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abowlt1990

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2008-09-20

Posts: 15

[SOLVED] Is it possible to replace xterm with urxvt

Hi,

I was wondering if it is possible to replace xterm with urxvt, on a system level. so that anything that would usually refer to xterm would then refer to urxvt.

Thanks in advanced

Ash

Last edited by abowlt1990 (2008-09-27 15:56:24)

Statix

Member

From: Hangzhou, China

Registered: 2008-02-16

Posts: 240

Re: [SOLVED] Is it possible to replace xterm with urxvt

One way would be to link the xterm command to urxvt. Not sure if this is the best route to take though.

First, definitely backup /usr/bin/xterm

Then
ln -s /usr/bin/urxvt /usr/bin/xterm

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abowlt1990

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2008-09-20

Posts: 15

Re: [SOLVED] Is it possible to replace xterm with urxvt

Thanks for the quick response, as you said you do not know whether that would be the best path, i think i will wait until there are a few more answers here, if others agree with you, i then i will definitely use your solution.

Thanks again

Ash

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: [SOLVED] Is it possible to replace xterm with urxvt

I believe that it's set by the TERM environmental variable. You could add 'export TERM=urxvt' to ~/.bashrc.

Mektub

Member

From: Lisbon /Portugal

Registered: 2008-01-02

Posts: 647

Re: [SOLVED] Is it possible to replace xterm with urxvt

I dont think symlinking is ever a good solution. One day it will come back and hit you. And it will confuse and
break updates.

KDE4 uses 'systemsetup'. Under 'Default applications' you can setup your default terminal.
Gnome uses 'gnome-control-center' --> 'prefered applications'.

Myself I use 'icewm', but gnome/KDE applications do use the terminal I setted above (roxterm).

Mektub

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abowlt1990

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2008-09-20

Posts: 15

Re: [SOLVED] Is it possible to replace xterm with urxvt

I dont think symlinking is ever a good solution. One day it will come back and hit you. And it will confuse and
break updates.

KDE4 uses 'systemsetup'. Under 'Default applications' you can setup your default terminal.
Gnome uses 'gnome-control-center' --> 'prefered applications'.

Myself I use 'icewm', but gnome/KDE applications do use the terminal I setted above (roxterm).

Mektub

Thanks for the options but i would prefer not to have to install anything KDE or GNOME based, i am looking to have a nice clean openbox dekstop.

Thanks for the help

Ash

moljac024

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2008-01-29

Posts: 2,676

Re: [SOLVED] Is it possible to replace xterm with urxvt

I dont think symlinking is ever a good solution. One day it will come back and hit you. And it will confuse and
break updates.

KDE4 uses 'systemsetup'. Under 'Default applications' you can setup your default terminal.
Gnome uses 'gnome-control-center' --> 'prefered applications'.

Myself I use 'icewm', but gnome/KDE applications do use the terminal I setted above (roxterm).

Mektub

Thanks for the options but i would prefer not to have to install anything KDE or GNOME based, i am looking to have a nice clean openbox dekstop.

Thanks for the help

Ash

Maybe you could be more specific so we could help you better.
What is it exactly that you're trying to achieve ?
Have you tried exporting "urxvt" to the $TERM environment variable ?

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dschrute

Member

From: NJ, USA

Registered: 2007-04-09

Posts: 183

Re: [SOLVED] Is it possible to replace xterm with urxvt

I think the TERM variable refers to the capabilities of the current console/tty, not to the program it is being displayed in.  So for example, if TERM is set to vt100 it will have only more basic functionality than say xterm or similar.

You could use an alias in /etc/profile.  Something like :
alias xterm='urxvt'

This will definitely work if calling xterm directly, and should also work for any programs that want to launch it.  You can also remove the xterm package, since I don't think much is dependent on it.

abowlt1990

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2008-09-20

Posts: 15

Re: [SOLVED] Is it possible to replace xterm with urxvt

Thanks for all of the help guys, i have added 'export TERM=rxvt-unicode' to .bashrc and i have also setup an alias in '/etc/profile'.

Again thanks for all the help.