I cannot open gnome-terminal on Ubuntu 18.04

Question

I am using Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS. I have an Intel Core i7 CPU with a GeForce RTX 2070.

I am using a new lab computer. Whenever I push on the terminal applet, I see the clock icon running, then nothing. The only thing I had done was installed Chrome. I read that installing Chrome may have been the issue, so I uninstalled the application and reset the computer. However, I still cannot access the terminal.

I do not have much experience with Linux, so feel free to ask if you need any more info.

@PabloA ctrl+alt+t does nothing. And nothing happens when I run that command after pressing alt+f2. Any ideas? — Spencer Kraisler, Sep 23 '19 at 19:17
Try others: uxterm, xterm, x-terminal-emulator (terminator), or with Ctrl + Alt + F4 (virtual console) and read the logs (journalctl -xe). — Pablo Bianchi, Sep 23 '19 at 19:41
I got it working with xterm. That’s good at least. Do you know why terminal isn’t working though? Seems kinda concerning. — Spencer Kraisler, Sep 23 '19 at 21:35
I don't know. Run gnome-terminal from xterm and see what happen (something to stdout/stderr?). Check the logs with journalctl. Might be useful if you add the output of inxi -SG -! 31 -y 80. — Pablo Bianchi, Sep 23 '19 at 21:53

WinEunuuchs2Unix · Answer 1 · 2019-09-24T00:57:03.853

2

Part of the problem might be because you are using a "new lab computer" and who knows what they've cooked up in the lab?

Try this for starters:

$ apt list | grep gnome-terminal

WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.

gnome-terminal/xenial,now 3.18.3-1ubuntu1 amd64 [installed]
gnome-terminal-data/xenial,xenial,now 3.18.3-1ubuntu1 all [installed]

If it doesn't say "[installed]" at the end of the last two lines then let's install it with:

sudo apt install gnome-terminal

Hopefully the problem is as simple to fix as that...

Reply to comment:

Sounds like you need to use:

sudo rm /usr/bin/python3
sudo ln -s python3.5 /usr/bin/python3

Source: Gnome terminal will not start

edited Sep 24 '19 at 00:57

answered Sep 23 '19 at 23:45

WinEunuuchs2Unix

102,282

Thanks for the response. I tried that and it seems both are installed. However when I type "gnome-terminal" in xterm, I get "Import Error: cannot import name '_gi' from 'gi' – Spencer Kraisler Sep 23 '19 at 23:49
@SpencerKraisler I replied to your comment within the answer. If this works we will probably close your question as a duplicate of the Q&A I linked in this revision. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Sep 24 '19 at 00:57
@SpencerKraisler On second sober thought that answer was for 16.04. There is a new answer that says: "'sudo update-alternatives --config python3'" which may work better for your 18.04. Sorry can't say for sure but examine all the answers there please. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Sep 24 '19 at 01:02

I cannot open gnome-terminal on Ubuntu 18.04

1 Answers1