Cairo Dock (GLX Dock) To Get A New Autohide Option In Version 2.1.4

Cairo Dock (which recently got a new theme for Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx) adds yet another cool feature: a smart auto-hide function.

The new autohide it's like Docky's intellihide except I found Cairo Dock to work even better (there I've said it!).


Here is a video with the new Cairo Dock autohide option:

But to see what I mean you must try it for yourself. This new feature (and many other new features) will be included in Cairo Dock 2.1.4 which is still in beta and thus not yet available in Ubuntu Lucid official repositories or the stable Cairo Dock repository.

However, if you want to install Cairo Dock 2.1.4 beta, you can use the Cairo Dock Weekly PPA (Unstable!):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cairo-dock-team/weekly
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install cairo-dock cairo-dock-plug-ins

To add the stable Cairo Dock repository, see THIS post.

Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.4 Released With Login Screen (GDM) Customizations

Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.4 was released today. It doesn't come with new major features except an option to customize the GDM (login screen), which you can use to change the login screen background, logo, disable the user list, disable the login sound and disable showing the restart buttons:

A new minor but interesting feature is that it can re-enable all the disable repositories from an upgrade from Ubuntu Karmic to Lucid.


And finally, Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.4 now supports Linux Mint 9.

Install Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.4

You can either add the Ubuntu Tweak PPA or simply download the .DEB file:

1. Using a PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

2. Download Ubuntu Tweak 0.5.4 DEB

PPA Purge Now Available Via GetDeb

PPA Purge is a tiny tiny script (comes as a .deb) which a lot of Ubuntu users will love. We've actually covered it before, but it's now easier to install because PPA Purge is available via GetDeb.

So what is PPA Purge? Well, imagine you add a PPA repository which messes up a lot of stuff on your computer. PPA Purge can be used (with a single command) to remove that PPA, remove everything installed from that PPA and reinstall the original packages from the official Ubuntu repositories. Basically you have to use just ONE COMMAND for all these steps.

Usage:

sudo ppa-purge PPA

where "PPA" is the PPA you want to purge, example:

sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa

Sooner or later, everybody needs PPA Purge. But before using it, you must install it. Like I said, PPA Purge is now available in the GetDeb repository (only for Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx!) so make sure you add it to your sources.list (simply download and install this DEB file - it will add the Getdeb repository, add the key and so on).

Once you have the GetDeb repository added, simply run this:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge

For Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala, download THIS DEB file (although I think it's an older version).

How Good Would You Say Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Is? Rate it! [Poll]

This poll is actually Mundo Geek's idea but I'm really interested to see WebUpd8's readers opinion.

So, if you already upgraded to Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, how do you rate it? The poll:

You can also post your impressions in the comments below.

Official Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Screenshots And Features Tour

The Ubuntu website was just updated with the official screenshots and features tour. You can find it @ http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/1004features

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx Final Is Available For Download

Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx is available for download @ http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/10.04/.

But you're probably wondering what the word "somewhat" is doing in the title. Well, Phoronix reports that a new critical bug (bug #570765 ) hit Ubuntu today. The bug is that when installing Ubuntu 10.04, if the user had other operating systems installed (it doesn't matter if that's Windows or another Linux distribution), GRUB2 will not detect them. That basically means that with the current ISO, dual boot is not possible.


This comes after another critical bug was reported this week but which presumably has been fixed.

Update: The bug is fixed (fix committed but not yet released) but the new ISOs need rebuilding.

Update 2: Not sure what to believe now. Ubuntu 10.04 is available to download @ Ubuntu website: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download and also Ubuntu 10.04 release announcement has been made on the Ubuntu announcements mailing list so it seems they already rebuild the ISO files.


Looking for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx screenshots? See these posts (nothing changed basically):

• Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx Release Candidate Is Out [See What's New]
• Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Beta 2 Screenshots
• Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx Beta 1 Screenshots Tour

Ubuntu 10.04 Start 0.4.8 Released; Now Supports Multiple Languages Thanks To You!

That's right, in less than 24 hours since we asked for your help to translate Ubuntu Start, version 0.4.8 has been released and it now supports multiple languages.

So what is Ubuntu 10.04 Start? The main purpose of this script is to speed up configuring Ubuntu 10.04 immediately after you've just installed it. This includes both installing popular applications and codecs as well as fixing some annoyances in Ubuntu 10.04.


I decided to release it now even though there are still translations to be done because many people will need it since Ubuntu 10.04 will be released today. Once I receive new translations, I will add them to the script as soon as I can.

Supported languages so far:

• Czech - Translation submitted by clever fox
• German - Translation submitted by Sebastian
  
• French - Translation submitted by astromb
• Slovak - Translation submitted by enjoy
  
• Spanish - Translation submitted by Vicente. Also many thanks to CokiDVD and Ezequiel
• Italian translation by Lippol94 (http://lippolweblog.wordpress.com), Santiago (www.uielinux.org)
• Polish translation by buczyw. Also many thanks to Jacek
• Japanese translation by Yuya Saito (http://ubuntu.studiomohawk.com/)
• Dutch translation by Raoul
• Portuguese (PT) translation by FatGiant
• Malaysian translation by akmalhisyam (http://fossmalaya.com)
• Galician translation by Jose Basalo
• Turkish translation by bsod1 (http://www.osa1.net)
• Korean translation by J.Park
• Brazilian Portuguese translation by Benjamim and lau
• Catalan translation by Joan Padrosa
• Estonian translation by Magnus
• Simplified Chinese translation by Iven Day
• Bahasa Indonesia translation by antok
• Asturian translation by iñigo
• Romanian translation
• Slovenian translation by kv1dr, summerb0y
• Arabic translation by sub7ei
• Swedish language by Abhijit
• Traditional Chinese translation by Robert D. Wei
• Vietnamese translation by Duy Thang
• Urdu translation by Shoaib Mirza
  
• Danish translation: Lars S. Hansen
• Latvian translation by Linards Liepiņš (https://www.launchpad.net/~linards-liepins)
• Russian translation by XRain - http://xrain.pp.ru/
• Lithuanian translation by Edmundas Ciucko

All these translations have been done in less than 24 hours. That's simply amazing! Once again, many thanks to everyone who helped or will help translate Ubuntu Start into their own language!

