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How can I open a new terminal window from a terminal in linux?

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10 Answers 10

31

That's system specific. On KDE, just type konsole. On Gnome, it's gnome-terminal. What should work on every X system is xterm.

Edit: Removed the bit about $TERM, as it is an "identifier for the text window’s capabilities" and not necessarily the name of an executable binary.

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  • In Linux Mint 18.1 Cinnamon I have TERM="xterm-256color" that does not correspond to a binary command to open a terminal :(
    – giuspen
    Dec 15, 2016 at 18:50
  • 2
    Edited my answer, the thing I wrote about $TERM was based on a wrong assumption. I guess gnome-terminal should work on Mint.
    – joni
    Jan 1, 2017 at 16:48
  • gnome-terminal -- commandhere askubuntu.com/q/974756/462615
    – Andrew
    Jun 4, 2021 at 12:09
22

I think what you want is:

Ctrl+Shift+T -> new tab

or

Ctrl+Shift+N -> new terminal

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  • +1 because it's a keyboard shortcut...which doesn't address the question asked (as I understand it), but sure helps me! :-)
    – jvriesem
    Sep 4, 2015 at 18:13
4

The command that I set to run on startup is "x-terminal-emulator" and that opens the terminal we all know and love.

3

I recommend using an external program such as pcmanfm to launch a new terminal. This way, your root permissions and login state remain in the new terminal.

  1. If you don't have it already, include the first line, otherwise skip this step (or don't, it won't reinstall):

    # apt-get install pcmanfm
    
  2. Start the filemanager pcmanfm

    # pcmanfm
    

    a file manager window will now open, showing your current working directory.

  3. Select this window and press F4. A new terminal window will now open with your current permissions (eg root).

  4. pcmanfm, the file manager, can now be closed.

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  • Thx bertieb, it looks a lot better like this.
    – Boomkop3
    Aug 17, 2015 at 1:02
  • No problem, you may want to have a glance at the formatting help page - it's a bit different to what you might be used to but you should get up to speed pretty quick :)
    – bertieb
    Aug 17, 2015 at 1:07
  • @bertieb: You can still apply numbered formatting by using a period after each number instead.
    – Jamal
    Aug 17, 2015 at 1:23
  • @Jamal I was avoiding <ol> because (ironically) I couldn't remember how to make it respect multi-line content like code blocks!
    – bertieb
    Aug 17, 2015 at 8:21
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Press ALT + F2, then type-in gnome-terminal or xterm and Enter.

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I am using xfce4 as my desktop environment (DE) on Arch Linux, so for me it was xfce4-terminal.
Ctrl+Alt+T should mostly works.  But you might have a different desktop environment (DE).  The command depends on your DE, not on your Linux distro.

For Kde -> konsole
For GNOME -> gnome-terminal
For xfce4 -> xfce4-terminal
For Cinnamon -> x-terminal-emulator
For MATE -> mate-terminal --window
For Unity -> gnome-terminal --profile=Default
For Pantheon -> pantheon-terminal -w ''
for Pantheon DE look at this also

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  • 1
    Please provide additional details in your answer. As it's currently written, it's hard to understand your solution.
    – Community Bot
    Sep 1, 2021 at 17:59
  • If there really are such things as genome-terminal and “pathenom”,  please provide references. Sep 29, 2021 at 21:24
1

If you just have command line access (via ssh, for example), you should research screen.

0

I always do things like this with the disown command.

For example:

lxterminal &disown

And voila, we have a new lxterminal process that is not preoccupying your former terminal with debugging output. This can be used for most programs, not just terminals so I ended up using it a lot, especially good to know for scripting.

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  • or this: xterm &
    – Qwerty
    Jan 21, 2016 at 13:22
  • @Qwerty or that, but doesn't this xterm window close if you close the window that issued the command? If you disown it it will keep running.
    – Cestarian
    Jan 24, 2016 at 16:54
0

In Ubuntu, you can do it using xdotool.

To do so, you have to install xdotool with the command:

sudo apt-get install xdotool

and then you can use the command below to open up a new terminal window:

xdotool key ctrl+alt+t
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Additional solution for those running a Linux flavor (Ubuntu etc.) via the Windows Subsystem for Linux:

Shift-click the Linux application icon in your taskbar.

This will open a second terminal window.

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