Using mate-terminal instead of Xterm

[spaceman]

I'm hoping this is a nice easy request. I have a couple of MATE panel custom launchers that Application in Terminal they pop up in xterm, I'd like to change that to mate-terminal. TBH it's for purely aesthetic reasons but I can't imagine it being too difficult.

Any ideas?

[martywd]

I'm hoping this is a nice easy request. I have a couple of MATE panel custom launchers that Application in Terminal they pop up in xterm, I'd like to change that to mate-terminal. TBH it's for purely aesthetic reasons but I can't imagine it being too difficult.

Any ideas?

In MATE, check 'Control Center | Preferred Applications | System | Terminal Emulator'. Make sure 'Terminal Emulator' is set to: 'MATE Terminal'.

Maybe that will fix this for ya?
.

[spaceman]

I thought that but it's actually not available to change, which is annoying...

[martywd]

I thought that but it's actually not available to change, which is annoying...

Ok, try this from a terminal:

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

Make '/usr/bin/mate-terminal' the preferred choice if it isn't already. If that doesn't get you there then I'm at a loss?
.

[spaceman]

Thanks for the help martywd.

In Control Centre | Preferred Applications | System I can't change the Terminal Emulator option at all.

I ran sudo update-alternatives --config x-terminal-emulator and entered "3" for mate-terminal this output:

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  Selection    Path                    Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
  0            /usr/bin/lxterm          30        auto mode
  1            /usr/bin/koi8rxterm      20        manual mode
  2            /usr/bin/lxterm          30        manual mode
* 3            /usr/bin/mate-terminal   30        manual mode
  4            /usr/bin/uxterm          20        manual mode
  5            /usr/bin/xterm           20        manual mode

However, when I create a new Custom Application Launcher for the panel, select Application in Terminal, an Xterm window opens. I suspect Application in Terminal is configured to default to Xterm in MATE somewhere, damned if I can find it.

To be honest, I had this issue with my first install of Linux Mint 13 Maya, using MATE 1.2...that was even worse since Xterm wasn't installed! So rather than popping up an Xterm window I got a error. With this new install it did the same thing but upgrading to MATE 1.4 pulled Xterm as part of the install (saving me from doing it myself manually). So I could be wrong but I think I'm looking to edit a MATE config file...

[martywd]

...my first install of Linux Mint 13 Maya, using MATE 1.2...that was even worse since Xterm wasn't installed!

Yes, I have notice that too. At some point I had attempted to run a script I had downloaded from somewhere and in one of the lines there was a call for some functionality ('resize -u') that comes with the 'xterm' install that I thought at the time was causing the script to completely fail? In the end the installation of 'xterm' was totally unnecessary since I found that I was able to comment out the 'resize -u' line completely since the initial failure of that particular script ended up due to a totally unrelated issue and not to the lack of 'xterm' being installed.

However, when I create a new Custom Application Launcher for the panel, select Application in Terminal, an Xterm window opens.

Ok, now I think I have duplicated what you are seeing (I'm using LM13 with whatever MATE is the default.) I 'Add to Panel' a new 'Custom Application Launcher', setting 'Type': 'Application in Terminal' and point the 'Browse' to an executable script file that I normally run from the commandline in an already opened 'mate-terminal' (I always have atleast two mate-terminal windows open on my desktop). I click the launcher and the 'xterm' window does in fact launch even thought I've also done that which we have already typed about. LOL

Here's the down and dirty workaround. In a terminal window:

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sudo apt-get remove xterm
cd /usr/bin
sudo ln -s mate-terminal xterm

Now click your 'Custom App... Launcher' again.

IF for some reason you really, really need 'xterm' to remain installed (let me know)'? And, I be back later with a possible alternative using the 'update-alternatives' command / config.

.

[spaceman]

I thought "That looks promising," and I don't need xterm at all at this point. So I went for it.

Now when I click on the Custom Launcher nothing happens...heh.

I'll quickly reinstall xterm, for the time being. Thank you for you help so far mate.

[martywd]

... Now when I click on the Customer Launcher nothing happens...heh. ...

Well I'm at a loss to why 'nothing' would be happening? With 'xterm' un-installed at the very least an error should occur. And we know that MATE's 'Custom Application Launcher/Application in Terminal' expects to find an executable 'xterm'? With a symbolic link from 'mate-terminal' labeled 'xterm' MATE should be content to launch 'mate-terminal'? What am I missing here?

Can you give an example of what your 'Custom Launcher' is actually launching?

.

[spaceman]

Yeah I was just tending that way myself. It's actually this:

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sudo /home/spaceman/.ergo/ergo -p /home/spaceman/.ergo/newdx1.csv

ergo is some USB software that initialises an extended keyboard (Ergodex DX1) I use, then the .csv configures it with some scancodes. This command line runs fine in MATE-Terminal or Xterm...all I have to do is click the launcher and then type in my password. It's a pretty basic thing I could be launching anything that need to run from the command line (I guess).