NOTE: All the tweaks in this script are optional, meaning you can select to only apply some of the tweaks.

Fore more info on Ubuntu 10.04 start, see: What To Do After A Fresh Ubuntu Install Script.


Here is the changelog for the last 3 releases (in case you didn't check out Ubuntu Start lately):

0.4.8
#added Docky, Cairo Dock and AWN in a separate dialog
#made Google Earth installation autoaccept the license so the user doesn't have to interact with the terminal
#multiple language support; current languages: Czech, Spanish, French, German, Slovak, Italian, Polish, Japanese, Dutch, Portuguese (PT), Malaysian, Galician, Korean
#changed the way the current logged in user is detected; this should hopefully fix multiple accounts issues

0.4.7
#added extra themes (community themes and bisigi themes)
#added Google Earth

0.4.6
#added extra Compiz plugins to install
#added Getdeb mirror
#code optimizations

0.4.5
#Added reset options for the tweaks
#Changed the way day of the week from Sunday to Monday works - it now asks the user to enter his locale.

Download (and how to use) Ubuntu 10.04 Start Script

To download and run the script, paste this in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install zenity
wget http://launchpad.net/ubuntustart/0.4.x/0.4.9/+download/ubuntu-10.04-start-0.4.9.13.tar.gz
tar -xvf ubuntu-10.04-start-0.4.9.13.tar.gz
cd ubuntu-10.04-start/
sudo ./ubuntu-10.04-script

Alternatively, manually download it from here.

Then you will be able to select your language and continue with the tweaks and installing the applications you want.


Important note: if the script doesn't start due to some unrecognised characters in some languages, uncomment line 51 from the script, meaning you'll have to remove the "#" in front of this line:

#export LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"

I've tested the script without it in Lucid and it worked just fine, but on very customized installs it might not work so use that if the script doesn't start.


Want to help translate Ubuntu 10.04 Start script into your language? See THIS post.


Note: the script was updated several times to include the latest translations you've sent me.




If you encounter bugs, please post a comment or submit them here: https://launchpad.net/ubuntustart

Ubuntu 10.04 Start Script Gets International; Needs Your Help!

I won't present the Ubuntu Start project again, you can read all about it HERE. Since launching Ubuntu Start (also known as "What To Do After Installing Ubuntu 10.04 Script" =) ), a few people translated it into their native language. However there was a lot of work to be done on their side with every update I made because the script didn't support multiple languages so the strings had to be translated inside the script.

The story

Well, I had some time today so I implemented multiple language support to the Ubuntu Start script. It's not using .pot or .po files (although the language file is called .pot - never mind this) and the translations won't be made in Launchpad - I simply couldn't figure out how to set up the translations in Launchpad.

The language strings file is very easy: a plain text file with English phrases, that is all.

We need your help!

You can help us by translating the script into your language. Here is how to do it.

Get the source from Launchpad: http://launchpad.net/ubuntustart/0.4.x/0.4.9/+download/ubuntu-10.04-start-0.4.9.13.tar.gz

Then extract it and inside the archive you will find a folder called "languages" with a file called "en.pot". This is the file you can help translate. You basically have to translate each line.

Once you translate the file, you can mail it to me: andrew [at] webupd8 [dot] org. I will of course add a credits file for everybody helping out with the translation.


Things to have in mind when translating:

• Do not alter the number of lines or the lines order. If you change the line order, everything will be messed up
• Do not remove quotes ("), backslashes (\) or double backslashes followed by an "n" (\\n) - these are are required for the script. "\\n" means a new line (needs 2 backslashes because it's in an external file)
• I've only added translations for the GUI phrases (used in Zenity), the rest of the English words which are displayed in the terminal don't need translation because they are simply for debugging and the user doesn't interact with any of those.
  

For now there are 75 lines to translate. When new phrases need translation (in future versions), they will be added to line 76, 77 and so on, meaning nothing you translate right now will get lost!

I know, I could have implemented this better but Ubuntu 10.04 comes out tomorrow so I figured a lot of people would be needing the script very soon.

