Howto Install Kde 4.3.1 In Ubuntu Jaunty

Kde 4.3.1 is released with a couple improvements and bug fixes.

Some notable changes from complete changelog :

*KDE 4.3 is now also available in Croatia.

*A crash when editing toolbar setup has been fixed.

*Support for transferring files through SSH using KIO::Fish has been fixed.

*A number of bugs in KWin, KDE's window and compositing manager has been fixed.

*A large number of bugs in KMail, KDE's email client are now gone.

Installing KDE 4.3.1 in Ubuntu Jaunty:

Open your sources.list:

$gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

and add the following repository at the end of the file. Save the file when you are done:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/backports/ubuntu jaunty main

Add GPG keys:

$gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv 2836CB0A8AC93F7A

$gpg --export --armor 2836CB0A8AC93F7A | sudo apt-key add -

Now you can update your list and do a dist-upgrade to upgrade to KDE 4.3.1 :

$sudo apt-get update

$sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Canonical Unveils The Ubuntu Software Store!

Yesterday Canonical finally gave a name to their latest application center. It is now called “Ubuntu Software Store” and package’s name is software-store. It will be the major handling of Ubuntu’s overall software. At the moment packages affected by software-store are: 

aptoncd, computer-janitor, computer-janitor-gtk, gdebi, gnome-app-install, software-properties-gtk, software-store, synaptic, update-manager

In the future it will grow to replace Synaptic, gdebi, some parts of the Computer Janitor, and possibly Update Manager (This is an official statement, not my opinion! :) ). However this is not going to be archived at the upcoming release, Ubuntu Karmic Koala.

To contribute to the development, you can read the official wiki.

Screenshots of the Ubuntu Software Store:

Caffeine 0.3 is Out with Major Improvements

Caffeine is a little application that sits in your system tray, waiting for you to click it. Once you do, it fills up with coffee and keeps your computer from going to sleep or activating the screensaver. Caffeine is very handy for full screen games, watching a flash video, downloading something or so.

What’s new in Caffeine 0.3?

* Complete object-oriented rewrite.

* Support for xscreensaver

* Support for DPMS

* Full support for internationalization

* Command-line interface

* Simplification of packaging

You can also check Caffeine’s roadmap by clicking here.

Download Caffeine 0.3:

Edit your sources.list and add Caffeine Launchpad PPA to your list:

$gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

And add the following at the end of the file:

For  Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/caffeine-developers/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/caffeine-developers/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

For Ubuntu Karmic Koala

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/caffeine-developers/ppa/ubuntu karmic main deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/caffeine-developers/ppa/ubuntu karmic main

Save and close it.

Add the PPA key by entering :

$sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 569113AE

Update your system / list :

$sudo apt-get update

Install Caffeine with this command :

$sudo apt-get install caffeine

Tested and works great on Ubuntu Karmic Koala Alpha 4.

Skype 2.1 Beta for Linux

Today Skype released their latest client, 2.1 Beta for linux. This release comes with high quality video and super wideband audio that have been exciting features of Windows and Mac version. This release is quite important for linux platforms since it supports Pulseaudio.

What is new in this release?

* Skype's SILK codec for outstanding sound quality

* High Quality Video

* PulseAudio

* Send SMS messages

* Organise your contacts with contact groups

* Improvements to chat (typing indicator, new emoticons and message editing)

Download Skype 2.1 Beta:

You can get the latest .deb package by going here, and selecting your Ubuntu version.

One Click Multi Rapidshare Uploader

Yestarday darthrax released his latest Rapidshare Multi Uploader script. The script uploads your files (Right Click Uploader!) to your Rapidshare account easily. There are tons of downloaders (see Jdownloader) for Rapidshare but not many uploading scripts like this one, especially with multi file support!

This script will compress your selected files as rar (99mb per file, it will split the files, if they are bigger than 99mb.), upload them then delete the rar files after upload.

