Install Pulseaudio With Built-In System-Wide Equalizer In Ubuntu

<div style="text-align: justify;">About two years ago we had an <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2011/04/system-wide-pulseaudio-equalizer.html">article</a> about a system-wide Pulseaudio equalizer. This tool is still used today but it's no longer developed and it doesn't work properly for everyone, so many users have been <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/Ubuntu/comments/cvrpr/rubuntu_im_looking_for_a_good_system_wide/">looking</a> <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/Ubuntu/comments/19gcbv/sound_manager_for_ubuntu/">for</a> alternatives.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Well, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but <b>Pulseaudio has, for a while, its own built-in system-wide equalizer</b>. However, <b>the Pulseaudio packages available in the official Ubuntu repositories are not build with equalizer support</b>. In Ubuntu 13.04, Pulseaudio is finally build with equalizer support but the actual equalizer is missing from the package for some reason, even though it's available in the source.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>So, to make things easier for you, I've create a PPA for Ubuntu 13.04, 12.10 and 12.04 with Pulseaudio built with equalizer support and with the actual equalizer enabled.</b> </div><br /><a name="more"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">Since I've used the packages from the official Ubuntu repositories for this (Pulseaudio 2.1 for Ubuntu 12.10, 1.1 for Ubuntu 12.04, etc.) and I didn't even remove the patch that disables loading dbus (which is required for the equalizer to run, but we can manually enable this, I'll tell you about it later on), using this PPA should be safe and shouldn't break or even change anything for that matter. Furthermore, without manually enabling the equalizer, you won't even know its there, so if you don't like it, you don't even have to purge the PPA. You can, however, purge it easily if you want.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I expect the equalizer to work better in Ubuntu 13.04 (since Raring has Pulseaudio 3.0 while Quantal has 2.1 and Precise 1.1 and thus, older equalizer, etc.) and indeed it has worked great in my test under Ubuntu 13.04 but I've also performed a quick test in Ubuntu 12.10 and 12.04 and I didn't notice any issues. But this also depends on the hardware so only you can tell if it works ok for you or not. <b>Also, depending on your hardware, in some rare cases this can break your sound, but you can simply undo step 5 and everything should be back to normal.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's also worth mentioning that <b>the equalizer doesn't come with any presets</b>, so it's up to you to set the optimal values which might not be something easy to do. If you don't like this, try the old <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2011/04/system-wide-pulseaudio-equalizer.html">PulseaAudio System-Wide Equalizer</a> which comes with presets.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here's how the equalizer looks like:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJH7rpI12hb9hZUY_uFu9C5OHcnGmq0FCypoil_YIpdfwIFgWu8tOhin7pRtrc5TJQgb5MnGEnz3hZzsxTVhpPtD2NibfrzG-1XmFeowLVr0Fd6rniMePReKGgnXpLLXJZy0VpUt6IzShX/s1600/pulseaudio-equalizer-qpaeq.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJH7rpI12hb9hZUY_uFu9C5OHcnGmq0FCypoil_YIpdfwIFgWu8tOhin7pRtrc5TJQgb5MnGEnz3hZzsxTVhpPtD2NibfrzG-1XmFeowLVr0Fd6rniMePReKGgnXpLLXJZy0VpUt6IzShX/s500/pulseaudio-equalizer-qpaeq.png" width="500" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>If you resize the window horizontally, you'll notice that more bands show up</b> so using it, you have a lot more control than with the old Pulseaudio Equalizer:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDvpVqGCpG78GpAkQkQgdQyKWqQPL_T-2zAuMM55rHz80qDjZGrb4YumSGtO62OfZRaFNCOUoz-BozbdAQYqA1Fbp4fHQq5WCQAF_0unkadt3Ism3CYPMW_hELcJ0pgbDrlRh2vnR7OtjC/s1600/pulseaudio-equalizer-qpaeq-large.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDvpVqGCpG78GpAkQkQgdQyKWqQPL_T-2zAuMM55rHz80qDjZGrb4YumSGtO62OfZRaFNCOUoz-BozbdAQYqA1Fbp4fHQq5WCQAF_0unkadt3Ism3CYPMW_hELcJ0pgbDrlRh2vnR7OtjC/s500/pulseaudio-equalizer-qpaeq-large.png" width="500" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><h2>Install Pulseaudio with system-wide equalizer support in Ubuntu</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail users don't have to add the PPA - you can simply <a href="http://cgit.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/plain/src/utils/qpaeq">download qpaeq</a> (the equalizer) and place it in you path, like <i>/usr/local/bin</i> for example, and make it executable. If you do this, skip step 1 below. But you can add the PPA below since it's safe and you'll get the equalizer automatically.