How to run Android 9 in Ubuntu with Google Apps and AppStore Installed.

https://www.android-x86.org/

Download Android 9 iso

https://osdn.net/projects/android-x86/downloads/71931/android-x86-9.0-r2.iso/

Start Gnome Boxes,

While on the Installation select Install to hardisk, createa primary partition, install grub, reboot.

Video below with the full experience

Record and editing a video in Ubuntu with Flowblade

I created a small Video to document how to start a Android virtual machine in Ubuntu. I used Ubuntu 20.04 and Android 9 iso image.

I used "OBS Studio" to capture the screen capture video.

With OBS I capture small cut of the video, so I could put them together with Flowblade, I created 9 small video files.

After that I started Flowblade added 9 videos and finally select 6 videos, create the video stream I wanted, and selected render.

This took about 25 minutes to render a 10 min video at 1080p on webm.

Here is the final result uploaded to youtube.

Ubuntu install K360 keyboard and M325, M557, M720 mice, logitech unifying support for linux

I have a K360 Bluetooth keyboard, a M557, M720 Bluetooth mice and M325 mouse.

I've been using these devices for years with Ubuntu [from 16.04 to 20.04] without problems. The Bluetooth stack on Ubuntu in much better now, i have a Yoga 920 laptop where I test use these devices.

I used the usb plug from the M325 mouse and it just works out of the box

Also installed solaar

sudo apt install solaar

Solaar allows you to pair one logitech usb dongle with many logitech USB devices, this way you don't need to use 2 USB dongles from logitech on the same computer.

For the K360 keyboard, M557 and M720 mice, I just use the Bluetooth section on Gnome setting panel and it works great.

This post was created with the K360 keyboard and M325  mouse.

In Ubuntu 20.04 all the special Keys in the K360 work and even the windows key on the M557 also works of of the box.

Some other old references:
using cmd line: https://github.com/treeder/logitech_unifier

other: https://askubuntu.com/questions/113984/is-logitechs-unifying-receiver-supported

Ubuntu 20.04 desktop review and apps to install

Ubuntu 20.04

This new version of Ubuntu installs without a glitch in my Yoga 920, I setup this device with dual boot with windows 10, see install ubuntu on yoga 920

On this version of Ubuntu the touch screen works flawless, the screen goes black before it rotates but it works without a glitch. Both my Logitech K810 keyboard, M557 and M720 mice work great with Ubuntu. On the M557 even the mouse windows key works.

Fn+Space - turn on the keyboard light with 2 levels

Track pad, Track pad lock button, Windows Key, Vol Mute/Up/Down , Airplane plane mode, WiFi, Bluetooth, Camera button, Lock Screen, Brightness buttons, PrtSrc, Power button, Camera recording works all works out of the box.

I normally install Slack, Zoom, Skype to allow me to work, these apps are great if you work on a corporate environment and you needed it for your work.

I also normally install Signal, Spotify and Chromium all available on Ubuntu software store app installed by default.

I never took time to setup the finger print scanner on the Yoga 920, but out of the box is not working.

This new version Ubuntu feels really fast on the Yoga 920, notifications improved, Ubuntu now shows apps icons on gnome desktop.

The "Gnome Boxes App" that allows you to run virtual machines in Ubuntu is a lot more user friendly to use in this version, you can create a VM in seconds, it downloads the Operating system for you and boots right into the OS.

For Windows you need a ISO image and some drivers but is also pretty easy too, I have a blog-post describing the process here.

Windows

Fedora

Touch Screen

Gnome is a great interface for touch screens, it works really well, if you use a mix between keyboard mouse and touch screen actions the default setup works really well.

Firefox the default browser is great when using the mouse and keyboard, but is terrible when using a touch screen, so if are finger friendly you need to install chromium. Chromium works really well while using your fingers.

If you use laptop in tablet mode, you need also need to install chromium and enable the screen keyboard in accessibility mode.

With Chromium and the on screen keyboard, you can consume content from websites like YouTube, Twitch, Facebook watch in tablet mode and all works great out of the box.

HIDPI

If you have a HIDPI laptop like the Yoga 920 that can do 4k in 14 inches of screen, the new Ubuntu supports  fractional scaling. This allows you to tune the fonts and windows scaling a bit more at the expense of CPU/battery.

I normally run my Yoga 920 at 1080p which is great for 14 inches screen, to save battery, but some times I change it to 4k, it I'm editing images or watching some videos in 4k, since you get more pixel area for the images.

Things todo after install is finished

Open "Ubuntu Software" App and select the applications you like the best.

