Alex Ruben
How To Open a New Terminal Window from Your Current Session in Ubuntu
If you’re used to working in Ubuntu’s terminal, sometimes you just want a new one to pop up without closing or messing around. It kinda sucks if you have to manually mouse-click or mess with menus all the time, especially if you prefer keyboard shortcuts or scripting. This guide should help smooth out that process. Basically, you run a simple command, and presto — another terminal window shows up, letting you multitask like a boss. Perfect for developers, sysadmins, or anyone who likes to keep things moving without breaking their flow.
Before diving in, note that these commands are tailored for Ubuntu with GNOME, which is the default environment. If you’re on KDE, XFCE, or something else, you’ll need to swap out a few commands — I’ll cover that later. Also, make sure you have your terminal app installed properly. Sometimes, things break if the terminal isn’t there, or if your PATH isn’t set correctly.
How to Open a New Terminal in Ubuntu
Discovering the Command for Your Environment
- GNOME (default Ubuntu): The command
gnome-terminal &is your go-to. It opens a fresh terminal window. The&is super important; it tells the shell to run the command in the background, so your current session stays active. Just type this in your terminal and hit Enter. Easy. - KDE: If you’re rocking KDE, replace with
konsole &. Same idea, different app. - XFCE: For XFCE, it’s
xfce4-terminal &.
Step-by-step for GNOME users
- Open your current terminal — easiest way is Ctrl + Alt + T. No surprises there.
- Type
gnome-terminal &and hit Enter. The new window should spring up pretty quick. Sometimes, on older or heavily loaded systems, it takes a second or two. No worries, just wait. - Check if the new window appears. If it does, you’re all set. You can repeat this command whenever you need a fresh terminal. If not, double-check that your Ubuntu has GNOME-terminal installed. You can do that by running
which gnome-terminal. If it’s blank, install it withsudo apt install gnome-terminal.
What if you’re not on GNOME?
Switching desktops? No problem. Just swap the command to whatever terminal app you prefer. For KDE—konsole &. XFCE—xfce4-terminal &. If you’re using something more exotic, find the app name first. For example, if you use rxvt-unicode, then run urxvt &.
Sometimes, the command might be different if you’ve customized your setup, but the idea stays the same. Just add & at the end so it doesn’t lock your terminal session.
Extra Tips & Common Pitfalls
- If nothing happens or you see an error, double-check the command syntax. No extraneous spaces or typos. Also, make sure the terminal program is installed, especially if you’re switching to less common options.
- Sometimes, you might find that running
gnome-terminal &doesn’t open a window immediately. Not sure why, but on some setups, it helps to run it from a different terminal or after a reboot. - If the terminal doesn’t launch or you get permission errors, try running the command with
sudo. Not usually needed, but worth a shot if permissions are weird. - For scripting or automating, consider creating an alias or script. For example, add
alias newterm='gnome-terminal &'to your ~/.bashrc.
Wrap-up
Getting a new terminal window from your current one is pretty straightforward, especially with the right command. It’s useful for splitting your workflow, debugging, or just keeping things tidy. Once you get used to it, it feels natural to fire up as many as needed, without hunting through menus. Sure, on some setups, it can be a bit fiddly or depend on how your environment is configured — but generally, it works just fine once you know what to run.
Hopefully this shaves off a few hours for someone trying to streamline their Linux workflow. Just remember to tweak commands based on your desktop environment and keep an eye on what’s installed.
Summary
- Use
gnome-terminal &for GNOME setups. - Swap with
konsole &orxfce4-terminal &for KDE/XFCE. - Make sure your terminal app is installed.
- Add the
&so it runs in the background and your current session isn’t blocked.
Final words
Just something that worked on multiple machines for me — hope it works for others too. terminal in Ubuntu is pretty flexible once you get the hang of it. Fingers crossed this helps someone save a tiny bit of time and hassle.