</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>1.</b> <b>To add the PPA (available for Ubuntu 13.04, 12.10 and 12.04), use the following commands:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/pulseaudio-eq<br />sudo apt-get update</code></pre>Then, launch the Software Updater and upgrade the packages (or run "<i>sudo apt-get dist-upgrade</i>"). Make sure all Pulseaudio packages have been upgraded successfully!<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>2. </b>To be able to use the equalizer, you'll need to <b>install some extra dependencies:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install python-dbus python-qt4 python-qt4-dbus pulseaudio-utils</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>3.</b> Now, let's <b>restart Pulseaudio</b>. Open a terminal and copy/paste the following commands:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>pulseaudio -k<br />pulseaudio &</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>4.</b> Everything is ready now, but<b> the equalizer needs two modules to be loaded to work</b>, so open a terminal and copy/paste these two commands:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>pactl load-module module-equalizer-sink<br />pactl load-module module-dbus-protocol</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Now you can launch the equalizer.</b> It doesn't come with a desktop file so either press ALT + F2 or open a terminal and type:</div><pre class="linux-code"><b><code>qpaeq</code></b></pre>The equalizer should now start.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">You can now play some music / video / etc. and try the equalizer. To see if it works, you can set the preamp (first slider on the left) to maximum or minimum. If the sound doesn't go up or down, open the sound settings and under Output, select "FFT based equalizer on Built-in...":</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqLJ5DM8GfD67C1xXKAyLlhpFWFYsgbf3cwqi2FsNIqMyPFzw_dtiwRAHP_TWExZSKbkKjXJWsXD1cPZ8QxUnCmprsnT7XW6kL8JX5GKq7wM75XTedvex6Hg41aoyX59F7TzjiJ1HF3JhB/s1600/sound-settings.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqLJ5DM8GfD67C1xXKAyLlhpFWFYsgbf3cwqi2FsNIqMyPFzw_dtiwRAHP_TWExZSKbkKjXJWsXD1cPZ8QxUnCmprsnT7XW6kL8JX5GKq7wM75XTedvex6Hg41aoyX59F7TzjiJ1HF3JhB/s320/sound-settings.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Some applications will only work with this while others will also work without changing this (I'm not yet sure exactly how this works, please leave a comment if you know more about this).</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>5.</b> The modules we've loaded under step 4 aren't automatically loaded on system start. So <b>if you want to be able to use the equalizer after a restart</b> without having to run those two commands, you'll have to add those modules either to <i>~/.pulse/</i> for your user or <i>/etc/pulse/default.pa</i> for all users. Below, I'm going to add them to <i>/etc/pulse/default.pa</i> and for this, you'll need to open the file as root with a text editor:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>gksu gedit /etc/pulse/default.pa</code></pre><br />And at the bottom of the file, add this:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>### Load the integrated pulseaudio equalizer and dbus modules<br />load-module module-equalizer-sink<br />load-module module-dbus-protocol</code></pre>Then save the file and you're done.<br /><br /><br /><h2>Reverting the changes</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">If you want to revert the changes, you can simply just remove the lines you've added in step 5 from the <i>/etc/pulse/default.pa</i> file:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>gksu gedit /etc/pulse/default.pa</code></pre>And remove these lines:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>### Load the integrated pulseaudio equalizer and dbus modules<br />load-module module-equalizer-sink<br />load-module module-dbus-protocol</code></pre>Then save the file, restart the system and everything should be like before.<br /><br />If for some reason you also want to purge the PPA (although this shouldn't be required), <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/11/install-ppa-purge-with-multi-arch.html">install PPA Purge with multi-arch support</a>, then purge the PPA using the following command:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo ppa-purge ppa:webupd8team/pulseaudio-eq</code></pre><br /><br /><i>Also see: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PulseAudio/Examples">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PulseAudio/Examples</a> (some bits from the Arch wiki were used in this article).</i>

