[*]
In this tutorial, we will talk about Kitty Terminal developed in the Python and C programming languages. It is a highly configurable terminal application in the open source category, the source code is available on GitHub.
Well, Kitty Terminal is not a great app with a lot of features built in instead, it was developed with one thing in mind, which is performance and low consumption of system resources. However, the user can customize it with the help of its configuration like fonts, window size, background, foreground color and more…
Set Kitty as the default Ubuntu terminal
This tutorial is to configure Kitty as the default Ubuntu terminal and is not only limited to Ubuntu 22.04/20.04 systems. We can use it with Linux Mint, Debian, POP OS, Elementary, Zorin OS and more…
1. Run a command terminal
Open any command terminal installed on your Ubuntu Linux system. This is because here in this tutorial we will be using the command line to configure the default application. You can use the Ctlr + Alt + T. keyboard shortcut.
2. Change the default station to Kitty
Make sure you have Kitty installed on your system before planning to set it as the default terminal on Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04. If you don’t know how to install it, simply launch Ubuntu Terminal – sudo apt install kitty -y
Whereas, if you already have Kitty, use the utility built into the system called Update alternatives. We can use this tool to switch between terminal applications installed on our system to make any of them the default application. It is not limited to terminal apps, we can use it for other browsers and apps as well. That’s because this tool is responsible for setting up default applications in Ubuntu or Debian. Run the given command to change and choose the default Ubuntu or Debian Terminal.
sudo update-alternatives --config x-terminal-emulator
After that, all the terminals available on your system will be listed along with the selection number. What we have to do is write Selection . number kitty and Hit Enter key.
There are 7 choices for the alternative x-terminal-emulator
(providing /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator).
Selection Path Priority Status
------------------------------------------------------------
0 /usr/bin/alacritty 50 auto mode
1 /usr/bin/alacritty 50 manual mode
* 2 /usr/bin/gnome-terminal.wrapper 40 manual mode
3 /usr/bin/kitty 20 manual mode
4 /usr/bin/koi8rxterm 20 manual mode
5 /usr/bin/lxterm 30 manual mode
6 /usr/bin/uxterm 20 manual mode
7 /usr/bin/xterm 20 manual mode
Press to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number:
3. Check if Kitty is set as default station or not
In the above list, you can see by which Gnome Terminal is selected as the default. Now, as we entered the number of “choice” kitty, hence the acetic Mark will move to it. This means that the terminal has been changed to Kitty in Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04 successfully. You can also use the default keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt + T. To open Kitty Terminal now.
To confirm further, run the given command again and this time you will see the changes. To exit press Ctrl + C.
sudo update-alternatives --config x-terminal-emulator
In the same way, we can change and set any other terminal application on Ubuntu 20.04 or 22.04 as default application using Update alternatives service. If you have questions, the comments section is entirely yours.
Other articles:
⇒ How to change and set the default terminal in Ubuntu or Debian
⇒ How to Install Kitty Terminal on Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04
⇒ Set Alacritty as the default terminal in Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04
⇒ How to change the default kernel in Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04 liters