Pending translations so far:

• Russian - K900

Completed translations so far:

• Czech - Translation submitted by clever fox
• German - Translation submitted by Sebastian
  
• French - Translation submitted by astromb
• Slovak - Translation submitted by enjoy
  
• Spanish - Translation submitted by Vicente. Also many thanks to CokiDVD and Ezequiel
• Italian translation by Lippol94 (http://lippolweblog.wordpress.com), Santiago (www.uielinux.org)
• Polish translation by buczyw. Also many thanks to Jacek
• Japanese translation by Yuya Saito (http://ubuntu.studiomohawk.com/)
• Dutch translation by Raoul
• Portuguese (PT) translation by FatGiant
• Malaysian translation by akmalhisyam (http://fossmalaya.com)
• Galician translation by Jose Basalo
• Turkish translation by bsod1 (http://www.osa1.net)
• Korean translation by J.Park
• Brazilian Portuguese translation by Benjamim and lau
• Catalan translation by Joan Padrosa
• Estonian translation by Magnus
• Simplified Chinese translation by Iven Day
• Bahasa Indonesia translation by antok
• Asturian translation by iñigo
• Romanian translation
  
• Slovenian translation by kv1dr, summerb0y
• Arabic translation by sub7ei
• Swedish language by Abhijit
• Traditional Chinese translation by Robert D. Wei
• Vietnamese translation by Duy Thang
• Urdu translation by Shoaib Mirza
  
• Danish translation: Lars S. Hansen
• Latvian translation by Linards Liepiņš (https://www.launchpad.net/~linards-liepins)
• Russian translation by XRain - http://xrain.pp.ru/
• Lithuanian translation by Edmundas Ciucko
• Norwegian (Norsk bokmal) translation by Ole Christian Norum

Make sure you come back to this post to see if someone is already translating the script to your language so you don't translate it twice!


A big THANK YOU to everyone willing to translate Ubuntu Start!

Nautilus "Enqueue In Rhythmbox" Plugin Updated, Can Now Add Folders Recursively

A while back we wrote about a Nautilus plugin which would allow you to simply right click music files and select "Add to Rhythmbox Play Queue" and the files would instantly be enqueued to Rhythmbox - like "Enqueue in Winamp" does on Windows.

Like we told you back then, the script wasn't perfect: it didn't enqueue folders recursively and also if some songs had some special characters, all the selected songs would fail to be added to the Rhythmbox play queue. But Seemanta, the developer of this plugin released a new version a few days ago which addresses these bugs.

So the new version of "Nautilus enqueuer plugin for Rhythmbox" can now add folders recursively as well as add files with special characters in their name (unfortunately I still found some issues with special chars - but most work now).

To download and install the new, improved Nautilus plugin for Rhythmbox, simply paste this in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install python-nautilus
rm ~/.nautilus/python-extensions/add-to-rhythmbox.py #in case you installed the old version
wget http://seemanta.net/code/Nautilus_plugin/add-to-rhythmbox_V02.py
mkdir ~/.nautilus/python-extensions
mv add-to-rhythmbox_V02.py ~/.nautilus/python-extensions/
nautilus -q

The credits for "Add To Rhythmbox Play Queue" Nautilus plugin go to: Seemanta.net

Ubuntuforums.org Start Page Extension For Google Chrome / Chromium

Peter Kmet has created a start page extension for Google Chrome / Chromium which is especially designed for Ubuntu users. The Start Page extension comes with quick links to some Ubuntuforums.org sections, as well as other very useful Ubuntu resources such as Launchpad, Gnome Look, GetDeb, Gnome Files and so on.

But that's not all this Chrome extension can do. It also displays the latest Ubuntu news, quick access to your bookmarks, a task manager, latest wallpapers from Desktop Nexus and more.

While I really like this extension, an option to remove some of the links as well as adding your own would be a nice addition.

Install Ubuntuforums.org Start Page for Chrome / Chromium | Thanks to Peter for letting us know about his new extension!

Improved Docky Zeitgeist Integration Makes You Forget You Have A File Manager

Sure, Docky already had Zeitgeist integration but starting yesterday, the Zeitgeit integration got more cool then ever: the jump lists provide a list with "Most Used Items" which includes items from the last 2 weeks, and also "Other Recently Items".

While this new feature doesn't seem like much at first, use it and you will soon notice that basically almost all of the items you need are just one click away. Seif Lotfy has more info on this new (well, actually not new but upgraded) feature.

The "Most Used Items" and "Other Recently Items" features provided by Zeitgeist are available in the latest Docky build (as of today) from the Docky development PPA. See this post on adding the Docky development PPA (for Ubuntu Karmic and Lucid users).


To enable the Zeitgeist integration, firstly make sure you have Zeitgeist installed, and then simply go to Docky's settings and under the "Helpers" tab, enable "Zeitgeist integration":

But this is not it. The Docky Zeitgeist integration will be improved further in the near future with an option to choose what to have in the "Recently and most used" jump list, as well as a new feature called "Frecency" which combines combines frequency and recency. Stay tuned!

Script To Automatically Download And Compile FFmpeg And x264 In Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic And 10.04 Lucid

FFmpeg is a complete solution to record, convert and stream audio and video from the command line. As you probably know, the FFmpeg version from the official Ubuntu repositories is compiled without support for some codecs so if you want to use them, you must compile FFmpeg for yourself.

NicoLargo (who has an awasome blog by the way) has created two scripts based on a post from the Ubuntuforums (which we've quoted several times before) to automate the process of compiling FFmpeg in Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala and Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx.

Why 2 scripts? Because one is for installing (compiling FFmpeg) and the second one is for updating it.


Basically all you have to do is run the script (and have an active Internet connection) and it will automatically download the latest SVN version of FFmpeg, compile it, create a .deb package with checkinstall and install it. The script will also download and compile the x264 library required by FFmpeg.

Download the FFmpeg installation / update script and how to use it

You don't even have to install the dependencies for yourself, the script will do everything for you.