Install Pulseaudio With Built-In System-Wide Equalizer In Ubuntu

About two years ago we had an article about a system-wide Pulseaudio equalizer. This tool is still used today but it's no longer develo...

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<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><b>Metro Simple Premium Blogger Template</b><br /><b><br /></b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT0Drx18mF5f1U09AWQyGLW55ujQQxo1o2G1jDbMNI9hvxd00hZrlIM5Nvtc0AIZUhlZ5FZSAKeTQQR6IPB_hlo7_pTBWKjiC3fA4xK04T80C3msksdAX5QjAkySqfdjFhPR9NZDt-q20/s1600/Metro+Simple+Premium+Blogger+Template.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Metro Simple Premium Blogger Template" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT0Drx18mF5f1U09AWQyGLW55ujQQxo1o2G1jDbMNI9hvxd00hZrlIM5Nvtc0AIZUhlZ5FZSAKeTQQR6IPB_hlo7_pTBWKjiC3fA4xK04T80C3msksdAX5QjAkySqfdjFhPR9NZDt-q20/s1600/Metro+Simple+Premium+Blogger+Template.jpg" title="Metro Simple Premium Blogger Template" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://metro-simple.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">DEMO</a> | <a href="http://btemplates.com/download/4498/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">DOWNLOAD</a></span></div><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>Blog Template Name:</b> Metro Simple Blogger Template</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>Template Type :</b> Free Blogger Template</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>Author: </b> <a href="http://blog.nguoiaolam.net/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">blog.nguoiaolam.net</a></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>Designer:</b> Hong Hoa</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>Basic Instructions :</b> <a href="http://ichibikarin.blogspot.com/2013/02/how-to-install-blogger-template-to.html" target="_blank">How to install a Blogger template</a></blockquote><br />Metro Simple is a free premium blogger template with 2 columns, 1 Right Sidebar, 1 Sidebar, 3 Columns Footer, White, Blue, Fixed width, Magazine, Menu Links, Top Navigation Bar, Bookmark Ready, Header Banner, Adsense ready, slideshow, social bookmarking icons, posts thumbnails, tabs, drop down menu and threaded comments ready.</div>

Metro Simple Premium Blogger Template Free Download

Metro Simple Premium Blogger Template DEMO | DOWNLOAD Blog Template Name: Metro Simple Blogger Template Template Type : Free Blogger Temp...

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GNOME 3.8 To Ship With Reworked Folder Icons

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The default GNOME icon theme isn't very popular among GNOME users, mainly because of the default folder icons, which many label as <i>ugly </i>(<a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/03/gnome-38-beta-available-in-ppa-for.html#comments">here's an example</a>). However, with GNOME 3.8, the folder icons will use a different color which attempts to fix this, but is it enough?</b></div><br /><a name="more"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">Jakub Steiner has recently published an <a href="http://jimmac.musichall.cz/log/?p=1335">article</a> about this, mentioning that "<i>GNOME folder is a result of using the actual beige color that is both the real world folder material and the legacy of Tuomas’ GNOME 1 folder</i>". But I'd say they look more gray than beige and considering that Adwaita, the default GNOME 3 GTK theme is also gray, this is a bit too much.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">And it seems Jakub Steiner agrees, at least partially with this, because <b>a recent GNOME Icon Theme GIT commit changes the folder icon to a lighter, more beige / less gray color</b> (which by the way, reminds me of the original <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2011/03/faenza-icon-theme-09-released-with-new.html">Faenza</a> icon theme) as a response to <a href="https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=693610">this</a> bug report, to "<i>compensate for the overall greyness of the theme</i>":</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4ZdSpK3FPvR3ZSAj1C6ewLDY797OIxdkB-n61yQNb7o0WmkIU6UT2vkKnT9RcDny6ISFSKd0vIju1IVjw2CACmgtgg4TbEETiWl03oejMOJm2iA8nr7JKqJRuNPWRVyFmvDjtUZdC1AQo/s1600/gnome-3.8-folder-icons.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="gnome 3.8 folder icons" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4ZdSpK3FPvR3ZSAj1C6ewLDY797OIxdkB-n61yQNb7o0WmkIU6UT2vkKnT9RcDny6ISFSKd0vIju1IVjw2CACmgtgg4TbEETiWl03oejMOJm2iA8nr7JKqJRuNPWRVyFmvDjtUZdC1AQo/s550/gnome-3.8-folder-icons.png" title="gnome 3.8 folder icons" width="550" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Here's how Nautilus looks like using the GNOME Icon Theme with the new folder icons:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA9DKTwdA4JcRkhM_gGhWnL5KYNu6c3yh7UfoLFVaaoLvJx30K3d90NzjoKxYiv4F0yMDI8zRIGTmTpBp_F9PLq7YRlE-Upiw45ZMIlpNKvbVmRWIAHl8N_awe5yP_UdA-p4Q-9YtenI0K/s1600/nautilus-gnome-3-lighter-folder-icons.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="GNOME 3.8 lighter folder icons" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA9DKTwdA4JcRkhM_gGhWnL5KYNu6c3yh7UfoLFVaaoLvJx30K3d90NzjoKxYiv4F0yMDI8zRIGTmTpBp_F9PLq7YRlE-Upiw45ZMIlpNKvbVmRWIAHl8N_awe5yP_UdA-p4Q-9YtenI0K/s500/nautilus-gnome-3-lighter-folder-icons.png" title="GNOME 3.8 lighter folder icons" width="500" /></a></div><br />For comparison, here's how the folder icons used to look before this change:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkBvk8nX5LgSe3AnFqhMY3xlsbyhfxNi2R18ZXw7h1cAeBARgYuij-d4zOu-_iYRVvlRPDvOr_rgJFM-wMfTsD9WgMnPVm39tMMO161HBd8c-CxXvVowdHS6kPxhSZIOkwXn8ioAnO7kXs/s1600/nautilus-gnome-folder-icons.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="gnome 3.6 folder icons" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkBvk8nX5LgSe3AnFqhMY3xlsbyhfxNi2R18ZXw7h1cAeBARgYuij-d4zOu-_iYRVvlRPDvOr_rgJFM-wMfTsD9WgMnPVm39tMMO161HBd8c-CxXvVowdHS6kPxhSZIOkwXn8ioAnO7kXs/s500/nautilus-gnome-folder-icons.png" title="gnome 3.6 folder icons" width="500" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>What do you think? Are the GNOME Icon Theme folder icons so unpopular because of their color or is it something else? Also, do you like the new color?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">These new folder icons should be available by default in GNOME 3.8 (though this may not be the final design) which will be released on March 27. If you want to try it right now, you can get the icon theme from <a href="https://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-icon-theme">GIT</a>.</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>via <a href="http://worldofgnome.org/new-default-folder-icons-for-gnome-3-8/">worldofgnome.org</a></i></div>

