tilda terminal emulator
Posted: Sun 05 May 2019, 10:53
tilda terminal emulator is similar to lxterminal, but is activated via a hotkey. Supports multiple tabs, cut/paste via a menu and you can set it to follow url links (ctrl-click a link and it opens your browser to that link assuming you've defined your browser in the tilda configuration (right click, preferences menu option)).
I had been using tmux, but have switched over to tilda primarily for the better (IMO) cut/paste and link following functions.
But tilda is lacking compared to tmux is some (many) respects. Setting tab titles for instance, and having it start with multiple tabs activated.
Initially I started running tilda with a command to ssh to my ssh server
tilda -c "ssh user@sshserver.org"
however tilda stores that as its initial command ... so add another tab/window and it runs that command again by default. The workaround I used was to create a file in /tmp first and then run tilda in the background set to that command, and then change the /tmp file content. Something like
echo "#!/bin/sh" >/tmp/TILDA
echo "TERM=screen ssh user@sshserver.org" >>/tmp/TILDA
chmod 700 /tmp/TILDA
tilda -c /tmp/TILDA &
sleep 3
echo "#!/bin/sh" >/tmp/TILDA
echo "TERM=linux /bin/sh" >>/tmp/TILDA
chmod 700 /tmp/TILDA
... and that works fine. First time its run it opens tilda and a ssh connection (I set the TERM for that to screen as I run screen in that ssh session), and if another tilda tab/window is opened then it runs /bin/sh in that window.
The next desire was to have multiple tilda tabs open at startup. For that I opted to use xdotool. Ctrl-T (ctrl-shift-t) in tilda adds a new tab, so
xdotool key ctrl+T
... and then to set the tabs title I use the escape code
newTitle=$1
echo -e "\x1B]2;${newTitle}\x07 tab --> [${newTitle}]"
... and of course whatever command/program I want to have running in that tap.
So I've swapped out using tmux for using tilda combined with screen. tilda is set to toggle show/hide on pressing F1, and I've set the window size to be full screen, less the height of the tray. That way I can flip between terminal and gui quick/easily.
Typically I'm running ssh to my ssh server in one tilda tab, where that's running screen within which I run irc, mutt (mail); And in other tilda tabs I have mc (file manager/text editor), bmon (network traffic monitoring), htop (system utilisation) and a simple press of F1 flips to that view, F1 again to switch back to gui (typically browser with its multiple tabs on one desktop, music player on another desktop).
I've taken that a further yet, and have my .ssh folder in a encrypted folder, and decrypt that in Startup and run tilda ... which connects to my ssh server as above, and also opens a sshfs connection so the ssh servers folder is presented as a local folder in rox. I also setup a socks proxy connection so all my browser traffic routes via a ssh tunnel. Once that's all setup the script closes the decrypted folder, so its encrypted again as the ssh keys are done with once the ssh connections have all been made, which hides my .ssh folder (private keys). So if my system is cracked, the cracker wont see the .ssh keys. Or if my laptop is stolen they can't connect to the ssh server.
I'm using a free hashbang.sh account for my ssh server. For socks proxy, email and irc predominately. screen/tilda for irc is nice as you can just detach (ctrl-a d) and later return (screen -r) having left irc running and provided you've set tilda's buffer to a reasonable size (I have mine set to 1000 lines) then you can scroll back (page-up/down) through the days/historic irc postings.
I had been using tmux, but have switched over to tilda primarily for the better (IMO) cut/paste and link following functions.
But tilda is lacking compared to tmux is some (many) respects. Setting tab titles for instance, and having it start with multiple tabs activated.
Initially I started running tilda with a command to ssh to my ssh server
tilda -c "ssh user@sshserver.org"
however tilda stores that as its initial command ... so add another tab/window and it runs that command again by default. The workaround I used was to create a file in /tmp first and then run tilda in the background set to that command, and then change the /tmp file content. Something like
echo "#!/bin/sh" >/tmp/TILDA
echo "TERM=screen ssh user@sshserver.org" >>/tmp/TILDA
chmod 700 /tmp/TILDA
tilda -c /tmp/TILDA &
sleep 3
echo "#!/bin/sh" >/tmp/TILDA
echo "TERM=linux /bin/sh" >>/tmp/TILDA
chmod 700 /tmp/TILDA
... and that works fine. First time its run it opens tilda and a ssh connection (I set the TERM for that to screen as I run screen in that ssh session), and if another tilda tab/window is opened then it runs /bin/sh in that window.
The next desire was to have multiple tilda tabs open at startup. For that I opted to use xdotool. Ctrl-T (ctrl-shift-t) in tilda adds a new tab, so
xdotool key ctrl+T
... and then to set the tabs title I use the escape code
newTitle=$1
echo -e "\x1B]2;${newTitle}\x07 tab --> [${newTitle}]"
... and of course whatever command/program I want to have running in that tap.
So I've swapped out using tmux for using tilda combined with screen. tilda is set to toggle show/hide on pressing F1, and I've set the window size to be full screen, less the height of the tray. That way I can flip between terminal and gui quick/easily.
Typically I'm running ssh to my ssh server in one tilda tab, where that's running screen within which I run irc, mutt (mail); And in other tilda tabs I have mc (file manager/text editor), bmon (network traffic monitoring), htop (system utilisation) and a simple press of F1 flips to that view, F1 again to switch back to gui (typically browser with its multiple tabs on one desktop, music player on another desktop).
I've taken that a further yet, and have my .ssh folder in a encrypted folder, and decrypt that in Startup and run tilda ... which connects to my ssh server as above, and also opens a sshfs connection so the ssh servers folder is presented as a local folder in rox. I also setup a socks proxy connection so all my browser traffic routes via a ssh tunnel. Once that's all setup the script closes the decrypted folder, so its encrypted again as the ssh keys are done with once the ssh connections have all been made, which hides my .ssh folder (private keys). So if my system is cracked, the cracker wont see the .ssh keys. Or if my laptop is stolen they can't connect to the ssh server.
I'm using a free hashbang.sh account for my ssh server. For socks proxy, email and irc predominately. screen/tilda for irc is nice as you can just detach (ctrl-a d) and later return (screen -r) having left irc running and provided you've set tilda's buffer to a reasonable size (I have mine set to 1000 lines) then you can scroll back (page-up/down) through the days/historic irc postings.