Pinta is a free, open source drawing/editing program modeled after Paint.NET. Its goal is to provide users with a simple yet powerful way to draw and manipulate images on Linux. The latest version of Pinta is 1.0 that was released a few days ago so we will be covering it right-away.

Download

Download for Ubuntu 10.04 | Download for Ubuntu 10.10 | Download for Ubuntu 11.04

Install

Method I ->

Just download the above file and open it with ‘Ubuntu Software Center’ or Gdebi package manager or simply use dpkg command to install Pinta.

cd ~/Downloads

sudo dpkg -i pinta_1.0-1~webupd8~maverick_all.deb (Change it accordingly to your version I still love my Ubuntu 10.10 )

and there it is. Access it from Applications > Graphics > Pinta Image Editor.

Take a look >_+ 

Method II ->

To install Pinta, the easiest method is to do it via PPA

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install pinta

This will install Pinta on your system.

Thought there is another method to install Pinta using tarballs but I’m skipping it here due to dependency issues created at installation time

Basics

Pinta is a really easy tool for image editing. As stated above, it is based upon the Paint.net for Windows, which is also a very good tool for image editing. There also exists a very nice tool for image editing in Ubuntu named GIMP, you can try that too ! For now, lets concentrate on Pinta and how to work with it.

Useful shortcuts > Here are some shortcuts of Pinta that will help you getting your work done easier & faster.

• Ctrl+n – New Image
• Ctrl +o – Open Image
• Ctrl+s – Save Image.
• Ctrl+Shift+s – Save image as..
• Ctrl+x – Cut
• Ctrl+v – Paste
• Ctrl+r – Resize the image
• Ctrl+z – Undo
• Shift+Ctrl+z- Redo
• Ctrl+w – Close
• Ctrl+q – Quit

A Small Tutorial

So how about adding some effect to your image using Pinta . Here we are with a small tutorial to make the background of your image turn to black and white keeping the elements you want colored (I usually do this a lot)

Here we’ll change a random picture of Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales such that the background is done to black and white. Herez a preview

Before

After

Step 1 : Open the image in Pinta

Step 2 : Click the Lasso Select Tool from the Tools

Step 3 : Carefully select the edges of the picture (you may use Lasso Tool for this purpose)

Step 4 : Cut the selected part of the image (Press Ctrl + X)

Step 5 : Select the rest of the image using Ctrl + A

Step 6 : Goto Adjustments and Select Black And White ( o press Shift + Ctrl + L)

Step 7 : Click on the bottom of the layers panel to add a new layer

Step 8 : Unselect the layer we just made Black and White

Step 9 : Paste the image we took out in Step 4

Step 10 : Move few pixels to adjust the image and save it

Thats it with the basics! We will be back soon with more advanced image editing techniques, till then, keep visiting Linoob.com and dont forget to ask any of your queries at our forum.

Njoy !

Note : All rights of images reserved with original Author . This image is just used for illustration purpose.

Hardware Drivers are very important for a computer system to run properly to its optimum limits. Real Gaming on Ubuntu would be possible only after Driver installation. This post will cover the basic methods of installing Hardware Drivers in Ubuntu. We will try to make things as simple as possible. When it comes to Laptops, Ubuntu has always configured the present external card easily and  the install was just 1 click away and most of the times, the case is same with Desktops as well but sometimes, things dont work as they are supposed to. For that, we have some mitigation strategies so that your hardware driver installation is not halted because of some bug or the other

Fundamental Method

This method is the most basic method of installing Hardware Drivers in Ubuntu. This method works for all kinds of cards irrespective of tags (ATI/Nvidia). All you need to do after Ubuntu installation is -

• Connect to internet and wait for the pop-up to appear.
• Click on it and it will show “Available Drivers” for the present hardware configuration.
• Click “Activate” and the drivers will be installed easily. Then reboot the system.

