GNOME Control Center 3.6 Available In The GNOME 3 PPA [Ubuntu 12.10]

<div style="text-align: justify;">GNOME Control Center 3.6 (along with GNOME Settings Daemon 3.6) has finally made it into the GNOME 3 PPA for Ubuntu 12.10. This was the last piece that was missing for Ubuntu 12.10 users to get a truly complete GNOME 3.6 experience.</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Here's what's new in GNOME Control Center 3.6 (version in the PPA is 3.6.3) compared to the previous version available for Ubuntu 12.10 users (3.4.2):</div><a name='more'></a><ul><li>Background: new design (the old one is till used in Unity, see below)</li><li>Mouse & Touchpad: new design</li><li>Mouse & Touchpad: new testing area</li><li>Mouse & Touchpad: natural scrolling option added ("Content sticks to fingers") for touchpad</li><li>Sound: Remove hardware page, and offer different connectors directly from the input and output pages</li><li>Keyboard: Add common keyboard layout related options to the shortcuts tab</li><li>Network: Improve the Wi-Fi page layout</li><li>Network: Split the wireless panel</li><li>Network: Add network strength to the details panel</li><li>Wacom: add support for "switch monitor" shortcut</li><li>Printers: redesigned "new printer" dialog</li><li>New option to <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/11/gnome-shell-how-to-enable-notifications.html">show notifications in the GNOME Shell lock screen</a></li><li>The old Appearance panel (this includes the old background pane, Unity settings etc.) is now displayed only under Unity and comes as a separate package</li><li>Many other changes</li></ul><br />Here are a few screenshots:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/gnome-control-center-3.6.png" rel="image_group" title="GNOME Control Center 3.6"><img alt="GNOME Control Center 3.6" src="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/gnome-control-center-3.6_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/gnome-control-center-background.png" rel="image_group" title="Background panel"><img alt="GNOME Control Center 3.6" src="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/gnome-control-center-background_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/gnome-control-center-background_2.png" rel="image_group" title="Background panel"><img alt="GNOME Control Center 3.6" src="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/gnome-control-center-background_2_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/gcc-mouse.png" rel="image_group" title="Mouse panel"><img alt="GNOME Control Center 3.6" src="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/gcc-mouse_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/gcc-mouse_2.png" rel="image_group" title="Mouse panel"><img alt="GNOME Control Center 3.6" src="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/gcc-mouse_2_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/gcc-3.6-sound.png" rel="image_group" title="Sound panel"><img alt="GNOME Control Center 3.6 sound" src="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/gcc-3.6-sound_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">To upgrade to the latest stable GNOME Control Center 3.6.3 in Ubuntu 12.10, use the following command to add the GNOME 3 PPA (the PPA will also upgrade Nautilus, Totem, etc. to the latest 3.6.x version):</div><br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3</code></pre><div style="text-align: justify;">Then, launch Software Updater use it to upgrade your packages.</div>

GNOME Control Center 3.6 Available In The GNOME 3 PPA [Ubuntu 12.10]

GNOME Control Center 3.6 (along with GNOME Settings Daemon 3.6) has finally made it into the GNOME 3 PPA for Ubuntu 12.10. This was the last...

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How To Install Ubuntu 12.10 On Non-PAE CPU

