Category: Ubuntu Gnome (Page 4 of 4)

Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS released

2016-02-28 / Muaad Elsharif / 0 Comments

Ubuntu 14.04.4 was recently released and it comes with a bunch of bug fixes and security features since 14.04.3

What are the new features in this release?

Support for new hardware and stability.
One of the hardware features that really captured my eye is the Hardware stack,.
Ubuntu 14.04.04 had the same kernel as Willy werewolf 15.10 of Linux 4.2, which is a huge jump from the 3.19 that Ubuntu 14.04.03 has!

I confirmed that myself by typing in the commanduname -r into terminal after install. I decided to download Ubuntu Gnome 14.04.04 and give it a test on a virtual machine before installing it, the test was encouraging so I decided to install it.

But, what about 16.04?

I could just wait for Ubuntu 16.04 to roll out in April, but I had too much issues going on anyway. The reason is I had so much troubles with my system, I couldn’t continue with it they way it was. So I decided to remove the system I had and install a fresh one.

The end of Dual booting!!

To make space for the distro I decided to drop Windows and the idea of dual booting all together, did you notice I even changed my domain a while back? It’s just not working for me. I found myself constantly jumping from one OS to the other, as I had two systems, two documents, and two bookmarks, and syncing those wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. I was dysfunctional and unorganized, almost the same of having two laptops running side by side, which was the main reason to start the dualboot saga! I use the same tools on Ubuntu and Windows, so having two instances of LibreOffice and Gimp isn’t really working!

Virtualization

Since I don’t own licenses to software (except Windows itself) it made the decision much easier to follow. I have a solution, visualization! Instead of having two systems living side by side, I decided to move the Windows license to the virtual machine I made, and then to delete the partition all together, because I barley use Windows anymore, but at the same time I could use it, so that’s why I’m using Virtualbox, for the moments I wish I had Windows. I had a clear plan and I was on to execute.

Getting to work!

I decided to remove Windows, install the new Ubuntu and make sure it had plenty of space to run. Deactivating Windows I started by following the steps in this post, which was easy because I have done it several times before, I removed the activation and then activated Windows on the virtual machine, all in under 10 minutes! Then came the fun part!

Preparing install media

I downloaded my distribution of choice, Ubuntu 14.04.04 from the server as a torrent download, which was much faster than regular download, I put it on a USB drive using Yumi and I was good to go. Setting up the HDD I used Gparted on Partedmagic to repartition the HDD (it’s crucial to take a copy of the data and keep it in a safe place), I made sure that Ubuntu gets over 50 GB of free space because over time you are going to need the space, I merged the old Windows partition with the Linux partition and rebooted to begin the install.

Installing Ubuntu

Installing Ubuntu is one of the easiest installations you can ever have, it’s user friendly and super fast, you can finish it all in under 15 minutes and you are good to go! I installed Ubuntu, and proceeded to reinstall my software and tools. I noticed that Libreoffice was 4.2 which is out of date, even for the stable release! I had to remove it and install the latest 5.1 to enjoy the performance and newly designed interface! I also had to add VLC and Gimp manually, as well as Zimwiki.
I also installed Pomodro timer, it works very well with Ubuntu Gnome 14.04.
All and all it took less than a day to get my computer back to normal.

mpression after installing Ubuntu 14.04.4

I must say that running a native Ubuntu gnome is much better than adding Gnome interface to any Ubuntu installation. It runs much smoother and many of the bugs I noticed are long gone!

Screenshot from Ubuntu 14.04.4 after install

Final words

Looking back, my main goal of installing Windows alongside Ubuntu was to enjoy gaming on my computer, looking back I hardly did any gaming and I had Windows installed for almost 2 years! I can still play on Ubuntu and if must use the Virtual machine to play (I tested for that and it wasn’t promising). I’ll be keeping you posted about anything I notice!

P.S: I no longer use this awesome distro, I’m on Ubuntu Gnome 16.04 and it was an excellent distro to use, so good I almost didn’t upgrade!

A Pomodoro Timer for GNOME

2016-02-27 / Muaad Elsharif / 0 Comments

Using a timer is essential for productivity and fitness using a computer, as it helps you maintain focus and mental agility. Let alone preventing RSI which is a serious issue that affects computer users worldwide.

Timer apps on Linux

There aren’t many good timers for Ubuntu, but this one is clearly different!
I tried many timers for my productivity use like the timer dockelt on Docky and world timer, I also tr ied RSI T imer, but something always felt missing!

Pomodro timer

Pomodro timer is the best of the bunch.

Availability

This timer for Linux only as it supports several distros like: ArchLinux, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, OpenSuse, Ubuntu and more.
It integrates with the interface and works nicely with the notifications. *Gnome only currently.

Work Flow

It’s a must have as it supports a whole work session without the need of manual interfering. It’s better than Gnome clocks which sets one Alarm and the program Alarm that needs a lot of configuration. It’s almost as good as instant boss. Supports productivity and efficiency. While keeping you aware of moving and taking frequent breaks.
I’ve been able to work it into Ubuntu Gn ome 16.04 and it’s been working like a charm, even making use of the notifications, very nice!