To download and run the FFmpeg installation script (works for both Ubuntu 9.10 and 10.04), simply paste this in a terminal:

wget http://svn.nicolargo.com/ubuntupostinstall/trunk/ffmpeginstall.sh
chmod +x ffmpeginstall.sh
./ffmpeginstall.sh

You will be asked for your password for some of the steps in the script, but that's all the required interaction from your side, the rest is done automatically.


If you want to upgrade FFmpeg (and/or x264) later on, simply use the second script. You can download and run it by a simple copy & paste of the commands below:

wget http://svn.nicolargo.com/ubuntupostinstall/trunk/ffmpegupdate.sh
chmod +x ffmpegupdate.sh
./ffmpegupdate.sh

I just used the script a few moments ago in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx and everything went flawlessly, and I now have the latest FFmpeg as you can see in the screenshot in the beginning of the post.

Reverting the changes made by the script

So you want to remove everything installed by this script? That's easy, simply paste this in a terminal:

sudo apt-get remove x264 ffmpeg build-essential subversion git-core checkinstall yasm texi2html libfaac-dev libfaad-dev libmp3lame-dev libsdl1.2-dev libtheora-dev libx11-dev libxfixes-dev libxvidcore-dev zlib1g-dev

Then, install the original FFmpeg and x264 using the following command:

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg x264

Credits (and many thanks!) for the install / upgrade FFmpeg script: NicoLagro

Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.10 Will Get A Global Menu By Default

Mark Shuttleworth announced today that Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" Netbook Edition will come with a global menu. He also states that ONLY the Ubuntu Netbook Edition will get the Global Menu.

The idea is that using a global menu in the top panel would increase the available vertical space, which is so important on a Netbook (we addressed the screen real estate in some parts of our Ubuntu Netbook Remix (now renamed to Ubuntu Netbook Edition) Optimization Guide).

What is Global Menu?

Global Menu is Mac OS X like globally-shared menu bar of all applications launched in your desktop session which is currently only for Gnome. Although Ubuntu started working on this with the existing Global Menu project, it won't add the Global Menu as you know it but they (as in the Ubuntu and Global Menu devs) will work to improve it and make it more awesome then ever!

Everybody using Gnome 2 Global Menu knows there are issues with non GTK and QT applications, most notably Firefox and OpenOffice. But Mark points out that work will be done to support these too, as well as KDE applications.


Global Menu could indeed be a solution for Netbooks where the vertical space is limited, however it will be interesting to see how the users will react to this change, as well as the way it's going to be implemented - because for now, the Ubuntu Netbook Edition comes with only a panel on top which is very cluttered as it is, with an applet which replaces the toolbar, a taskbar and so on.

It seems the idea is to go beyond Apple's original implementation and to include the window title (which includes the window controls) in the Global Menu:

It’s not confirmed yet, but we will aim to go beyond what Apple and others have done with panel menus, to consolidate both the window title (and window controls) into the panel along with the menu.

[...] By default, we’d display the contents of the title bar. When you mouse up to the panel, or when you press the Alt key, the contents would switch to the menu. That way, you’re looking at the document title most of the time, unless you move towards it to click on the menu.

Later, Mark clarified on the Ayatana mailing list how the global menu will work: when the window is not maximised, the menu will be in the panel, and the window title (and window controls) will be in the window.

When the window is maximised, the panel will contain:

- the window controls (from the left, just after the Ubuntu icon)
- the window title
- the indicators (aligned right)

When you mouse towards the window title, or press Alt, it will be replaced by the menu.

Notice there is nowhere stated that the top panel will also have a 'taskbar' (or something else to manage running applications). In fact Mark says that switching between running applications will be addressed separately. So will the Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.10 get a Mac OS X like dock application too? Sure, there's no info on this yet, but 2 panels for a Netbook would be too much and also adding an applications switcher to the top panel is almost impossible since there is no room left. Also, since Ubuntu 10.10 will be released a month after Gnome 3.0 (which will include Gnome Shell), one might think the running applications will be handled by it, but since this news talks about adding stuff the the panel, it means Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.10 won't come with Gnome Shell by default.




You will be able to install this improved Global Menu onto the Desktop version of Ubuntu if you want, but it will only come as default for Ubuntu Netbook Edition.

You can already install the Global Menu

You can already install the Global Menu, but it's the already existing application, not the one pictured by Mark Shuttleworth in his post. That means it won't work for some applications such as Firefox and OpenOffice. Also, it won't display the window title or controls.

That being said, you can install Global Menu (actually called Gnome2 Global Menu), using the following commands:

-For Ubuntu Karmic and Lucid:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:globalmenu-team/ppa

-For Ubuntu Jaunty, Intrepid and Hardy:

sudo -v
echo "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/globalmenu-team/ppa/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys DA6DEEAA

Then, for any Ubuntu version, install Gnome2 Global Menu with:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install gnome-globalmenu 

See also: Use NameBar And DockBarX To Optimize Your Screen Real Estate [Ubuntu]

[Image credits: Lifehacker]

Opera 10.52 For Windows And Mac OS X Released, Linux Still Alpha

Looking for Opera 10.5x for Linux? Unfortunately the Linux version is still alpha, even though the Opera team released Opera 10.52 for Windows and Mac OS X today.

However, there is still some good news for Linux users. The Opera Next page says:

Opera 10.5x for Windows reached final quality in March and Mac followed in April. We are now progressing towards the final version for Linux.

So now at least we know the Opera developers are finally concentrating on the Linux version which means we could have Opera 10.5x for Linux sometime around the end of May (according to some comments on the Opera Blog).

More info on the Windows and Mac OS X release, HERE.


