How to start terminal in full screen?

When I open a terminal using CTRL+ALT+T in Unity, I would like this window to be automatically maximized, rather than to have to additionally hit ALT+SPACE and the 'X' key to make the window that contains it maximized.

If my memory serves me right, I do remember that there used to be a maximize mode that we can set in preferences, but I can't seem to find it now. Any ideas?

Solution 1:

@Bhargav was close to what you need to maximise the window - you just need to use big numbers.

• Open a Terminal
• Select Profile Preferences from the Edit Menu.
• Tick Use custom default terminal size and enter a default size that is too large for the screen e.g. 240 columns and 100 rows.
• Click close then open a new Terminal by clicking the icon OR pressing Ctrl + Alt + T

The new terminal window should be maximised.

Can I add that your question is a bit vague, the title asks for full screen (I take that as fills the entire screen, with no panels or unity bar visible) but the actual question asks how it can be automatically maximised (fill the desktop space leaving panels and unity bar visible) which are two different request in my book.

Based upon advice I was given here: How to make terminal start maximized?

Solution 2:

While the user has an accepted answer using Compiz, I dislike Compiz, personally and wanted a "cleaner" way.

If you create a file at ~/.local/share/applications/gnome-terminal-fullscreen.desktop.

Use a text editor and put this in it:

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Terminal Fullscreen
Comment=Use the command line in fullscreen
Exec=/usr/bin/gnome-terminal --window --full-screen
Icon=utilities-terminal
Type=Application
X-GNOME-DocPath=gnome-terminal/index.html
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=GNOME
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Product=gnome-terminal
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Component=BugBuddyBugs
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Version=3.4.1.1
Categories=GNOME;GTK;Utility;TerminalEmulator;
StartupNotify=true
OnlyShowIn=GNOME;Unity;
Keywords=Run;
Actions=New
X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=gnome-terminal

[Desktop Action New]
Name=New Terminal Fullscreen
Exec=/usr/bin/gnome-terminal --window --full-screen
OnlyShowIn=Unity

This puts an application in your Activities search results call Terminal Fullscreen. All it is doing is calling the same gnome-terminal command but with the --window --full-screen arguments, so it launches in full screen. If you always want it fullscreen, just always use that.

Hope this simplifies things for someone.

Solution 3:

You can use the Compiz Window Rules plugin for this.

1. Make sure you have the CompizConfig Settings Manager installed and run it.

2. Then, enable the Window Rules plugin:

   

   and set it so that windows with the class Gnome-terminal are matched:

   

If you're using a different terminal, use the + button to build up a match expression for your terminal.

If you'd like your terminal to be fullscreen instead, you can use the appropriate rule in the plugin's config dialog.

In newer versions of Ubuntu (definitely in 16.04) you need to have compiz-plugins installed package to access Window Rules.
If you don't have it you need to install it with sudo apt install compiz-plugins and reboot.

Solution 4:

Go to System Settings -> Keyboard. Under the "Shortcuts" tab, go to "Custom Shortcuts". Create a new entry named "Launch Terminal Fullscreen" (or whatever), and enter the following as the command:

gnome-terminal --window --full-screen

You're supposed to be able to click on that entry and then press the key combination you wish to use in order to set the new keyboard shortcut, but for some reason, that wasn't working for me. If that's the case, you might need to edit the launcher shortcuts manually...

According to this page, the keyboard shortcuts for Unity can be found at:

~/.gconf/desktop/gnome/keybindings

Each keybinding seems to be in a separate folder, named "custom0", "custom1", etc. Edit the "%gconf.xml" file found in one of these folders which contains the keyboard shortcut definition you just added in the "Settings -> Keyboard" dialog, (if you added one). Here's mine, mapped to "CTRL-ALT-m":

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<gconf>
<entry name="action" mtime="1381112788" type="string">
    <stringvalue>gnome-terminal --window --full-screen</stringvalue>
</entry>
<entry name="name" mtime="1381112788" type="string">
    <stringvalue>Launch Terminal Fullscreen</stringvalue>
</entry>
<entry name="binding" mtime="1381110910" type="string">
    <stringvalue>&lt;Primary&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;m</stringvalue>
</entry>
</gconf>

I suppose you could try just copying the above into a new file named "%gconf.xml", and putting it in a new folder named "customX", (where "X" is the next available number), in the ~/.gconf/desktop/gnome/keybindingsfolder. I haven't tried this, yet.

After editing the XML by hand, I logged off and logged back in in order to force a re-scan of the keybindings, and voila!