Ailurus - A Useful Ubuntu Tweak Alternative For Beginners

Just found this article that showcase a simple program to help newbies configure their Ubuntu system. I personally haven't tried it yet, but it seems to be able to help the basic needs of configuring your Ubuntu without using multiple GUIs or even using command lines to change the configuration files.

The original post is located here.

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Ailurus is cross-Linux-distribution GPL software, which aims at making Linux easier to use for beginners. Rather than a Ubuntu Tweak alternative, Ailurus is the kind of app you can use along Ubuntu Tweak. Ailurus is available for Ubuntu, Fedora and Mint while Ubuntu Tweak is a dedicated Ubuntu only application.

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Ailurus Features

• 'Study Linux' feature included in Ailurus is pretty good at teaching the Linux basics to beginners. You can even set it to display Linux tips each time you login to your system.


• Install many useful applications easily.


• Enable a number of third party repositories quite easily.


• Display of basic hardware information which is so useful at times.


• Clean APT/YUM cache.


• Backup and recover APT/YUM status.


• Change GNOME settings. Ailurus invokes GConf API, to change GNOME settings.


• Easily enable Gnome Control Center using Ailurus.

How to install Latest Ailurus 10.06.93 in Ubuntu Lucid, Karmic?

• Open Terminal (Applications - Accessories - Terminal) and copy-paste the following lines one by one into Terminal.


     sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ailurus
     sudo apt-get update


• Done. Now install latest Ailurus in Ubuntu Lucid 10.04.


     sudo apt-get install ailurus


• Done. Launch Ailurus. Goto Applications - System Tools - Ailurus.

Ailurus for Fedora and other distros can be downloaded from here.

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10 Unknown but Useful Linux Terminal Commands

The original post was here.

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Before, I have posted here a few basic Linux terminal commands that I think are essential for newbies to know. I've also shared some deadly ones that should be avoided at all costs. This time, I'm going to show you several terminal commands that are perhaps unfamiliar to many new-to-Linux users but could be really handy when used properly.

Here’s a list of 10 rather unknown yet useful Linux terminal commands:

1. Kill a running application by its name:
      killall [app_name]

2. Display disk space usage:
      df –h

3. Locate the installation directories of a program:
      whereis [app]

4. Mount an .iso file:
      mount /path/to/file.iso /mnt/cdrom –o loop

5. Record or capture a video of your desktop:
      ffmpeg -f x11grab -s wxga -r 25 -i :0.0 -sameq /tmp/out.mpg



6. Find out the Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) of your partitions:
      ls /dev/disk/by-uuid/ -alh

7. Show the top ten running processes (sorted by memory usage):
      ps aux | sort -nrk 4 | head

8. Make an audible alarm when an IP address goes online:
      ping -i 60 -a IP_address

9. Run the last command as root:
      sudo !!

10. Make a whole directory tree with one command:
      mkdir -p tmp/a/b/c

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Note: There are some problems on doing number 9 above, so you may want to try it out and let me know.

Linux Links #2

Today I found two links that might not be new to some of you, but they are definitely new to me. :-)

1. LinDesk

This is a blogsite which has pretty good tips and tricks on Linux utilities and applications. There are some cool tips on Command line tools that you may find useful. :-)




2. Penguspy

I'm not an avid game player, but I believe this site has a lot to offer many of the Linux users who were constantlt searching for any good games that they can play in Linux. The site also has a plan to provide an Installation link right beside the game review. Cool!

Enjoy!