(Solved) How do I make Guake the default terminal

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Big_Duck

(Solved) How do I make Guake the default terminal

Post by Big_Duck »

Total noob, here. I've been using Linux for about a month and decided I wanted to start scripting and coding. I've also decided that I want to use Guake as my default terminal, but I'm having trouble accomplishing that. First, I tried

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

No joy....
Then I tried:

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

and selected "guake" as the default, but it still opens the standard terminal window instead. Here's the output:
Screenshot at 2017-05-06 19-08-40.png
I also tried the auto mode with no luck. Am I barking up the wrong tree? What am I missing?
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Lemongrass38

Re: How do I make Guake the default terminal

Post by Lemongrass38 »

There's a little terminal launcher on your taskbar. Right-click that, then click edit. There you will see a command. That is the program the launcher launches when clicked. You can just rewrite that command to another terminal. I haven't tried it with guake. As I know, guake is not really a "usual" terminal but a drop-down terminal.

What you can consider: using a different terminal doesn't matter anything. It doesn't matter if you eat Snickers with your hands or a knife and a fork, it remains a Snickers bar. :) The terminal is just a "dressing" for the shell you're interacting with.

You can check your current shell:
echo $SHELL
Now this is the Snickers you are eating with hands/knife and fork. :D This is what matters. Yours is probably bash. Mine is zsh (it's a bit more interactive than bash, its auto-complete feature is a bit better too, has colours etc). You can try it. Btw. once you launch Guake, you can call it with F12. You can make it autostart, then you're just an F12 away from your terminal.

Sorry for the Snickers example, it's not an attack against you, I just wanted to have fun.
Big_Duck

Re: How do I make Guake the default terminal

Post by Big_Duck »

Yes, I did that. I also set Guake to auto start on boot and I used the keyboard configuration GUI to change the regular terminal shortcut to ctrl+t and made Guake ctrl+alt+t. I mapped it to f5, since I'm using f12 for something else.
I didn't mean that I couldn't do it with the GUI and change all of the shortcuts one by one. I guess I was asking if I might be able to change all of those pointers by just making making Guake the default using cli. I like the flexibility of the cli and I'm trying to learn the possibilities and limitations. (Yes, I use BASH and yes, I like Snickers)
Lemongrass38

Re: How do I make Guake the default terminal

Post by Lemongrass38 »

Big_Duck wrote:it still opens the standard terminal window instead.
I've read your post. :) My question is: what is this it that you refer to here? What opens the terminal window? A launcher? I always run my terminal with a launcher or ctrl-alt-T.

Why is it necessary to have this set if you always open it via a launcher? When do you explicitly request your OS to open a default terminal? I haven't met a situation where a default terminal can be called. It was always Xfce terminal I requested, not a "default" one. What do you mean replace all shortcuts one by one? There's one terminal shortcut you have to replace, isn't there?

For example: when I click on a link, my default browser is opened. The OS opens the default browser, but not expicitly Firefox. This is when default browsers are checked. But I don't know about such a situation with a terminal.
Big_Duck

Re: How do I make Guake the default terminal

Post by Big_Duck »

For example: when I click on a link, my default browser is opened. The OS opens the default browser, but not expicitly Firefox. This is when default browsers are checked. But I don't know about such a situation with a terminal.
That's what I meant. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear. My intention was to use cli to set Guake as the "default" terminal (replacing Xfce as "default") and open it whenever a terminal is called. Yes< I've accomplished that by changing my keyboard shortcuts and launchers one at a time. It just seemed to me that there should be a way to do ii once with the cli and tell my OS that when I wanted a terminal it should open Guake.
Lemongrass38

Re: How do I make Guake the default terminal

Post by Lemongrass38 »

Then I don't know about such a method. Anyways, you had to change 2 things. I'm glad you succeeded. :)
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