HOWTO: get a terminal built into your desktop in linux

So with the release of the newest version of Ubuntu coming out, I've been working on a theme for my laptop. I like to change it up a bit, rather frequently, and usually to fit my needs at the time.

I saw a few people do this on their systems and wanted to try it.  This little hack since I've gotten it to work has been quite useful for quick trips in the text based backbone of the system.  

So I'll walk you through this pretty simple hack, and then if you choose to, you can experiment and customize it to fit your wants/needs.

Step 1:

we're going to need a program called Devils Pie to get this to work, and we can get that in the software repositories of ubuntu.  Either by looking it up in synaptic, or from the quicker easier route..the console.  (console would make more sense, since you're putting one on the desktop anyhow!)

here's what you type:  <pre>sudo apt-get install devilspie </pre>
then enter your admin password and wait for the prompt. 

Now we're going to make the config file that determines how the console will interact with the desktop:

mkdir ~/.devilspie
nano ~/.devilspie/DesktopConsole.ds

you can use gedit instead of nano if you want a graphical editor:

(if
        (matches (window_name) "DesktopConsole")
        (begin
                (below)
                (stick)
                (undecorate)
                (skip_pager)
                (skip_tasklist)
                (wintype "utility")
                (geometry "500x400")
        )
)

this is my config file.. we'll use it as an example..for a list of commands see here

Step 2:

Now we're going to create a new profile for our gnome-terminal.  We'll make a seperate one, so that way, we still have use of the terminal as a window we can open normally.

We're going to call this new profile "DesktopConsole".

• Select "Edit > Profiles"
• in the "General" tab, untick "show menubar by default..."
• in the "Scrolling" tab, select "Scrollbar is" -> Disabled.
•  in the "Effects" tab, set "Transparent background" and shade to "None" (or to whatever you prefer)

So now we're ready to add this to our system startup, we'll go over two ways to do this.  If you don't use any Desktop Effects (compiz, compiz-fusion, or beryl), we can do this:

Open "System > Preferences > Sessions" in the main menu
Create a new  entry for:

devilspie
gnome-terminal --window-with-profile=DesktopConsole

Here's what I did instead, since I use compiz-fusion, the terminal opens with the window decorations despite the parameters in the config file.

the problem I found, was because devilspie was loading up after the console.. it needs to be the other way around.

I created a script that loads them in the correct order.

so in an empty file (similar to the one we made before) paste the following:

#!/bin/bash
#
# Start devilspie en gnome-terminal with profile DesktopConsole
devilspie & gnome-terminal --window-with-profile=DesktopConsole

so save it as desktopconsolescript in your home folder

now type the following to make it an executable:
chmod o+w ~/descktopconsolescript

Add the script you just made to the start up sessions the same as stated before.  Now it should load up with your window manager on boot.

we can start it by executing the script as well

./desktopconcolescript

when its all done, it should look similar to this:

 try it out!

(I'll edit this in a bit.. on my way out the door!!  Pay no attention to the <pre> tags.)