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Alexander Omorokunwa
Alexander Omorokunwa

Posted on • Originally published at fossnaija.com on

How to Install Terminator, a Linux Terminal Emulator on Steroids

There is a default terminal emulator (or terminal for short) that come pre-installed in every Linux distro. The terminal is the command-line interface through which you can type in commands and carry out other text manipulation on Linux.

This is so irrespective of the fact that many modern Linux distros support very beautiful and intuitive graphical user interface for every day Linux use cases.

The terminal is a very indispensable tool for system administration. And there are some times when you’d do most of your work on the command-line, like if you are a server admin or programmer.

Enough of that let’s see ways in which you can make your terminal experience enjoyably better; even though it’s just text commands that you’d be entering. which in the process will increase your productivity.

Enters Terminator!

Terminator is a an alternative terminal for Linux that comes with a little additional features and functionality that you wont find in the default terminal application.

For instance in terminator you can split your terminal screen both horizontally and vertically as you wish.

Terminator Horizontal Split
Terminator Horizontal Split

The user can also have multiple terminals in one window and use custom key bindings to switch between them.

With terminator a power user can efficiently fill a large area of screen space with terminals.

Terminator multiple terminals
Terminator multiple terminals

Install Terminator

To get terminator installed on your system enter the following commands in the terminal (SHORTCUT: Ctrl+Alt+T);



sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome-terminator

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install terminator


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*To Uninstall terminator *

Use the following command to remove terminator from your system;

To uninstall just terminator:



sudo apt remove terminator


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Uninstall terminator and its dependencies (which are no longer needed):



sudo apt remove --auto-remove terminator

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Synaptic Package Manager

If you are not comfortable using commands; Terminator can also be installed using the synaptic package manger. To search for simply enter “terminator” into the search field and the install the usual way.

SPM - terminator
SPM – terminator

Launch terminator

If it has successfully installed, you can launch Terminator either from Application menu or through the terminal.

Launching terminator
Launching terminator

You should get a similar output like the one below.

terminator main
terminator main

There you have it! Enjoy!!

Happy Linux’NG!

The post How to Install Terminator, a Linux Terminal Emulator on Steroids appeared first on Foss Naija.

Top comments (2)

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quan profile image
Quan • Edited

@yusufhm Don't use the ppa:gnome-terminator, you should use the ppa:mattrose/terminator mentioned in github.com/gnome-terminator/termin.... It is actively maintained by the team.

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yusufhm profile image
Yusuf Hasan Miyan

Thanks for the post; when I tried to install it, I found out that the PPA does not exist anymore; I was able to install without adding any PPA, using sudo apt install terminator.