Ubuntu – Change default shell for Terminator

command lineterminatorzsh

I want to change the default shell of Terminator to zsh.
In /etc/passwd/ I've changed the default shell to /bin/zsh.
This settings changes the default shell in LXTerminal (the default terminal on Lubuntu), but not in Terminator. So I tried chsh -s /bin/zsh, but that doesn't work either.

The Terminator documentation says:

How do I change my default shell?

Terminator will always start the shell specified by the SHELL
environment variable. (It will fall back to /bin/sh if the SHELL
environment variable isn't set.) You could simply influence
Terminator's environment, but the best solution is to tell your
operating system which shell you'd like, and it will ensure that SHELL
is set correctly for all applications, not just Terminator. See the
documentation for your operating system for details on how to change
your default shell.

So I expected my attempts to work, but they don't. How can I change the default shell in Terminator.

Best Answer

Use `chsh` to change shell

You can use chsh to change your default shell. Running this command will ask for complete path of the shell.

You can also run

chsh -s <path_to_shell>

to change the shell directly.

Change Terminator Preferences

You can also change the Terminator preferences directly.

Open Terminator.
Right Click on Terminator and select Preferences.
Go to Profiles > Command.
Check Run command as login shell, Run a custom command instead of my shell, and type in the address of the shell.

enter image description here - Close the dialog box.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to change the default shell for ALL USERS to bash

adduser

The adduser defaults file is /etc/adduser.conf. The default shell defined by the DSHELL variable is /bin/bash by default.

useradd

Most likely you don't need this because useradd is a very low-level utility, and it's hardly ever used directly.

If you use useradd, edit the /etc/default/useradd skeleton file (don't forget to make a backup though).

Set the SHELL variable to /bin/bash instead of /bin/sh.

Now every time you use useradd to add a new user bash is automatically their default shell.

Already existing users

If you want to change the shell of already existing users you have to edit the /etc/passwd file (please make sure to back have a backup of it).

Here is a description of the columns

login name
optional encrypted password
numerical user ID
numerical group ID
user name or comment field
user home directory
optional user command interpreter

In that order separated by colons (:) like this.

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash

For more information about that file consult the man page man 5 passwd.

Ubuntu – chsh -s /usr/bin/zsh not working

You need to log out again for these changes to take effect. The shell defined in the /etc/passwd file is your login shell :-) So you need to log in actually for that.