How can I set default terminal used in Unity?

Question

How can I set the default terminal used in Unity?

I would like to use the Ctrl+Alt+T hotkey to start a non-default terminal. The default terminal is gnome-terminal.

Where can I change the default terminal value?

Answer 1

For 12.04 and newer

gconf is now deprecated - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GConf - and gsettings can be used in its place.

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.default-applications.terminal exec 'terminal'

Where terminal is the command you would use to open it from the terminal.

Answer 2

sudo update-alternatives --config x-terminal-emulator

Answer 3

Only in Ubuntu 11.10 or earlier! For newer versions see LucaB answer!

Open a terminal (e.g. gnome-terminal)

Run the next command:

gconftool --type string --set /desktop/gnome/applications/terminal/exec <YOUR-TERMINAL>

e.g.:

gconftool --type string --set /desktop/gnome/applications/terminal/exec terminator

Done :).

Answer 4

To change the shortcut and not default termainal,

1. search for keyboard
2. go to shortcuts and custom shortcuts
3. press the plus sign to add new shortcut (in this case terminator)
4. when told that the shortcut ctrl+alt+t is already in use press "reasign"

Answer 5

Try to change option x-terminal-emulator via "ALternatives Configurator" app.

for ubuntu you can use the command below:

sudo update-alternatives --config x-terminal-emulator

It will list all the terminal options you have installed and then you can pick (by the number) the one you want.

Answer 6

To configure the default terminal in gnome you need to install dconf-tools (sudo apt-get install dconf-tools).

After that you can use the gsettings to set your favorite terminal emulator.

Lets say your favourite terminal emulator is termite.

Install it with sudo apt-get install termite

After that type this command

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.default-applications.terminal exec termite

Since termite does not take any arguments (or it does, depends on what you do with it, you can set them this way) use this to set empty or set the exec-args for the terminal you need

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.default-applications.terminal exec-arg ""

After this termite will be your default terminal emulator.

Answer 7

Try

sudo update-alternatives --config x-terminal-emulator

Answer 8

This worked in Ubuntu 13.10

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.default-applications.terminal exec terminator

Answer 9

The update-alternatives system is a Debian thing, but Gnome run on many more distributions, so it has its own way to define preferred applications.

You can set default terminal through the utility gnome-default-applications-properties, also accessible through gnome-control-center as Preferred Applications.

Alternatively you can set the gconf registry key /desktop/gnome/applications/terminal/exec.

However, it is not guaranteed that all applications provided by Gnome, like nautilus, will respect this setting, or rather use their own settings.

Answer 10

If you go to the Keyboard shortcuts, you will notice under the Launcher section that Ctrl+Alt+T is tied to the "Launch Terminal" action. I haven't tested it yet, but you can create a Custom Shortcut to your preferred Terminal, and bind that shortcut to it instead.

Answer 11

OK, one weird thing is that the compiled gnome-terminal with the patch will not work if your DISPLAY var is :0 , works flawlessly if DISPLAY=localhost:0.

So you can edit /usr/bin/gnome-terminal/wrapper and add this:

ENV{"DISPLAY"}="localhost:0";

right before the exec line.

Subsequently you can use /usr/bin/gnome-terminal/wrapper as the launcher!

Answer 12

sudo update-alternatives --set x-terminal-emulator <terminal-path>

For example:

sudo update-alternatives --set x-terminal-emulator /usr/bin/tilix

If you want to do it with interactive mode or check paths:

sudo update-alternatives --config x-terminal-emulator