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While fixing package dependencies, the terminal application went missing, and now I cannot locate the application. Is there a way to reinstall the terminal application?

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3 Answers

up vote 26 down vote

Press Ctrl+Alt+F1 (to enter a virtual console), log in with with your account and install the package gnome-terminal with the command:

sudo apt-get install gnome-terminal

When you type passwords into a text-only virtual console, you don't see anything on the screen. That's normal.

Return to Unity (or whatever other desktop environment you're currently running) by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F7.

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+1 for using cli and not Ubuntu Software Center. By the way, you only need to press alt+F7 or powerkey+F7. There's no need for the ctrl if you're not in X. – Vreality Jan 14 at 16:38
If you are in TTY1 and want to get back to TTY7 pretty sure you need to press Ctrl+Alt+F7 for that... Correct me if wrong. – Bruno Pereira♦ Jan 14 at 16:42
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Try it. For me, I certainly don't need the ctrl. – Vreality Jan 14 at 16:44
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@Aditya Being able to use CLI is great skill; I'm glad you learned a little about it today. – Vreality Jan 14 at 20:36
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@Vreality What Ctrl+Alt+F1 gives you is not what a "terminal emulator" emulates. Both graphical console apps and a virtual consoles are virtual in the same sense. There is no way in which a graphically presented shell is not truly a command-line interface (CLI). However, it's true that when one uses GNOME Terminal, one is using a graphical interface as well, and while techniques for using a virtual console apply to a graphical terminal, many graphical terminal users are unfamiliar with techniques particularly useful when there are no GUI niceties for scrolling back and the like. – Eliah Kagan Jan 16 at 0:44
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up vote 18 down vote

The Middle Way

This totally non-graphical way, and this totally graphical way, are both excellent. But there is a third way, too.

Ubuntu comes with another (simpler) graphical terminal program that you can fall back on!

If you cannot use the Terminal (for users of other Ubuntu flavors, this applies to the Konsole, Xfce4 Terminal, and LXTerminal, too), you can still use xterm.

Press Alt+F2, type xterm, and press Enter.

Typing xterm into Unity. (This is the Alt+F2 menu, but typing into the normal dash is usually as effective.)

Here you can install gnome-terminal with apt-get:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install gnome-terminal

You'll notice my command is a little different from Bruno Pereira's. Having recently performed lots of package management, you may not need to run sudo apt-get update. (Unless your dependency problem was from apt-get and you didn't run it with update before, then you definitely need to.) You can decide.

xterm (running on Unity 2D in Ubuntu 12.10 Precise Pangolin, but regardless of version and UI, it will look similar).

Ubuntu's xterm is very basic in style. As far as I know, there's no GUI way for xterm to scroll back, save history, change font and font size, or anything like that. The actual shell's capabilities will of course be the same as in any Terminal, since it's still bash. (Or whatever you set it to be.)

Alternatives

If you have a longer-term problem of any kind with the GNOME Terminal, you can use xterm, but it is not as friendly and (in some ways) not as sophisticated as GNOME Terminal.

If you continue to have trouble getting GNOME Terminal working but you're able to install software in general, you can install:

You should not use Konsole for this, however, unless you already have KDE installed. Installing it usually pulls in lots of KDE-related packages as dependencies.

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up vote 7 down vote

Well you can do with Ubuntu Software Center or (if you have it) the Synaptic Package Manager.

Just type terminal in the search box of either application, and you'll get what ever you want.

Another way to install it in the Software Center is to click:

Install via the software center

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