When it comes to photo management software in Linux, Shotwell is perhaps the most famous of them all. No wonder it comes preinstalled in many distributions.
But if you are looking for a Shotwell like application which is a bit faster, Fotoxx could be a good choice.
It may not have a modern user interface, but it is fast in handling a large collection of photos. And it matters because indexing and showing thumbnails for thousands of photos could take considerable time and computing resources.
Manage photos and edit them in Linux with Fotoxx
Fotoxx interface
As you can see in the screenshot above, it is not the nicest interface. Looks more like an application from around 2010. What it lacks in the visual department, it makes up with features and performance.
You can import a huge collection of photos, including RAW images. The images stay where they are. They are not copied or moved. They just get indexed in the application.
You can edit image metadata like tags, geotags, dates, ratings, captions etc. You can search images based on these matadata.
It also has a map feature that groups and displays images belonging to a certain location (based on geotag data on the images).
Map view
Since it focuses on managing large collection of photos, it has several batch functions to rename, resize, copy/move, convert image format and edit metadata.
You can select images to create albums and slideshows and all this happens without duplicating the images. Photos can be combined to create 360-degree panoramas.
Fotoxx also has several editing functions that can be used to retouch the images, add effect (like sketching, painting), trim, rotate and more.
There is also options for removing red eyes and dust spots from the old, scanned photo prints.
I can go on with the features list but it won’t end. Its website describes its full capabilities and you should check it out.
Please keep in mind that Fotoxx developer recommends a strong computer with 4+ CPU cores, 16+ GB memory for proper functioning. Lesser computers may be slow or may fail to edit large images.
Fotoxx is available in the repositories of most Linux distributions like Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora and Arch Linux. Just use your distribution’s package manager or software center to search for Fotoxx and install it.
On Ubuntu and Debian based distributions, you can use the apt command to install it like this:
sudo apt install fotoxx
When you first run it, it will ask to search the home directory for images. You may continue with it or limit the search location to selected folders.
I noticed that despite indexing over 4,700 in a minute or so, it didn’t start displaying the images immediately. I had to click on Gallery->All Folders and the select the folder(s) and then it showed the images. So, this is something to keep in mind.
Fotoxx is an extensive tool and it will take some time in getting used to it and explore all its features. Its webapge lists several examples that you should have a look at.
As I said earlier, it is not the prettiest application, but it gets the job done with a huge list of features. If you are a photographer or have a large collection of images, you may give Fotoxx a try and see if it fits your need. And when you do that, please do share your experience with it in the comment section.
WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) is a handy tool for people who want to enjoy the power of Linux command line from the comfort of Windows.
When you install Linux using WSL on Windows, you are asked to create a username and password. This user is automatically logged on when you start Linux on WSL.
Now, the problem is that if you haven’t used it for some time, you may forget the account password of WSL. And this will become a problem if you have to use a command with sudo because here you’ll need to enter the password.
Don’t worry. You can easily reset it.
Reset forgotten password for Ubuntu or any other Linux distribution on WSL
To reset the Linux password in WSL, you have to:
Switch the default user to root
Reset the password for the normal user
Switch back the default user to the normal user
Let me show you the steps in detail and with screenshots.
Step 1: Switch to root as default user
It will be wise to note down your account’s normal/regular username. As you can see, my regular account’s username is abhishek.
Note down the account username
The root user in WSL is unlocked and doesn’t have a password set. This means that you can switch to the root user and then use the power of root to reset the password.
Since you don’t remember the account password, switching to the root user is done by changing the configuration of your Linux WSL application and make it use root user by default.
This is done through Windows Command Prompt and you’ll need to know which command you need to run for your Linux distribution.
This information is usually provided in the description of the distribution app in the Windows Store. This is from where you had downloaded your distribution in the first place.
Know the command to run for your distribution app
From the Windows menu, start the command prompt:
Start Command Prompt
In here, use your distribution’s command in this fashion. If you were using the Ubuntu app from Windows store, the command would be:
ubuntu config --default-user root
In the screenshot, I am using Ubuntu 20.04 app from the Windows store. So, I have used ubuntu2004 command.