Incase you do not have rar package installed, this is a good time to install it:

$sudo apt-get install rar

You also need zenity package which is pre-installed with ubuntu:

$sudo apt-get install zenity

Navigate to your ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts folder and copy rsapi.pl (You can download this file from rapidshare, or see below) as .rsapi.pl:

$cd ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts
$wget -c https://dl.getdropbox.com/u/612498/rsapi.pl && mv rsapi.pl .rsapi.pl && chmod +x .rsapi.pl

Now download RapidUpload script and save it to ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts:

$cd ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts
$wget -c https://dl.getdropbox.com/u/612498/RapidUpload && chmod +x RapidUpload

Now edit ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts/RapidUpload script and change username and password parts:

$gedit ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts/RapidUpload

You are going to change this part with your username password:

rapidshareusername=username
rapidsharepassword=password

Save it when you are done.


If you do not have a Rapidshare premium account, open RapidUpload and change

accounttype=prem

part with accounttype=col (collector's account), or accounttype=free (free user = anonymous)

PS : It is under rapidsharepassword=password part

You can now Right Click any file(s), and select Scripts > RapidUpload to upload your files.

Tested on Ubuntu Karmic Alpha 4, Ubuntu Jaunty, Crunchbang Linux.

Have fun!

Is ID Software Abandoning Linux?

Yesterday I was surfing at ubuntuforums.org and saw very interesting thread about ID software and the future of their Linux ports. As you know, ID Software was(?!) the biggest company that supports Linux and produces Linux ports to their games. Naikon89 sent two e-mails to John Carmack, and according the replies of John Carmack, id software (owned by Zenimax now) is abondoning linux ports. Here is direct link to the thread at ubuntuforums.org and the two e-mails John Carmarck replied :

> Dear Mr Carmack, I am just wondering if the graphics renderer for
> Rage is still
> built using OpenGL 3.* as a target? Will id still port to Linux if
> user numbers are
> small or not as big as say Mac OS or Windows?
>
> Gratzi,
> naikon89

The PC and Mac versions are still OpenGL 2.x.

We are not currently scheduling native linux ports. It isn't out of the
question, but I don't think we will be able to justify the work. If
there are hundreds of thousands of linux users playing Quake Live when
we are done with Rage, that would certainly influence our decision...

John Carmack

Follow up :

> Ok, it must be alot more difficult to port
> than older id software games :(

Yes, it is. The codebase is much, much larger, and the graphics
technology pushes a lot of paths that are not usually optimized. It
probably wouldn't be all that bad to get it running on the nvidia binary
drivers, but the chance of it working correctly and acceptably anywhere
else would be small. If you are restricted to it only working on the
closed source drivers, you might as well boot into windows and get the
fully tested and tuned experience...

John Carmack

Ear Candy, A Nice PulseAudio Volume Manager

Ear Candy is a cool PulseAudio volume manager, it will automatically mute your music when a video(Youtube, local movie, whatever) starts or when a skype calls in. It is a sound level manager that nicely fades applications in and out based on their profile and window focus.

What works now:

- All volume adjustments are fades
- Fade out music/video players on skype call
- Fade to music player with focus when more than one
- Fade out music player when video playing
- Push sound to USB headsets on plugin
- Categories to assign to clients
- Sniffs desktop files to guess application category ... music/video/VoIP
- Simplified pref UI for creating rules
- Volume sniffing to fix youtube video issue
- PID matching
- Reset volumes for streams on exit (so streams dont get stuck at a low level)

Whats being worked on:

- Optional plugins, allowing pause of banshee / rhythmbox etc via DBUS
- Global mute of managed streams



Installation:

Open your sources.list and add the Launchpad PPA:

$gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

And add the PPA at the end of the file:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/flimm/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/flimm/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

Change jaunty part with your ubuntu version.

Add the PPA key:

$sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 6E73CA45

Update and install ear candy:

$sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install earcandy

You can run Ear Candy with $ear_candy command, add it to start up and add application rules.