<div style="text-align: justify;">Ubuntu 12.10 and 12.04 use the PAE Linux Kernel by default for 32bit ISOs and while you could use the <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/05/how-to-install-ubuntu-1204-on-non-pae.html">mini ISO to install Ubuntu 12.04 on computers that don't support PAE</a>, that's not possible in Ubuntu 12.10.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Further more, with 12.10, Xubuntu and Lubuntu no longer come with a non-PAE Linux Kernel, so by default, you can't install any Ubuntu 12.10 flavour on computers using CPUs that lack PAE support (such as Intel Pentium M).<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0LDQTuow3ftlBGN96VX-jPRunO2yYjgv27uSOE24m3eTvcCtcfYHoG1vvj8Jzz9wsfYNslrHI-LeBzQIO6KgRGDP6LocVK5cu9t2wR_XYKhTi3qdenVGV2ELNvFpZIWwmHheo6LNI8KG6/s1600/ubuntu12.10-non-pae-kernel.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ubuntu 12.10 non-pae" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0LDQTuow3ftlBGN96VX-jPRunO2yYjgv27uSOE24m3eTvcCtcfYHoG1vvj8Jzz9wsfYNslrHI-LeBzQIO6KgRGDP6LocVK5cu9t2wR_XYKhTi3qdenVGV2ELNvFpZIWwmHheo6LNI8KG6/s320/ubuntu12.10-non-pae-kernel.png" title="ubuntu 12.10 non-pae" width="320" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><b>Below you'll find instructions on how to install Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal on computers that don't support PAE</b>.<b> The instructions have been tested on the default Ubuntu 12.10 ISO (with Unity), but they should work with any Ubuntu flavour like Lubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu and so on and probably Linux Mint 14 as well</b>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Using the resulting bootable Ubuntu 12.10 USB stick, it should also be possible to upgrade from Ubuntu 12.04 to 12.10, but I've only tested it on a clean installation.</div></div><br /><a name='more'></a><i>Physical Address Extension (PAE) is a feature to allow (32-bit) x86 processors to access a physical address space (including random access memory and memory mapped devices) larger than 4 gigabytes.</i><br /><br /><br /><h2>Install Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal on computers that don't support PAE</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>1.</b> Download the required files (includes non-PAE Linux Kernel 3.5.0 deb files).</div><br />You can grab all the required files as once, using BZR:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install bzr<br />cd<br />bzr branch lp:~webtom/+junk/linux-image-i386-non-pae</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Or, you can download each file manually from <a href="http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~webtom/+junk/linux-image-i386-non-pae/files">HERE</a> (click the green download image on the right). </div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>2.</b> Create a <a title="4 Ways to Create Bootable Live USB Drives (For Windows, Linux and Mac OS X)" href="http://www.webupd8.org/2009/04/4-ways-to-create-bootable-live-usb.html">bootable USB stick</a> with the Ubuntu 12.10 32bit ISO and once the stick is ready, open it in your file manager (.e.g. Nautilus) and replace the following files from the USB stick with the files downloaded under step 1:</div><ul><li>rename the downloaded "vmlinuz-3.5.0-17-wt-non-pae_3.5.0-17.28_i386" file to "vmlinuz" and copy it to the USB stick, under the "casper" folder, replacing the already existing "vmlinuz" file.</li><li>rename the downloaded "initrd-3.5.0-17-wt-non-pae_3.5.0-17.28_i386.lz" file to "initrd.lz" and copy it to the USB stick, under the "casper" folder, replacing the already existing "initrd.lz" file</li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>3. </b>Copy the following downloaded files to the USB stick (don't place them in any sub directory):</div><ul><li>linux-headers-3.5.0-17-wt-non-pae_3.5.0-17.28_i386.deb</li><li>linux-image-3.5.0-17-wt-non-pae_3.5.0-17.28_i386.deb</li></ul><br />Note that these are the <b>3.5.0-17</b> Linux headers and image, not 3.5.0-18!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>4.</b> Now you can use the USB stick to install Ubuntu 12.10 on the non-PAE capable computer. Once the installation completes, DO NOT REBOOT the computer, press CTRL + ALT + F1 and in the tty, type the following commands to install the non-PAE kernel you've copied to the USB stick under step 3:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>cd /cdrom<br />sudo dpkg --root=/target -i *.deb</code></pre><br />Some warnings will be displayed when running the above command:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDZ9w2-SmYInUFQHjPtWZU3mUk5W3kxgFp3ahLeT7Uow3rHEdmHsKUlvZ8V1LOiKFfMW4slkLzlBOOp9JAGZ13ndfs30DC67oiVN96ygutrUgqYc2XjRMaSlyJs6TkM3H4De-I3zpFbrQV/s1600/install-nonpae.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ubuntu 12.10 non-pae" border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDZ9w2-SmYInUFQHjPtWZU3mUk5W3kxgFp3ahLeT7Uow3rHEdmHsKUlvZ8V1LOiKFfMW4slkLzlBOOp9JAGZ13ndfs30DC67oiVN96ygutrUgqYc2XjRMaSlyJs6TkM3H4De-I3zpFbrQV/s320/install-nonpae.png" title="ubuntu 12.10 non-pae" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">ignore these warnings and once the installation completes, reboot the system (you can press CTRL + ALT + F7 to switch back to the installation and reboot from there or type "sudo reboot").</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>5.</b> Your computer should now boot the newly installed Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal flavour. From the files downloaded under step 1 (or, if you don't have access to them any more, redownload just the ones below), copy the following files to some folder that doesn't have any other deb files, e.g. your home directory:</div><ul><li>linux-image-3.5.0-18-wt-non-pae_3.5.0-18.29_i386.deb</li><li>linux-headers-3.5.0-18-wt-non-pae_3.5.0-18.29_i386.deb</li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>This is the latest Linux Kernel version available in the Ubuntu 12.10 repositories (3.5.0-18 and not 3.5.0-17 which we've used under steps 3-4). </i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And finally, install these deb files:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>cd #if you've placed the files in your home directory<br />sudo dpkg -i *.deb<br />sudo apt-get install -f</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">That's it! </div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Unfortunately, there's no PPA (that I know of) to use for non-PAE Linux Kernel updates, so when a Linux Kernel update is available in Ubuntu, don't install it and instead, check if a newer Kernel has been added to the <a href="http://bazaar.launchpad.net/%7Ewebtom/+junk/linux-image-i386-non-pae/files">BZR repository</a> used in this post and install it using "sudo dpkg -i *.deb". Or, compile your own kernel.</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>Instructions adapted from <a href="http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~webtom/+junk/linux-image-i386-non-pae/view/head:/README">HERE</a>. Thanks to Thomas Reith for the instructions and non-PAE Linux Kernel deb files.</i></div>