If somehow, you donot see any popup or you loose it or cancel it, dont worry. All you need to do its to browse to System>Administation>Additional Drivers and click “Activate” and the available driver will be installed. After that reboot your computer and enjoy 3D effects Ubuntu as well. This method works 90% of times with most hardware. The images below will make you understand better –

Alter : Synaptic Method

Synaptic Package Manager can also be easily used to install Nvidia/ATI drivers in Ubuntu.

Nvidia

Open “Synaptic Package Manager” from System>Administration and search for ‘nvidia’. Now select ‘nvidia-current’,'nvidia-current-modaliases’, ‘nvidia-common’, ‘nvidia-settings’ and mark them for installation. Apply changes and wait for the processed to complete. That should be it. Reboot your computer and its done.

ATI

Open “Synaptic Package Manager” from System>Administration and search for ‘fglrx’. Now select ‘fglrx’,'fglrx-amdccle’, ‘fglrx-modaliases’ & ‘xserver-xorg-video-radeon’ and mark them for installation. Apply changes and wait for the processed to complete. Thats it. Reboot and done.

If the methods used above doesnt work for you, then the below are the best possible approaches to get things done. Be very careful while using them as you might land up in trouble.

Nvidia Driver Installation

Method I – PPA

A good news for all Nvidia card owners is that there is a PPA available that is regularly updated on launchpad. So you can directly use it to install your drivers, just type the following commands in sequence and its done.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-current nvidia-current-modaliases nvidia-settings

Reboot and enjoy !

Method II – Manual Install

There are some prerequisites for manual install and you need to be very careful while following these steps. First, make sure that your /etc/X11/xorg.conf is backed up.

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup

Next, download drivers for your system from the download page. Open a terminal, and run the following command:

uname -r

and now insert the output into the “uname -r” portion of this command (sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`) carefully as done below:

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-2.6.38-8-generic

Now, we are ready. For Ubuntu, type

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

OR for Kubuntu:

sudo /etc/init.d/kdm stop

First navigate from the tty to the directory where you saved the install file (I will use /path/to/installer), then set executable permissions on it:

cd ~/Downloads
sudo chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-x86-270.41.06.run

You can start the install script with the following command:

sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-270.41.06.run

The installer will now walk you through the steps required. Afater comletion, you can now restart your X11 using:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start

OR

sudo /etc/init.d/kdm start

Now you can now change settings for your video setup. In Ubuntu, go to Applications->System Tools->NVIDIA X Server Settings and set your desktop accordingly.

ATI Driver Installation

Method I – PPA

There is a PPA available for ATI users on Launchpad which can be used to install ATI drivers on Ubuntu -

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd

and reboot your computer. We didnt had any ATI cards for testing so, we are relying on launchpad and google for this one. Any help would be much appreciated in this case.

Method II – Manual Install

Prerequisites -> Open the terminal and type -

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libqtgui4

Download the drivers from HERE, and open the Terminal and type:

cd ~/Downloads

This is not necessary if you are running Kubuntu or have already installed the libraries. In the Terminal, to create the deb files, type:

sudo sh ati-driver-installer-11-3-x86.x86_64.run –buildpkg Ubuntu/maverick

To install the created deb files, type in the Terminal:

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

After that, type in:

sudo aticonfig –initial

Close the Terminal and reboot the system.

If all is right, the fglrx driver that corresponds to AMD/ATI Catalyst 11.2 will be installed and working on your system. To confirm the drivers are working open a Terminal and type:

fglrxinfo

and you will see your card info displayed. Reboot and enjoy your Ubuntu desktop to its maximum!

Ubuntu 11.04 Compiz effects ->

Unity 3D Workspaces ->

Thats it for now. We will be back with more later on. For any queries regarding Drivers or any other regarding Ubuntu, ask us here freely.

Njoy !

