The terminal for Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is fairly minimal. I have not used the terminal on Windows very much - I generally use Ubuntu or OSX - but I am surprised that the default terminal is so bare.
Is it possible to either:
Connect a Windows terminal program to WSL or
Launch the Ubuntu terminal program from WSL as an X window?
I personally do the latter: use VcXsrv as my X server in multiple windows mode, then launch the xfce4-terminal (because gnome-terminal had visual issues that I didn't care to try to learn how to fix), and suddenly I have a competent terminal with font and color support.
I found I needed to add these to my bashrc...
export DISPLAY="localhost:0"
export TERM=xterm-256color
Do the fix from this reddit for dbus:
sudo sed -i 's$<listen>.*</listen>$<listen>tcp:host=localhost,port=0</listen>$' /etc/dbus-1/session.conf
I also installed compiz and I use the cbwin project to run windows programs from my xfce4-terminal shell.
I am very happy with this setup and use NeoVim + lots of native linux plugins even though my "for-work" machine must be Windows. :)
It is also possible to start an SSH server in Bash-on-Linux-on-Windows and then connect to it, say from MinTTY like from Cygwin.
PS: to make launching xfce4-terminal painless and without the extra bash cmd window, I wrote a program that does nothing but start the bash process with arguments to start xfce4-terminal without a console window. I did this in C# - basically use arguments "UseShellExecute" false and "CreateNoWindow" true. I then pinned that to my taskbar and it's almost seemless.
EDIT: The answer with VBScript is brilliant. Here's that same script, but a JScript version...
WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell").run('bash.exe -l -c "DISPLAY=:0.0 xfce4-terminal"', 0, false);
the "fix from reddit" for dbus was lifted.
– tel
Jan 02 '18 at 22:00
It took a little while to figure out all the implied steps in the other answers, so here's a step by step summary:
sudo apt-get install xfce4-terminal.export DISPLAY=:0 to your .bashrc. (Adding it to .profile or .bash_profile didn't work for me). This will allow you to start xfce4-terminal properly from bash, but is orthogonal to the command below.Run the following in a shortcut or in the Run prompt (as @OhJeez suggested in the comments):
powershell -windowstyle hidden -Command "iex \"bash ~ -c 'DISPLAY=:0 xfce4-terminal'\" "
Other notes:
~ starts bash in your home directory, you can remove it to start in whatever directory the .vbs file is in, instead. So it's convenient to put it in C:\Users\foo, for example.
xfce4-terminal it works fine. Furthermore, if I run bash -l -c xfce4-terminal from windows cmd, I get a warning Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: and nothing happens. I'm quite confused as I figured these commands should behave identically, any guesses?
– rperryng
Jul 10 '17 at 16:04
C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -windowstyle hidden -Command "iex \"bash.exe ~ -c 'DISPLAY=:0 xfce4-terminal'\" "
Another version which will start Xming if it's not running:
C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -windowstyle hidden -Command "iex '& \"C:\Program Files (x86)\Xming\Xming.exe\" -multiwindow'; iex \"bash.exe ~ -c 'DISPLAY=:0 xfce4-terminal'\" "
To fix this you will need:
Use "VcXsrv Windows X Server" instead of Xing https://sourceforge.net/projects/vcxsrv/
Run the xserver in compatibility mode. To do this you will need: click on VcXsrv shortcut with the right mouse button. Choose "Properties". On the "Compatibility" tab set checkbox against "Override high DPI scaling behavior..." and choose "Application" in the next dropdown.
Run xfce4-terminal and change font setting. Change font to a larger one.
Today, you are suggested to use "Windows terminal" which is open sourced by Microsoft.
The official build can be obtained from Windows Store in mid June this year.
But you can also experience it using below preview version. https://github.com/yanglr/WindowsDevTools/blob/master/awosomeTerminal/WindowsTerminal_SelfSigned_x86_x64_arm64.7z
After installed, the running results are below:
I created (and use) an open source terminal for Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) called wsl-terminal, it is based on mintty and wslbridge.
wsl-terminal will provide a better terminal experience.
– Cynplytholowazy
Sep 20 '17 at 04:09
On a fresh Ubuntu install, I've just installed XMing (in Windows) then (in Ubuntu) xfce4-terminal, and after I export DISPLAY=:0, it worked.
To get rid of Windows's default console, this VBS script does the job:
WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell").run "bash -l -c xfce4-terminal", 0, True
(With $DISPLAY set in your .profile.)
edit: And to make the script pin'able, create a shortcut with target wscript "C:\path\to\thescript.vbs".
On Windows:
I hope this helps.
htop
– WinEunuuchs2Unix
Oct 07 '17 at 23:42
ConEmu works great! Just install it and start a new {bash} console. I added cd ~ to my .bashrc to have it default to starting in my home directory.
Good explanation: https://conemu.github.io/en/BashOnWindows.html
Since the latest updates to Windows 10 (and WSL) everything seems to be working using "native" windows bash console. (And I am not talking about the (in)famous 1809 Windows update). This works even on Enterprise version at least for 1803 17134.345 build).
See the article at https://www.hanselman.com/blog/SettingUpAShinyDevelopmentEnvironmentWithinLinuxOnWindows10.aspx
A little caveat - to really use the bash console in Windows one should launch tmux - and everything will work as showed by Scott in his blog.
Extraterm is more than just a terminal emulator. It provides a toolbox for working with your terminal and command line applications.
Extending answers of aikeru and n.caillou as neither of their VBScript/JScript solutions worked right away for me.
Call WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell").Run("bash.exe -l -c 'DISPLAY=:0.0 xfce4-terminal --working-directory $HOME'", 0, True).
The script needs to be prepended by Call when using parenthesis in the run command, see here. Also the ticks needed to be the other way round. Moreover, an additional argument to xfce4-terminal will start the terminal in the user's home folder. Sorry if this was actually working JScript code, I have no idea about these scripting languages.
Saving this as a file vbscript.vbs and executing from a cmd prompt by
wscript vbscript.vbs
then opens a xfce4-terminal window (given XMing or alike is running) after 2 seconds delay. Turning this into a shortcut as suggested by n.caillou's works indeed and clicking the shortcut will automatically spawn a new xfce terminal window with some delay.
It allows you to choose your backend shell bash, cmd, PowerShell.
the shell to run when spawning a new session (i.e. /usr/local/bin/fish)
if left empty, your system's login shell will be used by default
Windows
- Make sure to use a full path if the binary name doesn't work
- Remove `--login` in shellArgs
Bash on Windows
- Example: `C:\\Windows\\System32\\bash.exe`
PowerShell on Windows
- Example: `C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\powershell.exe`
shell: 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\bash.exe',enter code here
plugins: [
//"hyper-dracula"
//"hyper-solarized-dark"
"hyper-material-theme"
],
Using this guide I was able to get my WLS, bash working very nicely.
A terminal for a more modern age https://eugeny.github.io/terminus/
Terminus is a terminal heavily inspired by Hyper. It is, however, designed for people who need to get things done.