How To Install Ubuntu 12.10 On Non-PAE CPU

Ubuntu 12.10 and 12.04 use the PAE Linux Kernel by default for 32bit ISOs and while you could use the mini ISO to install Ubuntu 12.04 on co...

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GNOME Shell 3.8 To Get A `Classic` Mode

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXwxwoIHNYUHYVduWk6A4SLvlCn38TenWDQlAb8Q9cRxQMmgEVep-mr2wvZvXJHkrdEawAAg54A24J7AzOe_UMWDsSWIE29PdylupF-tOlTcmau4gvHJTS3NutRYuJlboOXQGtlc9t0ATD/s1700/shell_4.png"><img alt="Classic GNOME Shell" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXwxwoIHNYUHYVduWk6A4SLvlCn38TenWDQlAb8Q9cRxQMmgEVep-mr2wvZvXJHkrdEawAAg54A24J7AzOe_UMWDsSWIE29PdylupF-tOlTcmau4gvHJTS3NutRYuJlboOXQGtlc9t0ATD/s320/shell_4.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Two weeks ago, we were telling you that the <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/11/fallback-mode-classic-session-to-be.html">fallback mode will be dropped from GNOME 3.8</a> and that some extensions which provide a GNOME 2 like layout might be maintained by the GNOME developers for those who are used to the classic interface.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Well, it's now<b> official</b>: a few <b>GNOME Shell extensions which bring back some "classic" features will be supported by GNOME</b>. Among the extensions included are: <b>classic alt tab, task bar, min/max buttons and a main menu</b>.</div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">Sure, there are a lot of extensions that can already mimic the classic/fallback session on <a href="http://extensions.gnome.org/">extensions.gnome.org</a>, but for each GNOME Shell release, the users have to wait for the developers to update them, and sometimes this takes a long time, so it's not a real solution for those who want to always use a GNOME2-like UI. </div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">But because these extensions are supported by the GNOME developers, it means they will work with each new GNOME Shell version, as soon as its released.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A final decision on how the users will be able to use these extensions hasn't been made yet, but <b>one of the ideas so far is to add a "classic mode" switch in GNOME Tweak Tool</b>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Note: the screenshot in this post does not represent any of the new extensions, it's an old GNOME 3.0 image with some extensions.</i></div><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>via GNOME <a href="https://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2012-November/msg00093.html">desktop-devel</a> mailing list</i></div>

GNOME Shell 3.8 To Get A `Classic` Mode

Two weeks ago, we were telling you that the fallback mode will be dropped from GNOME 3.8 and that some extensions which provide a GNOME 2 l...