You can download Opera 10.52 for Windows and Mac OS X from the Opera download page. The latest Linux builds (including Ubuntu .deb; rpm files are also available) are available @ http://snapshot.opera.com/unix/snapshot-6325/

Install Extra Ubuntu Community Themes From The Ubuntu Artwork Wiki In Seconds

Some community themes from the Ubuntu Artwork Wiki made it into the "community-themes" package from Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx (which you can install using: sudo apt-get install community-themes) however some amazing themes didn't.

Some people probably only install a few of the themes which didn't make it into Lucid but if you want to install all of them you'll notice it takes quite some time to browse all the pages, download, extract, put the files to the right place and so on, especially if you want to install them to multiple computers.

For this reason I've created an archive which comes with a tiny script which extracts all the themes to the right place - so you can install most of the extra community themes (which didn't make it into Lucid) in a matter of seconds. Read on!

Ubuntu Community themes which didn't make it into the official "community-themes" package:

Dichotomy

Finestly YING	Finestly YANG

Human-Kmod

Lucid X

Lucidity

MRS

Radiance Osliner

Ubuntu Sun (all 3 variations included)

Warmth

To install all the above extra community themes, simply run the following commands in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install bzr
bzr branch lp:~nilarimogard/+junk/extra-community-themes
cd extra-community-themes/ && chmod +x install
sudo ./install

The first command above downloads the archives (via bzr), then navigate to the extra-community-themes folder, make the "install" file executable and then run the "install" file which will extract all the themes to the /usr/share/themes/ folder.


The above themes require the latest Murrine Engine (which is included in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx). You can get them to work in Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala too by installing the latest Murrine Engine which is available in the WebUpd8 PPA.



Note: Because the Ubuntu wiki does not allow download via wget, I had to include the themes into the bzr. If the creator of any of the themes above doesn't want his theme included in this pack, let me know and I'll remove it.


Credits for the themes go to their designers (read the gtkrc file). Images via Ubuntu Artwotk wiki.

PulseAudio Mixer Applet Lets You Change The Volume Of Individual Applications From The Gnome Panel

Pulseaudio Mixer Applet is a small applet for the GNOME panel which you can use to easily change the volume of individual applications. It can be used as a replacement for the default volume applet.

Even though Pulseaudio Mixer Applet is not exactly beautifully designed (because it pops up a huge dialog with the applications currently using PulseAudio), it can be very useful.


Besides the individual applications volume feature, the applet also allows you to change the default input and output devices, and move application audio streams to different devices.

Version 0.2.2 was released a few days ago and it comes with two new features: indicators that there are no applications playing or recording, and the ability to close the applet by clicking outside it. This release also fixes some bugs with UI layout when used on bottom panels and when an icon for a device or application can't be found in the current theme.

Download Pulseaudio Mixer Applet:

- Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala:

• 64bit: pulseaudio-mixer-applet_0.2.2-0ubuntu1~ppa3~karmic_amd64.deb (49.8 KiB)
• 32bit: pulseaudio-mixer-applet_0.2.2-0ubuntu1~ppa3~karmic_i386.deb (45.1 KiB)

- Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx:

• 64bit: pulseaudio-mixer-applet_0.2.2-0ubuntu1~ppa3_amd64.deb (49.9 KiB)
• 32bit: pulseaudio-mixer-applet_0.2.2-0ubuntu1~ppa3_i386.deb (45.6 KiB)

Or you can add the PPA if you want:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:v-geronimos/ppa && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pulseaudio-mixer-applet

After installation, right click a Gnome Panel, select "Add to panel" and then search for "PulseAudio Mixer Applet". Finally, click "Add". That's it!



For more info and source files download, see the PulseAudio Mixer Applet page on Launchpad.

[Special thanks to Ubuntips for the info]

Order Your Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Free CDs [ShipIt]

Even though a lot of blogs wrote about ShipIt being open for some time, actually upon login you would get a "Shipit is currently closed" message.

But since a few minutes ago, Ubuntu ShipIt - a service by Canonical which provides free Ubuntu CDs everywhere in the world - is now open.


Please note: if you have a good Internet connection and a CD/DVD RW, don't order the CD as someone else might actually need it.


This being said, you can order your free Ubuntu 10.04 CD @ https://shipit.ubuntu.com

Kubuntu ShipIt is also available in case you want to order Kubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx. Visit https://shipit.kubuntu.org/


[Special thanks to UbuCentrum for the heads up!]

Update: VLC 1.1.0 Pre2 and Ubuntu 9.10 / 10.04

A small update on the latest VLC 1.1.0 Pre2. Because Ubuntu packages libx264 with the version in the package name, I had to rename it to make VLC 1.1.0 work, remove libx264-83. See the initial post (which has been updated).

If you got a dependency error, I apologise but everything should work fine after you remove libx264-83 (only those who installed VLC last night and got an update today should have this issue) - then you can install VLC 1.1.0 Pre2. I am a bit angry myself because of these versions in the name for some packages - they are a nightmare.

Note: if you didn't upgrade to VLC 1.1.0 Pre2 last night or this morning, ignore this - everything should be ok.

For any issues related to the WebUpd8 PPA, you can contact me by email.

Install VLC 1.1.0 Pre2 In Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic And 10.04 Lucid Via PPA Repository

Update: This post is no longer valid. See: How To Install VLC 1.1.0 (Final) In Ubuntu From A PPA (deb)

VLC Media Player 1.1.0 Pre 2 was released a few days ago and today I finally had some time to package it and upload it to the WebUpd8 PPA.