GNOME 3.8 To Ship With Reworked Folder Icons

The default GNOME icon theme isn't very popular among GNOME users, mainly because of the default folder icons, which many label as ugly ...

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Ubuntu GNOME Becomes An Official Ubuntu Flavour

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieCkFtY-4bPqKF4J7FYvueu2bL4VJZDMyEyHrYcCwI5BvN7-QBdKfnhOaiQaBWwDZ9NBZ6qc8u0822TitVelaT4gXc14qGIVZXA-wHJV6UeNHV4NEY2kiicE6IeO-56rGusIM8-G5qbHya/s1600/gnomeubuntu-vert-wh.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Ubuntu GNOME logo" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieCkFtY-4bPqKF4J7FYvueu2bL4VJZDMyEyHrYcCwI5BvN7-QBdKfnhOaiQaBWwDZ9NBZ6qc8u0822TitVelaT4gXc14qGIVZXA-wHJV6UeNHV4NEY2kiicE6IeO-56rGusIM8-G5qbHya/s320/gnomeubuntu-vert-wh.png" title="Ubuntu GNOME logo" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/10/prefer-gnome-shell-download-ubuntu.html">Ubuntu GNOME</a>, an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution that ships with GNOME Shell by default along with other GNOME applications that aren't available by default in Ubuntu, is now an official Ubuntu flavour (starting with 13.04).</b></div><br /><a name="more"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">The news comes from the Ubuntu GNOME <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-gnome/2013-March/000035.html">mailing list</a>, where it is specified that there won't be a 13.04 beta 1 release this week, but there should be a beta release at the end of the month and daily images should be available within a few weeks. This should make it easier to install and test because right now, there's no way of getting Ubuntu GNOME except for installing another Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail flavour and then <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/10/how-to-get-complete-gnome-3-desktop-in.html">install the Ubuntu GNOME</a> meta packages.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ubuntu GNOME 13.04 will be released with GNOME 3.6 because Ubuntu 13.04 <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/11/ubuntu-1304-only-some-gnome-components.html">won't ship with GNOME 3.8</a> for the most part and since this is now an official flavour, it can't ship with a PPA, but you can use the <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/03/gnome-38-beta-available-in-ppa-for.html">GNOME 3 PPA</a> which should get the stable GNOME 3.8 once it's released.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Also, <b>the official name is now "Ubuntu GNOME', without "Remix"</b> which has been used in the previous (unofficial) release:</div><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">The official name is now "Ubuntu GNOME"; no "Remix", no "Edition". I like the simplicity of this name and the GNOME Foundation Board has made it clear that we are not welcome to use derivative names like GNOMEbuntu as our official name.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">- Jeremy Bicha @ Ubuntu GNOME <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-gnome/2013-March/000003.html">mailing list</a></div></blockquote><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">We'll let you know when the Ubuntu GNOME beta is released and when you can download the daily builds.</div>

Ubuntu GNOME Becomes An Official Ubuntu Flavour

Ubuntu GNOME , an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution that ships with GNOME Shell by default along with other GNOME applications that aren't...