Set root as default user in Linux app’s configuration
To save you the trouble, I am listing some distributions and their respective commands in this table:
Distribution App
Windows Command
Ubuntu
ubuntu config –default-user root
Ubuntu 20.04
ubuntu2004 config –default-user root
Ubuntu 18.04
ubuntu1804 config –default-user root
Debian
debian config –default-user root
Kali Linux
kali config –default-user root
Step 2: Reset the password for the account
Now, if you start the Linux distribution app, you should be logged in as root. You can reset the password for the normal user account.
Do you remember the username in WSL? If not, you can always check the contents of the /home directory. When you have the username, use this command:
passwd username
It will ask you to enter a new password. When you type here, nothing will be displayed on the screen. That’s normal. Just type the new password and hit enter. You’ll have to retype the new password to confirm and once again, nothing will be displayed on the screen while you type the password.
Reset the password for the regular user
Congratulations. The password for the user account has been reset. But you are done just yet. The default user is still root. You should change it back to your regular account user, otherwise it will keep on logging in as root user.
Step 3: Set regular user as default again
You’ll need the regular account username that you used with the passwd command in the previous step.
Start the Windows command prompt once again. Use your distribution’s command in the similar manner you did in the step 1. However, this time, replace root with the regular user.
ubuntu config --default-user username
Set regular user as default user
Now when you start your Linux distribution app in WSL, you’ll be logged in as the regular user. You have reset the password fresh and can use it to run commands with sudo.
If you forgot the password again in the future, you know the steps to reset it.
If resetting WSL password is this easy, is this not a security risk?
Not really. You need to have physical access to the computer along with access to the Windows account. If someone already has this much access, she/he can do a lot more than just changing the Linux password in WSL.
Were you able to reset WSL password?
I gave you the commands and explained the steps. I hope this was helpful to you and you were able to reset the password of your Linux distribution in WSL.
If you are still facing issues or if you have a question on this topic, please feel free to ask in the comment section.
In an earlier article, I covered the procedure to batch convert a handful of Markdown files to HTML using pandoc. In that article, multiple HTML files were created, but pandoc can do much more. It has been called “the Swiss army knife” of document conversion – and with good reason. There isn’t a lot that it can’t do.
Pandoc can covert .docx, .odt, .html, .epub, LaTeX, DocBook, etc. to these and other formats, such as JATS, TEI Simple, AsciiDoc, and more.
Yes, this means that pandoc can convert .docx files to .pdf and .html, but you may be thinking: “Word can export files to .pdf and .html too. Why would I need pandoc?”
You would have a good point there, but since pandoc can convert so many formats, it could well become your go-to tool for all of your conversion tasks. For example, many of us know that Markdown editors can export its Markdown files to .html. With pandoc, Markdown files can be converted to numerous other formats as well.
I rarely have Markdown export to HTML; I normally let pandoc do it.
Converting File Formats with Pandoc
Here, I will convert Markdown files into a few different formats. I do almost all of my writing using Markdown syntax, but I often have to convert to another format: .docx files are usually required for school work, .html for web pages that I create – and for .epub work, .pdf for flyers and handouts, and even an occasional TEI Simple file for a university digital humanities project. Pandoc can handle all of these, and more, easily.
First, you need to install pandoc. Also, to create .pdf files, LaTeX will be needed as well. The package I prefer is TeX Live.
Note: If you would like to try out pandoc before installing it, there is an online try-out page at: http://pandoc.org/try/
Installing pandoc and texlive
Users of Ubuntu and other Debian distros can type the following commands in the terminal:
Notice on the second line, you are installing pandoc and texlive in one shot. apt-get command will have no problem with this, but go get some coffee; this may take a few minutes.
Getting to Conversion
Once pandoc and texlive are installed, you can burn through some work!
The sample document for this project will be an article that was first published in the North American Review in December of 1894, and is titled: “How To Repel Train Robbers”. The Markdown file that I will be using was created some time ago as part of a restoration project.
The file: how_to_repel_train_robbers.md is located in my Documents directory, in a sub-directory named samples. Here is what it looks like in Ghostwriter.
Markdown file in Ghostwriter
I want to create .docx, .pdf, and .html versions of this file.
The First Conversion
I’ll start with making a .pdf copy first, since I went through the trouble of installing a LaTeX package.
