Ubuntu / Linux news and application reviews.

Intel Graphics Installer For Linux 1.0.4 Available For Download [Ubuntu 13.10 And Fedora 20]

The Intel Linux Graphics Installer was updated to version 1.0.4 and the new version supports Ubuntu 13.10 and Fedora 20.

Intel Graphics Installer for Linux

The Intel Graphics Installer for Linux is a tool developed by Intel that allows users to easily upgrade to the latest graphics drivers for Intel hardware. The installer automatically adds a repository used for upgrading the packages provided by Intel - that means that besides the Intel Linux Graphics Installer, you can also use the Ubuntu Software Updater, apt-get, etc. to upgrade the packages.

GIMP: Get Photoshop Like Keyboard Shortcuts, Toolbox Icons And More

To help those who are used to Photoshop, +Martin Owens has created a collection of GIMP 2.8 tweaks that make it more like Adobe Photoshop.

Gimp photohsop tweaks

The tweaks include Photoshop like toolbox icons, keyboard shortcuts, modified dockable dialogs and even a tweaked background color to match Photoshop.

Intel Linux Graphics Installer 1.0.3 Released For Ubuntu 13.10 And Fedora 19

Intel has released an update for for its Linux Graphics Installer, available for Ubuntu 13.10 and Fedora 19.

Intel Linux Graphics Installer

Prime Indicator Lets You Quickly Switch Between Nvidia And Intel Graphics

Prime Indicator is a small, helpful Ubuntu AppIndicator for Nvidia Optimus users running Ubuntu 14.04 which allows users to quickly switch between Intel and Nvidia graphics cards.

Nvidia Prime Indicator

Update: Prime Indicator was abandoned, but it was later forked, and it now includes quite a few new features. The Ubuntu PPA installation instructions in this article now install the fork (called Prime Indicator Plus). For more about Prime Indicator Plus, see this article:



Adobe Flash Player Hardware Acceleration on Intel Graphics Cards

libvdpau-va-gl is a VDPAU driver that uses OpenGL under the hood to accelerate drawing and scaling, and VA-API (if available) to accelerate video decoding.

Using it, you can get hardware acceleration on some Intel graphics cards for Mplayer (well, we already have mplayer-vaapi but it hasn't been merged) and even Adobe Flash Player (the Flash content needs to use StageVideo! - YouTube supports it for instance). That means a lot less CPU usage as you'll see below. 

intel flash vdpau ubuntu

Official Intel Linux Graphics Installer Updated With 2013Q2 Intel Graphics Stack

The Intel Linux Graphics Installer and the Intel repository have been updated with the latest 2013Q2 Intel Graphics Stack, for Ubuntu 13.04 and Fedora 19.

Intel Driver Manager

The Intel Linux Graphics Installer is a tool developed by Intel that allows users to easily upgrade to the latest graphics drivers for Intel hardware. The installer automatically adds a repository used for upgrading the packages provided by Intel - that means that besides the Intel Linux Graphics Installer, you can also use the Ubuntu Software Updater, apt-get, etc. to upgrade the packages.

Official Intel Linux Graphics Installer Available For Ubuntu 13.04

Intel has released a new version of its Linux Graphics Drivers Installer and with it, the installer is now available for Ubuntu 13.04.

For those who are not familiar with the Intel Linux Graphics Installer, this a relatively new tool created by Intel that lets you easily install the latest video drivers for Intel hardware. The installer consists of a GUI tool and a repository that's automatically added and then used to install / upgrade new driver versions.

Intel Linux Graphics Installer

Bumblebee 3.2.1 Released With Ubuntu 13.04 Fixes, New Options

Bumblebee 3.2 has been released a few days ago but there was an issue and it didn't work on a lot of setups o version 3.2.1 has been released to fix this. The new version also fixes the Primus backend for Ubuntu 13.04 and adds some new options.

Bumblebee is an unofficial tool that brings Nvidia Optimus GPU switching to Linux. It's useful to increase battery life by only switching the dedicated GPU (Nvidia) on when needed. Nvidia has added initial Optimus support in their latest 319.12 beta drivers, but it doesn't have GPU switching yet.