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New Icons For Ubuntu Software Center, Nautilus, Software Updater And Unity Launcher Revealed [Ubuntu 13.04]

<div style="text-align: justify;">A <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ayatana-design/+bug/1081702">bug</a> called "Update the default wallpaper in 13.04" has been reported on Launchpad today, revealing the new Ubuntu 13.04 wallpaper which, like we're used to, is just a slightly modified version of the previous default wallpaper:</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/ubuntu_default_13_04.jpg"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.04 default wallpaper" src="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/ubuntu_default_13_04_thumb.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">But the bug report I was talking about revealed something a lot more interesting than this: it links to <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ayatana-design/+bug/1081691">bug</a> <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ayatana-design/+bug/1081697">reports</a> about some <b>new icons which will be used for Ubuntu Software Center, Nautilus, Software Updater and some launcher icons like the BFB icon</b> (the Launcher icon that's used to open Dash), <b>or the workspace switcher</b> (the new icon should change depending on which workspace is currently being utilised, but this hasn't been implemented in Unity yet) which you can see below:</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/preview-new-launcher-icons.png"><img alt="Ubuntu 13.04 new icons" src="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/preview-new-launcher-icons_thumb.png" /></a></div><a name='more'></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Since the icons don't exactly express what they do, let me explain: the icon in the middle of the ALT+TAB dialog in the screenshot above is the new Ubuntu Software Center icon, the one on the right of the USC icon is the Software Update icon (the green icon). And the icon on the left of USC, as you've probably figured out, is the Nautilus icon.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The new wallpaper / icons have not landed in Ubuntu 13.04 yet and are subject to change.</div><br /><b>What do you think? Do you like the new icons?</b><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>wallpaper bug via <a href="http://www.iloveubuntu.net/default-wallpaper-ubuntu-1304-officially-published">iloveubuntu.net</a></i></div>

New Icons For Ubuntu Software Center, Nautilus, Software Updater And Unity Launcher Revealed [Ubuntu 13.04]

A bug called "Update the default wallpaper in 13.04" has been reported on Launchpad today, revealing the new Ubuntu 13.04 wallpap...

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Install MPlayer With VA-API (Hardware Acceleration For Intel / AMD GPUs) Support In Ubuntu

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>VA-API is an open source library/API which enables hardware accelerated video processing. It uses the GPU to accelerate video processing in order to offload the CPU.</b><br /><br />Supported hardware includes <b>Intel HD Graphics and G45 chipsets and newer</b> as well as <b>AMD Radeon GPUs</b> (there's also a Nvidia VDPAU backend for VA-API). <b>You can find a list of supported hardware, drivers and video codecs <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Acceleration_API#Supported_hardware_and_drivers" rel="nofollow">HERE</a></b>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here's an example: on my laptop (Ubuntu), the CPU usage is around 40-50% when watching an 1080p H.264 video using MPlayer without VA-API and around 2-5% when watching the same 1080p video using MPlayer with VA-API. You can see some screenshots below:</div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/mplayer-novaapi.png" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="CPU usage: MPlayer without VA-API"><img alt="mplayer without vaapi" src="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/mplayer-novaapi_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CPU usage: MPlayer without VA-API</td></tr></tbody></table></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/mplayer-vaapi.png" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="CPU usage: MPlayer with VA-API (on an Intel GPU)"><img alt="mplayer vaapi" src="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/mplayer-vaapi_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CPU usage: MPlayer with VA-API</td></tr></tbody></table></div><br /><br /><h2>Install Intel / AMD VA-API drivers in Ubuntu</h2><br />Before installing MPlayer with VA-API support, <b>install the VA-API drivers:</b><br /><br /><b>- for Intel GPUs (for Intel HD Graphics as well as G45 and later):</b><br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install i965-va-driver</code></pre><br /><b>- for AMD Radeon GPUs (you also need the proprietary drivers!):</b><br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install xvba-va-driver</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The Intel VA-API driver is available in the official Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin (and newer) repositories. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Nvidia users: MPlayer supports VDPAU by default so everything you need for hardware accelerated video decoding is already in the repositories. See <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2010/10/use-mplayer-with-vaapi-support-hardware.html">THIS</a> old post for more info (unless something has changed, but I can't test it since I have Nvidia Optimus and Bumblebee doesn't support VDPAU). You can also use the "vdpau-va-driver" driver which is a VDPAU-based backend for VA-API and follow use the instructions below to install Mplayer with VA-API.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><h2>Install MPlayer with VA-API support in Ubuntu</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">By default, the MPlayer version available in the official Ubuntu repositories doesn't support VA-API, but you can use a PPA which provides custom MPlayer builds with VA-API support.</div><br /><b>To install MPlayer with VA-API support in Ubuntu 13.10, 13.04, 12.10, 12.04 or 11.10, use the following commands:</b><br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:sander-vangrieken/vaapi<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install mplayer-vaapi</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Once installed, open SMPlayer (or whatever MPlayer GUI you're using: <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/11/install-gnome-mplayer-107-in-ubuntu-1210.html">Gnome Mplayer</a>, KMPlayer, etc.) and in its Preferences, on the Video tab (in SMPlayer: <i>General Video > Output driver</i>) <b>set the video output driver to "vaapi"</b>:</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/smplayer-vaapi.png" rel="image_group" title="SMPlayer VA API video output settings"><img alt="SMPlayer vaapi" src="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/smplayer-vaapi_thumb.png" /></a></div><br />That's it!<br /><br /><br /><b>Other Linux distributions:</b><br /><ul><li>Arch Linux users can install MPlayer with VA-API support from the <a href="https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/i686/mplayer-vaapi/">community repository</a>.</li><li>The mplayer-vaapi source can be downloaded via <a href="http://gitorious.org/vaapi/mplayer">gitorious.org</a></li></ul><br /><b>Note: I've tested this on an Intel GPU only!</b><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>via <a href="http://help.ubuntu.ru/wiki/%D0%B0%D0%BF%D0%BF%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B4%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B6%D0%BA%D0%B0_hd_%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE">Ubuntu.ru wiki</a></i></div>