Ubuntu 10.04 will be released in a few days but unfortunately VLC 1.1.0 won't be officially available until Ubuntu 10.10 so installing it from a PPA (or compiling it yourself) is the only way to use the latest VLC Media Player in Ubuntu.

Let me remind you how to install VLC 1.1.0 Pre 2 in Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala and Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx from the WebUpd8 PPA repository (which is probably the only repository with VLC 1.1.0 packages):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8

If you've never installed VLC from the WebUpd8 PPA, this is not required:
Then, make sure you remove the "libx264-83" package as I've created a new one called libx264-94 because apparently Ubuntu packages this by using the version in the package name:

sudo apt-get remove vlc #just to make sure nothing breaks
sudo apt-get remove libx264-83

Then install VLC 1.1.0:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install vlc

Along with VLC, x264 has also been updated to the latest version and comes with a Blu-Ray encoder, according to Phoronix.


Remember, these are experimental builds so there will be bugs! Also, things might break as this is an experimental PPA. You have been warned!


Update: I've removed the VLC, packages from the WebUpd8 PPA since it caused too many issues. VLC 1.1.0 will be built in a new PPA (but not right now) which will only be used for VLC! This means the packages in the WebUpd8 ppa are now more stable. To continue using the PPA and/or to remove the VLC packages installed from this PPA, use PPA Purge. Then you can re-add the WebUpd8 PPA if you want.

Last Week's Top Posts (Week 16, 2010)

1. What To Do After A Fresh Ubuntu Install Script - New Version Released [Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx] - the script received yet another update which allows users to revert the tweaks
2. Medibuntu Repository Down - What To Do?
3. Install Nautilus Elementary (2.30) In Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx & Nautilus Elementary Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx PPA Repository
4. Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx Release Candidate Is Out [See What's New]
5. KernelCheck Fixed .Deb Download [Ubuntu / Debian]
6. Ubuntu Sources List Generator Available For Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx
7. Talika Gnome Panel Applet Gets Pin To Panel, Window Previews, More
8. How To Install Gloobus Preview In Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx [PPA Now Available]
9. Nautilus Elementary Breadcrumbs For Any Theme
10. Cairo Dock Gets A New Default Theme For Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx [Video]

Also, do not forget to vote in this week's poll: Best Linux BitTorrent Client, where so far Transmission is trashing (well, almost) its competition.

Browse all the weekly top posts.

Bisigi Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Themes Move To The Stable PPA; More News

The beautiful Bisigi themes were available for Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx users in a testing PPA. Well, today the themes have moved to the main PPA.

Also, the Karmic versions of the themes have been updated to Murrine 0.90.3 so they should look the same as the Lucid versions.


There is also some bad news: the Hardy and Jaunty packages (apparently there were not packages for Intrepid) will be removed from the Bisigi PPA, so only Ubuntu Karmic and Lucid will be supported from now on.



To add the stable Bisigi PPA (for Ubuntu Karmic and Lucid), simply paste this in a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bisigi/ppa && sudo apt-get update

Then to install all the themes:

sudo apt-get install bisigi-themes

Update: Gloobus Preview PPA For Ubuntu 10.04

This is just a small update: there are now Lucid packages available in the Gloobus Preview PPA. The post on Gloobus Preview for Ubuntu 10.04 has been updated.

Lubuntu (w/ LXDE) 10.04 Lucid Lynx Beta 3 Available For Download

Lubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Beta 3 is available for download. Why beta 3 instead of RC you may ask. Here is why:

The status of this final release is not determined yet ("beta stable", "rc final"), that's why its a beta and not a RC like other *buntu. However, final release is still planned for the end of this month, or in very early May.

New in Lubuntu 10.04 Beta 3 since Beta 2:

• Many translations directly included.
• Lubuntu-desktop PPA added by default on installation - finally!
• Up-to-date libfm and pcmanfm2.

Download Lubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Beta 3:

• Torrent (not working for now)
• Direct download

See also: Lubuntu (w/ LXDE) 10.04 Lucid Lynx Alpha 3 Released With 4 New Default Apps And New Artwork (Screenshots)

How To Install Gloobus Preview In Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx [PPA Now Available]

Gloobus Preview is a Gnome application based on Apple’s “Quicklook”, designed to enable a full screen preview of any kind of file. Gloobus currently supports the following files:

Images: jpeg / png / icns / bmp / svg / gif / psd / xcf
Documents: pdf / cbr / cbz / doc / xls / odf / ods / odp / ppt
Source: c++ / c# / java / javascript / php / xml / log / sh / python
Audio: mp3 / ogg / midi / 3gp / wav
Video: mpg /avi / ogg / 3gp / mkv / flv
Other: folders / ttf / srt / plain-text

I didn't try all the extensions mentioned above, however I did try a GIMP .xcf file and for some reason it didn't work. But it did work for images, avi, flv, folders, mp3, archive and so on.

Gloobus Preview has a PPA for Ubuntu Karmic, but unfortunately there are no packages for Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx so to install it, you need to compile it. Read on!

The Gloobus Preview PPA has just been updated with Ubuntu 10.04 packages! Read on!


Before proceeding to installing Gloobus Preview in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, here is a video I've just recorded with Gloobus Preview in action:

To install Gloobus Preview in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, follow the steps below

1. Add the PPA

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gloobus-dev/gloobus-preview

Note: there are Gloobus Preview packages in the following repositories too:
elementary-desktop ppa : ppa:elementaryart/elementarydesktop
nautilus-elementary ppa : ppa:am-monkeyd/nautilus-elementary-ppa

So if you have any of those already added, skip this step.


