News, Tutorials, Howtos for Ubuntu Linux
Looking for a Cheat Engine like application to search and edit memory in Linux Desktop? Here’s a free open-source app work in process!
It’s MemSed (MEMory Search and EDit), an open-source tool written in C programming language. If you have ever used Cheat Engine to scan & edit memory for computer games, you’ll find that MemSed looks familiar, as it’s heavily inspired by the basic Cheat Engine workflow.
Looking for a digital pet application for your computer? Here’s one that works natively in Linux Desktop.
It’s Shijima, a cross-platform shimeji simulation, desktop pets app works on any device, including Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, iOS, and Nintendo Wii.
The app is free to use but sadly NOT open-sourced so far. The PC/laptop edition uses Qt6 for its user interface. And so far, it’s at the first alpha stage that works for Linux only on KDE and GNOME (both X11 and Wayland) desktops.
Shijima-Qt provides portable executable file and AppImage for Linux. No installation is required. Just run to launch the app window, then, import shimeji mascots by drag’n’dropping the zip/rar/7z archive into app window. Finally, click to add your pets onto desktop and play with them!
The Shijima-Qt packages for Linux, Windows, and macOS are available to download in Github releases page via link below:
For Linux, select download the release-linux-x86_64.zip that works on modern Intel/AMD CPUs.
Then, decompress and finally run the “Shijima-Qt-x86_64.AppImage” from extracted folder to launch the app. To run it, either right-click and select “Run” (after enabled “Executable as Program” in its Properties dialog), or right-click on blank area in the folder that contains the executable files, select “Open in Terminal” and finally run command below in pop-up terminal window.
./Shijima-Qt-x86_64.AppImage
NOTE 1: Ubuntu since 22.04 does NOT support AppImage out-of-the-box, run sudo apt install libfuse2 in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) first to enable.
NOTE 2: Don’t know why, but first time launching the app will ask to log out and back in to apply something to make it work.
NOTE 3: Since v0.0.2 it has a default mascot. For more, you may to search (e.g., <character name> shimeji) and download from the web. And, here are some Murder Drones shimeji by @PolarSummit on X.
If you don’t like the AppImage, you may run the shijima-qt file in that folder instead to launch the app. It however requires Qt6 >= 6.7 that’s NOT available in Ubuntu repositories until 25.04.
Even in Ubuntu 25.04 (still in development stage), you need to run command to install the required run-time libraries:
sudo apt install libqt6widgets6 libqt6multimedia6 libqt6core6t64
And, finally run command from that folder to launch the executable file:
QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb ./shijima-qt
Remember Plank, the simplest dock on the planet? There’s now a free open-source fork to make it fully functional in recent Linux Distributions.
Plank is a 14 years old application that provides an iOS bottom bar style dock app launcher, that’s great for lightweight Linux Desktops. The goal is to provide just what a dock needs and absolutely nothing more.
Plank seems not in active development, though it still works in recent Linux Distributions. However, it has compatibility issues and broken docklets/applets. For those who’re still using or prefer this dock, there’s now an open-source fork worth a try.
Plank in Linux Mint 22
It’s Plank-Reloaded, a fork of the original Plank project that focuses on Cinnamon desktop compatibility and modernized features.
With the new dock, the Clock docklet will no longer crash. And, it features updated digital clock layout as well as a calendar when clicking on the icon.
The Battery docklet has been updated with modern UPower integration. And, the “Matte” theme has been updated to look better, along with a light variant that based on the Arian theme.
New Plank Matte and Matte-light Themes
Other changes include general code cleanup and bug fixes. If you like it, you may report issues and request features by visiting the project page.
NOTE: Plank so far does NOT work on Wayland.
According to this feature request, the software developer is going to add pre-built .deb packages for Debian/Ubuntu, and Flatpak package for all Linux users.
At the moment, Arch & its based systems can install from the AUR repository.
