Change default terminal in Ubuntu/Debian with Openbox

I want to experiment a bit with other terminal emulators as I have always used Terminator.

I choose Alacrity and find that there are some obstacles to changing the system default terminal.

Here are those troubles and how I have solved them.

1. It is not in system terminal list

Because I install it manually, I have to add it to the list myself.

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator x-terminal-emulator /usr/bin/alacritty 50

Then switch default terminal to Alacrity.

sudo update-alternatives --config x-terminal-emulator

Often, just this command will work globally, but for some reasons below, there is still more that I need to do:

• Thunar needs manual change to the xfce4 helper.rc file.
• Obmenu-generator needs to modify its schema, same reason for Openbox shortcut key ( as I use other terminals as default).

2. Thunar

I use Thunar without the Xfce DE, so I have to change xfce4 config file manually, so that I have Alacrity to open in ‘Open terminal here’ context menu.

Open ~/.config/xfce4/helpers.rc and change “TerminalEmulator=terminator” to “TerminalEmulator=alacrity”.

3. Obmenu generator

Change the terminal entry in the schema (~/.config/obmenu-generator/schema.pl).

{item => ['alacritty',            'Terminal',     'utilities-terminal']},

4. Openbox rc.xml

Change this binding.

    <keybind key="W-t">
      <action name="Execute">
        <startupnotify>
          <enabled>true</enabled>
          <name>Terminal</name>
        </startupnotify>
        <command>alacritty</command>
      </action>