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How To Chat With Your Steam Friends From Pidgin

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://code.google.com/p/pidgin-opensteamworks/">Pidgin OpenSteamWorks</a> is a plugin that allows you to chat with your Steam friends from Pidgin</b>.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Why use it? Well, if you're both a Steam and Pidgin user, you may find it more convenient to chat with your Steam friends from Pidgin, without having to open Steam, especially since the Steam Linux client is very resource hungry.</div><br /><a name="more"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">The plugin has initially used Open Steamworks, an open implementation of Valve's Steamworks API but that required Steam to run in the background so with version 1.0, the plugin has switched to the Steam mobile API so it's no longer needs Steam to work.<br /><br />The Steam plugin for Pidgin plugin is available for Linux and Mac OSX and there's also an older version available for Windows (however, the old Windows version requires Steam to run in the background).</div><br /><br /><h2>How to install and use Pidgin OpenSteamWorks plugin</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Ubuntu 13.04, 12.10 and 12.04 users can install the Pidgin OpenSteamWorks plugin by using a PPA:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lasall/pidgin-opensteamworks<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install pidgin-opensteamworks</code></pre><b>That's it for Ubuntu users.</b><br /><br />Note:<i> I've tested it on Ubuntu 13.04 64bit only.<b> </b></i><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>For other Linux distributions</b>, <a href="https://code.google.com/p/pidgin-opensteamworks/downloads/list">download</a> the .so file (libsteam-*.so for 32bit or libsteam64-*.so for 64bit) and copy it under one of the folders below:</div><ul><li><i>~/.purple/plugins</i> (if that folder doesn't exist, create it) for your user or </li><li><i>/usr/lib/pidgin/</i> to install it system-wide</li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">You'll also have to download the plugin icons (icons.zip), extract them and copy the two folders (16 and 48) to<i> /usr/share/pixmaps/pidgin/protocols/</i> . And finally, you'll also need to install the json-glib library (the package name varies depending on the Linux distribution you're using).</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Once installed, restart Pidgin, from its menu select <i>Accounts > Manage Accounts</i>, then click Add and under Protocol select "Steam" and add your username and password, etc.:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia20fA-rMZi1Xivo3JqkmfaYPyQnkI7-Abijl8AWnsdTCiMKHUQbOfsljXTtc8bK9kPelsgZgNMKauT8RTnFIj7U5TUFaJPf52-T2SNVVQ78hdS0BVi5a8RQTf10MvEcEAqVzK7O1EC6k9/s1600/pidgin-steam.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="pidgin steam" border="0" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia20fA-rMZi1Xivo3JqkmfaYPyQnkI7-Abijl8AWnsdTCiMKHUQbOfsljXTtc8bK9kPelsgZgNMKauT8RTnFIj7U5TUFaJPf52-T2SNVVQ78hdS0BVi5a8RQTf10MvEcEAqVzK7O1EC6k9/s320/pidgin-steam.png" title="pidgin steam" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Once you click "Add", you should receive an email from Steam Support with a code you need to enter in Pidgin to authorize it to connect with Steam:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirRY3MxvzNuYVosvZZSeyJkrsjy_h5bOGYWxElleeiqSqKioXT2PeWqIwh5NSK47EuWWlKYUojxhMFFSPZddxxult80ntNEj3JAZW4EBrj9pJaonu5zduHLOC0Lf0z_pUNf1uMi5a2qKig/s1600/pidgin-steam-guard-code.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="pidgin steam" border="0" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirRY3MxvzNuYVosvZZSeyJkrsjy_h5bOGYWxElleeiqSqKioXT2PeWqIwh5NSK47EuWWlKYUojxhMFFSPZddxxult80ntNEj3JAZW4EBrj9pJaonu5zduHLOC0Lf0z_pUNf1uMi5a2qKig/s320/pidgin-steam-guard-code.png" title="pidgin steam" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Enter the correct code, click OK and that's it. You should now be able to chat with your Steam friends from Pidgin.</div><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>seen on <a href="http://www.onli-blogging.de/index.php?/1265/Steamchat-in-Pidgin.html">onli-blogging.de</a></i></div>

How To Chat With Your Steam Friends From Pidgin

Pidgin OpenSteamWorks is a plugin that allows you to chat with your Steam friends from Pidgin . Why use it? Well, if you're both a Stea...