Install MPlayer With VA-API (Hardware Acceleration For Intel / AMD GPUs) Support In Ubuntu

VA-API is an open source library/API which enables hardware accelerated video processing. It uses the GPU to accelerate video processing in ...

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Primus: Better Performance And Less Power Consumption For Bumblebee [Optimus Hybrid Graphics Chipsets]

<div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Nvidia Optimus is a technology used to increases battery life by switching between two graphics adapters (a low-performance integrated Intel graphics adapter and a high-performance one by Nvidia) within a computer system. Optimus GPU switching is officially only supported on Windows, but it's also unofficially available on Linux thanks to the Bumblebee project.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://github.com/amonakov/primus">Primus</a> brings better performance and less power consumption when using <a href="http://www.bumblebee-project.org/">Bumblebee</a></b>, by replacing VirtualGL. According to the Bumblebee <a href="http://www.bumblebee-project.org/g+">G+</a> page, this has the following <b>advantages over the optirun (VirtualGL) solution</b> used by default in Bumblebee:</div><a name='more'></a><ul><li>Less overhead (better framerates) and cleaner solution (no networking or compression involved at all)</li><li>Fixes the "bug" that causes Bumblebee to shut down the GPU too early sometimes (no more need for the "optirun bash" workaround)</li><li>Less buggy/glitchy, easier to debug</li><li>Only uses/starts secondary GPU for OpenGL parts of applications - everything else remains on your main GPU (power savings)</li></ul><br />The Bumblebee developers explain what Primus does and the difference between Primus / optirun in simple terms in a comment on their G+ page:<br /><br /><blockquote>Bumblebee uses VirtualGL to copy the image generated by the second (faster) GPU to your display. VirtualGL was intended for use over a network though, so it takes a great many steps to enable this (compression, sending the image over a network link, decompression, etc).<br /><br />Primus doesn't perform all these "extra" steps, instead taking a more direct route (copying the rendered image in memory to the other GPU, then displaying there). In theory this should get you better performance as well as better compatibility. Running applications will "see" the OpenGL implementation of your real hardware, nothing virtual is presented to them.</blockquote><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">For comparison, here are the framerates I get on my laptop when using the integrated Intel graphics, when using the Nvidia graphics card using optirun and using primusrun (this is just for FPS and not an indicator for the whole performance!): </div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/glxspheres-regular.png" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Using integrated (Intel) graphics"><img alt="glxspheres intel gpu" src="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/glxspheres-regular_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Integrated (Intel) graphics</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/glxspheres-optirun.png" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Using optirun (default in Bumblebee) with Nvidia GPU"><img alt="glxspheres optirun bumblebee" src="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/glxspheres-optirun_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">optirun (default in Bumblebee) using the Nvidia GPU</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/glxspheres-primus.png" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Using Primus with Nvidia GPU - best performance of the 3"><img alt="glxspheres primusrun bumblebee" src="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/glxspheres-primus_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Primus using the Nvidia GPU</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">As you can see, the FPS using  Primus is a lot better than using the integrated graphics or using optirun with the Nvidia GPU.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Note: I've used "vblank_mode=0 primusrun" instead of simply running "primusrun" because that was recommended by the Primus GitHub page for benchmarking. Without it, I get just 60 FPS because of vblank synchronisation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Update: Primus has been integrated into Bumblebee and is now available in the Bumblebee Ubuntu PPA.</div><br /><br /><br /><h2>How to install Primus for Bumblebee in Ubuntu</h2><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Update: <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/02/bumblebee-31-released-with-primus.html">Primus is now available in the Bumblebee Stable PPA</a>. To add the Bumblebee PPA and install Primus and Bumblebee, use the following commands:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bumblebee/stable<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install bumblebee bumblebee-nvidia primus</code></pre><b>64bit: </b>you also need to install the "primus-libs-ia32:i386" package:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install primus-libs-ia32:i386</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>For other Linux distributions, see the <a href="http://bumblebee-project.org/install.html">Bumblebee Wiki</a> for installation instructions.</b></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Once installed, use "primusrun APP", to launch an application or game</b> - this works just like the "optirun" command available in Bumblebee ("APP" is the application or game executable which you want to run using the Nvidia GPU). You can also use "<b>bumblebee -b primus APP</b>".</div>

