How to install terminal

User Support
1

I want to install Alacritty terminal in debian 11 minimal. How to do it?
Further I have tried gnome terminal installation in minimal template but I cannot launch it with dom0 terminal.

qvm-run -u root debian-11-minimal terminal
qvm-run -u root debian-11-minimal gnome-terminal

Both don’t work.

Can someone recommend minimal terminal emulator with most secure code base and copy paste functioning without mouse help.

2

In dom0:

qvm-run -u root debian-11-minimal xterm

In the debian-11-minimal XTerm window that opens:

apt install <your_desired_package_name>
3

alacritty is not avavilable in repos.
And can you answer my second and 3rdf question/

4

You could just stick with XTerm and use *selectToClipboard: true.

5

in dom0:

qvm-run --pass-io --user root debian-11-minimal "echo "XTerm*selectToClipboard: true" >> /etc/X11/Xresources/x11-common"
6

@totah - there’s an art to asking good questions, and to finding answers.

You haven’t given any information about the error so that you can’t be
easily helped.

Many problems that people have in Qubes are actually not Qubes specific.
This is one of those.
The only Qubes specific part is that you have to work in the template.

  1. gnome-terminal

If you have an error with qvm-run then you should always use qvm-run -p which will let you see any error messages.
You should also check to see if you are able to run the command in the qube itself.
In this case, you can’t, as you could have found for yourself.
If you cant run a command in a qube, you wont be able to get it working
from dom0.
Fortunately you get a full error message:

Error constructing proxy for org.gnome.Terminal:/org/gnome/Terminal/Factory0:
Error calling StartServiceByName for org.gnome.Terminal: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ChildExited: Process org.gnome.Terminal exited with status 9

A web search will show you that this is actually covered in a Gnome FAQ.
The FAQ explains that the local settings use a nonexistent locale.
(locales are variable that determine conventions to use for character
display, formatting for time, date, and currency, and so on.)

Another search will tell you how to fix this in Debian:
the only Qubes specific part is that you have to do this in the template.
Open a root terminal in the template, and run:

dpkg-reconfigure locales.
Choose the locales you want - e.g. en_US.UTF-8

And then:
localectl set-locale LANG="en_US.UTF-8"

Shutdown the template.
Restart the qube.
Then gnome-terminal will start in the qube, whether called locally or
from dom0.

  1. xterm copy/paste

Other users have told you how to get xterm to use the main clipboard.
You want to use keyboard shortcuts for this.
Again, a search will suggest different options.

I use GNU screen.
Install it in the template: apt install screen
Open a qube terminal window - run screen.
Generate some output on screen.
Ctrl+a+[ opens edit mode.
You have Vim type keybindings to move around - at basic, h and l to go left and right, j and k to move down and up.
Position the cursor at the start - press Enter
Move the cursor to end of what you want copied - press Enter
Then Ctrl+a+] will paste.

Two problems down.

  1. You asked how to install Alacritty.
    You can install cargo in the template, with apt install cargo, and
    then install Alacritty using cargo install alacritty
    You’ll have to make sure you have dependencies installed , but these are
    fully set out in the alacritty build instructions on GitHub, with a
    helpful command to install them in Debian:
    apt-get install cmake pkg-config libfreetype6-dev libfontconfig1-dev libxcb-xfixes0-dev libxkbcommon-dev python3

Again, that’s fully covered in the Alacritty instructions.
The only qube specific part is that you have to do this in the template
and templates don’t have direct net access. Instead they use a proxy
at http://127.0.0.1:8082

Fortunately, you can easily find instructions on using cargo with a proxy.
export CARGO_HTTP_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:8082
export CARGO_HTTPS_PROXY=http://127.0.0.1:8082
should work.

7

He / she says:

[…] Another possibility (that works even better) is through the debconf-utils utilities and debconf-set-selections (run as root):

echo "locales locales/default_environment_locale select en_HK.UTF-8" | debconf-set-selections
echo "locales locales/locales_to_be_generated multiselect en_HK.UTF-8 UTF-8" | debconf-set-selections
rm "/etc/locale.gen"
dpkg-reconfigure --frontend noninteractive locales

Could you please confirm?
Which one is better (better for deb minimal templates)?
Any pro or cons?

8

My post was intended to show how @totah could have solved this problem
for themselves simply by searching.
debian locales will take you to the debian page on locales - an
explanation of what they are and information on how to work with them.
It’s extremely unlikely that a novice searcher would hit the page you
reference.

The page you linked answers a specific question - how do I do this
automatically with one command - and the answer you cite uses 4
commands. It doesn’t seem like an improvement.