After upgrade, can no longer set tab titles

[Eric Wadsworth]

Under the previous version, 14.04 LTS, I could quickly hit 'ALT-t', then 's', then type in the text that would appear on that terminal tab. This is HUGELY IMPORTANT, as the main reason I run Linux is so that I can quickly and easily do my work, involving dozens of terminal tabs, ssh'ed into dozens of different servers. Generally, when I open a new tab, I label it for future reference. Imagine having a dozen tabs open, some of them connected to production databases, and others connected to development databases. I need to be able to easily identify which ones are which. (I also edited the config files, to make the active tab be red instead of grey.)

But now that I've upgraded to 16.04 LTS, I'm crippled! I can't find any way to set the names of the terminal tabs. I'm not sure what I'll do! Go hunting for a different terminal program, maybe?

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: gnome-terminal 3.18.3-1ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-21.37-generic 4.4.6
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-21-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: talpa_vfshook talpa_pedconnector talpa_pedevice talpa_vcdevice talpa_core talpa_linux talpa_syscallhook nvidia_uvm nvidia_modeset nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Tue May 3 14:23:28 2016
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-04-27 (6 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160420.1)
SourcePackage: gnome-terminal
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Vej (vej)]

This seems to affect all users of 16.04. When I try <<gnome-terminal --title= "Some title">> I'm told, that this feature is not longer supported. I wish to get this back!

Are there any reasons for the decision not to allow titles set by the user?
It is annoying!

Best Regards

Vej

[Erik B. Andersen (erik-b-andersen+azendale)]

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=740188 Seems to be the related bug. It sounds like this was added back in (possibly)? So maybe we'll see the feature come backup in Y or Z? (I know, having to upgrade just to get the features you used to have is a pain.)

On 16.04 it seems to work to install mate-terminal, which is very similar, but has the old functionality.

[Ken Sharp (kennybobs)]

This should be fixed in gnome-terminal 3.20 but we're stuck with this broken version.

[Jeremy Bícha (jbicha)]

Fedora ships patches for this feature using this fork:

https://github.com/debarshiray/gnome-terminal

[EdSena (edsena)]

no updates on this?

[Tobin Davis (gruemaster)]

This was fixed upstream in 3.20 (with a rather nasty commit message), but even on 3.28 it is not working in Ubuntu 18.04. A brief (5 minute) examination of the code shows that it is there in the Ubuntu source package. Someone that actually maintains this will know more of why it is still broken.