Cairo Dock – An awesome dock for Ubuntu desktops has been released. As we have already discussed in our previsou post ‘Ultimate Docks for Ubuntu‘, Cairo GLX dock is a dock manager that uses Cairo / OpenGL to render graphics (many in correlation with Compiz) with full hardware acceleration. It’s fully configurable and fully customizable and can be used as a taskbar too. You can easily add applets in the dock or as a desklet. So, its a must have for eyecandy lovers.

Install

Open the terminal and type this -

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cairo-dock-team/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cairo-dock

and done. Now close the terminal and fireup Cairo dock from Applications>System Tools>Cairo Dock and enjoy.

What’s New

• A lot of new applets are available in our new repository! (Transmission, Deluge, MintMenu, Translator, Quote of the day, etc). You can install them for free in a single click!
• The new “Recent-Events” applet lets you browse your last activties (music, videos, documents, web pages, etc).
• The System-Monitor applet can now monitor CPU temperature and fan speed.
• The menus have a better layout.
• The Logout applet now warns you when the computer needs to be restarted.
• The Stack applet now displays the web page’s favicon.
• The Drop and Share applet now handles UbuntuOne.
• Better integration with Compiz and Kwin.
• Many bug-fixes.

Configuring Cairo

Right click and goto Cairo Dock>Configure to set the Cairo dock according to your need. To add Launchers, just click on Add-ons tab from the Cairo menu and click ‘apply’.

Cairo Dock Themes :- There are a lot of themes available in the list. Right-click Cairo-dock>Manage Themes and just select and click ‘apply’. It will be downloaded, installed and changed automatically. Additional themes can be downloaded from Gnome-Look. Here are a few -

1) Humanity Theme – Download

This theme aims to revolutionize the look of the Cairo-Dock for the integration with the theme of Humanity. Also attached the theme for the basket and the icons for the music player applet, the latter created by me on the basis of the icon\’s default music player in this original theme. Added the Clear CPU Applet themes

2) Graphite Theme – Download

The author have ported the skin graphite by ~deniartru and Icon theme by Asher to cairo-dock.
To install extract to:~/.cairo-dock/themes/ and done.

 

3)Handlegot Theme – Download

A theme for Cairo-dock based on DeviantDark’s Handelgot Iconset (BLACK version). For using it without svn version of cairo-dock, put the folder extracted from the tar.gz in ~/.config/cairo-dock/themes or in ~/.cairo-dock/themes (for older versions)

 

4) Mac-OSX Theme – Download

Extract the file you downloaded. Go to your home folder, make sure the “view hidden files” option is on. Go into the “.config” folder, then the “cairo-dock” folder. Go into the “themes” folder, and move the extracted file in there. From here you can apply the theme using Cairo Dock’s “Manage Themes” option. Make sure you have “Use The Themes New Launchers” and “Use The Themes New Behavior” checked!

 

5) Brown Spectre Theme – Download

Window Manager : Compiz Fusion, Window Decorator : Emerald, Emerald Theme : Reuben;
Gtk2 Engine: Pixmap e Mist, Gtk2 Theme : Reuben, Icon themes : Buuf, Dock : Cairo-Dock.

(Download the themes and install them right away and you are good to go)

For any queries regarding Cairo Dock or any other regarding Ubuntu, ask us here freely.

Njoy !

We have been working on Unity much lately, but we cant forget our favourite DE – Gnome. Speaking of Gnome, we would like to present you a cool application menu for your Ubuntu desktops – Cardapio. This app-menu is really light, cool, usable and makes things straight forward. Cardapio can work in two modes: as a panel applet (in which case it is an alternative to Gnome’s application menu applet) or as a stand-alone launcher (in which case it is an alternative to the simplest use-cases of Gnome Do, Synapse etc). It has a beautiful gtk-native interface and includes plugins for performing inline searches of Files (via Tracker), Software Center, Google, Wikipedia, and much more !