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Intel Releases Linux Graphics Drivers Installer

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisugadhCuzuCWqNWzO26sDla5idHkUQ2zL19GRz_s_fSmQgW19raAeA8fSily166Md2tVxJ2EWKiQ-KDTuC9D-MIkxuxKKqFHa3V9HepdwpF8nb1jQVSiO0gerer1f-LrPpigyVY9aosvx/s1600/intel-open-source.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Intel Open Source Technology Center" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisugadhCuzuCWqNWzO26sDla5idHkUQ2zL19GRz_s_fSmQgW19raAeA8fSily166Md2tVxJ2EWKiQ-KDTuC9D-MIkxuxKKqFHa3V9HepdwpF8nb1jQVSiO0gerer1f-LrPpigyVY9aosvx/s1600/intel-open-source.png" title="Intel Open Source Technology Center" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Intel has <a href="https://01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads/2013/intelr-linux-graphics-installer-version-1.0.1">released</a> a tool that allows Linux users to easily install the latest graphics drivers to ensure the best user experience with Intel graphics hardware.</b></div><br /><a name="more"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">The first public Intel Linux Graphics Installer release has been made available for download a few days ago and it currently supports Ubuntu (12.04 and 12.10 for now) and Fedora (17 and 18). By looking at the package changelog, it seems this has been under internal testing since October, 2012.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><s>In my test, I was unable to use the Intel Linux Graphics Installer tool to upgrade the Intel graphics drivers under Ubuntu 12.10 64bit due to some <b>issues with multiarch dependencies</b> and it seems this affects <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/Ubuntu/comments/19ye57/intel_linux_graphics_installer/">other users</a> too (this shouldn't occur on 32bit, however, I was unable to test in on 32bit since this doesn't work in VirtualBox). Hopefully, this will be fixed soon. Unfortunately, this means <b>I can't fully test the Intel Linux Graphics Installer for now</b> so I can't tell you if everything works properly after the driver upgrade so, <b>especially if you're on 64bit, you should wait and not install this yet.</b> <b>I'll post a new article when this is fixed</b></s> <b>Update:</b> these issues seem fixed now and after an update, everything works as expected on my Ubuntu 12.10 64bit machine. Still, use this with care (quote from the installer download page):</div><br /><blockquote>Attempting to "force" package upgrades may break your OS installation, requiring a re-install or other time-intensive remedies (requiring a high level of expertise). Do not forcibly upgrade packages!</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If you want to use Intel's new <b>Linux Graphics Installer</b>, download and install the deb or rpm package for your Ubuntu or Fedora version and architecture, then launch it from the menu / Dash or via command line ("intel-linux-graphics-installer") and use it to upgrade your Intel graphics drivers:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw8-1PXc2ap-Xo8M2IYgnlKR84INLo1H6D4nXYMQbpP2NLduLlJSiBL9w_9blw4tMoj_m9DANyMlBnjtk4A9UTL0-F5owTN3cW91seOD97Z2yTKocsrBMlPcyseSu3g3-LlDNY8YkuYlD7/s1600/intel-driver-update-utility.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Intel Linux Graphics Installer" border="0" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw8-1PXc2ap-Xo8M2IYgnlKR84INLo1H6D4nXYMQbpP2NLduLlJSiBL9w_9blw4tMoj_m9DANyMlBnjtk4A9UTL0-F5owTN3cW91seOD97Z2yTKocsrBMlPcyseSu3g3-LlDNY8YkuYlD7/s320/intel-driver-update-utility.png" title="Intel Linux Graphics Installer" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIQWiv8uFzGMT-EkmKOE3QZEAyoW_QUK8sB7vWmsASjFXLZbiZAkB0o7_cHfHCnWrOv7kM8Xtvt6Qq8OQT0aLpxTRH7xzlWkymRz2_Nw7drGvxLqEjmpetSde_RWdaNW2aVKwQTTr0Lna4/s1600/intel-driver-update-utility_2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Intel Linux Graphics Installer" border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIQWiv8uFzGMT-EkmKOE3QZEAyoW_QUK8sB7vWmsASjFXLZbiZAkB0o7_cHfHCnWrOv7kM8Xtvt6Qq8OQT0aLpxTRH7xzlWkymRz2_Nw7drGvxLqEjmpetSde_RWdaNW2aVKwQTTr0Lna4/s320/intel-driver-update-utility_2.png" title="Intel Linux Graphics Installer" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The tool will automatically add a repository</b> which will be used to install the drivers and will allow you to automatically receive future updates.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Intel Linux Graphics Installer doesn't automatically add the repository key but there are instructions on how to add it under Ubuntu and Fedora on the downloads page.</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads/2013/intelr-linux-graphics-installer-version-1.0.1">Intel Linux Graphics Installer</a></div><br />The installer doesn't work on Ubuntu-based Linux distributions such as Linux Mint or elementary OS, but you can still use it on such Linux distributions - see: <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/04/how-to-use-intel-linux-graphics-drivers.html">How To Use The Intel Linux Graphics Drivers Repository In Ubuntu-Based Linux Distributions (Linux Mint, Etc.)</a>.<br />

