How to install Guake Terminal and add it to autostart

To install Guake on Debian, Ubuntu, Kali or Linux Mint, run sudo apt install guake. Start it once, press F12 to drop the terminal down, and copy guake.desktop into /etc/xdg/autostart/ so it starts with your desktop session.

Short version

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y guake
sudo cp /usr/share/applications/guake.desktop /etc/xdg/autostart/
# log out and back in, then press F12

In this article you will learn how to install Guake Terminal and how to add it to autostart. Guake is a great little dropdown-terminal. If you played games like Quake 3 (hence the name Guake), and remember pulling down the console with the circumflex(^) key to make some config changes, this is exactly what Guake is. In this example, we use Kali Linux, but this works on any Debian based distribution. Guake is also in the repositories of Fedora and Arch Linux. I use it on a daily basis for everything I do with Linux. It’s great to be able to just quickly pull down a terminal by pressing the circumflex key.

Updating repositories

First we update our repository.

sudo apt update

Install Guake Terminal

Now we can already go ahead and install Guake. The -y tag at the end just means that you want to install guake without confirming it again.

sudo apt install guake -y

If you want a newer Guake than your distribution ships, the Guake docs also describe a PPA for Ubuntu and installing from PyPI with pipx install guake.

Adding Guake Terminal to autostart

Now we want to also add Guake to autostart, so it automatically starts every time you log in.

Back in the terminal type:

sudo cp /usr/share/applications/guake.desktop /etc/xdg/autostart/

That starts Guake for every user on the machine. For your own user only, copy it into your personal autostart folder instead:

mkdir -p ~/.config/autostart
cp /usr/share/applications/guake.desktop ~/.config/autostart/

Rebooting the System

Let’s log out and back in (or reboot) to see if Guake is going to start.

Configuring Guake Terminal

Once back up you should recognize Guake starting along with your operating system.

Creating Tabs

Now if you press the F12 button (the default key) you will get a drop-down terminal window, which is very convenient. By clicking on the little Page symbol on the right-hand side or by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+T you can create a new tab.

Re-assigning the Guake Dropdown key to Circumflex

Now I prefer to have my Guake shortcut actually set on my circumflex (^) key. Simply open Guake and right-click in the console and click Preferences. (As seen in the picture above)

Here I click on Keyboard shortcuts and re-assign the Toggle Guake visibility key F12 to my circumflex key. The screenshots are from an older Guake version, so the Preferences window looks different today.

Wrapping up

There are many more options you can set in those preferences, such as opacity of the console window, to be able to read text documents in the background while working in the terminal ( I recommend doing this).

You can also set it up to create multi windows and stuff like this.

Now enjoy your new Quake-style terminal and don’t miss out on other Open Source Tutorials!

FAQ

Why does the Guake shortcut not work on Wayland?

On Wayland, the Guake docs say you must set the hotkey in your desktop’s global keyboard settings. On GNOME, add a custom shortcut under Settings, Keyboard, with the command guake-toggle.

How do I start Guake at login without copying a file?

Open Guake’s Preferences and look for the option to start Guake at login on the General tab. It depends on the desktop environment, so if it does nothing, use the guake.desktop copy from the autostart step above, or add guake to your desktop’s startup applications.

How do I change the Guake shortcut from F12?

Right-click inside Guake, open Preferences, go to Keyboard shortcuts and re-assign Toggle Guake visibility to the key you want.

How do I install Guake on Fedora or Arch Linux?

Fedora: sudo dnf install guake. Arch Linux: sudo pacman -S guake. The autostart step is the same.