Install

Use the following PPA to install Cardapio on Ubuntu 10.04 and 10.10 -

sudo apt-get install ppa:cardapio-team/unstable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cardapio

and done. Take a look -

Usage Details

Panel Applet

To use as a panel applet, simply add it as usual : Right-click the panel, select “Add to panel”, then choose “Cardapio” and now you can remove the default App menu.

File Searching

To search for files in your computer using Cardapio, you need to install Tracker 0.8.7 or above. To install it on Ubuntu -

sudo apt-get install tracker

Then be sure to run the tracker preferences tool (just type “Search and Indexing” in Cardapio), change the settings to your personal preference, and restart your computer. Afterwards, activate the File Search plugin in Cardapio’s preferences window!

Launcher

To use as a launcher instead, make sure Cardapio is not used as an applet first, then run:

cardapio hidden

Thats it for now. For any queries regarding this or any other regarding Ubuntu/Linux, our forum is always open.

Njoy !

GnoMenu is a consolidated menu for gnome that brings eye candy to the world of the Gnome menu’s in Ubuntu. Fully functional menu , supports themes , for a composited or non composited Ubuntu desktop. It can emulate the look and feel of the most beautiful menus of most modern desktops, and it can also use custom menus, due to its powerful theme XML engine making it a essential requirement for Ubuntu lovers.

Quick Install

Installing Gnomenu is simple because of the availability of PPA. Just open the terminal and type :-

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnomenu-team/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnomenu

and wait for the install to complete.

Playing around with Gnomenu

Working with GnoMenu is really easy. All you need to do is to right click your panel (top/bottom etc) and add ‘GnoMenu’ applet to it. move it to  a desired place and thats it. There are a few of Icons and themes to choose from so that you can have a desired styled Ubuntu menus. In case you want more themes and icons, you can find them at Gnome-look.org. You can now remove the old Menus from the panel if you don’t like them.

Njoy !

A good news for all Ubuntu users out there: The latest release of our favourite browser Mozilla Firefox 4.0 codename MineField i.e the Release Candidate has been released. Yes, its out and ready to roll. In this post, we will discuss how to install Firefox 4.0 RC without losing your preinstalled Firefox 3.6 or any of your bookmarks, addons etc.

Download

Firefox 4.0 RC-1 [Post Updated]

Installation

Basic Method

1) Simply extract the file, rename it to ‘Firefox RC-1′ and copy that folder. Now type :

sudo nautilus

2) In the Nautilus window, browse the Filesystem to /usr/lib. Paste the file there and close Nautilus.
3) Now, goto System > Preferences > Main Menu and link the directory /usr/lib/Firefox RC-1/firefox and add the link to Applications > Internet.
4) Its all done. Now you can enjoy your Firefox 4.0 RC without losing your bookmarks, your stable Firefox 3.6 or any of your data.

PPA Method

For Ubuntu 10.04 and 10.10 -> Open the terminal and type this PPA :

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-next
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install firefox-4.0

and its done.

New Features of the Minefield RC

Besides the general stability, performance, and compatibility improvements, there are a lot of new features & updates:

• The default homepage design has been refreshed.
• WebGL is enabled on all platforms, but, like for other hardware acceleration features, many buggy drivers or driver versions are blocked.
• Overhaul of the bookmarks and history code, enabling faster bookmarking and startup performance.
• Additional polish for the Firefox Add-ons Manager.
• Crash protection for Linux when there is a crash in the Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime or Microsoft Silverlight plugins.
• New HTML5 parser & support for more HTML5 form controls.
• HTML5 Forms API makes web based forms easier to implement and validate.
• Firefox now supports the HTML5 video “buffered” property.

For more details on this release, see Release Notes.

Njoy Minefield !

After the previous post of Ubuntu customized themes, we are back again to share a few more eyecandy stuff with you all. This time, we are not only having some really cool themes for you but we have some good-looking wallpapers and icon-themes as well. For those who havent read our previous post, its here. This time, things are getting more classy, more shiny and more awesome.

So lets get started…..

