Linux – How to change the Terminal cursor from box to line

linuxterminal

The box-like cursor in Linux Mints terminal (and ubuntus) is really confusing me! I am used to a vertical line so it's hard for me to focus on the commands when I am unsure where this box-ish cursor really is all the time.

Is there a way to change this?
Thanks!

Best Answer

This is a function of the Terminal program itself.

In Ubuntu, if you're using terminal you can change this in the terminal application preferences, which is accessible from the terminal application menu in the Ubuntu status bar in the top left of the screen.

Terminal Menu
  -> Preferences
    -> Profile
      -> Cursor
        -> Cursor Shape
          -> I-beam

There's a pull-down menu for "Cursor Shape" and "I beam" is an option.

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Here's something to play with in Bash.

To set it up:

$ bash    # try this in a subshell since ^C seems to cause it to exit
$ f () { sed "1s/^/$(tput cup 0 0)/;s/^/$(tput il1)/"; }
$ PROMPT_COMMAND='tput cup 0 0;tput il1; echo'
$ exec > >(f)

Press enter one extra time and it's ready to try. Sometimes the output and the prompt are out of order and there may be other weirdness, but it's kind of an interesting thing to try.

Screen oriented programs won't work because they don't see a tty.

Best Answer

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