Intel Releases Linux Graphics Drivers Installer

Intel has released a tool that allows Linux users to easily install the latest graphics drivers to ensure the best user experience with Int...

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Unity To Get New Shutdown Dialogs, Scroll To Switch Between Windows Feature [Video]

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail: it looks like two interesting changes will land in Unity soon: support for switching between windows of the same application by scrolling on the application icon in the Unity Launcher and a new Unity style for shutdown dialog boxes.</b></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Here's are a few screenshots with the new Unity shutdown / restart / lock screen / suspend dialog boxes:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh5Yo9KCVEgQBl8NVqAYnCD_kYJM6krssYaobVsIrXxBJ1oaDhnRF8W5bCGtQDS4QRN2De8ac1H3iff6L5zNx0XT25A6m4e3UE9Ag9LaAmGOZuFy7MaC7YF_Mq_OIEjKlOa809oQIcF34b/s1600/ubuntu-new-shutdown-dialog_1.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Unity style shutdown dialogs Ubuntu" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh5Yo9KCVEgQBl8NVqAYnCD_kYJM6krssYaobVsIrXxBJ1oaDhnRF8W5bCGtQDS4QRN2De8ac1H3iff6L5zNx0XT25A6m4e3UE9Ag9LaAmGOZuFy7MaC7YF_Mq_OIEjKlOa809oQIcF34b/s500/ubuntu-new-shutdown-dialog_1.png" title="Unity style shutdown dialogs" width="500" /></a></div><br /><a name="more"></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyr8RL3jn7ZfBt3O7gbMElYK0fIUGO0fKJ5LD3JH3HUNODMk6A8ZWVeZiZjkbdCpuuyDn1Pcyw-REIpoLfhIUYBLkr9ax4RUAObtwEvsXBO5F2-wYbIcstTy-getQlcmfVQrFYFq-_hyphenhyphenA1/s1600/ubuntu-new-shutdown-dialog_3.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Unity style shutdown dialogs Ubuntu" border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyr8RL3jn7ZfBt3O7gbMElYK0fIUGO0fKJ5LD3JH3HUNODMk6A8ZWVeZiZjkbdCpuuyDn1Pcyw-REIpoLfhIUYBLkr9ax4RUAObtwEvsXBO5F2-wYbIcstTy-getQlcmfVQrFYFq-_hyphenhyphenA1/s320/ubuntu-new-shutdown-dialog_3.png" title="Unity style shutdown dialogs" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrb-PfUe55wQcK6ik-LbAyX6Oo9sCn2LtRtG-4NKNleXUxYOLfIlag_2JKBx9xCeN6n46dSgDTZpGvx0owjbD4lcxK3GMqmBQMyIZBpGqRSyMW5GuPIKE0AXgl_DLAMp4rsZthbk5qnAuD/s1600/ubuntu-new-shutdown-dialog_2.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Unity style shutdown dialogs Ubuntu" border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrb-PfUe55wQcK6ik-LbAyX6Oo9sCn2LtRtG-4NKNleXUxYOLfIlag_2JKBx9xCeN6n46dSgDTZpGvx0owjbD4lcxK3GMqmBQMyIZBpGqRSyMW5GuPIKE0AXgl_DLAMp4rsZthbk5qnAuD/s320/ubuntu-new-shutdown-dialog_2.png" title="Unity style shutdown dialogs" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">This change has been implemented by Marco Trevisan and it's not a new idea - the new Unity-like dialog boxes were mentioned in an old "GNOME 3 System Settings changes" <a href="https://docs.google.com/a/canonical.com/document/d/1ILTJDiDCd25Npt2AmgzF8aOnZZECxTfM0hvsbWT2BxA/edit?hl=en_GB">spec</a>. from 2011.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">With the new design, the Restart entry has been removed from the Session Indicator since when selecting "Shut down...", there are options to either shut down or restart the computer. However, I'm not sure if that's a good idea since users will probably look for the restart option in the Session Indicator menu.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also, one thing that I've found annoying in my test is that you <s>can't close the dialogs using the Esc key which, given its design (similar for instance with the lightbox image viewer used on many websites, including on WebUpd8), I would have expected to work</s>. Update: the code has been updated and the shutdown dialogs can now be closed using the Esc key. <br /><br />Remember: <b> Raring is still in development so this might change.