Orta Theme

Orta GTK is a modified GTK2 theme for Ubuntu. Use the following PPA to install Orta on your Ubuntu 10.10 or 10.04.2 desktop.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nikount/orta-desktop
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install orta-theme orta-emerald-decorators

and done. We have used AWN Dock here which was discussed in this post.

You can find the Orta Settings Manager under the Preferences category of your Main Menu. Set it and enjoy. Here are the screenshots for reference :-

‘A New Hope’ Theme

This is one of the best GTK themes around. With a little tweaking, you will find your desktop shininh like never before. What you need to do is just download the file here and

• Extract the .zip file to a folder
• Double click “install.sh” and select “Run”.
• Follow the prompts accordingly.

and we are good to go. Here’s how it looks like :-

Equinox-GTK Theme

This Equinox theme is a heavily modified version of the beautiful Aurora engine (1.4). Thats why it looks so awesome. There is a PPA available for this theme so you need not to go anywhere. Just type in these commands and enjoy.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tiheum/equinox
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gtk2-engines-equinox equinox-theme equinox-ubuntu-theme

Now, just right click on deskop> Change Desktop Background> Themes and select any equinox theme.

Here’s a quick look at ‘em.

Faenza Icon Theme 0.9

For both of the above you need to install Faenza icon theme which are the coolest icon set ever. Just use this PPA and you are good to go.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tiheum/equinox
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install faenza-icon-theme

After that, select any of you installed themes, click ‘customize’ and goto ‘icons’ tab and select ‘Faenza icons’ and done.

Macbuntu

Talking of Macbuntu, its a full customization pack that has been designed to Macify Ubuntu totally. This pack is really a great script created by the sole aim of giving Ubuntu users a full Mac-OSX like experience. This script significantly changes the desktop, so be careful with it. And its not compatible with Ubuntu Netbook Edition.

Here it goes, open the terminal and type in these commands and see the magic happen :->

For Ubuntu 10.10

wget https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/macbuntu/macbuntu-10.10/v2.3/Macbuntu-10.10.tar.gz -O ~/Downloads/Macbuntu-10.10.tar.gz
tar xzvf ~/Downloads/Macbuntu-10.10.tar.gz -C /tmp
cd /tmp/Macbuntu-10.10/
./install.sh

For Ubuntu 10.04.2

wget https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/macbuntu/macbuntu-10.04/v2.2/Macbuntu-10.04.tar.gz -O ~/Downloads/Macbuntu-10.04.tar.gz
tar xzvf ~/Downloads/Macbuntu-10.04.tar.gz -C /tmp
cd /tmp/Macbuntu-10.04/
./install.sh

The installer will ask you a few questions time to time, keep up and select your choices accordingly. After installation is complete, please restart and login. You will see MacUbuntu up and running >

Wallpapers

‘Orta’ Theme Wallpaper >

‘A New Hope’ Theme Wallpaper >

‘Equinox’ Theme Wallpaper >

Ubuntu Studio 10.10 Wallpaper >

Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) Special Wallpapers >

The themes, icon-sets and wallpapers are copyrights of their respective owners. For more eyecandy stuff, keep visiting. We would be glad to see how you customized your desktop, so send in your screenshots here or just post the link in the comment below.

Njoy !

Sorry for being a bit late on this but the second major maintenance update to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS has been released by the Ubuntu developer team. This release includes updated server, desktop, alternate installation CDs and DVDs for the i386 and amd64 architectures. This update also includes the official derivatives i.e Kubuntu, Xubuntu etc. Numerous updates have been integrated, and updated installation media has been provided so that fewer updates will need to be downloaded after installation. These include security updates and corrections for other high-impact bugs, with a focus on maintaining stability and compatibility with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.

