How-To: Install Exaile 3.0.1 in Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope

Exaile 3.0.1 was released on 6 September and it is a bugfix for the stable 3.0 series. To get it in Ubuntu Jaunty, follow the steps below:

Edit /etc/apt/sources.list and add the following two lines (the second one is needed only if you want the sources too):

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

Make sure to save the file and add the trusted key:

sudo apt-key adv –keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com –recv-keys 43CBFCC0

Next, update the source packages:

sudo apt-get update

To install Exaile 3.0.1, issue the following command in a terminal application:

sudo apt-get install exaile

This should be all. Run Exaile by typing Alt+F2 and entering exaile in the run box that appears.

continue reading »

How-To: Install Amarok 2.2 Beta 1 from the Kubuntu Beta Backports

The first beta of Amarok 2.2, codenamed ‘Crystal Clear’, was released on September 4 and packages are available for Kubuntu 9.04 Jaunty from the Kubuntu Beta Backports.

Amarok 2.2 Beta 1 comes with a huge number of bug fixes and many improvements and new features. To list some of them:
- new videoclip applet
- new photo applet
- improved browser layout to the left
- widgets can now be arranged differently from default
- ratings
- support for audio CDs
- the playlist offers multi-level sorting now
Those are only the highlights though, to see the full announcement and changelog read this.

To install Amarok 2.2 Beta 1 in Kubuntu/Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope just follow the instructions below:

First, edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file with your favourite text editor, e.g.:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Or:

kdesudo kate /etc/apt/sources.list

Next, add the following two lines:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/beta/ubuntu karmic main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/beta/ubuntu karmic main

Make sure to save the file and then add the trusted key for this repository:

sudo apt-key adv –keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com –recv-keys 8AC93F7A

Now update your package lists:

sudo apt-get update

Eventually, remove your existing Amarok installation:

sudo apt-get remove –purge amarok
sudo apt-get autoremove –purge

And now install the latest Amarok:

sudo apt-get install amarok

This should be all. Run Amarok 2.2 Beta 1 by pressing Alt+F2 and typing amarok in KRunner.

continue reading »

How-To: Install OpenOffice.org 3.1.1 in Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope

OpenOffice.org 3.1.1 was released a few days ago, bringing many bug fixes to the stable 3.1 series. One of the ways to get it on Jaunty is to use the Launchpad.net PPA for OpenOffice.org Scribblers which recently packaged it for Ubuntu Jaunty and included it in their repositories.

To install the latest release using command-line, just use the instructions below:

First, edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file and enter your user password:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Add the following two lines (the second one is not necessary, unless you want the sources to be available too):

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

Add the trusted key for these repositories:

sudo apt-key adv –keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com –recv-keys 247D1CFF

Update the packages lists:

sudo apt-get update

You can eventually remove your existing OpenOffice installation by using the following two commands:

sudo apt-get remove –purge openoffice.org
sudo apt-get autoremove –purge

This will also remove system-wide configuration files.

Now, install OpenOffice.org 3.1.1:

sudo apt-get install openoffice.org

This should be all. You can run it by pressing Alt+F2 and typing openoffice in the run box.

continue reading »

How To Install Ubuntu Server 9.04

A step by step guide on how to install Ubuntu Server 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope with Screenshots

continue reading »

How-To: Install Pidgin 2.6.1 in Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty from a Launchpad PPA

Pidgin 2.6.0 was made available a few days ago, on August 19, 2009, and today Pidgin 2.6.1 was released as a bug fix version to the new stable 2.6 series. Among the features and improvements which come with 2.6.0 are:

- several changes and bug fixes in libpurple, the library used by Pidgin for its various chat protocols
- various DNS fixes
- AIM and ICQ fixes
- Gadu-Gadu fixes
- MSN new features, like support for receiving audio clips, support for receiving handwritten messages, many other fixes
- lots of XMPP fixes and improvements, like voice and video support with Jingle or the Service Discovery Browser plugin
- Yahoo! fixes and improvements
- Finch and the Pidgin GTK+ Theme control plugin also received improvements

To install Pidgin 2.6.1 in Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope from the Pidgin developers PPA on Launchpad, just follow the instructions below:

First of all, edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file with your favourite text editor (e.g. sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list or gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list) and add the following two lines:

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

Next, make sure to save the file (Ctrl+O followed by Ctrl+X in Nano) and add the trusted key for this repository:

gpg –keyserver http://keyserver.ubuntu.com –recv-keys A1F196A8
gpg –export A1F196A8 | sudo apt-key add -

Now, update the packages lists:

sudo apt-get update

The next step is to uninstall your currently Pidgin installation:

sudo apt-get remove –purge pidgin

And the next step is just to install Pidgin 2.6.1 from the newly added repositories:

sudo apt-get install pidgin

This should be all.

continue reading »

How-To: Install Simon Speech Recognition Application in Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope

Simon is a very nice KDE4 project with the goal of developing a speech recognition application and it currently works pretty well by letting the user record certain words and execute various commands given via a microphone. Since currently it is not included in the Ubuntu repositories, here are instructions on getting it up and running in Jaunty.

First of all, open up Konsole or GNOME Terminal and install the package flex, needed by simon:

sudo apt-get install flex

Next, download the Ubuntu DEB package from kde-apps.org page and install it as:

sudo dpkg -i simon-0.2-Linux_i386.deb

Or whatever version you downloaded. This should be it, run simon by typing Alt+F2 and typing simon followed by Enter.

continue reading »

How-To: Compile and Install GIMP 2.7.0 in Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope

Ubuntu Jaunty comes by default with GIMP 2.6 included in the repositories, but you can try the latest development version available, which is 2.7.0. This last release is a step forward the next stable GIMP version and contains a lot of user interface improvements and changes, GEGL migration, two new plug-ins to mention the major ones. To compile and install it in Ubuntu, just follow the steps below:

1. Make sure to have the sources repositories enabled
Notice that you can skip this step if you haven’t deleted or commented lines out of your /etc/apt/sources.list file.

Edit as root the /etc/apt/sources.list file and make sure to have a line which starts with deb-src, like in the example below (if not, add it and save the file):

deb-src http://ro.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-updates main restricted

Again, this should be enabled by default. Next, update the package lists:

sudo apt-get update

2. Install the development libraries
Open a terminal and type:

sudo apt-get build-dep gimp

This command will fetch and install both the development libraries and the build-essential package needed for the compilation.

3. Get the GIMP source tarball
Download the source code from here, make sure the working directory is the one where you saved it and uncompress it:

tar -xjf gimp-2.7.0.tar.bz2

4. Compile and install GIMP
In the gimp-2.7.0 directory, issue the commands:

./configure
make
sudo make install

The last one with your user password. Notice that you can install it as normal user too, by specifying a prefix in your home directory for example and including the bin directory in your $PATH variable:

./configure –prefix=/home/USER/usr
make
make install

No root privileges needed in this case.

continue reading »