[martywd]

Yeah I was just tending that way myself. It's actually this:

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sudo /home/spaceman/.ergo/ergo -p /home/spaceman/.ergo/newdx1.csv

All right, now I get it. ........... I think? ;-)

If you still have 'xterm' installed, either UN-install 'xterm' -OR- optionally you could just do this _if_ 'xterm' is still installed:

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cd /usr/bin/
sudo mv xterm xterm.oem

Next be sure to do this:

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cd /usr/bin/
sudo ln -s mate-terminal xterm

Check to be sure you have this:

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cd /usr/bin/
ls -l xterm
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root .. .. ...  xterm -> mate-terminal

Finally:

Right-click and do a 'Properties' on that 'Custom Application Launcher...' icon. In the 'Command' box do this:

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mate-terminal -e 'sudo /home/spaceman/.ergo/ergo -p /home/spaceman/.ergo/newdx1.csv'

NOW your 'Custom Application Launcher...' should launch your command in a 'mate-terminal' prompting you for your password. With successful password input your 'Ergodex DX1' keyboard mappings should be set.

Here's the deal. To get this to work the 'mate-terminal -e' switch as the first part of the _Command_ is absolutely necessary. And be sure to include the ' ' (quotes) on either end of you sudo command in the Custom Application Lanuncher's 'Command' box.

mate-terminal's lack of a 'man' is not helpful. And the 'mate-terminal --help' is un-helpful as well. FWIW, I've found in the past that many of the 'gnome-terminal' switches also seem to work in 'mate-terminal: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=lm&q=man+gnome-terminal .

.

[spaceman]

...and that works! Excellent. It was a small thing but now you 'made it go away'!

I love it when the tiny jagged edges get smoothed off and you can sit back and say "Now this is prefect." OK, nothing (least of all a DE) is ever going to be perfect, but I am now happy enough with MATE to say perfect, which in this context means 'just as good as Gnome 2.32'.

Thank you very much (not least for the manpage)

[martywd]

...and that works!

All right! I knew we could do it. ;-)

...I am now happy enough with MATE to say perfect,...

I agree, I've been using Linux since RedHat 7.3 and LM13 Maya MATE is the sweet spot. Thus far with MATE if I find something I don't like I've always been able to find a workaround for the issue.

I only started using LinuxMint with LM 12 after Ubuntu jumped the shark with it's full bore Unity Desktop. Just awful. LM 12 with the Gnome desktop was not much of an improvement.

Thankfully the LM folks are offering us MATE as an option now.
.

[nashjc]

I tend to think this is important enough to be classed as a bug, even though we now know the fix.

Many folk use Linux because they can modify it easily. I got burned on this one because I have a whole lot of
mounting scripts for secured (encfs and sshfs, sometimes together) drives. When they didn't work after migrating
from Ubuntu 10.04 I was starting to get panicky until I managed to see that xterm wasn't there. The soft link was my solution
and it works fine. However, maybe LM crew should build that softlink into the distro. If they are worried about conflicts, they
could make put it on a screen that asks permission to create the link. There's several things I've seen over the years that use
xterm to get some input from a user besides the menu, but the menu is a biggy.

JN

[telemaco]

Thank you martywd for your solution. I was trying to solve the same problem that bothered spaceman and Google brought me here.
I think, however, that it is not necessary to remove or rename xterm, or to create a symbolic link to mate-terminal. Just inserting

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mate-terminal -e 'command'

(where command is the command you want to launch) in the Command section of the launcher should do the trick. As mate-terminal is a MATE application, you don't need to select ¨Application in Terminal¨ in the Type field, just ¨Application¨, so the launcher itself doesn't open a terminal (but mate-terminal does), and whether xterm is installed or not does not affect anything. At least for me this works well.
The beauty of it is that you are not changing anything in your system, only creating a launcher. And if later you install a new version of MATE with the problem corrected, the launcher should continue to work normally without changes.
I intend to keep xterm, so that in the future, when I have forgotten all about this, if I create a new launcher for a terminal command, the xterm window will remind of the necessity of tweaking the command a little. If I uninstall xterm instead, the launcher will just not work, and I will be less likely to remember why (I'm an old man).

[Hairy Dude]

I reported this as a bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/linuxmint/+bug/1238964

I can't work around by removing xterm, because Steam depends on it. Or I could install gnome-terminal or konsole instead, but I don't want to do that.

[conradin]

Hi All,
The solution i found was to install gnome-terminal. Then launcher applications worked properly.
See this thread:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/419641/p ... 288#422288

[Roy Strachan]

In Mint 17 it's Control Center>Preferred Applications>Terminal Emulator>Terminal

I don't have Mint 16 so I can't compare its results.