We propose an alternative solution to making terminator act like guake that requires two additional packages: xdotool and wmctrl.
Our proposal will launch terminator if there is not instance running.
In Ubuntu you can install the needed packages from the official repositories using sudo apt-get install xdotool wmctrl.
Using a text editor, create in you home folder a file named nano ~/toggle_visibility.sh and copy there the contents of the following chunk of code. You can also use nano, from a terminal issue nano ~/toggle_visibility.sh, then paste the code and hit CTRL+X to exit. When prompted if you want to save press ‘Y’ and hit enter.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 | #!/bin/bash
declare -a DEPENDENCIES=("xdotool" "wmctrl");
declare -a MANAGERS=("dnf" "apt-get");
for DEPENDENCY in ${DEPENDENCIES[@]}; do
echo -n "Checking if $DEPENDENCY is available";
if hash $DEPENDENCY 2>/dev/null; then
echo "- OK, Found";
else
echo "- ERROR, Not Found in $PATH";
for MANAGER in ${MANAGERS[@]}; do
if hash $MANAGER 2>/dev/null; then
echo -n "$DEPENDENCY is missing, would you like to try and install it via $MANAGER now? [Y/N] (default is Y): ";
read ANSWER;
if [[ "$ANSWER" == "Y" || "$ANSWER" == "y" || "$ANSWER" == "" ]]; then
sudo "$MANAGER" install "$DEPENDENCY";
else
echo "Terminating";
exit -1;
fi
fi
done
fi
done
APPLICATION="$1";
FULL_COMMAND="$2";
if ! hash $APPLICATION 2>/dev/null; then
echo -e "$APPLICATION does not seem to be a valid executable\nTerminating";
exit -2;
fi
PID=$(pgrep -u `whoami` -f "$FULL_COMMAND" | head -n 1);
if [ -z $PID ]; then
echo "$FULL_COMMAND not running, launching it..";
$FULL_COMMAND;
else
echo -n "$FULL_COMMAND instance found - ";
FOCUSED=$(xdotool getactivewindow getwindowpid);
if [[ $PID == $FOCUSED ]]; then
echo "It was focused so we are minimizing it";
xdotool getactivewindow windowminimize;
else
echo "We are setting the focus on it";
wmctrl -x -R $APPLICATION;
fi
fi
exit 0
|
Afterwards, you need to make the script an executable so you should issue chmod +x ~/toggle_visibility.sh to do that.
Then, execute ~/toggle_visibility.sh in your terminal once. We need to do that in order to install any missing dependencies for the tool.
Finally, you need to create a custom shortcut that will call the script using the key combination you like at any point.
To complete the procedure:
- Go to ‘System Settings’ either by clicking on the menu on the top right corner that looks like a light bulb or by issuing the following in a terminal
unity-control-center to start the unity control center.
- In the newly appeared window, click on the ‘keyboard’ icon that is in the category ‘Hardware’.
- After that, click on the tab ‘Shortcuts’
- and on the left list, click on custom shortcuts.
- You will see a button with the + sign right next to the list, click that.
- In the dialog box that will appear enter the following:
– In the name field enter anything you like. e.g ‘Toggle Terminator Visibility’
– In the command field enter /home/<USER>/toggle_visibility.sh terminator "^/usr/bin/python /usr/bin/terminator$" where <USER> enter your own username.
– Click apply.
- You will see a new row with two columns with the name you just set in the first column. Click on the second column, where it should say ‘Disabled’ and the press the key combination you want for toggling terminator e.g F12
You are ready to go 
Just try the key combination you just provided and terminator will appear in front of you. Pressing it once more it will hide it.
NOTE: Please keep in mind that the above script can be used for other applications as well. In step 7, we gave as parameter the name of the application to be used, if you change that you could use it with other applications like Firefox.
