Changing the Default Terminal to Terminator on Ubuntu

Terminator is a powerful tool for developers, allowing you to manage multiple terminal sessions in a single window. Features like splitting panes, tabs, and simultaneous input can significantly boost your productivity.

Step 1: Install Terminator

First, install Terminator using the apt package manager.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install terminator -y

The -y option automatically answers 'yes' to any prompts during the installation process, streamlining the setup.

Step 2: Set as the System Default

Ubuntu uses a utility called update-alternatives to manage default applications. We'll use this tool to change the default terminal emulator (x-terminal-emulator) to Terminator.

Run the Configuration Command

Enter the following command in your terminal. A list of available terminals will appear.

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

Select Terminator

From the resulting list, enter the selection number corresponding to terminator and press Enter.

There are 2 choices for the alternative x-terminal-emulator (providing /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator).

  Selection    Path                             Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0            /usr/bin/gnome-terminal.wrapper   40        auto mode
  1            /usr/bin/gnome-terminal.wrapper   40        manual mode
  2            /usr/bin/terminator               50        manual mode

Press <enter> to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 2

In the example above, you would enter 2.

Step 3: Verify the Changes

The easiest way to confirm that the changes have been applied is to use the default shortcut to open a terminal: Ctrl+Alt+T. If Terminator launches instead of the default GNOME Terminal, you've succeeded.

You can also right-click in your file explorer and select 'Open in Terminal' to see if Terminator opens.

Step 4: Integrate with VS Code

You can also set Terminator as the integrated terminal in Visual Studio Code.

1. Open VS Code.
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+P to open the Command Palette and search for Open User Settings (JSON) to open your settings.json file.
3. Add the following JSON configuration. This sets the default terminal profile in VS Code to Terminator.

{
	// ...your other settings
	"terminal.integrated.profiles.linux": {
		"terminator": {
			"path": "terminator",
			"icon": "terminal-multiple"
		}
	},
	"terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.linux": "terminator"
}

Now, when you open a new terminal in VS Code (Ctrl+ `), Terminator will launch.

Reverting

If you ever want to switch back to the original GNOME Terminal, simply run the update-alternatives command again and select the number corresponding to gnome-terminal.wrapper.

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

With this guide, you can switch your development environment's terminal to the more efficient Terminator and enhance your productivity.