2. Install Gloobus Preview

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install gloobus-preview

3. Set a keybinding for Gloobus Preview

Only for non Nautilus Elementary users:

Go to System > Preferences > CompizConfig Settings Manager, enable "Commands" and then click it. On the first tab called "Command", enter "gloobus-preview" for the first command (called "Command line 0"). Then on the second tab called "Key Bindings", under "Run command 0" enter your desired key combination such as Ctrl + SPACE or whatever you want.


Important: then, to use Gloobus Preview, you must select a file, press Ctrl + C and then the keybinding you've set in step 4 above!


Note for Nautilus Elementary users: If you use Nautilus Elementary 2.30, you don't need to set up any keybindings or press Ctrl + C. Simply select a file and press the space bar. Press SPACE again to close it.

X.Org Memory Leak Bug In Ubuntu 10.04: Fix Released

In our Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx Release Candidate post, we were telling you about a major X.Org Memory Leak bug. Well, apparently the bug has been fixed and an update was released.

The bug has not been confirmed as fixed by everybody testing so it will be interesting to see if there are still computers affected by this bug.

Besides the X.Org Memory Leak bug (marked as critical), 2 other bugs were fixed with this update: #565903 (medium) and #550218 (high).

Unfortunately, fixing these bugs also means going back to GLX version 1.2 (instead of 1.4).


What exactly did the bug do? It was causing the computer to get slower and slower over some hours, and finally becoming totally sluggish. That's because closing an application didn't free up the memory.

The bug didn't affect cards using proprietary drivers or not using DRI2 because it is specific to the glx module that the open drivers use. Intel will always be affected since DRI2 is used with and without KMS, ATI uses DRI1 without KMS.


Are you using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx? How is everything working for you?

{image thanks to dan-dare.org}

The Minitube Developer Is Working On A New Music Player For Linux Called Minitunes

The developer of Minitube, a Linux and Mac OS X YouTube player that doesn't require flash is working on another project called Minitunes - a music player.

Minitunes is still in it's infancy so don't expect too many features yet. The author describes it best:

Code quality is at a historic low, features are at best incomplete or completely broken. It may not compile, it may even move the window buttons on the left, no wait that’s another story.

Even so, Minitunes already looks amazing, as you can see in a video I've just recorded:

If you want to try it out for yourself, paste this in a terminal (tested on Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx):

sudo apt-get install libqt4-dev libphonon-dev libqt4-phonon-dev phonon-backend-gstreamer libtag1-dev
git clone  http://git.gitorious.org/minitunes/minitunes.git
cd minitunes/
qmake
make

Then, to run Minitunes, don't leave the "minitunes" folder and run the following command:

./build/target/minitunes

So far Minitunes looks minimalistic yet very polished. I can't wait to see how this application is going to develop.

More info on Minitunes @ flavio.tordini.org

Nautilus Elementary Breadcrumbs For Any Theme

WebUpd8 reader gnaag (amazing hack, thank you very much!) created a hack to use breadcrumbs in Nautilus Elementary 2.30 with any theme:

The installation is extremely easy, simply run the following commands in a terminal:

cd #this should take you to your home folder
wget http://gnaag.k2city.eu/nautilus-breadcrumbs-hack.tar.gz
tar -xvf nautilus-breadcrumbs-hack.tar.gz

Alternatively you can also manually download it and extract the contents to your home folder (make sure you copy the contents of the nautilus-breadcrumbs-hack folder directly into your home folder!).

Then set Nautilus Elementary to use Breadcrumbs by going to Edit > Preferences, on the Tweaks tab enable "Show like breadcrumbs":

Finally, you may need to restart Nautilus:

nautilus -q

Install Nautilus Elementary 2.30 Via PPA Repository [Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Only]

We already covered Nautilus Elementary and how to install it in Lucid but the instructions in that post required you to compile it.

But starting a few minutes ago, Nautilus Elementary 2.30 is available to install for Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx users via a PPA repository. To install it simply paste this in a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:am-monkeyd/nautilus-elementary-ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
nautilus -q #restarts nautilus

It's that easy!

Oh, and one more thing: Nautilus Elementary got (about 2-3 days ago) a really nice combined mode button (only works with the horizontal toolbar):

If you want to remove Nautilus Elementary 2.30 and return to the default Nautilus in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, I suggest you use PPA Purge, a very easy to use utility which completely removes and applications installed from a PPA and installs the packages in the official Ubuntu repositories.

Update: you can now get Nautilus Elementary Breadcrumbs for any theme. Read here how to do it.

More Nautilus Elementary info and screenshots | thanks to ammonkey

Best Linux BitTorrent Client

It's time for a new weekly poll. For this week you can vote for the best Linux BitTorrent client (thanks to sikku for the suggestion!).

The contenders are (in no special order): rTorrent, qBittorrent, KTorrent, Deluge Torrent and Transmission.

Vote for the Linux BitTorrent application which you find to be the best:

As always, remember you can vote for a different application by selecting "Other" and entering your favourite BitTorrent application. Also, don't forget to leave a comment telling us (and the readers) why you like a certain Linux Bittorrent client as well as suggest an application not present in the 5 we've picked.

Browse all our weekly polls.

Cairo Dock Gets A New Default Theme For Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx [Video]

Cairo Dock (also known as GLX-Dock) is an application which provides a dock, a taskbar, and many applets that can be placed either inside the dock or on your desktop, at your convenience ! It uses Cairo / OpenGL to render nice graphics with hardware acceleration, which makes it very smooth and low on CPU. It's highly customisable and comes with a lot of ready-to-use themes.