While in the ~/Documents/samples/ directory, I type the following to create a .pdf file:
pandoc -o htrtr.pdf how_to_repel_train_robbers.md
The above command will create a file called htrtr.pdf from the how_to_repel_train_robbers.md file. The reason I used htrtr as a name was that it is shorter than how_to_repel_train_robbers – htrtr is the first letter of each word in the long title.
Here is a snapshot of the .pdf file once it is made:
Converted PDF file viewed in Ocular
The Second Conversion
Next, I want to create a .docx file. The command is almost identical to the one I used to create the .pdf and it is:
The only thing different about these three commands is the extension next to htrtr. This gives you a hint that pandoc relies on the extension of the output filename you provide.
Conclusion
Pandoc can do far more than the three little conversions done here. If you write with a preferred format, but need to convert the file to another format, chances are great that pandoc will be able to do it for you.
What would you do with this? Would you automate this? What if you had a web site that had articles for your readers to download? You could modify these little commands to work as a script and your readers could decide which format they would like. You could offer .docx, .pdf, .odt, .epub, or more. Your readers choose, the proper conversion script runs, and your readers download their file. It can be done.
Brave Search is an ambitious initiative by Brave Software based on the open-source project Tailcat, which tries to take on the big tech by introducing the ability to search anonymously. Brave Search itself is not open source at the moment.
Of course, there are various other private search engines available out there trying to offer a privacy-focused experience. Even though not every service proves to be better than Google (regarding features), Brave Search seems to be a compelling choice when considering Brave Browser as a successful open-source replacement to Google Chrome.
Here, let me highlight a few features in Brave Search that makes it an interesting alternative to Google Search.
Top 9 Brave Search Features
Brave Search does a few things better than Google and those are worth highlighting as unique feature offerings that sets it apart.
Brave Search is in beta at the time of writing this article. If you notice something different with your experience, there are chances that they may have made an improvement/change. Let me know in the comments below if that’s the case.
1. Anonymous Search
Google tracks your search queries, keeps a log of your history (unless you manually delete it or disable recording your activity). Not just the basics, but your IP address and the website you visit from the search result is also recorded in the process.
In contrast, Brave Search does not track the IP, or the search queries made using their search portal.
You stay completely anonymous, along with your search history being private only to yourself.
This could eliminate the need of using a secure VPN service to keep your Internet search activity private.
2. Ad-Free Version (Coming Soon)
All the private search engines include advertisements to make money (which is fair). The advertisements used by Google Search include trackers when you click on it, which is not the case with privacy-focused search engines.
But Brave Search tries to go a little further by offering a choice to the users.
It is a feature that has been planned for addition, but it is worth mentioning. If you want to get rid of the ads, you can opt for the paid version of the search engine where you can explore the web ad-free.
I think that’s a win-win for both Brave and you as a user. They do not lose on making revenue and you get to experience a truly ad-free search engine.
3. Community Curated Search Rankings (Coming Soon)
Users can help spot the quality of a web resource better than an algorithm often.
So, Brave Search aims to work on a community-curated search ranking system, which will be open to all when it is available.
This should improve the collaborative approach of exploring the web, which should be an impressive feature of Brave Search.
4. Independent Index with No Search Algorithm
With most of the other search engines, there’s an algorithm in place to make sure that only the high-quality web pages rank above the rest. Brave Search does not have any special algorithm controlling the search rankings.
And yes, that is a feature in a world where everything depends on algorithms.
Sometimes that algorithm ends up being biased by ranking plagiarism content first, low-quality web pages, along with a few other issues.
Without any special search algorithm, Brave search uses its own Index to fetch results as per your queries.
5. Private Local and Global Search Results
No matter what region you choose for the search results, you get an additional option to filter your results based on your locality (IP address).
Brave explains that the IP address is stored locally on your device and is used to serve you the local feed of results – which sounds useful.
6. Transparency in Search Results
The web is a vast network. Therefore, to keep the search result quality resourceful, Brave Search fetches some search results anonymously from Google and Bing (which is often less than 10% in my tests).
For the rest of the results, Brave Search relies on its independent index. Brave Search also displays the percent of its independent search index used for your search.
The more users start using Brave Search, the more independent the search results will become. So that’s a good thing.
Considering not all search engines reveal a lot about their search results, Transparency, as a principle, can be a feature to compare with when choosing a search engine.
