
- Check “Display channel information”
- Install MythDroid on your Android phone
- Install MDD on your PC
- Install libimlib2
$ sudo apt-get install libimlib2-dev
- Download MDD
$ wget http://mythdroid.googlecode.com/files/mdd-0.6.2.tgz
- Install MDD
$ tar xvf mdd-0.6.2.tgz
$ cd mdd
$ perl Build.PL
Type “y” because you are running this on the PC that runs your MythTv frontend
$ ./Build installdeps
Hit ENTER to accept all the defaults
$ ./Build test
$ sudo ./Build install
Type “y” to stop mythfrontend. Then start it again
$ mythfrontend
Help / References
Source:
www.saltycrane.com
1 month ago
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Seafile, an open source cloud synchronization and collaboration tool, somewhat similar to Dropbox,
ownCloud or
SparkleShare, that you can install on your own server,
has been updated to version 1.6.0 recently, getting some interesting new features such as a Wiki module and more.
For more about Seafile (features, etc.), see our initial article.According to the Seafile developers, the synchronization feature is quite stable so they’ve focused on improving the collaboration features for version 1.6.0, which comes with changes such as:
- new personal and group Wiki module - the wiki uses the Markdown syntax and it’s integrated with the file synchronization and version control. Also, you can easily add pictures and attachements to the wiki pages. Further more, a group / wiki can be made public so you can have the wiki available for everybody, and not just your Seafile users;
- redesigned group discussion module: the module has been moved to a separate tab, it has a new UI and it’s better integrated with the online file viewing;
- online rich document editor and improved markdown editor.
 |
| Seafile wiki |
 |
| Seafile wiki - markdown editor |
 |
| Seafile online rich document editor |
The
Seafile desktop client has received various bug fixes as well as support for symbolic links. There were also changes made to the
Android client (called “Seafile+”, is open source but costs $1) which has received an improved
UI as well as support for editing and uploading files. And finally, the
iOS client has received some bug fixes.
The Seafile developers have also launched a new
AWS-based public cloud service:
http://seacloud.cc which comes with
1GB of free storage space with 3 groups, or you can get:
- 20GB of storage space, 8 groups and up to 16 members for $10/month
- 100GB of storage space with no group or member limit for $50/month.
Download Seafile
Seafile (server) runs on Linux (Debian, Ubuntu, Centos and Raspberry Pi), Windows and Mac OS X while the Seafile client is available for Linux, Windows, Mac OSX, Android and iOS.
Download Seafile
See the Seafile wiki page for how to install Seafile Server | upgrade Seafile Server.Author: Andrew
Source:
www.webupd8.org
1 month ago
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This isn’t an official Facebook application but it has been created by a Facebook developer and comes with the following features:
- chat with your Facebook friends (obviously) in a separate window with tabs for each conversation;
- notifications and friend requests;
- friend updates;
- desktop popup alerts for notifications (only when you turn the chat on).
Also, if you turn off the chat in Facebook and then log in using FBMessenger, the application doesn’t turn the chat on (doesn’t sets you online/visible) like it does when using Pidgin or Empathy.
FBMessenger is pretty new and lacks some features but hopefully more will be added soon. For instance, right now the only way the application notifies you of new messages is, just like the Facebook website itself, through a sound and only when you’re online so if you turn the chat off, you won’t get new message notifications, but chat window flasing is on the todo list.
Install FBMessenger in Ubuntu
To make it easier to install Facebook Messenger in Ubuntu 13.04, 12.10 and 12.04, I’ve uploaded the application to the main WebUpd8 PPA. To add the PPA and install FBMessenger, use the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install fbmessenger
Arch Linux users can install FBMessenger via
AUR.
For
other Linux distributions, get the Facebook Messenger for Linux source code via
GitHub (there are scripts available for building rpm and debian packages).
If you encounter bugs, report them @
GitHub.