Here is a list of Apps that I like to install in my laptop

Video/Images

obs-studio - screen recorder

kazam - screen recorder

peek - screen recorder

mypaint krita pinta gimp - Image editors

blender - 3D modeling

kdenlive - Video editor

pitivi - Video editor

flowblade - Video editor

handbrake - multi-threaded video trans-coder.
flameshot - take a screen shot
shotcut - Video Editor

Rawtherapee - Image Editor

Sound

audacity - Sound editor
audacious - Audio player

soundconverter - Sound Converter

Tools

stacer - System analysis

htop - System analysis

Games

steam - game engine, game store tons of games available.

For codecs needed for Video and Sound Install

sudo apt install ubuntu-restricted-extras

To run other Linux Instances or windows vms [and see my other blog post how to setup windows].

sudo apt-get install virt-manager gnome-boxes

Install Apps command line

sudo apt install mypaint krita pinta shotcut blender kdenlive pitivi flowblade audacity kazam stacer htop flameshot gimp steam audacity audacious handbrake soundconverter obs-studio peek

Open Ubuntu Software

Configuration:

Install GNOME Tweaks

Messenger:

Install Spotify

Install Signal

Install Slack

Install Skype

Video Calls:

Install Zoom

Firefox Plugins

To enable touch screen support: simply edit /etc/security/pam_env.conf and add MOZ_USE_XINPUT2 DEFAULT=1 then reboot.

 

Disable all tracking Cookies - https://privacybadger.org/

HTTPS only - https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere

Firefox private Network VPN - https://fpn.firefox.com/vpn

References:

https://linuxhint.com/top_screen_recorders_ubuntu/

Ubuntu 20.04 running on Lenovo Yoga 920 with HiDPI and touch screen support

I resized the windows partition to the minimum necessary (100G), disabled secure boot and I also remove bitlocker key encryption on windows drive, this allows Ubuntu to see that partition and allow windows to boot with secure boot disabled, without complaining.

This makes everything go easier if you want to keep windows around on the same disk and dual boot with Ubuntu, you should do this it helps a lot. Even after you disable this, you can re-enable it back, both secure boot and bitlocker key encryption.

Before installing you install windows updates, resize your windows partition. Installing all windows updates will not allow you to gain as much space as possible. After resizing the windows partition to the minimum size you want, install all windows updates, bios and driver updates.

I upgraded all windows updates to the latest version and all drivers to the latest version and upgraded the bios on windows to the latest version before installing Ubuntu, I don't think this makes much difference but at least I did it to make sure I have the latest firmware on all components and latest bios before installing Ubuntu.

To get to the bios press and hold Fn+F2 (bios) or Fn+F12 (USB boot devices), or insert a clip on the small orifice next to the power button while the laptop is powered off.

Everything else seems to be working fine.

Works:

• all special keys
• keyboard lights
• bluetooth, WiFi
• trackpad
• touch screen
• keyboard and mouse pad are disable in tablet mode
• camera
• hibernate
• hidpi
• pen works like a mouse, but there no apps on Ubuntu that I know that use the pen, using gnomes-boxes I tried windows 10 using sketchbook and it is slow, but it works fine.
• screen rotation works while in tablet or tent mode.

Not Working:fingerprint reader

• fingerprint reader

Dual Boot Setup

• Before installing any windows updates, bios or driver updates, resize your windows partition in windows to the minimum size you want, otherwise windows updates might constrain the amount of free disk space you can reclaim. I reduced the windows partition size (to 100Gb) using Disk Management utility to the desired capacity to make space for Linux.
• https://www.easeus.com/partition-master/shrink-windows-10-partition.html
• Disable secure boot in bios, use your windows bitlocker key from windows website to be able to boot windows and after that remove secure block key encryption from you windows partition. This will make it much easier, see online instructions is easy. (optional step)

• Download and install all windows updates. The pre-installed Lenovo service utility prompts to update the firmware.  I went ahead with it.
• To get to the bios press Fn+F2 (bios) or Fn+F12 (USB boot devices), or insert a clip on the small orifice next to the power button while the laptop is powered off.
• Boot with Ubuntu Live-USB from USB 3.1 port. I installed Ubuntu in the UEFI mode.
• Using the installer, I created 2 partitions. (root installation, /home) and perform Ubuntu installation.
• The dual boot setup is now ready! Upon rebooting, the UEFI boot menu shows options to boot into Linux or windows. With Kernel 5.04 in Ubuntu 20.04. (only fingerprint reader is not working out of the box)

Touchpad

I increased the speed, enabled "tap to click", "two finger scrooling". and on gnome-tweak enabled click method to "fingers".

References:

https://www.scrye.com/wordpress/nirik/2017/11/02/lenovo-yoga-920-the-overdetailed-fedora-linux-review/