Terminator

Terminator is a terminal emulator that can split one window into several terminals. This is convenient for ROS 2 exercises because several nodes often need to run simultaneously.

Install Terminator

sudo apt update
sudo apt install terminator

Start it from an existing terminal:

terminator

It can also be opened from the Ubuntu application menu.

Useful shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl+Shift+O`	Split horizontally
`Ctrl+Shift+E`	Split vertically
`Ctrl+Shift+T`	Open a new tab
`Ctrl+Tab`	Move to the next terminal
`Ctrl+Shift+N`	Move to the next terminal
`Ctrl+Shift+W`	Close the current terminal

Suggested workshop layout

A useful layout is:

one terminal for building the workspace
one terminal for running a ROS 2 node
one terminal for inspecting topics, services, or actions

Each new terminal needs the ROS 2 environment and, when applicable, the workspace environment:

source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bash
source ~/dev_ws/install/setup.bash

Use /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash instead when working with ROS 2 Humble.

Run pwd in each terminal if you are unsure which directory it is using.