Author: Andrew
Source:
www.webupd8.org
1 month ago
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Since Google will close Google Reader in July, many users are searching for alternatives and there are a ton of services out there, some really good, but I’m sure some of you prefer to use a feed reader you can install on your own server and Tiny Tiny RSS seems to be one of the best.
Tiny Tiny
RSS is an open source web-based
RSS reader that you can install on your server (ideally, but you can also install it on your desktop), that features an Ajax-powered interface, keyboard shortcuts,
OPML import/export so you can easily import your Google Reader feeds, article sharing, supports mobile devices, can be extended through plugins and much more.
 |
| Tiny Tiny RSS |
 |
| Tiny Tiny RSS preferences |
Tiny Tiny RSS is available in the Ubuntu 12.10 and 13.04 repositories (and you can use the 13.04 deb in Ubuntu 12.04 too - tested and working) so it’s pretty easy to install, but it still requires some configuration to get it running. Read on!
Other Google Reader alternatives that you can without having to install then locally (though for Feedly, you need to install a Google Reader / Chrome extension), like Google Reader:
How to install and set up Tiny Tiny RSS in Ubuntu
Note: the instructions below should also work in Debian since this article is heavily inspired by
THESE instructions which are for Debian, but I’ve only tested them in Ubuntu!
1. Install Tiny Tiny RSS in Ubuntu. Firstly, let’s install Tiny Tiny RSS and MySQL (I’ve used MySQL but you can also use PostGreSql).
To install mysql-server and mysql-client, use the following command:sudo apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client
For Ubuntu 12.10 and 13.04, install Tiny Tiny RSS using the following command:
sudo apt-get install tt-rss
For Ubuntu 12.04, we’ll need to download and install the Tiny Tiny RSS deb from Ubuntu 13.04:
cd && wget https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tt-rss/1.6.2+dfsg-2/+build/4195975/+files/tt-rss_1.6.2%2Bdfsg-2_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i tt-rss*.deb
sudo apt-get install -f
Then, follow the instructions. When prompted, select “mysql” and “apache2” for the web server.
If for some reason you want to run the initial configuration again, use the following command:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure tt-rss
2. Setting up Tiny Tiny RSS.You need to edit
/etc/tt-rss/config.php with a text editor as root, e.g.: nano:
sudo nano /etc/tt-rss/config.php
- in this file, scroll down to “
define(‘SELF_URL_PATH’, ‘http://yourserver/tt-rss/’);” and replace “
yourserver” with your server address, or use “
localhost” if you only plan on using it locally. Then save the file and exit (press:
CTRL + o,
ENTER then
CTRL + x).
Next, let’s link to the Apache rules and restart the Apache service (I believe that the Debian version of tt-rss - 1.7.8 -, that doesn’t require this):
sudo ln -s ../conf-available/50-tt-rss.conf /etc/apache2/conf.d
sudo service apache2 restart
3. Getting Tiny Tiny RSS to update the feeds.By default, Tiny Tiny RSS doesn’t update the feeds. To get it to update the feeds automatically, we’ll need to edit the /etc/default/tt-rss file as root with a text editor. Once again, we’ll use nano:
sudo nano /etc/default/tt-rss
And in this file, change “DISABLED” from “1” to “0“. I also suggest changing “FORKING” from “0” to “1” (this will make the update daemon use multiple processes, runs several update tasks in parallel). Then save the file and exit (press CTRL + o, ENTER then CTRL + x)
And finally, start the Tiny Tiny
RSS service:
sudo service tt-rss start
You only need to run this command once, the tt-rss daemon should start automatically on each system startup.
4. Finishing up the Tiny Tiny RSS configuration.Now navigate to
http://localhost/tt-rss, use “
admin” for the username and
“password” for the password, log in, make sure you change the default password and make any other changes you want.
- a. Firstly export your Google Reader data from
HERE. Once it finishes, download the archive and extract it.
