How to set custom default size for new XFCE terminal windows?

Question

I use XFCE 4.8. I'd like new terminal windows to be wider by default (when I start a new terminal instance), but can't find where to configure this. Do you happen to know?

score 7 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 11 '20 at 14:16

The man page for xfce4-terminal specifies using the --geometry option to set the size and placement of a terminal.

This flag uses the options "-geometry WIDTHxHEIGHT+XOFF+YOFF (where WIDTH, HEIGHT, XOFF, and YOFF are numbers) for specifying a preferred size and location for this application's main window."

Refer to the "Geometry Specifications" section of the man page for X (man X).

Here are several examples of xterm placement:

Place a short and wide terminal window on upper left-hand side of the display:

xfce4-terminal --geometry 140x20+50+50
Place a square terminal window in the lower left-hand corner of the display:

xfce4-terminal --geometry 100x40+40+500
Place a square terminal window in the upper right-hand corner of the display:

xfce4-terminal --geometry 100x40+1500+40
Place a short and wide terminal window on lower right-hand side of the display:

xfce4-terminal --geometry 140x20+1500+500

How to make this setting permanent:

"copy the terminal launcher (terminal's .desktop file) from /usr/share/applications/ to ~/.local/share/applications/ and edit the Exec field accordingly" as mentioned in the answer here.

The last paragraph is confusing. I'm not sure what the terminals .desktop file is named. And if i need to reboot. There are also multiple answers in that reference. And it doesn't seem to work. — john-jones, May 28 '22 at 09:31

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited May 22 '17 at 15:01

5

Open ~/.config/xfce4/terminal/terminalrc (in older versions ~/.config/Terminal/terminalrc) and change the line with MiscDefaultGeometry to e.g. MiscDefaultGeometry=X*Y*Z with your default size.

edited May 22 '17 at 15:01

phk

5,953
7
42
71

answered Jan 28 '12 at 15:15

harish.venkat

7,573

3

This is not working at xfce 4.10. New terminals totally ignores this setting – palmic May 17 '13 at 09:26

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 05 '13 at 17:51

5

@palmic is correct, in xfce 4.10 the ~/.config/Terminal/terminalrc is ignored. Instead, configure .config/xfce4/terminal/terminalrc. It has the same syntax.

More information in docs for xfce4-terminal(1) in ENVIRONMENT section.

edited Jun 05 '13 at 17:51

Anthon

79,293

answered Jun 05 '13 at 17:10

Leandro Facchinetti

51

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered May 21 '14 at 20:58

Right click the terminal Icon on the panel and choose Properties. In dialog windows that opens choose the edit icon (bottom icon which looks like a pencil with three dots). Another dialog box will open choose Command box and change from lxterminal to

lxterminal --geometry=95x20

or what ever size columns and rows you like

score 1 · Answer 5 · edited Mar 15 '16 at 10:47

1

The default geometry can be set in the menu: Preferences > Appearance : Opening New Window : Default Geometry columns/ rows

edited Mar 15 '16 at 10:47

Bludzee

105

answered Feb 01 '13 at 18:46

cee

366

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 07 '16 at 20:31

0

On Ubuntu 14.04 setting the options via "preferences" window didn't work for me.

Window height is not honored.

Editing the config file did work.

Config file location. ~/.config/xfce4/terminal/terminalrc

answered Jan 07 '16 at 20:31

Ivan V.

101

How to set custom default size for new XFCE terminal windows?

6 Answers6