While Ubuntu & Linux Mint users (tested on Linux Mint 22.1 & Ubuntu 24.04) can run the commands below one by one in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) to build from the source (this is the official guide with minor modification).
sudo apt remove plank libplank-common libplank1
sudo apt install git autogen autoconf autopoint libtool make valac libgnome-menu-3-0 libgnome-menu-3-dev libxml2-utils libgee-0.8-dev libbamf3-dev libwnck-3-0 libwnck-3-dev bamfdaemon
git clone https://github.com/zquestz/plank-reloaded.git
cd plank-reloaded
./bootstrap
make -j2
sudo make install
Here, -j2 option in second make command means to start 2 thread in parallel. You may change the number according how many CPU cores you have.
After successfully built the Plank-Reloaded, you may either run plank command in terminal to start the dock, or add it as startup program to auto-start at login.
Until you removed the source folder, you may navigate into that folder in terminal and run command below to uninstall:
sudo make uninstall
For Linux with GNOME, there’s now new configuration tool to tweak advanced settings in this desktop environment.
It’s Refine, a free open-source tool that uses GTK4 + LibAdwaita for a modern UI to tweak desktop settings in Fedora Workstation, Arch, Manjaro Linux, etc with vanilla GNOME Desktop.
NOTE: Ubuntu is marked as “Unsupported Environment”. Some settings MAY not work as intended. User needs to confirm “Accept the Risk and Continue” for using the app in Ubuntu. See this bug report for details.
Remember GNOME Pie or Fly-Pie? There’s now a similar pie menu launcher for most Linux desktops as well as Windows and macOS.
It’s Kando, a free open-source application written mostly in TypeScript programming language.
With it, user can trigger a circular application launcher on desktop, then either use mouse clicks or draw gesture to launch apps, run custom scripts/commands, simulate shortcut key, or open files/websites.
Ubuntu is working on a new desktop security center and prompting-client. Here’s how to try it out in current Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
It’s an experimental new feature that will land in next Ubuntu 24.10. Which, provides graphical interface to make it easier for users to control the file/folder access permission for Snap apps.
For example, when browsing web via Firefox (the preinstalled Firefox is a Snap package). You found a good image and want to save it to local folder, or you just want to download something. Before the downloading process starts, it will pop-up a dialog as the screenshot shows you, asking for user permission to allow writing to the file or folder.
Pop-up for file/folder access permission
Want to chat with AI models locally without internet connection? Here’s a simple app can do the job in Linux Desktop!
It’s Alpaca, a free open-source application written in Python programming language. It uses Ollama as backend to manage and chat with multiple AI models, without needing any API keys.
By using GTK4 plus Adwaita toolkits, it provides a modern and simple graphical interface that’s well integrated into Ubuntu, Fedora Workstation and other Linux with GNOME desktop.
Looking for a system monitor, task manager, and service manager app for your Linux Desktop? Try Mission Center!
It’s a free open-source application written in Rust programming language, and uses GTK4 + LibAdwaita for its modern user interface that’s well integrated into Ubuntu, Fedora Workstation, and other Linux with GNOME Desktop.
With it, you have a Windows Task Manager look like interface that can monitor your CPU, Memory, Disk, Network and GPU usage with graphs.
Mission Center
Looking for Microsoft Sticky Notes alternative app for Linux Desktop? Here I’m going to introduce some for you.
Sticky Notes is useful to write your sudden idea, to-do lists, and important messages on computer screen. There are quite a few free open-source sticky notes apps for Linux Desktop. And, here are some of them still work in 2024.
Looking for an app to transfer files and send messages over local network? LocalSend is good choice that works for most devices.
LocalSend is a free and open source application which promotes itself as alternative to Apple’s AirDrop. It’s a cross-platform app that allows to securely send files and messages over local network without an internet connection.
It works in Linux, Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and Fire OS. Meaning you can use the file transfer app in most PC and mobile devices. And, the app doesn’t require an internet connection or external servers. It uses REST API for secure communication. All data is sent securely over HTTPS, and the TLS/SSL certificate is generated on the fly on each device.