An open source web browser that blocks ads and tracking. A good choice if you are looking for a privacy focused web browser. Here’s how to install Brave on Linux.
7. A Refreshing User Interface
While every other Google search alternative tries to offer a familiar experience, Brave Search is actually refreshing to look at (in my opinion).
The user interface looks well-thought and offers a modern, clean experience. Don’t you think?
I like how DuckDuckGo simplifies things, but Brave certainly makes it up for a better user experience that looks unique and clean.
8. No Anti-Competitive Nature
Unlike some other search engines (especially, Google) do not suggest anything else explicitly, except their own products and services in their search results.
That’s fair but potentially also anti-competitive, being the most popular search engine. They do have their reasons which we don’t have to talk about here, but giving a shout-out to your competitors is something new businesses/services are adopting.
And Brave Search does an excellent jobat that. While you scroll through the search results, you will find a choice to use other search engines for your search query.
9. Dark Mode & Tweaks
Yes, the dark mode is an important feature (sigh).
And from the settings available in Brave Search, you can turn on the dark mode, set links to open in a new tab, and control the language (soon).
Wrapping Up
Brave Search is an interesting private search engine that aims to tackle the Big Tech by offering something new. It should be seamless user experience when using Brave Browser along with it, but you can use it on any browser without any limitations.
I like what I see here, what do you think? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Firefox has started showing “Recommended by Pocket” articles in the new tab area. This is currently available in a selected few countries like India and Brazil but it will be rolled out in other countries, sooner or later.
Now, I don’t like an algorithm to tell me which articles I should be reading. I use feed readers and read articles from the sources I choose to follow.
If you don’t like these article recommendations and you prefer not to see it in your new tab area, there is an easy way to disable it. Let me show it to you.
Disable article recommendations in Firefox
Open a new tab in Firefox browser. You’ll notice a Personalize button in the top right corner. Click on it.
You’ll see a few options here. One of them is “Recommended by Pocket”. Toggle this button off. You’ll notice that the recommended articles disappear immediately.
And that’s all you need to do here. Pretty simple, isn’t it?
Why does Firefox show these recommended articles?
Pocket, previously known as Read It Later, is a bookmarking tool owned by Mozilla, the parent company of Firefox.
If you do not know already, Mozilla is financially dependent on Google. It earns a few hundred millions for keeping Google as the default search engine in the Firefox web browser.
Mozilla is trying to reduce its economic dependency on Google. In this effort, Mozilla is offering a few premium services like Pocket and Mozilla VPN to generate additional revenue.
Now, Pocket was initially a bookmarking tool with option to save the article offline, Mozilla is experimenting by recommending articles from various websites. For this, Mozilla has agreement with selected web publishers. It is likely that it brings Mozilla some much-needed revenue, though I am not sure about it at this moment.
So now you know why there are article recommendations in Firefox and how to disable it if you don’t like them. I hope you liked this quick Firefox tip.
There are a variety of BitTorrent applications available for Linux. But finding a good application that offers many features should save you some time.
KTorrent by KDE is one such BitTorrent app built for Linux.
KTorrent is a full-fledged torrent client primarily tailored for KDE desktop. It should work simply fine no matter what desktop environment you use.
Of course, with KDE desktop, you may get a seamless user experience.
Let us look at the all the features offered.
Features of KTorrent
For regular torrent users, having an extensive set of features makes things easy. And KTorrent is no exception. Here, I’ll highlight the key highlights of KTorrent:
Adding torrent downloads in a queue
Ability to control the speed limits per download (or overall)
Video and audio file preview option
Supports importing of downloaded files (partial/full)
Ability to prioritize torrent downloads when downloading multiple files
Selection of specific files to download for multi-file torrents
IP filter with the option of kicking/banning peers
UDP tracker support
µTorrent peer support
Support for protocol encryption
Ability to create trackerless torrent
Scripting support
System tray integration
Connection through a proxy
Added plugin support
Supports IPv6
KTorrent sounds something useful as a torrent client that you can use daily with control to manage all your torrent downloads at one place.
In addition to the features mentioned above, it offers great control over the behavior of the client as well. For instance, tweaking the color that indicates downloads/pause/trackers.
