How to open terminal in Ubuntu 22.04

The following tutorial will provide the reader with multiple methods of accessing the command line terminal window on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish desktop.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to open terminal window using shortcuts
  • Other ways how to quickly open the terminal window
How to open terminal in Ubuntu 22.04
How to open terminal in Ubuntu 22.04
Software Requirements and Linux Command Line Conventions
Category Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used
System Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish
Software A Desktop Environment (GUI)
Other Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command.
Conventions # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

How to access terminal




The following methods will work on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish, regardless of what desktop environment you’re using. The keyboard shortcuts and steps to open a terminal can be followed on GNOME, KDE, Xfce, MATE, LXQt, etc.

  1. Perhaps the easiest way to open terminal window on Ubuntu 22.04 desktop is to use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + ALT + T. Entering this shortcut will instantly open the terminal window, and you can use it no matter where you are on the desktop.
  2. You can also open a terminal from the Activities menu in GNOME, or the equivalent application launcher in other desktop environments. Simply start typing the word “terminal” and click on the result that pops up.

    Opening a terminal from Activities menu in Ubuntu 22.04
    Opening a terminal from Activities menu in Ubuntu 22.04
  3. You can open a terminal by right clicking on the desktop, or while browsing any directory. Using this method will automatically open the terminal with it’s present working directory in the directory of your file browser. If opening from the desktop, then the terminal will already be opened to the Desktop folder.
    Opening a terminal from the desktop or present working directory by right clicking
    Opening a terminal from the desktop or present working directory by right clicking



  4. Pressing the Alt + F2 keybord combination will bring up a run prompt, from which you can execute gnome-terminal to open a terminal. In other desktop environments, the command will be slightly different, such as xfce-terminal, etc.

    Opening a new terminal from the run prompt
    Opening a new terminal from the run prompt
  5. If you already have a terminal open, all desktop environments have an easy way to open another terminal with one or two clicks. In GNOME, you just click the plus sign in the upper left corner to open a terminal as a new tab.

    Opening a new terminal within the terminal menu itself
    Opening a new terminal within the terminal menu itself


Terminal is not opening in Ubuntu

If your GUI desktop is frozen and the terminal won’t open, you might try to open the TTY console. To do so, enter the following shortcut CTRL + ALT + F3. To return back to your GUI Desktop enter ALT + F2 shortcut.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we learned how to open the command line terminal in Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish. The terminal is a very frequently used component in Ubuntu, and thus every desktop environment has various convenient ways to access it.