Primus: Better Performance And Less Power Consumption For Bumblebee [Optimus Hybrid Graphics Chipsets]

Nvidia Optimus is a technology used to increases battery life by switching between two graphics adapters (a low-performance integrated Intel...

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Team Fortress 2 Available On Linux For Non-Beta Steam Accounts

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Team Fortress 2, a free to play first-person shooter (FPS) multiplayer game, is now available for everyone using the Linux Steam client</b>, and not just those who have received a beta invitation, so non-beta users shouldn't see the "server is too busy" error when trying to download the game any more.</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/tf2_ubuntu.png" rel="image_group" title="Team Fortress 2 running on Steam for Linux under Ubuntu"><img alt="Team Fortress 2 Ubuntu" src="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/tf2_ubuntu_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/team-fortress-2-ubuntu_1.png" rel="image_group" title="Team Fortress 2 running on Steam for Linux under Ubuntu"><img alt="team fortress 2 Ubuntu" src="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/team-fortress-2-ubuntu_1_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">It seems this is a mistake from Valve, which fixed a bug that prevented Ubuntu Developer Summit participants from playing Team Fortress 2 and in the process, somehow the game ended up as being available for everyone. This might mean that Team Fortress 2 won't be available after Valve fixes the glitch, but considering they haven't fixed the bug that allows non-beta accounts to use Steam for Linux, they might allow this as well.<br /><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/steam-team-fortress-2.png" rel="image_group" title="Downloading Team Fortress 2 on Steam for Linux"><img alt="Team Fortress 2 game Ubuntu Steam" src="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/steam-team-fortress-2_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">To play Team Fortress 2 in Linux without a Steam for Linux beta account, firstly <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/11/how-to-use-steam-for-linux-right-now.html" title="How To Use Steam For Linux Right Now, Without A Beta Account">install Steam for Linux</a>, then launch Steam, search for Team Fortress 2, click the "Play game" button and then wait for the download to complete - it will take a while since <b>12 GB</b> of data needs to be downloaded.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Tip for those who have TF2 installed on Windows: you can copy the .gcf files from the Windows installation to <i>~/Steam/SteamApps/</i> and rename each word to start with a capital letter (e.g.: "Team Fortress 2 Client Content.gcf") to speed things up - only a few MB of data will need to be downloaded once you do this.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Note: in my test, the Team Fortress 2 download seemed stuck at 99%, but I was able to launch the game anyway and although it took a while to launch it for the first time, it worked just fine. After that, the Steam for Linux client displays the game as being installed successfully.<br /><br />Oh, and remember that Steam is currently in beta, so things might break, you might get bad performance or the game might not work at all for you.</div><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>via <a href="http://linuxgamecast.com/2012/11/steam-on-linux-team-fortress-2-open-beta-has-launched/">linuxgamecast.com</a>, <a href="http://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/discussions/0/882966056462819091/">http://steamcommunity.com/app/221410</a> and <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/linux">reddit</a></i></div>

Team Fortress 2 Available On Linux For Non-Beta Steam Accounts

Team Fortress 2, a free to play first-person shooter (FPS) multiplayer game, is now available for everyone using the Linux Steam client , an...

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