Terminal applications do not start (empty terminal window instead)

[Alexander Yermolenko]

Terminal applications do not start. Empty terminal window appears instead.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Install an application that comes with .desktop file and is intended to run in a terminal (e.g. Midnight Commander)
   sudo apt-get install mc

2.1 Run it from lxpanel (e.g. Main Menu -> System Tools -> Midnight Commander)
    or
2.2 Navigate to /usr/share/applications/ using pcmanfm and double-click on .desktop file for Midnight Commander

3. Empty LXTerminal window appears (no Midnight Commander)

I have found a workaround for this problem.

To fix lxpanel's behaviour:
1. in file /usr/share/lxpanel/profile/Lubuntu/config change line
Terminal=lxsession-default terminal
   to
Terminal=lxterminal
2. do LXDE logout/login

To fix pcmanfm's behaviour:
1. in files /etc/xdg/lubuntu/libfm/libfm.conf and $HOME/.config/libfm/libfm.conf change line
terminal=lxsession-default-terminal %s
   to
terminal=lxterminal -e %s
2. do LXDE logout/login

Both /usr/share/lxpanel/profile/Lubuntu/config and /etc/xdg/lubuntu/libfm/libfm.conf files belongs to lubuntu-default-settings package.

lubuntu@lubuntu:~$ LANG=C lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu Trusty Tahr (development branch)
Release: 14.04
lubuntu@lubuntu:~$ LANG=C apt-cache policy lubuntu-default-settings
lubuntu-default-settings:
  Installed: 0.37
  Candidate: 0.37
  Version table:
 *** 0.37 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/universe i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: lubuntu-default-settings 0.37
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-16.36-generic 3.13.5
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-16-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.13.3-0ubuntu1
Architecture: i386
CasperVersion: 1.337
CurrentDesktop: LXDE
Date: Sat Mar 8 21:16:43 2014
LiveMediaBuild: Lubuntu 14.04 "Trusty Tahr" - Alpha i386 (20140308)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=ru_RU.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: lubuntu-default-settings
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
mtime.conffile..etc.xdg.lubuntu.lxdm.lxdm.conf: 2014-03-08T21:05:06.271408
upstart.lxsession.log:
 ** Message: main.vala:99: Session is Lubuntu
 ** Message: main.vala:100: DE is LXDE
 ** Message: main.vala:131: log directory: /home/lubuntu/.cache/lxsession/Lubuntu
 ** Message: main.vala:132: log path: /home/lubuntu/.cache/lxsession/Lubuntu/run.log

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Robur (r0bur)]

Maybe your user-account don't have default shell?
Please look for:

$ sudo cat /etc/passwd | grep username

where username is your login.

It should look like this:

username:x:1000:1000::/home/username:/bin/bash

Is there "/bin/bash" in your line?

[Alexander Yermolenko (yaa)]

lubuntu@lubuntu:~$ sudo cat /etc/passwd | grep lubuntu
lubuntu:x:999:999:Live session user,,,:/home/lubuntu:/bin/bash

There is "/bin/bash".

The bug is reproducible even when running official Lubuntu installation cd in live mode.

Probably it is caused by wrong number of '-e' options passed to lxterminal (please look at my quick fix in the bug report).

[Lyn Perrine (walterorlin)]

I do have a default shell it looks like how it does in your example. there is a "/bin/bash" as I am the one that confirmed this bug.

[Chris Guiver (guiverc)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.

Ubuntu 14.04 (trusty) reached end-of-life on April 25, 2019.

See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

We appreciate that this bug may be old and you might not be interested in discussing it any more. But if you are then please upgrade to the latest Ubuntu version and re-test. If you then find the bug is still present in the newer Ubuntu version, please add a comment here telling us which new version it is in.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for lubuntu-default-settings (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]