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As for the new option that allows you to <b>switch between windows by scrolling on the application icon in the Unity Launcher</b>, the feature has been implemented by Andrea Azzarone and is basically a continuation of the work to bring a more effective window switching experience for applications with multiple windows using the Unity Launcher, which has begun with the quicklists window switching feature which we've mentioned <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/02/unity-gets-new-quicklists-window.html">a while back</a>.</div><br /><br /><br /><h2>Video</h2><br />You can watch these two new features in action in the video below:<br /><br /><center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/gaXYq28jcoM" width="560"></iframe><br />(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaXYq28jcoM">direct video link</a>)</center><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The code for these changes has been proposed for merging last night</b> and the new feature that allows you to switch between windows by scrolling on the app icon has already been merged so it should land in Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail (probably) with the next Unity daily upload, while the new dialogs feature is still pending approval. <b>Update:</b> the new Unity-style shutdown dialogs code has been merged so it should land in Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail soon.<br /><br /><b>Update: these changes are now available by default in Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail.</b></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">In other Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail related news, <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/11/new-icons-for-ubuntu-software-center.html">the new Nautilus and Software Updater icons</a> have finally landed, but for now only the Software Updater icon shows up for now because of a symbolic link that points to the old icon in the Ubuntu Mono icon theme, which should be fixed soon. Here are a couple of screenshots with the new icons:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLKVOkJX9ox34rTDhWmHRGBJNAHl4uGpgpku0uI0BIcOYCnnoLoaNK5v4BlAmwiUO6WXh1vKoE87EF6Qd05Nnagna-QlXeobeCLIdVxDEVhc4h0WxY87R0_jc_ujfn0ak3L0PY66oPWU_A/s1600/nautilus-software-updater-icons.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Ubuntu Raring new icons" border="0" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLKVOkJX9ox34rTDhWmHRGBJNAHl4uGpgpku0uI0BIcOYCnnoLoaNK5v4BlAmwiUO6WXh1vKoE87EF6Qd05Nnagna-QlXeobeCLIdVxDEVhc4h0WxY87R0_jc_ujfn0ak3L0PY66oPWU_A/s320/nautilus-software-updater-icons.png" title="Ubuntu Raring new icons" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcEr-W88PWurQtRpNdnQkrA2FVldkOxsbbBD0SMMQb_eO2KfgXcWw8BKd1a3AjTmIdmjqbQ2141Oz6L_192Rn81eGf2QfQI1jW4Xcqug3LwPdYkGYyUBcFWzOsjdSf0nobDRz1vkiPr3jV/s1600/new-nautilus-software-updater-icons.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Ubuntu Raring new icons" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcEr-W88PWurQtRpNdnQkrA2FVldkOxsbbBD0SMMQb_eO2KfgXcWw8BKd1a3AjTmIdmjqbQ2141Oz6L_192Rn81eGf2QfQI1jW4Xcqug3LwPdYkGYyUBcFWzOsjdSf0nobDRz1vkiPr3jV/s1600/new-nautilus-software-updater-icons.png" title="Ubuntu Raring new icons" /></a></div><br />By the way, you can use an icon theme that uses the new Nautilus icon as folder icons (that's now how it has been implemented in Ubuntu 13.04 by the way, the old folder icons are still used in Raring) as well as the new Software Updater icon - see: <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/12/use-ubuntu-1304-software-center.html">Use Ubuntu 13.04 Software Center, Software Updater And Nautilus Icons With My-humanity Icon Theme</a>

Unity To Get New Shutdown Dialogs, Scroll To Switch Between Windows Feature [Video]

Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail: it looks like two interesting changes will land in Unity soon: support for switching between windows of the sa...

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