- b. Now in the Tiny Tiny
RSS Preferences, click on the “Feeds” tab:
… then click “Import and export” (this is how it shows up in the version available in the Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail repository but I believe it’s a bit different for newer Tiny Tiny
RSS versions), then click “Browse” under
OPML, select the
subscriptions.xml file you’ve extracted from the archive downloaded under step a, then click “Import my
OPML” and you’re done.
Author: Andrew
Source:
www.webupd8.org
1 month, 1 week ago
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The latest proprietary Nvidia graphics drivers, released a few days ago, include
initial Optimus support for Linux, but there’s still a long way to go until Linux will get full Optimus support. Until then, Linux users have
Bumblebee, which is still required for proper gaming on Nvidia Optimus-based laptops.
Bumblebee Configurator GUI is a new tool that allows you to easily set up Bumblebee.
The tool is a front-end for the Bumblebee configuration files and allows you to:
- set the secondary Xorg server display number;
- set if the card should be turned off at exit or not;
- select the driver (proprietary Nvidia drivers or Nouveau);
- select the acceleration / rendering bridge: auto, virtualgl (“optirun”) or primus (“primusrun”);
- set the method used for VirtualGL to transport frames between X servers: proxy, jpeg, rg, xv or yuv;
- set the proprietary Nvidia driver version (e.g.: nvidia-304, nvidia-310 and so on) as well as set the library paths;
- more;
Bumbbebee Configurator GUI is pretty easy to use but it lacks explanations for what each option does but hopefully some tooltips or some other way of informing the user about each option will be added in a future release.
When saving the changes, the tool automatically restarts the Bumblebee daemon so there’s no need to log out or restart the daemon yourself.
Install Bumblebee Configurator GUI in Ubuntu
Bumblebee Configurator
GUI is in its early development stages so you may encounter bugs. If you do, report them @
Launchpad.
Bumblebee Configurator GUI is available in a PPA for Ubuntu (and derrivates) users - add the PPA and install it using the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:alessandrofac93/bumblebee-config-gtk-dev
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bumblebee-config-gtk
Once installed, launch Bumblebee Configurator GUI from the menu / Dash.
For other Linux distributions you can get the Bumblebee Configurator GUI code via Launchpad. Author: Andrew
Source:
www.webupd8.org
1 month, 1 week ago
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Permalink
flareGet, a download manager for Linux that supports dynamic file segmentation, HTTP-pipelining for accelerated downloads and more, has been updated recently, receiving quite a few improvements and bug fixes.
The application is free to use but not open-source.
Changes in the latest flareGet 1.4:
- improved batch downloads;
- redesigned scheduler;
- added support for multiple row selections/operations;
- added support for refreshing url and cookies;
- added download info dialog;
- added support for checksum (hash) – MD5, SHA1;
- added advanced options in start download dialog;
- more display options – show/hide columns, toolbar etc.;
- added auto-update feature;
- improved resume support which should fix the bug some of you were experiencing with broken downloads;
- fixed bug with downloads stopping near the end;
- fixed issue with one click restore in Unity;
- other bug fixes for the Grabber, batch downloading and more.
Also, like I was telling you a while back, flareGet supports downloading Flash video from various websites such as YouTube, but it wasn’t obvious how you could download videos at a certain quality. With the latest release, the flareGet “Grabber” allows you to choose the video quality as well as the file name: start the grabber, play a video in your browser and the initial quality at which the video is played will show up in flareGet - if you change the quality for the playing video, a new video format for that quality will be available for download in flareGet as you can see in the sreenshots below:
Download flareGet
flareGet is available for Ubuntu, Linux Mint and other Debian based Linux distributions as well as Fedora, OpenSuse and other RPM based Linux distributions. There are also generic tar.gz files (though this isn’t the source as flareGet is not open source) that should work in other Linux distributions.
Author: Andrew
Source:
www.webupd8.org