Bumblebee 3.1 Released With Primus Support [Nvidia Optimus GPU Switching]

Bumblebee 3.1 has been released today with support for Primus as an alternative to the VirtualGL optirun backend, along with other enhancements and fixes.

Bumblebee is a (unofficial) tool that brings Nvidia Optimus GPU switching to Linux. Nvidia Optimus is a technology used to increase battery life by switching the dedicated GPU (Nvidia) off when it's not needed; when the dedicated GPU is off, the integrated graphics chip (Intel) is used. Bumblebee also supports legacy Nvidia hybrid graphics.

Bumblebee optirun glxspheres

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 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.

Primus brings better performance and less power consumption when using Bumblebee, by replacing VirtualGL. According to the Bumblebee G+ page, this has the following advantages over the optirun (VirtualGL) solution used by default in Bumblebee:

How To Enable Intel SNA Acceleration In Ubuntu

SNA is a 2D acceleration architecture for the open source Intel Linux graphics driver that provides improved X.Org driver performance, and thus, better desktop user experience. The name stands for "Sandy Bridge New Acceleration" and contrary to its name, it not just for Sandy Bridge but for previous Intel graphics generations as well.

Here's how to enable Intel SNA in Ubuntu 12.04 or 12.10.

MyPaint 1.0.0 Released With Dockable Windows, More


MyPaint is an easy to use open source graphics application for digital painters. It comes with a simple interface, unlimited canvas, extensive brush creation, basic layer support and more and is available for both Windows and Linux.

MyPaint was recently updated, the new version brining some cool new features such as a configurable toolbar or dockable floating windows. Here's the full list of changes for the latest MyPaint 1.0.0:

GIMPBox: Get A Single-Window Mode In Stable GIMP (2.6.x)

GIMP Single Window GIMPBox

GIMP from SVN (2.7.x) comes with a built-in single-window mode (can be disabled) but I find it unstable sometimes so I prefer to use the stable GIMP 2.6.x, especially since there are so many goodies you can use to enhance it, like GIMP Painter and GIMP Paint Studio, G'MIC or the GIMP Plugin Registry package.

So if you want to use the stable GIMP 2.6.x (tested with GIMP 2.6.11 under Ubuntu 11.04) and still get a single-window mode in GIMP, here's how to do it using a script called GIMPBox.

GIMP Painter And GIMP Paint Studio Transform GIMP Into The Ultimate Painting Tool

GIMP Paint Studio


GIMP Paint Studio

GIMP Paint Studio is a package that comes with new tools and brushes, designed to improve the drawing capabilities of GIMP. We've covered GIMP Paint Studio a long time ago (wow, almost 2 years ago) and many things have changed since then - most importantly, GIMP Paint Studio now comes with an Ubuntu PPA so it's very easy to install it in Ubuntu.

The GIMP Plugins In Ubuntu 10.10 Could Become 1000 Times Faster Thanks To OpenCL

A post on the GIMP users website points out that Ubuntu 10.10 comes with OpenCL support which means that multimedia or image processing applications such as GIMP or the GIMP plugins can use OpenCL (hardware acceleration) to get an amazing performance boost - the post says this could make the GIMP plugins 1000 times faster and even though it seems a bit unrealistic, it's still pretty exciting. However, it won't work with the existing plugins - they will have to be re-written to take advantage of OpenCL.

Please note: this will only work with the OpenCL driver shipped with Nvidia 17x+ or the ATI SDK (so you'll have to install the proprietary drivers). Also, you need to have a CUDA enabled Nvidia graphics card (G80 GPUs, 8xxx series) or ATI with Close to Metal (2xxx series) to use it.

For more info, see the post @ gimpusers.com.

Thanks to bhm for the clarifications

Fix Intel GMA500 "Poulsbo" Graphics In Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx [PPA]

I recently came upon an Ubuntu 10.04 PPA with Intel GMA500 "Poulsbo" packages which you can use to get everything working. Well, almost everything as only 2D will work, 3D unfortunately is not supported.