Speaking of docks, a recent update to Cairo Dock brings a new default theme for Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx. The theme is also available in the Cairo Dock official repository and you can preview it in the video below:

To install Cairo Dock in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, simply paste this in a terminal:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install cairo-dock cairo-dock-plug-ins

If you're not using Ubuntu 10.04, install Cairo Dock from it's official repository:

sudo -v
echo "deb http://repository.glx-dock.org/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) cairo-dock ## Cairo-Dock-Stable" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
wget -q http://repository.glx-dock.org/cairo-dock.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install cairo-dock cairo-dock-plug-ins

If you're adventurous, you can also use the weekly Cairo Dock PPA.


For other Linux distributions, see the Cairo Dock wiki for installation instructions.

Poll Results: Best Linux Dock

So, what dock do the WebUpd8 readers consider to be the best? Read on to find out...

The official results can also be seen HERE

Docky got an amazing head start, but it's initial 60% slowly fade away. Docky still won the poll with 36.54% (558 votes), but only by 11 votes (less then 1%) from the second place, Avant Window Navigator (AWN). This most definitely has something to do with the fact that the poll was featured in the sidebar - so besides the WebUpd8 subscribers who probably voted in the beginning (~60% of them choosing Docky), there were a lot of votes by occasional users coming from search engines and so on. What does that mean? While most Linux / Ubuntu geeks (WebUpd8 subscribers) prefer Docky, the average user is more of a Avant Window Navigator fan. And Cairo Dock too, because Cairo Dock also got quite a few votes in the end (297 - 19.45%).


Dockbar (including DockBarX) got 4.26% of votes while ADeskBar only 0.65%.

In the "Other answer" votes were also mentioned: Wbar - 5 votes, Talika - 4 votes, the rest getting just one vote.


The next weekly poll should be out tomorrow or the day after. We're not really sure on what it should be, so leave a comment if you have an interesting weekly poll idea (application).

Browse all our weekly polls.

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx Release Candidate Is Out [See What's New]

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx Release Candidate is available for download.

There aren't many visual changes since Beta 2, however we're going to cover this few changes anyway.


Note: If you've installed Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Alpha, Beta 1 or 2 and kept upgrading, you already have all the changes in this post.

Firstly, the default Humanity icons got a new, darker color for the folder icons:

The Light themes (Ambiance and Radiance) got a big prelight around the close button:

Not exactly pretty, but it's there to prevent people from accidentally clicking the close button.

The sound icon was changed in all media players including Totem, Rhythmbox and so on:

Some might consider this icon ugly and not exactly fit with the light themes. This change made those using our PPA have this icon for the sound applet in Karmic and Lucid - sorry, it's not our fault.





Even though the change was announced before Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Beta 2, Google is again the default search engine (instead of Yahoo) only from Ubuntu 10.04 RC:

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx also got brand new wallpapers:

If you're not using Ubuntu 10.04 yet, you can download all the new wallpapers from HERE.

And that's about everything new in Ubuntu 10.04 RC since Beta1 - visually. However, there were some interesting changes to some non-default packages, such as:

- gThumb 2.11.x has been removed from Lucid's repositories and you can now only install 2.10.x which is missing some really incredibly useful features such as PicasaWeb, Facebook and Flickr support and a lot more (tip: you can still install gThumb 2.11.x from the WebUpd8 PPA).




- Even though not installed by default, Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx RC now has integration with Zoho, a cloud office suite:

You can install Zoho Webservice in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx by running the following command in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install webservice-office-zoho

More info on Zoho Webservice Ubuntu integration.

- Yet another application which is now available in the Ubuntu repositories is Desktop Webmail which you can use to set Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo As Default Mail Application.

Install Desktop Webmail using the following command:

sudo apt-get install desktop-webmail

More info on Desktop Webmail.

- Banshee got an Ubuntu One Music Store plugin too:

Install it with:

sudo apt-get install banshee-extension-ubuntuonemusicstore

- Karmic wallpapers were initially removed when the Lucid wallpapers pack came in, but they were saved just two days ago and are now available to install:

Install them using the following command (make sure you have the Universe repository enabled):

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-wallpapers-extra

And finally, Avant Window Navigator 0.4 final is available in the Ubuntu 10.04 repositories:

Install it using the following command:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator awn-extras-applets

Known issues

A major memory leak was introduced into the X.org server which causes the computer to get slower and slower over some hours, and finally becoming totally sluggish.

This does not affect cards using proprietary drivers or not using DRI2 because it is specific to the glx module that the open drivers use. Intel will always be affected since DRI2 is used with and without KMS, ATI uses DRI1 without KMS.

This bug has not been fixed so far. In order to make the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS deadline, the Ubuntu developers reverted 3 patches and posted an update to the "ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates" PPA so users can test it. The deadline is set to Friday - when we'll find out if the fix actually works. If not, the update might only come in an early Stable Release Update.

More info on this @ Phoronix.

Up next: the final version of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx, which should be released in just 7 days (April 29).


DOWNLOAD UBUNTU 10.04 LTS RELEASE CANDIDATE | Official release notes



See also:

• Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Beta 2 Screenshots
• Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Beta 1 Screenshots Tour
• What To Do After A Fresh Ubuntu Install? Run This Script!

[Credits for the first image in this post: ubunlog.com.ar - thanks!]