You also get the ability to set the notification if you want to disable the sound of completing a torrent download or getting notified of the activity.
While features like protocol encryption support may not be able to replace some of the best VPN services, it is an important addition for desktop clients.
Installing KTorrent in Linux
KTorrent should be available through your package managers like Synaptic or the default repositories. You can also find it listed in your software center for easy installation.
In addition to this, it also offers a Flatpak official package on Flathub for any Linux distribution. If you need help with that, we have a Flatpak guide for reference.
You can also try the snap package available if you prefer that.
KTorrent is a phenomenal torrent client for Linux. I tried it on my Linux Mint system on top of Cinnamon desktop, and it worked great.
I like how simple, yet configurable it is. Even though I don’t use a torrent client every day, I did not see anything weird with KTorrent in my brief testing.
What do you think about KTorrent as a torrent client for Linux? What do you prefer to use it instead?
When it comes to dual boot, the general idea is that you have a system preinstalled with Windows and then you install Linux alongside Windows. On the boot, you select whether you want to use Windows or Linux.
How about the opposite situation? What if you have a system that has only Linux installed on it and you want to install Windows alongside Linux in dual boot mode?
In this tutorial, I’ll show you exactly how you can install Windows after Ubuntu Linux in dual boot.
Dual booting Windows on an existing Ubuntu Linux system
I tested this tutorial on an Ubuntu system with UEFI and GPT partitioning scheme. In theory, the same steps should be applicable to most Linux distributions, if not all.
Requirements
Here’s all the stuff you need to carry out the procedure safely and easily:
A bootable Windows 10 USB stick (USB key, Pen Drive) of at least 8 GB in size
A live Ubuntu USB stick (USB key, Pen Drive) of at least 4 GB in size
A computer with UEFI boot and only Ubuntu Linux installed on it
Internet connection is needed for creating the bootable Windows and live Linux disk
A way to back up your important data on an external disk (optional yet recommended)
You may also manage this tutorial with just one USB key. You create the live Linux USB first, make the partition for Windows using this live Linux USB, and then use the same USB key as a bootable Windows USB.
I highly recommend that you read the entire tutorial first before you start following the steps.
Step 0: Make a backup of important data
Here’s the thing. You are going to play with disk partitions and boot settings. If you mess it up, you’ll lose the data.
Having a back up on an external disk will give you a safety net. In the worst case, if things go wrong, you can install either of Windows or Linux and copy the data back on your system.
How do you make a backup? The simplest method is to have an external USB or SSD disk and copy files from Documents, Music, Pictures and other folders where you have kept your files.
If you only have a Linux system, creating a bootable Windows USB could be tricky. Thankfully, a handy open source tool called Ventoy helps a lot in this case.
Next, download the latest Ventoy release. Extract the folder and run the VentoyWeb.sh script with sudo. It will give you the URL when you run it. Copy this URL and paste it in a browser.
It will open a web page with Ventoy running in it. Go for UEFI installation and hit the install button.
Once installed, you’ll see two partitions on the USB disk: VTOYEFI and Ventoy. You need to copy the download Windows ISO image to Ventoy partition.
Once the copying finishes, DO NOT RUSH to plug out the USB just yet. Click on the unmount option from the file manager.
Okay. So now that you have a bootable Windows USB, it will be a good idea to test it out and see if works.
How do you do that? Plug in the Windows USB, reboot your system. When the system is turning on again and showing the logo of your system’s manufacturer, press F2/F10/F12 keys to access the BIOS settings.
When you are in the BIOS, choose to boot from the USB. In some cases, you may have to disable secure boot from the BIOS settings.
If the bootable Windows USB creation was a success, you should see Ventoy screen and select to boot into Win10.
After this, you’ll see some screen about Windows installation. Don’t go with the installation part yet. Close it and power down your system and then boot into Linux again.
This check was necessary because you need to have a working bootable Windows USB. Without that, there will be no point in following the rest of the tutorial.
Remove the bootable Windows USB at this stage.
Step 2: Create a live Ubuntu Linux USB
You may wonder why you need a live Ubuntu USB here when you already have Linux installed properly.
The reason is that you need to modify the existing partition and make some free space where you’ll be installing Windows. But you cannot modify an already mounted partition in Linux. When you are using Linux, your disk is mounted. You won’t be able to modify it and create a new partition in it.