This PPA aims to port the Mandriva patches for the psb driver to Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx in order to enable GMA500 support in Xorg 1.7.x.

How to Enable Direct2D Acceleration in Ubuntu [ATI Cards]

If you hear the term Direct2D, you are probably thinking of some outdated technology that preceded the Direct3D. That, however, is not true; Direct2D has only been introduced recently with Windows 7 and Server 2008. Although made by Microsoft, the Linux alternative shares the same name (well, almost; officially, it's Direct2DAccel). And yes, this is for X - not for Wine or anything like that.


What does Direct2DAccel do?


D2D enables graphic cards to do what we always wanted them to do – perform graphic tasks. Unless you are playing video games (probably not so much if you are using Linux), your graphic card's processor (GPU) doesn't do a whole lot – even when you are playing movies. That all made sense in the beginning, when GPU's power was 75-150 MHz. However, the GPUs nowadays are capable of running much faster than that and they hunger for jobs.


ATI Finally Releases Video Driver With Ubuntu Karmic (9.10) Support

ATI (AMD) released a new version of it's ATI Catalyst proprietary display driver for Linux. Version 10.1 finally brings support for the new Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala, a bit late considering there are only 3 months till Ubuntu Lucid will be released, but it's still good news for a lot of Ubuntu 9.10 users.


Thew new Ati Catalyst 10.1 also brings a few fixes which you can view @ Softpedia.

Download ATI/AMD Linux Display Drivers 10.1

Nvidia 195.22 Beta Linux Display Driver Available In Nvidia Vdpau Team PPA [Ubuntu]

Nvidia recently released it's 195.22 beta Linux display driver about a week ago. The new display driver brings VDPAU improvements, support for NVIDIA 3D Vision Stereo (Quatro cards only), better DisplayPort monitor handling, and many other enhancements.

The Nvidia 195.22 graphics drivers are finally available in the Nvidia Vdpau Team PPA so you can easily install them in Ubuntu. You can find installation instructions for the latest Nvidia 195.xx graphics drivers, HERE.

If you don't use Ubuntu, you can download the drivers from HERE.

sK1 Ubuntu Repository (Vector Graphics Editor For Linux)

sk1 ubuntu screenshot

A few months ago I was telling you about sK1, an open source vector graphics editor similar to CorelDRAW, Adobe Illustrator, or Freehand. At the time, you had to compile it, but now (actually it exists for quite some time, but I wasn't aware of it) there is an Ubuntu repository from where you can install the latest version.

Why sK1 and not InkScape?

While InkScape is oriented to the SVG format and is ideal for web design, sK1 targets professional designers from the prepress world. So sK1 supports CMYK, multiple pages and separating colour plates.

More info about sK1.

Adding sK1 Launchpad PPA repository

Open a terminal and paste the following command to add the PPA repository:

-For Ubuntu Jaunty (9.04):
sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/stani/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"


-For Ubuntu Intrepid (8.10):
sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/stani/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"


Then, add the GPG key:
sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 7B0FB2CA


And finally, install sK1 in Ubuntu Linux:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install sk1

Download sK1 .deb for Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) without adding the PPA repo

Additionally, you can just download the Ubuntu .deb if you want. But before installing it, you need to firstly install some dependencies, so open a terminal and paste this:
sudo apt-get install tcl8.5 tk8.5 python-imaging python-imaging-tk python-liblcms python-reportlab

Then you can download and install sK1 .deb: Ubuntu 32 bit | Ubuntu 64bit


A note from the PPA maintainer: this is the development version of sK1 and the packages have not been tested by a critical mass. In case you have problems, you should report them on the sK1 forums. The packaging is not perfect yet. For example there will be no entry in the start menu. This will be fixed in a next release. I've sent Igor from sK1 the necessary files to resolve this issue. So for now start sK1 by typing "sk1" in the run dialog (Alt+F2) or in a terminal.

As a final remark: you need to remove your ~/.sk1 folder, otherwise sK1 might have troubles starting up.

[thanks to Stiani for maintaining the PPA]