Launcher in the lower-left corner of the screen and then click Applications⇨Utilities⇨Terminal.
In most desktop environments, you can create a launcher for accessing GNOME Terminal. A launcher is an icon you create on your desktop that allows you to start a chosen application. This is a great feature that allows you to quickly access a terminal emulator in the graphical desktop. It is especially helpful if you do not want to use shortcut keys or the shortcut key feature is not available in your desktop environment of choice.
For example, in the GNOME desktop environment, to create a launcher, right-click your mouse in the middle of the desktop area; a drop-down menu appears. Select Create Launcher… from the menu; the Create Launcher application window opens. In the Type field, select Application. Type a name for your icon in the Name field. In the Command field, type gnome-terminal. Click Ok to save your new launcher. An icon with the name you gave the launcher now appears on your desktop. Double-click it to open the GNOME terminal emulator.
Note
When you type gnome-terminal in the Command field, you are typing the shell command for starting the GNOME terminal emulator. You learn in Chapter 3 how to add special options to commands, such as gnome-terminal, to provide special configuration options, and how to view all the options available to you.
Several configuration options are provided by menus and short-cut keys in the application, which you can apply after you get the GNOME terminal emulation started. Understanding these options can enhance your GNOME Terminal CLI experience.
The GNOME Terminal menu bar contains the configuration and customization options you need to make your GNOME Terminal just the way you want it. The following tables briefly describe the different configuration options in the menu bar and shortcut keys associated with the options.
Note
As you read through these GNOME Terminal menu options, keep in mind that your Linux distribution's GNOME Terminal may have slightly different menu options available. This is because several Linux distributions use older versions of GNOME Terminal.
Table 2.4 shows the configuration options available within the GNOME Terminal File menu system. The File menu item contains items to create and manage your overall CLI terminal sessions.
Table 2.4 The File Menu
Notice that, as in a network browser, you can open new tabs within the GNOME Terminal session to start a whole new CLI session. Each tab session is considered to be an independent CLI session.
Tip
You do not have to click through the menu to reach options in the File menu. Most of the items are also available by right-clicking in the session area.
The Edit menu contains items, shown in Table 2.5, for handling text within the tabs. You can use your mouse to copy and paste text anywhere within the session window.
Table 2.5 The Edit Menu
The Paste Filenames menu option is available only in later versions of GNOME Terminal. Therefore, you may not see that menu option on your system.
The View menu, shown in Table 2.6, contains items for controlling how the CLI session windows appear. These options can be helpful for individuals with visual impairment.
Table 2.6 The View Menu
Be aware that if you toggle off the menu bar display, the session's menu bar disappears. However, you can easily get the menu bar to display again by right-clicking in any terminal session window and toggling on the Show Menubar option.
The Search menu, shown in Table 2.7, contains items for conducting simple searches within the terminal session. These searches are similar to ones you may have conducted in a network browser or word processor.
Table 2.7 The Search Menu
The Terminal menu, shown in Table 2.8, contains options for controlling the terminal emulation session features. There are no shortcut keys to access these items.
Table 2.8 The Terminal Menu
The Reset option is extremely useful. One day, you may accidently cause your terminal session to display random characters and symbols. When this occurs, the text is unreadable. It is typically caused by displaying a non-text file to the screen. You can quickly get the terminal session back to normal by selecting Reset or Reset and Clear.
The Tabs menu, shown in Table 2.9, provides items for controlling the location of the tabs and selecting which tab is active. This menu displays only when you have more than one tab session open.
Table 2.9 The Tabs Menu
Finally, the Help menu contains two menu options. Contents provides a full GNOME Terminal manual so you can research individual GNOME Terminal items and features. The About option shows you the current GNOME Terminal version that's running.
Besides the GNOME terminal emulator package, another commonly used package is Konsole Terminal. In many ways, Konsole Terminal is similar to GNOME Terminal. However, enough differences exist to warrant its own section.
Using the Konsole Terminal Emulator
The KDE Desktop Project created its own terminal emulation package called Konsole Terminal. The Konsole package incorporates basic terminal emulation features, along with more advanced ones expected from a graphical application. This section describes Konsole Terminal features and shows you how to use them.
The Konsole Terminal is the default terminal emulator for the KDE desktop environment. You can easily access it via the KDE environment's menu system. In other desktop environments, accessing the Konsole Terminal can be a little more difficult.
In the KDE desktop environment, you can access the Konsole Terminal by clicking the icon labeled Kickoff Application Launcher in the lower-left corner of the screen. Then click Applications⇨System⇨Terminal (Konsole).
Note
You may see two terminal menu options within the KDE menu environment. If you do, the Terminal menu option with the words Konsole beneath it is the Konsole terminal.
In the GNOME desktop environment, the Konsole terminal is typically not installed by default. If Konsole Terminal has been installed, you can access it via the GNOME menu system. In the upper-left corner of the window, click Applications⇨System Tools⇨Konsole.
Note
You may not have the Konsole terminal emulation package installed on your system. If you would like to install it, read through Chapter 9 to learn how to install software via the command line.
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