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Assign a Hotkey to Open a Terminal Window in Ubuntu

Since we spend so much time at the command line in Ubuntu, it sometimes makes it simpler to launch a new terminal window with a shortcut key.

Ubuntu has a built-in utility for assigning shortcut keys. Go to System \ Preferences \ Keyboard Shortcuts:

Scroll down to where it says “Run a terminal”, and click in the Shortcut column. When you see “New accelerator…”, the next keystroke that you use will set the keyboard shortcut.

I assigned Ctrl+Alt+X as mine…. one press of the key combination and up pops a terminal. What a time saver!

Dipin Krishna

Written by Dipin Krishna

Senior full-stack engineer — 15 years across Django, Laravel, SwiftUI and the infrastructure underneath. Available for contract work.

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