Install genact on Ubuntu 24.04

The genact is a tool that simulates the look of busy work in a terminal by generating fake activity. It's often used as a prank or to make it appear as if something complex and technical is happening on a computer screen. This can include pretending to download files, compile code, perform network requests, or other activities typically seen in a command line environment. This tutorial explains how to install genact on Ubuntu 24.04.

Install genact

Retrieve the latest version of genact from its GitHub repository and assign it to a variable:

GENACT_VERSION=$(curl -s "https://api.github.com/repos/svenstaro/genact/releases/latest" | grep -Po '"tag_name": "v\K[0-9.]+')

Download executable to /usr/local/bin directory:

sudo wget -qO /usr/local/bin/genact https://github.com/svenstaro/genact/releases/latest/download/genact-$GENACT_VERSION-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu

Set execute permission:

sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/genact

We can verify genact version as follows:

genact --version

Testing genact

To use genact, you can run it from the command line with various options to simulate different activities. For instance, to simulate crypto mining, you would use the command:

genact -m cryptomining

This command tells genact to activate the cryptomining module, generating output that mimics the appearance of a crypto mining operation. Output example:

m  17:38:52|cryptominer  Speed 259.05 Mh/s    gpu/0 64.84 gpu/1 64.82 gpu/2 64.81 gpu/3 64.58   [A0+0:R0+0:F0] Time: 00:00
m  17:38:52|cryptominer  Speed 259.64 Mh/s    gpu/0 64.99 gpu/1 64.68 gpu/2 65.15 gpu/3 64.82   [A0+0:R0+0:F0] Time: 00:00
m  17:38:52|cryptominer  Speed 258.96 Mh/s    gpu/0 64.50 gpu/1 64.87 gpu/2 64.83 gpu/3 64.76   [A0+0:R0+0:F0] Time: 00:00
m  17:38:53|cryptominer  Speed 258.74 Mh/s    gpu/0 64.62 gpu/1 64.66 gpu/2 64.93 gpu/3 64.54   [A0+0:R0+0:F0] Time: 00:00
m  17:38:53|cryptominer  Speed 259.53 Mh/s    gpu/0 64.91 gpu/1 64.95 gpu/2 64.92 gpu/3 64.74   [A0+0:R0+0:F0] Time: 00:00
...

Uninstall genact

If genact is unnecessary, delete the corresponding file:

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/genact