Download

Ubuntu 10.04.2
Kubuntu 10.04.2
Xubuntu 10.04.2

This release has gone through many bugfixes and updates. Some important of them include :->

• On Wubi, it won’t ask for an install device, but just updates wubildr using the diverted grub-install.
• Mangle whether the ‘ui’ keyword is in syslinux.cfg based on the OS version.
• Fixed ‘crash’ on update/upgrade download error?.
• Install GRUB to the SATA RAID or multipath device when /boot is on such a device, rather than installing to the first hard dis.
• Added missing desktop files and icons.

Most of the fixes are hardware based that means the all-round hardware support have been improved. The following is a brief summary of bugs fixed between Ubuntu 10.04.1 and 10.04. –>> Ubuntu 10.04.2 Release Notes. This list includes all the secirity bugs that were fixed till this release –>> Ubuntu Security Notice.

(This summary covers only changes to packages in main and restricted, which account for all packages in the officially-supported CD images; there are further changes to various packages in universe and multiverse.)

Screenshots ->

For any queries regarding  can be asked here @ our forum.

Njoy !!

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:awn-testing/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator-trunk avant-window-navigator-data-trunk python-awn-trunk awn-settings-trunk awn-applets-c-core-trunk awn-applets-c-extras-trunk awn-applets-python-core-trunk python-awn-extras-trunk awn-applets-python-extras-trunk

Make sure you donot have any previous version installed from the Ubuntu repository. If yes, then remove it via Synaptic.

AWN Styles :- To give AWN a whole new look, just goto “AWN>Dock Preferences” and select “Lucido”in the ‘Style’ section of ‘Preferences’ tab. You can add multiple Docks to your desktop to make it more usable and more awesome at looks.

AWN Themes :- To add more style to AWN, you can set “Lucido theme” to it inorder to make it look good. Just goto AWN>Dock Preferences>Themes & select ‘Lucido’ theme. You can download ‘Radiance & Ambiance Lucido themes’ from here. Just unzip the file and from the ‘themes’ tab of AWN preferences, install the themes an enjoy the new AWN.

Configuring AWN :- To get a really cool look, add “separator” where you want ‘curved edges’. To add ‘more launchers’ to your AWN, just add ‘Simple Launcher’ from ‘utilities’ in the ‘applets’ tab & then drag and drop the Application icon from Ubuntu main menu to AWN to add its launcher. Simple and workable. Take a look at this :

Docky

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:docky-core/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install docky

Configuring Docky :- Working with Docky is a lot of fun. To add more launchers, just drag and drop Application from Panel menu and to remove, just Drag ‘em out of docky . To add style to your Docky, click Docky>Settings>Themes. To get a 3D look in your dock, just tick ’3D background’ in docky settings.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cairo-dock-team/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install cairo-dock

XBMC is an award-winning free and open source (GPL) software media player and entertainment hub for digital media. All the XBMC fans out there will be glad to know that the much awaited XBMC 10.0 ‘Dharma’ has been released and is now available for use. The main focus of this release was the “Add-ons”. Earlier we used to google to find new themes etc for XBMC but this ends up here with 10.0 release as 11 Themes are already available by default for XBMC. Just goto the Add-ons section and select the one you like. XBMC 10.0 is all set to rock.

Installation via PPA :- Open the terminal and type :

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xbmc

and done. Access it via Applications> Sound & Video > XBMC. This PPA also works for Ubuntu 10.04 and 9.10.

Wait, there’s more…

- XBMC’s GUI Engine / Skinning Framework has been improved making it even more flexible and powerful.
- You can now watch your favourite videos on Youtube right here in XBMC.
- Web Radio / Podcasts have also been integrated.
- A Web-interface is there to help you manage your media from anywhere.
- CrystalHD has been added for all platforms.
- Hardware acceleration has been improved.

It’s all available in the new add-ons system. Great!  Isn’t it ? And the best part is that the add-ons are very much alive. New ones are being added every day, and current ones are continuously updated.

Take a look :

Note : Details of this release lie here.

For any queries regarding XBMC, or any other can be asked at the Forum.

Njoy !