Se você estiver usando o novo sistema de notificação no Jaunty, você quer o comando notify-send
notify-send - a program to send desktop notifications
SYNOPSIS
With notify-send you can sends desktop notifications to the user via
a notification daemon from the command line. These notifications can be
used to inform the user about an event or display some form of information
without getting in the user's way.
OPTIONS
-u, --urgency=LEVEL
Specifies the urgency level (low, normal, critical).
-t, --expire-time=TIME
Specifies the timeout in milliseconds at which to expire the notification.
-i, --icon=ICON[,ICON...]
Specifies an icon filename or stock icon to display.
-c, --category=TYPE[,TYPE...]
Specifies the notification category.