Download

It can be downloaded freely from the site for many Linux distributions (Linux only), to download go to the site and scroll down to download.

It runs perfectly on Ubuntu Gnome 14.04.4 and Ubuntu Gnome 16.04 without a problem.

Did you like this timer? Will you be downloading it? Please let me know what you think in the comments section below.

Ubuntu 16.04 Beta 1 download

2016-02-26 / Muaad Elsharif / 0 Comments

Today Ubuntu 16.04 Beta 1 is ready for download on all flavors of Ubuntu, that includes Lubuntu, Ubuntu Gnome, and Xubuntu.

This is the first major milestone for many flavors as Alpha wasn’t available to many of them, while this version is far from complete, it gives you a clear idea on how will Ubuntu 16.04 will look and behave.

Now every flavor has it’s changes and improvements, but since I’m with Ubuntu Gnome now, here is a list of update and known bugs (Source):

Software Updates

GNOME Shell 3.18
Most of GNOME 3.18
GNOME Software has replaced Ubuntu Software Center
GNOME Calendar and GNOME Logs are installed by default
GNOME Builder (IDE) is now available in the archives
gnome-control-center sharing panel has been fixed
Experimental wayland session is now available. Install gnome-session-wayland and then select “GNOME on wayland” from login screen (Only works with OSS GPU drivers).

Known Problems

The prompt asking for media removal is not shown at the end of the installation (966480)
Shutdown/Restart of live session guest does not work in Virtualbox, and VMWare (1447038)
No auto login in Ubuntu GNOME Xenial (1547297)
Ubuntu installer says: The creation of swap space in partition failed (990744)
Ubuntu GNOME Xenial live image boots to tty1 (1548864)
It only shows installed apps, not available ones (1548933)

The beta version isn’t ready for everyday use, but if you can and have a decent Internet connection, downloaded and give it a try even on a VM.
I seriously can’t wait for Ubuntu 16.04. It’s going to be awesome!!

Are you excited as I am? Let me know what you think in the comments section below?

Batch install downloaded DEB packages on Ubuntu

2015-07-25 / Muaad Elsharif / 0 Comments

Today’s post is a re-write of “How to add downloaded packages to Synaptic Package Manager in Ubuntu 13.04” because I had to install packages Offline when I was fixing my brother’s computer. And something wasn’t right!

In that particular case I installed Ubuntu 14.04 twice in the same week so using the same packages to update was probably the right thing to do to save time and data plan.

Anyway based on my recent experience it will be much more clear. And I added pictures too! Synaptic is a GTK+-based graphical user interface for Advanced Packaging Tool (APT)—the Package management system used by Debian and its derivatives. Synaptic is usually used on systems based on deb packages but can also be used on systems based on RPM packages. (Source)

We are using it today to batch install software on Ubuntu, and you must take note that it’s a powerful tool and can potentially harm your system. So take care. You are going to need admin permission to access Synaptic.

Also don’t install anything you don’t trust! Be careful because now the program has admin permission to change your system!

After we took a look at the warnings, let’s take a look at the scenarios:
You are an Ubuntu admin and you have 10+ computers. And you need to install the same software on all 10 computers. So instead of Connecting them all to the Internet and downloading the same software. Connect one of them and download the required software. Then install it on the rest.

You just installed Ubuntu on a machine and begun to download software. But the Internet is really slow! (Third world problems) so you take the programs on a USB from another computer and get to work!
You have a limited data plan and you are trying to save!

No matter what was the situation. It’s a handy trick and you will comeback to this tutorial over and over to read it!

First of all. Let’s prepare the software.

You can either use the software center cache. Or any random .deb packages you have. (Or both)

If you want to copy the software center cache then go to the directory:

“Computer/var/cache/apt/archives” where “computer” is your system partition.

This is a system folder so you can’t cut or delete any of these packages. And if you copy the .lock file or the partial it will result in copy error.

Remember where you put the packages and the folder name as we are going to need that later.

Open Synaptic and enter your password. If you don’t have Synaptic you have to install it. Say from the Ubuntu Software Center.

Once you opened it you have to confirm that you are online. I can’t stress this enough. And it won’t work if you aren’t connected to the Internet.

You can confirm that by reloading package information. If it downloads package information without problem. Then you are good to go!

Paste all the packages in that directory, in this tutorial it’s called “New Packages”.

Click file Add downloaded packages.

You will see a browse dialog., use it to navigate to your folder.

once there click open.

Wait a moment for the packages to add. It can take several minutes when adding a lot of packages.

Click Apply and Synaptic will tell you how much packages will be installed. The size of install and how much it will download.

Wait for the progress bar to end.

Then click close to finish installing the software.

This way we installed a batch of software as we would install a single one. Without re-downloading them again!

Pretty handy isn’t it?