This is why you need a live Linux USB. You boot from the live USB and make the necessary partition on the disk from the live session.
Now that you know the reason, let’s go on with creating live Ubuntu USB. First, download the ISO image of Ubuntu from its website. Any version of Ubuntu will work.
On Ubuntu, you can find the Startup Disk Creator tool. You may also use Etcher on Linux. The choice is yours. Here, I’ll use Startup Disk Creator.
The process is really simple. Your plugged in USB should be recognized. It should also automatically find the Ubuntu ISO. If not, you can always browse to it. With that set, just hit the “Make Startup Disk” button.
It should take a few minutes to create the live Ubuntu USB. You can hit the Quit button below.
Step 3: Boot from live USB and make free space for Windows
Alright. Now you boot from the live Linux USB.
Restart the system. When it is powering on and displaying the manufacturer’s logo, press F2/F10/F12 keys to access the BIOS settings. In here, go to the boot order and boot from the Linux USB.
When you see this screen, go for Try Ubuntu.
Now that you are in the live session, open the Disk application. It is already installed.
In the Disks application, carefully select the main hard disk/SSD of your computer. This is where you have Linux installed. As you can see in the picture below, I have ESP partition (for UEFI boot settings) and a single Linux partition. This is the partition that needs to be resized to make free space for Windows.
If you have a root, swap and home partition setup, you should resize the home partition.
In the resizing, it will show a minimal size. You cannot shrink the disk below this point. You’ll be leaving some extra space for Linux usage, of course.
Note that the “partition size” is for Linux partition. In the picture below, I reduced the Linux partition to 120 GB from 256 GB. This gives a 136 GB of free space for Windows installation.
When you hit the resize button, it could take up to a couple of minutes to complete the resizing process.
As you can see in the picture below, now I have three partitions on my system. One is 500 MB of ESP partition (for UEFI boot), 120 GB of Ext4 partition for Linux and 136 GB of free space.
You now have dedicated free space where you are going to put Windows. Shut down your system now.
Step 4: Boot from Windows USB and start installing Windows
Plug in your bootable Windows UBS. Once again, restart your system, access the BIOS settings and boot from the USB. By now, you know how to do this. You already did this in step 1 while checking the bootable Windows USB.
You should see the Ventoy screen if you created the bootable Windows USB with it. Hit enter.
You should see the Windows logo. After a few seconds, you’ll see the option to choose the language, time and keyboard.
The next screen will give you the option to start the installation. Hit “Install Now”.
In the next few screens, it will ask for the Windows license key. If you don’t have it, skip it. You can activate Windows later as well. You’ll be asked to choose a Windows version and accept the end user license.
Enter license key or skip it
Choose Windows version
Accept terms and agreement
In the next screen, go with the Custom install option.
Now you’ll come to the partition screen. Select the free space (unallocated space) you had created in the step 3 and hit the Next button.
It will take a couple of minutes in copying the files and install Windows.
After that, your system will restart automatically and this time it will boot into Windows directly.
Windows installation is not over entirely. On the next boot, you’ll be asked to configure Windows for your usage and this is super annoying but super easy to follow.
I am not going in detail for this part because I know you can handle the configuration part, which is waiting and hitting next button most of the time. I am sharing a few screenshots just for the reference, though.
Once you have installed Windows successfully, chances are that you’ll be booting into Windows by default. You need to get the Grub dual boot screen back.
Step 5: Get the Grub bootloader back
Once again, restart your system and when it is powering on, go to BIOS settings. From the boot sequence or boot order, move Ubuntu up the order. You may have to use arrow keys or F5 or F6 and the screen may look different for different system.
Save and exit and this time you should be booting into Ubuntu. The battle is not over yet. The grub bootloader might not be aware of the presence of Windows. This is why it is a good idea to update grub in Ubuntu.
All you have to do is to open a terminal and use the following command:
sudo update-grub
Restart your system once again. You should be greeted with the familiar grub boot screen that gives you the option to choose between booting into Ubuntu and Windows.
And that brings us to the end of this long journey. It takes some time and effort, but if you want to install Windows after installing Ubuntu, this can surely be done.
If you still have questions, please let me know in the comment section and I’ll try to answer you.
